The Smartphone Hub

In a blogpost titled “Flash and the HTML5 More »










Google – HTML5 – YouTube – Searching – Search Engines

Check out the rest: Gizmodo

Watch and listen closely as YouTube user and iPhone 4 owner Mike “Mself27″ demonstrates a striking call quality issue using nothing but a finger. Call quality suffers at about 2:45. A simple software fix, he contends, might not be enough. More »










IPhone – Smartphone – Handhelds – Apple – Antenna

Check out the rest: Gizmodo

Online video viewing numbers continue to climb with the passing of time, according to data released today by comScore, with Vevo jumping yet again in the rankings. Users watched nearly 34 billion videos in May 2010, with 43.1 percent of those attributable to YouTube and other Google sites.

Meanwhile, Vevo leapfrogged over Viacom-owned properties to become the number four-viewed property of the month with over 430,000,000 videos viewed and 45,579,000 unique viewers — further proof that music videos may eventually rule supreme.

Facebook not only climbed in terms of unique viewers from 41 million to 45 million, but cracked the list of Top 10 Video Content Properties by Videos Viewed with 245,120,000 videos watched. comScore did not break down how many of those views were attributable to new parents sharing adorable baby videos via iPhone app, but I bet it helped.

However, Facebook’s 245 million videos watched per month doesn’t correspond with data previously reported by us. According to a Facebook representative, those figures were “Our internal stats for our monthly video uploads and views. We don’t comment on third party data so I can’t speak to how Comscore measures [its stats].”

Other data provided by comScore includes the fact that with 144.1 million viewers watching 14.6 billion videos on YouTube, that means the average YouTube user watches 101.2 videos each (in April, the number was 96). In addition, the average Hulu viewer watched 27.0 videos for a total of 2.7 hours of video per viewer. In total, 84.8 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience watched online video last month.

Guys, I think this online video thing is catching on.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): New Use For Web Stats: Finding Hot Markets, Offline

Check out the rest: GigaOM

Go to a YouTube video and look closely. See that little soccer ball icon? Don’t click it. I said don’t click it! Don’t do i—-BZZZZZZZZZZZZ! You couldn’t find something more worthy of torture than a cute bunny? More »










YouTube – Shopping – Video – Sports – Soccer

Check out the rest: Gizmodo

Updated: The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has just granted YouTube’s motion for summary judgment against Viacom, meaning that the site is off the hook in Viacom’s billion-dollar copyright infringement case.

Both sides had filed motions for summary judgment in March, which is essentially a way to expedite the court case without going to a jury. YouTube had once again invoked protection under the DMCA’s Safe Harbor provisions in its filing, and the court apparently agreed.

Here’s a statement from Google’s vice president and general counsel, which was published moments ago on YouTube’s blog:

“This is an important victory not just for us, but also for the billions of people around the world who use the web to communicate and share experiences with each other. We’re excited about this decision and look forward to renewing our focus on supporting the incredible variety of ideas and expression that billions of people post and watch on YouTube every day around the world.”

Update: Here is Viacom’s statement:

“We believe that this ruling by the lower court is fundamentally flawed and contrary to the language of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the intent of Congress, and the views of the Supreme Court as expressed in its most recent decisions. We intend to seek to have these issues before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as soon as possible.”

This is a developing story, please check back for updates.

Check out the rest: GigaOM

As handfuls of iPhone 4s begin to slip through the cracks and into the grabby hands of hungry phone fans everywhere, the first batches of unboxing pictures are starting to go live as we type this. (You mean these people aren’t waiting to open up their phones with the rest of us chumps on Thursday mornings? Jerks! You guys probably peeked at your Christmas presents as a kid, too. [Just kidding, of course -- tear those things apart.])

We’re keeping an eye out for galleries as they go up; if you’re amongst the many hundreds of thousands waiting on the edge of the seat, join as after the jump for these last minute teases.

MacRumors forumgoer AppleMojo managed to snap off these pics through the excitement:

Update: More shots!

We’ll update with more shots as they spring up around the Internet. Get your iPhone early? Feel free to shoot me some shots at greg at crunchgear dot com.

Update #2: Big thanks to Youtube user littlbilly76 , who took a second to capture the whole thing on video. It’s not exactly Scorcese-level work, but hey: it’s video.

Update #3: More video (this time in focus!) thanks to Youtube user gizmosachin:

Check out the rest: MobileCrunch

Compatible with iOS4 (dropping sometime today), Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch combines IM functionality with Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr support. It’s a free download, and even has Hotmail support built-in too. More »










iPhone – Handhelds – Smartphones – Microsoft – Facebook

Check out the rest: Gizmodo

Keith Rabois will tell you that he’s not a passive angel investor — quite the opposite. Along with a check, Rabois wants to bring to his investments the wisdom he’s gleaned from his time as an executive at companies including PayPal, LinkedIn and Slide (where he is currently VP of business development and strategy), as well as his experience investing in companies such as YouTube and Yelp. These days he’s high on companies like Palantir and AirBnB.

Last week, he stopped by our office to share some of his insights into startups, Silicon Valley, investment trends and the rise of the super angels. Given his genuine desire to not only fund but help young companies, it was only natural that during our video interview he was a font of useful information for investors and entrepreneurs alike. In particular, he shared his insights on:

• The proliferation and growth of angel rounds
• The dearth of exits for angels
• The importance of figuring out what you want from your VC
• Questions to ask a potential angel (among them: What have they done in their own career?)

During the conversation, he pointed out that three years ago it was rare to see $500,000 angel rounds of investments in startups. Today, that’s the minimum starting point; it’s more common to see $750,000 angel rounds.

Is that because there are too many angels? “There is a halo around being an angel investor or a seed investor,” Rabois told me. “I was joking with someone recently that when you went to a party, it’s cooler to be a seed investor raising a round than an entrepreneur, and that’s a sign of major bubble in investing. “

Sit back and watch this 20-minute interview. And if you are a startup/entrepreneur, pay close attention:

Check out the rest: GigaOM

Up until now, if YouTube users wanted to combine multiple clips into a single video, they had to use offline editing tools. But YouTube today rolled out cloud-based video editing tools, giving users a whole new way to remix their existing video assets online.

As detailed in the Google operating system blog, the new YouTube editor allows users to trim video, mix and match clips — even add music. And while the new offering won’t replace more robust video editing software — like Apple’s Final Cut Pro — it will enable users to combine their videos in new and interesting ways.

In many ways, the YouTube video editor is similar to offline editing software. To combine videos, YouTube members can drag thumbnails from their existing assets into the filmstrip at the bottom of the screen. Once there, they can edit and trim those videos by selecting the scissors icon. Once the video has been edited, users can preview the result before saving, which creates a new entry in their library. They can then add title, description, tags and any other metadata associated with the new clip. In addition to being able to trim and combine clips, YouTube users can also add music to those clips from the AudioSwap library. However, YouTube warns that it could run ads against videos if they use those audio files.

YouTube isn’t the first video sharing site to add editing to its offerings — video editing on the fly is one of the key features of Motionbox, for instance. In fact, it’s not even the first time that YouTube has attempted to make cloud-based video editing available to its users: As the Google operating system blog points out, in 2007 the video site had launched the Flash-based YouTube mixer, which was based on Adobe Premier Express. However, it was discontinued after it was found to be too buggy. For more on cloud computing, join the GigaOM Network for its annual Structure conference June 23 & 24 in San Francisco.

Related content on GigaOM Pro: Report: Delivering Content in the Cloud (subscription required)

Check out the rest: GigaOM

Rejoice, blossoming cat-video producers: YouTube’s new cloud-based tool will let you trim clips, stitch them together, add soundtrack music from a library of royalty-free music, and publish your kitty masterpieces—meowsterpieces?—directly to YouTube. More »










YouTube – Arts – Video – Video editing – Music

Check out the rest: Gizmodo