I posted last week about Mashable ‘s rundown of several apps that can be used for posting iPhone 3GS videos to Twitter and other social network sites. Today I took some time to play around with a couple of apps that most interested me in this area “ Pixelpipe and Tweet Reel.
I ‘ve actually been using Pixelpipe for a little while now, for sharing various things up to several social sites at once, and finding it very versatile and cool to use “ so seeing that it had the capability to upload video as well was a welcome bonus.
So here are some very quick early impressions type notes on using these two apps for uploading iPhone 3GS videos to Twitter and Friendfeed:
It took me a while to work out how to get videos ‘ orientation right. My first few efforts were those of a very dopey user and I uploaded several wonky, lopsided tests “ with videos I thought I ‘d shot in landscape mode being oriented as portrait. At one point, I thought you had to shoot in portrait mode in order for videos to display correctly when uploaded.
In the end, I got a bit of guidance from support folks from both apps – Pixelpipe even spotted my mentions of them and approached me on Twitter “ cool. The trick is to watch the little video camera icon (the one you tap to switch from still camera to video) and make sure it has rotated to the orientation you want to be shooting in, before hitting record.
That sounds a very simple thing “ and it is “ but judging by comments I was getting on Twitter, I ‘m not the only one who didn ‘t notice that and had troubles with wrongly oriented videos being uploaded.
Once I got that right, my final tests worked just fine when shooting in landscape mode.
On the apps side of things, a couple people asked via Twitter which one I liked. The answer is both, but for different reasons.
I like Pixelpipe because it allows me to update a ton of good social network sites at once. If I choose to share a photo or a video via Pixelpipe, when I upload it, it goes to Friendfeed, Twitter, Flickr, and Evernote simultaneously. It could go to Facebook, Picasa, Photobucket, SmugMug, Blogger, and more than 95 other services if I chose to connect them in Pixelpipe “ but I ‘ve just setup the four I like and use most right now. So as soon as Pixelpipe says it ‘s finished uploading, my shared content is viewable at all four of those locations. Slick. Oh, and Pixelpipe is free, easy to setup, and easy to use.
One thing that was a very pleasant surprise was that Evernote on the iPhone knew how to handle the videos I shared to it from Pixelpipe “ it plays them via its built-in QuickTime player.
Tweet Reel is very different to Pixelpipe “ as it is a single-purpose app, that promises to be your quickest way to share videos to Twitter from the iPhone 3GS. It takes no time flat to set it up, as all it needs to know is your Twitter login details (it uses OpenAuth and does not store your Twitter account details, which is a good thing).
With Tweet Reel you can shoot new video, share existing video, or go to view your own Tweet Reel page, with all the content you ‘ve previously shared (via Mobile Safari) “ all via a very basic and easy-to-use interface.
I like that Tweet Reel gives you a location for your shared videos that is easy to remember and hence super-easy to share with friends “ it ‘s just http://tweetreel.com/YourTwitterUsername.
Tweet Reel ‘trims ‘ your video before uploading “ so its uploads are considerably faster than Pixelpipe ‘s. For example, a test video of around 1:20 (one minute, twenty seconds) took 10 minutes to upload via Pixelpipe, and 3 minutes to upload via Tweet Reel. My understanding “ per Pixelpipe via Twitter “ is that Pixelpipe is uploading the original, full resolution videos.
So “ again “ I like both apps and feel like they are both quite useful for different purposes. Pixelpipe is excellent for sharing something to my four key places all at once. Tweet Reel is a great fast way to share video to Twitter, and to have a neat little home for all shared videos of this type, and one that ‘s easy to direct friends to.
Here ‘s my last little test video at both places “ with my Blog Editor in Chief Lab now getting a little bored with proceedings:
You can find Pixelpipe HERE in the App Store, for free “ and Tweet Reel HERE for $2.99.
Continue reading:
- Everything New Apple Just Announced (Septembe
- Apple Watch Pre-Order
- Apple Research Kit launches with 5 Apps
- Apple TV now only $69
TAGS: iphone apps
