
Jamboard – The whiteboard reimagined for collaboration in the cloud - tempw
https://www.blog.google/products/g-suite/jamboard-whiteboard-reimagined-collaboration-cloud/
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radiorental
We've been researching solutions in this space for quite a while.

We have 6x 80" smartboards and have tried everything from Lync to
Realtimeboard.

While some solutions work better than others, no one has solved a fundamental
problem... When you try to collaborate in real time with a remote person - all
the human communication cues are lost.

Collaboration is a dynamic and fluid process. We subconsciously read each
other to gauge the reaction to a proposal, we interject and riff off of
others. We try to pull introverts into the conversation and tame the
extroverts.

All of this is practically impossible when a colleague is elsewhere on the
network.

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Navarr
Is there any solution to this other than in-depth VR?

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mikeleeorg
Teleportation? Synthetic local proxy android?

I'm not trying to be sarcastic. This is definitely a problem faced by any
company with remote teams, including mine. I'm not saying any of the solutions
I posited are feasible, but one day, far in the future, I'm hopeful that
_some_ kind of solution will be developed. If anything, because there is a
huge market in facilitating communication between remote teams.

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pimterry
This is one of the things where I think remote work can fall down: standing
around a shared space to easily quickly scribble and share ideas. Video gets
you close, and lots of tools have some kind of sharable space you can write on
or draw on with a mouse, but none of them have ever been as effective as a
whiteboard for me when you're trying to quickly explain a concept or
structure.

Actual product looks annoying though. It's a quite specific kind of team that
wants to drop $5000+ per screen, and it's definitely not small fully remote
startups (where doing that for everybody is both very expensive and super
inconvenient), even though that's where this would be most awesome.

Might try and have a go soon with just cheap graphics tablets and existing web
tools though, or just normal android tablets. Almost the same experience, at a
tiny fraction of the price.

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basseq
A 40-50" (diagonal) "whiteboard" is still very small. I have a 4'x10'
whiteboard right behind me, and a 6'x4' to my immediate right, and I'm always
running out of room.

~~~
jcomis
I'd imagine you can be more precise digitally. And hopefully can swipe around
a larger canvas to make more room or something.

~~~
josephg
I picked up a wacom tablet + mischief[1] a couple years ago as a digital
whiteboarding solution for classroom teaching. It supports arbitrary zooming
and infinite panning - so you never have to delete anything, but can just keep
moving around and 'finding' more fresh space to write in. I have a really hard
time going back to normal whiteboards now given how limited they are. (And
photos of the whiteboard after a meeting are really nowhere near as good as an
editable source file you can pass around).

Since moving back to engineering work I've started using it for talks,
brainstorming and architecture reviews. Eg, this is what a solo few days of
project planning & brainstorming looked like recently -
[https://josephg.com/mischief.png](https://josephg.com/mischief.png) . But in
meetings it lacks multiplayer - only one person can hold the tablet at a time,
and the interface is nowhere near as intuitive as a real whiteboard. The
software is also kind of awful - it idles on 5% CPU usage for no apparent
reason, and I've lost work on numerous occasions from it crashing without
autosaving (!!). The mac version feels like a bad port of a windows program.

The tool itself frustrates me enough that I'll probably end up writing a
collaborative online version on top of sharejs, even if I'm the only person
who uses it. (It'd be much easier to do now that pointer events[2] are being
supported in more browsers. Safari developers - hate the API all you like, but
we really need an interface for tablets somehow!)

[1] [https://www.madewithmischief.com/](https://www.madewithmischief.com/) [2]
[http://caniuse.com/#feat=pointer](http://caniuse.com/#feat=pointer)

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stevesearer
One of the similar products I've recently seen demonstrated recently is
Bluescape from Haworth. It isn't really mobile, but it can also be up to 210":
[https://www.bluescape.com/](https://www.bluescape.com/) or
[http://haworth.com/products/technology/teamwork/bluescape](http://haworth.com/products/technology/teamwork/bluescape)

Also of course, the Microsoft Surface Hub:
[http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-surface-hub/en-
us/product...](http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-surface-hub/en-us/product-
specs)

If you're looking for a great portable markerboard, Watson's Etch is great:
[http://www.watsonfurniture.com/products/etch-
markerboards](http://www.watsonfurniture.com/products/etch-markerboards)

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vonklaus
I can't be sure, but it seems like they are just going to release a big Wacom
tablet and add real-time collaboration for the price of a 2013 SMART car. That
isn't a fair comparison, as it is unlikely corporations will be comparing a
fleet of used smart cars to collaboration workstations in their budget. WTF is
the usecase for this? 10-11k for people to draw on the same canvas in
different locations? I think it is actually quite cool, but the pricepoint is
absurd and it is an open question how the real-time sync will work between >1
device.

I am half serious when I say that this product seems to be exclusively
marketed at apple engineers & designers to lazy to walk up the stairs to
collaborate with each other.

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ohstopitu
so you are saying there's a market for a 4k 55" collaborative device that
recognizes pen, multi-touch, has a camera and hopefully software that does not
suck and integrates with Hangouts / Skype for Business at a lower pricepoint?

Seriously though...I have yet to see the Surface Hub used anywhere apart from
MS offices.

~~~
Spivak
I think his point is that there is a market for business collaboration tools
since remote teams are becoming more common, but for all its technical merit,
a large featureful interactive whiteboard doesn't really solve the problem --
and it's a very expensive way to not solve a problem.

~~~
vonklaus
This is what I was saying, and:

> it's a very expensive way to not solve a problem.

is a great way to put this. Google often seems to be technology in search of a
problem or users.

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smitty1110
This is basically a Surface Hub, except it's later to market. Whatever, it's
not like my remote team will ever buy either of them.

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chrismorgan
And cheaper (“under $6,000” vs. $8,999). Might cause the Surface Hub’s price
to go down if we’re lucky.

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mmastrac
If my old employer, SMART, hadn't been acquired by Foxconn, I imagine its
stock would have plummeted on this news.

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simbas
Man, I use these SMART boards at work (teacher) and is it just me or the
software sucks (especially the usb dongle with the software in it)

~~~
jonathonf
Every "interactive whiteboard" (brand and design) I've ever used sucks.

The best setup I've used so far is a standard whiteboard coupled with a
projector (ideally with a second board to the side). It needs very regular
cleaning to prevent a blurry display, but being able to write normally (being
able to see what you're writing with zero lag) is a huge benefit.

If you really need at-board interactivity (as opposed to keyboard+mouse at the
PC, or wirelessly, or casting from a tablet, or...) then Epson do a projector
with an IR "pen" that works with any old whiteboard.

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nav2u
We run a startup and have been working on the remote-teamwork problem for a
while now.

Having dabbled with hardware and partnering with hardware vendors, mainly
because we believe hardware is definitely a piece of the puzzle but, to frame
the problem around the device first, is the pitfall that SMART/MS SurfaceHub
have all fallen into.

As others have pointed out, sinking thousands of dollars into a solution that
will soon be replaced due to advancements in display technology, hardly seems
worth it, especially for small to medium businesses. We designed our software
so that anyone can pick it up and try it for free with their team, without
worrying about needing new or fancy hardware.

Ultimately Collaboration includes all of your devices, including your big
touch screens, pc's, smaller devices and whatever else that may turn up in the
future (VR?). Google's offering for drawing has always been lacklustre and its
a shame there is nothing we can try and use from this announcement today.

For those wondering, my startup is called Collusion (collusionapp.com).

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smoyer
We built collaborative whiteboards into our distance learning classrooms in
1997 or 1998. Smartboards were around for several years before we started and
we wrote custom drivers to capture the cursor position and send the pointer
information to the remote sites.

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jasonwilk
Nothin wrong with a plain old WriteyBoard. Shameless plug, sorry guys.

[http://writeyboards.com/](http://writeyboards.com/)

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nmolo
Video here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXwV5SlKLAE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXwV5SlKLAE)

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sandman454
I have been very interested in this seemingly similar software, and the
projection hardware is much more conducive to this scenario.
[http://www.nureva.com/span-system](http://www.nureva.com/span-system)

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honkhonkpants
Does it come with a gallon of Windex?

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askvictor
I hope there is a software-only option, or a dongle option for those who
already have an investment in interactive panels/projectors

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PanosJee
A product Google will kill in a few months

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dizzydot
limnu.com is a beautiful web-based solution. Highly recommend.

~~~
pmontra
This is so much better. I don't understand why they have to sell the hw
whiteboard when everybody could see everything on their tablets and laptops,
plus the screen every meeting room already has. Especially since they target
remote collaboration.

Is there any app like limnu but without the paid service behind and save to
any cloud or local storage?

~~~
sumo
Agreed. Collusion [https://collusionapp.com](https://collusionapp.com) has
free use (not trial), you can also download your work as a PDF/Image if you
like without restriction.

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sidcool
This looks amazing

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Someone1234
This is literally just a picture and a vague blurb.

It is kind of unusual but in this specific case you may be better off with the
Engadget article than the official site:

[https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/25/google-jamboard-
digital-...](https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/25/google-jamboard-digital-
whiteboard/)

Seems like it will cost "under" $6K. But since they're using $6K as their
pinned price, I'm guessing over $5K.

~~~
stevesearer
Here's the Google blog post detailing the product:
[https://www.blog.google/products/g-suite/jamboard-
whiteboard...](https://www.blog.google/products/g-suite/jamboard-whiteboard-
reimagined-collaboration-cloud/)

~~~
sctb
Thanks, we've updated the link from
[https://gsuite.google.com/jamboard/](https://gsuite.google.com/jamboard/).

