aNewDomain.net — I always knew that Michael Kolowich, a former exec at Ziff Davis where I started my career in tech journalism, knew about business presentations. Before Ziff, he worked at Lotus and managed that spreadsheet pioneer’s purchase of Freelance Pro, later a formidable competitor to Microsoft PowerPoint. Now Kolowich is putting that knowledge to use with a product he calls Knovio Mobile, a free app for Apple iPad.
Kolowich wrote to me over the weekend and immediately grabbed my attention. He said:
There were really three players back then: Harvard Graphics, Freelance, and a little later, PowerPoint. Well, not a whole lot changed in computer presentations for about 25 years. Microsoft PowerPoint took over the world along with the other MS Office apps, and that pretty much killed the pace of innovation in the category.”
That’s why Kolowich, once again examining the presentation landscape “about four years ago” began to examine the situation from a current standpoint. As he saw it, presentation tech hadn’t evolved at all since those early days. Yet all other sectors and the people in them were now working in the constantly-connected, mobile-driven world we live in now. Why? And what could he do about it?
So KnowledgeVision and its high-end presentation tool KV were born. That tool goes well above and beyond what PowerPoint offers. And now the firm is releasing an app that addresses the other side of the market — Knovio Mobile. Available at this link on Apple iTunes, the free app launches today.
You might already be familiar with Knovio. The web version has been in beta testing with 35,000 plus users at Knovio.com with virtually no promotion. The Apple iPad version — Knovio Mobile — takes Knovio’s simplicity a big step further. Knovio Mobile is a super-simple, straightforward video presentation tool, Kolowich told me. I tried it out and couldn’t agree more.
The performance is so snappy, and the controls are so intuitive. It’s easy to imagine that this is the method most people will use to make video presentations in the future.
In fact, even if you’ve never considered doing a video presentation, this tool makes you want to. It’s that good.
Check out the screen shot below. Scroll below the fold for a video rundown of the product.
A 90-second video tour of Knovio Mobile is below. You’re crazy not to try it, of course. Why? Because it’s free. And it’s my choice for Freeware Monday.
Video: Knovio Online Presentions YouTube Channel
For aNewDomaim, I’m Gina Smith.
ED: Watch for a full review of this and other Knovio pro, web and mobile products soon.
Gina Smith is the New York Times best-selling author of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s memoir, iWoz Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer and Had Fun Doing It (W.W. Norton, 2005/2007/2012). With John C. Dvorak and Jerry Pournelle, she is the editorial director at aNewDomain.net. Email her at gina@aNewDomain.net, check out her Google + stream here or follow her @ginasmith888.
