Collaborative online entertainment studio Filmaka is teaming with WhatOnEarthisGoingON? to produce a socially relevant online channel featuring short form video, to be distributed online in August by MSN. Filmaka is launching a series of quarterly competitions to motivate its community to contribute, awarding $1,500 cash each quarter then an additional $10,000 to make a short film on a socially relevant theme.
Sony's new twist on the straight-to-DVD model
Sony will release a new series called Angel of Death in 8-minute increments over the web on various Sony-affiliated sites early next year before releasing it direct to DVD, adding scenes that help tie the whole thing together. The budget for the project is a little over $1 million, according to The WSJ. The model will be replicated with 4-6 additional titles next year.
NBC's Local Media Digital
NBC's Local Media Digital arm plans to take over management of NBC 10 O&O's local station web sites from Internet Broadcasting by year end, we confirmed yesterday. NBC has made a raft of hires in recent months to help execute the transfer, notes Silicon Alley Insider, including New York Daily News editor Gregory Gittrich, Metacafe sales executive Mort Greenberg and Avenue A | Razorfish technologist Matt Saunders. IB says it will continue to work with the group to provide support and services as part of its unbundled products strategy.
House of Lords Hits YouTube
by Kablenet, The Register
The House of Lords has released a series of short films on YouTube to explain its work. The five films, released on 13 June 2008, aim to improve understanding of the upper chamber. The first, House of Lords: What's it all about?, is a four-minute film, in which members of the public appear in black and white – some expressing ignorance of the institution, with comments including "I haven't got a clue" – and members of the chamber including Lord Puttnam and Baroness Williams of Crosby appearing in colour, explaining what they do.
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AOL Turns The iPhone Into A Radio
by Saul Hansell, The New York Times
Here is how someone will be able to listen to the radio next month: Buy an Apple iPhone and download the new AOL Radio application. It will connect to AOL’s servers by way of the cellular network. The phone’s GPS system will monitor signals from satellites orbiting 12,000 miles in space in order to determine your location. This will automatically determine your location and tune to the digital stream from the nearest CBS station.
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Paltalk Brings Its Massive Multiperson Video Chat To The Web
by Erick Schonfeld, TechCrunch
This morning, New York City-based chat company Paltalk is releasing a version of its multi-person video chat service on the Web in beta. Called Paltalk Express, it is a Flash version of the company’s download client. While the front end is Flash/Flex, the back end is built on Paltalk’s proprietary technology, which allows up to thousands of people to participate in a video chat session at the same time. The company will be releasing embeddable widgets in the coming weeks, putting it in competition with Meebo, Tokbox, Userplane, and others.
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Every TV an Internet TV
by TR Editors, MIT Tech Review
Plug one end of the ZvBox into your Windows PC, the other into an ordinary cable TV wall socket, and you can watch high-definition Internet video on any digital TV in the house. Inside the ZvBox is a new type of chip that converts a computer's video output into a digital TV signal, something only costly professional gear could previously do. The box comes with a remote that lets you control your computer from wherever you watch TV.
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How To Promote Your Band On Myspace
by Staff, Wired Magazine
Like it or not, MySpace is a vital promotional tool for the web-savvy musician. As a multimedia-rich environment, bands have unparalleled access to their fans on both a social and musical level. However, achieving a full-on marketing coup is tougher than it looks. Here are a few tips for using the site to promote your soon-to-be rockstar band.
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MSN Looks To Hollywood For New Site
by Brooks Barnes, The New York Times
Can two of Hollywood’s most innovative executives help MSN become a player in advertiser-supported entertainment on the Web? MSN, the Microsoft portal, is betting millions of dollars that the answer is yes. MSN said Tuesday that it had signed an agreement with BermanBraun, a Los Angeles production company founded in March 2007 by Gail Berman, formerly a top executive at Paramount Pictures and Fox Broadcasting, and Lloyd Braun, who previously led divisions of the Walt Disney Company and Yahoo.
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Verizon Sends Text Messages To The Big Screen
by Bill Ray, The Register
Verizon will be asking moviegoers about their music preferences and posting their responses up on the cinema screen as part of a new pre-movie advertisement.
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Long-Promised, Voice Commands Are Finally Going Mainstream
by Alexander Gelfand, Wired Magazine
Speech technology has long languished in the no-man's land between sci-fi fantasy ("Computer, engage warp drive!") and disappointing reality ("For further assistance, please say or press 1 ..."). But that's about to change, as advances in computing power make voice recognition the next big thing in electronic security and user-interface design. A whole host of highly advanced speech technologies, including emotion and lie detection, are moving from the lab to the marketplace. There are already several capable voice-controlled technologies on the market. You can issue spoken commands to devices like Motorola's Mobile TV DH01n, a mobile TV with navigation capabilities, and TomTom's GO 920 GPS navigation boxes. Microsoft recently announced a deal to slip voice-activation software into cars manufactured by Hyundai and Kia, and it's TellMe division is investigating voice-recognition applications for the iPhone. And Indesit, Europe's second-largest home appliances manufacturer, just introduced the world's first voice-controlled oven.
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Facebook Platform Now Open Source: fbOpen Released
Facebook is turning parts of its application platform open source, the company announced today. It’s available here for download.
This comes a little more than a year after Facebook Platform first launched to allow third party developers a way to get their applications directly onto Facebook. The company says more than 24,000 applications have now been built on the platform and more than 400,000 developers are building these applications. 140 new applications are added to the directory each day. “Nearly all” Facebook users have added at least one of those applications.
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Jaman Launches Free Streamed Movies In Browser
by Mike Butcher, TechCrunch
Jaman, the San Mateo-based P2P Web movie service, is about to announce that it will be streaming selected movies for free. The movies play immediately in the browser and are supported by pre/post-roll ads. (The usual download-to-rent option remains available). Jaman is launching streaming with 100 ad-supported titles from its collection of over 3000 independent and international films. While other sites like Netflix are offering more mainstream titles, Jaman focuses on indie film and especially on the international and Bollywood market, which has a massive global audience (although not everyone seems to be a fan). But then, it also has old titles - here’s Audrey Hepburn in Charade. Ad-supported films are likely to tap into previously underserved audiences in areas like Brazil, Russia, India and China - where pirated movies are more prevalent - assuming they can get the broadband in the first place. In January Jaman managed to get distribution for its catalogue of American independent film onto TiVo DVR. The privately owned firm was founded by CEO Gaurav Dhillon who previously co-founded Informatica which IPO’d in 1999. Jaman backers include the Hearst Corporation.
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Jaman.com
YouTube Tool Details Video Demographics
by Stephen Shankland, CNet
YouTube now lets those who have uploaded videos see details about the types of people watching them.
The company has added a demographics section to an analytics tool called Insight that YouTube released in March.
Insight now has a "demographics tab that displays view count information broken down by age group (such as ages 18-24), gender, or a combination of the two, to help you get a better understanding of the makeup of your YouTube audience," Google said in a blog posting Thursday.
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IndieFlix Introduces CrowdSourced Film Festivals
by Jason Kincaid, TechCrunch
IndieFlix, a marketplace for independent films, has launched MyFestival, a new streaming video site that will let film festivals crowdsource the movie selection process. MyFestival is making its debut in conjunction with the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), which is taking place from May 22 to June 15.
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