Vimeo Launches New iPhone Application

Video sharing site Vimeo has released a new version of its iPhone application, what differentiates this one is that it has been created entirely by Vimeo staff.

Vimeo, one of YouTube’s main rivals, has released two iPhone applications before, but they have scrapped both in favour of designing a new one entirely from scratch.

Vimeo favours videos from independent artists and creators, and vice versa: a large number of indie filmmakers prefer Vimeo as their video sharing site of choice, having adopted the name “Vimeans”.

The original Vimeo iPhone application attempted to recreate Vimeo’s desktop interface on the mobile device, ending up over-complicated and cluttered. Vimeo’s new application has a simplified tab format, with easy navigation between channels.



“It’s totally reimagined to be awesomer, sleeker, more beautiful, way more awesome, and also much, much awesomer. The smarter, more intuitive design makes uploading, browsing, and sharing ridiculously easy”, says Vimeo of their new application.

When first loading the application, a scroll-down video feed takes up the majority of the screen, with a login banner at the top and tabs at the bottom.

The tab bar contains five buttons: Feed, with the list of videos from the Staff Picks channel, Explore, which has a search bar and a list of channels, Watch Later, which displays all the videos you have bookmarked for later viewing, and Me, which saves all your uploaded videos and liked videos.

The upload button takes prominence on the tab bar, however, with Vimeo’s intention to encourage users to upload their own creations.

Despite the simplification of Vimeo’s interface, the application has actually been upgraded with new features: users can pause uploads and share videos as soon as they have been uploaded.

What do you think about Vimeo’s new iPhone application?

Facebook Messenger Now Available in Your Firefox Browser

You can now chat with your Facebook friends anywhere within Firefox without having to open Facebook itself.

A new Firefox feature allows Facebook Messenger to show up at the side of your browser window. The integration allows users to see which of their friends are online and chat with them as you would from your Facebook profile, regardless of whether the website is open in your browser window or not.



This integration hopes to help keep you up to date with what’s happening on the social network without needing to constantly be changing between tabs to do so.
The new feature will also allow users to see their notifications when comments are made on posts and when they are tagged in a photo.

The new release is the first application of Mozilla’s new Social API and Facebook is the first to take advantage of the service.
The API now gives other social media platforms, such as Twitter and LinkedIn the chance to benefit from the feature as well.

To try out the new Firefox Facebook integration, download the most recent version of Firefox and then turn the feature on via Facebook.

What do you make of this new update? Do you think it will help?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below

Link Your Google+ Page With Your YouTube Page

Users will soon be able to link their YouTube page to their Google+ page using a channel name as your Google identity.
Google have been allowing YouTube users to use their Google+ profiles on their YouTube channels for months, using their real names rather than old YouTube account names.
They will continue to develop new engagement features that can take the best of both worlds from YouTube and Google+.

David Boyle of Google says: “While using a full name from a Google+ profile might work well for a creator who wants to build their brand as an individual, this simply doesn’t work if you don’t want a full name on your channel.”
“If you run a channel with a name like BlueXephos or VlogBrothers, you should create a Google+ page (as opposed to a profile) with that name.”

Google has been beta testing the option with a number of channels and will become available to all creators in the coming weeks.

What are your thoughts on the link between these two sites?

Google+ Now Supports Android App Links On Stream

Users are now able to post applications onto their Google+ streams, with a direct link allowing friends to download the apps on their mobile devices.

The update comes in the same week as Google Play’s release on the major European markets. So far, music and movies are available in France, Germany and the UK, but Google has promised to release the service in more countries over the next year.

When a user pastes the application URL in their stream a thumbnail appears automatically, along with an ‘Install'/’Buy’ button. When a friend clicks on the button the corresponding page loads and a prompt box appears asking whether the user wishes to install the app on another device.
The update makes it far easier for brands to keep their followers informed of new apps or improvements to existing ones.

What do you think of the Google TV and Google+ updates?

How Twitter Affected the Presidential Election

Barack Obama has been re-elected as President of the United States of America and social media sites, especially Twitter, have had a monumental influence on how voters may have made their decision.
Twitter seemed to be the most commanding social media platform for debate with over 70% of election talk coming from there over the few days preceding the election. Facebook contributed just over 18% with Tumblr and other blogs filling the remaining percentage.

President Barack Obama currently has over 22 million Twitter followers, more than ten times the amount Governor Mitt Romney has at slightly under 2 million.

As Obama was re-elected for four more years in the White House, Twitter erupted in setting a new tweets-per-minute record of 327,000. This is put into context when compared to the previous record of 116,00 which was set when the Spice Girls reunited in the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games.
The Twitter Sentiment score also showed a general positivity towards Obama and some inconsistency towards Republican candidate Mitt Romney.



The sentiment is calculated by a collection of mentions and tweets gathered directly towards each candidate’s twitter account. If the score is higher, the tweets were more positive than any other terms mentioned on Twitter, almost like a percentage score.
At about 8pm Eastern time, Obama’s sentiment rose steadily to 89 while Romney’s dramatically dropped to a low of 18.

Numbers of tweets and followers however does not guarantee success or even calculate how many were even going to vote. But the use of the social media platform was instrumental in spreading campaign messages and expanding a following.
President Obama’s celebratory tweet then went on to pass the 500,000 retweet mark, making it the most retweeted post of all time.



What did you make of the candidates use of Twitter leading up to the election?

Thunderclap To Help Commemorate Remembrance Sunday

The Royal British Legion says that it is to become the first UK organisation to use social media in an effort to encourage people to mark two minutes silence on November 11.

The message, "I'll be remembering the fallen at 11 o'clock #2MinuteSilence #LestWeForget," will be sent out via Facebook and Twitter simultaneously at 09:00 GMT on Remembrance Sunday.
With the UK’s estimated 10 million Twitter and 33 million Facebook users, the charity is hoping that thousands will take part in sharing the message.

The message hopes to remind the general public the morning of Remembrance Sunday to pause at 11:00 GMT for two minutes in the memory of the men and women who have lost their lives.

Helen Hill, the head of remembrance at The Royal British Legion, said: "We hope to create the largest ever show of online remembrance by using the communicative power of social media to remind millions of Britons that they have a very personal opportunity to honour the men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice."
The act of observing a Two Minute Silence began in 1919 after the Armistice at 11am on November 11, 1918 at the end of the First World War.

It has become the largest annual demonstration of public support for any cause in the country.

Will you be taking part?

ShadowMe App Lets You Pretend to Be Someone Else on Twitter

Ever wonder how your friends keep posted on the coolest viral videos and articles? Ever wonder how your favorite reporters and pundits stay in the know?

Well, now — as the saying goes — there’s an app for just that.
It’s called ShadowMe [App Store link], and is now available for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users, but only if you’ve already upgraded to iOS 6.

And what does ShadowMe do, you ask? Essentially, it lets you lurk Twitter as if you’re someone else. You’re able to see exactly what another user sees in his or her Twitter feed, receiving updates and news from all their favorite follows. It works equally well for a big-name celebrity — pro athletes who seem to only follow teammates and scantily clad women, for example — or simply a close friend.

“While ShadowMe is especially useful for people who need an introduction or education on Twitter, the app also enhances the Twitter experience for even the most active users by enabling them to shadow avid Twitter users, depending on interests or events,” Keith Savitz, co-founder of the app’s parent company, Tendy Apps, said in a press release. “Twitter newbies get quality content, not overwhelming quantity, and all users get the engaging, informative, entertaining social TV/second screen experience.”

While we haven’t yet gotten a chance to test out ShadowMe and can’t vouch for its functionality or ease of use, the idea does strike us as a very, very cool. It has the potential to be a powerful tool for content discovery, as well as insight into how your favorite follows use Twitter.

Is ShadowMe cool or creepy? Let us know what you think in the comments.