Archive for August, 2009
Time Warner, YouTube ink distribution pact
August 19th, 2009 | 
Author: This was originally posted at ZDNet’s Between the Lines.
Time Warner and YouTube said Wednesday that they have signed an online video distribution deal.
Under the pact, YouTube will distribute Time Warner short-form video content, including movie clips, television shows, and news. Time Warner properties–Warner Bros. and Turner Broadcasting System–will program YouTube videos via an embeddable player.
According to a statement, YouTube will get access to CNN news, the Cartoon Network, and shows such as “Gossip Girl.” Time Warner video will appear across Google properties. Time Warner can also create separate channels on YouTube and sell ad time. The two parties will split ad revenue.
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said the YouTube deal was a good way to monetize short-form content.
The deal appears to be a win-win. YouTube gets more professional content and Time Warner is allowed to sell ads and control channels.
Also see: Disney, YouTube forge video distribution pact; YouTube: Uploads don’t hurt our bottom line; Google moves to show YouTube has ‘a very credible business model’; The cure for YouTube’s ills: Charge for uploads.
Source :
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10313480-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Posted in Communication, Internet, media, Tech, video, YouTube | 
Tags: Cartoon Network, CNN news, distribution, Google, Time Warner, Turner Broadcasting System, Warner Bros., YouTube | 
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Simplify Photo for iPhone: Remote photo-viewing
When you want to listen to music from your computer or your friends’ collections on your iPhone, Simplify Music is one solution. On Wednesday, Simplify Media introduced a similar iPhone application called Simplify Photo, which provides the same service for pictures rather than songs.
After logging in, Simplify Photo for iPhone ($0.99) talks to the Simplify Media application on your desktop (download for Windows | Mac | Ubuntu). So long as you have the newest version installed (2.5), and the photo-sharing element selected (configure in the Options menu), you’ll be able to view the photos in your network. Networked images can include pictures from your multiple computers, and those that friend son your Simlify network have given permission to see.
The initial syncing will take a few minutes. After that, you’ll see a list of shared computers. Tap to see options and tap again to view photos by timeline, places (geotagged images show on a Google map), folders, events, albums, and faces, when available. You can also search for a specific photo in a search field.
Simplify Photo’s media is view-only for now; though ideally the app would also open up iPhone photos for computer viewing and friends. You can swipe through images in the viewer or can play a slideshow. As a perk, you can also save the picture locally to the iPhone. Unfortunately, and unlike the desktop viewer, Simplify Photo doesn’t yet rotate images by 90 degrees. The interface could also use some prettying up.
However, Simplify Photo is functional for existing Simplify Media users looking to view friends’ pictures, or their own, remotely.
http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10312526-12.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Yahoo vents frustration over App Store process
Yahoo appears to be a little miffed that Apple’s App Store reviewers are still sitting on an update to the Yahoo Messenger for iPhone application.
Yahoo’s ready for the new Yahoo Messenger for iPhone update to be released.
(Credit: Yahoo)
In a post titled “And so we wait…on Apple,” Yahoo’s Sarah Bacon calls out Apple for “the somewhat unpredictable process for getting apps approved and released” on the App Store. Yahoo said it submitted an update for the Yahoo Messenger app (iTunes link) two weeks ago, but has nothing to show for it.
Now, as App Store approval delays or rejections go, two weeks is nothing. Yahoo could just ask Sling Media how it felt about the month-long delay in the approval process for SlingPlayer Mobile, or rival Google about the rejection of Google Voice from the App Store. But Yahoo’s decision to publicly call out Apple is interesting, given the possible thawing of relations between iPhone developers and Apple following Apple Senior Vice President of Marketing Phil Schiller’s outreach to bloggers and developers.
“Anyone want to bet that Facebook’s app, which was submitted after ours, gets approved first?” Bacon asked. No action, Yahoo, especially now.
Source :
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10313434-265.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Microsoft’s plan to get back in the phone game
Microsoft’s efforts to regain lost ground in the mobile phone business will see the company offering two different versions of its operating system next year.
The company will continue to broadly sell Windows Mobile 6.5 to a large variety of handset makers, while working more closely with several handset makers to sell phones built on a new version of Windows Mobile that has been several years in the making, according to a source familiar with the company’s plans.
While Windows Mobile 6.5 is a fairly interim update to the mobile operating system that Microsoft has been selling, Microsoft has also been working on more radical efforts to overhaul the operating system. Both its plans for Windows Mobile 7 and its long-running “Pink” project aim to match the kinds of experiences seen on the iPhone and Android, using more advanced voice and touch interfaces and higher-end hardware.
Microsoft demonstrated Windows Mobile 6.5 at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. That interim update to Windows Mobile will start arriving on phones this fall, while a more radical overhaul of Redmond’s cell phone OS is due next year.
(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET News)
A Digitimes report this week called the effort a “dual-platform” strategy, although I’m not sure I’d use that term to describe two versions of Windows Mobile being sold at the same time.
What is clear is that Microsoft needs to do something serious if it hopes to live up to its mobile ambitions. For years now, the company has made rather modest updates to the Windows Mobile operating system, which dates back to the days of code powered PDAs and other organizers that were neither phones nor, in some cases, even connected to the Internet.
In that same time, Palm has gone back to the drawing board and reinvented itself with the WebOS-based Pre, while the iPhone and Android have entered the market and even Research In Motion has arguably done more to capture consumer interest than has Microsoft.
Internally, Redmond has shifted a number of its people into the mobile unit. In addition to former server executive Andy Lees, who now runs the phone business, former Mac Business unit chief Roz Ho has been leading a top secret “premium mobile experiences” team responsible for some of the “Pink” work. The company purchased Danger, known for creating the teen-centered T-Mobile Sidekick, and Ho heads that unit as well.
Full Story…
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10313302-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Source :
CNETNews Microsoft’s plan to get back in the phone game http://bit.ly/iAn8H
Posted in Communication, Tech |
Tags: Apple, cell phone, iPhone, Mac, Microsoft, Sidekick, T-Mobile, Windows |
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New virus infects programs built with Delphi
Researchers said on Tuesday that they are seeing something unusual in the malware world–a virus that targets a development environment.
The virus, dubbed Win32.Induc, was written to infect applications built with Delphi, according to Nick Bilogorskiy, manager of antivirus researcher at Sonicwall. Delphi is used to write Windows programs, including database applications.
When an infected program is run on a machine running Delphi, the virus infects any software that gets compiled on that machine. The virus spreads the executable file of itself as well as the source code. It looks for a compiler on the infected system and re-compiles the source code, inserting its code into any programs compiled on the system.
“This malware just spreads; it doesn’t delete files or do anything malicious,” he said. “But if you create software and you have this code in it, the software will be blocked by antivirus (technology).”
Developers whose systems are infected will pass the infection on to the programs they are creating, Bilogorskiy said.
Already, two free tools that are included in certain magazine CDs and are among the top 100 downloads on some portals–Any TV Free 2.41 and Tidy Favorites 4.1–have been infected, he said. “As many as 30 percent of developers who use Delphi have this,” he added.
Sonicwall and a number of antivirus vendors have updated their software to block the virus.
Sophos has more details on its SophosLabs blog.
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