On the tiny screen
We’re learning how to use more than just words to communicate. Many of us are also using our cell phones to connect to the Internet and do tasks we could only do with computers a few years ago.
Out of several product options available, we’ll look at two that make it much easier for people to create video and share it with others who can watch on PCs or cell phones.
If you are going to be downloading or uploading video with your phone, it is a must to get an unlimited data plan from your carrier. Most cell phone companies offer either metered plans that charge for the amount of data transferred or unlimited plans that allow unlimited data transfer for a flat fee. Even watching a few of the shortest of videos can rack up large bills quickly with a metered data plan. Unlimited data plans can range from $30 to $60 a month depending on your current voice plan and type of phone.
Seattle-based Treemo is an online mobile community dedicated to sharing digital media. Treemo – at treemo.com – enables you to create and share videos, audio and pictures you have created on your computer or cell phone.
Founder Brent Brookler’s business plan focuses on the skyrocketing pace of people using their cell phones for user-generated multimedia.
One of the big pluses of Treemo on the cell phone is it doesn’t require you to install any software. Brookler calls this “the frictionless environment.” In addition, Treemo is carrier independent, meaning that it works with the network of any cell phone service provider.
By leveraging the power of open standards, Treemo allows you to take the video you took of your child on your camera phone and share it with your friends and family by entering their e-mail or cell phone number.
Once you’ve uploaded your video, Treemo recodes it into a format for cell phones and into the Flash video format for viewing on your PC or Mac.
Once the video is ready for viewing, Treemo sends an SMS message or e-mail to let people know you have a video to be watched. No one has to download Treemo software to view the video.
Treemo is a community as well; you can comment about the media and share videos created by others. The service also has community etiquette standards that ban sexual, violent and unauthorized uses of copyrighted content. Treemo bans depictions of illegal drug use or alcohol use content, as well.
Eyejot, another Seattle-based company, at eyejot.com, is the brainchild of David Geller and Daryn Nakhuda. In a recent interview, Geller said he believes Eyejot addresses one of the main weaknesses of e-mail for personal and business use: the lack of expressions and gestures that occur in face-to-face meetings.
You send an Eyejot by logging into the Eyejot Web site. You can use any browser, on any platform, as long as you’ve installed a plug-in for Adobe’s Flash.
Eyejot’s video-creation system requires the user to capture the video with a Web cam while visiting the Eyejot site. Eyejot then sends an e-mail to your recipients telling that you’ve sent them a video.
Because Eyejot doesn’t depend on software, I have found the service useful when I want to send a video to someone but tools like iChat and Skype are being blocked on the network I am on.
Eyejot also features built-in support for a private iTunes RSS 2.0 feed, which allows you to subscribe to your Eyejot “video inbox.” Eyejot offers a widget that lets you embed your video on a blog. The widget enables the recipient to hit the reply button after watching the Eyejot video, then record his or her video in response.
These services illustrate how people are sharing their videos and other media without getting having to sort through the complex choices technology sometimes presents. Instead of worrying about which devices accept which formats, these two programs simplify the delivery of home-grown video to other users.
And that allows us to focus on the main concern: sharing our experiences.
For videos explaining how Treemo and Eyejot work, go to www.spokesmanreview/blogs/txt