Google creates links to music stores from YouTube.

In its continuous effort to try to monetize YouTube, Google just announced a way for the video site users to buy songs from Apple's iTunes or Amazon.com.The way it works is like this: when users watch a video with a music track on YouTube, they will be able to click on an icon appearing next to the video to pay and download that song from one of the two music stores without having to leave the site.
Google plans to expand the program to include other merchants as well as other products like concerts tickets, video games etc.
For now, the program is only available in the U.S., but Google plans to roll it out internationally in the coming months.

For more, see PCmagazine.com

BlackBerry Storm smart phone to hit stores by year end.

Research in Motion Ltd. the company behind the BlackBerry brand, will be entering the smart phone market dominated by Apple's iPhone. According to the Wall Street Journal, like the iPhone, the BlackBerry Storm has a touch screen and will work on broadband networks both in the U.S. and Europe. In the U.S., Verizon Wireless will be the exclusive carrier while in Europe, it will be Vodafone. The BlackBerry Storm will be preloaded with applications for social network sites like Facebook and photo-sharing sites like Flickr and many other applications. But unlike Google's Android phone, it will not be an open platform. It is set to go on sale in the U.S. by year end and the price is not known yet. Verizon Wireless only suggested that the price will be competitive which make some experts think that it will sell in the neighborhood of $200 to $300 .

For more, see SFGate.com

Yahoo new APT display Ads system announced.

Yahoo announced last month its new ads buying and selling system called APT. The new system aims to make buying and selling ads easier by allowing publishers and advertisers to manage display advertising across various Web sites. Formerly known as AMP, Yahoo new system will involve the more than 800 newspapers members of an alliance with the search company as well as as agencies and ad networks. But newspapers are set to benefit the most from the new system by allowing them to use Yahoo targeted advertising technology which will yield more returns for their ad inventories. Also advertisers are poised to benefit from the new system with the possibilities to reach more sites with just one ad buy. For publishers, APT will give them the option to let yahoo or other newspapers sell their excess inventory at a certain price.
The program is being tested by some newspapers and will be extended to advertisers, ad agencies and ad networks throughout the end of this year and unto the new year.

For more see, editor&publisher.com

A year later, Vudu movies delivery system is still little known.

For movies lovers, a year old device called Vudu is just what the doctor ordered. Vudu is a set top that connects to your TV and allow you to choose from 10,000 movies and TV shows to play directly from the Internet. The device sells for $300 with a limited time movie credit of $200 for any new purchase. Most most movies become available for sale on the Vudu service the day they are out on DVDs and available for rental 30 days later. Starting this month, a free software upgrade will deliver a new movie-quality called HDX which is better quality than most Hi-Def enabled services.
Users who rent movies will have 30 days to initiate viewing. Once initiated, viewing must be completed within 24 hours or before the end of the 30th day, whichever is sooner. You can extend your rental for another week for $1.99 or for another day with $1.
If you buy movies, you may view it for as long as you own your VUDU Equipment, with or without a VUDU Service account.

For more, see PCmagazine

New Web Site Tributes.com a place to pay respect to the deceased.

Using the tools of networking or archiving of sites like classmates.com or wedding.com, Tributes.com is a new web portal aiming to offer people a one stop place to search for the names of the deceased, learn more about their lives and memorialize it. According to the New York Times, Tributes.com compile its database using information from funeral homes and the Social Security Administration's Death Index database going back to the 1890s.
People can place obituaries up to 300 words at no charge or pay $80 for a year placement or $300 for an unlimited placement period. Others services offered by the site include, the posting of funeral details, an email alert system of the passing of a loved ones etc. A feature addition will allow users to download their address book to the site to be kept informed about the passing of people in that book.

For more, see NYTimes.

Netflix adds Starz movies to online streaming service.

Netflix Inc struck a deal last week with Starz Entertainment that will add about 2,500 movies, television shows and music concerts to Netflix's actual library of about 12,000 videos available for online viewing. The deal is the latest in a series that Netflix has been making to help boost its online movies offerings (see previous post) The new deal will cover the rights to stream movies from Disney and Sony corp with titles such as "Superbad", "Ratatouille", "No Country for Old Men" etc. These movies and more are already available online through a service called Starz Play that Starz provides to other partners like Verizon who offer the streaming to subscribers for a monthly fee. But Netflix subscribers of one of its unlimited plans will get the new movies from the new deal, free.

For more, see Reuters.

Fitbit Tracker to help achieve a healthier lifestyle.

Introduced last month at TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco, a new device called Fitbit Tracker has a lofty goal to monitor people's health factors such as calories burned, amount and quality of sleep, etc. It's a tiny wireless device the size of a person's thumb that the user can attach almost anywhere on his or her person to help him or her monitor the health factors described above and much more. According to the New York Times, the device uses a motion sensor called accelerometer like the one in use in the Nintendo Wii to track and convert motion into intelligble data. The device which will go on sale starting next year, will cost $99 and comes with a wireless base that collects the data and send it to a free Web site. On the site, users can enter additional information related to the their food consumption and others personal factors to get a bigger picture of their overall health.

For more, see USAToday