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MySpace partners with reality show

MySpace is teaming with reality-TV magnet, Mark Burnett, to find the next John Kennedy or Ronald Reagan.

MySpace and Burnett, the creator of such prime-time hits as Survivor and The Apprentice, are expected to announce Wednesday they are planning to launch a political reality show called Independent.

Burnett is producing the show and is attempting to sell it to one of the networks. Fox, owned by MySpace's parent company News Corp, is a potential partner said Jeff Berman, general manager for video at MySpace.

"Most people are tired of politics as usual," Berman said. "When you … Read more

Veodia: Lifecasting with more cowbell

It seems like the current Web 2.0 boomtown (figuratively speaking) is in broadcast tools that allow you to bring your self-programmability a few steps above the YouTube + 20-dollar webcam norm. We've seen Kyte.tv recently, which allows you to create your own live vlogging stream--a phenomenon that certainly got a boost from the popularity of Justin.tv. I recently heard about another emerging player in the business, Veodia, which appears to be catering to a slightly more highbrow breed of video blogger.

Veodia promises that it'll allow you to create professional-quality video in "one click,&… Read more

Deal of the day: Sony HD DV camcorder for $912

From the seller's site: "Sony's HDRHC5 HD DV Camcorder makes it easy to capture perfect Digital video, every time. Capture high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) video to a MiniDV cassette. Record every detail of every moment, with the 10x optical/80x Digital zoom and Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* lens. As you record video, you'll also take still pictures at the same time with the 4.0 megapixel still image feature. Snap spectacular 2.3 megapixel photos while filming in dual record mode. The HDR-HC5 even slows down the audio."

Read the seller's … Read more

EFF drops Viacom suit over Colbert parody on YouTube

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has dropped a lawsuit that it filed against Viacom on behalf of a group that posted a parody video of The Colbert Report on YouTube, which Viacom demanded be removed citing U.S. copyright law.

The lawsuit, filed in March in federal court in San Francisco, accused Viacom of misusing the law and infringing on the free-speech rights of the makers of the video--activist group MoveOn.org Civic Action and Brave New Films. When contacted by CNET News.com last month, Viacom claimed that it had not asked YouTube to remove the video. However, Viacom later … Read more

Karaoke with video cam: bad concept

Some would say that everyone needs a little karaoke in their lives, even in the shower. And if you're really serious about it, you might even want to record your performances on your way to American Idol.

And GPX wants to help you avoid the fate of Sanjaya Malakar with its "CD+G Karaoke System." In addition to its 5.5-inch LCD, dual speakers and "professional" microphone, the machine has a built-in digital video camera so you can record yourself belting out "Stairway to Heaven" for later viewing. (Warning: Results may vary after … Read more

Mix faster, MixerCast

MixerCast is a new Web based tool for creating sharable slide shows. It pulls media from several different popular Web services like flickr, YouTube, MySpace, and Getty images, and lets users customize the look and feel with basic design templates. The show can then be shared with others through a direct URL or embedded into several social networks.

I've played with a ton of these tools since I started on Webware, but this is one of the few that actually emulates the feel of a desktop application. In this case, it feels a lot like one of Apple's consumer applications from the iLife suite. You can pick various elements to drag and drop into the template, like photos, videos or even a map from Yahoo (which, by the way, I found to be a little buggy).

MixerCast is definitely aimed at the social networking crowd. A few of its themes and templates, including one that's a full-on Pepsi advertisement, forgo a slick, clean look as you can get with a competing, mixed-media sharing tool like SplashCast. It's still really simple to put together a rich slide show, and share it with others, which makes it worth a try.

I've embedded a MixerCast module below, with pictures from last night's Digg 1 million-user celebration here in San Francisco. More screen shots of the user interface are shown after the jump.

See also: RockYou

[via DownloadSquad, via GigaOm]

… Read more

Testing the Blue Raven iPod battery kit

iPod battery replacement kits are nothing new. Manufacturers like Sonnet Technologies have offered reasonably priced do-it-yourself battery replacement kits for the past few years. What distinguishes the latest line of Blue Raven iPod batteries from previous efforts is a boast of 30 to 50 percent better battery life over the factory original (depending on your iPod model). The Blue Raven batteries are also much more attractively packaged than other replacements I've seen, which seems silly to mention, but I think packaging can have a huge effect on how intimidating a DIY project appears. Kits are available for around $30 … Read more

Blinkx does TV shows with Blinkx Remote

Tired of searching YouTube for clips of TV shows, only to find it barren of your favorite show? Well, if it's a Viacom program you're out of luck anyway, but for most everything else, search tool maker Blinkx rolled out a new service yesterday called Blinkx Remote, a search engine for full-length TV shows. Blinkx sorts through clips and full-length programs, providing direct links to off-site sources where you can watch the entire episode.

In the case of CBS' Jericho, Blinkx sent me off to CBS' Innertube service, where I had to install a Real Player plug-in to … Read more

Video watch gets a 'big' screen

The makers of a video wristwatch we cited awhile back are apparently benevolent types who don't want us to go blind squinting at a 1.5-inch screen. So Chinavasion has come out with a new model that ups the size of its color LCD to a whopping 1.8 inches.

As Technabob notes, it's impossible to call this a widescreen display with a straight face, but it does claim a full 16:9 ratio for MP4 viewing, as well as MP3 playback and an FM radio. (Whether it actually tells time is unclear.)

We're not sure how … Read more