Tag: YouTube

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How do you solve the problem called “This video is currently unavailable”

Perhaps the one thing that annoys me more about technology than any other thing is when something that should obviously just work – just like that … doesn’t!!!

A case in point is the Google Capture app on iOS. Of course there should be no problem with it working with Google+, or that it should integrate seamlessly with YouTube … think again! Time and time again you get the message “This video is currently unavailable” when you click on the Play button in your Google+ post – unless you’re looking at it on a Desktop, using most probably Chrome. That makes sense doesn’t it? NOT!

So many of my valuable “little grey cells” have been destroyed trying to find out just what’s going wrong; trying to find a workaround to something that there shouldn’t need to be a workaround for. Quelle domage. This stuff’s supposed to be easy, isn’t it?

Finally, I have a workaround. It’s not ideal, but it works. It’s not logical, but it works. It allows me to continue to use technology I like, but which is letting me down. Let me share my solution with you.

1. You start by taking the video clip with Capture, do what edits you want to in the app and then Upload to YouTube. Do not Share at this time. I know you want to, but don’t.

2. Check using the YouTube app that that the video has been Uploaded successfully, return to the Capture app and then Share to Google+. Yes, I said this wasn’t logical, you want to know why you don’t just share from the YouTube app, don’t you? Well you don’t, because you stand a good chance of getting a Red screen thumbnail on your Google+ post, it might be a smiley (sort of) face, or it might be a clock – but the thing is … you don’t want it!

3. So you’re back in the Capture app. Click on Share, choose Google+ and with a fair wind and a slice of luck (and presuming you haven’t jumped the gun and tried to share too quickly, see 2 above) you’ll be able to get a share away and write a post to accompany the video on Google+.

See I told you it wasn’t logical. Come on Google, solve this idiotic problem.

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Blogging for family and friends – before Google+

I wrote this some time ago, but never published it, perhaps I knew what was in the pipeline. There will be a sequel … that’s a promise. Here’s the problem (ie the user requirement).

I want to create a family blog for family members of very mixed IT ability and inclination. They are (believe it or not) NOT IT-geeks. I’ve tried several ways of engaging with them, emploring to comment upon blog posts, allowing the authorship to a shared private blog – so that they don’t need to set their own up. Put loads of “useful” information up, including commentary on family photos stored and linked to on Picasa, but to no avail. How can I increase the engagement with this activity? [Please don’t ask the question … “is this a desirable activity?” … that’s not allowed!]

It would appear that video (of grandchildren, of distant parents) is a hook. Is something that wakes them up to the value of social media. But how do you share videos on the internet and keep them private?

You need a video-serving solution, there’s several to choose from – YouTube, viddler or vimeo for instance – but you need to be able to keep the video private, to be shared to just a group of people (your family). After looking at YouTube, decided to experiment with viddler. The upload is fast, as is the encoding and the quality of streaming is good. You can set the default upload save to be private and then share it afterwards – if you want to. However, if you want to embed the video on your blog, you can’t unless you make the video public! In the end I plumped for Vimeo Plus – paying a subscription for the level of privacy I wanted with the ability to embed videos which run on mobile devices (including iOS) as well.

Then there’s Posterous, a really easy to use blogging service that even your granny could use (if they are on email that is). Set yourself (and all your other family members) up with an account(s) on Posterous and you have a way of sharing each others’ videos privately. PLUS, if you install the browser button “Share on Posterous” with Firefox, you can then go to your viddler or vimeo video and using the button, embed it in a Posterous blog post. If as a family you agree to use the same password for your Posterous blogs you can then watch and share securely.

All that’s needed for the serious (or should it be serial) blogger like me is to setup the links to the Posterous video-blogs on your private blog (ie Blogger or WordPress) and you have an integrated solution. Indeed, it might even be possible to send the embedded video from Posterous to your Blogger/Wordpress private blog as it has an interface that posts out to other social media applications as well as accepting in by simple email.

So, give Posterous a look for your “family blog” even if you aren’t interested in videos.