Video Daily: Palm Pre Plus running 50 apps simultaneously
PreCentral has compared the older Palm Pre smartphone with the new Palm Pre Plus and it appears that the new handset, which features double the RAM and storage space, can run up to 50 apps simultaneously, whereas the original starts to hurt at around 13.
Bluesman, record company dismiss copyright lawsuit
Kinney Lee Malone, son of former popular Mississippi bluesman Junior Kimbrough and the record label Fat Possum Records have decided to dismiss a copyright lawsuit filed in 2008, where Malone was seeking about $1 million and royalties.
U.S. District judge W. Allen Pepper said this week the case was closed as both sides agreed to dismiss it.
It is unclear whether there was any financial settlement between the two parties.
Kimbrough died in 1998 and had a few hit songs in his life. Malone sued FPR claiming they were using the songs without permission and were not paying royalties.
Microsoft to display actual currency prices next to virtual MS Points
Responding to complaints, Xbox group product manager Aaron Greenberg has said that the company does not want to mislead consumers with MS Points and will be looking to display actual currency prices next to the MS Points for all content.
“We never intended to mislead people,” Greenberg said, via G4. “We want to be transparent about it, and so it is something that we’re looking at.”
“How can we be more transparent and let people see it in actual dollars? You’ve got to think that we have one service that we’re offering around the world. The nice thing about Points is that no matter if you’re on the JPY or the EUR or the USD – something that’s 200 Points is 200 Points everywhere around the world. There’s more technical complexities to being able to put local prices in. You have to do that for every product in every country and you then have to deal with currency fluctuations. So there’s some challenges to that, but we absolutely did it with the Games On Demand, response has been good and absolutely it’s something we’re looking at doing,” he concluded.
YouTube now supports HTML5 videos
According to the latest official blog, YouTube has now released an experimental version of an HTML5-supported player, giving users their “number one request” for new updates.
To join the beta, Google links to this page, as long as you have an HTML5-supportive browser: http://www.youtube.com/html5
The full post:
A while ago, YouTube launched a simple demo of an HTML5-based video player. Recently, we published a blog post on our pre-spring cleaning effort and your number one request was that YouTube do more with HTML5. Today, we’re introducing an experimental version of an HTML5-supported player.
HTML5 is a new web standard that is gaining popularity rapidly and adds many new features to your web experience. Most notably for YouTube users, HTML5 includes support for video and audio playback. This means that users with an HTML5 compatible browser, and support for the proper audio and video codecs can watch a video without needing to download a browser plugin.
Our support for HTML5 is an early experiment, and there are some limitations. HTML5 on YouTube doesn’t support videos with ads, captions, or annotations and it requires a browser that supports both the video tag and h.264 encoded video (currently that means Chrome, Safari, and ChromeFrame on Internet Explorer). We will be expanding the capabilities of the player in the future, so get ready for new and improved versions in the months to come.
EA already working on games for the Apple Tablet
According to new reports, Electronic Arts is already working on games for the upcoming Apple Tablet, and that Apple entrusted the company to create games that would highlight the tablet’s “gaming capabilities.”
The tablet is expected to be unveiled, after years of hype, on January 27th at an Apple event.
All reports have the device as a 10.1-inch multi-touch capable tablet, with an included e-book reader, as well as Wi-Fi, 3G, TV, and gaming capabilities.
Although consumers have made it clear they will not pay more than $700 for the device, many analysts believe the expensive tablet will weigh in at $999.
YouTube to offer Independent films for rental from Friday
Google Inc.’s YouTube online video service announced on Wednesday that it will offer five films from the Sundance Film Festival (2009 and 2010) for rental from this Friday until January 31st to U.S. users. In addition to the titles offered in partnership with the Sundance Film Festival, the site will offer a small collection of rental videos from other U.S. partners across different industries, including health and education, in the weeks after.
“These are early days and in the coming weeks we’ll also invite a small group of partners across other industries, in addition to independent film, to participate in this new option. Anything that brings more content to the YouTube community is a good thing,” the YouTube blog reads. “And making content available for rent will give our partners unprecedented control over the distribution of their work.”
The announcement states that owners can decide the price of their videos and the rental duration, when and where their content is available and will keep 100 percent of the rights. The site will be seeking more Independent filmmakers to participate in the rental program as part of its “Filmmakers Wanted” campaign at the festival.
TiVo sued by Microsoft over patents
Microsoft has sued TiVo this week, accusing the DVR company of patent infringement.
The suit says TiVo illegally used technology relating to “purchasing and delivering video and the ability to display programming information.”
Last year, TiVo sued AT&T in a similar suit, and it appears Microsoft has intervened on AT&T’s behalf. AT&T is Microsoft’s largest customer for its Internet video platform, with Microsoft’s video delivery platform powering AT&T’s Internet-based TV service.
Microsoft has explained that it will end the suit with a licensing agreement in place, but that TiVo has not been responsive.
Tetris mobile downloads top 100 million
Companies that market the 25 year old classic, Tetris, are expected to announce that the game has reached an impressive 100 million mobile downloads — paid mobile downloads at that. Since it’s creation in 1984, it has had a long life, exploding with its role in the success of the Game Boy, released in 1989.
Ever since it rose to worldwide popularity, it had stayed around one way or another, racking up millions of players.
Tetris’ playing format (doesn’t need explanation!) makes it very suitable for mobile devices in particular, and it is not surprising that it has hit such a significant milestone on such devices. It’s neat, familiar interface, combined with simple control requires, means it is suitable for a very wide range of mobile phones and other devices made by a wide range of CE companies.
EA Mobile, an arm of Electronic Arts Inc., currently licenses Tetris from Blue Planet Software. The official announcement of the sales milestone is expected on Thursday.
VuRoom plug-in brings multipoint videoconferencing.to Skype
A new plug-in for Skype being marketed by Startup Vivu brings multipoint videoconferencing to the Skype software; adding functionality that has been absent so far from the service. Failing to deliver multipoint videoconferencing has been viewed as one of Skype’s biggest shortcomings, and Vivu is hoping to capitalize on the vacuum. “The flaw in Skype’s video strategy right now is that it’s point-to-point only,” said Irwin Lazar, an industry analyst with Chicago-based Nemertes Research.
The VuRoom plugin allows several people to take part in a video call using Skype, which the number of participants limited by available bandwidth. Vivu CEO Sudha Valluru said that the service will allow for up to 8 participants for broadband users before a degradation in quality would become a problem. The participants’ feeds will be shown in a browser window that will pop up when the call begins.
The plug-in will cost a user US$9.95 per month for unlimited use. Not all participants in a videoconference need to buy the plug-in; only the user who initiates the call. For other participants, the requirements are just Skype, a webcam and a browser. The plugin also allows participants to show PowerPoint presentations on screen, or to stream their computers’ desktop.
Given that the vast majority of Skype users don’t pay for any service from Skype, the VuRoom plug-in will have a tough time finding customers who are willing to pay the monthly fee. There is also another big risk; Skype may add multipoint videoconferencing at any time to the software, Vivu’s product obsolete. Indeed, many analysts do expect Skype to add the functionality eventually.
Adobe patches critical Shockwave bugs
Adobe Systems has issued updates for Shockwave 11.5.2.602 and earlier on the Windows and Mac operating systems aimed at patching serious security bugs with the player. The bugs could potentially allow malicious code to be executed on computers that use the software. The integer overflow and buffer overflow flaws are fixed by an upgrade that Adobe is strongly urging all of its users to install.
It estimates that ShockWave has been installed on over 450 million Internet-enabled Desktops. In order to install a newer version of the Shockwave player however, users need to manually uninstall the older vulnerable version of the software, reboot and then install the newer version. Other Adobe products use automatic update utilities to get newer versions, which will ensure a much higher rate of patching then manual installation.
The update will install Shockwave v11.5.6.606.
