Twitter Launches New App to Publish Short Videos
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Image Source: ABC News/Vine
BY KERRY LEARY
ANCHOR JAMAL ANDRESS
Some may think Instagram turns users into professional photographers
with fancy filters focused on what they ate for breakfast this morning... but Twitter
just launched a new app that could allow users to share what’s going on in a lot more than
140 characters.
Videos like this one posted on Vine’s website are put together
on iOS devices by recording short clips or one continuous clip and turning it into a
six-second looping video.
Users can see the short videos on Facebook, on Twitter
feeds or on Vine’s website and the videos play on a continuous loop. It can be clicked
on to make it stop... and just a warning, the videos can come with sound. AllThingsD
has more on the app’s history. “We don’t have terms for the deal, but
this looks a lot like an ‘acqhire’: Vine is a three-man company, based in New York,
which formed in June. It has yet to launch publicly.”
Twitter’s vice president
posted his own Vine video Wednesday night ... but the relationship between Twitter and
Vine hasn’t been determined. A writer for CNET notes:
“What wasn't clear [Wednesday]
however, was whether Vine was going to become Twitter's own hosted video service or if -- as
turned out to be the case -- it would be a standalone service that works in conjunction
with Twitter, but doesn't depend on it.”
Although the idea seems cool, a writer for NBC News
found one concern with the new app-- there are no privacy settings on videos-- which
means anyone can view videos created with the app.
A writer for the Poynter Institute
says the app raises new questions about journalism ethics. Twitter makes eyewitness accounts
of events instantaneous, but...
“...videos have the potential to be more realistic or
graphic than a still photo. That’s good when you want to bring the world virtually
closer to a news event. But also think of how much more traumatic the bystander documentation
of the Empire State Building shooting would have been if the photos of dead victims were
instead videos, with action and audio.”
The app is now available for free on the iPhone
and iPod touch. Twitter says other versions of the app will be unveiled soon... although
it’s unclear as to what versions those are.
