YouTube now supports 4k resolution
Today during the VidCon 2010 conference, Google has announced that YouTube will now support video with 4k resolution, over double what the current 1080p standard allows for.
4k has a pixel resolution of 4096 x 3072, whereas 1080p has resolution of 1920 x 1080.
“To give some perspective on the size of 4K, the ideal screen size for a 4K video is 25 feet; IMAX movies are projected through two 2k resolution projectors,” says Ramesh Sarukkai, a YouTube engineer.
Many users will not be able to even run the videos at this point, as it requires “super fast broadband,” likely with 15Mbps as a bare minimum.
China will renew our web license, says Google
Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said this week that he expects China to renew the company’s Web license, as it has been recently revised.
China had threatened to not renew the license, saying it disapproved of the way the search giant tried to sidestep Google’s censorship rules by directing its domain to Hong Kong, where searches were unfiltered.
While Schmidt believes the license will be renewed, he admitted the ball is fully in China’s court.
“Our operations in China are completely at the discretion of the Chinese government,” he added.
The situation began in January when Google said it would stop censoring search results, which violates Chinese law.
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology spokesman Wang Lijian says the decision could take months, however.
T-Mobile drops price of Garminfone already
T-Mobile released the first Android-powered Garmin smartphone in May to mixed reviews, and slow sales.
This week, the wireless carrier has dropped the price of the phone, from $200 to $130, looking to keep the price competitive in a world where Froyo will soon be the norm.
The phone has a 3.5-inch screen, 3MP camera with autofocus, and because of the GPS, the pictures can be geo-tagged. The GPS, as standard, works over 3G and Wi-Fi.
While those specs are not impressive, the Garminfone is notable because of its GPS system, which has on-board US maps, text-to-speech, full driving/walking/public transportation directions, real-time traffic, weather, local events, movie listings and even gas prices.
The next best feature is “Garmin Voice Studio” which lets users “record and customize voice directions which can also be shared with family and friends.”
Because it is more a GPS with phone capabilities than anything else, the device will come with a charging window and a dashboard mount for the car.
Judge reduces penalty in Tenenbaum piracy case
A federal judge has significantly reduced the penalty against Joel Tenenbaum, the graduate student that was convicted of sharing 30 unauthorized tracks online.
Last July, Tenenbaum was found guilty and told to pay $675,000 to the RIAA and record labels.
The judge has now reduced the verdict to $67,500, saying the damages award was “unconstitutionally excessive” given the fact that Tenenbaum made no money off the sharing of the music.
Judge Nancy Gertner added the following of the new verdict: The new damages “not only adequately compensates the plaintiffs for the relatively minor harm that Tenenbaum caused them; it sends a strong message that those who exploit peer-to-peer networks to unlawfully download and distribute copyrighted works run the risk of incurring substantial damages awards.”
$67,500 is three times the statutory minimum.
Despite being grateful, Tenenbaum still called the new verdict ‘ridiculous:’ “I still don’t have $70,000 — and $2,000 per song still seems ridiculous in light of the fact that you can buy them for 99 cents on iTunes,” Tenenbaum said. “I mean $675,000 was also absurd.”
The RIAA, unsurprisingly, was not happy: “With this decision, the court has substituted its judgment for that of 10 jurors as well as Congress. For nearly a week, a federal jury carefully considered the issues involved in this case, including the profound harm suffered by the music community precisely because of the activity that the defendant admitted engaging in.”
Chinese airport shut down after UFO flies overhead
China shut down the Xiaoshan Airport early this morning after a UFO flew through the night sky, leaving a bright trail of light in its wake.
Over 30 flights had to be redirected or cancelled.
The UFO was first seen flying over the Zhejiang provincial capital Hangzhou.
Witnesses called local authorities claiming they had seen a “comet-like” fireball in the sky.
Says one witness: “The thing suddenly ran westwards fast, like it was escaping from something.”
Some experts have already said the sight was debris from U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile, and Chinese officials have stayed mum, given the “military” connection.
Geohot jailbreaks iPhone 4
After jailbreaking the iPad in early April, the noted hacker Geohot went on a small hiatus.
Today, however, the hacker has posted again to his blog, showing off a picture of the iPhone jailbroken, with access to Cydia, the app store available to users with jailbroken devices.
That being said, it does not look like he will be releasing the jailbreak software anytime soon.
Says Geohot: “Got one of these in the mail today and figured I’d give it a shot.
As far as a release goes, it probably won’t happen from me. limera1n is little more than a raindrop on a website; it was never mentioned by me previous to this post. pwned4life is a complete invention of some blogger in a basement somewhere. When I said pwned for life, I was referring to the original iPhone, 3G, and Touch; which of course are, by the aptly named PwnageTool.
Again, please don’t ask for release dates. Every person that does makes me want to release a little bit less.”
For those with the new device, and in need of a jailbreak, your best bet is waiting on Comex’s Spirit tool, which should be released once the iOS 4.0.1 is launched.
Chrome OS to detect orientation
Google is readying orientation detection for the upcoming Chrome OS, giving the Chrome browser the ability to use accelerometer data to keep track of which way is up.
If you rotate, the interface rotates with you.
Furthermore, upcoming apps and games can use the tweak as a method of control.
There are no current browsers with the capability, although Mozilla has promised a stable version of it for Firefox 4.0. Safari is likely to add it as well, as it is part of WebKit.
Chrome OS, for the most part, still remains a mystery to the general consumer, although Google took time to explain the cloud OS in a series of videos.
Xbox Live revenue tops $1 billion
According to a new report from Bloomberg, Microsoft’s Xbox Live service brought in $1.2 billion revenue for the fiscal 2009 year.
For the year ended June 30th, about 12.5 million Xbox Live users paid an annual fee to play games online which Bloomberg says would account for about $600 million in revenue. Xbox Live COO Dennis Durkin says on top of that, sales of DLC, movies and TV topped subscription revenue for the first time ever, and by a significant margin, leading us to the final $1.2 billion figure.
Success with Xbox Live is key to Microsoft’s Entertainment division, which has seen slow sales of Zune media players, slow smartphone sales, and a barely profitable Xbox 360 console, which sees most of its profit from software and accessory sales.
Adds Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft: “Xbox Live has helped sell a lot of consoles and created a lot of loyalty. Everyone has been talking about Microsoft’s inability to innovate, but this is a pretty good example where they have innovated. They timed it just right with this one.”
If accurate, revenue would have jumped from $800 million in 2008, a pretty hefty increase.
AT&T blames software for “capped” upload speeds
Yesterday, complaints began surfacing online that AT&T was “capping” upload speeds for iPhone 4 users, slowing upstream bandwidth to a crawl in Metropolitan areas such as New York City and Boston.
Today, the wireless carrier has blamed software from Alcatel-Lucent for the issues, saying a fix is in the works.
Additionally, the company says only 2 percent of users are affected by the defect.
Lucent declined to offer a timetable for the fix, and would not reveal which areas were being affected.
Customer complaints have been filed from NYC, Central Jersey, Boston, Orlando, Seattle, South Jersey/Philly, Columbus, Cleveland, West Houston, Phoenix, Northern Colorado, St. Paul/Minesota, Suffolk County/Long Island, Quad Cities, South Jersey, Denver, Detroit Metro, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Fairfax, and Minneapolis, so far.
Best Buy does not fire employee behind iPhone 4, EVO 4G spoof ads
Last week, Best Buy employee Brian Maupin was suspended for posting viral videos spoofing iPhone 4 and HTC EVO 4G zealots.
The iPhone video is so popular it has topped 3.4 million views.
Best Buy suspended Maupin while they investigated the situation, although neither video directly names or even implies the retail giant. Maupin went as far as to say that he expected to be fired completely this week.
Today, Best Buy has concluded their investigation, and Maupin is free to head back to work in the morning.
Says the company: “We have completed our investigation into the videos created and posted by Brian Maupin, the aspiring film-maker and Best Buy employee. This is an important situation for us because it involved balancing our social media guidelines with a commitment to creating a supportive environment for our employees. It’s important to note that our investigation involved three videos that were posted in late June because they were openly disparaging of our employees, our customers and our vendor partners. Our investigation is over, and these videos are no longer on the web. Contrary to rumors, Brian has not been fired, and is scheduled to return to his job at Best Buy this Friday.”
