YouTube is reaching out to San Francisco local media to test a new iteration of the YouTube Direct platform. Launched last November, YouTube Direct is intended to be used by publishers to locate and distribute video captured by amateurs and uploaded to the YouTube site, and it has been used well by bigger named in news such as NPR, or ABC’s Good Morning America.
However, local news outlets have not embraced the YouTube Direct platform as a tool for enhancing their news coverage. For this reason, YouTube will reportedly use San Francisco as a sort-of showcase. YouTube staff are currently looking for local contributors in San Francisco to test out the YouTube Direct platform.
“We launched YouTube Direct in November, and it’s been a great way for news organizations to easily leverage citizen reporting on YouTube,” YouTube’s comment on the matter reads, according to CNET. “We’re currently experimenting with new ways to make the platform more useful, and we’ll have more to announce on that front soon.”
Result for: last november
When Google first introduced their upcoming Chrome OS last November, the company was very quiet on a timetable for the OS’ release.
Today, a top exec at the company has tentatively named the “late fall” as the release window for the highly-anticipated operating system.
The OS will initially be designed to work on laptops and netbooks, says Sundar Pichai, Google’s head of the Chrome project: “We will be selective on how we come to market because we want to deliver a great user experience. We’re thinking on both the hardware and software levels.”
Google is looking to take on Microsoft who controls 90 percent of the PC market with their Windows operating systems. After the announcement, Microsoft struck back saying Google’s open-source operating system would fail as software developers would have to create different versions of their applications for all the different brands of Chrome OS.
Pichai says that it simply not true: “Chrome OS is one of the few future operating systems for which there are already millions of applications that work. You don’t need to redesign Gmail for it to work on Chrome. Facebook does not need to write a new app for Chrome.”
Most, if not all software run in the Chrome OS will be in the cloud.
Result for: last november
Verizon has finally launched the much-hyped HTC Incredible, an Android smartphone dubbed as the latest in a long line of “iPhone killers.”
The phone has a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, an 8MP camera with dual-LED flashes, Android 2.1 built-in and the latest HTC Sense UI.
Additionally, the phone has a 3.7-inch multi-touch 800×480 screen, GPS, Wi-Fi, 3G and is seen as the sequel to the popular Desire smartphone.
The Incredible will go on sale on April 29th, with pre-orders starting on the 19th.
The smartphone will sell for $200 with contract, the same price as the Droid initially cost when it launched last November.
