This is a neat idea. I came across these guys (GreenLayers.com, based in Australia). Basically, they provide a way for advertisers to find premade shots of models in a green background which makes it very easy to overlay scenes and produce promotional and endorsement videos and stills for use online, on TV, wherever. All premade content is available for purchase and prices are not very high, at least the way things are now ($10-$50 for some products). I am not sure completely how they’ll handle multiple requests, for example when two different agencies request content that involves the same model, but I am sure this (and other potential issues) have been covered.

The service is not yet available, it will officially start during March. I think they will do well, but that remains to be seen.

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The new YouTube API allows even further integration of the YouTube service into all kinds of online projects. So far online applications could provide users with ways to upload and view videos, on various different devices, as well as comment and vote on video content.

The new API features include the following:

• Upload videos and video responses to YouTube
• Add/Edit user and video metadata (titles, descriptions, ratings, comments, favorites, contacts, etc)
• Fetch localized standard feeds (most viewed, top rated, etc.) for 18 international locales
• Perform custom queries optimized for 18 international locales
• Customize player UI and control video playback (pause, play, stop, etc.) through software

YouTube now gives developers a way to produce applications that include uploading, managing, searching, and playing back video content and metadata, all available in the YouTube “cloud” (managed by YouTube). Sounds great, and having read some case studies they gave, some interesting ideas are springing into mind already…

Read in more detail on YouTube Blog.

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“I became Acid 3, the destroyer of browsers.”

The Web Standards Project released the Acid 3 test, and all the browsers failed big time. DrunkenFist posted screen shots of various browsers and scores - IE 6 and 7, FF 2 and 3, Opera, Camino, Safari… This is what the properly rendered test is supposed to look like:

Damn, and it seemed like it was yesterday that IE 8 passed the Acid 2 test.

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Sounds like a name for a car concept featuring a hybrid power plant, but it’s actually the latest sub-notebook warrior. It’s a very sexy design featuring things like built-in webcam, three USB 2.0 ports, ethernet, 56Kb/s modem (?!). Info is pretty thin for now, with everyone waiting for ECS (Elitegroup Group Systems) to give out more information. The design is good though…

Images from pocket-lint.co.uk

I just love the keyboard, and the design is very agreeable with me, as it reminds me of the VAIO I used to have (well, still got it, but broken, awaiting reparation). Some already call it the EEE PC killer (although HP Compaq 2133, better looking than EEE BTW, and Cloudbook are threatened as well). I don’t know, but it definitely looks good, maybe because it brings a little bit of a Mac Book and Sony VAIO mix that the others lack as far as design is considered.

According to Pocket Link, the device comes with a HSPDA 7.2 datacard built-in, so we’ve got mobile broadband connectivity. I am expecting the G10IL to feature all the wireless connectivity it can with WiFi and Bluetooth. There’s no optical drive, which is kinda expected for a device this size. Judging from the picture and hand-to-casing size ratio, it’s going to be a nine-incher. ECS is aiming at a below $500 price mark, which sounds alright.

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Almost a month ago Yahoo! announced Yahoo! oneConnect, a mobile communications aggregator and yesterday they announced Yahoo! onePlace, which is also to appear live sometime in Q2 2008. Basically, Yahoo! onePlace is going to be a pretty nifty attempt by Yahoo! to help mobile users organize “everything” they need in one place.

“Yahoo! onePlace(TM) will bring together a consumer’s interests, passions and important information into a single location - creating a rich and highly personalized experience. Everything is instantly organized, dynamically kept current, and served to them the way they want. So now, the content they consume and the way they consume it will be hyper-customized to their specific preferences and tastes.”

They are promising it will be simple to use, being based on bookmarking as a way to link to practically any content on the Web (news feeds, web sites, videos, images, emails, search queries, whatever)… Every item will be automatically updated with new values and data (quotes, scores, etc.) and the users will be able to categorize content freely. Yahoo! gives an example of a scenario where a user may find Yahoo! onePlace a neat application to use:

“…if a user is planning a holiday to Paris in June, he could create a “Paris” collection, and begin linking it to any information he thinks will be useful to him on his trip: weather conditions, city guides, restaurant reviews, hotel reservations, walking maps, songs of Edith Piaf, English-French dictionaries, winery recommendations, etc. Yahoo! onePlace will give consumers a single location to consume all of their information contextually, keeping it updated (so they know, for example, if their flight times have changed) and instantly accessible whenever and however they want it…”

Sounds pretty good, and will be released just in time for summer holidays

Smart phones are changing the way people use mobile phones, and we’ll probably be seeing a drastic shift towards web-based applications aimed at mobile devices, rather than applications that have to be installed on the device itself, taking up valuable memory and causing inevitable hangs and slow-downs.

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Even though Microsoft previously stated IE8 will have to be “told” to render pages in “standards” mode, they have now changed the situation. IE8 will by default render pages in the “most standards mode compliant” way.

They’ve recently published Interoperability Principles, and according to their blog post, it’s with these principles in mind that they decided to change IE8’s default rendering mode. Microsoft has been under a lot of legal pressure lately, especially in the EU, and even though they say browser render modes cannot be looked at from the legal issues perspective, their move is a preventive one against potential legal issues that may arise in the future.

Well, whatever Microsoft, just give us standards mode!

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