video

NBC Universal didn't waste any time replacing Apple.

Episodes of The Office and Heroes will begin appearing at Amazon's Unbox starting next Monday, according to a statement released by the companies.

Amazon customers can download the pilot shows for new series, such as Bionic Woman, and Chuck, free of charge and in advance of their network premiers. Other shows will be available on Amazon Unbox the day after they air. Amazon and NBC Universal are offering a range of packages, including a 30 percent off deal when purchasing a complete season in advance.

NBC Universal and Apple engaged … Read more

There are a few online video editors available right now, and there are also several slide show tools online. Vcasmo is both. It's designed to display video alongside a PowerPoint slide show. It fills a highly specific need, and it does it well.

If you want to put a speech on the Web so people can see it, and you have a video of it and a PowerPoint or a PDF (or a collection of JPEGs), with Vcasmo you can put the media together side-by-side. A simple timeline editor lets you define exactly when images display in your presentation. … Read more

Conceptual artist Jonathon Keats has few qualms about exploiting the behavior of nonhumans. For one of his projects, presented last year, he choreographed a ballet danced by honeybees. For his latest project--video pornography for plants--he has gone even farther off-species and, many would say, farther still off the deep end.

Keats calls the genre Cinema Botanica and billed its gallery premiere, scheduled for September 10 at the 1078 Gallery, in Chico, Calif., as the "world's first porn theater for house plants." The logic behind the project, which now includes a trailer on YouTube showing plants being pollinated, … Read more

A disagreement between Apple and NBC Universal escalated Friday as Apple announced that it won't sell NBC's shows for the upcoming television season.

The move comes a day after The New York Times reported that NBC Universal would not renew its agreement to make its TV shows available for download on iTunes.

Apple said in a press release that the dispute over price came after the iPod maker "declined to pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode."

This, according to Apple, would have boosted the per-episode price of NBC shows on … Read more

As I mentioned over the weekend, video games have once again become part of my life. And as I explore far away lands like Hyrule or Gaia, along with newer places like the city of Rapture in BioShock, I can't help but be amazed at how far video games have come in the past decade. And with that in mind, I'm left wondering why the New Release rack at Blockbuster is still filled with 90 percent garbage. For a business that relies on entertaining people, the movie industry really needs to take some pages out of the video game play book.

Video games have become the most entertaining form of enjoyment. Period. Think back to some of the new movies you've watched in the past few years and tell me how many of these justified the two hours you wasted watching it. Chances are, that number will be quite low when compared to the number of great games you've played in the last year. Of course, the reason for this is quite simple: The movie industry has become monolithic and its very business model has become derivative and outdated. There is very little drive for anyone to make a unique and extremely exciting movie anymore because producers know that many of us will go out and watch the garbage no matter how bad it is. On the other hand, video game developers--largely relegated to second-class by the Hollywood-types--have something to prove. And in the process of proving themselves, it's the video game developers that are providing the real entertainment.… Read more

Video hosting and mashup solution SplashCast is launching an upgrade to their video player tomorrow morning. The most noticeable change is a new YouTube-ish playlist of video thumbnails in the bottom 20 percent of the viewer, which can be pulled up and dismissed at the user's discretion. Previously, users were limited to a channel-view text list (which is still available), but my bet is that users will feel at home with this newer navigation.

The real killer application, however, is the inline commenting system which gives users three ways to leave their feedback: a video clip (from a Webcam or hard drive), text, and voice. All three remain in the same section, and there's no user registration required to leave your two cents. Recording and playing video in the player is really simple, and looks pretty good.

There are a few other mentionable tweaks, including a pause button, an inline "e-mail this" tool to share show segments or entire programs with friends, and a full screen button that remains no matter what type of program you're viewing (not just videos and photos). There's also a new "follow me" button which lets you know when the program's creator publishes new shows. It's a little bit like the channel-creator subscriptions with YouTube.

SplashCast is planning to introduce a mobile upload feature to its platform within a month, so users will be able to drop photos and video clips into their channels from a mobile phone--a lot like Kyte.tv (review). There will also be more celebrity channels, and the potential for Twitter integration and live user chat, similar to Pikspot's player.… Read more

The format war is far from over, but HD DVD is on a roll--at least as far as PR is concerned. Last week the big news was both Paramount and DreamWorks becoming HD DVD-exclusive studios, and now Venturer Electronics has announced it will release a budget HD DVD player--the SHD7000--by the 2007 holiday season. There have been several reports indicating that cheaper, off-brand HD DVD players were on their way, but Venturer is the first company to make a formal announcement.

Details are a little slim at the moment, but here's what we know. The SHD7000 has an HDMI … Read more

Either Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is trying to redeem himself for previously knocking the CNN-YouTube debates' "demeaning" format (thanks to an animated snowman posing questions about global warming), or he's not so hostile to the user-generated sphere after all.

In any case, the former Massachusetts governor's campaign on Wednesday announced it is now soliciting help from the mashup-happy masses in crafting his new official television ad. Partnering with Yahoo's Jumpcut.com online video-editing service, a new contest implores savvy video splicers to put together a 27- or 57-second feature using multimedia furnished by his … Read more

We still love our dear Toshiba Gigabeat S portable video player, but its definitely beginning to look its age. Lucky for us, Toshiba has announced the release of a seeming successor to the S-series called the Gigabeat T401, which is due out in Japan the first week of September. No word on when (or if) this latest video-worthy Gigabeat will hit the States, but we're optimistic after Toshiba's latest stateside release of the tiny Gigabeat U.

The Gigabeat T401 keeps the styling of the Gigabeat S but ditches the bulk of hard-drive storage in favor of leaner and … Read more