Google unveiled the much-anticipated G1 Phone powered by its Android 1.0 operating system. WiFi, 3G, touch screen plus hidden keyboard, push Gmail, 3 megapixel, Amazon-powered MP3s, a light version of the new browser Chrome. The G1, made by the Taiwanese HTC, costs $179 and will be available on T-Mobile, October 22nd.
The Android platform will be open by the end of the year, and everyone will be free to adopt and adapt the technology as they see fit, Google explains. “By doing so, we hope that users will get better, more capable phones with powerful web browsers and access to a rich catalogue of innovative mobile applications.” Users will have the ability to customize their phones with their favorite functions.
Like the iPhone, Google will include an applications store, called the Android Marketplace, where the owner of the G1 and future Android-powered phones will be able to download those programs.
Google makes the Android software available for free to carriers and handset makers who want to use it to power their own devices. Google hopes that many will choose to do so, populating the market with mobile phones that have easy access to Google’s services. Just as it does on the PC-based Internet, Google hopes to earn money from advertising.
“We want people out there to use the Internet on their phones a lot,” Sergin Brin, co-founder of Google, said in an interview. “It actually doesn’t matter if it is Android, the iPhone or something else.”
Will the G1 take on the iPhone? What is sure is the growing use of the Internet on the go. And therefore mobile application development will soon be a very big business, and we’ll be seeing very interesting local applications coming our way.
Social media and citizen journalism now on your iPhone
Mobile devices are clearly the platform for citizen newsgathering, and an iPhone application is a logical funnel. Soon people will be able to broadcast anything live from the street; in a way, individuals will become walking televisions.
Last week, CBS Mobile released its EyeMobile iPhone application, making CBS the first broadcast network to launch an application enabling users to become personal broadcasters as they upload, view and comment on photos and videos live, from anywhere.
The EyeMobile application is available, free of charge, at the iTunes App Store.
The EyeMobile application offers the full functionality of CBSEyeMobile.com which launched earlier this year. Using the iPhone camera, users can capture and upload photos to the CBS EyeMobile site where they can view and rate reports and interact with other EyeMobile on-the-go journalists.
After submitting information, EyeMobile application users can update their report, track the report’s number of views, and engage in discussions with members of the EyeMobile community.
A public relations Internet TV channel to promote drilling in Texas
Financed by an energy company of Oklahoma City, a group of seasoned journalists have created Shale.TV, an Internet video site devoted to a rock formation, Barnett Shale, lying under northern Texas and rich in natural gas.
“Through a combination of live talk/interview shows and interactive and archived content, we hope to provide thorough, accurate and independent information about the complex issues and opportunities of developing natural gas domestically”.
The Barnett Shale’s gas has enriched those who allow drilling rigs but also led to complaints about noise, truck traffic, and fear of billowing fireballs.
Very smartly Chesapeake Corporation, who owns a big share of Shale.TV, say that reporters have free rein to cover the industry, warts and all. “We expect nothing less than for them to be objective.”
ABC.com updates its award winning video player
ABC.com has rolled out some updated features for its award winning video player, from true full-screen viewing, parental ratings for new content and closed-captioning to embedding functionality.
The revamped player is part of a larger update that also included a new short-form video player. Both the full-episode player and the short-form video player include built-in content recommendations, the ability to share clips via e-mail and enhanced integration with social networking sites.
In addition, ABC is releasing more than 180 episodes of 15 different programs available via ABC.com, affiliate sites, portals, video-aggregator sites, and social networking sites using the ABC.com Full Episode Widget.
Since the previous generation of the player launched in 2006, more than 441 million episodes have been initiated and more than 1 billion ads served.
AP quits Microsoft video technology
The AP’s Online Video Network, which powers online video on 2,100 affiliate sites in the US, many of them newspapers, has switched technology providers from Microsoft to ThePlatform, an industry leader in the broadband video management and publishing market, which is a subsidiary of Comcast.
In addition to offering enhanced content, AP will offer network affiliates for the first time a fully embeddable video player for video destination pages. The new system will also support higher video quality.
"The new version of the network will make it easier for our affiliates to incorporate compelling news video on their Web sites," said AP. "As video becomes the storytelling medium of choice on the Internet, we’re improving the content as well as the technical environment."
AP, as the world’s largest newsgathering organization, draws on its worldwide staff of journalists to create authoritative video clips of international and national events, entertainment, sports, and business news.
(The AP Online Video Network is an ad-supported news video service that draws on the global newsgathering resources of The Associated Press and its network of members and customers in the United States to provide video summaries of breaking news stories for Web sites).
