Important information regarding VAT changes

Beginning January 1, 2015, due to a change in Value-Added Tax (VAT) laws in the European Union (EU), Bambuser will be responsible for determining, charging, and remitting VAT for some Bambuser customers. If you are not from a country within the EU or if you represent a registered company, these changes won't affect you.

The changes mean that Bambuser customers in the EU will be charged the VAT rate from the country which they are using the service from. This is a general regulation change applicable to all telecommunications providers offering services in EU countries.

If you are using Bambuser for personal use, the price you will pay for any Premium plan will include the VAT in the country where you are using the service from. For example, if you are using the service from the UK, VAT will be charged at 20%, 19% from Germany and 21% from Spain.

The subscription fees for existing customers will not be adjusted, meaning all current subscribers will continue to pay the same price for their subscriptions.

Starting from January 1, 2015, VAT will be determined and added to the existing subscription fees for new subscribers.

Why does Bambuser have to do this?

Bambuser is required to comply with the EU Directive 2008/8/EC for VAT. This directive stipulates that customers should be charged the VAT rate of the EU member state they reside in.

What do I have to do?

In order for Bambuser to determine whether you represent a registered company or not, we would like all premium users to register their company information, VAT registration number included, on the settings page. We have sent out an email to inform all premium users about these changes.

For more information see: European Commission Website

If you have any questions, please contact sales@bambuser.com.

Regards,
Bambuser Sales Team

Bambuser AB
Västmannagatan 41
113 25 Stockholm
Sweden

Bambuser partners with Sony to bring live video broadcasting to Xperia™ Z1

Sony Mobile Communications (Sony Mobile) and Bambuser have joined efforts to bring a groundbreaking camera experience to the Xperia™ Z1 with the Xperia camera application, Social live. Social live is a fully integrated camera feature, powered by Bambuser, that lets users instantly broadcast live video to their friends on Facebook from Xperia Z1. During the live broadcast, friends and viewers can interact with the broadcaster as comments and likes are displayed instantly on the screen of the smartphone.

Bambuser CEO Jonas Vig says:

We're very happy and proud to work with Sony to provide the quickest and easiest way to share live video with your friends and followers. We are mutually committed to further develop and enhance the experience and we believe there are great opportunities in combining Bambuser's innovative technology with Sony’s product vision.

The Social live feature is available exclusively to Xperia Z1 users straight out of the box, as part of a suite of Xperia camera applications available at the time of the smartphone's launch. The feature will work over virtually any data connection and the proprietary Bambuser streaming technology will automatically adjust resolution, compression and frame-rate of the live broadcast in order to optimize the live experience over fluctuating networks. An HD version (720p, 30 fps) of the stream will be stored locally on the device, allowing users to get the most out of every moment – both live and ever after. Both free and premium versions will be offered, with the premium upgrade allowing longer videos, higher quality live streams, more extensive cloud storage and ad-free playback.

Jonas Vig adds:

To partner with one of the most respected and well known consumer brands in the world is a fantastic achievement for Bambuser.

Become a Citizen Journalist with Bambuser and get a free Bambuser Premium account

The world has learned that more and more of newsworthy live video content is coming from individuals on the street being at the right place at the right time. We are convinced this will develop even more going forward. At Bambuser we believe that this kind of reporting is important both in terms of breaking news stories but also to complement existing stories.

We also believe that citizen journalist videos shouldn't be filled with commercial advertising. Therefore we support all citizen journalists with free Bambuser Premium accounts.

Bambuser provides mobile applications for devices running on Android, iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod), Symbian, Bada and more to enable anyone to share their point of view with an unlimited global audience for free. 




Below you will find basic information and tips how to get the most out of your videos. Please also take the opportunity to let the world's largest news agency, Associated Press distribute your content. A good example of what it can result in is Bambuser user Homslive whose videos have been rebroadcast by numerous global broadcasters and in total reached more than 100.000.000 people.

Getting Started

Download
Download the Bambuser application on your smartphone by searching for Bambuser in your device's App Store or Marketplace (Download Links: Android and iOS)

Setup your Channel

Simply create a Bambuser account through the application or use the Signup page. Your channel URL will be bambuser.com/channel/yourusername

Build an Audience
Provide a short description of what you are broadcasting and share that with Twitter and Facebook. This will send a link to people, who can watch your broadcast on their computers, mobile phones, tablets, or web connected TV's. Connecting to Facebook means your videos will be posted directly to your Facebook Wall or Facebook Page. You can connect your Bambuser account to services like Foursquare, Tumblr, Blogger and more – all are found on your Bambuser Dashboard

Ready to Broadcast
Press the red broadcast button :-) 















You're Live!! Now what to do?
Provided you are broadcasting something compelling and have connected Bambuser with your social networks, you should quickly get an audience. You can track your viewer count at the bottom of the application.

Get Viewers
Encourage your audience to invite their friends and re-tweet to their followers. Inform your viewers of when you will be live (start/end) in advance. Talk to friends and family, post to your Twitter and Facebook before, after and during your broadcast.

Engage with your audience
Always keep an eye on the chat in your mobile as that’s where your viewers can communicate with you. This is a great way of hearing their opinion, for your viewers to ask questions and for you to ask them about picture and sound quality. It’s always more fun to watch when the broadcaster interacts with the viewing audience.

How to shoot great video
Hold the camera steady and don't make fast moves. Talk loud and clear. To make good videos you need to be able to go where the action is. Always think about your own safety first but don't be afraid to move closer to the action when safe to do so. The closer you are the better overview your viewers will get.

TIP: Most modern smartphones come with a small LED light on the back of the device. In most Bambuser apps you can turn on and off the flash in the menu or under the settings. This works best when you are 3-5 feet from what you are trying to broadcast. If you are far away, keep the LED off.

Remember that you are the eyes, ears, and most times need to be the voice explaining what is happening to your viewers. Compelling video should be supplemented with your verbal explanation of what you are filming and why the viewer should care. Your comments will make it much more compelling, interesting and engaging.

Keep the dialog with your viewers going by providing commentary of what you are filming. Read what your viewers are saying in the Chat and ask them if you are doing a good job or what they would like to see or hear.

Stream Health
On most phones Bambuser supports, you can always check your Stream Health. If the Stream Health is below 60% you should probably switch to a lower video quality/resolution, and if it is mostly 100%, consider switching to higher settings.

Upload unsent data
On Android, iOS and Maemo/Meego devices you can upload data that hasn’t been sent during the broadcast. Very rarely all data will go through while live due to connectivity hiccups, but if you choose to upload the dropped data, Bambuser will patch your video, creating a smoother video to watch on-demand.

Above the basics, below the extras to consider

Mobile Phone and Data Packages
Broadcasting quality live video requires a decent amount of upload speed. Look for and purchase a smartphone device that uses 3G or 4G LTE or WiMax high speed wireless networks and make sure you are in a coverage area that supports the advanced data rates.

Best Picks are:
Apple iPhone 4S
Apple iPhone 4
Apple iPhone 3GS
Apple iPod Touch (4th gen)
Apple iPad 2
Nokia N9
Nokia N900
Samsung Galaxy S III
Samsung Galaxy S II LTE
Samsung Galaxy S II
Google Galaxy Nexus
Google Nexus S
HTC Sensation
HTC Desire HD
Sony-Ericsson Xperia Neo
Sony-Ericsson Xperia Ray
Sony-Ericsson Xperia Mini
Sony-Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro
(Many other Android devices also provide a good experience)

TIP: If you are going to be broadcasting a lot of video it is a good idea to invest in an unlimited data package.

Extra Battery Power
Devices are getting thinner, faster and have bigger screens. This all means battery life is going to be an issue. You can look at purchasing extended batteries for your particular phone model or if you want some real staying power look at an external battery pack that continuously recharges your device while you are broadcasting.

Get out there and show the world YOUR world!

The cubs are born

During the last month, thousands of inquisitive nature lovers have gotten a bird's eye view of the hibernating brown bear Freja LIVE from her den. Brown bears are incredibly shy and secretive animals one rarely get to spot in the wild. A week ago Freja gave birth to four tiny cubs and yesterday they were spotted for the first time.



The newborn helpless cubs each weigh around 400 grams and spend their days snuggled up next to their protective mother who has wrapped herself around them to protect and keep them warm. Like newborn human babies, the cubs spend the time sleeping, feeding, and screaming. In a couple of weeks they will be bigger and will be crawling around - make sure to tune in to the bear den.



The campaign initiated by Volkswagen Sweden and creative agency DDB is a great example of how to utilize Bambuser's live video to boost engagement by reaching out with something unique at a fraction of the cost of traditional broadcasting. The bear cam will be LIVE 24/7 until the day Freja and her cubs leave the bear den.

Bambuser loves food - show us your skills

We love when people share their skills in the kitchen on Bambuser. It’s fantastic to learn how to cook Bageldogs, how to clean squids or to view the youngest Swedish chef make macaroni casserole with her dad - just to mention a few examples of great chefs at home. Last week, the complete final of The Swedish Championship in Professional Cooking was broadcast through Bambuser with great success. Thousands of viewers tuned in to the event and discussed the food and the jury's verdict.

With Bambuser anyone can start their own channel and be a master chef themselves - or a master hairdresser, shoemaker, designer or whatever you are up to and deeply interested in. Show your world and let us all make 2012 as interesting, challenging and exciting as 2011 was.

Egypt celebrating their 1st anniversary of the 2011 uprising

Today marked the 1st anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising. It's been a very eventful year to say the least. A year filled with happiness and hope of a democratic future for the people, but also a year filled with tragic events. We've seen a lot of moments being shared live on Bambuser and it's fantastic to be one of the channels used by the people to broadcast video and distribute information




Although we know and understand that the Egypt uprising and revolution actually has little to do with social media and online tools, we're honored to be a service appreciated and used by so many to show the world from their perspective, somewhat democratizing news reporting.

We continue to follow and observe the events and we do our best to create a service that can be used for broadcasting everything from children's birthdays to revolutions.

Show the world

Bambuser+Blogger = more fun, more LIVE

Blogger is one of the world's largest tools for blogging. That's why we're extra happy to launch the Bambuser integration to Blogger.



The integration basically means that you in real-time can Share your broadcasts to your Blogger blog as a new post. It's super easy to get started. Simply go to your Dashboard, click on Connect in the right column, click on Blogger and follow the steps to connect.

When connecting, you can choose whether to Share new broadcasts automatically or to Share only selected broadcasts. Whenever you use your mobile phone or your web cam for LIVE broadcasting, you can then choose to share the broadcast instantly on your blogger blog and let all your followers get to know what you're up to. Life is real-time - show your world.

Pay a blogger day

Some of the wittiest, most insightful content comes from bloggers broadcasting because they want to, not because of money or fame. For this reason, our friends at Flattr announces Pay a blogger day to inspire and encourage us all to donate something to our own favorite blogger.



And today is the day - remember to show some extra appreciation for your favorite broadcasters today.

Silicon Roundabout Techmeetups

May 5th at 6PM GMT,

We will be presenting Bambuser to the great crowd over at Silicon Roundabout Techmeetups in London, UK.

It's always fun and interesting to get to meet fellow entrepreneurs, VC's and potential partners from the UK. There's a really nice vibe over here in London and it seems like the start-up scene is really booming.

Lots of cool companies will be attending, as well as great VC's with extensive experience and knowledge and willingness to invest in the next European online Blockbuster. Among the companies presenting are cool ones like Moshi Monsters and Pora Ora.

Bambuser now supports the iPad 2!

As most of you know, Bambuser is always doing its best to support as many platforms as possible and, true to our word, we've been busy optimizing our app to run smooth on the Ipad 2.

We made sure to take advantage of the impressive features the iPad 2 has to offer, including support for use of the high quality front and back cameras as well as hardware encoded video at 25 frames per second.

The iPad 2 announcement came just over a month ago and was live-streamed on Bambuser by TechCrunch's Mike Butcher. As was to be expected, when the hotly anticipated device was released to buy, the queues outside Apple stores snaked around street corners as shoppers camped outside to be one of the first to own it.

Some of the Bambuser team were savvy enough to pick up their iPad 2s whilst at SXSW (and our very own Hans Eriksson may have been one of the first people in the world to break his!) and this latest app continues our dedication to bring users the best and most extensive service we can possible offer.

Our live-streaming and interaction tool is an important way for anyone to share what is happening around them. The latest iPad2 app means we are continuing in our aim to make sure Bambuser is available to as many people as possible to let their voice be heard.

To ensure Bambuser fans are getting the best interactive broadcasting experience, we've even created a quick video to show you how Bambuser works on iPad:

We will be at SIME 2009

The old guy and probably me and Jonas will spend some time at SIME this week. It is going to be nice to let The Old Guy out in the wild. Do not hesitate to contact us for a short date or a short pitch.

We want you!

We're now preparing to take the step from being a promising talent to becoming the Zlatan Ibrahimovich of the internets! Therefore we’re now expanding our team and first out is to find a skilled Front-end Web Developer.

Currently, we are 10 people around 25 years and one old guy, with a burning passion for Bambuser! Our development office is based in Åbo/Turku and our head office is located in Stockholm.

We are looking for people who want to be a part of a great journey. Send us some code that you are proud of and a résumé of what you have done in the past.

Your profile should include:

Good knowledge in PHP, Python, JavaScript and Actionscript and familiar with Drupal, Jquery and AS2 (will lower period of introduction). A good sense for graphics is necessary, and if the person is also able to do graphic design work it’s an advantage. The person we’re looking for is living in Åbo/Turku or Stockholm.

Please send your application to:

tom@bambuser.com

Bambuser for Android released!

Bambuser adds support for broadcasting live over 3G or WiFi from the highly popular Android platform!

This initial release supports all currently available phones running Android 1.5, such as HTC's Dream, Magic, Hero and Samsung's Galaxy. Check out the full list on bambuser.com/phones.

The application includes a wide range of quality-settings, which makes it possible to scale the broadcast video and audio to suit your device and connection speed. You can choose to broadcast publicly or in private, and can enable geotagging of your broadcasts using built-in GPS.

The application shows incoming chat messages while you broadcast, making it possible to interact with viewers anywhere.

During the coming months we'll be working on adding additional features such as uploading complement data and pushing your broadcasts to friends, blogs and more. We welcome any feedback or suggestions for features, don't hesitate to contact us.

You can always find the latest version of the application through the Android Market or on bambuser.com/phones. Here's a link directly to Bambuser on the Android Market, if you are viewing this page on an Android device.

Yet another update to Bambuser for Windows Mobile

We recently released an updated version (1.1.1.0) of the Windows Mobile client, which brings progress on several fronts.

The most noticeable change in this version is the ability to rotate the user interface and the sent video, to support a wide range of devices, and to be able to send landscape instead of portrait video on more devices. You can find this under Settings in the application.

Secondly, this version has improved video encoding. The new codec is very well suited for low bandwidth conditions and will give you better flowing broadcasts when you select the lower video quality settings. The high quality setting will continue to use a simpler codec, for maximum detail and speed at the cost of bandwidth.

Additionally, the new version gives more informative feedback in case of connection problems and contains bugfixes for some other rare problems.

New version for Windows Mobile

Here at Bambuser we do not discriminate against anyone. Not even against people using Microsoft-based products. To prove this, we are now launching a new version of Bambuser for Windows Mobile!

First and foremost, this version adds the feature to upload complement data. This has been a very popular feature on Symbian-based phones, and we hope you will enjoy it on Windows Mobile too! It's possibly the best thing to be invented in Finland since rye bread.

Second, the new version supports high quality audio on a broader range of devices. This especially applies to phones manufactured by HTC.

Additionally, there are many small tweaks and fixes under the hood, which should give that little bit of extra performance we constantly try to squeeze out of mobile devices.

If you are new to complement uploading, let us explain: If your connection to the internet is weak when you broadcast live, pieces of the broadcast which can't be sent immediately are stored on your phone, keeping your latency low. When uploading this data afterwards, our servers get to business and start putting together all the pieces to improve your archived broadcast, giving on-demand viewers a smoother experience regardless of how slow and choppy your data connection was.

I can reveal that there is more coming for the Windows Mobile client in the future. Lots of top secret stuff that we (programmers at Bambuser) spend day and night working on, surviving only on the hope that we may one day venture outside the office again.

We are thankful for all feedback we get about existing or wanted features and have everything stored. We consider all suggestions when we decide what to work on.