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Movie studio on your face: Givit's iPhone app lets you edit video shot on Google Glass

Movie studio on your face: Givit's iPhone app lets you edit video shot on Google Glass

By Nathan Olivarez-Giles

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Givit Google Glass
Givit Google Glass

Video app startup Givit believes Google Glass could end up being the next Flip camera, but without the descent into irrelevance. "People loved Flip because it was so easy to use," says Greg Kostello, the company's founder and CEO. "Glass is just as easy as Flip, just as fun — more fun really." Which is why Givit has built a simplistic Google Glass app that allows users to push video shot on the experimental device into the company's iPhone app for quick, simple edits.

"Most mobile editing apps usually just offer a filter, trying to be a video Instagram or something, and then there's iMovie or Final Cut on the desktop, which is too intimidating for most people," he says. "We want to offer editing that removes that intimidation factor, then allows people to share what they've made where they want." Givit's Glass app, when used in concert with its iOS-exclusive video editing app, does pretty much just that. It's not perfect, but the editing app is built for beginners and it can pipe video out to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and DailyMotion.

Glass and iPhone required

While the editing process is a straightforward one, there are hurdles. For one thing, Givit doesn't offer its video editing app for Android or any other mobile operating systems. And the whole thing is dependent on a user having both Glass, which isn't publicly available yet, and an iPhone. But this is all a first step in anticipation of Glass taking off, Kostello says. "The Flip cam was huge, but hands-free video is going to be bigger, and it won't fade away the way Flip did," he predicts. While Kostello is still getting to know Glass, he knows Flip well: Givit served as the default migration option for users of the FlipShare video service that Cisco killed off shortly after giving up on selling Flip cameras.

Installing the Glass app is as easy as visiting i.givit.com/glass and signing into your Google account to link the app to a headset. Once that's taken care of, Givit simply shows up as a video sharing option alongside Twitter, Google+ contacts, This isn't Final Cut Tumblr and other apps. Sharing to Givit is literately all the Glass app does at this point. Before you can edit clips together into one video in the iOS app, you've got to download the footage you want to use.

The potential for Glass-shot video is huge and so far one of the most appealing aspects of Google's wearable. With that in mind, Givit wants to eventually pioneer on-Glass editing. "There's a touch panel on the side, you have a display — easy editing on Glass without having to rely on a phone, that's something we'd like to make happen," Kostello admits. "We've got lots of big ideas for Glass."

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