YouTube CEO Chad Hurley Steps Down
By Geoff Duncan
DETROIT (Reuters) – Forget the Super Bowl: Ford's marketing chief Jim Farley says he can get more for less on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley is stepping down from the video sharing site's CEO position, with Google's Salar Kamangar stepping into the CEO role. Google bought YouTube back in 2006 for a then-stunning $1.6 billion, and at the F.ounders conference in Dublin last week, Hurley indicated he has been serving mostly in an advisory capacity for the last two years, with Kamangar handling the site's day-to-day operations. Hurley's resignation makes Kamangar's role official…and solidifies Google's control over YouTube.
Hurley is the last of YouTube's co-founders to step down from leadership roles: co-founders Steve Chen and Jawed Karin had previously left the company. Before serving as YouTube's CEO, Hurley was YouTube's CTO, and has worked on other engineering projects at Google. In a statement, Hurley indicated he would stay on with the company in an advisory role. Hurley also runs a fashion business called HIaska—an amalgamation of "Hawaii" and "Alaska"—which will apparently now receive the majority of his attention.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com
Ford bets big in digital marketing departure
By Bernie Woodall
DETROIT (Reuters) – Forget the Super Bowl: Ford's marketing chief Jim Farley says he can get more for less on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
If Farley is right, millions of hits for Ford Motor Company on social media websites will dwarf the impact of ads broadcast during the National Football League's February championship game -- high-profile space selling for $3 million for 30 seconds.
"Customers are spending as much time with the mobile smart phone or online as they are watching TV now, so our advertising dollars have to flow to where the people are," Farley told Reuters in an interview.
Under Farley, 48, who joined Ford from Toyota Motor Co in 2007, the No. 2 U.S. automaker has bet bigger on the emerging category of digital advertising including websites and social media than any of its rivals.
Farley has taken the approach credited with the early success of the youth-oriented Scion brand he launched at Toyota and applied it to the makeover of an established auto brand.
He is betting Ford can use Facebook and Twitter to accelerate the word-of-mouth recommendations long familiar to the auto industry and help the blue-oval brand connect with younger and richer people.
Farley said he learned at Scion that the only way to push past consumer skepticism is "to break into their world."
"You have to shove your way in there. The way we do that is to break down myths. The great thing about Americans is they are always hungry for something new," he said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com
TweetBeat: a TiVo for the Best Tweets
By: Mark Hachman | October 2010
Want to know who has created the best tweets for a given event? Meet TweetBeat.com, which goes live today at 10 AM Pacific.
Executives also positioned the new service as a sort of "TiVo for Twitter," which allows users to scroll back in time for a given event, noting the peak or most interesting plays at a sporting event, for example. The service also identifies key influencers for a given event, and gives users the opportunity to follow them.
TweetBeat looks at the content of the tweet itself, the pages a tweet links to, and interesting words to semantically determine the value of the tweet the service curates. The service also factors in exactly who is tweeting, the number of followers, and other characteristics such as retweets, company executives said at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference on Wednesday.
Source: http://www.pcmag.com
Ivi Sued for Streaming Copyrighted Video
By Brennon Slattery | October 2010
Online video subscription service Ivi apparently didn't get the memo that when you stream copyrighted material over the Internet you get sued. So now the company is facing an onslaught of lawsuits from CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and PBS, among others. (It's an especially sad day when PBS sues you. PBS!)
Seattle-based Ivi opened its doors on September 13, 2010. It charges (or charged, depending on the outcome of the fight) viewers $4.99 per month after a 30-day free trial to stream live TV via a Windows, Mac or Linux download. Ivi was immediately hailed as the "future of television" and a reason for cutting cords with cable companies.
But after receiving several cease-and-desist letters from major broadcasters, Ivi predicted a lawsuit. So on September 20, Ivi filed a preemptive lawsuit against the broadcasters, asking a judge to declare Ivi's actions as legal.
Source: http://www.pcworld.com
YouTube in talks over pay-as-you-go film service: report
Aug 29, 2010
(Reuters) - Google's YouTube video-sharing website is in talks with Hollywood movie studios over a global pay-as-you-go video service that could be launched by the end of the year, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
Citing people with knowledge of the situation, the newspaper said the new service is likely to first launch in the United States, followed by other countries over time.
Google and YouTube "talked about how many people they could steer to this ... it's a huge number," the newspaper quoted an executive with knowledge of the plans as saying.
Source: http://www.reuters.com
Online video key to Disney, Time Warner Cable row
Aug 29, 2010
(Reuters) - The growing availability of popular TV shows on the Web is at the heart of ongoing contentious programing fee negotiations between Walt Disney Co and Time Warner Cable Inc, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
If the agreements are not in place before midnight on Wednesday, millions of homes in major cities like New York and Los Angeles could see their local ABC broadcast, ESPN channels and some Disney channels go dark.
Both sides said in a statement early on Sunday they had made "significant progress" in their negotiations, but a deal is yet to be inked.
The progress was in part an agreement to cool off on a barrage of hard-hitting adverts such as Disney warning customers to switch to satellite operators DirecTV and DISH Network or phone company Verizon Communications -- which has also ran a separate campaign.
Source: http://www.reuters.com
Archived News - 2010
mSpot streams music collections to Android smartphones
By AFP
"Cloud" entertainment startup mSpot on Monday began letting people route home music collections to smartphones running on Google-backed Android mobile software.
"With a rapidly growing number of fixed and portable devices capable of playing music, our service makes 'entertainment anywhere' a reality without the hassle of manually syncing devices," said mSpot chief executive Daren Tsui.
"We plan to be consumers' first choice in this space by offering a service that is extremely portable, easy to use and reliable even when cell coverage is spotty."
The mSpot service launched a private "beta" test of the service in May at a Google developers conference in San Francisco. It took only a few hours to hit the self-imposed cap of 50,000 beta users.
To use the service, people download a mini-program that scans home computers for digital music and then uploads the tunes to mSpot servers that can be accessed from Android smartphones or Internet-linked computers.
There is no charge for the first two gigabytes of mSpot storage, which is enough for approximately 1,600 songs.
Additional storage capacity can be had at monthly fees ranging from 2.99 dollars for 10 gigabytes to 13.99 dollars for 100 gigabytes.
MSpot plans to expand the service to other kinds of smartphones.
Source: http://www.google.com
Playbill Backstage Video Lifts the Curtain on La Cage's Grammer, Hodge, "Cagelles"
By Kenneth Jones
Playbill Backstage, the video feature that puts a portable digital video camera in the hands of Broadway cast members, now turns its attention to the Tony Award-winning Best Revival La Cage aux Folles for a series of four daily chapters June 23-26.
Playbill Backstage is part of Playbill's new and expanding multimedia section. Our video guide backstage at La Cage at the Longacre Theatre is Chris Hoch, who plays Francis, the masochistic stage manager; he also understudies stars Kelsey Grammer (a Tony nominee here as Georges) and Douglas Hodge (a Tony winner as Albin).
Part one introduces the ladies who greet the patrons of St. Tropez's most notorious nightclub; part two offers more "Cagelles" and a tour of dressing rooms; parts three and four introduce Grammer, Hodge and their co-stars backstage.
Source: http://www.playbill.com
Virage Logic Bolsters Suite of Audio Codecs
InfoTech
May 31, 2010 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) -- Virage Logic Corp., a semiconductor industry IP partner, announced an expanded suite of certified, optimized audio codecs that provide users with a solution for a range of System-on-Chip (SoC) audio applications.
The company said the codecs are available for the AS 211SFX with dual MAC (Multiplier/Accumulator), the industry's smallest and lowest power audio digital signal processor (DSP), and have been fully certified and thoroughly tested. Virage Logic's Sound-to-Silicon audio solution is a complete hardware and software offering that includes the AS 211SFX, a codec portfolio, the Media Streaming Framework, and the Sonic Focus audio post processing software. The audio codecs are delivered as source code and are developed and supported by Virage Logic's team of audio specialists.
"Already the industry's second most widely used processor architecture, Virage Logic is underscoring its investment in the ARC processor brand with an expanded suite of certified, fully optimized audio codecs," said Dr. Yankin Tanurhan, vice president and general manager of Virage Logic's Processor, SoC Infrastructure and NVM Solutions business units. "With this expanded suite of audio codecs, Virage Logic is boosting the Sound-to-Silicon product portfolio for portable and home audio markets to enhance the capabilities we can provide our customers."
Source: http://it.tmcnet.com
Indie Roundup: Fest Scene, 'Marwencol,' YouTube
By Peter Martin
Fest Scene. As thousands make their final preparations to attend the Cannes film festival next week, other fests are wrapping up. The venerable San Francisco International Film Festival -- covered by Jeffrey M. Anderson and Eugene Novikov -- closes tonight, while Hot Docs in Toronto -- covered by Monika Bartyzel -- continues through the weekend. The Tribeca Film Festival has concluded, but you can catch up on all of our coverage (by Eric D. Snider, Christopher Campbell, and Scott Weinberg) right here.
The Seattle International Film Festival is gearing up for its latest super-sized edition, which begins on May 20 and runs through June 13. One week later, the Los Angeles Film Festival gets underway in their new downtown digs; they've just announced their lineup. On a sad note, Erik Davis reported that indie film supporter Gen Art has closed its doors after 16 years -- and with it goes the beloved Gen Art Film Festival.
Deals. Jeff Malmberg's Marwencol has been acquired by The Cinema Guild for U.S. distribution, says indieWIRE, and will open in theaters this fall. The film won the jury award for best documentary at SXSW, as well as a special jury prize at Independent Film Festival Boston. It follows a man who was brutally beaten and struggles to recover both physically and mentally. He creates a miniature town in his back yard as a form of therapy. Lauren Lester at Gordon and the Whale says it's "a deeply moving film that deserves to be seen for its art alone."
Source: http://www.cinematical.com
Google I/O to be streamed on YouTube
By Blake Stimac
Google I/O to be streamed on YouTubeIf you won’t be able to make it to San Francisco on the 19th and 20th of May for the Google I/O, don’t worry, YouTube has your back. The I/O will be streamed live from YouTube for the duration of the two-day conference.
YouTube will only be live-streaming the keynotes of the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) I/O, and leave the developers alone to learn what they can while the conference goes on. But that’s no loss, the keynotes will provide just about all the information you’re probably going to want to know about Google’s future plans.
Let’s hope there’s another Oprah moment this year; they gave every attendant a free Google Ion (HTC Magic) at last year’s show. Though Google has already sent out either Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droids or Nexus Ones to paid attendees, I can only hope that they will announce a possible Nexus One follow-up, and give them out to the rest of us.
The Google I/O conference should be full of all sorts of good stuff this year. We’ll likely see Android 2.2 (Froyo) to some extent, and there should be some mention of Flash 10.1 for Android as well. Another thing that we weren’t necessarily expecting until a couple of weeks ago is Google TV. There are rumors of Sony announcing an Android-powered TV that runs on Intel’s Atom processor. If we don’t end up seeing a full-blown TV set, we may see an Android-powered set-top box instead.
Soure: http://www.intomobile.com/
