A new Kickstarter project is aiming to redefine how you shoot video with your iPhone. The Galileo is an iOS-controlled robotic iPhone platform that lets you manipulate the angle your iPhone from another iOS device, giving you the ability to adjust your iPhone to almost any angle you could possibly want.
For instance, if you were video chatting with a child who moved out of sight of the camera you could move the platform to follow her using your own device. The platform could also be used in situations like meetings so you can can follow all the action going on in the room. The platform's inventor originally created the device in order to have better chats with his son while he was away on business.
Galileo can be controlled from another iOS device such as an iPad or iPod touch by swiping a finger across the screen, and gives you infinite 360-degree panning and 200-degree tilting. You can see everything around the iPhone and above it, with the only unavailable angle being what's going on below.
The platform is also offering its SDK (software developers kit) for app development, giving app developers the freedom to integrate Galileo functionality into existing apps or create apps and software specifically designed to work with the product.
Galilieo has currently raised close to $270,000 on Kickstarter, and only required $100,000 to go into production. The project will be officially funded on April 21, 2012, after which the device will go into mass production and be sent out to project backers and then likely general consumers.
What do you think of the project? Tell us what potential uses you see for Galileo in the comments.
YouTube is launching a new platform called "I Will If You Will" for Earth Hour 2012, which lets users challenge others to take an environmentally friendly action for the planet.
Earth Hour, now in its sixth year, encourages people to turn off their lights for 60 minutes one day a year. It's celebrated annually on March 31 between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. This year, the campaign is hoping its impact will last more than one hour.
"In its sixth year, with hundreds of millions of people taking part in Earth Hour, we want to go beyond the hour to encourage positive action for the environment," Earth Hour co-founder and executive director Andy Ridley said. "The power of social media enables us to unite the global community in the endeavor to protect the planet."
The "I Will If You Will" campaign is hosted by YouTube and was spearheaded by the Earth Hour founders, the World Wildlife Foundation and Leo Burnett. Supermodel Miranda Kerr is also on board.
As part of the campaign, Dr. Seuss's The Lorax movie will turn the main character's mustache green if 500 children commit to switch off their lights for the hour, the president of Fiji Epeli Nailatikau will walk 30 kilometers if businesses and NGOs make pledges, and Miranda Kerr will teach a yoga class to 500 fans who create their own challenge (a condition which was already met).
YouTube also plans to dim its entire site with a virtual light switch for the hour, as it did last year. The social video platform has donated nearly 15 million digital impressions for Earth Hour. Also joining in Earth Hour this year are more than 5,000 cities and towns in 147 countries.
Will you turn out your lights for Earth Hour? Will you challenge your friends to take action?
Fans of NBC's The Voice can now vote for their favorite contestants via a new app for Facebook Timeline.
Facebook Timeline users can begin voting for artists on The Voice on Monday, when the app will be released. Fans can also share their views with Facebook friends, connect with others and track artists via the app.
"This app gives our already socially-savvy fans another way to connect and share," Vivi Zigler, president of NBC Universal Digital Entertainment, said in a statement. "From declaring their favorite artist to discovering friends' preferences to interacting with more content, the app creates a fully social online voting experience."
It also allows users to access related content from the show, including performance videos and blogs.
This isn't the first time The Voice has turned to the online world to encourage voting. Last year, the show allowed fans to vote by buying the contestants' songs on iTunes.
Other shows have also used social media to help with the voting process. In November 2011, the U.S. version of The X Factor allowed viewers to vote for their favorite performer via direct messages on Twitter
Meanwhile, American Idol let viewers vote on the show's Facebook page during season 10.
Facebook announced in January that it would be adding apps to its site, so members could share more information about their interests, what they're reading and what they're doing online. Apps currently range from The Washington Post to Nike.
Are you more likely to vote for contestants on shows such as The Voice via social networking sites, rather than texting? Let us know in the comments.
Jason Weaver is the CEO of Shoutlet, an enterprise social management software company he founded. He has been involved in social media strategy development since its inception for brands that include Disney, SC Johnson, and eBay. Follow him at @Shoutlet.
Facebook Timeline for businesses is officially here, and companies large and small are anticipating how the new changes will affect their existing Facebook presence. The early data creates a promising picture, with one report suggesting that brands are getting an average 46% more engagement with Timeline. But before we look too far in the future, let's take a look at the major Facebook milestones that got us to this point.
Facebook has only been around for eight years, but what's particularly hard to believe is that it was roughly five years ago that the social network opened up Facebook Pages, allowing brands and celebrities to create a profile dedicated to developing and posting original content meant to encourage fan interaction.
The introduction of brand pages is what moved the needle for Facebook, helping them make the transition from a networking platform for college kids to one that included young professionals. Since then, we've seen Facebook's user base grow to more than 845 million monthly active users. Brand pages allowed this audience to build social relationships with a company for the first time ever.
"Becoming a Fan" (2009)
Brand pages were one of the first ways consumers could "raise their hand" online. By becoming a fan of a certain company, users said something about themselves to their friends. For brands, this meant developing content and a voice for an entirely new channel, one that taught many of them about what resonated with current and potential customers. This created a shift in how social media was viewed by businesses. It went from a "nice-to-have" to a "must-have" business tool. Now, we're seeing companies invest heavily in their social presence due to the incredible value of social fans.
Contests and Promotions (2009)
With contests and promotions, updated and expanded in 2009, brands grew their fan bases. A fan's involvement in a contest or promotion told that fan's network that they thought a brand was cool, and that others should consider becoming fans, too. For businesses, contests and promotions opened up conversations about fan-driven revenue and the monetary value of a Facebook presence.
Storefronts and Ads (2010)
As Facebook became a hub for product sharing, brands started seeing the potential in using it to make money directly from the platform. Facebook commerce was particularly seen as a way to develop a source of additional revenue, but the value wasn't just in the click-to-conversion. Product popularity was boosted by sharing among networks, and brands began to learn which products were hot among various audience sets.
This year, Facebook unveiled the ads premium model, where marketers will be able to take page posts and turn them into ads. These ads can be targeted to anyone. The combination of ads plus social commerce is a natural way for a brand to bolster certain products. This revolutionary step was the perfect lead into Timeline.
Facebook Timeline (2012)
So what does the switch to Facebook Timeline for brands mean now? It means telling brand stories and sharing engaging content takes center stage. Everything from the cover photo to milestones is a part of a brand's ability to add to its online persona. Instead of disparate posts, Timeline is designed to allow a brand to truly narrate a story, over time.
The social sciences need to reject hypothetico-deductivism and embrace the fact that they are mature disciplines with no need to emulate other sciences.
Researchers at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences have created a prototype for a new type of camera called Ubi-Camera that lets you snap a photograph by creating a rectangle with your hands.
Here's how it works: Connect the device to your index finger and then form a rectangle with your fingers. Your finger rectangle works as a viewfinder for the camera, and photos are taken by pressing on the device firmly with your thumb.
The Ubi-camera has a built-in range sensor that can tell the amount of space between the camera and the photographer's face, and uses that information to create a shot. For instance, when you take a photo with your face close to the camera, you get a wide-angle shot. When you move your fingers further away you can snap a close up. Zooming in on photos is done later on a PC.
Researchers did a brief demo of the camera for DigInfoTV, showing off how the device is able to capture pictures:
The range sensor uses infrared technology, which occasionally has difficulty detecting faces and can be affected by light — something the developers hope to update in the future.
In its current prototype form the Ubi-camera also needs to be connected to a PC while you take a photo; however, developers hope to make a stand-alone version of the camera in the future that can be used away from a computer screen.
Can you see yourself using the Ubi-camera? Let us know your thoughts on the unique camera in the comments.
As AMC gears up for season two of The Killing, the network has launched an online interactive case file so that fans can participate in figuring out who killed Rosie Larsen.
The Killing debuted last year; its story centers around the murder of teenager Rosie Larsen. Each episode encompasses 24 hours and the first season centered on the first two weeks of the investigation. If you haven't seen the show, it's a combination of Twin Peaks, Law & Order and 24.
As season 2 opens, lead detective Sarah Linden is still trying to solve the case. At AMCtv.com, users can interact with the case file, read official case documents, look at crime scene photos and view documents about the various suspects in the case.
The interactive case file will continue to be updated throughout the season, changing and updating based on what happens in the show.
While this sort of transmedia experience isn't new — TV shows have been employing varying degrees of online interaction for more than a decade — it is a sign of the growing importance that digital plays in traditional TV narratives.
While not a true social TV play, these types of experiences are all building keeping fans engaged in programming when it's not on the air.
As a network, AMC has focused on digital with its other hits — including The Walking Dead and Mad Men.
The Killing comes back to TV on Sun. April 1. Let us know what you think about the rise of transmedia and interactive experiences in the comments.
