Like the music-tagging apps, the new IntoNow app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch uses an algorithm to pattern-match a TV show's audio output--its sound--to the right show.
Unlike SoundHound and Shazam, chances are that viewers aren't looking for help identifying the name of the show or title of the episode.
Instead, IntoNow hopes that couch potatoes will use the information to get social, sharing their TV picks on Facebook and Twitter and talking about the shows.
HealCam is a ChatRoulette variant that invites you to select a disease, medical condition, or health issue (Crohn's, back pain, pregnancy, bipolar disorder, allergies, HIV, etc) and connects you with someone else who shares your problems, so you can share notes.
YouTube chose from more than 140,000 questions submitted from viewers about a range of subjects, from the recent unrest in Egypt and Tunisia to the future of American competitiveness. Obama repeated many of his marquee lines from the State of the Union address, responding to a question about what subjects students should be learning: The United States is "going to have to out-build, out-educate, out-innovate every other country.
The billboards on Sunset Blvd are actually covert ads for the midseason return of The CW’s Vampire Diaries, whose slogan is going to urge fans in the coming days to “Catch VD.”
Despite apparent efforts by the government to disrupt communications among the protesters — some of whom responded to a call to protest posted on Facebook — by blocking mobile phone service and access to Twitter, many participants and observers managed to post accounts, images and video of the demonstrations online.
As Netflix and other video services offer thousands of movies streamed over the Internet, all those choices are creating a dilemma: what to watch next.
A 2-year-old movie recommendation website called Clerkdogs is addressing the problem by offering online chats with former video store clerks, film critics and other movie buffs. The chat option is scheduled to debut at 7 p.m. ET Thursday.
YouTube's new Trends channel has posted video of the immediate aftermath of the bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport yesterday morning, which officials are calling a terror attack. The death toll as of the time of this post was more than 30 people. The New York Times, Drudge Report, and other promiment media are already linking to the video below. Could Trends be turning into a hub for breaking news video?
Watching TV has long been a shared collective experience - back in the 1950s, people gathered around office water coolers to talk about the previous night's episode of "I Love Lucy." The San Francisco Gate reports.
But in the past few years, the rise of social networks like Facebook and Twitter extends the conversation of today's top shows like "American Idol" and "Glee" instantly into the far corners of the Internet.
"It's the cyber-watercooler," said Marie-José Montpetit, a research scientist at the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics. "This is where television is going."
Optometrists say as many as one in four viewers have problems watching 3D movies and TV, either because 3D causes tiresome eyestrain or because the viewer has problems perceiving depth in real life. In the worst cases, 3D makes people queasy, leaves them dizzy or gives them headaches. [via stuff]
Researchers have begun developing more lifelike 3D displays that might address the problems, but they're years or even decades from being available to the masses.
That isn't deterring the entertainment industry, which is aware of the problem yet charging ahead with plans to create more movies and TV shows in 3D.
TV watching isn't as "social" an experience as you might assume, writes Media Post.
Indeed, just 25% of consumers express an interest in sharing what they're watching with friends, according to a new study from SideReel.
The company, which helps users find content and TV shows online, surveyed 1,800 users and found that, among social apps, only Twitter made a significant appearance in the results, with 29% saying they used Twitter as part of sharing their TV watching socially. "None of the check-in services ... including GetGlue, Miso, Clicker or Foursquare have significant usage among SideReel's TV watchers," according to the report.
SideReel found that 70% of users who do stream video via the Internet to their TV do so using Netflix, whereas the other 30% use other sources.
Overall, "People are mixing new technologies with familiar ones to get a personalized TV experience that includes all of their favorite shows," said SideReel CEO Roman Arzhintar. "For many, traditional TV watching is starting to supplement online watching, rather than the other way around."
According to USA Today, President Obama will answer questions in a live streaming event on YouTube on January 27, two days after giving his State of The Union Address.
The State of the Union, as well as the GOP's response to the President's address, will also be live-streamed over YouTube. Questions for Obama can be submitted at youtube.com/askobama. The deadline for asking questions is midnight ET on January 25.
YouTube says video questions of about 20 seconds in length are preferred, with minimal background noise and camera shake. Creativity and interesting backdrops that help reinforce the messages behind the issues will help questioners stand out, YouTube says. The YouTube community can vote on which of the questions submitted by others should be selected.
Questions may also be submitted via Twitter, using the hashtag #askobama.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs will be answering questions from the public on his Twitter feed, @PressSec, before the address.
The Obama interview will be the first in a series of streaming events with world leaders to be held this year on YouTube.
180 million US visitors watch videos every month. That comes to 85% of all Internet consumers, 200 videos per person and around 13 hours per month, reports MediaPost via DigitalTrends.
Key for some major TV networks and their TV shows -- also known as "premium video" -- Dan Piech, senior product management analyst of comScore, says there has been a shift of regular TV networks' customers viewing video online on a consistent basis: 4% in 2009, now 8% in 2010.
Seventy percent of people say the biggest reason for watching a TV show online is to watch a missed episode. The next reason -- for 57% of Internet customers -- is convenience. In third place, 56% of digital viewers want to see a past episode.
Most revealing is the fourth reason. Piech says 42% of people watch online because there are less ads versus on traditional TV.
The videos being shown at the front of the conference room focused on something different from standard Hollywood fare came with audience response to the video pondering why woman have orgasms.
The audience liked it - but no more than they had liked the one in which a scientist built up a charge on a metal plate - by rubbing a cat on it.
They may have liked the video about the gigantic scientific instrument the CERN Large Hadron Collider best. It was presented as a rap.
Welcome to the ScienceOnlline 2011 Official Film festival.
According to Pingdom, an Internet monitoring service, In 2010 there was a staggering rise in video use online with the advent and growth of new smartphones that can view and record video.
People watched 60 billion videos on YouTube each month — that’s 730 billion videos throughout the year. And the average Internet user watched 186 videos each month, although I’m sure the 2- to 24-year-old set watched far more.
A study says the iPad isn't only changing how people read online but when they're doing it, including during traditional TV prime time hours. Fast Company reports via UPI.
Internal data acquired by ReadItLater, a Web service that tracks Web content use, show the main bulk of iPad text content consumption is from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., FastCompany.com reported Friday.
As well as settling back in the living room to watch TV during prime time hours, people are apparently taking their iPad with them, too.
The data can't reveal if people are multitasking with TV and the iPad or are ignoring the TV altogether, but the findings will no doubt be of concern to TV executives who depend on uninterrupted attention from TV viewers to maximize ad revenues, FastCompany said.
According to US News, the gap between television as the number one source and the Internet is shrinking.
Internet news is giving television a run for its money. The percentage of Americans who say they get most of their national and international news from the Web has increased 17 points since 2007, and the gap between TV viewers and mouse clickers is even more narrow for people ages 18-49.
Women in this age bracket prefer TV news to the Internet 62 to 52, while men 18-49 actually prefer surfing the Web for updates over TV news, 56 to 55 percent.
The story of Ted Williams, the so-called "golden voice" , which was first posted on the Web site of the Columbus Dispatch, has moved people to emotive heights. Footage of Williams has been seen by a figure that might now be 15 million people on YouTube. [via CNet]
In its own story of how the video became a viral string-puller, the Dispatch explained that a poster called Ritchey uploaded it to YouTube with the message: "Throwing this video from The Columbus Dispatch out there, hoping we can find this talent a place to call home."
Rather than celebrate that one of its stories was being promoted, the Dispatch had YouTube take the video down, citing copyright.
The “Partners Project,” which started last month, is being positioned as the talk show of YouTube, featuring contributors who have drawn online audiences of millions. Media Coder reports.
The weekly series is hosted by Shira Lazar, a longtime video blogger who contributes to CBS News. The segments run for 8 to 10 minutes each. In an interview, Ms. Lazar said the celebrity quotient on YouTube was high enough to support a stand-alone series.
Insight from Xinhuanet on China's video sharing websites and their removal of foreign unnauthorized foreign TV series following a state wide crackdown.
Many U.S. TV series fans in China have little choice but to watch video clips online because domestic cable channels do not broadcast copyrighted ones. Some even volunteer to upload clips onto video-sharing websites without any charges.
But now Chen can rarely find such unauthorized online videos of foreign TV series.
In November 2010, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) announced a ban on any forms of trading and supplying unauthorized foreign TV series.
Along with the ban, the Ministry of Culture launched a six-month nationwide crackdown on counterfeiting in October to halt the theft of intellectual property rights (IPRS) and promote public awareness in IPRS protection.
In response, China's major video-hosting websites, including Youku.com, Tudou.com and Ku6.com, removed unauthorized foreign TV series videos.
A podcastor, using an online name "Xueselaoxie" on the Nasdaq-listed Youku.com, said some 7,000 unauthorized videos of American TV series he had uploaded were deleted by the website in one night.
To fans of foreign TV series, the ban might be a nightmare. But to the country, it was an important step in fighting IPRS infringement, said Li Yongqiang, assistant to CEO of Beijing Baofeng Inc., a provider of online video-hosting service.
... The ban has resulted in a reshuffle of online video-sharing industry in China, with major domestic websites gearing up to offer copyrighted imports of TV series and films.
Sohu TV offered many copyrighted online videos of American TV series, including Gossip Girl, the Big Bang Theory and Nikita, after signing agreements with Warner Bros.
Youku.com signed agreements with three major South Korean TV stations - MBC, KBS and SBS. It has also purchased rights from Warner Bros. to stream the hit movie "Inception," and charged five yuan (about 75 U.S. cents) for each view.
Additionally, Tudou.com is trying to produce its own films and TV series.
... China now has more than 200 million video website users and the market is growing, said Li Yongqiang. More paid online video programs will emerge as the cost of importing authorized films and TV programs rises.
Life In A Day is an astoundingly ambitious project that's been years in the making.
Dozens of contributors were asked to film all over the world on July 24th, 2010. There only direction was to film life as they saw it.
In all, over 4,500 hours were documented and sent in to MacDonald, who along with executive producer Ridley Scott, edited and cut the material down to feature length.
Twenty-six different contributors were ultimately chosen, spanning the globe from Peru to Nepal, and now their work is about to be showcased for free on YouTube during two special live online airings.
The first will take place on Thursday January 27th at 6 PM MT, as part of the Sundance Film Festival, and a special encore will be shown on January 28th, at 7PM in viewers' local time zones. Both will take place at Youtube.com/lifeinaday.
Check out the Life In A Day trailer embedded above. Since Ridley Scott was involved, hopefully we will see Russel Crowe?
A YouTube video of Ted Williams, a homeless Columbus, Ohio, man with a golden radio voice, has gone viral over the last two days. Williams has exploded into an overnight sensation. And a possible sports announcer.
The site, named VISO Give, aggregates pre-existing video content from non-profits, sorts it by company name and type of cause, and lets you watch or search for your favorites.
What makes the site interesting is its emphasis on providing a service not just to users looking for videos, but to the non-profits looking for help. Charities usually have to fight for two things: exposure and funding. VISO Give helps with both.
Netflix announced this morning that it is working to make its ubiquitous streaming service even easier to access on connected devices, by adding a “Netflix button” to remote controls from major consumer electronics manufacturers.
By doing so, its subscribers will have one-click access to their instant queues and personalized recommendations.
More than 60,000 Web sites were shut down and about 350 million pieces of pornographic and indecent content were eliminated from the Internet in 2010, the country's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Thursday via News.com.
Police investigated 2,197 cases involving 4,965 people suspected of disseminating pornography via the Internet or cell phone in violation of China law, according to the report. Of those suspects, 58 received jail sentences of five or more years, according to the report.
If publishers are looking to the iPad to help revive (or extend) magazine sales, recent figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) aren't good news. While not all magazines that are available on the iPad release their digital single-issue sales to the ABC, those that do all show a significant year-end drop. ReadWriteWeb reports.
Venture capitalist Fred Wilson makes a point in a blog post Thursday, in which he argues that the economics around mobile platforms such as the iPhone and the iPad — and other tablets, presumably — will likely come to look a lot like the economics of the web itself, in which closing off access to content via paywalls and walled gardens has not proven to be a very successful long-term approach (with a few notable exceptions such as The Economist and the Wall Street Journal). As Wilson puts it:
I don’t understand why anyone would ever think that adding a presentation layer on top of web based content would make it something people would want to purchase when they are not willing to purchase the same content directly on the web.
Like the music-tagging apps, the new 
Unlike 
A lawyer has dramatically withdrawn from pursuing alleged illegal file-sharers in the middle of a court case he brought. The 
As Netflix and other video services offer thousands of movies streamed over the Internet, all those choices are creating a dilemma: what to watch next.
Watching TV has long been a shared collective experience - back in the 1950s, people gathered around office water coolers to talk about the previous night's episode of "I Love Lucy."
Optometrists say as many as one in four viewers have problems watching 3D movies and TV, either because 3D causes tiresome eyestrain or because the viewer has problems perceiving depth in real life. In the worst cases, 3D makes people queasy, leaves them dizzy or gives them headaches. [via 
TV watching isn't as "social" an experience as you might assume, writes 
According to 
A study says the iPad isn't only changing how people read online but when they're doing it, including during traditional TV prime time hours. 
A study by anti-fraud firm 
The story of Ted Williams, the so-called "golden voice" , which was first posted on the 
Insight from 
More than 60,000 Web sites were shut down and about 350 million pieces of pornographic and indecent content were eliminated from the Internet in 2010, the country's state-run 
