Never accuse the British of not loving a good gadget. Last week a new app, Periscope, was launched for Apple’s iPhone – in direct competition with a similar app, Meerkat, which had been making waves in the United States. Now stand by for the accessories …

Both Periscope, owned by Twitter, and Meerkat allow users to live-stream personal videos. Cue footage of comedians washing their hair and families going for a bicycle ride – trending in Germany last week. However, Periscope has already proved itself invaluable for citizen journalists, according to Jeff Howe, a journalism professor at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and was used to great effect during the fire that broke out in New York’s East Village last week. “The crowd is great at being at the right place at the right time and happening to have a smartphone,” said Howe.

Users are still trying to see what works, Jeetendr Sehdev of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles told New Scientist. “No one really knows what sort of live streams are going to catch on.”

Neither Meerkat nor Periscope are the first apps to offer live streaming. In the US, the protests in and around Ferguson, Missouri, over police racism last year and the 2011 Occupy Wall Street were aired live through sites such as Livestream and Ustream.

Read the Full Article: Source – The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/04/periscope-live-streaming-iphone-app

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