“FaceTime” with Steve Jobs, don’t mislead your customers…

On June 25, 2010, in Featured, Personal Blog Posts, by tgoodridge
Some FaceTime with Steve Jobs

Some FaceTime with Steve Jobs

Dear Steve,

I love Apple. I have a Macbook Pro, an iPad and now a fancy schmancy iPhone 4…I’m wondering if I can get a little “FaceTime” with you now…have a minute?

After a full day spent with the iPhone 4, one of the best features your new phone has is its HD camera. It shoots VERY well in HD (720p) Your device can easily replace the Flip. Why buy a FLIP for $200 when you can get HD video, a camera, a phone and amazing technology for the same price as a brand new iPhone 4…?

Ok, so that’s the good news, here’s where you completely drop the ball….For a company that’s made it’s money on the user experience and simplicity of use, there is NO way you can easily share your HD video you just shot on your iPhone 4.

The ONLY way I can share my HD video with the world is by simply (!) taking the following NINE steps

  • Shoot video
  • Plug iPhone 4 into your computer (hopefully a macbook, I haven’t figured out how a PC can do this)
  • Open up iPhoto (hopefully it will recognize your iphone)
  • Select video to download
  • Open up iMovie (again, hopefully you have this, or something similar)
  • Import Movie from iphoto- create a new “event”
  • Create a new “project” in iMovie
  • Drag your new event into your new project
  • Then (and only then!) you can Share your movie via YouTube and be given the option to choose “HD”

Easy huh?

Ok Stevie, here’s what you need to do…

1. Tell people that you can’t share HD movies with your iPhone 4. Because, well, you can’t…
2. Tell people that the brand new iMovie App ($4.99) doesn’t do this either. (can i get my money back please?)
3. Talk to YouTube and tell them that it’s your problem so that other YouTube users don’t blame it on you…

Thanks for listening!

Tyson

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  • chadnorthrup

    Thanks for posting this, Tyson. Don Martelli (@bigguyd) & I have been up in arms about this issue as well. Of all the new features in iPhone 4, the ability to share HD videos on the fly was the one I was most excited about. I hope we can get some answers soon because I feel duped.

  • http://bryanskelton.com Bryan

    If you have the iMovie app on your iPhone, you can easily share your movies in HD format. It may not be intuitive, but I found the following steps to work perfectly, all on the phone itself:

    “When you’re happy with your project you save it by tapping the Projects button in the upper-left corner of the display. Your project appears in the resulting Projects screen. Tap the Export button in the lower-left corner of the screen and you see the three export options—Medium – 360p, Large – 540p, and HD – 720p. When you tap an option, iMovie exports the project and saves it to the iPhone’s Camera Roll. Once the movie’s in the Camera Roll, launch the Photos app and you can then choose to email your movie, send it via MMS, send it to your MobileMe gallery, or send a copy to YouTube. And, as with other movies you shoot with the iPhone, you can import your movies to your computer when you next sync the phone.”

  • http://www.enterdialogue.com Tyson Goodridge

    Bryan- thanks for this. I tried the above steps in iMovie (obviously didn't work). But didn't realize you could then move over to the photos app… did a quick search for the photos app- didn't find the official apple one? which one is it?

  • http://bryanskelton.com Bryan

    It is the built in app for viewing your photos on your iPhone. It has the sunflower icon, if you can't find it on your screens, you should be able to search for it: swipe left on your home screen to access the Search pane, type Photos and it should be the top result.

  • Adam

    Bryan I just think that “exports” the video to your camera roll, but when you “upload” it to YouTube from the iPhone 4 it still only comes out at 360p at best.

    I think the only way to get 720p is to transfer the movie file to your computer and then upload it to YouTube from the computer. Far from convenient and misleading based on what Apple promised us.

    They don't have to allow it from 3G, but why not allow an HD transfer from WiFi ? Will take just as long on the computer

  • http://evanlovely.com Evan Lovely

    The problem I'm coming across is that when you export your 720p video from the camera roll to YouTube, it sizes it down to 360p. I want my full HD resolution!

  • http://www.enterdialogue.com Tyson Goodridge

    i deleted my last comment because i misunderstood you. I DID try that with photo app.
    Are you sure you don't work for macworld or apple? ;-)

  • Stevessvtis1

    There is an option on the video itself on Youtube to change from the standard 360p to 720p.

  • http://www.enterdialogue.com Tyson Goodridge

    Steve- thanks for the input, but that doesn't work…Sorry. if you happen to have an iphone 4 , try it yourself…

  • Stevessvtis1

    I did. Heres a vid I posted up just to see.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOTPaVPtpao&feat…

    I changed from 360p to 720p while it was playing and expanded it and it looked great! Maybe Im missing something though.

  • http://bryanskelton.com Bryan

    You are right, according to this support doc, the video is compressed to “improve upload performance”. Bummer. Have to use third party tool or move to your computer first. Not nine steps, but still not very slick.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4237

  • http://www.donmartelli.com Don Martelli

    Thanks for the plug Chad. Tyson, I've been trying just about everything I can think of to get 720p uploads directly from the device. But, you're right; the only way to use the 720p is to download it to a mac. I haven't tried it on PC yet and honestly, don't want. It's too pretty to be messed with on a PC. LOL!

  • http://www.jeffpersch.com JPersch

    Hi Tyson,

    Followed you from CC's Facebook video…..

    Just thought I would let you know that this might be where Windows is better than a mac.

    Step 1. Plug in iPhone to PC
    Step 2 Locate iPhone in explorer
    Step 3 Drag and drop video from iPhone to Desktop

  • http://www.enterdialogue.com Tyson Goodridge

    Yep- sounds like a PC has the trick here. Windows 7? Time for Apple to catch up. Wondering how CC uploaded it..

  • http://stevegarfield.com stevegarfield

    Share iPhone 4 HD Movies to YouTube Using QuickTime Player X
    http://offonatangent.blogspot.com/2010/06/share…

  • http://www.jeffpersch.com JPersch

    Hi Tyson,

    Followed you from CC's Facebook video…..

    Just thought I would let you know that this might be where Windows is better than a mac.

    Step 1. Plug in iPhone to PC
    Step 2 Locate iPhone in explorer
    Step 3 Drag and drop video from iPhone to Desktop

  • http://www.enterdialogue.com Tyson Goodridge

    Yep- sounds like a PC has the trick here. Windows 7? Time for Apple to catch up. Wondering how CC uploaded it..

  • http://stevegarfield.com Steve Garfield

    Share iPhone 4 HD Movies to YouTube Using QuickTime Player X
    http://offonatangent.blogspot.com/2010/06/share-iphone-4-hd-movies-to-youtube.html

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