Digital Audio/Video News

Spotify, the popular music streaming service available only in select European countries, introduced on Monday a mobile application for the Symbian operating system, which includes Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung phones.

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Swedish streaming software Spotify announced on Monday the launch of a music application for the Symbian platform, used by the world's biggest mobile phone maker Nokia and other smartphones.

NEW YORK - Moody's Investors Service downgraded ratings for Liberty Media Corp. subsidiary Liberty Media LLC on Friday. The changes come shortly after shareholders approved the formation of a new company out of DirecTV Group Inc. and some of Liberty's entertainment businesses.

JOHNSTON, Iowa - Former U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt pushed Friday for Iowa to expand its focus on public health, arguing the state has the medical infrastructure in place to make it a leader in the field.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Media mogul John Malone said the U.S. No.1 satellite TV operator DirecTV Group is not up for sale in an interview with business cable network CNBC on Friday.

PARIS (AFP) - Thousands of French Internet users flooded video sharing websites Friday to enjoy a lampoon of their glamourous first couple, almost a week after they appeared on the US show the Simpsons.

In a step to make YouTube videos more accessible to deaf people as well as to anyone else searching for videos online, Google has launched an automatic video captioning service.

TOKYO (AFP) - Sony Corp. aims to launch next year a new online service that will allow people to download content such as music and movies to their televisions and other electronic gadgets, a top executive said Friday.

Google fired another shell at Microsoft's fundamental business model on Thursday, when it released the code behind its Google Chrome OS. What happens when you turn the operating system into just another advertising medium? Quite a number of things.

Sales of plasma HDTVs have been on the decline for some time now. Although plasmas are generally cheaper than comparably-sized LCD models, their picture isn't as bright; as a result, their images often appear dark and washed out under the bright, fluorescent glare of the local big box store. However, plasmas are often favored by home theater buffs, who savor the display technology's fast refresh rates and often superior reproduction of black and dark tones.

TOKYO - Sony's new online service connecting the whole range of its gadgets to downloadable content like movies and games should help build brand loyalty, a top executive said Friday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Google, in a significant development for deaf Internet users, announced it was adding automatic caption capability to videos on YouTube.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Liberty Media Corp Chairman John Malone said on Thursday that DirecTV Group would be "compatible" with a telephone company if either of its current partners showed an interest in buying it.

For the California Energy Commission, the voluntary guidelines of the Federal Energy Star program aren't enough to curb energy guzzling by HDTVs. In a unanimous vote, the CEC just introduced the nation's first state-mandated regulations for energy efficiency. The regulations will apply to televisions up to 58 inches in screen size.

In a move to make YouTube's massive inventory more accessible to deaf and hearing-impaired people, Google announced plans to add automatic captioning technology to the video site. Google has combined its automatic speech-recognition technology with the existing YouTube caption system. Called auto-caps for short, the captions rely on the same voice-recognition algorithms in Google Voice to automatically generate captions for YouTube videos.

Shareholders approved the formation of a new company out of DirecTV Group Inc. and some of Liberty Media Corp.'s entertainment businesses, as the chairman of both firms dampened speculation about a sale to a big phone company.

WASHINGTON - Think of it as closed captioning for the new media world.

Televisions are notorious for draining huge amounts of energy, which is why California is cracking down with energy efficiency regulations. But your HDTV isn't the only home tech product that's slurping up power. Here are 5 other gadgets that you should turn off when not in use:

It's time for yet another application store, but this time it's not for a phone or an MP3 player. Instead, Livescribe is introducing a beta edition of its App Store for its Pulse SmartPen.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The birth of Wikipedia, the death of Napster, the iPhone, Facebook, and Twitter were named by the Webby Awards on Wednesday as among the top 10 Internet moments of the decade.

DirecTV Group Inc. chose the vice chairman of PepsiCo Inc. as its chief executive Wednesday, filling a vacuum created when its former chief left just as the nation's largest satellite TV provider was in the midst of a spinoff.

Social networking has been the face of Web 2.0 for many years now. But until now the phrase has been synonymous with Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. Despite the efforts of companies like LinkedIn to bring social networking into the business world, in many ways organizations have been slow to adapt to the new technology.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - EMI Music announced Wednesday it will offer free music videos and concerts on Hulu.com, making it the first major label to strike a deal with the increasingly popular US-based online video site.

Google's new YouTube Direct allows amateur journalists (meaning anyone with a camera in their mobile phone) to upload video clips for a shot at their 15 seconds of fame. The broadcast news media seem to have learned the wrong lesson from the fall of print media and embracing 'citizen journalists' may expedite the extinction of traditional news as we know it.

LOS ANGELES - Online social hub MySpace is in talks to acquire struggling free music streaming site imeem, two people familiar with the matter said Tuesday.

NEW YORK - The official kickoff for the holiday shopping season is more than a week away. But the nation's retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., are already starting to let shoppers know about their fat discounts in hopes of attracting big crowds.

NEW YORK - If you're engrossed in the tabloid Internet-gossip that has come to define the celebrity world, then John Mayer's latest CD, "Battle Studies," could provide enough fodder to fill at least a dozen Perez Hilton blog posts or at least one story in Us Weekly.

With the advent of "citizen journalism," anyone with a camera, an Internet connection, and a few questions can become a member of the fourth estate. But how do you know if this reporting is accurate? YouTube thinks it may have an answer.