Periscope, original or intrusive ?

Periscope, what is it exactly ?

Recording live with your phone and stream it online, this is what Periscope offers you. Yes, as simple as that, but nobody thought about it before (except Meerkat, see below). The company itself describes this new born app stating « Explore the world through someone else’s eyes ». Fantastic you might say, but what exactly is the world you are able to see with Periscope ? As it is starting to be largely used by the community, you can find absolutely everything on the live stream, from FIFA games, people driving live (#yolo) to travellers and live broadcast of journalists (if you’re lucky). The live stream is twofold: one tab where you can check what the people you follow are doing and another tab where you can Explore random stream from random people. Let’s see what are the possible benefits as a broadcaster and as a user.

– Interests for broadcasters –

Persicope is a new way to interact with people and social media. As you might have heard, it has been bought by Twitter and therefore, you will be able to link your Periscope account with your Twitter profile. This app can be used for a professional purpose (live conferences, journalists, celebrities…) as well as for a personal one, without any planned objective. What might follow is a new trend that we could call the « live-selfie » consisting of filming yourself doing your own business and waiting for people to like, comment, interact, etc… Obviously, this can only last for a moment because you, me, anyone can easily get bored very soon ! This is the reason why you will be well advised to add a value to your stream to make it work and last longer.

From my humble point of view, it will be hard for you to create a content, as good as it can be, that can be seen by thousands of people. The best content will probably be produced by influent Twitter users with a lot of followers. Anyhow, you can also broadcast videos of you simply to connect with friends as an alternative to Skype or Facetime and nobody will stand on your way !

– Interests for viewers –

Having eyes worldwide. Interact with the streamer instantly.
The second side we have to discuss is the interests viewers will find in this app. Again, it depends mostly on you. You will be able to stream videos of journalists on the field, of celebrities that will soon follow and use the app or also videos of anonymous visiting a nice place, doing extreme sports or only filming themselves (live-selfie ?).

The best way to know if Periscope is made for you is to download it, to go through it and watch randomly some video streams. You might as well try to stream your own video and check if people are interested in what you’re doing ! The moment of the day you use it can also change the experience. In case of a big event, you may fall on some live streams with a good cover but when the night comes, you will probably encounter less interesting people. In the end, the experience you’ll have is created by the broadcasters using the app. But who exactly will stream on Periscope ?

What might go wrong

Some people are talking about a revolution starting with this app, others think that it looks like a phone version of Chatroulette. The real value here is that you can stream not only in your house but wherever you are. And your experience with Periscope is linked with the kind of people you will find on it. Explore the different accounts and start following people with valuable content. About that, you should read an interesting article from The Guardian by clicking here.

The first shot by Meerkat

Created within a few weeks by a start-up called Life of Air, Meerkat was the first live-stream app to be launched. That is why Twitter reacted quickly by launching Periscope, their new family member. Periscope was the only app to unlock the ability for users to watch instant live but also recent streams recorded but again, Meerkat reacted and offered the same feature for their users.

In the end, these two apps look alike and offer the same value. But the war is starting in the backstage to push celebrities to prefer one app to another in order to gain new members as well as some social buzz. It’s up to you now to try both apps and use them (or not).

Just to let you know, Periscope got over one million subscribers for their first ten days but Meerkat is now available on both iOS and Android (follow the links at the end). Let the war begin !

Periscope for iOS

Meerkat for iOS // for Android

Avis à tous les amateurs de son

 Prizm va rendre vos enceintes intelligentes !

D’ici quelques mois, nous aurons tous un Prizm dans notre salon. Cet objet fabuleux permet de diffuser de la musique sur mesure, adaptée aux goûts de l’utilisateur et au contexte. Il réalise cette prouesse en se connectant aux téléphones des personnes présentes dans la pièce pour diffuser leurs playlists.

L’objet, qui fonctionne en bluetooth, ne se substitue pas aux enceintes, mais sert de relais entre elles et les comptes de streaming musical de l’utilisateur.

La startup Ubithings, exploitant Prizm, fondée par quatre jeunes français (tous âgés de 25 ans) a réussi à lever plus de 160 000 dollars sur la plateforme de crowdfunding américaine Kickstarter.

C’est donc le gros coup de cœur du mois de décembre pour IITK. Découvrez l’interview d’Olivier Roberdet DG d’Ubithings.

Popcorn Time, sit and enjoy !

A revolution has begun

For those who don’t know (yet) this small software, here are the key points that will convince you to start using it. Before I start, I shall point out that this blog cannot be held responsible for what you do at home. This is a free streaming software and therefore, it is illegal, so you are the only judge of what is good or not for you.

After the recent entry of Netflix in Europe, you might say « I am okay to pay a small fee if the content is good enough » and you definitely have a point here. The problem with Netflix though, is that the offer of movies and TV shows is clearly not what you were expecting… Just go through their catalogue to have a better idea of what you can watch for 10€/month. The law in France makes it difficult for them to be more competitive as they have to wait at least three years, after the release date of a movie, to provide it to their users.

When we talk about streaming around us, there are two kinds of people : the ones that use it to watch recent movies despite their poor quality and the ones that hate it because of this same poor quality. Now, what if we could combine the streaming speed with the quality of a HD movie ? This is exactly what Popcorn is offering you.

Made with ♥ by a bunch of geeks from around the world

Let’s go now through the main advantages of this software:

• After a short download, what we like first is the ergonomic user-interface that really looks like something legal. You can sort out by Popularity, Rating, Year or Genre and quickly have a look at the movie page to know more about it (IMDB ratings) and to start watching it in HD 720p or 1080p.

• The catalogue is huge as they don’t have to wait three years but just three months before having new movies and, beside these movies, you can also enjoy your favorite TV Shows or Anime. Just a simple click on the tab to access them.

• The movies and TV Shows are in English but subtitles are provided in various languages including French and English (which is good to learn faster).

• Two other functionalities are valuable : if you don’t have time to watch another movie but you want to remember it for the next time, just place it in your watchlist. For the TV Shows, create your Favorite list so that you can have your own library with what you are currently watching.

As you know « Winter is coming » but with Popcorn by your side, time will fly. And the bunch of geeks thought about everything: the latest Popcorn version includes a secured connexion system to avoid being traced.

You can find this beautiful software right here !