Things of note for the week ending October 31st, 2014.
1.Twitter does Video (or how to predict the future).
Two Five Things ago – aka ‘Five things on Friday #94‘ – I told you all about the new Audio Twitter Cards from Twitter.
I ended the bit saying:
Reminds me a lot of how the YouTube app works on Android which in turn says to me that you could expect Twitter’s video cards to follow a similar set up in the very near future. Maybe.
Well, low and behold, it has happened!
That’s right, in the exact same way that you can listen to audio tracks in Twitter and then continue to scroll through Twitter, video content now acts in the same way.
The interesting thing about this is that the content is actually playing through a Twitter Player card. That’s right, Twitter’s own native video upload – NOT YouTube. This is the first sign of a trend, ladies and gents.
Josh Constine, pictured (and author of the TechCrunch article where I first read the news), spotted an even better idea. Especially when you start taking the above feature into tablets…
The bigger opportunity might be in long-form video. Imagine following along with a docked video of a sports match or awards show as you read and post tweets about the event. Twitter’s long been seen as a companion to TV. But by ditching the television set and subsuming its video content, Twitter could be the only screen you need to step up to the global watercooler.
Now you can see the future too.
2. Polyamory is boring.
Apparently.
3. The Grand Canyon. From space.
I don’t know when the first ‘let’s stick a camera on a weather balloon and do something cool with the footage’ video first appeared but I really am nowhere near getting tired of them (yet). The next one is always better than the last…
John Flaig is the man behind ‘the next one’, and yet again I am not disappointed.
Not only are the photos amazing but the video is pretty darn cool too.
Yeah.
4. The Realisation
Another Five Things, another Leo Babauta post. But this one is super worth it. Promise.
It is a great read. If you only click on one link this week, make it this one.
5. NASA does Volcanos
This is excellent –
“A fortuitous orbit of the International Space Station allowed the astronauts this striking view of Sarychev Volcano (Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan) in an early stage of eruption on June 12, 2009. Sarychev Peak is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Island chain, and it is located on the northwestern end of Matua Island. Prior to June 12, the last explosive eruption occurred in 1989, with eruptions in 1986, 1976, 1954, and 1946 also producing lava flows. Ash from the multi-day eruption has been detected 2,407 kilometers east-southeast and 926 kilometers west-northwest of the volcano, and commercial airline flights are being diverted away from the region to minimize the danger of engine failures from ash intake.”
There’s a video of the eruption on the website. But it was too big and I didn’t want to upload it so I made it into a gif for you.
Email me and say thanks or something.
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Bonuses this week are all HALLOWEEN-themed:
- Dizzee Rascal does Halloween
- Minimalist posters of scary films (Carrie is my favourite)
- IKEA does The Shining
Until next week.
Have a great weekend everybody.
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