Tech

google maps screenshot

Google Maps link

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Will Twitter’s Vine app take off?

by Jon on January 29, 2013

urlIt only makes sense that the next evolution of short message sharing should go from text (Twitter) to photo (Instagram) to video (Vine). For some reason though, short video sharing phase seems to have trouble getting any traction. While apps like Cinemagr.Am and Flixel aren’t technically video, they’re animated so I consider them “video with training wheels.” Those apps are fun, but I don’t see many of my friends using them. The classic Google+ problem.

When I fired up the Vine app, I noticed the same thing. Only a couple of my early adopter buddies were on there and no one seemed to be sharing anything. I do struggle with the idea of short video sharing in a Twitter/Instagram-like feed as I tend to fly through streams, looking at each Tweet or photo for maybe 3 seconds. With video, I’d need to stop, watch, maybe listen? I dunno. I have things to do.

Well, the Vine app makes this a little more interesting. It actually feels very similar to Snapchat, in that you hold your finger to the screen to shoot video, and release your finger when you want to stop. However, in Vine, you can press your finger again and record more video of something else, and you can do this until you’ve filled up 6 seconds of video. I tried it out by grabbing some video of a few coworkers. Coworkers love being filmed.

A couple issues have popped up that has Vine in the headlines, for better or worse. There’s the Facebook problem and the porn problem. Where should we start? Porn.

A couple days ago, if you were to say, search for the #porn tag on Vine you would get an eye full, or maybe less than an eye-full depending on which jerk had posted his junk that day. I did another search this morning, in the name of research, and while there are still Johnsons to be found, there seems to be fewer dongs and more people just remixing porn clips from the web.

The Facebook problem seems boring in comparison, but let’s cover it quick. Twitter and Facebook, being the heavyweights of the Social Media world, tend not to get along. One of the handiest parts of downloading new social apps nowadays is that you can connect with your Facebook account and immediately start looking at your friends’ shares. Well Facebook has blocked that functionality so that you cannot see which of your Facebook friends are using Vine. That leaves you with your Twitter friends. So now you’re stuck with following those people.

Whatever, Facebook. Vine is a fun app, AND it has porn. Win-Win. Vine enables our short attention span generations to create a little cinematic piece and share it with the world. Within one Vine post you can:

  • Open on your face
  • Cut to a sandwich
  • Cut to a closeup of your eyes getting wider
  • Cut to the sandwich shivering in fear
  • Cut to a shot of you licking your lips
  • Cut to a crumb-filled plate

Oh man I would watch that over and over. 5 stars.

See you on the Vine (uh, iPhone users.)

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prollie social media score

I make my living as a Digital Strategist, so this is concerning. Apparently I need to whore it up a bit on the ol’ Facebox.

What’s your social score? Request an invite here: http://prollie.com/

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facebook messenger callsIt’s finally here, a phone plan that doesn’t have you cutting calls with mom short so you can call into an hour long meeting tomorrow. Facebook has announced that their iPhone Messenger app will now allow users to call their friends for free (well if you’re wifi.) Calls can also be made away from wifi, but they’ll eat up data.

Who does anything outside of home or office anymore anyway? Call ya mutha.

Facebook Messenger for iPhone

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This video zooms in and checks out what really happened:

More at LATimes.com

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Screen Shot 2013-01-16 at 6.13.02 PM

Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o, the stories said, played this season under a terrible burden. A Mormon linebacker who led his Catholic school’s football program back to glory, Te’o was whipsawed between personal tragedies along the way. In the span of six hours in September, as Sports Illustrated told it, Te’o learned first of the death of his grandmother, Annette Santiago, and then of the death of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua.

Continue reading on Deadspin

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I often find myself in an unfamiliar area of Los Angeles with nothing to do. I’ll often fire up the Foursquare Machine or Yelp to see what’s around me. Facebook recently updated the “nearby” feature of their mobile app, which shows me a Foursquare-esque list of nearby places as well as information about which of my friends have been there. Pretty handy.

Now, with this new Facebook Graph Search, I can see what my friends would recommend before even leaving the house. This will come in handy the next time Faith No More is in town. No one ever wants to go see Faith No More with me.

Sign up for the beta to be one of the first in the door: https://www.facebook.com/about/graphsearch

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Google is rolling out a new YouTube app for the iPhone since Apple will not have a YouTube app pre-installed on the iPhone 5. Great. I have been waiting for a YouTube.com update forever as I’m one of those cord-cutting hippies that depends on YouTube for a good portion of my evening entertainment.

I like to comment on interesting articles I find around the web. Some blogs and news sites make that near impossible.

Exhibit A: LATimes.com

Step 1: I see a familiar looking comment box. I may have an LATimes.com account but I have no idea what it is. Maybe I can post without logging in, that’d be amazing.

[Keep reading…]

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I smell a pivot, FedEx.

Sorry Tito.

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