NewsMicrosoft Pushes IE8 with Video about Vomiting
Posted 07/01/09 at 10:30:40 AM by Paul Lilly
Far be it for Microsoft to shy away from hiring known celebrities to pitch its products, as was the case with hiring Jerry Seinfeld as its OS pitchman. But now the software maker is looking to push Internet Explorer 8 in the cutthroat browser wars, and it's getting a bit of help from TV Superman Dean Cain. Oh, and there's puking too.
So far there are a total of four adverts, each one starring Dean Cain as the on-screen narrator. But it's the fourth video in the series that will get all the attention for its vivid portrayal of a woman puking after viewing something apparently offensive online - or maybe she's a Houston Rockets fan and just read up on Yao Ming's foot.
Take a peek:
- G.R.I.P.E.S.
- F.O.M.S.
- S.H.Y.N.E.S.S.
- O.M.G.I.G.P. (NSFWS - Not Safe For Weak Stomachs)
Hit the jump and tell us what you think of the new ads.
NewsCisco: 90 Percent of Consumer Web Traffic will be Video by 2013
Posted 06/10/09 at 08:30:44 AM by Paul Lilly
According to Cisco, global IP traffic will skyrocket to a zettabyte -- or one trillion gigabytes -- by 2013, which is more than five times the amount of traffic today. Consumer IP traffic will account for a whopping 90 percent of the total, the company says.
Cisco also sees video leapfrogging mobile data traffic in the next four years, growing from 33 petabytes a month in 2008 to 2,184 petabytes (or 2 exabytes) a month in 2013. If true, that would mean mobile video would see a 131 percent annual growth rate.
Cisco, who bought the maker of the Flip video camera, certainly has a vested interest in seeing online video playing a bigger role, but potentially standing in the way of such a future is the increasing prominence of consumption based billing among ISPs. The future of broadband billing hasn't yet been decided as several ISPs continue to test market tiered consumption models.
NewsOnline Video vs. TV & Games vs. Movies – New Studies Break Down How Americans Like to Spend Their Free Time
Posted 05/24/09 at 12:20:48 PM by Justin Kerr
New research from NPD and Nielsens reveals some fairly interesting information on how Americans spend their free time, and the results might surprise you. On the gaming front, 63 percent of Americans reported having played some form of video game within the past six months, while only 43 per cent admitted to having gone to see a movie in the theatre. This bodes well for the gaming industry which reported that consumers now spend roughly one third of their entertainment budget on games, which equates to about $38 per person per month on average for content.
On the video front, Neilsen has released a separate study that shows online video might not be as big a threat as the major TV networks are letting on. Despite the rapid rise in online video viewing, consumers on average only watched about three hours per month via the Internet. That is up an hour from the results last year, but still only represents about 1.1 percent of total video consumption, which is totally dominated by traditional TV.
The other interesting statistic is that when it comes to video, apparently we are now watching more TV than ever before. The average American now consumes about 153.5 hours of TV per month, which works out to over 5 hours per day. This study excludes non-legitimate video sources such as peer to peer networks, but includes numbers pulled from Hulu, You Tube, and many other online video sites. Want to read the whole study? Click the link to read the whole report.
So how do you spend your spare time?
News4chan, Ebaumsworld Launch Porn Attack Against YouTube
Posted 05/21/09 at 03:00:00 PM by Paul Lilly
Jonas Brothers fans and those looking for marblecake recipes on YouTube may get more than they bargained for today. That's because 4chan and eBaum's World have teamed up for "Operation Porn Day," which involves uploading explicit video clips to YouTube using innocuous tags.
Many of the clips have already been removed, but according to Arstechnica, it was able to find others that haven't yet been caught (still reading?). In addition to the false tags, a lot of the clips contain 20 to 30 seconds of seemingly legitimately content, such as a newscast, before getting down and dirty.
"It may take some time for video search results and thumbnail images to disappear from the site," Google spokesperson Scott Rubin said. "Typically, this should not take more than a couple of days, but the videos themselves are no longer viewable."
In other words, you may want to keep your kids and nephews occupied with something other than YouTube for the time being.
News2009 Webby's Mentions Just About Every Site on the Internet (Except us)
Posted 05/09/09 at 04:25:14 PM by Justin Kerr
The 2009 Webby awards have come and gone, and sadly, Maximum PC was mysteriously overlooked. We didn’t notice a category for “world’s most amazing technology website / magazine”, but that’s no excuse! For those of you who haven’t heard of them before today, the Webby’s are an international award honoring excellence on the Internet. They focus on everything from YouTube skits to innovative advertising, but one look at the list and you’ll wonder if they just snagged the first million URL’s from Google and ran with it.
The 2009 results are listed below:
- Webby Artist of the Year: Trent Reznor
- Webby Person of the Year: Jimmy Fallon
- Webby Breakout of the Year: Twitter
- Best Actress: Sarah Silverman
- Outstanding Comedic Performance: Lisa Kudrow
- Film & Video Person of the Year: Seth MacFarlane
- Agency of the Year: R/GA
NewsHulu Still Trying to Keep Foreigners Out; Blocks Proxies
Posted 05/08/09 at 05:31:56 PM by Andy Salisbury
Hulu is currently one of the hottest video sites available on the web. It’s about to take over the number two spot amongst streaming video sites (behind only YouTube), and it just signed a deal with Disney that will give it even more content. Though, these great features are only available to those that live in the US, and they’re making damn sure it stays that way.
In the past, if you weren’t living in the US and you wanted access to Hulu’s massive library of footage, you had to use a proxy server workaround. For a while, this worked without a hitch, but Hulu wised up to the tricky practices and began doing geo-checks. Still, a few VPN creators like Hotspot Shield would work by making your IP address anonymous. Sadly, these days have ended.
Hulu’s techniques for detecting location has once again changed, and they’re blocking all anonymous proxies. If you’re one of those looking to use the video site through a VPN, you’ll be met with this message: “Based on your IP address, we noticed you are trying to access Hulu through an anonymous proxy tool. Hulu is not currently available outside the U.S. If you’re in the U.S., you’ll need to disable your anonymizer to access videos on Hulu.”
Too bad, so sad.
NewsNikon D5000 DSLR Camera Records HD Video, Ships on Monday
Posted 04/24/09 at 01:40:04 PM by Paul Lilly
We've known for some time that Nikon planned on releasing the D5000, a new entry-level DSLR, but it was only ten days ago that the company formerly introduced the newest model. Skip ahead and we now have a concrete release date, as Amazon lists the camera as shipping on Monday, April 27th.
Nikon's new DSLR comes with a 12.3-megapixel DX-format CMOS image sensor and articulating 2.7-inch vari-angle LCD display. Photographers can still view photos with the little LCD in its normal position, or it can be swung out to be rotated or tilted, opening the door to all kinds of contorted body positions when shooting images.
The D5000 also comes capable of recording HD movie clips in 720p. Recording video is somewhat new to DSLRs, starting with the D90 Nikon released back in August 2008. Other features include:
- 19 auto-exposure scene modes
- One-button Live View
- Continuous shooting up to 4fps
- ISO sensitive from 200 to 3200
- Built-in image sensor cleaning
- In-camera Retouch image editing
- Optional GPS geo-tagging
You can pre-order the D5000 with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR kit lens now for $850 through Amazon.com.
NewsYouTube Fans, Watch Your Wallets!
Posted 04/17/09 at 03:27:26 PM by Mark Edward Soper
If you thought that YouTube was mostly a way to discover lame-o fan trailers, not-so-sophisticated movie spoofs, or the latest viral video sensation, think again. As ArsTechnica reports, pyramid scheme recruitment videos are now flourishing on YouTube. Although these so-called "cash gifting" or "cash leveraging" schemes are often referred to as Ponzi schemes, they're different. As an ArsTechnica commenter pointed out, in a true Ponzi scheme, early joiners are "paid back" by money from later "investors" by the people controlling the alleged investment, but in a pyramid scheme, you make your money only when you can con others into giving you money.
Regardless of how boring your Friday afternoons might be and how desperate you might be to make more money, watch out for videos like these. Our advice? Save your cash for better investments, like more RAM.
RESOURCE CENTER
MOST COMMENTED ARTICLES
MOST RECENT COMMENTS
THIS MONTH's ISSUE 
FEATURE 21 Instant PC UpgradesBUYER'S GUIDE Budget videocards: which pass, which fail?HOW TOSupercharge Firefox & Maximize your SSDFEATURE3 trends that will save PC Gaming WHITE PAPERSurge supression
Technology News
Computer Cooling Fans
Computer Cases
PC Game Controllers
PC Games
Computer Hardware
Headphones
MP3 Players
Stream Video
Computer Mouse
Monitors
Motherboards
NAS Storage
Networking
Laptop Computers
DVD Burner
Digital Cameras
Portable Storage
Computer Accessories
Smartphone
Antivirus Software
Sound Cards
Speakers
Computer Systems
Thumb Drives
Video Cameras
Video Card Reviews
Water Cooling
Gadgets
- Keyboards
© 2009 Future US, Inc. All Rights Reserved.