Audio By Carbonatix
Andy Warhol once claimed, in the then-future, everyone would have 15 minutes of fame. Fast-forward to the post-internet, reality TV-fueled Twitterverse of the modern era and you’ll find he was basically right. Thanks to Facebook news feeds and shows like America’s Got Talent, everyone thinks they’ve got what it takes, or even that they inherently deserve, to be a star.
Right now, it’s pretty hip to share your life in photos using mobile apps like Hipstamatic and Instagram, but we at Cultist can already tell you the future of social interaction, communication, and shouting for attention: live video broadcasting.
That’s right: Share your life with the world as it happens, no matter how dull it may be. It sounds silly now, but believe us, everyone is going to be live broadcasting in the future. A lot of people — really boring people — already are. You’re actually late to the game. But don’t worry, we’re breaking down a list of some of the most popular mobile broadcasting apps on the market to help you get started.
Color
Available for Android and iPhone
Features: Integrated
with your Facebook profile, record or “host” 30-second videos called
“visits” for your friends to watch instantly on your profile. The
recordings do not support audio.
Functional? While the concept of “hosting
visits” is pretty adorable, these videos don’t seem practical for any
real use. Not even the filmmakers of The Artist could document much of interest in a silent,
30-second clip. You don’t get your vlogging start by standing in front
of a camera, quietly waving. Still, Color is pretty young to the market
and perhaps the developers still have something up their sleeve. We’ll
chock it up as an app to watch.
Veetle
Available for Android and iPhone
Functions: Broadcast
live to a personal, online channel, but with no option to record and
playback later. Share your video with most social media platforms with
the ability to chat with viewers in real-time.
Functional? The video quality
on Veetle is pretty smooth, but there’s terrible lag between what the
viewer sees and hears. It takes a while for the app to start up and
begin recording, and most of the user-generated content is just live
streams of shows on television. It seems more useful as a way to cheat
TV networks than discover and share the world around you. This is
probably the least social of all the apps and most of the time it’s just
annoying to use. Still, if you missed the last episode of Homeland and this is your last resort, be our guest.
Mobli
Available for Android and iPhone
Functions: Upload
and share photos and video from your mobile device on the Mobli social
networking platform. Organize your content by tags, channels, location,
subject-matter, and more. Discover media from strangers all across the
globe almost instantly, or follow the channels of your favorite
celebrities.
Functional? Mobli is one of the cleanest and most social of the
apps on this list. While there’s no real, live streaming capability,
user-generated content gets more exposure here than anywhere else. As
soon as a user uploads a video, it’s released into the world and seen by
hundreds, whether they’re friends, followers or total strangers. Plus, the site is well-organized, user-friendly, and void of
obnoxious ads. And it’s compatible with Facebook. As platforms for broadcasting your impossibly boring life, this one’s top-notch.
Ustream
Available for Android and iPhone
Functions: Record
live broadcasts that can be saved and viewed at any time to a personal
channel on the Ustream website. There’s no time limit on broadcasts, and
users have the ability to live chat with viewers as well as poll their
audience.
Functional? Ustream is probably the best-known broadcasting
platform on the market, and after comparing it with these other apps,
it’s not hard to see why. Ustream gives the broadcaster more ways to
interact with the audience than anyone else, as well as the highest
quality live stream with hardly any lag. You can record and save your
streams for later viewing, interact with your audience in real-time,
share with social networks and categorize your videos. It’s less social
than some of these other apps, but the control it gives you puts it head
and shoulders above the rest. Even the chicken salad sandwich you had for lunch looks interesting on this thing.
Justin.tv
Available for Android and iPhone
Features: Record and share
live video from your mobile device, viewable on a personal channel at
the Justin.tv website. Each video is saved for later viewing, and the app
has the option to chat with viewers or connect with Facebook and Twitter.
Functional? Justin.tv is one of the original
broadcasting mediums,
launched back in October of 2006, but that doesn’t mean this app has
much to offer. The video quality is decent, but it hardly matters
because ads interrupt the viewing experience about every 30 seconds. It
was also the least mobile-friendly of the apps and actually overloaded
our phone, shutting it down after about two minutes of use. What good is
a chat function if you can’t even keep the power on? Basically, this
app is terrible.
So, what are you waiting for? Get
out there and start sharing your life in moving pictures. The more you
record, the more likely you are to experience interesting things. Or so the companies who produced these apps would have you believe.
And
remember, if something interesting happens and you didn’t record it, was
it really interesting at all? Vids or it didn’t happen.
–Kat Bein
Follow Cultist on Facebook and Twitter @CultistMiami.
