YouTube has switched to a widescreen format as part of its drive to encourage Hollywood studios to release films on the site. The video-sharing website increased the size of its player after years of complaints from users, many of whom have switched to rivals offering bigger screens and higher quality.
The move to widescreen is the latest in a number of recent changes at YouTube, which was purchased by Google for $1.65 billion (£1.07 billion at the current exchange rate) in 2006 but has been unable so far to turn its massive popularity into profits. The website has also been experimenting with high-definition videos.
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Amy Taylor, 28, said her three-year marriage to David Pollard, 40, came to an end when she twice walked in on him watching his online character, Dave Barmy, having sex with other virtual women. The couple met in an internet chatroom in 2003 and married in real life and in a fantasy tropical setting in Second Life.
However, Taylor always had suspicions about Pollard's online loyalty. At one point she hired a virtual detective to test whether his avatar was cheating on her, after finding him at the computer watching his character having sex with a prostitute.(Link)
Disney will stream full-length movies on its Web site for the first time, as part of its "Wonderful World of Disney" series on ABC. The films are scheduled to stream through August.
"Finding Nemo" is available at www.Disney.com/WWoD through Friday, after the film's airing Saturday on Disney-owned ABC. "Monsters, Inc.," "Haunted Mansion," "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen," "Princess Diaries 2," "Freaky Friday" and "Peter Pan" also will be available on the site this summer.
A Disney spokesman said the decision to stream movies for free marks an "evolution" in the company's online strategy. Fox, Universal, Lionsgate and MGM have all previously placed titles on Hulu, the NBC Universal/News Corp.-owned site, while Disney has gone the pay route and kept its films, for the most part, on iTunes. (Link)
In a first, Google is opening up its testing process by calling on tens of millions of Gmail users to put new features of the service through their paces. Gmail Labs has launched 13 settings for users to play around with and tell engineers directly what they think of them.
The new settings include things like 'Pictures in Chat' which puts portraits in chat sessions, 'Superstars' which lets you put different icons on mail, 'Old Snakey' lets you play the classic game in Gmail, and 'Email Addict' forces you to take a screen break by locking you out of the Gmail for 15 minutes. (More in-depth look into Google workings here)
Alison DeLauzon thought the snapshots and home videos of her infant son were gone for good when she lost her digital camera while on vacation in Florida. Then a funny thing happened: her camera "phoned home." Equipped with a special memory card with wireless Internet capability, DeLauzon's camera had not only automatically sent her holiday pictures to her computer, but had even uploaded photos of the miscreants who swiped her equipment bag after she accidentally left it behind at a restaurant.
"I opened up the Eye-Fi manager on the computer and, lo and behold, there are the guys that stole our cameras," said DeLauzon, a native of New York's Long Island suburb. "Not only is it the guy who stole our camera ... but the guy took a picture of (his accomplice) holding our other camera."
DeLauzon received the Eye-Fi, a 2-gigabyte SD memory card that fits into millions of digital cameras, as a holiday gift to go with her Canon camera. Priced at about $100, the card automatically uploads pictures to a home computer or online photosharing service as soon as the user is linked to a familiar wireless network.
Luckily, the culprits passed by an unsecured network, whose factory-installed setting matched that of DeLauzon's home system, and the Eye-Fi automatically shipped the photos: first baby pictures, then the snap-happy scoundrels. (Reuters)
The programme allows tourists to explore a detailed recreation of the rides, streets, and hotels across the Orlando site. Visitors can walk or fly around the park as they wish. Information on the park's 1,500 attractions pops up on the side of the screen, along with photos, videos and booking details. Click on a restaurant and the menu will appear.
Google Earth already allows users to explore 3D recreations of some major world cities, but the intricate models supplied by Disney mean that the theme park plan is one of the most detailed ever produced. Even the park’s numerous statues, benches, lamp posts and banners are included. (Telegraph)
Blackberry-maker Research In Motion will again meet Indian officials on Thursday to find a solution to concerns raised by security agencies, a telecoms ministry official said. India's security agencies have said the BlackBerry e-mail device posed a risk as e-mails sent using it could not be traced or intercepted and the government has written to RIM asking it to put servers in India.
"There is a meeting tomorrow," an Indian official said, who did not want to be identified. A spokesman for RIM in India declined comment. Indian Telecoms Minister Andimuthu Raja said last week the Canadian firm had assured the government to come out with a solution in two months. (Reuters)
A couple has been arrested in what Canadian police said on Tuesday was an apparent offer to sell a seven-day-old baby girl on Craigslist for C$10,000 ($10,100). A woman who saw the offer on the popular website alerted police who tracked down the 23-year-old mother and 26-year-old father using a cell phone number that was listed in the advertisement.
Vancouver police said the couple told investigators the offer was a hoax, but were arrested for public mischief with other criminal charges possible as the investigation continues. "There are so many questions here," Constable Tim Fanning told reporters. Police said the advertisement described the baby as "very cute" and "unexpected" and that its parents, who could not afford to care for it, wanted to give it a good home. The child was put in the care of social workers. (Reuters)
The Canadian manufacturer of Blackberry mobile phones has rejected demands by the Indian government that it help decrypt suspicious text messages. The firm, Research in Motion, says its technology does not allow any third party - even the company itself - to read information sent over its network.
The Indian authorities have been reluctant to allow the widespread use of Blackberries in the country. They fear militants and criminals may take advantage of the secure system. A number of other countries around the world have expressed similar fears. (BBC)
A one billion dollar lawsuit against YouTube threatens internet freedom, according to its owner Google. Google's claim follows Viacom's move to sue the video sharing service for its inability to keep copyrighted material off its site.
Viacom says it has identified 150,000 unauthorised clips on YouTube.
In court documents Google's lawyers say the action "threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information" over the web. The search giant's legal team also maintained that YouTube had been faithful to the requirements of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act and that they responded properly to claims of infringement. In papers submitted to a Manhattan court, Google said it and YouTube "goes far beyond its legal obligations in assisting content owners to protect their works".
Viacom disagreed that either firm had lived up to that standard and said that they had done "little or nothing" to stop infringement. (BBC)
