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surihae93 · 4 years ago
Hi guys! Come and try out our app for your next Zoom sessions. It's for free and it's fun.

We build a simple set of tools that can be used with any video communication app or streaming platform (Zoom, Google Meeting, etc.), through a virtual audio device and virtual camera, sound and visual effects are injected directly into your streaming video. Our MVP requires macOS Big Sur 11.0 +

The app provides a reaction board (with memes and sound effects), collections of background music and transition videos, set of timers and dice, and a feature to share multimedia files directly on your streaming video.

The app can be download in our website https://www.padka.com/ or directly via this link https://padkaassets.s3.amazonaws.com/Padka.pkg

Please share with us your opinions and reach us out anytime especially if you find a bug, so we have a chance to win you back :P

Really appreciate your time. I'm Mai Lan and looking forward to connecting with you guys!

eps · 4 years ago
Who is this aimed at exactly?

I can't think of a single business-oriented use where this would be appropriate, so perhaps some sort of use in kids education or targeted at a teenage audience?

nisegami · 4 years ago
The language on the site definitely suggests this is aimed at education. The HN title however, is more ambiguous and suggests it could be used in a professional context.
surihae93 · 4 years ago
You get it right! We aim at online teachers and online instructors, however some of our initial users have been using it business-oriented and suggested that there are quite some creative ways to use the app.
surihae93 · 4 years ago
You're right! We aim at online teachers, online instructors and online course creators!
scrumper · 4 years ago
I think this would have greatly helped my youngest, 6 at the time, stay more engaged during virtual learning in last year's lockdown. His teachers, who did a better job than we had any right to expect, quickly figured out some little tricks from screen-sharing 3rd party websites with fun dancing animations for "brain breaks" but nothing integrated with their regular lesson video call like this.

I hope you're able to get this adopted by individual teachers who can lead the way. School district IT isn't the most cutting edge (though, again, ours did a great job of adapting fast and standardizing on some very good resources like Zearn).

surihae93 · 4 years ago
Thank you for your kind words. Yes, actually that was one of the reasons we came up with the app, my co-founder has an 8 year old daughter and I remember she said "No kids want to be on Zoom". While Zoom is terrific for our remote team, we hope to bring something more for teaching and learning. Definitely when the time comes, we will approach schools districts and hopefully over the challenge of school district IT!
i_am_proteus · 4 years ago
Seeing a well-dressed person dancing with the superimposed image of cat dancing and the text "PARTY" along with lots of bright colors and the word "FUN" made me reach for the little "x" button within seconds of opening your website.

Others may have different preferences.

jffry · 4 years ago
The rest of the landing page seems squarely geared at educators giving lessons via video calls.

With that in mind I think the landing page set a good tone for what and who they're trying to sell to, and that doesn't include "meetings between peers in a professional context"

surihae93 · 4 years ago
You get it just right! I guess the HN title I use is a bit confusing. Actually it's based on some of our initial users suggestions, they used the app as business-oriented and suggested that there are quite some creative ways to apply it.
omk · 4 years ago
I share the same sentiment, however I scrolled through and I feel this is the experience that we are heading towards in meetings. Excuse the memes there, but ability to blend multimedia in meetings can help a lot.

I conduct webinars every month and I would love to have the ability to play soft background music easily during intervals or fire up a PiP video from youtube or my file system through my webcam. The technology has always been there to virtualize cameras, just hidden behind complex tools like OBS. I hope this segment of tools evolves and becomes the norm.

surihae93 · 4 years ago
So I hope you enjoy the tool!!! If you're open for us to connect and learn from your experience, it will be wonderful. My email is mailan@padka.com
leo_bloom · 4 years ago
Same here. I think these effects could get annoying super fast and turn many meetings into memetings.
surihae93 · 4 years ago
Yeah, I can imagine...
chitowneats · 4 years ago
HN may be generally curmudgeonly. But at least it comes with a sense of self awareness.
SkyPuncher · 4 years ago
It looks like this is targeted at Zoom calls with students. I suspect they'll find this more appealing.
cyberge99 · 4 years ago
That’s a good thing. If you’re not the intended audience they save on their resources and your time.

I’d call that a win-win and not worthy of a critique.

surihae93 · 4 years ago
Wish there were a "Like" button! haha
Ennea · 4 years ago
The six icons below your "try it now" button are broken in Firefox: https://i.imgur.com/jVmm6Vr.png
Cyberdog · 4 years ago
If that's not how they're supposed to look, then they're broken in Safari too, I guess.
surihae93 · 4 years ago
They're fixed now as I tried from my side. Please let me know if you see them other way :)
surihae93 · 4 years ago
Thanks so much for letting me know!!! First time seeing this...
surihae93 · 4 years ago
ohhhh thank you Ennea for pointing this out. Our website is built in Wix, do you have any idea why this happens?
Ennea · 4 years ago
No clue, sorry. The SVG for the icons seems a bit wonky, though, since it doesn't render a hundred percent correctly inside Inkscape, either.
dkroy · 4 years ago
Nice looks like a useful product. It might be worth testing out a few landing pages for different audiences and solutions this provides.

Also, does this do a virtual green screen effect?

surihae93 · 4 years ago
Thank you. That's actually a great idea testing out a few landing pages for different audiences. I will figure it out. The MVP doesn't do virtual background but we plan to make it soon!
dkroy · 4 years ago
Also, unless I am in incognito mode I can't see the sign up form. Not sure if it is a conflict with one of my add-ons (like ad block).
surihae93 · 4 years ago
Thank you for pointing this out, I will have a look at it now!
cebert · 4 years ago
Is it fair to summarize this product as a simplified OBS studio with features targeting the needs of educators?
surihae93 · 4 years ago
Wow, yes, this is one interesting way to describe it. Thanks for the idea!
schuyler2d · 4 years ago
This looks cool. I don't see a Privacy Policy -- is any session info sent back to Padka? If so, what?
surihae93 · 4 years ago
Thank you!! Looking forward to have you try it out and share your experience. Padka doesn't collect any data from user, our MVP doesn't come with any users management actually. When new version comes with any form of collecting information, we will keep users aware of :D