Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Keeping in mind that there are just some things that you should not do. Take “throwing a baby” for example, but assuming you felt the need to do such a crazy thing, then why would you feel the need to not only record it, but also post the video to a popular site as YouTube. Its almost like asking to get in trouble, isn’t it?

The latest teen did just that, he had his friend film himself throwing a baby, well not actually throwing, but sort of launching it. The 16-year old placed the baby on a large inflatable pillow and then jumped on it to send the baby flying across the room. The teens then posted the video online and it was later found by one of the students teachers, who promptly called the police. The 16-year old has since been charged with felony cruelty to a child, and according to Sheriff Harold Breeden;

“It’s not going to be funny when the judge gets through with him.”

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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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The Netflix player from Roku seems like it could be in store for some potentially great changes in the future, some of which would force us to remove the “Netflix” from the name. We have already discussed the possibility of other services such as Hulu and YouTube becoming available on the player, however Roku has just posted the source code for the set top box, which makes this possibility a little more of a reality.

In the past VP of Consumer Products for Roku, Tim Twerdahl had already stated that even though they had a deal with Netflix, it was not exclusive and they were still able “to seek out other content providers to put their content on the Roku box.”

That statement lead to the speculation of Roku adding other services to the player, but nothing had been confirmed, and as of now we are still awaiting (and hoping) form something official. While some of the web based video services seem like an obvious choice, there is also some recent speculation that an announcement may be coming from Microsoft or Sony as well.

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DXG continues to shower us with new options for an affordable and handy camcorder with the release of the DXG-567V HD camcorder. If the previously released DXG-569V was too cheap for you, the DXG-567V HD comes off a bit on the expensive side. But don’t worry the price difference is only a mere $9 and for that price difference you’ll get a more powerful camcorder.

This HD camcorder offers direct uploading of videos to YouTube and comes with a Rapid Blog Manager software that lets users upload and share videos on the Internet. With a retractable USB connector that comes with its package, you will be able to quickly connect your camcorder to your PC.

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Samsung has just announced a new contest, offering to give $20 to the first 1000 people who create a home movie and include a “Hollywood-style product placement” with the Instinct. The contest will officially begin on June 30 and all videos will have to be uploaded to YouTube to be entered. The winner of the contest, which is being called “Sell Out” will be given a $10,000 grand prize. Of, course they are not entirely clear on just what it will take to be the winner.

Read [InstinctThePhone]

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]

While nothing has been confirmed, there is a possibility that the Roku Netflix Player could be offering content from additional providers in the future. A recent interview conducted by Hot Hardware with the VP of Consumer Products for Roku, Tim Twerdahl gave some interesting clues, but sadly did not go into specifics.

It was however confirmed that their deal with Netflix will allow them “to seek out other content providers to put their content on the Roku box.” While the previously mentioned Hulu and YouTube are just speculation, Tim Twerdahl, the VP of Consumer Products for Roku did state that they are “talking to all big web video providers right now” and they are considering a number of options.

This would be excellent news, well maybe not YouTube as much as Hulu. I have said it before, the Roku Netflix Player is a great device, but is severely limited by the lack of current content available through Netflix. Of course, assuming other content providers were added, does that mean it will then become the Roku Web Video Player?

Via [HackingNetflix]

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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Local television stations are shedding highly-paid, experienced journalists; the evening newscasts on broadcast networks keep on losing viewers; cable news continues erasing the line separating news and loud, crass opinion.

Such is the state of television journalism in 2008.

It’s all old news in the news business: digitally-empowered consumers choosing to customize their news, technology lowering the barriers of entry for those who want to call themselves journalists. YouTube’s new Citizen News channel will give more ammunition to those who claim traditional media is dying. The top website for user-generated video now wants to aggregate all its amateur news video and reporting onto one location, with a news manager, Olivia, supposedly vetting the content. “You YouTubers out there are changing the world of journalism,” she says in the channel’s opening video. “You’re using your voices not only to report the news as you see it, but to engage and dialogue with one another, to tell stories that might not otherwise be heard.”

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JVC is entering the sub-camcorder market with its new Everio S Series camcorder - the GZ-MS100. Aside from its slim and compact design and advanced video capturing features, this new camcorder boasts of a one-touch upload to YouTube. That’s right folks, JVC is taking advantage of the popularity of YouTube and came up with its own nifty YouTube functionality.

Users just have to install the Cyberlink software and they can get started uploading videos right after their video capturing sessions. The camcorder’s upload button makes this task easy to do. The camcorder also automatically sets the time limit when recording video for YouTube purposes. Users don’t have to manually set the time to 10 minutes, which is what YouTube’s limit is. Using a USB cable to connect the camcorder and a PC automatically launches the application to upload videos to YouTube.

Other features of this camcorder include; Konica Minolta 35x optical lens and 800x digital, records directly to SD/SDHC memory card, 1/6-inch 680K pixel CCD, Gigabrid engine, Laser touch operation, auto LCD backlight control and a 2.7-inch 16:9 widescreen clear LCD. This camcorder retails at $349.99 and will hit the streets sometime in June.

Product [JVC] Via [OhGizmo!]