Technology – Page 114

YouTube Goes High Def Video, but not HD

Yes great name YouTube! High definition that isn’t the high definition that we have come to know through our TV experiences. The good thing is that the videos do look much better! This YouTube high definition is definitely going to make videos viewing a much more pleasant experience.

One of the great things is that as a video producer, all I have to do is upload a video and two options will automatically be available to users – low and high quality playback! Make sure to go to your account and say that you always want high def video quality playback.

Joost Experiments with Live Video

Joost

I haven’t talked much about Joost on StuffWeLike. One of the reasons for that is that I don’t particular like their service. It has a crappy user interface with a catalog of videos that never seem to update, at least they never did when Joost first launched.

Today I received an email about testing Joost live video. It definitely caught my attention because it’s P2P live streaming video. On Thursday, March 13, at 2 p.m. EDT, 6 p.m. GMT public testing begins. Three simple steps and you can test their video:

1. Go to Joost.com and download the newest version of Joost.
Install it.

2. At 2 p.m. EDT (11 a.m. PDT, 6 p.m. GMT, 7 p.m. CET),
start Joost, and go to the Joost LIVE Test category.
Launch the Leiden LIVE P2P channel.

3. Start watching. (If you want, go to My Joost -> Channel Chat
to see who else is watching with you.)

This test will show video interviews with the people behind Live streaming video on Joost. If all goes well soon enough we may be able to watch live sports being broadcasted on Joost. Now that’d be tight.

Hulu Going Public

Finally the awesome Hulu video power house is going public! Previously in a private beta for months, the high quality video ad supported site is going public on March 12. It has some new partners to add to its content provider list as well including Warner Bros and Lionsgate!

I’ve been using Hulu for some time now and it’s absolutely fantastic. Sure it’s a pain the ears when the commercials come on blaring at 5 decibels louder than the actual show, but besides that the service has been great. Hopefully their servers won’t be destroyed when the public breaks in!

Big boys toys: Lego MP3 player and iPod dock

Ah, Nostalgia. What a wonderful thing it is reminiscing about the days when we used to play with Lego. Speaking of which, check out this flashback inducing MP3 player from Homade, made from the colored buliding blocks. Well not quite, since they aren’t an official Lego product. Still, they look exactly like the building blocks of our youth.

Read on for the whole collection and the lego-like iPod dock.

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WALMART Looks Into the Gaming Future

Walmart? Who shops at Walmart for state of the art gaming stuff?

Well, pretty soon it may be me and YOU, as Walmart corporate has allowed its key buyers to blog information they obtain from consumer electronics shows.

Now you can preview the newest games, gadgets and gotta have techno toys at their new blog.

BUT before you click away, here are some of the up-and-coming trends in the market as put forth by Tifanie Van Laar the Walmart game buyer.

Expect Packaging to Matter – We spoke with quite a few folks about their publishing. It is time for our industry to mature and take more responsibility. Look at movies and music and some of the efforts they have undertaken. No need for heavy plastic packages that really are way overbuilt. We challenged quite a few suppliers on this front. We can, and must do better.

Expect More Street Dated Releases – Here too, we have much to learn from our brethren in music and movies. You know that Tuesday is the day for big releases in movies and music. Even smaller releases are out on Tuesday. With some of the marketing and development costs makers are talking about, there is no need to just ship date these titles. A street date serves as a call to action for the consumer. Hey, if I were spending $10 MILLION on just marketing a title, I would want a street date. Only one retailer does not want street dates, the other retailers want them. Seems that less than 30% of the industry is trying to have it their way. It just does not make sense to the industry or the consumer.
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