newVideoPlayer("oprah_youtube.flv", 475, 376); Oprah, that generous talk show host who no longer needs a last name, stooped down to YouTube to join up with the great unwashed yesterday, and to commemorate the occasion she gave away a $150 Flip Ultra camcorder to everybody in her talk show audience. Check out her condescending peptalk to YouTubers in the video above, promoting her show on which YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, whom Oprah says “don’t go out much,” appeared.
To show how easy it is to use the Flip Ultra, she took it with her backstage after the show, shooting lots of shaky cam video that gives us an idea of what it’s like to be stared at by everyone in the room, all wondering if you’re going to give even a small part of your $2.5 billion to them. Fascinating. Welcome to the 21st century, Oprah! She’s the equivalent of Steve Jobs to soccer mums everywhere. This must mean YouTube has officially arrived, or on the other hand, maybe it’s jumped the shark…? [Oprah on YouTube] More »
Microsoft’s Windows Live package has just dropped out of beta development. The released package contains various desktop programs for email, IM, blogging and photo sharing. The Windows Live Mail app will allow for email account convergence between most popular email providers, including Gmail and AOL. Direct Flickr photo uploads and blog writing tools are also included within the software suite. Except for the mildly interesting new package, what else is on offer? Well, Microsoft is dropping brand spanking new email addresses with the @live.com domain. More »
MB&F’s Horological Machine No. 2 (HM2) is a timepiece god. It has four dials, which offer the following measurements: “instantaneous jump hour, concentric retrograde minutes, retrograde date and bi-hemisphere moon phase.” That basically means the watch has two date and two time keeping dials. Who the hell cares? It’s stunning! Check out its flawless beauty in the gallery below:
In addition to the trio of new handsets they intro’d today, Sony Ericsson also announced plans for an upgraded PlayNow music service. Launching this spring, it could feature up to 5 million tracks in “MP3 and Windows Media digital rights management, or DRM-enabled formats” from all of the Big Four, though no track price has been relayed. On the upside (or downside, if you spend compulsively), you can have your tab tacked onto your phone bill. Interestingly, SE’s planning to cut service providers in on revenues from OTA downloads. Sounds like it’s off to a better start than Nokia’s competing venture at any rate. [WSJ] More »
Developing 32nm processors with IBM and Toshiba has proved too rich for Sony’s blood—they’re pulling out of the joint R&D, right on the heels of selling their chip-making business to Toshiba a couple of weeks ago. [Reuters] More »
DayPortPlayer.newPlayer({articleID:"15837",bannerContainer:"OverrideAdArea",playerInstanceID:"1",domain:"keye.dayport.com",rootCategory:"79",categoryID:"5"});I don’t understand a word of the video because I don’t understand the language of surrender, but I don’t need to in order to see that the dogs trapped inside of this $30,000 contraption for the four minutes of washing and drying aren’t exactly experiencing jouissance. They’re dogs, not designer jeans, people. And the guy that climbed inside to show it’s safe is probably a plant who loves pain. [Key TV via Spluch] More »
Okay, technically it’s a list of features Gadget Lab’s readers want, but you guys probably want them too, right? Stuff like iChat, cut and paste functions and the ever-craved “media disinterest.” Anything you want that didn’t make the list? Better still if it’s genuinely awesome but less likely to happen than Apple joining the Open Handset Alliance. [Gadget Lab] More »
The MiniMechadon walker works pretty much as advertised: It walks, awkwardly and prodding, just like the AT-STs you know and love. Cobbled together from a gumbo of parts, circuit boards and brass tubing, it’s not quite as sparse as its film counterpart, what with the disco feet and all, but that’s kind of why we dig it. The one thing the Empire didn’t have enough of was style. Hit the jump for a shiny still shot. [Mike Smyth via TechEBlog via Technabob] More »
Zipit Wireless introduced its second stab at instant messaging without needing a computer with the Z2. The flip-open handheld device allows teens to IM their pals over Wi-Fi and supports AOL, MSN and Yahoo instant messaging services without any monthly fees. Kids can also sideload photos and their favourite tunes through the miniSD slot, or stream music directly from the internet. The Z2 will set you back $US150, and according Zipit reps, will be available in the next few weeks. [Zipit Wireless]
While I cannot definitively confirm that the CAM-007 is the world’s smallest commercial camcorder spycam (see exhibit A and exhibit B), the self-contained device does clock in at a minuscule 0.3″x0.9″x0.5″ and it boasts a fairly impressive feature set that includes both audio and video recording, MPEG-4 3 GP at 15fps, a built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery that recharges via USB (up to 2 hours of recording), and Micro SD up to 2GB with room for approx. 19 hours of video on a 1GB card. Available for $US349. [Product Page] More »
