Author: Paul Lamkin
YouTube to help citizen journalists with dedicated channel
YouTube has launched a new channel – The YouTube Reporters’ Center (yep Center, American’s are more important than us, everybody knows that).
The channel aims to take advantage of its unique position in terms of user content when it comes to world events. The current situation in Iran has highlighted its importance in terms of showcasing first-hand events – particularly with the tragic case of Neda Agha-Soltan whose death was captured on video and posted onto YouTube.
The channel’s aim is to improve the citizen journalism currently on show on YouTube. There are plenty of instructional videos from the experts such as learning how to prepare for an interview with CBS’ Katie Couric, tips on how to be an investigative reporter from Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward or how to report on a humanitarian crisis from Nick Kristof of the New York Times.
The service sounds like a great idea for budding journalists or just ordinary folk who are interested in reporting on news-worthy events in their community. As usual with Google the timing is spot on as well.
(via Google Blog)
RUMOUR: Dell working on Android-based mobile internet device
A report in the Wall Street Journal suggests that Dell plans to release a mobile internet device as well as the much touted Dell smartphone.
The mobile internet device will, like the supposed smartphone, be based on Android and will run via an ARM-based chip. Two Dell insiders have claimed that the MID is slightly larger than the iPod Touch. It won’t have any phone capabilities.
The mobile internet device may even be released sometime in 2009 according to one of the insiders. There’s nothing official from Dell as of yet so we’ll just have to wait and see.
(via Register Hardware)
RUMOUR: Nikon D3000 and D300s images leaked?
Liked the look of the Nikon D5000 in our review earlier this month but can’t afford to cough up the £640 to make it yours? Well, according to rumours circulating in cyberspace a stripped down version of the D5000 could be on its way in the form of the D3000:
The D3000 appears to be slightly less, shall we say, fat than the D5000 and it doesn’t look as if there is a swivel LCD display. It will probably have reduced flash components with a smaller viewfinder. There’s no sight of a microphone or an HDMI port either.
It isn’t just the D3000 that is shamelessly flaunting itself for the world to see either – the D300s is also allegedly getting in on the act:
This looks like an upgrade to the existing D300. Rumours are rife that the D300s may include 720p video recording as well as SD memory card storage, a quiet shutter mode and the muscle to continuously shoot at 8fps.
(via Electronista)
The Pirate Bay sold for £4.7million
It’s been a busy few weeks for the Pirate Bay. Firstly it was announced that the founders had been heavily fined and sentenced to prison in their court case in Sweden. Then the Pirate Party wins two seats in the EU elections. And yesterday we told you about their Video Bay project.
But today’s news trumps the lot – the Pirate Bay has been sold to Swedish software company Global Gaming Factory X AB for 60million SEK (£4.7million).
Global Gaming Chief Executive Hans Pandeya stated that they would “like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site”. So copyright owners will be compensated? That’s not really the ethos of the Pirate Bay is it?
The Pirate Bay is keen to stress that the site will not change under the new ownership – their blog states that the buyers are the “right people with the right attitude”.
However, the relatively small fee paid – this is one of the 100 most visited websites in the world remember – suggests it may be somewhat of a fire-sale. Given the timing and the revelations of the huge fines they face it isn’t difficult to imagine that this sale is more a case of the founders cutting their losses and getting out whilst they can.
The Pirate Bay is saying otherwise though: “The profits from the sale will go into a foundation that is going to help with projects about freedom of speech, freedom of information and the openess of the nets. I hope everybody will help out in that and realize that this is the best option for all. Don’t worry – be happy!”
It’s hard not to worry though isn’t it? It’s going to be fascinating to see how the Pirate Bay evolves under the new owners.
(via Reuters & The Pirate Bay)
Mobile phone companies agree on universal charger for EU
The 10 companies who control 90% of the European phone market have signed a deal which will see mobile phone chargers become universal by 2010.
The group, which includes Apple, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, LG and NEC, has agreed to a harmonisation that will see mobile phones charged by mini-USB adaptors. The move is not only good for people who have drawers full of various charges – it’s great news for the environment too.
Every year there are 185million phones sold in the EU and therefore around 185million chargers as well. The majority of these chargers become useless after upgrading to a new phone – even, in some cases, if users stay with the same brand.
The idea is that, after an unspecified time following the release of the universal charger, chargers and phones will be sold separately. The move only applies to smartphones and is only for the EU at the moment.
Hopefully, the rest of the world will follow suit soon after. They should do – not only would it save them money because they won’t have to manufacture and package chargers for every phone they sell (I can’t see them reducing the price of phones just because it ships without a charger) it will also be good for their green-credentials.
(via Reuters)
Virgin and Universal to team up again – this time for movies
Virgin and Universal sitting in a tree,
k-i-s-s-i-n-g.
First comes music,
then comes movies,
then comes….actually I can’t think of anything to rhyme with movies but you get the point.
After the announcement earlier this month that Virgin and Universal are to join forces to offer a DRM-free music download service it seems you can’t keep the two media giants apart.
Virgin have today announced that they are to offer Universal’s Picturebox service to their 3.6million TV subscribers.
The service, which is already available to BT Vision and TopUp TV customers, will cost a fiver a month and will give subscribers access to around 28 films a month – with seven new ones being put up every Friday. The majority of these should be available in HD too.
Virgin seems to be aggressively targeting the on-demand generation with their latest announcements. They have realised that, amongst other things, the internet and new technology have brought with them a culture whereby users want their content instantly and they want it when it fits their schedule. Well done Virgin I say, well done indeed.
If Virgin’s Picturebox service is enough to tempt you in to a subscription then sign up here.
Firefox 3.5 out tomorrow
Mozilla has confirmed that version 3.5 of their popular web browser, Firefox, will be released tomorrow – thus fulfilling their promise of a June release…just.
Codenamed Shiretoko – which incidentally is a peninsula in the north-east of Japan geography lovers – version 3.5 is a confusing number jump from the current 3.0.11. Version 3.1 was planned for a December 2008 release but a greater scope in changes, due to numerous bugs, has led Mozilla to jump straight to the 3.5 moniker.
Firefox 3.5 has been available in beta for a couple of weeks now and is said to offer greater performance for the user, although there are suggestions that the beta version of the new Google Chrome release is even faster.
One of the major upgrades of 3.5 is the support for HTML 5 video and audio. Other changes include a private browsing feature, for the more prudent web surfer, and improved add-on features. In all there are over 5,000 changes although the majority of these will be unnoticeable for the end user.
If you can’t wait until tomorrow you can get the beta here. Or, just wait and Firefox will prompt you to update when it is ready.
(via PCPro)
Samsung's 16-inch, 16:9, multimedia based R620 laptop
Samsung has updated their R series laptop range. Well, I say updated but spec-wise the R620 isn’t all that different from the R610. Sure, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD4650 graphics card may be an improvement on the R610’s nVIDIA GeForce Go 9200M GS, but the HD4650 is only included in the premium models. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330 in the standard version isn’t all that different.
On board memory has gone up a gig to 4GB DDR2 and the maximum hard-drive is 500GB, although the standard size is only 160GB. It keeps the 16-inch, 16:9 HD ratio for movie watching via its built-in Blu-ray player. The premium version is full HD 1080p whilst the standard version has a resolution of 1366x 768. There’s also HDMI-out if you want to hook it up to your TV.
One new feature is the anti-bacterial keyboard. It’s coated with a special finish that makes it almost impossible for bacteria to live and breed. Presumably if you spill your Yakult on it, it will simply evaporate into thin-air.*
If you’re looking for a mid-range laptop and you’re also considering buying a Blu-ray player then this laptop could help you kill two birds with stone. As a laptop alone it is decent – not exactly a world-beater – but the added Blu-ray, plus fast transfer via the combo USB/eSATA, make it a pretty good media-centre laptop.
It’s out in July and the standard version will cost you £699 from Samsung.
* This will not actually happen. The Yakult will kill your laptop – don’t try it.
Related post: Samsung R610: 16″ Blu-ray multimedia laptop
The Pirate Bay launches Video Bay beta
You would think that the guys over at the Pirate Bay might lay low for a little while, given the on-going court case and the possibility of jail-time.
But no, their fight against (or should I say, for) copyright infringement shows no sign of relenting – in fact it is showing clear signs of accelerating with the beta release of the Video Bay.
Nothing actually works on the Video Bay at present apart from a couple of test video clips that are a little temperamental. Visitors are presented with a homescreen that states: “This site will be an experimental playground and as such subjected to both live and drunk (en)coding, so please don’t bug us too much if the site ain’t working properly.”
Pirate Bay Spokesman Peter Sunde said it might be a while before the site is launched properly. “It will be done when it’s done, in the future, in like a year or five,” he said.
The Video Bay will aim to rival YouTube with streaming video content. Unlike YouTube, however, there will be no removal of content that may infringe on copyright legislation.
Considering the huge fan base that already exists at the Pirate Bay and the fact that many of these fans are tech savvy – expect the Video Bay to
Vodafone interested in buying T-Mobile
Last month we told you that T-Mobile may well be on the verge of a sell out or merger since a spokesman from their parent company, Deutsche Telekom, expressed disappointment at their results in the UK market.
The FT is reporting this morning that it could be Vodafone who is in pole-position to mount a takeover.
If a buy-out was to go ahead it would make Vodafone the largest mobile phone operator in the UK. Currently O2 is the biggest, with a 27% share but if Vodafone’s 25% share was supplemented by T-Mobile’s 15% then they’d have a whopping 40% share.
This might be the proposed moves downfall though. Competition regulators may veto the takeover in the interests of market fairness.
Both Vodafone and T-Mobile have refused to comment so far although shares in both companies have risen in the market this morning.
(via The FT)
