TUAW's Daily Mac App: Rear View Mirror
The Mac App Store is full of useful apps, but it's also full of pretty silly little ones. Today's Daily Mac App is a mix of both.
Rear View Mirror, is an app that helps you see what's happening behind you using your iSight or FaceTime HD camera. It essentially gives you a rearview mirror analogous to what you have in a car, displaying a video feed from your camera in a re-sizable simulation of said mirror.
The app will display images from the top left, top right, the entire top, or the full feed from your camera. The idea is that you place it at the top of your screen somewhere out of the way, allowing you to see anyone sneaking up on you from behind.
If you've ever worked in a coffee shop, library or any other public place where people come and go behind you, you've been worried about people sneaking up on you from behind or if you're just plain nosy, then this fun little US$0.99 Mac App Store app is for you.
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The Mac App Store is full of useful apps, but it's also full of pretty silly little ones. Today's Daily Mac App is a mix of...
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It needs an option for it to sit on top all the time. Whenever I switch to another application, RVM gets sent to the background. Not awesome.
May 09 2011 at 5:28 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyUseful in a cubicle with your back to the 'door' to replace the rear view mirror glued to the top of the monitor.
Can you say, "Boss looking over your shoulder?"
I get an error saying it is not available in the US store...
May 06 2011 at 3:49 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI think it's your end. I can pull it down from the US MAS no problem.
May 07 2011 at 5:07 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyUnfortunately not. Perhaps they'll be an in-app upgrade ;)
May 07 2011 at 5:05 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI actually would have really liked this years ago if it was just a purist video box with no UI chrome. When I lived in my parentsâ house, I used headphones and had my back to a door. I canât count the number of times people startled me by coming up behind me and touching my shoulder or making a noise.
Nowadays I donât really have much of a use for it, but still, not a bad idea.
I agree it would be better without the window frame.
The coffee shop use case actually explains how someone could think up something that at first glance seems as silly as this. Sure, you could count on one hand the number of people who will really grow to love this and use it in their everyday lives, but it was worth the effort of making just for the few pleasure of those few who will use it.
If only this ditched the window frame.
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