Facebook expects to “very soon” release a new version of its iPhone app, and via TechCrunch we hear it will enable video uploads from the new iPhone 3GS.

Now, this is just one social network on one (very new) phone, and yes, it’s going to be a holiday weekend in a couple hours. But the news is worth paying attention to because of the volume and nature of video-sharing that Facebook enables, and the active mobile content habits of iPhone users. In the few days after the iPhone 3GS release, YouTube, the biggest user video site out there, said its mobile video uploads were up 400 percent, with iPhone 3GS video already accounting for more than half the mobile video sent to the site.

Meanwhile, Facebook told us it sees a very significant — nearly 40 percent — chunk of its video uploads come from webcams. And at last check, Facebook received six times as many video uploads per day as MySpace, showing its personal video-sharing offering is resonating with users. The simple, accessible video sharing enabled by webcams has a lot in common with mobile phone video uploads — except with the added value of on-the-go, on-the-scene connectivity. Let’s just hope AT&T doesn’t get pissy about the upstream bandwidth.

It’s great that the iPhone finally has the ability to record video, right? But once you’ve captured your video, the iPhone doesn’t allow you to do much with it, other than upload it to YouTube or MobileMe. Pixelpipe overcomes this limitation, by allowing you to upload your videos directly to a wide variety of online locations. But the service also suffers from a few shortcomings of its own.

Pixelpipe is available for free in Apple’s App Store; the startup also offers versions for Nokia and Android-based phones. The app lets you take content from your computer or mobile phone (including photos, videos, audio files, and more) and upload it directly to a variety of social networks, photo-sharing sites, blogs, and more.  On the iPhone 3GS, Pixelpipe supports uploading of video to more than 40 services; the iPhone itself only offers direct uploading of videos to YouTube and MobileMe. Read more of this story

Being a reporter takes more than a video camera and the willingness to put yourself in harm’s way. There are skills and techniques that every good news gatherer should know, and to help out, YouTube launched its new Reporters’ Center over the weekend.

The new section features videos from top journalists doling out advice on a wide variety of reporting topics. Katie Couric explains how to conduct a good interview; NPR’s Scott Simon discusses how to tell a good story; and Bob Woodward talks about investigative journalism. The Reporters’ Center will also be a place where aspiring citizen journalists can “learn practical and ethical tips, like how to fact check your stories, avoid breaking the law while reporting, and adhere to journalistic principles.”

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It might just be a burst of people playing with their new, fancy toy, but it appears the the new iPhone 3GS, the first Apple phone to enable mobile video capture, is already affecting web video in a big way. YouTube, the world’s biggest user-generated video site, said the iPhone was responsible for more than half of its mobile uploads in the last week.

YouTube said today mobile video is an “exponentially” growing part of its site. In the last six months, uploads from mobile phones to YouTube have increased 1,700 percent. Since last Friday, when the iPhone 3GS was release, video uploads are up 400 percent per day.

Those are impressive numbers, but they’re growth floating out there in space without axes. YouTube declined to disclose a breakdown of mobile uploads by devices, the total number of mobile uploads it sees, or what percent of all its uploads are from mobile phones.

YouTube is likely to monetize very few mobile uploads, since it only runs ads on videos created by partners who regularly produce videos that attract thousands of viewers. Mobile video tends towards the off-the-cuff and personal. Not to say those videos aren’t valuable to the people who make them, and in some instances of citizen journalism or viral hits, a much broader audience.

It’s no secret that the iPhone was late to the video recording party. But Apple finally has added video recording features to its popular gadget, with the new iPhone 3G S. I spent a weekend with my iPhone 3G S, capturing several video clips to see how well it works. So far, I am mostly impressed. The video capture and editing features are basic, but easy to use, and my video clips look decent.

To record videos on the iPhone 3G S, you open the camera (which has been bumped up to 3 megapixels on the new phone), and toggle the on-screen slider from the still camera icon to the video camera icon. Then, you just tap the red button to begin recording.

The 3.5-inch screen is spacious and clear, so seeing the video as you’re recording it is easy. The only problem I ran into was the position of the camera lens: When you’re looking at the back of the iPhone, the lens is in the upper-left corner. I found that I often accidentally draped my fingers in front of it when trying to capture videos.

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True video connoisseurs are not likely to swap a dedicated video camera for a smartphone. But today’s phones are beefing up their video recording features, hoping to win over shoppers contemplating a low-cost video camera like the Flip or the Zodak Zx1. Thinking of making the plunge yourself? Not so fast, I say: I tested the video capabilities of Nokia’s N97, a smartphone that is capable of capturing “DVD-quality” video, and I’m not ready to give up my Flip just yet.

The Nokia N97’s 5-megapixel camera can capture 640-by-480 video at 30 frames per second, and using it is a pleasure. A dedicated button on the side of the phone activates the camera, so you don’t have to dig through menus to find it. And the N97 has a nice, big 3.5-inch touchscreen, which allows you to really see the video as you’re capturing it. It makes the 2-inch screen on the Kodak Zx1 look miniscule.

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