Test Run: Glide Video Messenger App

It is still unclear how people want to interact with video and their smartphone when it comes to communicating. Although iPhone owners use FaceTime, the Apple video chat feature, its usage pales in comparison to the number of texts and voice calls customers send on their devices.

But that isn’t stopping start-ups from trying to reinvent video messaging. One, a new application called Glide hopes to entice iPhone owners to chat on  video rather than text with their friends, or worse, make one of those old boring voice calls.

On its Web site, Glide touts itself as “the world’s first instant video messaging platform, combining the personality of video chat with the convenience of texting.”

It’s incredibly simply to use. To start a video chat, go into the application and click on the top right icon for your contacts, then select the person you would like to share a video with. Once you’ve recorded it, the clip acts just like a voicemail and is sent to the recipient. If you want to host a group video chat, select “Create Group” in your friend list. Then people can pass videos around like hot potatoes at a birthday party.

I used Glide at a recent dinner party in New York City, setting up a group chat with some friends in San Francisco who were unable to attend. We then passed my phone around the table so people could say hello to our friends who were 3,000 miles away. It worked seamlessly over 3G as we showed off the pork shoulder we were about to ravage.

You can also respond to videos with text messages, or emojis in the application â€" I mean, what would a communications app be without emojis? The videos are also stored in the cloud and stream directly to and from your phone. This means the messages don’t take up any additional space.

One of the frustrating features of the app is the inability to block people, so sometimes random messages arrive in your inbox. But, you can easily ignore or remove them.

For now you can only sign up for Glide with a Facebook account. Glide recently told TechCrunch that it was working on an Android version of the application which was expected soon.

Test Run: Glide Video Messenger App

It is still unclear how people want to interact with video and their smartphone when it comes to communicating. Although iPhone owners use FaceTime, the Apple video chat feature, its usage pales in comparison to the number of texts and voice calls customers send on their devices.

But that isn’t stopping start-ups from trying to reinvent video messaging. One, a new application called Glide hopes to entice iPhone owners to chat on  video rather than text with their friends, or worse, make one of those old boring voice calls.

On its Web site, Glide touts itself as “the world’s first instant video messaging platform, combining the personality of video chat with the convenience of texting.”

It’s incredibly simply to use. To start a video chat, go into the application and click on the top right icon for your contacts, then select the person you would like to share a video with. Once you’ve recorded it, the clip acts just like a voicemail and is sent to the recipient. If you want to host a group video chat, select “Create Group” in your friend list. Then people can pass videos around like hot potatoes at a birthday party.

I used Glide at a recent dinner party in New York City, setting up a group chat with some friends in San Francisco who were unable to attend. We then passed my phone around the table so people could say hello to our friends who were 3,000 miles away. It worked seamlessly over 3G as we showed off the pork shoulder we were about to ravage.

You can also respond to videos with text messages, or emojis in the application â€" I mean, what would a communications app be without emojis? The videos are also stored in the cloud and stream directly to and from your phone. This means the messages don’t take up any additional space.

One of the frustrating features of the app is the inability to block people, so sometimes random messages arrive in your inbox. But, you can easily ignore or remove them.

For now you can only sign up for Glide with a Facebook account. Glide recently told TechCrunch that it was working on an Android version of the application which was expected soon.

Test Run: Glide Video Messenger App

It is still unclear how people want to interact with video and their smartphone when it comes to communicating. Although iPhone owners use FaceTime, the Apple video chat feature, its usage pales in comparison to the number of texts and voice calls customers send on their devices.

But that isn’t stopping start-ups from trying to reinvent video messaging. One, a new application called Glide hopes to entice iPhone owners to chat on  video rather than text with their friends, or worse, make one of those old boring voice calls.

On its Web site, Glide touts itself as “the world’s first instant video messaging platform, combining the personality of video chat with the convenience of texting.”

It’s incredibly simply to use. To start a video chat, go into the application and click on the top right icon for your contacts, then select the person you would like to share a video with. Once you’ve recorded it, the clip acts just like a voicemail and is sent to the recipient. If you want to host a group video chat, select “Create Group” in your friend list. Then people can pass videos around like hot potatoes at a birthday party.

I used Glide at a recent dinner party in New York City, setting up a group chat with some friends in San Francisco who were unable to attend. We then passed my phone around the table so people could say hello to our friends who were 3,000 miles away. It worked seamlessly over 3G as we showed off the pork shoulder we were about to ravage.

You can also respond to videos with text messages, or emojis in the application â€" I mean, what would a communications app be without emojis? The videos are also stored in the cloud and stream directly to and from your phone. This means the messages don’t take up any additional space.

One of the frustrating features of the app is the inability to block people, so sometimes random messages arrive in your inbox. But, you can easily ignore or remove them.

For now you can only sign up for Glide with a Facebook account. Glide recently told TechCrunch that it was working on an Android version of the application which was expected soon.

New Twitter Service Hopes to Capture Musical Trends

Twitter’s music service is no longer just for Ryan Seacrest.

A week after teasing the Internet by giving celebrities like Mr. Seacrest a first look to test it or, most likely, to build up a ready set of excited endorsements â€" WAY TO GO YAY !! :) â€" Twitter has granted all 200 million users access to its much-anticipated music service, which suggests songs to listen to by scanning the service’s posts for music references.

As described in a company blog post Thursday morning â€" and evident form a quick test drive â€" the service, called Twitter #music, appears to be much as expected. After signing up, a user is sent to a page with various charts of artists and songs. The #NowPlaying list collects songs that have appeared in Twitter posts among the people a user follows. Others show what is popular everywhere on Twitter, and the emerging chart promises to reveal the “hidden talent found in the tweets.” Artists’ accounts also highlight the music they follow.

Twitter’s blog post was written by Stephen Phillips, a founder of We Are Hunted, a service that performed a similar function by recommending music based on social-media chatter; Twitter recently bought the company and put its people to work.

The music on Twitter’s service is available on the music page or embedded in tweets, and plays through three online music stores: iTunes, Spotify and Rdio. An Twitter music app for Apple devices was also released on Thursday. Short clips from iTunes are the default setting, but subscribers to Spotify and Rdio can link their accounts to play full songs. Twitter’s blog post says other services are likely to join; one likely candidate is Soundcloud, which has been called the YouTube of music for its ability to allow easily uploads of audio tracks that can be shared across the Web.

The idea of recommendations through social media connections or Internet buzz is hardly new, even for music: it plays an important role on Spotify and Facebook, and has been the basis of music discovery sites like the Hype Machine and Last.fm for years.

But Twitter has an advantage in sheer size, as well as the inertia factor: if its 200 million users can find music to listen to â€" and buy through iTunes, or stream by paying Spotify or Rdio â€" right on Twitter, why would they leave?

New Twitter Service Hopes to Capture Musical Trends

Twitter’s music service is no longer just for Ryan Seacrest.

A week after teasing the Internet by giving celebrities like Mr. Seacrest a first look to test it or, most likely, to build up a ready set of excited endorsements â€" WAY TO GO YAY !! :) â€" Twitter has granted all 200 million users access to its much-anticipated music service, which suggests songs to listen to by scanning the service’s posts for music references.

As described in a company blog post Thursday morning â€" and evident form a quick test drive â€" the service, called Twitter #music, appears to be much as expected. After signing up, a user is sent to a page with various charts of artists and songs. The #NowPlaying list collects songs that have appeared in Twitter posts among the people a user follows. Others show what is popular everywhere on Twitter, and the emerging chart promises to reveal the “hidden talent found in the tweets.” Artists’ accounts also highlight the music they follow.

Twitter’s blog post was written by Stephen Phillips, a founder of We Are Hunted, a service that performed a similar function by recommending music based on social-media chatter; Twitter recently bought the company and put its people to work.

The music on Twitter’s service is available on the music page or embedded in tweets, and plays through three online music stores: iTunes, Spotify and Rdio. An Twitter music app for Apple devices was also released on Thursday. Short clips from iTunes are the default setting, but subscribers to Spotify and Rdio can link their accounts to play full songs. Twitter’s blog post says other services are likely to join; one likely candidate is Soundcloud, which has been called the YouTube of music for its ability to allow easily uploads of audio tracks that can be shared across the Web.

The idea of recommendations through social media connections or Internet buzz is hardly new, even for music: it plays an important role on Spotify and Facebook, and has been the basis of music discovery sites like the Hype Machine and Last.fm for years.

But Twitter has an advantage in sheer size, as well as the inertia factor: if its 200 million users can find music to listen to â€" and buy through iTunes, or stream by paying Spotify or Rdio â€" right on Twitter, why would they leave?

New Twitter Service Hopes to Capture Musical Trends

Twitter’s music service is no longer just for Ryan Seacrest.

A week after teasing the Internet by giving celebrities like Mr. Seacrest a first look to test it or, most likely, to build up a ready set of excited endorsements â€" WAY TO GO YAY !! :) â€" Twitter has granted all 200 million users access to its much-anticipated music service, which suggests songs to listen to by scanning the service’s posts for music references.

As described in a company blog post Thursday morning â€" and evident form a quick test drive â€" the service, called Twitter #music, appears to be much as expected. After signing up, a user is sent to a page with various charts of artists and songs. The #NowPlaying list collects songs that have appeared in Twitter posts among the people a user follows. Others show what is popular everywhere on Twitter, and the emerging chart promises to reveal the “hidden talent found in the tweets.” Artists’ accounts also highlight the music they follow.

Twitter’s blog post was written by Stephen Phillips, a founder of We Are Hunted, a service that performed a similar function by recommending music based on social-media chatter; Twitter recently bought the company and put its people to work.

The music on Twitter’s service is available on the music page or embedded in tweets, and plays through three online music stores: iTunes, Spotify and Rdio. An Twitter music app for Apple devices was also released on Thursday. Short clips from iTunes are the default setting, but subscribers to Spotify and Rdio can link their accounts to play full songs. Twitter’s blog post says other services are likely to join; one likely candidate is Soundcloud, which has been called the YouTube of music for its ability to allow easily uploads of audio tracks that can be shared across the Web.

The idea of recommendations through social media connections or Internet buzz is hardly new, even for music: it plays an important role on Spotify and Facebook, and has been the basis of music discovery sites like the Hype Machine and Last.fm for years.

But Twitter has an advantage in sheer size, as well as the inertia factor: if its 200 million users can find music to listen to â€" and buy through iTunes, or stream by paying Spotify or Rdio â€" right on Twitter, why would they leave?

Updates on Aftermath of Boston Marathon Explosions

The Lede is following developments in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings. Early Friday morning, one of the two suspects was killed in a violent standoff with the police in Watertown, Mass. Another suspect is still at large and the police are conducting a massive manhunt.

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