Apple iPhone gets YouTube playback

Author: Davedough

Fans of the Cupertino California based company Apple have long awaited the famed iPhone for its promise of being the all-in-one gadget to own.

With its ability to play music, watch videos and much more along with being a cellular phone, now anxious consumers can add one more feature to its healthy list. Apple has announced that users of the iPhone will be able to stream video through Wi-Fi connectivity directly from YouTube.

While YouTube has enjoyed great success for streaming videos to desktop users, there hasn't been much attention paid to mobile users. YouTube says they are now working on encoding a new format for their video streams to work seamlessly with cellular technology. Their hopes are that the new format will help aid in conserving battery life as well as keeping video quality up to the standards of the mobile user.

The Apple iPhone will be the first mobile device to receive YouTube's newly encoded content and is claimed to have some 10,000 video streams available when the iPhone launches on June 29th. YouTube also claims that new content will be added and available each week after the initial launch. While the phone will use service from AT&T primarily, it will not get the benefit of the company's high speed cellular data links. In response, Apple claims that the YouTube content will operate fine and efficiently over the phone's short range Wi-Fi network connections.

Source: Reuters

Yaro Starak's Blog Mastermind Program

After waiting for so long, finally Yaro Starak, the Australian blogger has today opened the virtual doors for his new program Blog Mastermind.

In this program, he will teach to all bloggers how to become more professional in blogging, and how to make a living with this activity. If you consider that for early birds, up to seven days for today, you can join the program for only $47/ month( then the fee will go up to $77/month), you realize that this could be a very advantageous deal.

So, what are you waiting for? Go, and take a look at www.blogmastermind.com.

Good luck to us all!

Giovanni Busco

Google eyes the individual

Author: James Ashton, Daily Mail

20 June 2007, 7:46am

Google has seen the future - and it's personal. Undeterred by ongoing rows over privacy, Eric Schmidt, boss of the £80bn internet giant, proclaims 'personal search is the next phenomenon'.

By that he means services such as iGoogle, which is 'exploding in use'. It has a unique home page and keeps track of an individual's search history to predict what he, or she, might be looking for.

Schmidt adds: 'We are trying to close the gap between what you want and what you type in.' Users would have to opt in, though.

Google recently bowed to EU criticism and agreed to scrub years of personal data, keeping records of only the last 18 months of web searches. Schmidt said that would be cut to just 12 months if legislation was tightened, adding: 'We have to follow the law.'

The company employs 2,500 people in Europe, mostly in Dublin for tax reasons, and it is growing at a breakneck pace.

Google shares have risen six-fold since it floated in August 2004, but tensions are rising with its rivals.

Microsoft cried foul after Google's £1.5bn acquisition of advertising group DoubleClick, while ebay pulled its advertising after Google ramped up its Check Out onloan payment system, a competitor to its own Pay Pal.

Schmidt says his business can avoid a consumer backlash by 'making decisions based on what the end user wants'. But as it mushrooms into maps, calendars and spreadsheets it may not be as easy as that.

The company makes its money by tagging search results with advertising. Schmidt is trying to adapt the technology for radio and television, grabbing further revenue from traditional media.

YouTube, Google's website for sharing video clips, is launching nine local language services from France to Japan. But the Google unit, which has six hours of videos posted on it every minute, faces a £50m law suit from US media giant Viacom accusing it of permitting piracy.

Users have been posting TV clips of their favourite shows on the site, breaking copyright. Co-founder Chad Hurley admitted increased exposure brought with it more 'issues'. YouTube will carry special video channels for partners, such as the BBC, Chelsea Football Club and 10 Downing Street.

The other co-founder, Steve Chen, wants YouTube videos to be watched everywhere, from mobile phones to TV sets.

Yahoo improves Go for Mobile

Author: Elinor Mills

Yahoo on Tuesday launched the latest version of its Yahoo Go for Mobile with general available in the U.S. The enhanced service features reduced loading time for Web pages and the ability to read more types of attachments and view both satellite and hybrid maps and traffic conditions. Users also will have the ability to search Yahoo Address Book contacts, call or get driving directions with one-click, and view
Yahoo Calendar.

Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0 will launch in fully localized beta versions on Friday in Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, Thailand and Vietnam.

Yahoo also has signed partnership agreements with six major mobile operators in Asia for distribution of Yahoo's OneSearch mobile search service. The operators are Globe Telecom in the Philippines, Idea Cellular in India, LG Telecom in Korea, Maxis Communications Berhad in Malaysia, PT Telekomunikasi Selular "Telkomsel" in Indonesia and Taiwan Mobile.

Yahoo OneSearch provides quick access to news, Web images, weather, photos and other sites to consumers using mobile phones.

Lala.com - A new way to listen to online music

Author : Zipporah Koganowich


Warner Music Group has announced that it will be making available its music through lala.com, which is an internet start up venture. Lala.com was started last year and was initially designed to let users exchange their CDs for a fee. However the company is now offering users a chance to store their iTunes library online on the site for free.

Lala.com said the service would enable iPod owners to play iTunes tracks from anywhere as well as share it with anyone. Users will also have the chance to buy songs to directly upload them onto their iPods."Before today music was ripped and trapped on PCs and Macs with desktop applications like iTunes.

The iPod is the greatest portable music device ever invented, and as avid iPod fans we wanted to create a service that blends the convenience of the Web with the portability and functionality of a truly universal platform," Bill Nguyen, a co-founder of the company revealed.Lala.com also said that a beta version is available for users who want to store their music or share it by hosting it on the site.

The site includes support for popular operating systems like Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS X v10 and advanced systems as well as for iTunes 7.Under the deal with Warner Group, users will be able to listen to an extensive catalog of music from Warner catalog, but they will not be able to download the songs.

Copyright © 2007 Respective Author

Second Life online game hacked, user data compromised

Author: Amber Maitland

11 September 2006 - Second Life, the online game that lets people play out fantasy lives in a fantasy world, has suffered a zero-day attack that compromised the personal data of its hundreds of thousands of users.

Its 650,000 users were notified via email that they must reset their passwords in order to re-access their avatars, or online alter egos.

The hack was discovered on 6 September and was shut down the same day; however, Linden Labs, the company behind Second Life, has said that unencrypted information, include Second Life account names, real life names, and contact information, as well as encrypted account passwords and payment information, was compromised.

Unencrypted credit card information, stored on a different database, has not been compromised.

Second life “residence” design avatars for themselves, and are able to interact with other participants, as well as buy and sell land and set up business using Linden Dollars, which can actually be exchanged for real currency.

The canny businessmen behind the virtual world have even managed to sell virtual space to major multinational companies like Coca-Cola.

Toshiba's triple-layer HD DVD / DVD discs

Author: Thomas Ricker

You know we likey our Blu-ray and HD DVD tech 'round here, but we heart hybrid capabilities even more. So today's announcement from Toshiba and Memory Tech of a triple-layer twin format HD DVD / DVD disc has certainly caught our attention.

The new disc is capable of either a dual-layer 30GB HD DVD and single-layer 4.7GB configuration, or single-layer 15GB HD DVD and dual-layer 8.5GB DVD. The resulting disc can be manufactured on the same HD DVD production lines with little modification and conceivably play either HD or DVD films (without flipping the disc) when fed into a regular ol' DVD or new fangled HD DVD player.

As our hi-def bros over at HD Beat rightly point out, the DVD TWIN standard is already in use by our Japanese overlords, albeit, in its lessor dual-layer format. The next step is for Tosh to present the new format to the DVD forum who, with any luck, will slap Toshiba up side the head and get 'em focused on the HD DVD / Blu-ray hybrid we're all waiting for.

Sprint brings full-length movies to your phone

Author: Paul Miller

The war against your eyesight is on.

Sprint is busting out a new pay-per-view movie service that streams full-length flicks to your tiny screen. They've already got 45 titles lined up for the service, including popular titles like "National Treasure," "Spider-Man 2" and "Scarface."

The new Sprint Movies service is in addition to Sprint's current mSpot movie service, which offers an all-you-can-eat selection of video content for 7 bucks a month. Sprint Movies can be controlled much like a DVD, with the ability to skip between chapters and resume the flick where it gets left off.

Movies cost between $4 and $6 each, with rental periods ranging from 24 hours and one week, and 24 hour extensions are available for a buck. Check the read link for the full movie selection -- we're totally all over that Kindergarten Cop action.

Apple speeds up iMacs with Core 2 Duo

Author: Caroline Mc Carthy

Apple Computer's iMac desktops are now equipped with Intel's new Core 2 Duo processors, the Mac maker said Wednesday.

The iMac lineup has also been expanded to include a 24-inch model, supplementing the company's 17-inch and 20-inch versions of the widescreen, tower-free desktop. According to Apple, the new machines will operate 50 percent faster than with the original Core Duo.

In June 2005, Apple announced that it was ditching its PowerPC chips in favor of Intel processors. The iMacs with Intel's original Core Duo chip debuted early this year.

With the release of the Core 2 Duo models, iMac prices have also dropped a notch. The 17-inch model--which cost $1,299 with the first Core Duo--is now $999 with a 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo and $1,199 with a 2GHz version.

The 20-inch iMac, with a 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, is priced at $1,499. The new 24-inch model, with the same processor speed, costs $1,999.

Apple's announcement was not limited to iMacs. Its Mac Mini budget desktop was given a processor upgrade too--from an Intel Core Solo to a Core Duo--not the new Core 2 Duo. The box-shaped Mac Minis, which come without a monitor, are now $599 for a 1.66GHz model and $799 for 1.83GHz version.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company is expected to give more product news at a self-described "special event" in San Francisco next week.