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Codebreaker

Sidecar app reinvents the phone call or something

John Moe May 22, 2012

Everyone’s going bananas this morning for a new app called Sidecar. Either you’ll remember this memo post as the moment you first heard the term that changed your life or this is the last you’ll hear of something that got somewhat overhyped.
Sidecar offers free calls over VOIP, not just to other people who have the app but anyone who has a phone in the United States or Canada. It also offers a bunch of other features that enhance the overall phone call experience. One of those features is See What I See.
Stephen Levy writes about it in Wired:

It’s a live-streaming, real-time video feature in the early stages of an ascendancy that will ultimately change what we watch. Sidecar understands that while FaceTime is cool, it’s much more interesting for people to share their surroundings than unflattering views of their own sorry faces. So the See What I See feature offers streaming video from the camera on the back of the phone.

Free app. The company, in the glorious tradition of tech startups, says it will figure out how to make money later on. I’ll go ahead and start the clock now and will be taking bets as to how long it is before Google buys this thing.

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