Vodio improves as you use it; it has 90 curated channels of video content, and users tell it what categories of videos they like (like Sports, Tech, and Food). Users can also connect social media accounts to it, and based on Facebook likes or Twitter subscriptions, in addition to the videos they watch, Vodio will continue to refine the videos it shows to match a user’s tastes. If you like Stephen Colbert on Facebook, for example, Vodio’s algorithm will rank videos with Colbert higher and will add these to your video feed. It’s similar to Frequency and Squrl, which are built around your personal preferences, as opposed to Shelby.tv and ShowYou, apps that are populated with videos shared by your friends.

It’s easy to see why Vodio went iPad-first — the larger tablet screen is well-suited to what Vodio does: easily and seamlessly let users toggle through their chosen feeds of videos with simple swipes. (There’s a reason it’s been called “the Flipboard of video.”) So why didn’t the Vodio Labs team opt to expand to other large-screened mobile devices, like Android next? I asked co-founder Jonathan Messika that question last week in a Skype interview.

Vodio Labs is actually just three guys in Tel Aviv. They set out to make Vodio for the iPad because “we thought we could make a visually beautiful app that could stand out,” Messika said. And they’ve certainly struck a chord: since January they’ve acquired around 240,000 registered users of the app.

However, it turns out that even though the app was iPad-only, it was pretty popular among iPhone users too. “With the iPhone the thing is that the user base is huge, and we’ve seen more and more people — surprisingly — use the iPhone to watch [our] video content,” he said. “We thought we should go to the iPhone next rather than Android tablets because we saw there’s huge growth of viewing habits over the iPad.”

The installed base of the iPhone does far overshadow that of the iPad — Apple’s sold around 244 million iPhones since mid-2007 versus about 84 million iPads since early 2010. But Vodio’s own data revealed more valuable information. Any Vodio user can share a video link via Twitter, Facebook or email with others. If they don’t have the app it’ll go to Vodio’s mobile website. The Vodio guys were seeing that half of the traffic to its mobile website was coming from the iPhone’s mobile browser. So the decision to address that group was fairly obvious, said Messika.

But it’s not just data that’s driving Vodio to avoid Android for now. The teams also prefers the pressures that building for iOS users brings. “It’s not a secret that iOS users are more picky,” Messika said. “They have higher standards and appreciate lovely design. We want to make sure to test ourselves with a pickier audience before we [address] an audience that is more diverse.”

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Newslook, which has been operating a video streaming news website and a video syndication service for publications, is now getting even more into the consumer video space with its first iPad app. The app, which will debut at the paidContent 2012 conference Wednesday, allows users to build their own channel using video from more than 50 sources including the AP, Reuters, Bloomberg, National Geographic and others.

It’s different from social video services like Showyou, Shelby.tv and SocialCam, which serve up video based on a user’s social network. And it’s not like YouTube, which is a mix of all kinds of user generated and professional content that is often not well organized. Newslook takes in  hundreds of videos each day from its sources and applies a bunch of metadata to a smaller number of clips, putting them into various taxonomies that can be searched. Users who look for Barack Obama or The Hunger Games can pull up a stream of professional videos that are tied to the topic and can create an instant channel based on that topic.

“There’s a lot of content out there,” said Newslook founder, Fred Silverman, a former CBS producer. “We sift through the crap so you don’t have to.”

Newslook adds more than 150 new videos a day that have been hand selected and tagged with metadata. In addition to search, there’s also tabs for finding top videos and clips that are trending and featured. Users who view one video can also see a list of relevant metadata terms to construct a similar channel. And they can share their videos on Facebook, with Twitter and Pinterest support coming later.

Newslook founder and CEO Fred Silverman

The company has been working on its core services for the last two years and has lined up a number up of companies including Gannett and LexisNexis who use its video syndication service. Silverman said he hopes to have 200 sources for video by the end of this year. The goal is to avoid user generated content and stick to professional content that appeals to serious video lovers.

I think there’s a market for a more organized video news platform that puts users back into the drivers seat. But I think Newslook also needs to get more video sources to feed its service. For hard news subjects, it’s pretty good at serving up timely and relevant stuff. But for lighter fare, there’s room for more depth. Newslook is probably not the only video app people need on their iPad but it’s a good addition to have and should only get better over time.

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The exclusive partnership is just the first step for Color, which will later this year embed its app even closer to the hardware of Verizon’s 4G phones, allowing users to broadcast in live 720p at first and potentially 1080p in about a year. Users will be able to pick out particular frames from the video that can be shared as photos. That, said Color’s CEO and co-founder Bill Nguyen, will enable users to experience live moments in high-quality video and will change the way people think about sharing through pictures and video.

“What you really want to get to is a point where the video camera can show what you’re seeing and act like a teleporter for people,” said Nguyen, who sold his previous start-up Lala to Apple.

30 seconds of live video

Color launched in March last year as a proximity-based photo-sharing network, but the service never caught on, in part because it was trying to create a new network for people to use. The company changed course in September, announcing that it was integrating its app into Facebook. That’s when it showed off the ability for users to share 30 seconds of live but silent video to their friends, who would get notified when a user was broadcasting live. Users can view live video on Facebook or their Color app or they can come back to the video and view it if they missed it live.

Technically, anyone with a 3G or 4G Verizon phone will be able to make use of the enhanced Color features. The app is available in the App Store or Google Play or users can call “COLOR” on their phones and get a text message link for downloading the app. Verizon is looking at pre-loading the app on select phones.

Showing off the network

Verizon’s strategy is to highlight examples of what faster 4G wireless networks can allow people to do, reminiscent of the work the carriers did to show off 3G networks years ago. And it’s also harkens back to the big push Verizon gave to the Droid lineup of phones, which became a big seller thanks to Verizon’s marketing muscle. There should be lot of similar marketing support for the Color integration as well.

Lewis said we can expect more partnerships in the future aimed at highlighting Verizon’s network. The company last year opened an app innovation center in San Francisco to encourage more app development.

Photos vs. video

Nguyen said he was inspired to reach out to Verizon because of the emergence of high-end video cameras like the RED digital camera, which can shoot in 4K and can produce high quality still shots as well. That helps solve the question of how to capture moments because one device can produce both video and stills, he said. Since photos are still preserved, it opens up the potential for live video to become more of a unit of sharing. Ultimately, he believes this type of live video will displace pictures as the way we preserve moments. This is what Nguyen wrote in a blog post about the news:

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.

Questions ahead

There are still a lot of questions to be answered. It’s unclear which phones will get the deeper integration of Color, though it will likely be quad-core Android devices. It’s also not how Facebook will feel about the upgrades to Color, which will mean a lot more storage of videos and pictures. Also, we still have to see how well Nguyen and his team of 50 engineers can pull this all off. Lewis said some of the more ambitious plans are somewhat experimental so there’s no guarantee that it will happen exactly like Nguyen is describing.

But it’s still an intriguing future that Nguyen is proposing. I’m personally interested in sharing more live video but I’m not sure I’m ready to have that replace photo sharing. With photo sharing, I get to self-edit and choose what images go out. Live video sharing means you don’t know what people will see at the end of those 30 seconds. It could be completely boring or very embarrassing. Of course, you can choose to delete after broadcasting. But the idea that we can move to a model where the distinctions between video and photos get blurred has a certain logic to it. Why capture just one or the other when we can capture both?

If this works, this could be a big turnaround for Color, which still hasn’t shed its rap as an overhyped bubble startup with its $41 million in funding. Though Color still has a lot to prove, its second act is proving more promising thanks to a big assist from Verizon.

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The Israel-based company, which was until last year known as 6rounds, says it will use the money to expand its service beyond Facebook and onto other social networks. Rounds will also work on a strategy to bring its app to mobile devices, the company says.

As we’ve written before, what Rounds does is pretty cool. The app lets people video chat within Facebook while consuming other media content together, such as watching YouTube videos, looking at photos or playing online games. It’s turned out to be quite popular: The app’s Facebook page says it has 810,000 monthly active users, while the company itself has put its active user base higher, at 1.3 million. Either way, the figures are impressive.

However, it is smart for the company to start building its business beyond Facebook: Earlier this summer, Facebook announced a partnership with Skype to enable its video chat platform within its social network. And of course, it’s always smart for startups to make sure they are not entirely dependent on one larger platform: Most industry leaders and investors say that diversification is key for building a long-lasting user base.

Rounds was founded in 2008 and has now raised a total of $5.5 million in funding to date. The new funding round was led by Verizon Investments, with Rhodium and Tim Draper’s Draper Associates RiskMaster Fund pitching in as well.

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The field test is spearheaded by Google Technical Program Manager for Accessibility Engineering Naomi Black as well as the Engineering Director Chee Chew, who kicked off the initiative with a post to Google Plus that explained his personal stake in the issue:

“One area that I’m personally quite passionate about is facilitating communications and community for the deaf. My grandfather, aunt, and uncle were/are all deaf. While I’m very much a novice, I find ASL to be a beautiful expressive language. I hope that Hangouts can be awesome for the deaf (and hard of hearing) community as well as the hearing.”

Video chat applications have long been used by hearing impaired users to communicate via sign language. Skype seems to be particularly popular with hard of hearing users, and some users have turned to the service to learn and practice sign language.

Google is asking Google Plus Hangouts users for feedback on sign language support.

Multiuser video chat would be the logical next step for hard of hearing users, but there are also some technical challenges associated with group video conferencing. Google Hangouts, for example, is optimized for audible communication, as it switches its focus between users based on their microphone input. The idea of this feature is to prominently display the video camera input of the user who is currently talking, which has the added benefit of giving users an incentive not to talk over each other.

Gauging participation based on microphone input levels obviously doesn’t work for users who communicate via sign language, so Google is now looking for other cues. “We need an indicator for who has the floor,” explained Chee in his post, adding: “I’m sure there are subtle issues that I don’t know.”

Making its video products accessible to deaf users isn’t just stewardship for Google; it could also help the company avoid future liabilities. Disability advocates have begun targeting online media offerings in recent weeks to force them to adopt closed captions for web video. Lawsuits against CNN and Netflix allege the companies discriminate against deaf and hard of hearing users by failing to provide captions for each and every video served online. Some of the points made by the plaintiffs in these cases could also be used to argue that a video chat service that focuses on audible speech discriminates against deaf users.

Regardless of the motivation, early feedback from Google Plus users about the Hangouts field test is overwhelmingly supportive and even enthusiastic. In a comment on Chew’s post, one user summed up his feelings this way:

“I actually cried with joy at reading this post and finding out that Google and the Google+ team actually care about all of their user base. Thank you very much for just thinking about us.”

Picture of kids learning sign language courtesy of Flickr user daveynin.

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