Picostation Video by Picostation
Newsflash! User-generated video sharing is VERY hot right now and has been for quite some time. If you don’t believe me, just ask Google. Of course this isn’t news to most people but just in case some of you have been living under a rock for the past few years, video sharing is where it’s at. Admittedly, I still haven’t gotten into the video sharing trend as much as most but there’s still plenty of time for me to come around.
A relatively new app that will surely help me explore the world of video sharing is Picostation Video - the next generation of Picoblogger. As S60 3rd users continue to beg and plead for a fully functional mobile YouTube solution, Picostation Video might just tide some of them over - or even provide users with a very cool alternative that can be equally as addictive. Picostation Video is currently in closed beta but after playing with it for a while, I’m confident that a release version isn’t far off.
The main interface displays thumbnails of videos that you may browse. You can sort by Latest, Popular, Top Rated, etc. You can also toggle the time frame between week, month and all.
Browsing through the thousands of videos housed on the Picostation servers is quite a daunting task so of course this app gives you the option to search. Searching is very simple and can be done with keywords or you can search by user and browse their contributions. To search videos from the main screen, simply press [6] or click Options and choose “Search for Videos…” Then enter your search term(s) and click Go.
Picostation Video isn’t just for searching and downloading videos. It also installs with its own video player that opens automatically and allows you to play downloaded videos and even stream videos right to your device. Don’t try this with GPRS/EDGE though - you’ll want WLAN or at least 3G to stream with this app.
To download/watch or stream a video to your device, simply browse to the thumbnail of the file you want and click on it. This will bring you to the video page where you will see the file information and quick links to play, download or email the video. Click on Options to perform functions such as leaving a comment and view the author’s profile.
Once you’ve found a video that you want to check out, click on the Download quick link to add the video to your download queue or click on Play to automatically launch the Picostation Player and begin streaming the clip.
A cool little side note by the way - if you pause on a thumbnail as you browse, a small window will pop up containing information about the video such as title, author and rating.
Uploading and sharing your videos is just as simple as downloading. You can quickly and easily browse your video library and upload files to your account. All of Picostation’s videos are available not only to S60 3rd users, by the way. Just visit Picostation’s website on your PC or Mac and you have access to your account along with the thousands of videos in their library. Play is quick and easy with a YouTube-style interface and FLV-formatted videos.
After playing with Picostation Video for a while now I can definitely see this app filling a very desirable gap in the S60 3rd community. What will happen once a decent YouTube solution is finally released? As many of us have seen, once something finally is ready it will likely be a YouTube mobile site accessible through your browser - at least initially. I don’t see it looking or performing anywhere near as solidly as the Picostation Video app.
My only complaint so far is that this app can really lag at times, but this is due much more to the low available RAM on my N80IE than the app itself. Perhaps the release version will be a bit more optimized but all in all this is a great app that will most definitely see a good amount of use on my device. I highly recommend that you add this app to your “watch” list but I will of course post an update once a release version is available. If you think you have a good reason to joint the beta program, definitely tell Picostation about it and you might be using Picostation Video on your device sooner than you think!
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