Posted on 29 June 2010 by jjkomplett
Sony has just confirmed that it will be releasing PS3 firmware update 3.40 in this part of the world “soon” adding, above all, functionality for the PlayStation Plus premium subscription service.
PS Plus is launching today in Ireland.
While ‘soon’ can mean anything from 10 minutes to a year when it comes to Sony, this time around it’s most likely means in the it must mean ‘any moment now’ considering PS Plus is launching today in Ireland and the UK.
Posted on 24 June 2010 by Komplettie
Google has won a landmark victory today as a Manhattan federal judge threw out Viacom’s $1 billion lawsuit which accused the search giant of allowing copyrighted videos on its YouTube service without permission.
Viacom alleged that copyrighted works uploaded illegally included ‘South Park’, ‘The Daily Show’ and others.
Viacom claimed “tens of thousands of videos on YouTube, resulting in hundreds of millions of views,” had been posted based on its copyrighted works, and that the defendants knew about it but did nothing to stop illegal uploads. However, in a 30-page ruling, US District Judge Louis Stanton said it would be improper to hold Google and YouTube liable under federal copyright law merely for having a “general awareness” that videos might be posted illegally.
Posted on 11 June 2010 by jjkomplett
In what will no doubt be Dan Boyle’s favourite news story of the day, the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul has used his Twitter account to condemn the country’s ban on YouTube and some Google services.
Turkish President, Abdullah Gul
In separate tweets President Gul said he did not approve of the bans and had instructed officials to examine legal ways of reopening access. Courts have blocked access to YouTube since 2008 after Greek users posted videos alleging that founder of the modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was homosexual. Continue Reading
Posted on 08 June 2010 by Komplettie
Google has announced a new feature for its YouTube video service that will allow users to send updates directly to their subscribers through the medium of YouTube Bulletins.
According to a page added to the YouTube Help pages, bulletins are an effort to create an easy method of communication between channel owners and subscribers. The bulletins work in a way that will likely be familiar to anyone who remembers the MySpace Bulletins of old; they’re posted directly to the “recent activity” module on you subscribers’ various homepages, meaning that they’ll see it as they log in. It’s also displayed on the channel page itself.
According to the page itself, you can send a bulletin to your subscribers fairly easily, following five steps,
Posted on 04 June 2010 by Komplettie
It seems that video service YouTube could well be gearing up to offer users more options when it comes to live streams of video content, something in which the service has until now dabbled in but not committed too heavily to.
A live streaming YouTube could put a lot of people out of business...
YouTube’s live streams have tended to be restricted to specific events, with the most notable being the streams set up for the US debates on healthcare, an Alecia Keys concert and the U2 gig that some particularly faithful Irish fans stayed up until ungodly hours for, thankful for the bank holiday. Now though, it seems that YouTube could well be gearing up to offer a fair bit more in the line of live content, with TechCrunch reporting that recent screenshots from YouTube seeem to indicate the addition of an option to stream content live.
Posted on 03 June 2010 by Komplettie
Microsoft has released details of its upcoming Live Essentials pack, with which its hoping to take some of the sheen off Apple’s similar iLife pack, most notably iPhoto.
I can't tell why, but the mail client is what's grabbed my attention...
Microsoft has been arming up for a push against cloud-based services with its rebuilt Hotmail service taking the front line against Google. Now though, the company has shown off some of its new Windows Live Essentials, including Windows Live Photo Gallery, Writer, Messenger and Movie Maker, as well as a new email client. According to a posting to the Windows Team Blog the aim of the whole thing has been to connect Windows 7 to the cloud, and, seeing as it’s a topic of discussion at the moment, to preserve your privacy while it’s doing it.
Posted on 28 May 2010 by Komplettie
Google is pushing to YouTube a feature simply named Google Moderator, which will see real-time feedback added you YouTube channels from today.
Essentially, the way that Google Moderator works is to add a user-moderated feedback area for YouTube videos. One of the neatest examples of the service at work is one in which questions are posed to those running a channel, with other users then invited to vote on which questions they feel should be answered; the idea is that those questions that more users want to see addressed will gradually float to the top. If nothing else, it’s a means by which the service’s users can see the most relevant feedback as quickly as possible.
The YouTube blog gives a fairly simple explanation of the whole thing, saying,
Posted on 17 May 2010 by jjkomplett
Vice President of the European Commission, Neelie Kroes has claimed that the ‘Great Firewall of China’ is a trade barrier and needs to be tackled within the framework of the World Trade Organisation.
Reuters reports today that Kroes, who is also in charge of Europe’s digital agenda, said the firewall was a trade barrier as long as it blocked communication for internet users, preventing the free flow of information. “It is one of those issues that needs to be tackled within the WTO,” said Kroes.
Posted on 17 May 2010 by Komplettie
YouTube has announced that on its fifth birthday it has managed to hit the altogether very impressive figure of two billion views a day.
Strange to think YouTube didn't exist until five years ago...
The announcement was made via the service’s blog, which goes into some detail on the journey YouTube has made, from its startup days to its current incarnation as a part of the day-to-day browsing habits of a significant portion of all web users. As the blog post itself points out, that two billion views figure is fairly impressive in terms of the content being served, especially if you take into consideration the fact that the figure is “nearly double the prime-time audience of all three major U.S. television networks combined.”
Posted on 13 May 2010 by Komplettie
Video service YouTube has added the option for users to leave some videos deliberately unlisted, while others can still be displayed as normal, depending on the user’s choice individually.
Unlisted videos could lead to a wonderful new era of viral content
Word of the move comes via the official YouTube blog, which details one particular case in which the ability to leave certain videos unlisted was requested. Apparently, the existing ability to ensure that YouTube didn’t serve the video to too many users (by simply capping the number of users who could view the content at 25) simply didn’t cut it, and so the necessity for unlisted videos arose.
Posted on 23 April 2010 by komplettie
The producer of Downfall has made public the reasoning behind the recent requests for parodies of the film to be removed from popular video service YouTube.
Hitler finds out about the downfall parody shutdown 
Earlier this week, the company behind the German movie, Downfall, which documents the last days of Adolf Hitler’s life, requested that the by now famous “Hitler finds out…” videos be removed from YouTube. The announcement raised a fair number of eyebrows, especially considering the fact that people involved in the production itself had previously expressed some amusement at the steady stream of parody videos, which have fairly famously poked fun at Microsoft’s Xbox 360 ban wave, Michael Jackson’s death, new iPhone announcements, Ugly Betty’s cancelation, and anything else you could care to name.
Posted on 21 April 2010 by jjkomplett
Google and YouTube received more than 10,000 requests for user data from various government agencies worldwide in final six months of 2009, according to newly released figures.
Brian Cowen’s Government hasn’t seen many reasons to run to Google and YouTube for user data of late.
Between 1 July and 31 December 2009, Google received 3,663 requests for user data from the Brazilian government, while the US clocked in with 3,580. The UK and India sent more than 1,000 requests each. The Irish Government meanwhile, apparently sent out less than 40 requests for user data from Google and YouTube (no final number is given) while the Government sent less than 10 requests to remove content from Google-owned sites. The full numbers can be seen here. Continue Reading
