Among the many sci-fi promises of the past - jet packs and holidays on the moon come to mind - the video phone is one of the few that really has happened.
Rabbit, a new app for the Mac, takes video chat and updates it into a truly modern, social experience. Not only can users chat with an unlimited number of people, but it's also possible to share nearly any kind of content in real-time. That means users can watch movies with friends, or share audio, documents, and photos with other members in the chat.
Yesterday the company announced it raised a $3.3 million seed round from Google Ventures, CrunchFund, and others.
The four founders' backgrounds in the video game industry played a major role in their approach. "Games are typically developed with the user experience at the core," Stephanie Morgan, Rabbit's co-founder, told us via email. "That's also how we approached Rabbit. The end result is... more like an MMO or social game, blending a beautiful user experience with an incredibly scalable and flexible technical framework."
Rabbit isn't open to the public just yet, but the first fifty Wakefield readers who follow @LetsRabbit and share this article on Twitter with the hashtag #GetRabbit will get exclusive access to the private beta.
Now go forth (and strap on).