5 ms·

Screenhero Shares Your Screen with Others, Gives Each Person Their Own Mouse

144 points by Wump 14y ago

quux 14y ago
This service made it to the top of HN a few months ago when it was called Powwow. I've been using it since then and it's been continually improved into a very solid collab tool. Keep it up guys!
edouard1234567 14y ago
This is great for pair programming, especially for lazy people like me!
DanielRibeiro 14y ago
Ironically, the techcrunch article had much better info[1]. The discussion on HN from 4 weeks ago was pretty good too[2] [1] http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/11/screenhero-yc/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/11/screenhero-yc/ [2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5202486 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5202486
- rickhanlonii 14y ago
  That is quite coincidental.
  - jckt 14y ago
    I believe irony's the right term. You'd expect techcrunch to give you the hyped-up start-up journalistic drivel, but instead you find good quality content.
jewelia 14y ago
I used to do screen sharing through iChat (Mac to Mac) but this was always a hassle when I was using multiple external monitors (the screen/text was too small and nearly unreadable if the person I was sharing with was on a laptop). There could exist some fix for this but I never found it. Screenhero handles this much better and I can just share an application (e.g. VIM, Chrome, etc.) and the distortion is minimized. At first I didn't think the multiple mouse feature was that big of a selling point, but I've actually found it quite useful; when working on a remote team you can't physically point that the screen with your finger so the mouse does the job :)
socialist_coder 14y ago
We've been using this instead of Skype and it's definitely better. Having your own mouse is awesome.
- samstave 14y ago
  I haven't tried this yet, so forgive this ignorant question: I don't see the full value of just my own mouse cursor... Wouldnt it also be great if there wasa quick-fading text box that becomes opaques when I type something, then fades back to transparent with some delay? Is the assumption that everyonre is on a con call with the mouse? (I am not saying I don't see the value of a mouse cursor - I am just not seeing JUST A MOUSE CURSOR as a business)
  - socialist_coder 14y ago
    yeah, i think the assumption is that you are also on a conference call at the same time. but i get your point, having a little quick chat thing integrated with screenhero would be good if you aren't also on a voice call.
  - kingnothing 14y ago
    Most of my team works remotely and we use this for pair programming all the time. It shares both the mouse and full keyboard control. We use it in conjunction with Skype for voice.
webweaver 14y ago
I just tried it with my mom. She has a Mac laptop, and lives outside US. I was using a fairly crazy setup, involving VNC on my firewall box (running pfSense), and she had to remember how to connect using Viscosity. Once connected, I would connect to her screen using VNC. When connected through VPN her own access to Internet was severely limited because of VPN routing tables. With ScreenHero she points with her mouse where she has issues, and I can use mine to show her things on the screen. And no need to VPN anymore, yay!
babuskov 14y ago
"Bummer... if this was on Lifehacker two weeks ago, Yahoo! could have avoided having to call all their troops back to the office."
- jadavis 14y ago
  Pretty sure she knows about it... http://screenhero.com/img/email.png http://screenhero.com/img/email.png
  - lanstein 14y ago
    She might want to get her domain spelled correctly.
  - ableal 14y ago
    http://i.minus.com/idrgWk.gif http://i.minus.com/idrgWk.gif , for the easily intrigued. P.S. The TC article (http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/11/screenhero-yc/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/11/screenhero-yc/ ) commenters compared screenhero with http://www.multimouse.com/ http://www.multimouse.com/ , https://www.yuuguu.com/s/home https://www.yuuguu.com/s/home and others.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
aviswanathan 14y ago
Fantastic tool. We've used it a bunch for remote collaboration and it really adds an element of 'togetherness' that really isn't possible with other tools.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
marquis 14y ago
Is this any improvement over Teamviewer? I'll check it out tomorrow, but we like Teamviewer's install method that is easy for clients.
joseph_cooney 14y ago
Didn't microsoft have a tool out about 4 years ago where each person had their own mouse (which they shut down for no obvious reason)?
twog 14y ago
We use iMessage for this. Its awesome for remote teams & makes pair programming easy.
- shurcooL 14y ago
  Can you elaborate please? How can you use iMessage to share screen and interact remotely?
TommyDANGerous 14y ago
Pretty handy, I've always wanted remote access where two people can move the mouse separately.
busted 14y ago
Per app sharing is great. I found myself wanting the sound coming from the app to be shared as well.
- frk1206 14y ago
  Thats actually possible right now! Well system sound is. Its disabled in the release version as its a little painful to setup but if you are interested you can email us and we can guide you through it. everyone (at) screenhero (dot) com
imilligan 14y ago
I spent 4 months working in an all pair programming-all the time dev shop and was frustrated on a daily basis not being able to start and stop pairing seamlessly. This looks absolutely killer for solving that problem. I love collaborating on code, but having to both jump on the same workstation on and off again can really be a bummer. Looking forward to trying this out with a few of my co-workers.
- itslogic 14y ago
  May I ask at what point do you say "hey everybody, this is not working". But rather spend 4 months at a task which you were frustrated daily?
Mc_Big_G 14y ago
I needed this so bad recently that I considered building it myself. Glad I don't have to.
ars 14y ago
I do this all the time with VNC on linux. I use vncserver to setup a background vnc X session, then connect to it as many times as needed with vncviewers.
skyahead 14y ago
Shame, does not support Linux!
pc86 14y ago
Why is this a link to Lifehacker instead of the actual product?[0] [0] http://screenhero.com/ http://screenhero.com/
- chacham15 14y ago
  Because this was already on HN.
LinaLauneBaer 14y ago
Screenhero is amazing. The people behind Screenhero are amazing as well. We are using Screenhero (formerly Powwow) since it came out. Beside some issues that were resolved very fast, Screenhero is perfect. When we had a few problems with the service we wrote them an email and they responded very quickly and actually fixed the problem within a week or so. Those guys rock. Now they are planning a tour to some of their users to talk to them in person and they are planning a pro service: http://screenhero.com/pricing.html http://screenhero.com/pricing.html Screenhero boosted our productivity substantially and I will be one of the first ones to try our their pro service. If you are working in a team you should definitely look into Screenhero.
gosukiwi 14y ago
This is nice, way better for giving support than TeamViewer or Mikogo

144 points by Wump 14y ago

quux 14y ago

This service made it to the top of HN a few months ago when it was called Powwow. I've been using it since then and it's been continually improved into a very solid collab tool. Keep it up guys!

edouard1234567 14y ago

This is great for pair programming, especially for lazy people like me!

DanielRibeiro 14y ago

Ironically, the techcrunch article had much better info[1]. The discussion on HN from 4 weeks ago was pretty good too[2] [1] http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/11/screenhero-yc/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/11/screenhero-yc/ [2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5202486 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5202486

rickhanlonii 14y ago
That is quite coincidental.
- jckt 14y ago
  I believe irony's the right term. You'd expect techcrunch to give you the hyped-up start-up journalistic drivel, but instead you find good quality content.

jewelia 14y ago

I used to do screen sharing through iChat (Mac to Mac) but this was always a hassle when I was using multiple external monitors (the screen/text was too small and nearly unreadable if the person I was sharing with was on a laptop). There could exist some fix for this but I never found it. Screenhero handles this much better and I can just share an application (e.g. VIM, Chrome, etc.) and the distortion is minimized. At first I didn't think the multiple mouse feature was that big of a selling point, but I've actually found it quite useful; when working on a remote team you can't physically point that the screen with your finger so the mouse does the job :)

socialist_coder 14y ago

We've been using this instead of Skype and it's definitely better. Having your own mouse is awesome.

samstave 14y ago
I haven't tried this yet, so forgive this ignorant question: I don't see the full value of just my own mouse cursor... Wouldnt it also be great if there wasa quick-fading text box that becomes opaques when I type something, then fades back to transparent with some delay? Is the assumption that everyonre is on a con call with the mouse? (I am not saying I don't see the value of a mouse cursor - I am just not seeing JUST A MOUSE CURSOR as a business)
- socialist_coder 14y ago
  yeah, i think the assumption is that you are also on a conference call at the same time. but i get your point, having a little quick chat thing integrated with screenhero would be good if you aren't also on a voice call.
- kingnothing 14y ago
  Most of my team works remotely and we use this for pair programming all the time. It shares both the mouse and full keyboard control. We use it in conjunction with Skype for voice.

webweaver 14y ago

I just tried it with my mom. She has a Mac laptop, and lives outside US. I was using a fairly crazy setup, involving VNC on my firewall box (running pfSense), and she had to remember how to connect using Viscosity. Once connected, I would connect to her screen using VNC. When connected through VPN her own access to Internet was severely limited because of VPN routing tables. With ScreenHero she points with her mouse where she has issues, and I can use mine to show her things on the screen. And no need to VPN anymore, yay!

babuskov 14y ago

"Bummer... if this was on Lifehacker two weeks ago, Yahoo! could have avoided having to call all their troops back to the office."

jadavis 14y ago
Pretty sure she knows about it... http://screenhero.com/img/email.png http://screenhero.com/img/email.png
- lanstein 14y ago
  She might want to get her domain spelled correctly.
- ableal 14y ago
  http://i.minus.com/idrgWk.gif http://i.minus.com/idrgWk.gif , for the easily intrigued. P.S. The TC article (http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/11/screenhero-yc/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/11/screenhero-yc/ ) commenters compared screenhero with http://www.multimouse.com/ http://www.multimouse.com/ , https://www.yuuguu.com/s/home https://www.yuuguu.com/s/home and others.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

aviswanathan 14y ago

Fantastic tool. We've used it a bunch for remote collaboration and it really adds an element of 'togetherness' that really isn't possible with other tools.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

marquis 14y ago

Is this any improvement over Teamviewer? I'll check it out tomorrow, but we like Teamviewer's install method that is easy for clients.

joseph_cooney 14y ago

Didn't microsoft have a tool out about 4 years ago where each person had their own mouse (which they shut down for no obvious reason)?

twog 14y ago

We use iMessage for this. Its awesome for remote teams & makes pair programming easy.

shurcooL 14y ago
Can you elaborate please? How can you use iMessage to share screen and interact remotely?

TommyDANGerous 14y ago

Pretty handy, I've always wanted remote access where two people can move the mouse separately.

busted 14y ago

Per app sharing is great. I found myself wanting the sound coming from the app to be shared as well.

frk1206 14y ago
Thats actually possible right now! Well system sound is. Its disabled in the release version as its a little painful to setup but if you are interested you can email us and we can guide you through it. everyone (at) screenhero (dot) com

imilligan 14y ago

I spent 4 months working in an all pair programming-all the time dev shop and was frustrated on a daily basis not being able to start and stop pairing seamlessly. This looks absolutely killer for solving that problem. I love collaborating on code, but having to both jump on the same workstation on and off again can really be a bummer. Looking forward to trying this out with a few of my co-workers.

itslogic 14y ago
May I ask at what point do you say "hey everybody, this is not working". But rather spend 4 months at a task which you were frustrated daily?

Mc_Big_G 14y ago

I needed this so bad recently that I considered building it myself. Glad I don't have to.

ars 14y ago

I do this all the time with VNC on linux. I use vncserver to setup a background vnc X session, then connect to it as many times as needed with vncviewers.

skyahead 14y ago

Shame, does not support Linux!

pc86 14y ago

Why is this a link to Lifehacker instead of the actual product?[0] [0] http://screenhero.com/ http://screenhero.com/

chacham15 14y ago
Because this was already on HN.

LinaLauneBaer 14y ago

Screenhero is amazing. The people behind Screenhero are amazing as well. We are using Screenhero (formerly Powwow) since it came out. Beside some issues that were resolved very fast, Screenhero is perfect. When we had a few problems with the service we wrote them an email and they responded very quickly and actually fixed the problem within a week or so. Those guys rock. Now they are planning a tour to some of their users to talk to them in person and they are planning a pro service: http://screenhero.com/pricing.html http://screenhero.com/pricing.html Screenhero boosted our productivity substantially and I will be one of the first ones to try our their pro service. If you are working in a team you should definitely look into Screenhero.

gosukiwi 14y ago

This is nice, way better for giving support than TeamViewer or Mikogo