Category: Tech

It’s almost ridiculous when you think about the fact that YouTube was not the first to offer a movie-on-demand service, an area now dominated by the likes of Apple and Netflix. That’s all about to change as YouTube is finally set to launch a service which charges users to stream mainstream Hollywood movies.

The new service means a full-bore challenge to Apple’s iTunes service – currently the most powerful player in paid video streaming — and a welcome new revenue stream for Hollywood as home entertainment revenues continue their steep decline.

The Wrap Movies reports that the service is set to launch within the next couple of weeks. Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Brothers and Universal have reportedly licensed their movies for the new service. A number of independent studios, including Lionsgate (Madea, anyone?) and Kino Lorber are also on board.

One of the major stumbling blocks for any service looking to stream movies or music is dealing with the old-school media companies. This is probably what’s taken so long for Google to bother with this. Even as many studios are now cooperating, Paramount, Fox and Disney have decided not to join.

YouTube has declined to comment on this new service, only responding that they have been renting movies for a year and issuing the following statement:

“We’ve steadily been adding more and more titles since launching movies for rent on YouTube over a year ago, and now have thousands of titles available,” a spokesperson said. “Outside of that, we don’t comment on rumor or speculation.”

YouTube offering video on demand sounds cool and all, but would anyone really care? Probably not initially. What would make the service more exciting and help it stand out from the competition would be a cloud storage locker for your purchases (much like Amazon’s new Cloud Player). The studios are even excited about such a feature as they believe it could help save plummeting DVD sales. Here is a list of some great free movie apps.

Will you buy movies on YouTube?

via TechCrunch, All Things D

Sturvs is a source for Nigerian news which, at first glance, looks like your average blog. Some have also referred to the site as the Nigerian version of Digg. It definitely has a snazzier color scheme, though.

The James Allen rings site, still under development, features a home page with an overview of the categories available, currently: News, Music, Entertainment, Events, Business, Fashion, and Tech. There are links here for Photo Galleries and Reviews, but they don’t go anywhere yet.

The home page is a river of the latest news stories and tweets from around the web regarding Nigeria. Each story has Tweet and Like buttons and you can comment directly on the site via IntenseDebate. Each Tweet in the stream provides buttons to Reply to the tweeter or ReTweet the tweet.

The site doesn’t provide a built-in method for rating the items, but does a good job integrating with Facebook and Twitter for sharing and Liking things. One feature that could make the site immediately easier to use would be the addition of Twitter Web Intents (@corvida describes how to use them here), which would make interacting with the tweets on the site much easier. As it stands now, the reply and retweet buttons simply open a new window to Twitter.com.

As I said, it appears the site is still under development, but it does show some potential. If you’re into Nigerian news, this is one spot to keep an eye on.

via @clpope of Aislefinder

Students Circle Network is a Kyrenia-area start-up (Girne American University Roots) founded in 2010. It is a social network focusing on education for college and high school students, but also provides free course resources and materials, live faculty/teachers/lecturers to help students, scholarship offers, study groups, and many more student-focused services. If you’re interested in continuing education, there’s a webinars, customer service and ce seminars at halfmoonseminars.org. The site is currently indexing over 10,431 courses from over 200 OpenCourseWare member universities across the globe, which will go live soon. Right now, they boast over 340 live courses in Business, Computing, Engineering, Sciences and Humanities. Of course, this all comes free for users.

I am committed to the vision of “building a body of knowledge” that is free and accessible to everyone across the globe. I hope to take online education to the next level in the coming months-years by staying by the commitment and providing even greater resources for students. — Developer and Founder at Students Circle Gossy Ukanwoke

The Students Circle Network team says that the use of collaboration networks in education has increased across the globe. Their primary goal is to unite students and provide a platform to share ideas, have project discussions, and network. It is also gives new students access to experienced students and faculty members who can provide mentoring and enable them improve on their current academic standing.

Check out Students Circle Network and tell us what you think.

Your iPhone is Tracking You…So is Your Android

Everyone pretty much lost it once it was discovered that their beloved iPhones were tracking their every move. Never mind the fact that locating a device through triangulation is a well-known technique. In reality, there isn’t much to fear about this iPhone tracking thing. It boils down to your phone storing your location in a file. It doesn’t matter if you have Location Services enabled or not. There is no way to turn it off and the file is not encrypted. Also, the file will be stored on your computer when you backup your device through iTunes. Now, if someone will go through the trouble of gaining access to your iPhone or your computer in order to get your location history, you probably have more serious things to worry about. Oh, and us Androids get our location info stored as well, just less of it and it’s more difficult to access.

DuckDuckGo Joins Wolfram|Alpha. Should Google Care?

Dr. Stephen Wolfram’s super intelligent “computational knowledge engine” Wolfram|Alpha has joined forces with MIT grad Gabriel Weinberg’s DuckDuckGo search engine. DuckDuckGo uses online crowd-sourcing to augment traditional search engine results, hopefully increasing relevance and cutting out clutter. Wolfram|Alpha is a massive data base, curated by approximately 1,000 human experts and can answer questions like “what the weather was like in London on the day John F Kennedy was assassinated in an instant.”

Why should Google beware? Because Wolfram|Alpha, “the computational knowledge engine,” which launched in May 2009, is considered to be the biggest Internet revolution since the invention of search. In fact, many consider its goal to be the ”Holy Grail of the Internet,” a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does.

via The Next Web

Nokia Challenges Google Maps with Ovi Maps for Web

You thought Google Maps was the only game in town. They’ve got cars mapping the world and can display maps in 3D in the latest updates for your newest car (see hire providers here). You were wrong, though. Nokia has just launched an incredibly realistic three-dimensional map app for the web. Partnering with C3, the leading provider of 3D mapping solutions, Nokia is offering photo-realistic models of the world.

via Engadget source Nokia

HBO GO Coming to a Mobile Device Near You

The HBO Go online streaming service lets subscribers catch up on HBO’s “award-winning and ass-kicking TV content.” According to Engadget, the service is about to hit smartphones and tablets early next month (5-2-11 according to the video). This includes Android, iPhone, and iPad. The video also promises “instant and unlimited access” to “every episode of every season” of your favorite shows with a sprinkling of hit movies.

T-Mobile Launches Voice Calling on Facebook: Bobsled

Google, Skype, and others might want to look out. T-Mobile has announced a set of products called Bobsled which initially allows for voice communications via Facebook, but will later be expanded. Right now, it’s flash-based, but T-Mobile plans to expand the Bobsled brand to mobile devices.

Here’s how the new product works: After downloading and installing Bobsled for Facebook on a Windows or Mac PC, the software adds a phone icon next each friend in your Facebook Chat window. Tap the phone icon, and a free voice call is initiated, even if the call recipient hasn’t installed the Bobsled application yet. Aside from one-touch calling, the service also supports voice mails in case the personal you’re calling isn’t available or doesn’t pick up. I ran a quick, early test with Mike Wolf, one of my GigaOM colleagues, and the sound quality wasn’t bad. More importantly, I didn’t have to worry about what phone number to dial.

via GigaOMTech

Big Snoop Dogg, well-known for his activities both on and offline, is promoting another brand using social media. Blast by Colt 45 is his new thing and some are not very happy about it. Paul Porter, founder of the media watchdog group Industry Ears, is one of those people. While Snoop and Pabst reach out to their audience via YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and video, Porter is using his website and other resources to combat the Blast campaign and raise awareness.

The problem is that the Blast Colt 45 appears to be geared toward a younger crowd. The packaging is colorful and reminiscent of your average energy drink, but the drink is a fruity mixture weighing in at 12% alcohol content. It’s cheap and mostly available in urban areas. Snoop is featured on the Colt 45 Facebook Page and in other print ads holding the drink. Blast’s Twitter account (@blastbycolt) is mentioning @snoopdogg whenever possible. He also featured Blast by Colt at his Album Release Party and video of the event was posted on YouTube.

For 4/20, Snoop was hanging out on Ustream playing music and doing…uh…4/20 things. About 24 minutes into the recording, Snoop requests a few cans of Blast to set up in his background. After encouraging viewers to drink Pepsi “cuz Snoop Dogg says so,” he blasts MSNBC for saying he’s selling Blast to the kids. With slim red and purple cans in the background, he says Blast is for adults.

Paul Porter has been reaching out to artists on Twitter who may be unwittingly promoting Blast by Colt 45 drinks. He received a response from Talib Kweli, who removed Blast from a recent show promo.

@RealTalibKweli Talib Kweli Greene

So on 4-20 I will be at the Granada in Lawrence Kansas but Colt45 is no longer involved in the show promo. Thank yall (fans) for alerting me.

Blacks are large consumers of content via mobile and big social media users, so it’s usually good to see digital marketing companies finally getting it and reaching out to us where we live. In this case, though, I don’t think we need what they’re pushing. Porter is still awaiting responses from Snoop, Raekwon , Zion I and Grouch on their upcoming Blast-affiliated events.

via The Root

Stanley Burrell, whom you may know as MC Hammer, will be lending advice to minority entrepreneurs in the New Media Entrepreneurship, or NewMe, accelerator program in Silicon Valley this summer. Starting June 16, seven minority-led start-ups from across the country will live in a rented house in Mountain View, CA. They will be able to work there in the house or in a shared space in San Francisco, a maid sailors home cleaning service will be provided for them for as long as they stay in the houses. Additional Bay Area start-ups will also be invited to participate, but will not live in the house.

Produced by Black Web 2.0, Semantic Seed, and one of our favorite North Carolina based-entrepreneurs Wayne Sutton, the nine-week program will provide practical advice, networking and exposure to minorities and women leading tech companies. Hammer and others will make scheduled visits to the entrepreneurs.

“Just as it was no big deal to get a hold of me for this (interview), I’ll be just accessible and available” to NewME entrepreneurs, said Hammer. “Hollywood is in the perception business where you create layers to create mystery. In Silicon Valley it’s about taking away the layers to get to the substance.”

Our own Angela Benton says the idea for a platform for minority entrepreneurs while at a conference last year in Washington D.C. and was later reinforced by a report from CB Insights which said African Americans make up 1% of Internet company founders nationally. Benton believes the reason for the anemic showing of African American entrepreneurs is lack of mentorship–a void she hopes to begin filling with the accelerator.

via WSJ

Greenpeace released a study (PDF) Thursday which gives some top tech companies low marks for energy efficiency. According to the study, Google and Yahoo made the grade while others still have some work to do.

“We expect these companies to play a pivotal role in ensuring we move to clean, safe renewable energy system and avoid future disasters like Fukishima,” Gary Cook, Greenpeace IT Policy Analyst, said in a statement. “We think consumers want to know that when they upload a video or change their Facebook status that they are not contributing to toxic coal ash, global warming or future Fukishima’s.”

You would expect a company like Apple to score high in this department given their attention to detail, but they actually did the worst. The Cupertino company scored a 54.5 percent for its “coal intensity,” which was just slightly worse than Facebook at 52.8 percent.

Twitter was the worst student in the class, getting F’s across the board. This is in part because of their new data center in Salt Lake City, which Greenpeace says ” is a huge step backwards for Twitter” and that Twitter’s total electricity load in Utah could “easily be met by clean sources of energy.”

Apple ran into similar issues with their decision to build a $1 billion data center in North Carolina. Dubbed the iDataCenter, Greenpeace says it would be built in “an electrical grid among the dirtiest in the country” and Apple’s location choice “indicates a lack of corporate commitment to clean energy supply for its cloud operations.”

Google, while earning points for their announcement of a second power purchase agreement for wind energy in Oklahoma, still got an F in transparency for not disclosing information on energy use or GHG emissions.

Yahoo earned a D in transparency, but was praised for their energy-efficient “chicken coop” data center in Lockport, NY. This is the first center to use Yahoo’s green data center design, known as the Yahoo Computing Coop (YCC).

Facebook, who has had run-ins with Greenpeace before, was said “to lack the vision to become a company powered by clean energy.” Greenpeace says Facebook has selected data centers that rely heavily on coal and nuclear and has made no significant investments into renewable energy.

Does it bother you that updating your Twitter status, poking your friends on Facebook, or playing Angry Birds on your iPhone could contribute to toxic coal ash, global warming or future Fukishima’s?

via PCMag.com.

Google and Microsoft are in a battle for talent for a diverse set of roles. There are set to fill more than 1600 and 4600 positions in coming months.

Google’s uplift was in line with expectations to recruit 6200 globally this year when it was expected to hire more people than in any year in its history as revealed in a January blog post; last year Google hired 4500, second to 2007 when it hired 6000.

Google is mostly seeking business, advertising, sales, communications, government and engineering skills from Silicon Valley to New York, Zurich and London. Microsoft is looking for mobile, cloud, and video gurus to support Windows Phone 7 and Azure cloud services across the globe.

Both companies are looking for passionate and intelligent individuals from varying backgrounds for various salaries. Visit Google’s Jobs site or keep an eye on @googlejobs for more info. For Microsoft, you can check out their Careers site.

This hiring spree goes along with one of the points Obama made at his live Facebook town hall yesterday. He believes we should have a bigger focus on STEM fundamentals in education and is impressed by the many smart people in places like Silicon Valley.

“I always hear stories about how we can’t find engineers, and that’s why we’re emphasizing Math and Science … We want to start making Science cool. I want people to feel about the next big energy breakthrough and the next big Internet breakthrough the same way they felt about the moonwalk.”

He said we need to step our game up when it comes to science, math, and technology and this is “hopefully the greatest legacy I can have as President of the United States.” We’ve touched the state of blacks in tech before and this only highlights the possibilities that open up in STEM-related fields.

via CRN Australia, TechCrunch

Today, President Barack Obama will be at Facebook HQ to hold another live streamed Town Hall meeting via Facebook Live. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will moderate the event as Obama answers questions previously submitted via the web.

“The president is looking forward to visiting Facebook and speaking directly to the American people about his plan for responsibly bringing down the deficit and continuing on the path to economic recovery,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement. “This is a part of our effort to hear from the American people.”

In January of this year, Obama held a YouTube interview where he fielded questions via YouTube Worldview. Earlier this month, Obama launched his re-election bid via a video on his Facebook page. This live Town Hall was announced just a day after. From WhiteHouse.gov/facebooktownhall:

President Obama invites you to participate in his “Shared Responsibility and Shared Prosperity” Facebook town hall event on Wednesday, April 20th at 1:45 pm PT / 4:45 pm ET live online from Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California. The event will be live streamed on Facebook at facebook.com/WhiteHouse or WhiteHouse.gov/live.

This goes down in less than an hour, so hit one of the sites above now to catch the action.


via CNN

According to a report by Wireless Intelligence, African mobile connections reached about 547.5 million during the last three months of 2010 compared to about 523.6 million connections in Western Europe. Mobile price wars have also drastically increased on the continent, started primarily by Kenya mobile operator Airtel. In August of 2010, they slashed prices by 50%. Safaricom soon cut SMS rates and similar rate cuts have happened in countries like Tanzania and Egypt.

While these price cuts are great for customers, they are bad for business and industry margins have suffered. Despite this, mobile continues to provide significant opportunities for revenue expansion for African mobile operators. This is especially true when it comes to Internet access.

With a very limited Internet infrastructure, mobile has increasingly become the primary gateway to high-speed data. Opera, the most popular on the continent, accounts for more than half of Africa’s mobile Internet market according to their State of the Mobile Web report. Opera also reported that page views increased by 365%, unique users increased by 176% and data transferred increased by 331%.

Apps have also come to the forefront given the infrastructure challenges in Africa, a subject we’ve touched on before. In areas like healthcare, agriculture and banking, apps can become potential solution providers. Apps like iCow, a voice-based app which helps farmers effectively manage the breeding of cows and won the Apps 4 Africa contest, are now seen as sources of economic development innovation.

According to the app’s Founder, Kahumbu Stephanou, “Mobile phones are literally going to be the bridge between the digital world and developing countries. It’s not going to be laptops. It’s not going to be computers,” she said. “The space is…wide open for the tools to be used for teaching, or really, for educating people.”

This doesn’t seem far off the mark from what we experience in the US when it comes to the black community. We are extremely active in the mobile space and outpace other groups in mobile phone and app usage. We talk and text the most. We are more likely to have an Internet-connected mobile device than an actual computer. For those thinking about the digital divide or organizations looking to touch the black community, mobile should be a primary focus.

via TNW Africa

The Startup America Partnership saw some tech heavy hitters investing in the initiative when it was unveiled back in January. Now, 15 companies are going in again, providing over $400 million in value on top of the original commitment from companies like IBM, Intel, and HP. Companies will be able to apply for these resources based on which stage they’re in (idea, startup, rampup, speedup) via Startup America’s new membership program.

Startup America is “a movement by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs – launched January 31, 2011, at the White House to help inspire and celebrate entrepreneurs, their firms and the people that join them.” Their focus is “on bringing the private sector together to maximize the success of America’s entrepreneurs – and maximize America’s competitiveness in an increasingly global world.” Startup America’s principal focus is on what they call “speedups.” These are firms with high-growth potential.

Startup America plans to support these entrepreneurs by “assembling commitments from a wide range of companies and organizations” and they have done just that. Here are some of the companies now stepping up to the plate:

• Google is donating over $100 million worth of Google Ads.
• HP is offering an estimated $100 million in discounts on printers and other products.
• American Express has devoted over $125 million in value to member companies by giving preferred pricing to Startup America startups.
• Cisco has committed to provide training to about 6,000 entrepreneurs in 50 cities by January 2014 ($3 million value).
• Ernst and Young has pledged more than $7.5 million worth of its finance services for SA companies.
• Intuit will be investing $37 million in services and products including QuickBooks and Intuit Payroll services.

Startup America will be discussing these new partnerships live on Facebook at 7:30 EDT / 4:30 PDT, shortly after President Obama’s Shared Responsibility and Shared Prosperity town hall, which takes place at 4:45 EDT / 1:45 PDT. There have also been changes to the Startup America website to focus more on the entrepreneurs and they will be rolling out a new free membership program to allow companies at any level to apply for access to “resources to help them grow.”

source Startup America via TechCrunch

Nominations for the 2011 Black Weblog Awards are now open. Visit the site and hit Nominate to nominate your favorite blogs and suggest new categories for consideration. Nominations are starting early this year, and for good reason. This will be the first time in their 7-year history that the winners of the Black Weblog Awards will be announced in a LIVE ceremony on July 9, 2011 in Los Angeles, CA.

The event is a collaboration with the Blogging While Brown conference to create a black social media weekend.This event will mark the largest gathering of Black social media influentials in the country. Nominations close May 7 with voting running from May 16th to June 17th, so hit the site and get yours in before it’s too late.

To attend the event, get your tickets here. If you already plan to attend the Blogging While Brown Conference, there will be general admission seating available for the awards. There are also a small number of VIP seats available if you want to attend the awards separately.

Will you be there? Who will you nominate?

via The Black Weblog Awards

Recently, UberMedia and G-Unit Records have announced the availability of Uber50, a custom theme for UberSocial for BlackBerry created by 50 Cent himself. There is a free version including special background art and a deluxe version available for $1.99 which includes additional, exclusive art as well as sounds triggered by actions like sending a Tweet or direct message, all recorded or selected by 50 Cent.

“Twitter has become an important way for me to communicate with my fans and for my fans to communicate with each other,” said 50 Cent, who himself has more than 4.4 million followers. “We’re all big users of UberSocial on the BlackBerry and already use many of their current themes to customize the look of the app, so it was natural for me to work with UberMedia to develop a special theme. I think my fans are going to love sending and reading their Tweets with my new theme.”

Features of the free version of the Uber50 theme include:

• Custom icon and logo
• Quick access to G-Unit Twitter list
• Exclusive artwork as background within UberSocial

In addition, a deluxe G’d Up edition will be available soon for $1.99 and includes:

• Welcome to the Gritty Darkside special theme
• Special sound effects created by 50 Cent
• Exclusive wallpaper for your BlackBerry home screen

UberMedia is the largest independent provider of applications for reading and posting to Twitter and other social media platforms. There has been rumor that they might launch a Twitter competitor, but partnerships like this could make such a move irrelevant. Why start from scratch when you can stand on the shoulders of giants?

In any case, Twitter should be watching their backs. UberMedia is making serious moves even after Twitter temporarily blocked their services for “TOS violations.” UberMedia controls a large percentage of Twitter users and there has been talk of a Tweetdeck acquisition, which would give UberMedia even more control. The game is all about eyeballs and UberMedia is in a position grab the lion’s share. Also, I hear those G-Unit guys don’t play.

Grab Uber50 and tell us what you think in the comments.

source Business Wire via TechCrunch

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. took the floor to speak on what he believes is one major cause of unemployment in America…the iPad.

“A few short weeks ago I came to the House floor after having purchased an iPad and said that I happened to believe, Mr. Speaker, that at some point in time this new device, which is now probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs. Now Borders is closing stores because, why do you need to go to Borders anymore? Why do you need to go to Barnes & Noble? Buy an iPad and download your newspaper, download your book, download your magazine.”

Later in the speech, he talks about how Chicage State University is giving out iPads instead of textbooks. President Wayne Watson wants to go textbookless campus within 4 years. He goes on to talk about all the lost jobs related to the publishing industry.

There are a few reasons why this speech is odd, the first being that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. owns an iPad and was just seen on the House floor promoting it. What’s even more interesting is that he also touted the merits of Kindle, iPad, and other tablet devices in education.

“Let me be clear about a few things,” Jackson said, brandishing both an Apple iPad and an Amazon Kindle on the House floor. “These devices are revolutionizing our country — and they will fundamentally alter how we will educate our children.”

Jackson said he wants to amend the Constitution so that it guarantees every American the right to an equal education, which means an iPad, Kindle, or Nook for every schoolchild.

There is a valid point in that the iPad is made in China, so nobody in the US is making a wage for putting them together, but does that mean their bad? I’m pretty sure most technology is manufactured outside of the US.

Technology inevitably advances and jobs change. Even if we assume the iPad is directly responsible for lost jobs in America, do we make moves to try and stop technological advances? Doesn’t seem to make much sense. I have to agree with Wayne Sutton:

Also as the publishing industry has been under “attack” from the decline in newspaper sales and more, changes must happen for the industry to continue. It’s called innovation and adoption. It’s what the New York Times is doing with their apps and why we have new apps like the Daily. Also not to mention how much money Apple has allowed for developers to make. If I’m a publisher or write or in the publishing industry I would have been thinking about mobile like… 4 years ago.

What do you think? Is the iPad a job killer? What should we do about it? Watch the complete video at RealClearPolitics.

source RealClearPolitics, TheHill via SocialWayne