Breaking up is painful, so is this vertical music video

If it’s been a while since you’ve had your heart broken, and you forgot the feelings it can provoke, watching the vertical video for Harrison’s song “How Can It Be (feat. Maddee)” will bring up that distinct combination of disbelief, loss, regret and nausea all over again.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/135475344

The video in question begins with a notification to watch it on a mobile phone, as it’s designed to mimic the appearance of a vertical text message screen. As the song plays, viewers are treated to the painfully awkward experience of watching a relationship end via a series of text bubbles in “real time.” It’s the kind of thing that should come with a trigger warning for the recently dumped; “Katy” ends her relationship with “Matt” while texting her new beau. Katy, that’s some poor form there.

The exchange is complete with text notifications, emoji, battery warnings and other elements of interaction in the digital age that make it feel all-the-more real. The video is provoking some serious reactions from viewers; while I felt awkward while viewing the exchange, other commenters were more angry and hurt (“I hate you Katy”).

The song itself is a chill electronic track, centered around smooth vocals and percussion; one user on Soundcloud describes it as “Perfect for riding a bike downhill…coasting on a summer day.” The music syncs up nicely to what is seen on the screen: Beats hit with each text bubble, and Katy types “drifting apart” into a text bubble as Maddee is singing the same words. It’s certainly a new approach to a music video, but it did leave me with a need to watch clips of puppies.

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Via:
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Tags: breakup, Harrison, HowCanItBe, MusicVideo, SoundCloud, TextMessaging, VerticalVideo, vimeo

Comcast’s Watchable is a YouTube-like digital video platform

On Friday, Comcast announced that a digital video platform is on the way. The company expects to launch its YouTube-like service, likely called Watchable, in the coming weeks. Although the company is one of the largest sellers of video advertisements in the United States, YouTube and Facebook have been chipping away at Comcast’s market share. The issue with those two, however, is the lack of access and appeal to traditional television viewers.

Content providers at launch for Watchable include Vox Media, Buzzfeed, AwesomenessTV, Refinery29, The Onion, Mic, Vice, and NBC Sports. All of them, even the ones not yet mentioned, are required by Comcast to upload “all unlicensed, original video content to Watchable for users to stream on demand.” Comcast will not be paying a single penny for content and those providing it are locked into deals that may last up to a few years. The advantages for content providers, according to Business Insider, range from Watchable being a new marketing opportunity with more visibility on television to the big potential revenue stream.

However, deals between Comcast and content providers are nonexclusive and that means content can end up elsewhere, too.

Anyone with an Xfinity X1 set-box will have access to Watchable and everything Comcast’s content partners offer.

So how will Comcast expand Watchable’s audience? By pushing subscribers to get that Xfinity X1 set-box. Comcast could then get Watchable into as many as 20 million homes in less than three years. Also, Android and iOS devices will see a Watchable app to stream content from anywhere. Comcast’s advantage is that its services are already in millions of homes, so the mobile apps would only be a boost.

Source: Business Insider

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T-Mobile offers free tablet in back-to-school promotion

As high school and college students prepare to for the fall semester, carriers and manufacturers are promoting their back-to-school deals, and T-Mobile is offering up an Android tablet at basically no cost. If you’re a current T-Mobile customer, you can pick up an Alcatel OneTouch PIXI 7 tablet for $0 down today. All you have to do is choose a data plan and pay the sales tax on the tablet, and you’ve got a decent device to take home. Non-customers will have to wait until August 19th to take advantage of this deal, which T-Mobile is offering as an exclusive to its subscribers for the first week.

The OneTouch PIXI 7 is an entry-level tablet, but it should still serve as a perfectly capable device for basic uses. Under the hood, Alcatel has put a 1.2GHz dual-core MediaTek processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage (with microSD expansion up to an additional 32GB), and a 2840 mAh battery. It’s bringing a 7-inch 1024 x 600 LCD display and two VGA cameras (rear and front-facing) to the table as well. To top it all off, the tablet is running Android 5.1 Lollipop on T-Mobile’s 4G LTE network.

T-Mobile will be running this promotion until it runs out of stock on the OneTouch PIXI 7, which normally retails for $168.

Source: Android Authority

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