Official: Acer will not launch Chrome OS devices at Computex

Oh, what’s this? Acer officially saying it will not launch a Chrome OS device at Computex or in the “short term,” just like our sources told us a few days ago? Unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s going on. Like we said last week, Google’s other operating system just doesn’t look like it’s ready for prime time yet, and it’s a little premature to expect devices running Chrome OS to “launch” in just two weeks — although we’re sure we’ll see someone throw an early Chromium build on a new tablet or netbook, and show it off at the upcoming Taipei computer show. Of course, we are expecting Android tablets and smartbooks to be in full force at the show, and we’ll be there hunting down the best ones. Hit the break for Acer’s official Chrome comment.

Continue reading Official: Acer will not launch Chrome OS devices at Computex

Official: Acer will not launch Chrome OS devices at Computex originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 May 2010 14:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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YouTube, now a cultural phenomenon, streams 2 billion videos every day

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Youtube

On its five year anniversary, popular video streaming site YouTube announced it streams two billion videos every day.

“What started as a site for bedroom vloggers and viral videos has evolved into a global platform that supports HD and 3D, broadcasts entire sports seasons live to 200+ countries,” it said in the official YouTube Blog on Sunday. “We bring feature films from Hollywood studios and independent filmmakers to far-flung audiences. Activists document social unrest seeking to transform societies, and leading civic and political figures stream interviews to the world.”

On Friday, audience metrics company Nielsen posted its report of Top Online Video Sites in the U.S. for April 2010, and YouTube had 97.1 million unique viewers for the month, a 1.1% month-over-month growth.

YouTube’s closest competitor in the Neilsen rankings, Yahoo! video, had 27.6 million unique viewers for the month, so the size of YouTube’s audience is staggeringly higher than the rest of the market.

But YouTube isn’t really competing with other video sharing sites, and it’s not competing with television either, because viewing habits on YouTube are very different from traditional television viewing.

“The average user spends 15 minutes a day on YouTube, that’s tiny compared to the five hours a day people spend watching TV,” YouTube’s blog post said.

Even though the site hasn’t been a profit machine for Google, it has had a huge impact on the way we share information as a community.

Just last night, I experienced something that really cemented the importance of YouTube in our culture that I thought I’d share.

Indie Singer/Songrwiter David Bazan is currently touring the United States playing only limited-capacity shows in people’s living rooms, and we booked his Baltimore show in one of our apartments. I had set up my video camera partially to test the audio capture of Bazan’s busker-style setup (no vocal amplification and a tiny practice amp to monitor his guitar sound) and partially to record just for posterity.

After the show was over and I started to break down my camera, I was approached separately by a dozen people (nearly a quarter of the total audience) who each asked for my YouTube screen name. Some wanted to share the show with friends who couldn’t make it, some wanted to use the video for their blogs, but they all asked for YouTube first.

When I was video taping shows twelve years ago, I would only be asked for copies on the rarest occasions. Now because of YouTube and tiny, high quality cameras, sharing video is part of the experience of an event.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010



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"House" Finale Shot on a Canon DSLR

House_rig_white.jpg
Canon reported on Monday that the season finale of “House” has been shot entirely on a high-end digital SLR, the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. The episode marks the “first network prime-time drama” to be shot on a digital SLR.

Based on a preview clip I saw, the finale involves some sort of disaster trapping House and the case beneath a building. I’m not entirely sure if the video actually plays a role in the plot or not, or if it’s strictly incidental.

In any event, shooting a high-profile show like “House” on a digital SLR should validate the HD video capabilities that manufacturers like Canon have begun adding to their high-end and even mod-range cameras – even if Canon didn’t specifically say that the video shot was in HD.

In
addition to shooting the episode on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF lenses
were used for a complete Canon workflow for image capture, Canon said. “Recording every
second of footage to compact flash cards, the crew for HOUSE took full advantage
of a completely digital workflow and was able to complete filming the entire
episode in just 10 days,” the company said.

The finale ends tonight at 8:00 PM ET/PT on Fox.

Chrome OS Coming Along Quickly, But Not Ready Just Yet

Shared by Terren

Finally, a little bit of news regarding Chrome OS.

A report today on VentureBeat says that Acer will unveil the first Chrome OS devices in two weeks. While that certainly could happen, don't expect the OS to be finished, and don't expect those devices to launch anytime soon.

I've been digging through the notes for Chromium OS (the open source project Chrome OS will be built on) on Google Code and have found some interesting things. Notably, in the past few weeks, it seems like the Chromium team has been moving quickly to gear up for something. But I suspect this has more to do with Google I/O, which takes place next week in San Francisco, and will highlight the OS in several sessions