There are awards for everything, so it’s only natural that YouTube honors the mostly-amateur artists who submit their work to the online video sharing site.

YouTube today announced the winners of the second annual YouTube Video Awards — and the content ranges from silly and amateurish to totally captivating. There’s an adorable laughing baby, Harry Potter puppets (including a naked Dumbledore), a blind painter, a 25-year-old Minnesota PhD student who sings an original song now covered by Green Day and John Mayer, and a girl named Lisa.

Granted, the content is far from professional or semi-pro at best, but that’s the point. If you want to see spit and polish, watch the Oscars or the Emmys. With the YouTube awards, you’ll see a laughing baby fall over, a human TETRIS performance, a dramatic show about friends who play online games, and a gripping short film about Lisa and her mentally ill mother.

While the “highbrow” write off the YouTube Video Awards as a “major yawn”, we think otherwise, especially as more devices — other than the AppleTV or TiVo — bring YouTube into your living room. When YouTube is readily available on your television, just like network and cable or satellite TV, then what’s the difference between it and NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and all the other channels?

Continue reading “From an adorable laughing baby to a girl named Lisa, YouTube names video award winners” »

Joost (last100 review) is planning to let viewers access its Internet TV service via a Web browser, rather than requiring them to download and install the current Mac/Windows application, according to Portfolio.com.

This year, viewers will be able to watch Joost videos in a browser window. Go to Joost’s website, click on shows like Seth Green’s edgy Robot Chicken or an old Rocky and Bullwinkle episode and you can watch them as easily as you’d watch a video on YouTube. Previously, all Joost users had to download and install special software.

Though no specific launch date is mentioned (Joost has a track record of stating that it has plans to be everything to everybody), the move to a browser based offering is interesting on a number of fronts.

Continue reading “Don’t turn off the life support just yet: Joost coming to the browser” »

The jockeying for position is over. It’s time for the U.S. carriers, the world’s handset manufacturers, and third-party application developers to innovate the mobile wireless future.

Today the U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced that the big winners in the 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction were, indeed, Verizon and AT&T, the two biggest players in the industry.

Verizon won the coveted C-block for $4.74 billion, besting Google’s bid of $4.71 billion. Going into the spectrum bid, which began at the end of January, many industry followers had hoped that Google would take its bid seriously as a way to shake up a stagnant industry.

Google committed to bidding the minimum of $4.66 billion, which triggered a rule that the winner of the 700 MHz C-block spectrum would have to open its network to any device, any application. Just by bidding, Google dictated the new rules of the game — rules that Verizon must now follow.

AT&T won 227 regional licenses around the U.S. Those licenses, along with the piece of the 700 MHz puzzle it already owned, allows AT&T to further enhance the quality and reliability of its existing network and wireless broadband.

“It means that the two big guys just got much bigger,” Rebecca Arbogast, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, told Reuters.

It also means that the jockeying for position is now officially over. The remainder of 2008 will be for the carriers, handset manufacturers, and application developers to introduce their initial products — and you can bet these will be far from perfect. There will be missteps, misfirings, false starts, claims of so-and-so being unfair, buggy software, crappy hardware, and disappointment, but these are the growing pains of an industry in transition

2009 is still the Year of Wireless.

For now, with the auction over, here’s how the U.S. wireless industry shapes up for the remainder of 2008.

Continue reading “Jockeying for position is over: Time for the U.S. mobile industry to innovate” »

Courtesy of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a phrase I never thought I’d read:

“The show will be completely free (and legal) for you to download, share & burn to your heart’s desire.”

CBC announced that it will make the March 23rd episode of the show “Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister” available the following day as a “high quality, DRM-free” download using BitTorrent technology. CBC also will distribute a version formatted for iPods with video.

“Nope, we’re not lying,” CBC said in its release.

CBC is the first North American broadcaster to freely release one of its programs without DRM using BitTorrent. “Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister” will be available for download to anyone in the world.

Continue reading “They’re not lying: CBC to release TV show for download, free, legal, and via BitTorrent” »

Updated: Adobe says it will need Apple’s support to bring Flash to iPhone (see end of post).

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen says that, with or without Apple, the company plans to develop a Flash player for the iPhone/iPod touch platform.

During yesterday’s earnings call (see SeekingAlpha transcript), Narayen told investors that that Flash was “synonymous with the Internet and frankly, anybody who wants to browse the web and experience the web’s glory really needs Flash support”.

Having evaluated the iPhone’s official Software Developer Kit, Adobe can “now start to develop the Flash player ourselves”, says Narayen. “…we think it benefits our joint customers, so we want to work with Apple to bring that capability to the device.”

With new research suggesting that the iPhone has already established itself as the No.1 mobile browser in the U.S., and No.2 in the UK, Narayen would say that.

However, only a week or so ago, Apple CEO Steve Jobs poured cold water on the idea of Flash on the iPhone/iPod touch, saying that the version designed specifically for mobile devices - Flash Lite - wasn’t good enough, and that Adobe’s more powerful desktop offering runs too slowly on the iPhone. What was needed is a “missing product in the middle”, argued Jobs.

Is Adobe committing itself to building the missing version of Flash that Jobs demands?

Or does Adobe really believe it can go-it-alone?

Continue reading “Who needs Flash on iPhone more? Adobe or Apple?” »

I know you can’t wait — it’s better than who is going to make it to the Final Four. OK, not really, but the largest and most lucrative wireless spectrum auction in U.S. history ended today, and we’ll know within 10 days who won the coveted C-block.

Presumably it’s Verizon, the No. 2 U.S. carrier, and not “telecom” upstart Google, but who knows? Maybe there is a surprise or two in the final results. Or not.

Even so, the auction will bring in $19.5 billion for the Federal Communications Commission, with $4.744 coming from the C-block winner. The winner can claim its prize within the year and start building that super-duper, next-gen, open-access wireless network we’ve been hearing about.

All in all, the event took 38 days to complete with 261 rounds of bidding. For a blow-by-blow account, see RCR Wireless News.

It comes as no surprise. Apple is said to be in discussions with the major record labels to allow customers unlimited access to the entire iTunes music library in exchange for paying a premium for iPod and iPhone devices.

The Financial Times reported late today that negotiations for an “all you can eat” model — similar to Nokia’s “comes with music” deal with Universal Music Group — are underway, although it appears Apple and the labels are still a ways off for anything to happen.

According to the FT, Nokia “is understood to be offering almost $80 per handset” to music industry partners. Apple has offered only $20 per device, according to two unnamed executives.

“It’s who blinks first, and whether or not anyone does blink,” one executive said to the FT.

Exploring an alternative or an “in addition to” business model for iTunes comes as no surprise as Apple, a consumer savvy company to begin with, is clearly protecting itself against future shifts in the market and/or consumer behavior.

Continue reading “Report: Apple is exploring “all you can eat” and subscription models for iTunes Store” »

The BBC continues to ramp up its mobile efforts with targeted versions of its podcast directory for Sony’s PlayStation Portable (link) and Nokia’s flagship N95 handset (link), along with a new generic offering designed to work on most Internet-capable cell phones.

Specific to each device’s screen size and other technical specifications, the mobile versions enable users to stream rather than download any of the BBC’s podcasts, which can be browsed by radio station, genre or alphabetically. A similar version for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch was launched last November.

Continue reading “BBC podcasts target PSP and Nokia N95 users” »

Apple is gambling against Flash. Microsoft is hedging its bet.

Just two weeks ago, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the scaled-down, cellphone-friendly version of Flash, dubbed Flash Lite, just wasn’t good enough for the iPhone because it would spoil the phone’s “full web experience”.

With so much Flash content on the Web — in the form of videos, ads, casual games — Job’s proclamation was viewed by some as a major disappointment in the evolution of the iPhone.

Today Adobe said it has licensed Flash Lite (and Reader) to Microsoft for use in smartphones operating the Windows Mobile OS. Microsoft does not manufacturer these phones like Apple does the iPhone; rather, it licenses Windows Mobile to cell phone makers like Samsung, LG, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson.

Continue reading “Microsoft hedges bet, licenses Flash Lite from Adobe” »

A little over six months after first being announced (last100 coverage), LimWire’s DRM-free music download store has finally opened for business.

The U.S.-only store currently has a catalog of 500,000 tracks, with thousands more to be added “daily”. All music is offered as MP3s encoded at 256 kbps and priced a la carte at 99c per track. Additionally, LimeWire is offering pre-paid plans similar to eMusic, ranging from $9.99 per-month for 25 downloads (40c per track) to $19.99 per-month for 75 downloads (27c per track).

Continue reading “LimeWire DRM-free music store launches” »

Here’s a summary of the week’s digital lifestyle action on last100. Note that you can subscribe to the weekly wrapups, either via the special weekly wrapup RSS feed or by email.

Top digital lifestyle news

Lots of Internet TV news this week. Hulu - the online video project from News corp. and NBC/Universal, with participation by Sony, MGM and others - launched to the general public in the United States. In a post titled ‘Here’s The Good, The Bad, The Achilles Heel‘, Dan Langendorf delves into the highs and lows of Hulu..

In other news, Joost, the Internet TV service, is making live-streaming video available through an update to its desktop client. Also TiVo keeps improving its “television services” offering. This time, TiVo is adding YouTube to its ever-expanding lineup. We also reported on Nintendo launch of a DS Lite video download service in Japan.

Other news…

• Looking back at a week of numbers from NIN, to the iPhone, to a pop-singing prostitute
• Another DVR-like patent unearthed for Apple; this one might be game-changing
• The Beatles land on iTunes, in the form of “American Idol” performances

Features

• 10 mobile apps and services for sharing media
• Interview: Steve Hofstetter, an up-and-coming comic, successfully plays same game as Radiohead, NIN

That’s a wrap for the week.

It’s been a week full of numbers. And we’re not talking the usual investment dollars. Or a mega purchase like AOL buying Bebo for 850 million bucks. No, we’re looking at sales, estimated sales, profitability, downloads, a first-time dip in online video viewership, and future profit from allegedly sleeping with the now-former governor of New York.

So, without further adieu, and in no particular order (it is Friday after all), a look back at a week of numbers.

Nine Inch Nails earns $1.6 million in first week

“Ghosts I-IV”, the latest from the industrial-rock band Nine Inch Nails, totaled just under 800,000 transactions in its first week, racking up $1.6 million in revenue for Trent Reznor — not a traditional record label. “Ghosts”, a collection of interesting sounds and electronic improvisations, is the band’s first release since Reznor declared NIN a free agent last October.

“Ghosts” transactions include all available configurations, including free and paid downloads and advance orders for physical releases of limited-edition vinyl, CDs, and a boxed set. In fact, the deluxe-edition box, priced at a whopping $300, already sold-out of its limited 2,500-copy run.

These numbers were provided by NIN, which will not release traditional sales figures to SoundScan, which tracks sales data for singles, albums, and music videos in Canada and the U.S. We’re not sure why, other than the fact NIN doesn’t have to as the music was not sold through traditional channels.

Take that music industry!

Continue reading “Looking back at a week of numbers from NIN, to the iPhone, to a pop-singing prostitute” »