Media News

New YouTube producer terms let Google play your videos anywhere

After announcing a new YouTube Google TV app yesterday, Google is now encouraging YouTube content partners to sign new terms that give the company permission to play their videos across all platforms (mobile, TV, web, etc.) by default.

Right now, content partners upload their videos to YouTube and take a cut of the revenue that’s brought in from the advertising. The partners currently have the option to restrict their videos from being played on certain … Continue Reading

PBS lets iOS users see new documentary before it airs on TV

The Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) has decided to rip a page out of HBO’s book by giving iPad and iPhone owners early access to its exclusive video content before it debuts to the rest of the world.

iOS device owners that have the free PBS app can watch the first hour of the new documentary on President Bill Clinton American Experience: Clinton today — a week before it premieres on television Feb. 20, which is … Continue Reading

Most installed Google TV apps include Napster, Pandora, and CNBC

Music and financial news top the list for the most successful Google TV applications, according to a new six-month-long study from Xyologic.

The Android OS-based Google TV software, which currently runs on a variety of set-top boxes from Logitech, Sony, and others, allows regular television sets to gain access to content on the Internet. It also helps organize that content so it can more easily be found and consumed, and it adds support for developers … Continue Reading

Shameful: Sony raised prices on Whitney Houston’s digital music 30 minutes after her death

As much criticism as record labels receive for how they treat artists, Sony Music might take the cake. The company pulled the ultimate in shameful activities this weekend by raising the price on Whitney Houston’s Ultimate Collection album on iTunes and Amazon within 30 minutes of her death on Saturday.

Music mega-star Whitney Houston died on Saturday at the age of 48. And when a high-profile artist passes away, fans often look to re-experience their … Continue Reading

By surrendering to Facebook, MySpace was able to find a pulse. Adds 1M new users

It’s alive! MySpace, once the king of the social networking space, has been bleeding users for years.  Now it’s set to report a million new users have signed up since December, says the New York Times. (Maybe new investor Justin Timberlake’s experience acting in the “The Social Network” is rubbing off on Myspace.)

The big change strategic change Myspace has made is to stop competing head to head with Facebook. Instead, it’s trying to leverage … Continue Reading

Boxee plotting a new DVR subscription service

Boxee may be planning to launch a new DVR subscription service aimed at users who’ve purchased its new Live TV stick, according to a new survey the company sent  to users over the weekend.

The Boxee Box is a streaming set-top box featuring Boxee’s open-source media software, which transforms televisions into internet connected media centers. The company launched its Live TV tuner stick back in January, which is a $49 add-on that acts as a … Continue Reading

Reddit tries to crack down on child pornography with new rules banning suggestive subreddits

Running a massive online community is a tricky business. The administrators who police the site are trying to strike a balance between encouraging users to contribute and keeping unsavory and illegal behavior to a minimum.

Reddit, a news aggregator and online community which has seen massive growth over the last year, allows users to create subreddits, which are essentially themed forums centred around topics like technology, humor and thousands of more obscure pastimes. Over the … Continue Reading

Google TV YouTube updates on the way, just in time for original content

One of the best upgrades in Google TV 2.0 was the addition of a dedicated YouTube app — now, it’s about to get even better with an update set to launch this week.

The new YouTube GTV app will offer a smoother interface and a new feature called Discover that will (surprise!) make it easier to find interesting videos. Discover will be a particularly useful addition as Google readies its plans for YouTube original content, … Continue Reading

Steve Jobs gets a Grammy, one award out of Adele’s reach

The late Steve Jobs was honored with a Grammy Trustees Award on Saturday for his contributions to the music industry, which included helping to develop the iPod and reshaping the way music is sold with the iTunes Store.

The award is meant to “recognize contributions to the music industry in areas other than performance,” CBS News reports, and was accepted by Apple’s SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue.

“Accepting this award means so … Continue Reading

Spotify takes music quality to the “extreme” on iPhone

If you’re a Spotify user with an iPhone, it’s time to pump up the volume.

The popular music streaming service has added support for extremely high quality 320 kbps music streaming and offline synchronizing — just about the best sound you can get from compressed music files.

Spotify originally offered low quality (96 kbps) and high quality (160 kbps) settings for streaming and syncing on its mobile apps, but an update over the weekend has … Continue Reading

Instagram makes mobile photo-sharing more hip with filters, enhancements

Mobile photo-sharing service Instagram updated its application today with a new filter, enhancement feature, and a makeover to its user interface.

Instagram lets you take a photo with your iPhone and layer it with different filters for that extra hip look. You can then connect it to your social networks and share it with the Instagram community. Now, the company is introducing a new, sleeker interface that’s easier to navigate. The updates include a new … Continue Reading

Crowdtilt launches to group fund anything (and it means anything)

Crowdtilt, a new group-funding site backed by startup incubator Y Combinator, has launched today to help you fund anything. The site lets you group fund any project or goal you can come up with, from trips across the country to buying a wedding gift.

“Essentially, we’ve taken our favorite elements of crowdfunding platforms and provided them for groups of friends instead” Crowdtilt chief executive and co-founder James Beshara told VentureBeat in an email.

Crowdtilt’s focus … Continue Reading

How sites like MegaUpload make millions from pirated video

This story originally appeared on CNET and is republished with permission.

For the scope of this article, I am leaving all of the commentary on SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, and such aside for others much more well-versed than I to discuss.

A lot of people have been asking me the same question lately: Just how do file-sharing sites like MegaUpload — recently taken down by an international collection of law enforcement — make hundreds of millions … Continue Reading

Iran ‘celebrates’ 1979 revolution anniversary by blocking encrypted websites

Most modern governments celebrate the anniversary of a national revolution day by making it an official holiday where people routinely get off work, eat food that probably isn’t healthy, and spend quality time with family and friends.

If you live in Iran, however, the government celebrates by blocking access to all websites using the “HTTPS” protocol, which includes sites from Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and basically any banking web service. Essentially, this means the internet is … Continue Reading

Roku gets BBC iPlayer channel to boost U.K. launch

U.K. owners of the streaming media set-top box Roku are getting a significant addition to the available content lineup today with an official BBC iPlayer channel.

Following Netflix’s lead, Roku launched its line of streaming media set-top boxes in the UK and Ireland back in January with a fraction of the channels offered by its U.S. counterpart. The company’s set-top boxes allow people to stream over 40 channels of content on their televisions, including video, … Continue Reading

Amazon exec: standalone Prime streaming video service isn’t likely

Despite an aggressive push to increase its variety of TV shows and movies, Amazon isn’t planning to split off its Prime streaming video service into a standalone subscription offering, according to the company’s management team. At least not anytime soon.

Currently, Amazon offers its streaming video service as an added perk for members of its Prime membership, which costs $79 per year and includes free two-day shipping on lots of items sold on the online … Continue Reading

Google-branded streaming music device in development, report says

Google is allegedly working on creating a company-branded entertainment device capable of streaming music in multiple locations throughout a person’s home.

The information about the Google-branded device comes from a Wall Street Journal report that cites unnamed people briefed on the project. If true, it would mark the Google’s first attempt at creating a hardware product without the aid of an electronics manufacturing partner. The search giant has historically concentrated its resources on developing web-based … Continue Reading

Evernote updates contact app to fix first-version flaws

Every phone has a contact list, but how useful is it? According to Evernote chief executive officer Phil Libin, not very useful at all.

Now Evernote has updated its contact manager, Evernote Hello, in an effort to put those contact lists out of business.

Evernote’s answer to the standard address book is a photo-based contact app for the iPhone, which organizes contacts “visually, chronologically and contextually.” The app got some major updates today that may … Continue Reading

Obama shows further mastery of social by tweeting Spotify campaign playlist

Many analysts think President Obama won the 2008 election partly due to his campaign’s ability to use social networks and the web to rally and influence voters. And now with the 2012 election season upon us, Obama is showing he still gets it with the release of a subscribe-able 28-track Spotify playlist.

Obama’s official Twitter account today posted a new Spotify playlist titled “2012 Campaign Playlist” with the message: “A little Wilco, a bit of … Continue Reading