Social Cam “The Instagram for Video”:
Unlike Instagram or Twitter, Social Cam is a free app that
allows you to shoot and share video files with friends and family. Social Cam
Video app might be just too social. The Social Cam network connects with
your facebook friends and adds them automatically. The app can also be annoying
because it requires anyone who wants to watch your social cam video to sign up
for the service before watching it. Although the features and tools are easy to
use the option to watch isn't as easy. The connection to Facebook may be
aggravating because maybe some users don’t want their videos to integrate with
Facebook. Once a video is made it will be automatically posted to their
timeline… doesn't sound too good, now does it? You have to use Social Cam with
extreme caution and not activate your automatic sharing on Facebook unless you
want everyone to know every video you just recorded.
But for the most part Social Cam is just like any other
social site and it requires your e-mail to sign up. The easy to read and
navigate labels include: Videos, Popular, The Red Dot (launches video camera on),
Friends, and Activity. Similar to recording on your phone, you are to press the red record button on the screen to start shooting. But what
I love about social cam is the various filters by simply swiping the screen. The
filters include: Electronic, negative, Kodak, noire, grunge, action, bleach,
rouge, vice, and 1970s effect. The filter and other effects are added as soon
as you begin recording. It provides the users with a fun experience when
recording. After you finish you have the option to add a “theme” and which
style title you want. You can also add music to the background! How cool! But that’s
not all! You even get to control the volume of the music by using the slider. Yeah,
I know- pretty awesome.
BUT- when you’re finally done with your recording and
editing and feeling like Spike Lee you get to save your video public or
private. You can publish your video to the Social Cam Feed in which other
Social Cam users get to view the video.
Path Changes the Game:
Now, on another hand there’s another app called Path which aims to
make social network more personal. Path is an app that is interested in sharing
personal moments with a smaller network of friends rather than a large one that
you would find on Facebook or Twitter. But this app isn't your ordinary social
network. Path is a place where you post photos and videos for your (inner
circle). It’s like a diary in which you share more personal things. Because of
that close and intimate connection, people are bound to share more as a result
of that.
The unique thing about Path is that it picks up the users
habits quickly. It registers and saves their favorite places and broadcasts it
to their fellow path “followers”. What others
may find to be either an upside or downside, is that Path only allows up to 150
connections. That is considered to be
the upper limit of trusted relationships a person can have. This is the true
beauty of Path. Just like other social sites it too integrates with Twitter,
Facebook, Foursquare and Tumblr to allow cross-posting. At the pace we're going,
who knows if the next generation of social media is going to get personal.
