Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Your right to privacy is no longer as private as you once thought or hoped. By court order, Google is being forced to hand over all the records of every video watched by YouTube users. This information will include users’ names as well as IP addresses, and the request has Google lawyers arguing invasion of privacy.  The judge in his ruling, however, found this argument “speculative” and ordered them to turn over the logs on a set of four terabyte hard drives.

The purpose behind the lawsuit is that Viacom intends to prove that infringing material is more prominent than user-created videos. This would most likely increase Google’s liability if they are found guilty of contributory infringement. The suit was originally filed in March of 2007, with Viacom seeking over $1 billion in damages. Google tried to argue that the law provides a “safe harbor for online services so long as they comply with copyright take-down requests.” Apparently Judge Louis L. Stanton, the senior judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, who issued the opinion and order, wasn’t buying it, since the order also requires Google to supply copies of any video that was taken down for any reason.

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Vudu first began showing up in Best Buy locations back in late-March and at the time it was just 24 locations, all of which were located in California. The limited availability was thought to be a testing period to make sure the devices would be able to sell as expected.

Well, jump forward a little over a month and it looks like it must have been successful because Vudu and Best Buy have just announced a little more widespread availability, however it is still not nationwide.

They have remained in California, but also expanded to Arizona and Illinois, all in all it looks like they are now available in almost 70 Best Buy locations. In addition to the move into Best Buy locations in other states, Vudu has also recently added 35 new movies to own and 30 new movies to rent.

Via [CrunchGear]

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/07/02/vudu-continues-to-infiltrate-best-buy/

Alltel has just added another improvement to their MyCircle calling plans. Now, in addition to voice minutes, they will have the option to include text, video or picture messaging. Current MyCircle customers will be able to send or receive unlimited messages to anyone in their Circle as well as other Alltel customers with the addition of a “My Circle message pack” which starts as low as $7.99 a month.

In addition, for those looking to send messages to friends outside of their circle or to non-Alltel customers the new messaging options include either 400 or 1000 messages and are priced at $7.99 and $12.99 a month respectively. Users looking for an unlimited messaging plan will still have the option to get the All Access Pass which costs $19.99 and allows for unlimited messaging to anyone.

Keep reading to check out the full press release.

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Want to wow everyone with your next PowerPoint presentation?  Forget content, rent a fogscreen and you’ll be talked about for weeks.  A new YouTube video shows off the latest in fogscreen tech as FogScreen (the company) teamed up with GestureTek to create this really captivating display.

GestureTek brings the gesture recognition to the dry fog screen from FogScreen.  The result is a 3D interactive space that the companies call, “magical”.  I say cool.  Check this video:

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As part of the recent OTA update for the Sidekick LX, those lucky users were given the ability to record video. But with a little disappointment the quality of those videos is not looking all that great, in fact it seems pretty bad. Of course, I am not sure what quality level we were really expecting, because after all the Sidekick still images have not always been of the highest quality either.

The folks over at Hiptop 3 have a few videos they are showing off, as they explain they opted not to post them on YouTube because they come out even worse than they started, that alone should tell you something. However, the videos are small, coming in at just 176 x 144 pixels and can be considered acceptable. They even went as far as doubling the video size, bringing it up to 352 x 288 pixels and although you can see what is going on, its not what you would want to really bother with. For those who are ready to grab that Tony Hawk branded model, the quality does not seem like its going to be anywhere near nice enough catch your hottest skate tricks.

Overall it seems the only place the video does not look horrible is on the device itself, so I suppose if your only intention was to share the video with your Sidekick carrying friends than you may still have something to get excited over. Otherwise you may want to look into an inexpensive handheld video camera such as the Flip mino.

Via [Hiptop 3]

Most criminals are stupid, but those who video themselves doing the crime and then post it on YouTube are in a whole new league. But to be fair it makes the lives of the police a lot easier as you already have video evidence of not only the person, but the crime committed. So surely moves to punish people for putting these videos on the internet are misguided (as they would then be less likely to put the videos on the internet and therefore making themselves harder to catch).

Anyway, it would appear one Judge has recognized this and come up with a different kind of punishment: where the offender must post an apology for their crime on the internet. Obviously this is not the only punishment that they will receive, but it does go some way as to making the offender look like a fool and to ensure that they lose any ‘respect’ they got for committing and posting the crime in the first place. An innovative punishment, and one that would probably work.

Via [Techdirt]

With the official launch not scheduled until June 20, it seems Sprint would like everyone that may be interested ready and able to use the Instinct as soon as it hits their hands. In order to help potential users they have released a collection of how-to style videos on YouTube. The videos cover topics that include Shooting & Sending Video, Live Search, Favorites, Speech To Action Button and of course The Basics. Keep reading to check out the basics, then head on over to YouTube to check out the rest.

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Back in early April, a set of images of the Sony Ericsson Paris were being leaked. These images were taken as screen captures from the original promo video for the phone, which up till now has remained under wraps. Well now we have the complete video for your enjoyment. Of course, at this point we have already learned most of the details that are shown off in the video, but given the lead up with the previous images, it seemed only fitting to show this as well. In the meantime Sony Ericsson is expected to be officially announcing the Paris on June 17.

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Vudu, while maybe not attracting quite as much attention as originally hoped, are proving they are still alive in the small but welcomed movie set-top-box market. The Vudu box was originally launched back in the Fall of 2007, but sales may have been slow because of the limited availability, up till now it could only be found directly with Vudu or with Amazon.com.

However customers can now purchase the Vudu box in one of 24 Best Buy outlets in California, which should help overall sales and awareness of the product. While the management from Vudu would not comment on the strategy behind the limited availability of Best Buy locations, its safe to assume that they are most likely looking to see just how well they will sell. 

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Yet another well known artist taking full advantage of the Internet—and what better way to attract wide spread online attention, just use YouTube, along with the mentions of numerous Internet celebrities. The new single Pork and Beans from Weezer offers up cameos from those such as the Numa Numa Guy, to Peanut Butter Jelly Time to Chocolate Rain, mentos and coke along with many, many more. Whether you love Weezer or hate them, personally its a great song with just an alright video, but as an online geek you have to admit its fun to watch. Keep reading to check out the video and judge for yourself.

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