Posts in Linked

Instagram Video→

Today, Instagram has officially introduced video. With a new camera interface, users can now take videos up to 15 seconds long, choose between 13 custom filters, and post quick videos alongside photos in the main Instagram feed. Videos can be viewed on the web and through the just-updated iPhone app; third-party apps with access to the Instagram API, like Tweetbot, will have to be updated to support inline video viewing.

Video on Instagram is obviously reminiscent of Vine, Twitter’s service for 6-second videos. While there was no explicit mention of Vine at Instagram’s press event, it was clear that founder Kevin Systrom was presenting a product aimed at doing mobile video sharing better than Vine – which has been growing but isn’t quite as mainstream as Instagram is. For the past couple of years, finding the “Instragram for video” has been a recurring theme on the Internet, and I find it curious that Instagram decided to tackle this just when Vine was starting to take off.

The 4.0 update to the iOS app is nicely built and put together. I like how video capture sits right next to the standard camera interface (you can tap a button or swipe to access it), and I also appreciate the options to delete clips (portions of a video) and choose a cover thumbnail – two features that I always wanted to see in Vine. Instagram is setting a minimum duration for videos, which is displayed through segments in the video interface’s progress bar.

I do wonder if, with the addition of video, some of Instagram’s immediacy has been lost. Three years ago, when I first reviewed Instagram for iPhone, I predicted how it would become a new paradigm for camera apps. While the Instagram team has tried to keep the new experience as simple as possible, there is an intrinsic complexity about video that will likely be frowned upon by Instagram purists – this is exemplified by Instagram’s approach to video editing, which only allows you to delete entire clips and not individual frames. And Instagram’s upload speed, a marquee tenet of photo sharing, will inevitably be affected by videos.

Overall, from what I’ve seen so far, I think Instagram for video is polished and nice – an obvious addition perhaps, but it’ll be popular in the short term. It’ll be interesting to see how much Instagram’s nature and community will change with videos.

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Quantifying the iTunes Video Store→

Horace Dediu of Asymco writes,

Apple states that the movie download rate is 350k/day. My estimate  was only about 126k/day.

As a result, my new estimate for the rate of spending on iTunes video is about $1.75 billion/yr. This is much more substantial than prior estimates mainly because movies are much more valuable. A tripling of the download rate shows up as a significant rise in the profile of video vis-à-vis the other media types.

Apps, music, and software are still king, but video on demand is still a growing source of revenue for Apple.

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The Multiplane Camera→

Manton Reece:

It’s a return to basics. Simple things can remain simple, readable. When clarity is needed, everything goes flat. But it’s a framework that allows for subtle motion and depth without changing what works about the new, content-first flat design. iOS 7’s control center blurs the layer below. The home screen background sits deeper too, as if only the app icons are touching the screen. Photos scroll under the navigation bar.

This is a smart take. Right now, it’s easy to dismiss the new physics and depth of iOS as gimmicks that won’t alter and benefit our daily experience in meaningful ways. But I really do believe that, with APIs for developers, we’ll start seeing interesting new ideas after the summer.

I’d also like to thank Marco Arment for linking to Disney’s explanation of the multiplane camera. The similarities, both in Disney’s description and blueprints, are curious:

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“Why You Got a New Phone?”→

A great piece by Matt Drance.

This is a thought I wish I had in my article on iOS 7:

The emphasis on text is also striking. More than just content, text has replaced iconography in many cases. Look at Camera: the modes — VIDEO, PHOTO, SQUARE, PANO — are represented by text for the first time ever on iOS. This to me is proof that “clarity” has taken top priority. iOS is available in a number of countries and languages, which means every piece of text has to be localized (translated) many times over. This isn’t only time consuming, it’s disruptive to UI design: a short word in English is not necessarily short in German, and suddenly things don’t fit on screen anymore. I attended many meetings at Apple where people cringed at changing a word shortly before release, because it meant a whole new round of localize-then-build-then-test.

Apple still hasn’t seeded a developer beta of iOS 7 for iPad. Looking at one of the official screenshots posted online (the Music app, mirrored here), I wonder if more Apple apps for iPad will also prefer text over icons in tab bars.

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Skype Launches Video Messaging→

Today, Skype has officially introduced a new feature called Video Messaging, which allows users to send video files to other contacts. Video Messaging, rolling out today to every platform (including iOS and OS X),  is aimed at letting users “record and share a personal video message, even when your friends and loved ones are not available”. Video Messaging is free for all Skype users.

Skype Video Messaging adds another great way to keep in touch with friends and family during life’s most meaningful moments. Send a video message to your friends and family today—it’s easy. You can capture a fleeting memory, create a heartfelt reminder or simply tell a friend or family member “wish you were here” even when they aren’t online.

Skype videos can be up to three minutes long, and they can be recorded directly from Skype’s apps. In a promotional video, Skype shows how users can record and re-record videos on the iPhone, previewing them before sending them to someone. Videos will be played inline on Skype for desktop computers, and users can also reply to a video message.

Updates to Skype for iOS and OS X will be released today to support video messaging. In the meantime, Skype has posted an official announcement and FAQ here.

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Apple Posts Letter On “Commitment to Customer Privacy”→

Apple has today posted a lengthy public statement on how they handle customer data following allegations of involvement in the NSA-operated PRISM surveillance program. In the letter, Apple reiterates that they don’t provide any government agency with direct access to their servers, and that only the “narrowest possible set of information” is provided to the authorities after a court order and an evaluation of Apple’s Legal team.

Apple writes:

From December 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013, Apple received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement for customer data. Between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices were specified in those requests, which came from federal, state and local authorities and included both criminal investigations and national security matters. The most common form of request comes from police investigating robberies and other crimes, searching for missing children, trying to locate a patient with Alzheimer’s disease, or hoping to prevent a suicide.

Apple also explains that they don’t mantain a “mountain of personal details about our customers in the first place”.

For example, conversations which take place over iMessage and FaceTime are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them. Apple cannot decrypt that data. Similarly, we do not store data related to customers’ location, Map searches or Siri requests in any identifiable form.

Apple’s letter is available here, and it’s linked directly on Apple.com’s front page as well.

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I Wouldn’t Mod the New AirPort Extreme→

9to5Mac ran a quick piece this morning about hacking the new AirPort Extreme. Apparently Apple kept the hard drive caddy in place for the new AirPort Time Capsule, but left out any internal connectors.

In the worst ‘case’ scenario, DIYers could use the USB port and wire a bus-powered 2.5 inch hard drive (up to 2TB currently) or SSD around inside the case.

Don’t do this. You don’t really save a lot of money (if any by the time you paid shipping for a new 2TB HDD and USB compatible cable), and then you’d be using up an available USB slot that could be used for other things, like even more storage or a USB printer. If you want a hard drive, just pay more upfront for the AirPort Time Capsule.

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