Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Well, it was a long time coming, but YouTube has finally made its localized Indian version go live. Now, YouTube users from India are given access to a highly personalized version of the site, featuring content that’s filtered through a so-called “Indian lens.” The live video charts show what videos are being watched by users in India, and the featured videos are now targeted towards an Indian audience. Literally dozens of local partners have also been signed-up by YouTube to provide home-grown content to the users. And they even launched an official Indian YouTube Blog. So if you’re looking for some original South Asian video goodness, head on over to http://in.youtube.com.

Read [YouTube India Blog]

Although we have already seen the migration of YouTube video content into our living room TV. HP wants to up the notch a step higher by bringing you a better video watching experience with its HP MediaSmart Products that include the MediaSmart Connect digital media receiver and the high-definition MediaSmart TV.

Yes dear readers, with this tie-up between HP and YouTube, you will be able to watch and share full-screen videos on your HDTVs. You can also create multiple playlists from anywhere you watch TV. Even sweeter is the fact that just like the old habit of slacking on your couches and watching your favorite TV shows from morning till dawn, you can do all these things using your HDTVs remote control,. Only this time, you have a full YouTube video database to watch, which if you would calculate, could probably last you a lifetime to finish watching.

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Quick question - what would you get if you combine a pioneer of clickable video space and a TV network for the web that creates and produces its own original, broadcast quality shows?  You’ll have clickable videos with interactive elements embedded within the video itself. And that is what the Revision3 and VideoClix partnership is going to give to us web video viewers.

The VideoClix technology lets viewers click on different objects in a video feature, and when a user clicks on these objects, the video will provide more details about that object. This could include such things as the show’s host and products which are part of the video. The partnership is being touted as something for the benefit of the viewers. But from the point-of-view of both VideoClix and Revision3, it’s a partnership to gain more profit. How? Through affiliate or sponsored links that are embedded on the objects in the videos. For their first venture into the clickable video niche, the two companies will have the interactive elements featured on Diggnation.

Via [TechCrunch]

Flickr has added video to the ever-popular photo sharing site, albeit with some initial limitations. The videos that are uploaded can be a maximum of 90 seconds and must be 150MB in size or smaller. Videos are also limited to be uploaded only by Pro users, but can be viewed by anyone, as long as the video is marked public, they can also be uploaded and marked as private.

Overall Flickr is taking an approach that leaves little difference between the existing photos and new videos, in fact they were noted as being called “long photos.” Which makes sense because the videos are side by side with your photos and while the videos do have their limitations, once you get used to them they seem to be a really nice addition. 

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Fujifilm has announced their new Finepix Z20fd, a point and shoot camera which offers a nice compact design, but otherwise seems to be a mid-level digital camera with a few more advanced features that you wouldn’t really mind missing out.

The Fujifilm Finepix Z20fd is touting a video mode function as its major selling point. The video function button is located just beside the shutter button at the top most edge of the camera. Hence, you can quickly shift from the normal camera to the video function. For some more goodies, the Z20fd has a 10-megapixel 1/ 2.3-inch CCD, 3x optical zoom, from 64 to as high as 1000 ISO sensitivity, the usual face recognition technology, a 2.5-inch TFT LCD with around 150,000 pixels, 45mb internal memory and takes SD/SDHC memory cards for additional storage.

Release date for the Japanese market is on April 19 but no pricing information is available yet. Likewise, release date for the US market has yet to be announced.

Via [Akihabara News]

Sanyo has released a new model for their Xacti handheld camcorder series, the Xacti CG9. Boasting of a 9.1-megapixel CMOS sensor, 40MB of internal memory, a 5x optical zoom and H.264 video codec. Sanyo is touting the Xacti CG9 as an entry level video camcorder. Hence the move from the usual Xacti CCD to CMOS, probably to enable Sanyo to put a competitive price to the Xacti CG9 since they are targeting the entry-level video camcorder users. But still, the CMOS sensor will produce decent quality videos and high quality still images as well. The Xacti CG9 also boast of 60/fps video recording capability.

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Rumors are spreading around that Flickr Video may soon be seeing the light of day. And no, they are not talking about a couple of months but in a matter of weeks, April to be a bit exact. Both News.com’s Dan Farber and TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington have reasons and sources to believe that Yahoo’s widely used and most popular web service is actually extending its clout to offer an online video service ala YouTube.

If indeed Flickr Video is coming soon, then it better have something better to offer than what YouTube does. YouTube have become an epitome of what user-generated video content is all about. It has gone a long way since it was launched by a couple of cool programmers sometime in 2005 or was it 2006?

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YouTube has launched a new feature that lets users select the quality of videos that they watch. Currently available and can be seen in some video streams, YouTube is aiming to make this feature available to more video content later on. High-quality video viewing here pertains to all video contents uploaded to YouTube and is not restricted video contents from YouTube partners.

To enjoy watching high quality videos, go to your YouTube account page. At the lower portion of the account settings you would find an additional link under the “Account” heading. Click on the ”Video Playback Quality” and just select how you want to watch YouTube videos. You actually have three options:

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This week at 3GSM, Nokia and YouTube unveiled their latest offering for the N-Series.  According to Nokia, all new N-Series handsets will be able to access YouTube via their Nokia Video Center.  Judging by Symbian Freak’s N95 video walkthrough below, you will not be able to search through the YouTube library as you can on your computer.  Instead, you are presented with a feed of videos to choose from - such as the homepage’s most popular videos feed.  It is not known at this time whether or not you can customize which feed you subscribe to, but we’re guessing you can.  More details are sure to unfold.

Video [YouTube]

Read [Symbian Freak] Via [Engadget]

Nokia is going to integrate Orb MyCasting into the Nokia N80 What is Orb MyCasting? Essentially Orb offers you a way to enjoy your digital media stored on your home computer, via your phone. You can view/watch/listen to home photos, videos, music and even TV, where and when you want.  Orb streams content from your home PC using the Web browser and player on their Nokia N80 Internet Edition.  You can also remotely record TV programs using Orb’s Digital Video Recorder (DVR) function and then play back those recorded programs on a N80.

Read [Darla Mack]