YouTube Launches Entertainment Venture

YouTube is making a bold step into original programming in an entertainment venture with some 100 content creators, from Madonna to The Wall Street Journal.
The Google-owned video site said that it's launching more than 100 new video channels.
The partners include an array of Hollywood production companies, celebrities and new media groups that will produce mainly niche-oriented videos.
YouTube is shelling out US$100 million to producers, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The money is an advance on advertising money the videos will bring in, and Google will recoup its portion first before splitting the proceeds.
 Advances are as high as US$5 million per channel, said another person familiar with the arrangement, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
Neither person was authorized to comment publicly on the matter.
Google declined to offer financial details of the deals, but said the majority of revenue will go to partners.
Participants include Madonna, former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal, comedian Amy Poehler, actor Ashton Kutcher, "Office" star Rainn Wilson, spiritual doctor Deepak Chopra and "Modern Family" actress Sofia Vergara. Most are creating channels through their production companies. Madonna is a partner with the dance channel DanceOn, while O'Neal plans the Comedy Shaq Network.
Lionsgate is presenting a fitness channel, and other channels will be launched by news satire the Onion, professional wrestling's WWE, online magazine Slate and news service Thomson Reuters.
The channels will roll out beginning this month, though most will premiere next year.
YouTube says the channels will add 25 hours of new original content daily, with dozens of Web series debuting at scheduled times.
Ultimately, YouTube is aiming to create a new digital video platform that will rival television programming.
In a blog posting YouTube said the channels are being developed "specifically for the digital age." The video site compared the expanded video offerings to the advent of cable television.
YouTube has tried to build a more advertiser-friendly product of professional-quality video, as opposed to simply user-created videos.
Advertisers generally prefer to have their ads matched with known quantities. YouTube has also previously tried to urge viewers to stay longer with TV-like services like the YouTube Leanback, which continuously plays a personalized selection of videos.
Google is also looking to add professionally produced content to its huge roster of user-generated videos, to give users of its Google TV platform something to watch.
Major Hollywood networks such as News Corp.'s Fox and The Walt Disney Co.'s ABC have blocked their content from being shown on Google TV because the sides have been unable to come to a licensing deal that the networks believes pays them fairly.
Networks also don't want to jeopardize their lucrative relationship with pay TV distributors like Comcast Corp. and DirecTV.
Google is a platform that has been adopted by set-top box maker Logitech, which makes a device called a Logitech Revue that sells for US$100.

Ice Cream Sandwich Provides Android With Native Stylus Support

Google’s latest build Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 4.0 now has native stylus support enabling developers to easily take advantage of pressure recognition, hover tracking and nib-tilt, together with differentiation between stylus and finger use, as well as providing support for styluses with up to three buttons.

The discovery was made by Reddit who discovered the native Stylus support within the Android 4.0 highlights, and has been added by Google to enhance the sketching and drawing capabilities of Android 4.0 devices.




Android 4.0 now has a specific API for stylus support: Stylus input, button support, hover events :

“Android 4.0 includes full support for stylus input events, including tilt and distance axes, pressure, and related motion event properties. To help applications distinguish motion events from different sources, the platform adds distinct tool types for stylus, finger, mouse, and eraser. For improved input from multi-button pointing devices, the platform now provides distinct primary, secondary, and tertiary buttons, as well as back and forward buttons.

Hover-enter and hover-exit events are also added, for improved navigation and accessibility. Developers can build on these new input features to add powerful interactions to their apps, such as precise drawing and gesturing, handwriting and shape recognition, improved mouse input, and others.”

Google+: Users Want More Features

Google+ has great potential, but users of the social network are frustrated with Google's method of rolling out features that they want.



Google+ is far from dead, say many in the trenches who are finding the Google social network a platform with a lot of potential. However, as much as they like what is in Google+ so far, they are frustrated by what is not--and, in their opinion, should be--in the platform.

Several readers wrote to me after the publication of my last piece on Google+ in which I asked how people really are--or are not--using the network, especially compared with more established platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Mark Davis said Google+ is becoming his platform for professional networking while Facebook remains the place where he networks socially.

"Since I started using Google+ some weeks ago, I've developed a healthy network of people I trust, respect and enjoy," said Mark Davis. "Most of them are related to me professionally in some way. They are technologically literate, they are educated and articulate, and I genuinely want to know what they're up to, what they have to say. Adults, young and old; professionals; technologists; artists; teachers; most of them good friends of mine ... The pattern I see here is a grown-up, educated, closer, smaller community that isn't a subset of my Facebook friends."

IT consultant David G. Osayidan said Google+ is on the right track but he has been frustrated by a lack of integration with other Google services.

"They're taking what was wrong with others, including their own failed attempts such as Buzz, and doing it right," he said. "I really enjoy the concept of Circles and the level of control we have over who sees what. This aspect alone is forcing others like Facebook to rethink their own systems, and that's good for everyone. With that, Google+ has left a positive mark, regardless of how it fares in the future."

Osayidan noted that he has been using Google+ with a "dummy" account because his primary Google account is with Google Apps. He said he has been "frustrated and a bit shocked" that he pays for Google services and cannot use them with Google+. Currently, there is no way to integrate a professional Google Apps account with the Google+ service, although Google senior VP of engineering Vic Gundotra announced Wednesday at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco that support for Google App account users will be added within days. He also said that support for brand pages is also forthcoming, but will take longer to roll out.

Google doodle honours muppeteer Jim Henson

Google on Saturday paid tribute to Jim Henson, one of the greatest puppeteers of all time and the creator of the popular Muppets with a doodle featuring a series of digital puppets shaped in the form of the company logo.

James Maury Henson would have been 75 years of age on Saturday had he been alive. He is best known for ‘The Muppets’ and memorable shows such as Sesame Street, The Muppet Show and films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper.

The Henson doodle features six digital muppets in the shape and colour of the Google logo that respond to a mouse over as ‘real’ muppets would.

The doodle is a collaboration between Google and The Jim Henson Company. The Google Doodle team tweeted: “Become a digital puppeteer today and tomorrow with our homepage tribute to Jim Henson! #googledoodle”

The official Google blog said “We’re thrilled to share this guest post by Brian Henson about his father - puppeteer, director and producer Jim Henson, best known as the creator of the Muppets. For the next 36 hours, we’re honoring Jim’s birthday on our homepage with a special doodle created in tandem with The Jim Henson Company.”

Brian Henson, Chairman of The Jim Henson Company, reminisced about his father in the touching post that threw valuable insight into the man behind the puppets. ”When we were kids, my brother and sisters and I were always allowed to stay up late to watch our father’s appearances on The Tonight Show or The Ed Sullivan Show. No matter how late it was or how young we were, my mother would wake us up and trundle us down to the living room television. We’d be giddy—like Christmas. When he came home, he’d head down to the garage where he had a workshop, and repair everything that we broke while he was away—or build a dollhouse for one of my sisters. Jim never stopped making things.”