couple of weeks ago youtube (linked) announced support for mobile video uploads - shoot the video with your phone and send it over-the-air to youtube. cool. yeah. but not enough (at least in terms of mobile blogging...)
first off, seems youtube's not accepting mp4 formatted video so i had to convert the file on my mobile to 3gp before sending. conversion's no big deal in my case (it's actually quite easy on my device), but it's an extra step that'll probably alienate most potential users in the same situation (and, moreover, 3gp video quality pales in comparison to mp4 - see below). don't get me wrong, the youtube solution's still cool, but it doesn't do what i really want - direct mobile video upload to my blog, same way i do with images. that said, at least the youtube solution does allow you to later embed the video directly into a blog posting (see bottom).
enter the folks at fotojive (linked) who in addition to delivering a free mobile imaging service that seems to do most of what shozu, zonetag, etc. can do (see multiple previous postings on these solutions in the "mobile-related posts" column at left) are also supporting over-the-air mp4 upload. sweet. hopefully this will drive the youtube folks in that direction if they're not already headed there.
fotojive works just like shozu, et al - you download a small application directly over the air to your device (and you're gonna want to have one of dozens of compatible nokia handsets - either symbian or java based - 'cause according to fotojive's site they only support four relatively obscure non-nokia handsets). installation's a breeze (although, unusually, the app doesn't seem to feature any menu so i'm not sure how to turn it off short of uninstalling it). after that, once you snap a photo or capture a video you get a quick prompt asking if you want to save to fotojive - say 'yes' and it's on it's way (or say 'no' and your image/video is saved to your phone like normal). like shozu and zonetag, the files transfer via data stream rather than multimedia message (mms) so no worries about mms surcharge nor constricted file size (but you'll want to have that unlimited data plan). 'course unlike the other two apps, fotojive offers its own storage and image processing-related services so isn't linked to flickr - a bit of a downside in terms of having to manage (and remember) yet another online site for file storage. to its credit, fotojive has a sleek enough flash-based interface which, in terms of managing/sharing images/video, is pretty simple and intuitive (nitpicks: it's a bit choppy at times...and don't get me started on the banner ads).
but, of course, neither fotojive nor youtube acts as a pass-through for direct video posting to the blog (hardly in their current brand interest). and fotojive stops short of youtube in terms of embedding video - while they offer a so-called "easy link" feature it's nothing more than that - a button to click which automatically populates your clipboard (strangely without telling you) with the html link to your video for pasting into your blog...
so, with a sigh, until blogger cuts the right deal, i can either copy and embed youtube code or "easy link" to fotojive. either way, i gotta use a pc to pull up the relevant site from which to post to the blog. sure, i suppose the extra headache rules out folks posting all sorts of frivolous video cliplets to their blogs, but, well, isn't that kinda the beauty of mobile blogging - the spontaneity - being able to capture and share a moment (or a few moments) when the happen wherever you may be? don't get me wrong, being able to do any of this is definitely cool - and, for those who're just looking for a simple solution to upload and share video from their mobiles, both options beat the heretofore status quo (i'd personally go with fotojive for best quality video), but, well, i just wish i could get my video straight from the mobile to the blog... soon, i trust.
just so you know what it looks like - immediately following is a link to the original mp4 video (about ten seconds of staring out my office window... yawn) shot from my mobile, uploaded to and hosted by fotojive.
view out my window
and below is the same video hosted by youtube, in the converted (and definitely lower quality) 3gp format.
2 comments:
ShoZu can post mp4 video direct to Blogger and other blog sites.
There's an option called "Other destinations", which lets you set up a personal list of places to send your photos and videos.
thanks andy. added post following this to expand on your comment. also, yet further on this topic, check out june 1 post on blip.tv - another (perhaps even slicker) solution.
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