Video slideshow software maker Animoto recently rolled out a few significant tweaks to its service, including HD support and faster video rendering.
“This new engine will allow your video to render at much faster speeds and higher qualities. Not only will you be able to combine your photos and movie clips into a 720p HD video, but our standard web-viewing quality will also be upgraded from 240p to 360p.”
Now that HD quality has been added, Animoto lowered the price of DVD quality (480p) subscription to only $3, and the company also updated its iOS app.
Animoto is not the only company to release a major update – there’s also YouTube. The New York Times reported yesterday YouTube acquired Next New Networks for less than $50 million. The acquisition represents Google and YouTube’s first leap into producing original professional programming, which will however be “minimal” as both YouTube and Next New Networks noted.
The acquisition of Next New Networks comes the same day YouTube Next launched – a new team responsible for “creator development and accelerating partner growth and success.” This includes an upcoming ‘Next-branded’ YouTube programs and services series as well as partner development initiatives.
Thomson Reuters is not missing out on all the online video fun either. According to a PR Week news brief, the firm just launched a new online video platform for PR professionals. Thomson Reuters’ Multimedia Center will enable users to distribute videos across websites and social media as well as access viewership and usage metrics and several real-time customer engagement channels.
There are certainly quite a bit of major video updates going on lately, including Adobe’s launch of the experimental Flash-to-HTML5 conversion tool dubbed Wallaby. HTML5 is gaining market share in video and gaming on the expense of Flash, which provides the backbone for the iPad’s 2 enhanced video capabilities.
