Vimeo Acquires Video-making App Cameo

Vimeo announced yesterday its acquisition of the video-creation app Cameo. The app, which debuted last October in Apple’s app store, was named one of the “Best of 2013″ in iTunes. While the market for video-creation apps is over-saturated, Cameo won praise for its simplicity and functionality when it launched last year.

The app has the requisite layer of social, enabling users to engage with the community, follow other users and share to various video platforms. Videos are stored in the cloud, and the app allows users to collaborate with others on the same video at the same time.




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How #iOS 7 Delivers For the Social Addict

By Selena Larson at ReadWrite: 

Social applications on mobile devices live or die on ease of use. Speed, performance and efficiency matter. So what do Apple's iOS 7 and new devices like the iPhone 5S bring to the table for the social user on the go?

Shoot More, Share More

Updates to the iPhone 5S camera announced today will no doubt appeal to amateur photographers and videographers. Users can now take better quality photos and videos with their iPhones. New camera features such as built-in image stabilization and standard filters will make for faster taking, saving and sharing of images.

More users are posting photos and videos online, and Apple is catering to those users by integrating Flickr and Vimeo into iOS 7. Users will be able to sign in to the photo- and video-sharing networks via the built-in settings application, which means easier access to the services similar to what iPhone users already enjoy with Twitter and Facebook. Apple ditched its native YouTube video app almost exactly a year ago, and Vimeo is a logical replacement given that it's YouTube's most serious competitor on the Web. 

Flickr integration will make it easier to share and save photos with a single click. With the new integration, we'll probably see instant login-in options for a variety of App Store apps, like Instagram, using Flickr.

Both of these applications could see user growth as a result of being a standard social application on Apple’s mobile devices. 

Twitter Integration

Shared Links in Safari populate with links Twitter and Apple think you might find interesting.

When Apple launched iOS 5 back in 2011, its social network of choice was Twitter. Apple fully integrated it into iOS, simplifying the process of sharing photos, videos, and articles. Mobile Twitter signups immediately tripled. The launch of iOS 6 in 2012 included Facebook integration, making it easier for users to share directly from their devices. 

But with the release of iOS 7, the two social networks are once again on an uneven playing field. Twitter is receiving a slew of updates that Facebook won't get, at least not yet. It's not clear whether preferential treatment is Apple policy or not, but for the moment, Twitter is clearly getting some additional love.

For instance, in iOS 7, Safari will feature Shared Links, a list of articles shared by people you follow on Twitter that are suggested by Apple and Twitter. Siri is getting Twitter integration as well, allowing users to verbally search what people are saying about topics and she (or he) will show users the resulting tweets. Siri can also post directly to Twitter, giving users a hands-free social experience.

Twitter also made its way into the new iTunes Radio, a Pandora-like service for Apple devices. The radio application features over 200 genre-focused stations, one of which—"Trending on Twitter"—plays the most popular songs on the social network.

Speed Up Your Social Life

Additionally, Apple announced a new 64-bit processor for the new iPhone 5 that will make posting, saving and sharing faster. Although the processor is geared towards gamers, general users will see an impact on the load times of their favorite apps. 

The new background application refresh option makes sure social media feeds are kept up-to-date, even when you’re not actively using them. This eliminates the time suck and annoyance of waiting for feeds to refresh when users want to see the latest posts from their favorite social networks immediately.

iOS users on devices other than the iPhone 5 can expect to connect to friends quicker on iOS 7. Social applications will load 11 percent faster on the new operating system, according to a report by application testing start up Appurify. The company took a look at the most popular social applications on the App Store and compared performance of the apps on iOS 7 to iOS 6 and determined that users can expect up to three seconds shaved off load time for many of their favorite apps.

5 Reasons to Choose Vimeo Instead of YouTube

By Eric Larson at Mashable:

Two platforms clearly stand out when it comes to hosting online videos:YouTube and Vimeo.

YouTube's clearly the big dog. At 800 million unique visitors per month, with roughly 72 hours of content being uploaded each minute, it's by far the most used video-sharing platform on the web. (It doesn't hurt that it's owned by Google, either.)

But upload statistics alone don't necessarily make it the best platform out there. Vimeo, while on a smaller audience scale, has plenty of advantages over the streaming giant — especially for someone who's looking to receive helpful feedback or showcase their work to a community of fellow filmmakers.

Not to knock on YouTube. It's a great platform as well, and it overall depends on what type of video you're uploading and what sort of audience you're trying to reach. But, if you're struggling to decide between the two, check out our list below of reasons why Vimeo — not YouTube — might be your best fit.

1. The Community of Professionals

Unlike YouTube's massive audience, Vimeo's is a more small, niche community of film enthusiasts. It's not nearly as large — it gets roughly 70 million unique visitors each month — but its modest size creates an intimate and fully engaged community. It's a network of people who are genuinely interested in film quality, too, so you know your work is being seen by people who will appreciate it.

Plus, you're more likely to get constructive criticism in the comments section. (On YouTube, even a video of a baby owl stretching its wings for the first time is guaranteed to launch a string of off-topic, mean and flat-out racist comments.)

2. There's Less ... Fluff

GIF courtesy of WeHeartIt.com

Don't get us wrong — there are plenty of gems on YouTube. But the problem with a site where more than 70 hours of video are uploaded every minute is that not every hour is going to be something you'd like to watch. Haters may hate, but you'll be hard-pressed to find a 30-second clip of a man dancing in a penguin costume on Vimeo.

3. The Cleaner Layout

Aside from the difference in video genres, Vimeo offers a cleaner aesthetic than YouTube. Videos are larger and there's limited clutter around the frame, so it really feels like the primary focus of the website is on the video, and nothing else.

4. No Advertisements

No distracting banners or 30-second commercials before your video starts — a huge perk for the viewer.

5. Password Protection

Lastly, Vimeo allows you to password-protect your videos, so you can share them with friends before setting them as public. It differs from creating a "private" video on YouTube in that you don't need to be logged into the video's account to view it — you just forward the video to your recipient and make sure they know which password to type in.

Give Vimeo a look for yourself if you haven't done so already. It's free to sign up for a basic membership; Vimeo Plus is $9.95 per month; and Vimeo PRO is $199 per year.

Do you have a preference between the two video streaming services? Or, better yet, do you prefer a different uploading site? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Vimeo Launches Monetisation Platform

By Tanya Combrinck at .Net Magazine:
Vimeo has announced two new features that enable video creators to monetise their work.
Creators will have two options for collecting money from their audience: Tip Jar enables viewers to give donations after watching videos, and the pay-per-view model places videos behind a pay wall.

Senior Curator at Vimeo, Jordan McGarry explained: "Tip Jar is rather like crowdsourcing funds for film makers, but after the fact of making the video. So if you're watching a short film and you want to support the creator, you can choose to gift them anything between 99c and $500 to show your appreciation for that work. It's open to anyone to make a tip, you can pay with Paypal or a credit card, and anyone with a Pro or Plus account can turn on Tip Jar for their videos."

Tip Jar is launching today, and the pay-per-view service is to be rolled out in beta preview this autumn with a series of curated videos. It will be available to all Vimeo Pro subscribers in 2013. The pay-per-view model is designed to be flexible enough to enable creators to collect money however they choose.

McGarry told us of Vimeo's excitement at launching these features. "It's something we've been wanting to do for a very long time because everyone has been looking for a good way to enable creators to make money from their work.

"We think it's something that's going to generate a lot of interest, and hopefully lots of people are going to be very keen to support the creators who make the amazing work, and enable them to keep making it."

INFOGRAPHIC: How Social Sites Make Money

Published by USBundles.com at Visual.ly:
"We turn to social media services to stay connected more and more each day. But even with hordes of devoted followers, how do these sites manage turn a profit?" That was said by USBundles, Lets have a look at this Infographic provided by them at Visual.ly

Vimeo Brings New Apps to Android, Windows Phone and iPad

By Christina Warren at Mashable: 
LAS VEGAS — Just in time for the newest crop of tablets and smartphones at CES 2012, Vimeo is making its mobile app available for Android and Windows Phone.
The Android and Windows Phone apps come nearly a year after Vimeo released its first mobile app, Vimeo for iPhone. In addition to the new platforms, Vimeo is also rolling out a fully iPad-optimized version of its iOS app.
Why the big focus on mobile? According to Vimeo, 15% of its traffic now comes from mobile devices. Moreover, Vimeo’s creators are more frequently using smartphone devices as their cameras of choice. After all, when you can create footage like this on a smartphone, why not?
The Android and Windows Phone apps include the following features:

• Upload raw or edited footage in HD or SD
• Pause/Resume videos
• Replace existing videos
• Edit tags, titles, descriptions and privacy information
• Share via Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, WordPress, email or SMS
• Download your Vimeo videos to your Camera roll
• Watch videos from the Vimeo Inbox and Watch Later queue
• Access stats

The Android version of the app [Market Link] is available in the Android Market and in the Amazon App Store and is compatible with all Android devices running Android 2.3 and higher. This means that devices like the Kindle Fire can get in on the fun.
The Windows Phone version of the app is available in the Windows Phone Marketplace and works with any Windows Phone device running Windows Phone 7.5 Mango.

The new iPad-optimized version of the app offers a tablet-optimized view of browsing and discovering video. It also brings over the popular video editing functionality of the iPhone app to the bigger screen iOS device.
In the past 18 months, Vimeo has increasingly focused on streamlining its offerings to provide a consistent user experience across devices and platforms. Vimeo was one of the first major video services to embrace HTML5 and it started targeting the connected device. Vimeo’s Roku app continues to be one of our favorites and we expect the company will continue to target connected devices and platforms.