Win a free macro lens from Color!
June 28th, 2012 by
We'd love to give you the gift of a macro lens to help showcase your LIVE video Broadcasts and photos. We've been playing with this cool new gadget that also includes a wide angle lens and want to pass on the fun.
The cameras on our phones are already great, but these macro lenses create effects that take your Broadcasts and photos to the next level. With the macro lens you can get as close as 10-23mm to an object and capture crisp, clear, and perfectly in-focus detail. With the wide angle lens you can capture large panoramic-like shots, groups of people, and landscapes.
All you need to do is Broadcast five times on five different days and we'll send you your very own macro lens for your phone. We're excited to see how you're using Color to tell your story.
For full details, check out: www.color.com/lens-contest
LIVE from Studio 8H, it’s Saturday Night Live!
Color and Verizon Do SNL
May 15th, 2012 by
Kids do a lot of things they’re not supposed to do. My parents had a firm 10pm bedtime. For years, I snuck a portable TV into my room on Saturday nights and covered it with a blanket to watch Saturday Night Live. Looking back, managing the heat output from that TV was my first technical achievement.
The parental wrath and fire risk were worth it. There’s something magical about LIVE TV. I watched in anticipation to see what Jim Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy would do. I had to tune in, it was LIVE. SNL made Mondays my favorite day. Re-performing the sketches at school was a red badge of courage. Like a concert shirt, I proved I was there. Looking back, being a fan of SNL and a part of something LIVE brought me closer to my friends.
It’s only been one short week since Verizon Wireless brought Color to its amazing 4G LTE network and devices. Now, SNL will be using the Color app to Broadcast a sneak peek of SNL cast members LIVE this week as they get ready for the show and then more Color Broadcasts, LIVE backstage during the season finale hosted by Mick Jagger.
I’ve dreamed about being backstage at SNL my entire life. Verizon Wireless is granting my wish (and yours too). Through the Color app and on Facebook, we get to see a LIVE glimpse of how the show comes together and be there backstage LIVE on Saturday night for the season finale.
To get backstage, all you’ll need to do is fan Verizon Wireless or SNL on Facebook and get the free Color app. Then be on the lookout for SNL's Color notifications on your phone to watch LIVE!
To get the Color app visit http://color.com/download from your mobile device or call **COLOR (that’s **26567). By calling this number, you will instantly receive a text message with a link to download the app. Color is also available in the iTunes App store and Google Play.
The future is LIVE
May 6th, 2012 by
I've always been fascinated with cameras. The age-old question of whether to take a photograph or simply enjoy the moment was a no-brainer. I’d pull out the camera. The real dilemma was photo or video.
About nine months ago, I discovered RED http://www.red.com a professional digital camera used by filmmakers including Peter Jackson and James Cameron. RED is all about 4K and beyond. That’s nerd speak for what’s after HD. RED introduced another revolutionary idea: it eliminates the distinction between video and photography. Simply pick single frames from the video as perfect photographs. Videos and stills can be the same. Vogue Magazine is using RED in this way. If it's good enough for them, it's perfect for me.
My final quandary was between LIVE versus recorded video. There’s something special about LIVE. It’s spontaneous. You never know what to expect so you watch in anticipation. LIVE is also shared. A feeling of community, you’re experiencing something in real-time with other people. Family reunions, concerts, or ball games, we come together for LIVE moments. LIVE was the vision behind our Color app that we released in December. We wanted to enable more shared, LIVE moments using Facebook and smartphones when they were not possible before.
The current cell networks and smartphones forced us to make some significant compromises. We settled for low quality video and left out audio so we could broadcast LIVE. Our other option was to enable recorded video and then upload, but that’s not LIVE. We wanted to plant our flag in the future. So we prepared ourselves for a long wait as smartphone and networks evolved. The vision meant that much to us.
Then something amazing happened in January at CES. We had an opportunity to meet Kristi and Rob from Verizon. In a matter of minutes, I realized that Verizon’s 4G network and their influence on smartphone design would accelerate our plan by light years. We created a partnership to integrate Color into smartphones to take advantage of the “metal” or hardware not just software for encoding the HQ video. We could use their amazing, pervasive 4G network to deliver LIVE video directly from smartphones to the entire world.
So today, we’re formally unveiling our relationship with Verizon and a small down payment on the future. With their help, we’ve added audio to our LIVE video exclusively on the Verizon network. We’ve doubled the frame rate on our videos so our friends and family can see more moments more clearly. We did all this in less than two months.
But the relationship with Verizon represents our entire vision for the future. One day in the near future, you will be able to capture every moment and share it LIVE in beautiful HD quality and you’ll have the recorded video to keep. From that video, you’ll be able to pick out exact frames you want share as photos. We can begin thinking about all those amazing moments we want to keep and share. We can leave behind the complexity of how we’ll do it.
Thank you Kristi, Rob and Tami. We’re on our way.