14 DAY TRIAL // Unlike other apps advertised as compatible with all iPhone models, iVidCam is something first-generation iPhone owners didn’t even dream of. It’s an application that renders the iPhone 2G’s camera video-capable. Best of all, the app comes in free and paid form.
iPhone OS 3.0 delivers pretty much the same functionality across all existing iPhone models, with very few discrepancies emerging thanks / due to hardware differences. However, if there’s something that both the first-generation iPhone and the iPhone 3G have in common as a hardware drawback, it’s video. They can’t do it. Not out of the box, anyway.
In an obvious move, iPhone developers found a great opportunity to capitalize by plugging this hole on first- and second-generation iPhone models. One of them is GP Apps. They’re responsible for a recently approved iPhone app called iVidCam. It can effectively turn the iPhone into a video recorder, although it can only go as far as three to seven frames per second at a 280x360 video resolution for both portrait and landscape. It also doesn’t limit your recording times, and it’s available completely free of charge for evaluation purposes (a watermark is placed on your video in the free version).
The paid app costs just $1 and includes the full set of features adding 10x digital zoom, queue videos to encode later, and even better video resolution. The following lines have been extracted from the app’s official description on the iTunes App Store:
Recording Features: - 280x360 video resolution for both portrait and landscape; - 3-7 frames per second. (highest allowed by Apple developer kit); - No recording time limit. Longer videos take a while to encode, so be prepared.
Archive and Share Your Videos Using: - WiFi Transfer to Desktop; - YouTube Uploader; - Email YouTube Link; - Tweet Link With Twitter.
Other Features: - Plays well on QuickTime; - Built-in landscape movie viewer; - Encodes and saves your videos as mp4 files.
Alongside the list of key features, GP Apps posts a few usage tips. The developer informs customers that recorded videos might appear a bit choppy due to frame rate. They advise turning off sound recording for better results (improved frame-rate capture). Additionally, the company notes, iVidCam records whatever shows on your screen while recording, including alerts from other apps. This prompts the app to stop recording if the user receives a phone call, or a text message.
“If you have an important long video to shoot, turn off notifications and activate airplane mode in your iPhone settings,” the developers say, although no one in their right mind would choose this method for recording an “important” video. Nevertheless, the first-generation iPhone can shoot video now, thanks to this app. Go ahead and give it a try!
Download iVidCam for iPhone (Free) (Requires iPhone with OS 3.1 installed)