The Top 5 Video Apps for iPhone

Tech Tips
4

 

 

As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, the team here at IFB has become more and more interested in the power of video blogging.  Video is an extraordinary tool with which bloggers can convey their ideas and opinions directly to their audience in a personal (and personable) way.  As I’m sure you’ve also noticed, the iPhone app store has recently been flooded with whole loads of video-related apps to help make videos easier to shoot, edit, and distribute.  Here are five of the best video apps we’ve found.

 

1. viddy

 

When viddy was released in April of this year the company immediately labeled it as “Instagram for video.”  That’s not a wholly inaccurate descriptor.  Similar to Instagram, viddy is both a tool to add some personality to your videos through the use of snazzy filters and also to upload and share them to a dedicated social network that, again like Instagram, features an activity stream consisting of nothing but other viddy users and trends.  viddy allows videos up to 15 seconds long and its community is growing steadily.

 

Viddy is neat and shiny, but it also has a few issues.  The first is a practical one: even iPhone video is a lot of information to handle and is thus slow to process.  viddy takes time to render videos and the videos take time to upload; it is not as fast and instantaneous as Instagram, although that is its goal.  (I should also insert here that I’ve been using viddy on an iPhone 4; the iPhone 4s is much more powerful so this may not be an issue at all for many new viddy users).

 

The other issue is a touch more frustrating: the viddy stream is already a veritable minefield of ads for movies, games, and other things you don’t want or need; there are advertisements everywhere in this app, so beware.  The last issue is that the default music track that viddy applies to your videos is an unspeakably bad cool-jazz number that you’ll only be able to change if you first edit your video in iMovie, so be cognizant of that and the profound effects that bad elevator muzak can have on a cool video.

 

 

2. Videolicious

 

 

 

Have you gotten sick of going onto Facebook and watching a video uploaded by a friend only to find that the thing is a nonsensical mess of camera shake and missed focus signifying nothing?  Videolicious aims to fix this.  The strength of the Videolicious app is it’s ability to quickly edit disparate video clips and pull them together into what essentially amounts to a very short film.  You pick five separate clips, Videolicious edits them together, you pick a song (similarly bad to the viddy song, so hopefully this will get cleared up soon), and then you upload directly to Facebook or YouTube.  It’s fast, easy, and you get good results.

 

 

The main problem with Videolicious is that there is no dedicated social network to upload videos too.  While this makes things easier in that you don’t need to devote more time to a whole new network, it would be nice to have all the Videolicious videos together in one place.  The second main issue is that, like viddy, Videolicious has a hellaciously unfun amount of advertorial garbage to wade through.  I’m talking ads within ads here; it’s pretty horrifying really (e.g. “Martha Stewart Video,” “Self Magazine Video,” “Lucky Magazine Video,” etc.).

 

 

3. VideofyMe

 

Here’s an app that pulls no punches as to its intentions.  Download the app, install it, run it, and the very first thing you’ll see is a banner along the bottom that reads “Create, publish, and make money.”  VideofyMe is a YouTube for people who don’t want to devote time to YouTube; instead of revenue sharing on ads being exclusive, as it is on YouTube, VideofyMe allows everyone to get in on the money.  The app was clearly designed with bloggers in mind too: as you record your video you’ll see a sort of teleprompter scroll across it to make it easier to remember what you’re going to say.

 

4. SocialCam

 

SocialCam is a free and easy to use app with one single purpose: sharing videos.  With SocialCam you can upload videos of any length to your profile (again, similar to Instagram’s) where your friends can like and comment on them.  They’ve also added a few filters, but they’re sort of uninteresting and seem tacked on simply to compete with viddy, Instagram, and that ilk.  There’s not a whole lot to say about the app: it’s streamlined and neat, it’s purpose is clear, and it can share videos to any social network you might be a part of.  Definitely worth checking out.

 
 

5. iMovie

 

While not a video sharing app, iMovie is a quick and easy way to edit your videos.  If you’re familiar with iMovie for desktop computers or the newest iteration of Final Cut Pro then the interface for this app should be no surprise.  For an app $4.99 is a fair chunk of change, but I think it’s worth it: you can very quickly make your videos much more professional looking and, even better, you can add whatever music you like so you’re not stuck with the free default songs.

 

 

Tweet
Share
Pin

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

4 Responses

  1. Stephanie Anyadike

    Bleghhhhh!!!
    Let me get the i-Phone first
    still apart of #TeamBlackberry

    I think their should be a similar articles on the advantage of a blogging with a Blackberry. As for me I’ve noticed when networking its sooo much easier to ask other fellow bloggers what their BB pin is rather than their phone number

    hmm…any other thoughts on this?

    Reply
  2. Faiza

    Nice post!! I will check some of these apps out now. Especially since I upgraded to the new Iphone 4s…;)

    Faiza xo

    Reply
  3. Indiana

    If you want cool filters, 8mm has some great ones. I shoot on my iPhone camera first, add a filter with 8mm, edit in iMovie on my phone, then upload to Viddy (if it’s under 12 seconds). This sounds like a lot but aside from the shooting can take less than 10 minutes!

    Reply