Grip’s first release, the $3.99 video game-focused Hootsuite, was a great success. But the company, based in New York City and Chicago, had some more ambitious ideas in the works. Among these were a “video chat” headset, an app that could sync your smartphone and your video camera, and an app where you could stream your entire living room, including everything on your TV. “We’re trying to break the wall between your phone and your TV, in some senses,” says Grip co-founder Justin McRae. “If there’s one thing we were thinking really hard about, and it’s one of the things that we love about the tech media, it’s that people have grown sick of the idea of ‘watching TV’ and that they now want to go from having an iPad to having a GoPro. They want the ultimate product in between.” While Hootsuite was a tremendous hit, its creators say they want to keep pushing beyond the concept of being a simple video chat client at this point. “What we saw from Hootsuite was this really cool world between the phone being used as their video chat, and the phone being used for movies,” says co-founder Matthew Miller. “I love that idea. It’s one that really excites us.”
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There’s also the possibility of making the whole package easier for first-time smartphone users. “I think it’s very difficult to make this as accessible to the average consumer as it could be,” adds Grip co-founder Matt Deutsch. “Just because it’s on the phone, it’s not going to be a good interface.” Grip’s approach, which was first tested with friends, is still in its pre-alpha stage. The company intends to bring its ideas into homes, allowing you to download the software, put it on your smartphone to stream your own home with a few clicks, and then add any of your friends’ movies to a collection and play them back. And yes, even this is in the works as a possible feature. The idea is also not without its flaws, McRae admits. “We’ve got a lot of work left to do. We’re hoping we can fix that problem and then we can build a really amazing home entertainment system. Then we want to see where it goes after that,” he says. That’s a huge undertaking. “We spent a lot of money trying to market what it’s going to be,” McRae says
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