Posts Tagged
YouTube
It seems so quaint to remember the days before YouTube. How on earth did we fill our time? The Google-owned video clip phenomenon has all but monopolized the business of online entertainment, and one billion of us now use the service every month. But I, for one, wish that YouTube was a bit less about flicking through clips of cats doing random things, and a bit more like watching a TV channel filled with quality programming.
This avenue of thinking was clearly the catalyst behind the making of Moziy. This brand new service, still in invite beta, turns YouTube and Vimeo channels into streams, and mixes them up to create a personalized, full-screen, video-watching experience. Additionally, Moziy provides its own video watchers’ network, creating something far more social than YouTube has ever been.
But is Moziy‘s video stream-based system really worth ditching the browsability of YouTube for? And is it a real improvement on Vimeo’s Couch Mode? Let’s find out…
As anyone working in the record industry will attest, virtually all music is now consumed digitally. There is a massive market for digital downloads, but there is also a huge number of music fans who get their fix through streaming sources.
Songdrop is a free service that can be used to access music from all of your favorie streaming sites in one place – no more jumping from site to site. Let’s take a look and see how it can simplify listening to the music you love online.
Web apps can be confusing, but with so many of them out there, there’s bound to either be one that’ll fit your needs, or a way to make your favorite ones work better. Last week, we asked for your questions about web apps, and we’ve gotten two great questions so far.
Our reader Melissa asked if we knew of a “to-do list app that offers a nice clean interface, is fast and easy to use, allows for shared tasks, and has an iPhone app that syncs.” She’s already found Flow to be nice but pricey, Wunderlist to be a lot slower in entering tasks and syncing, and Todoist to be great but has no task sharing.
Then, our reader Jussie finds YouTube to be a bit messy for managing video channel subscriptions, and wanted a nicer web app to manage video subscriptions.
Keep reading after the break for our ideas for each of these problems! (more…)
Once upon a time, celebrities were only found on the television or in movies. Stars appeared everywhere and influenced our everyday well being – but only from a distance, on the TV or in glossy magazines. However, while this form of celebrity still exists, there’s a new way to be come a celebrity today: YouTube.
In a (dark) corner of YouTube there is the world of Vlogging, where people from all over the world post videos explaining what’s happening in their lives to the general public. YouTubers such as Alex Day, Charlie McDonnell, Dan Howell and Phil Lester have aced this skill — attracting thousands upon thousands of viewers to watch their lives unfold. Then there’s the many musicians that have launched their entire careers based on a single they released on YouTube – even Justin Bieber started out on YouTube.
Now that these people make a living out of YouTube and are placing their impression on a huge majority of people, has our conception of “fame changed”? Read on to find out more!
Back in the day, we were doing good to share text on the internet. Early chat and email strained networks, and even sharing a full eBook seemed like an audacious plan back when Project Gutenberg was first founded. Fast forward to today, however, most of us share pictures and videos online all the time. In fact, we get frustrated if it takes too long to upload our 14 megapixel images in RAW format.
In fact, we’ve got a selection of ways to share video. You can upload videos to the venerable YouTube, which has so many videos right now you can find almost any video (or music) you want on it. Or, you could choose the more artsy Vimeo, which has become my personal choice for sharing videos or finding an inspiring, creative work. Another great option, if your video is very short, is to just drag and drop it to your Cloud.app icon, and upload it directly with one click. It’s not as social, but sure gets the job done quicker than YouTube.
Truth is, though, you’re likely to want to share videos where the people you care about will actually see them. That’s why Facebook Videos have gotten more popular since they were added to Facebook. You can just upload a video right inside your social network, and all of your friends (or frenemies) will automatically see it without you having to share anything else.
So, what’s your favorite way to upload and share videos? What’s the main thing you’d look for in a video sharing site?
Have you ever tightened a screw in with a key? Or pried a nail out of wood with pliers? Or, perhaps, made a stand for a book or iPad out of a hanger? Chances are, at some time or another, most of us have improvised when we needed a tool but didn’t have one on hand. We’ve emailed files to ourselves before Dropbox, or use the to-do list in Gmail to save quick notes, or pasted text into the search box in a browser to keep it for a few seconds. Just like a monkey stacking boxes to grab a banana, we’re pretty ingenious at getting stuff done with whatever we’ve got at hand.
It’s always interesting to see how others put apps to use. Odds are, each of us use Gmail and Dropbox and other popular tools in slightly different ways. Here’s some of my favorite unique ways to use web apps in ways they weren’t originally designed for. If you’ve got another great way to use a web app in a unique way, we’d love to hear about it in the comments at the end!
Hot on the heels of a major design revamp across the board, Google is all set to launch a major new visual refresh for YouTube. YouTube is one of the hottest online destinations in the world, and even after years of it’s acquisition, people are still swarming the site not only to consume content but also to contribute.
Redesigning YouTube is no mean feat. Unlike Gmail and Google calendar which are often used from other applications, YouTube’s website has high user engagement, and any misstep would anger tens of millions of users. So has Google got it all right with the visual reboot of YouTube dubbed Cosmic Panda?
Did you know you can rent movies on YouTube? It’s true, the video giant has been providing movie rentals for some time now. However, its library has been quite dismal, providing older and less popular titles than pretty much every other video on demand provider. That’s about to change now that they’ve finally secured all the major studios such as Warner, Universal, Sony, Lionsgate and others.
Will YouTube fare well in such a fiercely competitive market? Will you part with your hard earned cash to enjoy flicks on a platform many already use for more personal entertainment?
Tens of thousands of videos are uploaded everyday at the World’s favorite web video destination — YouTube. Most of them aren’t professionally produced using costly equipment but the quality of content often surpasses that of a scripted Hollywood movie. After its breakout success, movie studios and professional media houses have embraced YouTube just like the common man.
After the break we’ve put together a list of fabulous YouTube channels that you’ll find entertaining, endearing and enlightening.
Just like every other week, Google’s been busy flooding the digital universe with new goodies. This week a new web app store, a cloud based operating system and cloud printing, to name a few. The TechCrunch team has put out a list of posts they consider to be gems, Google Wave got a new lease of life, Neflix is planning to go HTML5 for devices, YouTube is allowing longer video uploads and Dropbox now allows people to work in teams.
Read on for some of this week’s best web app news and updates you might’ve missed!
