Vine is an iOS video sharing app created by Vine Labs, Inc which was acquired by Twitter in October 2012 and launched two weeks ago for iPhone and iPad.

With all of the image sharing applications we already have, plus Google’s YouTube, I wondered what all of the fuss was about.

Vine is a little bit different

Vine challenges you to create interesting short videos of only six seconds!  Vine is simplicity itself, similar to Twitter they wanted to keep things simple. There is no editing to this app – no fancy ways to make the video look vintage or colourful or even a way to add text  or music to the video. No going back once you’ve shot it, its delete or start again. Which strangely makes it even more interesting, as we are all in the same position to try to create something unique, beautiful or interesting that people want to watch.

Vine is Addictive

These short videos are extremely addictive to watch, we all have a short attention span and there is no play button so you just scroll down through the videos watching each one as it comes across your screen, some of them are so clever, and some are not so much.

Porn on Vine

As soon as Vine was launched Twitter was under-fire  as people complained about the application being flooded with porn – to combat this Twitter added an age rating of 17 to the iOS application, not sure why 17 or if this will help but it is a start, and to be honest, I’ve not seen any porn videos on Vine, but then I haven’t searched. Personally I wonder if this whole porn thing was hype created to get more people to look at Vine, but as I say I won’t be going looking for six second adult rated videos, goodness knows what that would contain.  If you do see a video that you felt was unappropriated you can report it, by pressing the 3 shaded buttons on the bottom right of the video.

How to create a video on Vine

• Click the Camera Button
• Press the screen when you want to record,
• When you depress the screen this pauses the video,
• You can stop and start as many times as you like within 6 seconds.
• You add a caption, here you can add some keyworks or hashtags too.
• Click Done

(I have read some people do encounter problems when having long pauses on videos but Vine say they are fixing this) 

Add your Location if you wish.

You can then share to Twitter, Facebook or Vine, if you don’t share to Vine, then the video will be stored in your photo Album

Click Done again and there is your video created.

So simple.

How to watch videos on Vine

You have the option to explore Vine

choices are

Editors Picks

Popular Now

And then 12 topics you can choose from.

Or you can Go to your profile – add friends and then scroll through your stream  to watch what your friends have created.

What I do miss on Vine, is the ability to share videos from the application that I’ve seen, with my friends to my other networks. You can like videos that you “like” and comment on them but that’s it.  I do like that you can’t share on Vine itself, this does stop you having to watch the same video again and again as your friends all sharing the same thing – as they do on Google+ or Facebook, but I would like to be able to say – Hey look at this video…

But apart from that I am addicted oh yes, check out my Vines and Cake

What do you think of the Vine app?  Are businesses already making use of Vine ?

You can download Vine from itunes

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Vine say that this application will be more widely available soon.

Hope this helps