Tired of sharing your photos one by one? The new Animoto Video Slideshows app for iPhone and iPod Touch makes it easy to turn those static shots into moving pictures to share with your friends and family.
Animoto Video Slideshows lets users turn their camera roll photos — or live images — into instant video slideshows backed with style effects, custom text and even music. Animoto has a library of more than 500 songs available for pairing. You can preview each song before you add, and although most of the bands are obscure, there are 13 genres to choose from, so you should be able to find something suitable for your video. Ideally, users would be able to select music from their existing iTunes library, but I’d guess licensing issues prevent this.
The process of creating a video is relatively quick, although you will have to sign up for a free account to save and share your work. Free users are also restricted to a 30-second time limit — premium pay accounts are available for those who want to produce full-length videos. Subscriptions range from $5 per month to $30 for the year. Once you’ve saved your video, you can share it via Facebook, Twitter, text message or email, and because Animoto stores it in the cloud, you’ll be able to access it from anywhere. Animoto isn’t just for photos, either. As long as you keep your text within the set character limits, you could use the app to create an impromptu PowerPoint-style text presentation.
Animoto’s simplicity means it has no learning curve, and that’s ideal for people who are either new to their iDevice or who need a quick slideshow solution.
