YouTube gets Flickrd

News is that Flickr is going to go up against YouTube and start hosting their users' home-made videos in addition to their pictures. You might not think that this is overly exciting at all, but when you think about the way that people use flickr to share content across a whole range of social networks and blogs – it kind of is.

The new development is aimed at amateur movie-makers who want a better way to share their content with others. Although it’s only available to Pro members at the moment, the service allows users to share movies up to 90 seconds in length.

MyTake – the point I’m trying to get at with this is that publishing is becoming so simple, that anyone can become a content-king. With the addition of video to the ever-popular Flickr, people have another choice when it comes to video sharing. This enables them to offer a richer experience to their readers - whether that’s their facebook friends, loyal blog readers or Mom and Dad back home.

Broadcasters tune in

Another day, another digital first. Canadian channel CBC has revealed plans that it will make its new reality show available through BitTorrent, making it the first broadcaster to release an English-language, prime-time show without any copyright restrictions. The show, entitled “Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister” features contestants that battle it out with each other to come up with ideas to make the great country of Canada a better place. There’s been a lot of buzz around the use of BitTorrent lately, most recently with Nine Inch Nails releasing their new album using the technology.

MyTake – It makes sense for government/state funded TV to make a move like this, because its content is already “free-access”. By using BitTorrent, it opens up another channel and therefore more eyeballs. The interesting move is going to come when the advertising-funding or pay-per-view cotton on to it, but the question is – how do you give it away and still maintain its value? Teasers, free weekends?….time will tell.

No money for new Nails

Following in the footsteps of the likes of Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails have offered their latest album as a free download and also deliberately leaked it onto file sharing networks. The album, entitled Ghosts I-V, is available as a free download with an extended high-quality version available for US$5. On top of that, fans can also order the CD for US$10 or get tow "deluxe" versions with photography and a blu-ray disk for $US75 and $US300.

On his blog, lead singer Trent Reznor said “We believe BitTorrent is a revolutionary digital distribution method, and we believe in finding ways to utilize new technologies instead of fighting them."

MyTake - Not all content is created equal and the recording industry needs to understand this. By offering a number of different variants, the value of the content becomes clearer, you get why you are paying 5 bucks for the high-quality version, you get why you need to pay for the Blu-ray dick - because the content is worth more.

Are you sitting comfortably…the wascally wabbit is about to begin

Once upon a time there was a little rabbit called The Nabaztag WiFi rabbit and he liked to read RFTD tagged children’s books. What that mean is that this wascally wabbit responds to books that have a special tag inside them, the end result is that it reads the content of the book (the story) to your child – as a parent, I’d probably say that’s our job, but hey.

There are already a few RFTD tagged books available in France and in the UK, with plans for a global roll-out later. In addition to the books, you can also get "ztamps" for your wabbit, which are basically RFID stickers you can stick on anything you like – i.e. keys, teddy bears. When the sticker is held to the wabbit’s nose, it responds with a pre-set response such as playing music. The other cool thing that it can do is subscribe to RSS feeds and spit them out when prompted.

MyTake – I don’t like the idea of removing the parent from reading time, I think it’s important to bond with your child and encourage them to read, something that the wabbit probably won’t do. On the other hand, the idea the child can interact with the wabbit is very interesting and encourages them to interface with technology at an early age. In addition, the RSS feed function could be a great way to share fresh content with your child instead of pulling out the same old books every night. I like the idea of sitting round the wabbit with your child for your their personalised RSS feed adventure.