Internet & Media

Google is planning to bundle its Chrome browser and/or operating system with Adobe Systems' Flash in a deeper partnership, we've heard from reliable sources.

The announcement, which is expected to come on Tuesday, is an interesting wrinkle ahead of the launch of Apple's iPad, which famously doesn't include Flash. Adobe-Apple relations are chilly, to say the least.

Google's bundling of Flash into Chrome via a deeper partnership with Adobe could indicate that the two parties are drawing a line in the sand against Apple. Details about the partnership announcement were sparse. Chrome already works with … Read more

No doubt, Bootsy Collins put the fun in funk.

All the showmanship aside--the wild costumes and glasses--the guy can play bass. Now, Collins is preparing to go online to share his knowledge about the instrument. On July 1, Collins, 58, is opening up what he says is the world's first "Funk University."

Collins wrote at Thefunkuniversity.com: "This sonic learning institution will be unlike anything before as Professor Collins and the finest bassists in music will unleash an intense curriculum on the Web for intermediate to advanced funk disciples." Musically.com first reported the story. … Read more

Most of the time you hear of iPhone applications being squelched, it's some developer who ran afoul of Apple's developer requirements. But in the case of apps to view BBC content, it was the BBC's own governing body that stepped in.

The BBC put its iPhone applications on hold after its overseers, the BBC Trust, decided to assess the applications in light of objections from competing media outlets, according to the BBC and others.

The BBC had planned to launch a news application this April and a sports application in time for the World Cup soccer tournament. … Read more

Web radio and cloud music are hot--largely thanks to the recent success of Pandora, but that doesn't stop Michael Robertson from declaring that what online radio currently offers is "lame."

Robertson, the controversy-courting founder of MP3.com and Linspire, is preparing to roll out a new online music service called BYO.fm. He said that BYO taps into Web radio's potential to enable users to act as their own program directors.

"All online radio does now is transfer audio over the Web," Robertson said. "Web radio should be personalized."

BYO, which stands … Read more

Brightcove, an online video platform provider, is looking to fill the Apple iPad's Flash void with HTML5 video.

The company on Monday announced the Brightcove Experience for HTML5, which allows customers to publish video for devices like Apple's iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch (Brightcove blog, statement, background).

There's a big scrum over video formats highlighted by the back-and-forth between Apple and Adobe Systems over Flash. Meanwhile, Google is pushing HTML5 for video. Toss in H.264 as a standard and things can get messy for video publishers.

Read more of "Brightcove aims to fill Apple iPad's Flash void with HTML 5&… Read more

It must be a relief to many that our petty indiscretions, those that appear online and seem to haunt us daily, will soon become so normal as to be irrelevant.

It must be a particular relief to Nick Levasseur, a Democratic New Hampshire state representative, who, according the Huffington Post, used Facebook to offer his rather strong views on anime. Reports failed to record why Levasseur is so pained by the rather beautiful Japanese style of animation.

However, he is reported to have written on his Facebook page these rather difficult words: "Anime is a prime example of why … Read more

It appears the day when we we'll be paying to read general interest news stories on the Web is coming sooner rather than later--perhaps as early as June for readers of the U.K.-based Times publications.

News International, the British division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., announced on Friday that two of its newspapers, The Times and The Sunday Times of London, are set to begin charging readers using its sites in June.

The two papers have been offering their content in a combined news Web site called Times Online. Under the new plan, however, News International … Read more

Last month, when Facebook ended its advertising partnership with Microsoft, opting to take all its advertising sales in-house, I predicted that the company would soon be announcing the hire of a high-profile advertising executive.

Indeed, Facebook on Friday confirmed an All Things Digital report that it has hired David Fischer away from Google as its vice president of advertising and global operations.

"It's a testament to Facebook's expanding opportunities in advertising that we're able to welcome an executive of David's caliber," read a statement from Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, herself a former member of Google's ad corps. &… Read more

NEW YORK--Bob Tur, the Los Angeles broadcast journalist whose company sued YouTube in 2006 over a copyright complaint, has been accused by Google-employed lawyers of leaking confidential court documents related to the depositions of YouTube and Google executives in a longstanding battle with Viacom over pirated content.

In a hearing Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, attorney Andrew Schapiro of the law firm Mayer Brown cited circumstantial evidence that he claimed pinpoints Tur as the source of documents leaked to CNET's Greg Sandoval. Those documents included a deposition on behalf of … Read more