Obama's 100 Days Press Conference

[via The Huffington Post]

Land of the Lost: Crystal Adventure movie tie-in ap

A remake of Land of the Lost, a 1974 TV series about a family trapped in an alien world inhabited by dinosaurs, is coming to theaters near you this summer and Land of the Lost: Crystal Adventure is a related puzzle-driven iPhone app released by Universal Studios.

Tying in apps with movie release is becoming more and more common.

How do you play? You must help Rick Marshall (played by Will Ferrell) overcome a challenging array of obstacles -- ie. pushing blocks, building bridges, and navigating around hurdles -- in order to make your way through the 25 Sleestak temple levels and reach the large crystal.

Nielsen Begins Initiative to Measure Internet Viewing

This week, Nielsen is beginning its controversial move to measure the online behavior of a small subset of its national TV ratings sample. MediaBuyerPlanner reports.

Because the test uses a portion of the same accredited, national TV sample that it uses to generate TV ratings, some researchers are pointing out that it could potentially impact TV ratings results. Nielsen has responded that the impact of measuring both TV and online behavior in a small subset would be minimal, but that they will monitor the situation closely, writes MediaPost.

Read full article.

Swedish ISPs Obstruct New Anti-Piracy Legislation

While all eyes were on the Pirate Bay trial, Swedish parliament passed the IPRED law, making it easier for copyright holders to go after illicit file-sharers . The law has only been in effect for one month and anti-piracy outfits are already facing problems using it, as ISPs take measures to protect their customers.

[via TorrentFreak]

In Developing Countries, Web Grows Without Profit

To serve emerging markets, companies like YouTube need to invest in expensive servers, but ad revenue for those countries doesn’t cover those additional costs. The New York Times reports.

Web companies that rely on advertising are enjoying some of their most vibrant growth in developing countries. But those are also the same places where it can be the most expensive to operate, since Web companies often need more servers to make content available to parts of the world with limited bandwidth. And in those countries, online display advertising is least likely to translate into results.

There may be 1.6 billion people in the world with Internet access, but fewer than half of them have incomes high enough to interest major advertisers.

“It’s a problem every Internet company has,” said Michelangelo Volpi, chief executive of Joost, a video site with half its audience outside the United States.

“Whenever you have a lot of user-generated material, your bandwidth gets utilized in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, where bandwidth is expensive and ad rates are ridiculously low,” Mr. Volpi said. If Web companies “really want to make money, they would shut off all those countries.

Read full article.

Internet users 'could suffer brownouts due to YouTube and iPlayer'

Internet users will endure slower and less reliable connections from next year as websites such as YouTube and the BBC's iPlayer cause online traffic to double, experts warn, writes The Telegraph.

Computers will freeze and drop offline with increasing regularity as the web's outdated infrastructure struggles to cope with the surging popularity of bandwidth-hungry video sites, it is claimed.

Analysts are warning that the internet will cease to function as an effective tool of communication – becoming merely an "unreliable toy" for casual users – unless networks are upgraded.

Related:

-- The Exaflood - Technology experts are calling it the exaflood, a massive wave of new video and other bandwith intensive traffic headed for the web. Watch excerpts from a video on the Internet Innovation Alliance website on the Exaflood.

-- Video, interactivity could nab Web users by '10 - The Web will start to seem pokey as early as 2010, as use of interactive and video-intensive services overwhelms local cable, phone and wireless Internet providers.

-- Demand for video reshaping Internet - In 1995, the first warning was raised: The throngs of people swarming to the Internet would overwhelm the system in 1996. For more than a decade, that fear has proven untrue.

-- Interesting: 'Poor man's broadband (PMB). Students to download big files faster by avoiding the internet - It's not often that you get to go faster by avoiding the superhighway, but soon students in Pakistan will be able to download big files faster by avoiding the internet.

Luc Besson's film coming to YouTube for World Environment Day

Luc Besson's and Yann-Arthus Betrand's 90 minute full-length film, Home, will exclusively be available online on YouTube for English, French, Spanish and German–speaking countries beginning June 5 — just in time for the 37th World Environment Day.

[via YouTube Blog]

A wonderful ad from Argentina

A wonderful bank ad from Argentina, about several kinds of "change."

[via boing boing]

YouTube and Partners Miss Out on Boyle Bonanza

Susan Boyle, the latest overnight YouTube sensation, may well end up the recipient of a bonanza from her new status as unlikely heroine. Bits Blog reports.

But for now, her dizzying YouTube success has been a missed opportunity to cash in. A disagreement between YouTube and Britain’s ITV, which owns the “Britain’s Got Talent” program where Ms. Boyle appeared, has kept the YouTube clips of Ms. Boyle’s rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” free of ads.

The Times of London published what it called a “crude estimate” suggesting that the parties involved, namely YouTube, Simon Cowell and ITV, have left $1.87 million on the table. That’s based on 75 million streams of the various clips of Ms. Boyle, which the newspaper estimated could get $20 to $35 for every 1,000 views in the United States and more than that in Britain.

Read full article.

Joost is seeking a buyer

Joost is actively seeking a buyer and the beleaguered video service has told cable and satellite providers that it could be their online video solution, said sources close to the companies.

[via cnet news]

Fund will help alleged Swedish pirates hit by new law

A sentenced Pirate Bay defendant and two politicians from Sweden's Green party are launching a fund to help people accused of copyright violations under the country's new antipiracy law, reports News.com

The fund is intended to assist citizens being prosecuted by copyright-holding companies. "When it comes to criminal cases, the accused get a defense attorney for free, but not in civil cases," Maria Ferm, a member of the Green party's youth branch and one of the fund's founders, told Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter.

The Pirate Google: Bit Torrent Search

Demonstrating how futile the war against The Pirate Bay really is, someone has created The Pirate Google: A Google custom search dedicated to find torrent files.

Site's Disclaimer:

This site is not affiliated with Google, it simply makes use of Google Custom Search to restrict your searches to Torrent files. You can do this with any regular Google search by appending your query with filetype:torrent. This technique can be used for any type of file supported by Google.

[via Gizmodo]

Pirate Bay judge had conflict of interest: mistrial?

According to Swedish National Radio, the judge in The Pirate Bay trial is a board member for a copyright industry lobbying group, and this conflict of interest may result in a mistrial.

The Pirate Bay trial invalid? (translation of Swedish article)

[via boingboing]

YouTube Real Time

Google began testing a new feature called YouTube RealTime that lets you and your friends share in the moment what you're doing with the site. News.com reports.

"This is building on the success of the YouTube friend activity feed, letting people see what their friends are watching, rating, commenting on, etc.," Google said about the feature, which the company plans to start offering to invitees.

TechCrunch gave it a spin. Read their review.

PBS launches offers shows in streaming

PBS (The Public Broadcasting Service) turns 40 this year, and on Tuesday it gave itself a gift that just might make it feel young again, writes the LA Times.

PBS' new video portal (pbs.org/video) allows online viewers to stream an array of its best-known shows over the Web. The new site gathers more than 130 episodes of nearly 20 programs, including marquee fare such as "Frontline," "Nova" and "Masterpiece Theater." PBS says thousands of hours of programming should be available to users by the summer.

From Switzerland, videos don't show. Blank. Not even the usual message "this video is not available from your country".

Movie trailers on your iPhone

Great, great great. The Trailers International app is available to non US viewers and offers trailers of some of the latest or not yet released movies. Click on the flag of your country to see relevant movie listing, subbed, dubbed or in your language. For each movie you can watch a trailer (sometimes 2 trailers), click on "S" to read a synopsis, or click on the link to Imdb or recommend the clip by e-mail to a friend.

For Swiss-Romand viewers like myself, to avoid the movies dubbed in German, - because in this part of Switzerland we speak French - just click on the UK flag (for all movies in English) or French flag (for all movies translated into French). Often websites use German as a default language for Switzerland, as Swiss Germans are the majority.

You can even download the trailer if you have an iPod touch. This feature doesn't seem to be available on my iPhone. UPDATE: Yes it does, simply click on the arrow pointing downwards. Watch video demo here.

There is an app for US viewers, Trailers for $1.99 or a free version, Trailers Lite.

The apps were developed by xTEO software.

[via AppCraver]

How Jack Bauer's TV violence set tone for policymakers

It is easy to forget how the atmosphere in Washington after September 11, 2001, allowed policymakers to cite Jack Bauer, the fictional hero of Fox TV's 24, as some sort of moral compass.

Bauer, who used torture to extract information that prevented the slaughter of innocents, was cited by the likes of Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Secretary, to justify policies including “enhanced interrogation techniques”. The Times Online reports.

To give the theory an academic sheen Alan Dershowitz, a law professor at Harvard, President Obama's alma mater, set out “the ticking-bomb scenario” in 2002 in which a terrorist who has planted a nuclear device receives some robust questioning.

Seven years later the publication of more than 100 pages of clinical legal prose explaining how far interrogators could go in slamming a suspect's head against a wall (albeit one designed to reduce the possibility of lasting injury) make deeply disturbing reading.

Read full article.

[via TV Tattle]

Paul McCartney: Pirate Bay verdict 'fair'

Of The Pirate Bay founders being found guilty of copyright violation in a Swedish court, the songwriter and former Beatle Paul McCartney told the BBC: "If you get on a bus you've got to pay. And I think it's fair, you should pay your ticket."

[via Switched]

Text-Message Commentary Coming to the Movies?

Thought movie hecklers were annoying? Well, if a new project takes off nationwide, prepare to be uber-annoyed by heckling via texting/Twittering projected directly onto the movie screen. MuVChat creator Rien Heald describes his Frankenstein-like creation to the Chicago Tribune as "a mash-up of 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' and Twitter." Switched reports.

During a screening of "Zoolander," audience members could heckle the movie via text, then watch as their comments appeared onscreen with the film:

The system works this way: Audience members text to a central number, which runs their comments through software. The MuVChat software then displays the texts in a three-line configuration at the bottom of the screen, like a vertical ticker, as the movie plays. Sitting in the projector booth with a standard computer, Heald uses a profanity screening program and can, on the fly, filter comments and ban abusive users.

Most viewers make about 40 comments per movie, Heald said, and not all of them are snarky. Just as often, people will play "Name That Tune" when the soundtrack swells or ask other members of the audience to bring them popcorn.

Pirate Bay Founders: "The Site Will Live On!"

Though last week The Pirate Bay was found guilty nd sentenced to jail, the founders' latest statement is anything but defeated. They've started the years-long appeals process, and urge TPB users to download and seed as much as possible.

[via Gizmodo]

TiVo to sell instant data on what people watch, fast-forward

The company that's made it so easy for television viewers to avoid watching ads unveils a plan to help stations sell them, reports USA Today.

Tivo will challenge Nielsen, whose audience ratings provide the basis for most ad sales, with Stop/Watch Local Markets. It will supplement TiVo's measurements of national TV audiences with data from all but the smallest of the nation's 210 markets.

TiVo will offer stations, advertisers and program producers year-round, second-by-second information about the shows and commercials watched by people who have one of the company's DVRs. The anonymous data will come directly from the boxes.

How did Susan Boyle do it?

Middle aged Scottish spinster Susan Boyle, at 47, became one of the world's hottest celebrities virtually overnight after her rendition of I Dreamed a Dream on Britain's Got Talent show this month. But while most people see her story as a fairytale, some say it casts an unflattering light on the public and its preconceived notions about beauty and fame. Stuff reports.

They argue that the reason Boyle, who lives alone with her cat, became the instant star she has was because she did not look or behave like a "typical" celebrity.

"Sadly it all Boyles down to image" said Miranda Sawyer in a commentary piece for the Daily Mirror tabloid.

"No woman gets to perform publicly unless she looks like Mariah Carey. If you're a female singer, you are required by showbiz law to appear sexy at all times."

Tanya Gold, writing in the Guardian broadsheet, asked: "Is Susan Boyle ugly? Or are we?

"By raising this Susan up, we will forgive ourselves for grinding every other Susan into the dust. It will be a very partial and poisoned redemption. Because Britain's Got Malice."

Some descriptions of Boyle underlined media prejudices about beauty and age, critics said, with Boyle referred to variously as "frumpy", "dowdy", with "several double chins" and, in Britain's Daily Mail, as a "hairy angel".

Previously: - Susan Boyle follows Paul Potts

EU undermines Sarkozy's plan to to Fight Illegal Downloads

The governing party of President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, scrambling to save a national law that would cut off Internet service to those who make repeated illegal downloads, is threatening to block a European Union telecommunications bill that would undermine the legal foundation of the French plan. The New York Times reports.

The E.U. bill would create a new telecommunication regulator in Europe, enable regulators to separate dominant phone companies from their networks, and increase coordination of broadcast frequencies within Europe.

But the measure prohibits the exact proposal that France is considering — allowing a government agency to cut off the Internet service of E.U. citizens. The French National Assembly, which unexpectedly rejected the proposal this month, is scheduled to revisit the plan next week.

Representatives of Mr. Sarkozy have spent the past week lobbying Brussels to eliminate the clause, which is part of legislation that has been two years in the making.

Read full article.

Related:

-- French reject Internet Piracy Law

-- Sarkozy move to punish illegal downloaders sparks liberties row

-- Assembly approves Sarkozy plan for French television

-- European Parliament says "no" to disconnecting P2P users

-- Illegal downloaders 'face UK ban'

-- French plan e-mail warnings for illegal downloads

As Costs Fall, Companies Push to Raise Internet Price

Internet service providers want to end the all-you-can-eat plans and get their customers paying à la carte. But they are having a hard time closing the buffet line, reports The New York Times.

Faced with rising consumer protest and calls from members of Congress for new regulations, Time Warner Cable backed down last week from a plan to impose new fees on heavy users of its Road Runner Internet service.

The debate over the price of Internet use is far from over.

Cable executives say the issue is not competition but cost. People who watch or download a lot of movies and TV shows use hundreds of times more Internet capacity than those who simply read e-mail and browse the Web. It is only fair, they argue, that heavy users should pay more.

Read full article.

Don Henley battles Republicans over YouTube video

YouTube has become the battleground in a copyright fight between singer Don Henley and a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in California. News.com reports.

Henley, one of the founders of rock group The Eagles, has filed a lawsuit accusing Senate candidate Charles DeVore of violating his copyright. DeVore allegedly used two of Henley's hit songs "The Boys of Summer" and "All She Wants to Do Is Dance" in two YouTube campaign videos without authorization.

DeVore, who used Henley's music to attack opponent Sen. Barbara Boxer, maintains he is authorized to use the music as part of his First Amendment right to political free speech.

Chuck DeVore responds to lawsuit on his website.

Police to Investigate Leaked Pirate Bay Verdict

After sentencing The Pirate Bay Four the District Court has now asked the police to investigate their own people, as the verdict in the case leaked to the public hours before it was officially announced. Whether or not the leak will have implications for the sentence is unknown.

[via TorrentFreak]

Swedes Demonstrate Against Pirate Bay Verdict

More than thousand people gathered in the streets of the Swedish capital Stockholm Saturday, to protest against Friday’s Pirate Bay verdict. The demonstration was organized by the Swedish Pirate Party that is campaigning for the European Parliament elections in June.

[via TorrentFreak]

The Today Show gets an app

Americas 1 morning program now has an app.

Today delivers the information you need to make sense of the latest trends.

Connect with Matt, Meredith, Ann, and Al to bring you the days top stories and weather, interviews with newsmakers from around the world, and a dose of fun.

Swedish Pirate Party membership surges after Pirate Bay verdict

Yesterday's Swedish court ruling sentencing the Pirate Bay defendants to a year in prison caused membership in Sweden's Pirate Party to swell, attracting 3,000 members in seven hours. Its membership now sits at around 18,000, which makes it a respectable size in Swedish politics.

[via boingboing]

Hulu iPhone App Coming Soon

Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that a dedicated Hulu application is on its way to the iPhone and should be here in just a few months.

It won't be the first Web video app for the iPhone -- CBS's TV.com app is on the market, as are Joost, i.TV and several others.

With the upcoming iPhone OS 3.0 software update, which lets developers bake streaming media into their applications. For Hulu, this means that the advertising could be stuck into the mobile stream and that users would be able to watch videos without leaving the application.

[via cnet.com]