First, video-sharing app Socialcam added 4 million users over a weekend, and now it has become the number one free app at the App Store. Since the sale of Instagram to Facebook, everyone is speculating on what company will be the next Instagram for video — everyone except maybe the folks at Socialcam.

Socialcam Glam

Socialcam is not the only video-sharing app vying for top spot. Viddy has also enjoyed some flash flood of success, recently adding 5.5 million users in eleven days and securing investment from celebrity A-listers like Will Smith, Jay-Z, Shakira, and soccer star Gerard Pique. Similarly, Socialcam has quickly ballooned to over 20 million users and raised millions in angel funding from some big names that include Ashton Kutcher and Miami Heat’s Shane Battier.

All the glam name-dropping and the millions of dollars that are footnoted in all these articles detract a little from the very practical reasons behind the success of these apps. And it may be that they have done so because they got there first, but in the end, only the value behind the product will keep customers their coming back.

The Socialcam app, like Viddy, run on very simple platforms and interfaces. And like Instagram, there is a social media component to the application, which is in part the reason for its success. It seems that to succeed, most apps these days have to exploit this social component as much as possible. In this post-America’s Funniest Home Videos, Jackass/viral-video world we live in, a video is meant to be shared.

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If you want to get a glimpse into the world of a Hollywood visual effects artist, then download the VFX Studio app for the iOS. This simple tool makes it easy to add some cool effects to your pictures.

VFX Studio App

Visual effects, like all other post-production work, involves the process of adding multiple layers to raw footage until you have a finished film. And if you ask most filmmakers, they will tell you that process they enjoy the most is post-production. This is because it is here that you begin to see a film take shape.

With the VFX Studio app, you can take part in some of your own post-production work. The VFX Studio app is similar to another very popular iOS app called Action Movie FX, which allows you to add visual effects to video images.

The really great thing about both these apps is that with some very simple tools you can create visually compelling images. And then a visual effects artist is born.

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The iPhone apps PicFrame and Diptic make it a snap to combine multiple photos into a single ‘frame’. You may be a little saturated with the over exposure of photo apps these days (sorry for the photographic word play), but these two iPhone apps are worth a look.

The New Photographers

Apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic have helped create a new movement in photography. Now, the purists might decry the use of such apps (in some cases, rightfully so), but these applications are just a tool, a technology no different than the camera itself. Ultimately it’s not the medium that defines you (despite what McLuhan said); it is indeed the message.

It may be true that a photograph is only as good as the person taking the picture. But what these apps have done is made that process just a little bit easier. Instead of having to shoot a picture, upload it to a computer, and then tweak it using photo editing software, you can now do this all in one place.

All of the rules of photography, like composition and lighting, still apply. The only thing that has changed is that instead of having to figure out complicated cameras and software, the average user can point, shoot, and with a few finger taps create a lens flare that would have made László Kovács proud.

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Along with the new iPad, Apple announced today updates to several iOS apps from the iWorks and iLife suites. The iPhoto app for the iOS offers many of its desktop features to the app version and also introduces some funky new ones.

iPhoto App Features: Smart Browsing

Smart browsing is one of the iPhoto app’s coolest features. It brings together two great components. First, the iPhoto app can scan through photos and will automatically detect images that are alike. Secondly, it will sort the images so you can do a side-by-side comparison to choose the best ones.

Multi-Touch Editing, Brushes, and Effects

The great thing about the iPad and the iPhone is of course their touchscreen capabilities. Although apps are getting more sophisticated all the time, it is this pared-down quality of desktop programs that bring about some of the best features found in many applications.

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Earlier this week, we wrote about  the Olloclip that transformed your regular iPhone camera into a wide angle, fish eye, or macro lens. Now Fostex, a Japanese manufacturer and one of the largest transducer and OEM speaker makers in the world, brings you the AR-4i.

Fostex’s AR-4i is an audio interface that integrates with the iPhone 4 in order to give you stereo recorded sound. With the iPhone’s HD capabilities and a lens attachment like the Olloclip, you can now produce professional-grade recordings as easily as swiping your finger across a Retina display.

Fostex’s AR-4i — The Lowdown

The iPhone’s visual recording specs are one of its main selling points. They include video stabilization and high definition (1080p) with up to 30 frames per second. What the Apple specs page does not tell you is that the audio is mono and offers no control. The reason is simple: no one has advertised or promoted mono sound since the ’Beave’ got his first stereo in the 50s.

Cue the AR-4i from Fostex.

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Animoto and Magisto are two producers of what is fast becoming the next big thing in the app market: automatic, cloud-based video editing applications.

Cloud computing basically takes the heavy-lifting out of personal computing (whether you use a PC or a mobile device). It allows the user to work in a program, for instance, without the necessity of having the infrastructure or resources to run that program. It’s the modern-day equivalent of the Flintstones having an octopus or a monkey washing the dishes in the dishwasher. The only difference here is that no animals are harmed in the process. (That was a joke, by the way.)

Automatic video editing basically works like this: you submit your videos or photos to the service provider (Animoto or Magisto, for example) and choose some theme music, a background—and presto! You have a nicely edited short film that you can instantly share on Facebook or any number of social networking sites.

If you are wondering how they make their money, they use the “freemium” business model, where a basic service or product is provided for free and a charge is added for more advanced features or services.

Both Animoto and Magisto understand that today’s consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices to run their lives. A cellphone is no longer just a phone. They understand that most people do not have the time nor the desire to transfer all their videos and photos back onto their computers in order to spend more time sorting through them—never mind using a program like iMovie or Final Cut or Premiere to edit them.

The Animoto website states that some of its producers come from the film and television industry. It is precisely that knowledge of post-production that they are bringing to you, the consumer. It is easy to conceive of a day when even Hollywood filmmakers will be editing films in a similar fashion. You can almost imagine Thelma Schoonmaker editing Raging Bull or Goodfellas on her iPhone while sipping a gingerbread latte at a local Starbucks.

Okay, that one is a little hard to imagine. But it is the way of the future. So the next time someone tells you to get your head out of the clouds, tell them you are working on the next great American film.