Video device convergence forces Skype to embrace H.264

Skype’s decision to adopt H.264 was made because it has become the de facto codec for video delivery across a wide range of devices. Due to hardware acceleration built into low-powered devices such as TVs, Blu-ray players and mobile handsets, video publishers have increasingly turned to H.264 for video playback.
H.264 is arguably the best, or only, way to deliver video onto connected TVs and mobile devices. However, a battle is breaking out over the video format used by Web browsers for standards-based HTML5 video playback. While all modern browsers are working to support HTML5 and its video tag, which enables video playback without the need for a proprietary plug-in like Adobe’s Flash Player, browser makers are divided on which video format to support. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 and Apple’s Safari browser have pledged support for H.264, but Google’s Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox and Opera are backing Google’s open-source WebM format.

Twitter for iPhone Now Supports iOS4 Multitasking

Twitter for iPhone – a piece of software formerly known as Tweetie – has a new version out, and it brings support for iOS4 multitasking as well as the iPhone 4’s Retina Display.
Although we assume most apps will be updated to support the new features in iOS4 soon, with Twitter it’s doubly important, since many users (including us) yearned for the ability to have the app quietly await you in the background while you do other tasks.
Besides these new features, the new version of Twitter for iPhone brings a fix for the “stuck top tweets” bug and promises more secure tweeting and photo/video posting, meaning it’s now using Oauth for all communications with Twitter and hosting partners.
Check out Twitter for iPhone here.

Windows Live Messenger Now Available for the iPhone

Microsoft has launched an official, free Windows Live Messenger app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
The app lets you chat with your Windows Live and Y! Messenger buddies, see what your Messenger friends are up to on social networks such as Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and MySpace, and comment on their activities.
You can also upload photos, create captions and create photo albums directly from your phone. If you choose to, you can also receive IM notifications when the app is closed.
Finally, the app also lets you access your Hotmail account, and read, reply to, and compose emails.
Windows Live Messenger for the iPhone is available here.

Find Out What Those Crazy Kids Are Saying

The web has been blamed for the degradation of the English language — imho, idk wtf da h8ers mean. No, seriously, there’s no denying that the advent of texting and Internet speak has heralded a bevy of acronyms, some designed by crafty teens so as to elude their parents’ prying eyes (remember “pos,” or “parent over shoulder”?). Well, Teen Chat Decoder has the remedy for any parent suffering from Internet illiteracy.
This web app isn’t the handsomest lad of the block — to be sure — and it’s not exactly designed to amuse and delight (it’s more about keeping your kid safe online), but you can definitely while away a goodly number of minutes decoding an array of baffling slang (for anyone who has had to Google stuff like “ftw,” “pyt” and “otp,” this could be a pretty useful tool).

Right now, the app has a pretty good store of terms — even a few odd ones we’ve never seen before (“LOLLZ” means “Laugh out Loud Literally Zapped,” huh?) — and you can add anything it may be lacking.
What do you think of apps like this? Will they actually help parents keep kids safe online, or are they simply interesting diversions?

Many World Cup Players Banned from Social Media

During this year’s FIFA World Cup games in South Africa, players on several competing teams will be unable to tweet, poke, buzz, checkin, like or in any other way make their presence known on the social web.
It’s not uncommon for coaches to ban sex or alcohol during the World Cup, but increasingly, they’re also instituting ad hoc bans on social media sites, including Twitter.
So far, players on the teams from Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Holland, Germany, Argentina and England are forbidden to use social services such as Twitter. One coach, Marcelo Bielsa of Chile, banned all social networking and even put a curfew on regular or non-social Internet use during the evening.
In the U.S., similar bans have been enacted over the past year during the American football season and basketball season. Players in the NFL, for example, are prohibited from using social media during all games and for a 90-minute period prior to and following a game. Moreover, players are not allowed to have someone else post an update or tweet on their behalf.
As the World Cup-related hashtags trend on Twitter and millions of people around the world use the web to tune into and talk about these matches, do you think it’s a bit unfair that the players themselves aren’t allowed to participate in this conversation? Or are these strict coaches doing us all a favor by keeping their players focused? Let us know what you think in the comments.

iPhone 4…Changing they way we interact….Again

Apple has unveiled its new iPhone 4 after a couple wild, unprecedented months of leaks. Sure, it looks exactly like we expected it to (Steve compares it to an old Leica camera), with a glass front and back, but it’s what’s on the inside that counts, kids. The stainless steel band that goes around the phone is an antenna system, while also providing the main structure of the phone, though it’s plugged into the same old GSM / UMTS radio you all know and love — there’s a reason they didn’t call it the iPhone 4G. There’s also of course that front facing camera we were all anticipating, a rear camera with LED flash, and a new high resolution display that doubles the pixels in each direction (960 x 640) for a 4X overall pixel count increase — Apple calls it a “Retina Display.” It’s rated at 326ppi, which Apple claims is beyond the human eye’s limit of distinction. Check out an example of the new screen up against the iPhone 3G after the break. Similar to the iPad, it’s an IPS display, offering 800:1 contrast. Naturally, it’s still the same old 3.5-inch size. Under the hood is the A4 processor that runs the iPad. Despite the new engine (and the 25% thinner chassis), Apple managed to make the battery slightly larger, and the new handset is rated at 7 hours of 3G talk, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi browsing, 10 hours of video, and 40 hours of music. Oh, and that WiFi? It’s 802.11n now. The camera has been bumped to 5 megapixels, with 5X digital zoom and a “backside illuminated sensor,” which now can also record HD video at 720p / 30fps.
On the software front, applications will automatically get high resolution text and buttons as part of iOS 4 (the OS previously known as iPhone OS 4), and with “a little bit of work” developers can make their entire app compatible with the new resolution display. Developers will also get access to a new gyroscope, giving devs “six axis” motion control between the gyroscope, accelerometer, and compass, with a new “Core Motion” API to deal with it all. Users won’t be left out in the cold, however: they can mess around with that new HD video using a brand new iMovie app, if they shell out $4.99 for it. If anyone’s feeling particularly frisky, iOS 4 even lets you switch your default search provider to Bing. Last but certainly not least, that new front camera is enabled for video chat using the new “FaceTime” feature. It’s a WiFi-only (for now) video calling feature that works from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 with “no setup” involved, and can flip over to the rear camera if your grandparents get tired of your face.
The phone will be available in white or black, retailing at $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for 32GB. They go on sale June 24th, and AT&T will be giving some extra grace upgrade timing — up to six months early. The 3GS will be dropped to $99 and the 3G will disappear completely. Pre-orders start in a week, with 5 countries at launch (US, France, Germany, UK, Japan), with 18 more following in July. Apple will also be selling a first party case for $29, and a dock for the same price

HTC EVO 4G to Get Video Calling… For a Price

There’s good news and bad news for future HTC EVO 4G owners: Skype should come to the smartphone before the end of the year, as will mobile video app Qik — but you’re going to have to shell out $5 per month for the latter if you want to take advantage of its video chat functionality.
It might be a hard pill to swallow for some, considering Sprint is already going to charge a $10 “premium data” fee per month simply to make use of the phone’s data services in addition to whatever monthly voice and data package is chosen. Qik runs the risk of running afoul of the “feeling nickel and dimed” response from consumers who are already shelling out extra fees to capitalize on the “about 10 times faster” data speeds on Sprint’s 4G network.

fidipidi: a Facebook app for sending real greeting cards

fidipidi, aside from being a portmanteau of serendipity and Pheidippides, is a Facebook application that allows you to create real-world greeting cards that get sent through the U.S. Postal Service for delivery to real human beings. Think of it like all those e-card services that were so popular about a decade ago, except that the card gets delivered to the recipients actual mailbox instead of their email inbox. Looks fun, and easy to use.

The first 15,000 people to sign up for fidipidi can use the code 1stCardFree to get their first card created and sent for free!

For a variety of silly reasons I don’t really use Facebook, let alone any Facebook apps, so I can’t provide a real testimonial here. If Facebook is your kind of thing, this might be a good app to try.

Facebook Announces New Privacy Features

Following weeks of debate over Facebook and privacy, the company is announcing new features to address the criticism that has emerged since the launch of the Open Graph and Instant Personalization.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg — who penned an op-ed in The Washington Post on Sunday promising new privacy options — is doing the presenting at a live event at the company’s headquarters.

After opening his presentation with a brief history of how Facebook and its privacy features have evolved, Zuckerberg described a number of upcoming changes to the social network.

Facebook isn’t going to remove the dozens of privacy controls that let you customize settings for very specific elements of your profile. However, the company is rolling out:

One simple control for changing content viewing permissions to friends-only, friends-of-friends, or everyone — it applies to everything you’ve published on Facebook in the past. This setting will also apply to everything you publish in the future.
A simple way for determining how people can find you on Facebook, and what users that aren’t your friend can see.
A simple way for turning off the Facebook Platform, specifically, being able to opt-out of Facebook’s new instant personalization features and providing third-party sites with information.
A way to opt-out of sharing your friends list and the Pages that you like.
The theme here is clearly “simple” — an easier way to stop sharing information with people, websites and applications that you don’t want to have access. That said, it looks like instant personalization instant personalization will remain on by default.

The new privacy controls will go live in the next few weeks, and Facebook will be inserting a message on user homepages alerting them to the new options. Stay tuned to Mashable for more news and analysis on Facebook’s latest privacy moves.

Twitter Emerging as Online Video Power Broker [STATS]

New stats we’ve just been shown by video measurement company TubeMogul show that Twitter is quickly growing as a top referrer for web video traffic, far outpacing Facebook, Yahoo, Google and Bing.

Further, when it comes to getting users to watch videos, users who discovered a video via Twitter tend to stay around longer, too. In fact, these users will view a video for an average of just over two minutes.

In a quick Twitter poll, we tried to ascertain the reasons for Twitter’s emergence as a video-sharing tool. From what we can tell, people are using Twitter to connect not just to their real-world friends, but also to specific interests. Hence, they’re finding content that’s directly related to those interests, content that is more personally relevant and, for the individual, more watchable. Simply put, for video discovery, Twitter is “more tuned to my tastes,” in the words of one user.

It might also have something to do with the sheer volume of content and the ease of spreading that content around via retweets. One user said most of his video recommendations were via Twitter, and another said he was less likely to tune out a video if multiple friends retweeted it.

However you want to slice it, though, Twitter is a huge referral source for online video. Video blogging pioneer Steve Garfield, who literally wrote the book on web video, told us, “Twitter is my #1 recomendation engine for finding videos.”

Do you tend to find good videos from your Twitter stream? Are they more interesting or more relevant to you than the videos you’d find on Facebook or from random browsing elsewhere online?