A startup company called Rabbit has launched a closed beta of their “video chat and content sharing application”. Perhaps the best way to describe it is a modern implementation of instant messaging. With video added, of course.
The most compelling feature of the app can be distilled down to this: group video conferencing with the ability to screencast music, movies and applications from your Mac.
This means you can watch a movie from a service such as Netflix with your friends in real time. Or you can crop and share a specific part of your web browser or any other Mac app and broadcast it to your friends.
The app is a native Mac OS X app, the developers say other platforms are soon to follow, and lets you video chat with an unlimited amount of people. Users are grouped into rooms and presented to you in a priority based on your own friends. Within each room, individual groups can participate in their own conversations. Pretty cool stuff.
The promo video is definitely aimed at the teen set, as there doesn’t seem to be anyone in the darn thing over 22 or so. The video shows a user logging in, joining a room, playing and sharing a song, listening in on a public conversation, and then joining in on that conversation. It also shows the sharing of apps and video, and yes, even a spirited debate on “YUCK!” vampire love. (I’ll bet it sucks.)
Rabbit is launching in a closed beta, but if you’re interested, you can sign up on their website, and beta invites will be sent out shortly. After you’ve been accepted, you can send out invites to any of your Facebook friends. It’s all free, but requires OS X 10.7 or higher.
