YouTube - New Design on April 16

YouTube is planning a big redesign with the aim of separating its revenue-generating premium and long-form programming from the user generated content (UGC) that has made it popular, writes Clickz.

Sources familiar with Google's plans for YouTube claim that the new design will replace the current navigation scheme containing "videos," "channels," and "community" categories, with tabbed navigation that will direct users to the clearly defined sections for professional content.

The new categories are Movies, Music, Shows, and Videos. The first three will offer monetized (displaying in-stream advertising) premium shows, clips, and movies from Google's network and studio partners, while the Videos channel will continue to house the amateur and semi-pro content that major brand advertisers have shied away from.

YouTube's video player will also be redesigned to look more like Hulu, the News Corp.- and NBCU-owned video portal. Like Hulu, the player will display visual markers in places where ads are scheduled to play, and users will be able to control the brightness of screen real estate outside the video frame, enabling the dimmed "home theatre" option that many Hulu fans enjoy.

According to one source, Google is not planning to sell whole episodes to a single advertiser or brand - unlike NBC and ABC, both of which offer advertisers exclusive presence on any given episode on their own sites. CBS allows for multiple sponsors within a single episode, and Hulu offers a blend of single-sponsor and multi-sponsor episodes.

The planned launch date for the overhauled site is April 16.

YouTube's current offerings include mostly older material from partners like CBS, Lions Gate, MGM, and Sony (Beverly Hills 90210, MacGyver, and Star Trek The Original Series), but Google has indicated that it's working to make available more recent shows and movies.

In February, YouTube started permitting select video publishers to charge users to download videos onto their computers.

That same month, YouTube signed a deal with major Hollywood talent agency William Morris in an effort to add more premium content to the site.

i.TV is the Best Free iPhone App - Review

Review of i.TV (in the news)

"i.TV » This app for the TV lover by entrepreneur and movie producer Brad Pelo is the best available. Not only does it provide an onscreen television grid for listings, but it also has movie listings for local theaters, movie trailers, previews for TV series, episode clips, entertainment news and connectivity to Netflix so users can instantly add DVDs to their rental queue while on the go.

Best of all, there are full episodes of many series, including "Star Trek," "Desperate Housewives," "All in the Family" and scores more. And in some cases, there are dozens of episodes of a single series available for streaming. It also works with 3G.
It's an app that does a lot of things and most of them well. (Free)"

Thanks for the great feedback!

Twitter to Charge?

Twitter is further solidifying plans to implement a premium account structure for "power" users or companies.

Co-Founder Biz Stone confirmed that the company recently hired a product manager to develop commercial accounts, but reiterated that the service would be "free to use by everyone," and for-profit services would be add-ons.

In other words, users would pay a small nominal fee for additional services. No launch date has been set, however, on these commercial features.

There was no specificity afforded about the type of features that may be offered for a fee, but sites like Business Insider have a few speculations:

We could see a lot of companies paying $10 or $20 a month for the service, even for simple tools. But we could also see many companies — Comcast, JetBlue, Starbucks, etc. — paying more than one hundred dollars per month for really good, insightful tools.

In an email to the publication, Stone confirmed the trick would be to find services that will "improve the experience."

"Will it be account verification? Will it be lightweight analytics? Will there be opportunities for introducing customers to businesses on Twitter[?] So many questions. But the key is to understand that Twitter will remain free for all to use—individuals and companies alike," he persisted.

Recent figures from Nielsen pegged Twitter's year-on-year growth at an astronomical 1,382%.

Hoping to harness that traffic, a handful of services have tried leveraging the company's present dearth of a business model. Magpie enables users to sell their "tweets" and Twitter backgrounds as ad space. Each user is paid according to his number of followers. And ExecTweets, a Microsoft-sponsored site launched by Federated Media this month, displays tweets from business executives. Twitter receives a cut of the profit.

Blockbuster OnDemand to be on TiVo

Today Blockbuster is expected to announce a partnership with TiVo, whereby the former's digital movie library can be ported directly to the televisions of TiVo users.

The service, Blockbuster On-Demand, will be accessible to the 800,000 users with broadband internet connected to their TiVo units.

"Ultimately, our vision is to work with TiVo so that their subscribers can access movies not only through our On Demand service but also from our stores and through our by-mail service as well," said CEO Jim Keyes of Blockbuster.

TiVo struck similar deals with YouTube, Amazon and Netflix, an online DVD rental/film-streaming service with which Blockbuster struggles to compete in the digital space.

Netflix avails about 12,000 film and TV programs on the web to most of its subscribers, but most titles are several years old. In contrast, Blockbuster plans to offer a smaller selection — 5,000 to 10,000 titles — digitally at any given time, but the titles will be fresher. Films like "The Dark Knight," for example, can be rented for $3.99, to watch within 24 hours upon payment.

A relationship with Blockbuster is of additional real-world value to TiVo: the company agreed to sell TiVo units at a number of its 4,000 brick-and-mortar locations in the States, in exchange for a retailer's cut.

The pair will work in tandem to promote its liaison in the second half of the year. SVP-Digital Kevin Lewis of Blockbuster said the TiVo deal marks "the first of many" that the firm plans to announce with major consumer electronics firms.

Last week Blockbuster finalized agreements with two major lenders to extend its revolving credit line through 2010 — which will likely precipitate such liaisons. In December 2008, Blockbuster also inked a deal to serve films on mobile devices powered by Microsoft.

Optimizing Images in Social Media

Images are among the most powerful tools in social media: they are easily consumed, and offer more stimulating information than text.

And since most people are busy and increasingly tightfisted with time, mastering the image — which takes little effort to scan — has a lot of appeal.

As reported on MarketingVOX:

A few of the tips:

• Use groups of images for targeted groups to add content.


• Mark your images with a non-intrusive personal stamp, like your URL - these images are then easily copied, thus ensuring higher overall exposure.


• Use large images, preferably of the same size when presented in group, and be sure to categorize them.


• Host your images on services like Amazon’s S3 and Flickr Pro to prevent your server from being overburdened.


• Go ahead and use funny pictures, but never mix them with news/information images: Users don't appreciate this.


• Use high quality photography and high resolution design-related content (e.g., digital art, graffiti, web design, fonts).


• Informative images (charts, graphs, screen shots, how-to's, maps) that are easy to understand and comprehensive are extremely eye-grabbing and helpful.


• Look for unbelievable shots that are still believable, like action shots caught on film.


• Use breaking news photos and exclusive shots. (The Hudson plane landing is a good example of this.)

In all, images are a powerful conveyor of messages, and because they are so prime for social media consumption, it merits paying attention to detail when choosing which images to use.

Search engines, too, are recognizing their importance. Image search is the fastest-growing vertical in the search arena today.

Perspective in times of Stress

"A pebble held close to the eye appears to be a gigantic obstacle. Cast on the ground, it is seen in perspective. Likewise, problems or trials in our lives need to be viewed in the perspective of scriptural doctrine. Otherwise they can easily overtake our vision, absorb our energy, and deprive us of the joy and beauty the Lord intends us to receive here on earth." -- Richard G. Scott, "Finding Joy in Life", Ensign May 1996

I love the idea of taking a step back during times of stress, economic or otherwise, to truly see the big picture. It's hard to remember sometimes that truly turning our lives over to the Lord is really the only important thing. We think that work or money or entertainment is more important than our relationship with God.

But I believe the stresses remind us - to depend on God and He will help us. Psalms 55:22 "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."

Just my thoughts over the past few weeks... and I thought I'd share.

iTunes to offer HD movies and rentals

This week Apple announced it will offer high-definition movie sales and rentals via iTunes.

Recent box office titles, including "Quantum of Solace" and "Twilight," and be downloaded for $19.99 in HD; rentals are available 30 days after release for $4.99. The offering is Mac and PC compatible; widescreen and Apple TVs can also partake, but iPhone and iPod with video will continue to support only standard-definition versions.

Prior to this announcement, and after January 2008, Apple offered HD movie rentals exclusively via Apple TV. In September, support for HD TV shows was incorporated into iTunes.

To promote the new offering, a dedicated HD Movies page was added to the iTunes storefront.

Online video gross media spend is expected to grow 22.5% between 2008 and 2010. YouTube, which aspires to both monetize its offerings and compete with iTunes and Hulu in terms of providing premium content, continues to fuel audience traffic toward online video. In February it began testing a charge-to-download program that, if successful, may put it in iTunes' arena.

Google Email - "Undo" Feature!

As reported by MarketingVOX: Mere days after Google unveiled an email preview feature for YouTube videos, Yelp reviews and Flickr and Picasa photos, Gmail Labs is introducing yet another feature that enables marketers to preempt a botched email blast.

Undo Send enables users to effectively unsend emails that were prematurely sent — or that contain errors.

The window of opportunity is a small one, however. "This feature can't pull back an email that's already gone; it just holds your message for five seconds so you have a chance to hit the panic button," writes the Gmail Blog.

"And don't worry – if you close Gmail or your browser crashes in those few seconds, we'll still send your message."

To activate Undo Send, visit Gmail Labs > Settings and switch on "Undo Send." Thereafter, users will see an "Undo" link on every sent email confirmation; once "Undo" is hit, users are sent back to the compose window.

Buy an iPhone without a Contract

NEW YORK - AT&T Inc. is going to start selling iPhones without requiring a two-year contract, but they will cost $400 more than those sold with contracts.

Spokesman Michael Coe says AT&T will start selling the phones next Thursday for $599 and $699 depending on the memory capacity. The two models cost $199 and $299 under contract.

The phone company had said in July, when the latest version of the iPhone was launched, that it would sell contract-free phones in the U.S. Such phones are sold in some other countries.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090319/ap_on_hi_te/tec_at_t_iphone_1

Discovery sues Amazon over Kindle

Media company Discovery Communications filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com on Tuesday, accusing the online retailer's Kindle of infringing its patent on electronic book technology, writes Reuters.

The lawsuit claims that both Amazon's Kindle versions have infringed one or more of the claims on a patent that Discovery founder John Hendricks received in November 2007.

The patent deals with encryption technology for the distribution of digital books. Discovery founder John S. Hendricks claims he invented a secure, encrypted system for the selection, transmission, and sale of electronic books.

Sincere Apologies to Great Britain

It is unbelievable that our country's leader could cause so much offense in such a short amount of time, and the American people are not even aware!

Apparently this past week, Great Britain's Prime Minister brought President Obama some priceless and historical gifts - amazingly thoughtful and valuable. A token of the esteem between our countries and a gift of good-will. In return, Obama gave 25 American DVDs. What a slam. No thought or esteem was put into that gift. I personally am appalled at the lack of decorum and thoughtlessness. On top of that - Obama returned the bust of Winston Churchill given to the American People after 911. Not only did he offer a crappy gift, but he also slapped our greatest allies in the face by not accepting their supportive previous offerings.

Great Britain is deeply offended. The British press is obviously bothered that the American media is not covering these offenses, and I join them in their outrage. How dare our so-called leader offer such rudeness in behalf of our country? Does he not value our relationship with Britain? Is he just ignorant or unprepared?

I for one, would like to offer my sincerest apologies to the people and country of Great Britain. Obama does NOT represent my feelings towards you and all you have done to help support us and the cause of freedom around the world. We offer our heartfelt gratitude for your willingness to stand up and fight for others! I am embarrassed and ashamed of the behaviors demonstrated to you by our president as well as our media.

Twitter and Facebook Integration

Tweetdeck, a desktop client reportedly used by about 13% of Twitter users, launched an update that features Facebook integration, reports AllFacebook.

Tweetdeck aggregates data streams from Twitter, Twitscoop, 12seconds, and Stocktwits. It allows users to split feeds, organize those they follow into groups (work, personal, etc.) and conduct searches across the twittersphere to monitor topics of choice.

The Facebook integration incorporates status updates from the social network into the mix. (The new version is still in beta, but available to the public (download).

To use the new feature, users sign into Facebook and give Tweetdeck authorization. Then, from within Tweetdeck, they click on the Facebook icon at the top, which will add a new column that shows their Facebook friends' most recent status updates, which can be tweeted or emailed out to anyone. The stream updates once a minute.

Tweetdeck also supports real-time chat with Facebook friends, Mashable points out. If the person's name is green (signaling that they are online), users can initiate a Facebook chat session from within Tweetdeck.

HBO "Big Love" Controversy - Mormon Response

Official Response from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

SALT LAKE CITY 9 March 2009 Like other large faith groups, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sometimes finds itself on the receiving end of attention from Hollywood or Broadway, television series or books, and the news media. Sometimes depictions of the Church and its people are quite accurate. Sometimes the images are false or play to stereotypes. Occasionally, they are in appallingly bad taste.

As Catholics, Jews and Muslims have known for centuries, such attention is inevitable once an institution or faith group reaches a size or prominence sufficient to attract notice. Yet Latter-day Saints – sometimes known as Mormons - still wonder whether and how they should respond when news or entertainment media insensitively trivialize or misrepresent sacred beliefs or practices.

Church members are about to face that question again. Before the first season of the HBO series Big Love aired more than two years ago, the show’s creators and HBO executives assured the Church that the series wouldn’t be about Mormons. However, Internet references to Big Love indicate that more and more Mormon themes are now being woven into the show and that the characters are often unsympathetic figures who come across as narrow and self-righteous. And according to TV Guide, it now seems the show’s writers are to depict what they understand to be sacred temple ceremonies.

Certainly Church members are offended when their most sacred practices are misrepresented or presented without context or understanding. Last week some Church members began e-mail chains calling for cancellations of subscriptions to AOL, which, like HBO, is owned by Time Warner. Certainly such a boycott by hundreds of thousands of computer-savvy Latter-day Saints could have an economic impact on the company. Individual Latter-day Saints have the right to take such actions if they choose.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an institution does not call for boycotts. Such a step would simply generate the kind of controversy that the media loves and in the end would increase audiences for the series. As Elder M. Russell Ballard and Elder Robert D. Hales of the Council of the Twelve Apostles have both said recently, when expressing themselves in the public arena, Latter-day Saints should conduct themselves with dignity and thoughtfulness.

Not only is this the model that Jesus Christ taught and demonstrated in his own life, but it also reflects the reality of the strength and maturity of Church members today. As someone recently said, “This isn’t 1830, and there aren’t just six of us anymore.” In other words, with a global membership of thirteen and a half million there is no need to feel defensive when the Church is moving forward so rapidly. The Church’s strength is in its faithful members in 170-plus countries, and there is no evidence that extreme misrepresentations in the media that appeal only to a narrow audience have any long-term negative effect on the Church.

Examples:

• During the Mitt Romney election campaign for the presidency of the United States, commentator Lawrence O’Donnell hurled abuse at the Church in a television moment that became known among many Church members as “the O’Donnell rant.” Today, his statements are remembered only as a testament to intolerance and ignorance. They had no effect on the Church that can be measured.


• When the comedy writers for South Park produced a gross portrayal of Church history, individual Church members no doubt felt uncomfortable. But once again it inflicted no perceptible or lasting damage to a church that is growing by at least a quarter of a million new members every year.


• When an independent film company produced a grossly distorted version of the Mountain Meadows Massacre two years ago, the Church ignored it. Perhaps partly as a result of that refusal to engender the controversy that the producers hoped for, the movie flopped at the box office and lost millions.


• In recent months, some gay activists have barraged the media with accusations about “hateful” attitudes of Latter-day Saints in supporting Proposition 8 in California, which maintained the traditional definition of marriage. They even organized a protest march around the Salt Lake Temple. Again, the Church has refused to be goaded into a Mormons versus gays battle and has simply stated its position in tones that are reasonable and respectful. Meanwhile, missionary work and Church members in California remain as robust and vibrant as ever, and support for the Church has come from many unexpected quarters — including some former critics and other churches.

Now comes another series of Big Love, and despite earlier assurances from HBO it once again blurs the distinctions between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the show’s fictional non-Mormon characters and their practices. Such things say much more about the insensitivities of writers, producers and TV executives than they say about Latter-day Saints.

If the Church allowed critics and opponents to choose the ground on which its battles are fought, it would risk being distracted from the focus and mission it has pursued successfully for nearly 180 years. Instead, the Church itself will determine its own course as it continues to preach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world.

Steroid Injections for Herniated Disks - Warnings and Risks

So a few years ago I had an accident which resulted in 6 herniated disks in my back and neck. In December I had a steroid injection in my neck and now I'm suffering the consequences. The 2 injections I had in my lower back did help with the pain for which I was very grateful. The injection in my neck not only has not impacted the amount of pain I experience, but now I have severe daily migraine headaches, my eyesight is constantly blurred and now I have discovered that the injection can trigger diabetes (for which I am at risk). Wow. I wish my doctors (any of the various doctors) would have asked about my family history for diabetes and at least told me that was a potential side effect. I have also been told that because the injection skyrockets blood sugars, that could be why my eyesight has been affected.

So, to all of those out there who are considering the injection route. Yes, it can be helpful in some cases (albeit temporary relief), there are also many side effects that most doctors will not explain. It is up to you to research and determine if this is the direction you want to go.

Oh -- I forgot one more thing. I've basically been sick since the injection and I have found that steroid can hamper your immune system as well. Nice.

I'm not complaining - just recognizing again how important it is to not just take any medication prescribed nor participate in any procedure before really knowing the risks. Now back to drinking more orange juice, taking my vitamins and trying to get some sleep to hopefully boost my immune system so I don't keep catching every cold or flu that comes along. :)