Web Journalist Blog

I joined a the PBS podcast to talk about Glass + Journalism.

For those interested, I am maintaining a Tumblr about my Glass journalism experience here: http://glassjournalism.tumblr.com/

My latest tweets via the @GlassJournalism Twitter account:
Tweets by @GlassJournalism

Since writing a how to post on uploading a custom video into Vine, based on Chris Medina’s video walkthrough, lots of folks have been asking me for a similar trick for Instagram’s new feature.

Well thanks to BritAlb, who added this in the comments, we have a link to a post by Austin Tompkins that claims to have figured it out. I have not tried it yet.

BUT, it is only for Android devices.

I did another Web search and found this post by Nathaniel Akin on techenvy.com. This post is also just for Android devices.

Again, I have not confirmed if their process works, since I am iOS / iPhone.

On my end, using the iExplorer, I was able to find the location where all the Instagram video files are located:

iExplorer –> iPhone –> Apps –> Instagram –> Library –> Application Support –> Instagram –> Videos

I did the swap out test from the Vine hack and it didn’t take. I’ve done other experiments and they have also failed.

One thing I found interesting is that when I replaced the video with one of mine or another Instagram video, it would disappear from the app. When I restore it back to the original video it came back into the app.

In other words:

• OG Instragram video –> externally edited video overwrites OG Instragram video –> video disappears from app.
• Externally edited video –> A different OG Instragram video overwrites externally edited video –> video disappears from app.
• Different OG Instragram video –> the ORIGINAL OG Instagram video overwrites different OG Instragram video –> video returns back to the app.

What this tells me is that there is some meta data tying it all together. I think the key is also the teaser image.

I’m about to board a plane, but I wanted to share this with others in hopes we can figure this out together!

We’re making progress.

So, I’ve started doing The Scientific 7-minute Workout that was written about in the NYTimes recently.

Maybe I was doing it wrong, but keeping the exercises, times and cycles seemed a little more challenging than it needed to be.

So, using their graphic/chart, I converted it into a timed, animated GIF:

Let me know what you think of The Scientific 7-minute Workout Timed, Animated GIF!

UPDATE: Posted this on imgur and, well, people liked it: http://imgur.com/gallery/qaBLnIr

As some of you know, I’ve been playing with a Vine hack by Chris Medina. I wrote a blog post walking you through how to do it but, after a Vina app update, I thought the hack/trick was killed.

Turns out it still works. I updated my ‘how-to’ blog post with how I did this series of Vines based on videosI edited in iMovie (of all places) and uploaded into the app.

An homage to one of the bestest game intros ever.

These were taken from this YouTube video… hence the visual quality isn’t the greatest: http://youtu.be/_rkaiKYEkDQ

Google Glass is clearly in its early stages, but it is emerging as a platform that merits our attention as news and information distributors.

The NYTimes has an app, but I think it really falls short of understanding and using this new platform.

Inspired by Thomas Baekdal‘s Google Glass for news post, here are my Glass app ideas for other news orgs… to help spark ideas and conversation.

These app ideas are practical and based on reality… not hypothetical futuristic dream apps.

// LATimes (or any regional/local news org)
Offer the Glass user an app card with trending/editor selected keywords/topics. The Los Angeles Times already does the keyword selection with their sub-navigation called “trending now.” Today’s (5/23) included: L.A. Mayor’s race, U.S. drones, Boy Scouts, London Attack, Helen Mirren, Lebron James.

Via Glass, the user could say, “Okay LATimes, tell me about [TOPIC]” and it will load the headline and nutgraph… it will of course offer a longer version of the story, perhaps in audio form.

Newspapers and print media also have an opportunity with Glass to embed and launch multimedia elements like videos or photo galleries from their print pages. ​That QR code may finally have value!

// NPR
This one, for now, is the most traditional app to do. The app is a card that plays, when a user opts in, the latest Hourly News Summary that is traditionally read on the air.

These apps are fairly simple tapping into the existing technology and framework. These do not are not “futuristic” apps. Naturally, if we tap into the GPS, we can create an app that brings you the latest news from “around you.”

// @BreakingNews (or other breaking news Twitter accounts)
The obvious option for this essential Twitter account is just to notify the Glass user with every breaking news tweet… but that can be overwhelming.

I’d suggest creating an app where the tweets that get the most retweets at a faster rate get a category of “important,” and those items notify the Glass user. Think of the classic breaking news interruption.

// Circa news app
This new news platform is actually a great fit for Glass. They have broken down a story into bullet points, and they add points to the story as it develops. It knows what you’ve read about the story when you return.

What they should offer is a list of headlines, and, as you do know, you can follow the story for updates. Their app would notify you when a story has been updated. Since the information is a bullet point, it wouldn’t be overwhelming.

// Newsbound
This visual-storytelling platform presents information like a PowerPoint presentation, but it’s compelling. What’s also powerful about this format is that these slides add up to tell a long form piece.

Yes, long form storytelling for Glass.

// SoundGecko
If a visual version of long form doesn’t work, check out SoundGecko, which converts text — any text — into audio.

Yes, at this stage it’s like Siri trying to read you a story, but when you are on the go and you actually want to consume a long form piece, this new technology may be good enough.

Well, since I am pitching Glass app ideas, here are some more “future” and obvious ones:

• Eventually be apps that are ​GPS aware to give information/news feeds.
• Based on video’s audio as a timeline, tie bonus material content to the broadcast news story. (This already happens with DVDs/movies and will eventually become available to us.)
• In terms of TV production, have Glass replace the TV new anchor’s Teletrompter and ear piece.

Two extremely obvious and simple ones:

• ​Live stream a press conference, but audio quality is not ideal. You can at least do a live POV shot of a scene.
• Using Glass as your second screen as you watch a live event either on TV on in person… like we do with tweets via hashtag.

I hope news organizations take advantage of this new type of platform and I look forward to what we will produce.

Personally, as a Google Glass Explorer (which gives me the “privilege” to buy and experiment with Glass early), I can’t wait to try these things out to see what works and what doesn’t.

At this stage, this is more a hypothesis… I want your reactions to this concept.

It’s based on my past successes and failures in projects/development. I, like all of us, have strengths and weaknesses in different categories, but for successful product developments, you need each… equally… at different times, perhaps, but constantly evolving and influencing the project.

Again, these requirements are in constant flux through different stages of the project, actively influencing each other.

Think: You have to have a creative, useful idea.

Listen: You have to truly listen/hear and adapt to wants/needs. From your community to stakeholders.

Build: You can talk. You can listen. But to have traction, you have to build something. A mockup, a demo or a working beta. Very much from the “show your work” model.

Sell: For journos, this is a new phase. But you have to promo your project… sell it to people. From your supervisor to actual investors.

I’ll try to write/explain more about this later… but I wanted to post this before I forget it… and I also want to collect reactions.

I want you to take a moment and recognize something: Google Glass looks as technologically cutting-edge as the first Motorola Razr did in 2004.

This incredibly thin phone, which was a leap from its predecessor Motorola StarTAC, was fashionable and functional, making it the best-selling clamshell phone in the world to date and causing a dent into Nokia’s indestructible brick phones.

Everyone had to have one and no one could believe how small it was.

For some tech context, in 2004 Google was still a private company.

iTunes was finally was made compatible with Windows machines, which made the iPod have its largest year since its launch in 2001.

AOL was still known as America Online.

The New York Times, and many other sites, looked like this: http://web.archive.org/web/20040306074613/http://www.nytimes.com/

We thought we knew tech. I thought we were in the future because I could text a question to GOOGLE and get an answer back.

(For more context, know that Facebook in 2011 was as big as the entire Internet was in 2004.)

Now, I want you to realize that Google Glass is at an earlier stage than that. Much earlier.

Think Zack Morris phone.

Think back when mobile phones were just for yuppies.

Who would ever want to carry a phone around with them?

Only those elitist businesses people who can afford that ridiculous technology… like Gordon Gekko

Check out this report on cellphones and yuppies:

Anyway you look at it, Glass is in its early stages. And it will soon look so outdated. It’ll look like the first iPod.

Embarrassingly dated.

(Don’t get me started on the short-lived pagers.)

“The Pressman”

– 30 –

This is gold.

“As we all know, it’s easier to do trivial things that are urgent, than it is to do important things that are not urgent, like thinking. And it’s also easier to do little things that we know we can do, than to start on big things that we’re not to sure about.”
— John Cleese

GOLD!!!

This post by Maria Popova on her brainpickings.org site is gold! Go there and give it deserved traffic: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/04/12/john-cleese-on-creativity-1991/

Go there! Click… and even donate!

So, why am I posting parts of it here?

If you haven’t noticed, this “blog” is more for me… and I want to remember this post. I want to find it easily… and get the inspiration from it when I need it.

John Cleese’s entire talk on being creative:

John Cleese’s factors to make your life more creative:

1. Space
2. Time
3. Time
4. Confidence
5. Humor

“Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.”
— John Cleese

UPDATE 06.10.2013: I can confirm the trick still works: http://blog.webjournalist.org/2013/06/10/intro-to-ninja-gaiden-via-vine/.

—

I tweeted this a few days back and thought I should add it here too.

On Monday a 6-second preview of The Wolverine was posted on Vine:

Clearly, this wasn’t made through the Vine app… which got me thinking, how could I post my own edited content onto Vine too?

Less than six seconds later I found the answer on YouTube:

I created this URL linking to the video: http://bit.ly/vineupload

After stumbling a little — the video isn’t perfect — I was able to create my own 6-second trailer:

Before we get into the steps, let me tell you where I got my video:

• I downloaded the Dune trailer video from YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwPTIEWTYEI via SaveVid or something like it.
• I imported the video into iMovie. (I wanted to test this thing fast and quality didn’t matter to me.)
• After editing and creating a 6-second video, I exported as an MP4. Here is that file.
• Critical step: I ran the video though HandBrake and re-encoded/re-exported my video as an MP4. I have Version 0.9.6 x86_64 (2012022800). This was the key step to get these videos to work: http://bit.ly/ninjagaidenvine. For those who are curious, this is a screenshot of my Handbrake settings. They are the default settings, I believe, for ‘regular.’

Then I proceeded to follow the steps outlined in the video, but I am adding more details from my experiences.

Here are the steps, thanks to the video and my own experience doing it:

So what’s cool about this?

Imagine content creators using this method to promo their content. An edited video Tweet that is a teaser to your produced Web video. Try it out!

Here’s an easy link to this post: http://bit.ly/uploadtovine

P.S. I uploaded the entire RickRoll video to Vine and it got published… but the app killed it. The video was 13.4MBs and 3:33 minutes, so quite large and much longer than 6 seconds. I uploaded a 30-second version, which was 2.7 MBs and that also didn’t work. I tried again with a 10-second clip, which was 914kb, and it worked: