Opinion on a competitor?

[calzone]

Tim:

I apologize if this is an inappropriate question and completely understand if you prefer not to speak about competitors at all.

When I went printer shopping, the guys at the store (all photoboothers themselves) gave me a hard time… first, about using an iPad instead of a Surface… then about picking Wifibooth instead of Snappic or Simple Booth. They claimed to have never heard of Wifibooth and said they couldn't help me in any way regarding my printer and print server choice because of that. I explained that I'm a 100% Mac shop and make it a point to avoid using any Android or PC technology. I then explained that you can't use USB with an iPad and I'm therefore forced to use WiFi. One of the guys kept pushing Snappic and said it would handle WiFi and be "the best solution."

I looked into it and my first impression is that it's unreasonably expensive (to the point it would make a difference to my clients because I'd have to raise prices). But I had a live chat with one of their "agents" and asked about the hardware setup, where it became clear that Snappic does NOT support driving a DSLR. Their agent claimed that this functionality IS about to be released and would be released at PBX next month.

I can't wait until PBX for a solution. So Wifibooth is it for me. But if assuming they do support connecting to a DSLR next month… the choice for me would come down to: short term & long-term pricing / feature set & user engagement / uptime & reliability / ease of setup & maintenance.

If you're willing to engage in a competitive analysis, I'd be thankful. If not, I understand (for all I know their strategy for introducing DSLR connectivity next month involves hiring you )

On a separate note: Will you be at PBX? Would you recommend attending it as worthwhile at all?

[tim]

Hi calzone,
It's totally appropriate to discuss competitors! I'm always keen to hear what my customers' choices are, and how I can (<ahem>) influence them

First of all, I want to state up front there is no "correct" solution overall. If someone thinks that everyone should ____ ("be on PC" / "use XYZ app" / etc), then they haven't understood that everyone has different needs. There's a correct solution for *you*, and only you can find out what's best for you.

Regarding what printers Wifibooth support: Wifibooth supports any AirPrint-compatible printer (that means, a printer that you can print to from your iPad from the native Apple Photos app, ie. doesn't need the printer's own app), DNP printers via a DNP WPS product, and printing via FTP (many print servers support this). Your "guys at the store" should have heard of DNP, as they're one of the most popular & best-selling photobooth printers in existence. DNP printer + DNP WPS unit is a powerful combo.

It is great to hear that Snappic will finally be getting DSLR integration! I welcome the competition. Can't wait to see what they license it for -- Wifibooth already has this functionality and fits in-between their top two tiers in their current pricing model, which currently appear to top out at $1600USD/year (source: getsnappic.com). Wifibooth by comparison is over 10x cheaper per year. Of course that's not apples-to-apples: Wifibooth is very different than Snappic; different features, different design, and different philosophy too. That's ok: more choice for you!

One of the things that's very important to me, and therefore a major point in the design of Wifibooth, is simplicity. Not just the app: the simplicity of going from an empty room ("where are the electric sockets?") to a fully setup photobooth. This is why iOS/iPad is a far superior platform to Surface: when was the last time an iPad told you "Sorry, you can't do what you want to now, I need to reboot to install updates now!" --- never. That's a Microsoft problem. It's also important in the ease of connecting the app to the camera: many competitors have an iOS app, but they ALSO require a computer that handles the connection to the camera. That's one more point of failure, more equipment to lug around, etc. Wifibooth is simpler than that. The app echoes that: how many touches in Wifibooth to start a new event? To connect the camera? To change settings? Very few

Finally there's the issue of internet access while being connected to a camera, ie. for dropbox uploads, email, and the like. I'm not sure how Snappic will solve this, but it isn't easy unless you force people to have complicated portable networking solutions on-site. This is because the majority of cameras (all except Canons) will only support a single incoming connection to the camera, which means it's not possible for the tablet to be on the internet at the same time (well, Surface may have better support here than iOS, not sure). Wifibooth has 2 unique ways of solving this problem, both of which took a lot of time for me to develop: BluePrint, which allows you to have your iPhone run the printer on the wifi network, and communicates over a custom Bluetooth protocol I designed to Wifibooth to make it simple & efficient to print while your iPad's wifi is connected to the camera; and, true offline support for lots of functionality, including Dropbox and Email. This means that if you're unable to have your iPad connected to the internet and the camera at the same time, then you don't have to forego Dropbox/Email functionality: these are stored in the app, and automatically uploaded as soon as internet access is available. This is complex, difficult, and time-consuming to develop -- I know of no other photobooth apps that support this.

In short: the app is really just a small part of the overall photobooth picture. Which cameras will Snappic support? How will you have internet + camera connectivity at the same time, and what extra hardware / connections will you need to support this? Wifibooth's story is clear already, and focused on simplicity.

(Re PBX: this year i'm so focussed & busy developing new features for Wifibooth, I don't have time for PBX -- will think about it for next year! If you go, let me know how you felt about it..)

[calzone]

I ended up getting the DNP DS620 because I knew it would work from reading your site. I also got DNPs print server.

It was between that and the Mitsubishi K60… which I didn't find out would work until yesterday when I got through to Mitsubishi tech support. Despite having bought the DS620, yesterday I called Mitsubishi out of curiosity to post a followup on here about its AirPrint compatibility. It's ultimately not worth the time and gas to drive so far out there again even though the K60 is about $200 cheaper; besides, the DS620 prints in 8s while the K60 prints in 12s… a big difference when you've just snapped your pics and you're waiting to pick them up.

So yes, they did recommended both the K60 and DNP DS620. However, they were confusing about it (something about the K60 being able to handle more than one image size per media roll… which makes no sense to me since both printers slice the media).

[tim]

Great - did you get the WPS-1, or the WPS-Pro?
Two hints for setting up your WPS:
1) its default IP address is 192.168.43.1 -- kinda hard to guess
2) its wifi isn't great, best to use its ethernet ports exclusively (I tended to connect it to a small portable wifi router, like the plug-style routers from DLink, that worked well)

[calzone]

WPS Pro

hmm… I got a hotspot from t-mobile and it only does wifi

[tim]

Hmm, might be worth testing how the WPS-Pro connects to it. Can you get a stable connection over only wifi?

[calzone]

Is there a different wireless print server I could get on, say, Amazon that would work better?

T-mobile has a restocking fee on this router and it's also hard to even find viable alternatives in the first place.

[tim]

You mean instead of the WPS-Pro? No, there is only the WPS-1 and that is older/slower/worse

Try connecting the WPS-PRO to your tmobile router maybe itll be fine: i had a preproduction unit years ago, they might be a lot better now

[calzone]

It's not looking promising.

There is literally no way I can find to configure it to join an existing network. It seems to be solely designed to be its own network that you're supposed to join using your phone and their app.

[tim]

Ok that is how it was when i tested it a long time ago.
In that case i’d talk to tmobile. Tell you need a router with an ethernet port..

[johannTBox]

Hey,

I just solved this issue for me. I used a WPS-1 and plugged it with an cat5 cable into a router (not yet mobile but a normal fritzbox). But now I ordered this: https://www.amazon.de/Huawei-E5730-WiFi ... B00HQ6NIQO
Maybe look it up on craigslist or something... I got mine for 20€

Its a mobile router with an entrance for the cat5 cable.

When I finally tested it I will give you feedback again but it shouldn't really be anything different to a normal router.

Best regards

[johannTBox]

Hey,

I wanted to come back here when I tested it with the described device. It worked perfectly for me... fun factor is that when the printer is plugged into the usb 1 (this is a must) the usb 2 can now power your mobile Router.

But you have to be very careful with the order of putting the cables in.

Hit me up if you need anything...

Greets

Johann