Microsoft to Make Computers “Humanistic”….meet Laura, Redmond’s Robotic Receptionist

Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer, says the industry is on the "cusp" of making computing more "humanistic."  To demonstrate where this may be going, he shares a video of a prototype robotic receptionist at work at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond. 

 
 

Adobe Expects 100 Million Installs of AIR This Year; Next Step, AIR for Mobile

CAMBRIDGE, Mass — Adobe AIR runtime environment has been installed on 35 million PCs and will reach 100 million by the end of the year, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch told Andy in this interview.  He caught up with Lynch at the EmTech08 conference last week.

 
 

Charles Simonyi Headed Back to Space in Russian Rocket

Software billionaire Charles Simonyi, the former chief architect of Microsoft who helped develop Excel and Word, is headed back to space. Space Adventures, a space tourism company based in Virginia, says Simonyi will travel to space next year on a Russian rocket–making him the first private traveler to make two trips.

 
 

New Boxee Patch Jailbreaks Apple TV

Open-source social media center Boxee released a patch yesterday that essentially jailbreaks AppleTV, Brian Chen at Wired’s Gadget Lab reports. The patch makes it possible for users to play any DRM-free multimedia file on AppleTV.

 
 

RealNetworks Releases DVD Ripping Software

RealDVD, a legal program that allows consumers to burn an unlimited number of DVDs on up to five PCs, will go on sale today at www.realdvd.com for $29.95. I interviewed RealNetworks VP of Video Product and Development Jeff Chasen in the Beet offices earlier this month, where he gave me a demonstration of the program.

 
 

Microsoft’s Craig Mundie: 3D is Next Step in Rich Computing Environment

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The media-rich environment of the Web, along with desktop applications, will evolve to an even richer experience with HD video embedded into applications and content displayed in 3D, says Craig Mundie in this interview with Beet.TV.  Mundie is Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer. 

 
 

Cloud Computing is Hyped and Overblown, Forrester’s Frank Gillett…..Big Tech Companies Have “Cloud Envy”

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — While cloud computing is bringing enormous power to large and small organizations, the hype around the trend is "over blown," says Forrester VP and Principal Analyst Frank Gillett.  I interviewed him on Wednesday afternoon on the MIT campus.

 
 

Zoho Web Apps Contend for Adoption by GE

General Electric is currently evaluating which company’s web applications to add to its 400,000 computers worldwide, and a start-up called Zoho has risen to become a serious contender against Microsoft and Google.

 
 

Google’s Chrome has 2 Million Visitors, Nielsen Reports….Marissa Mayer Tells Kelsey Why it Shines

Nearly 2 million visitors downloaded Chrome, the new web browser from Google, during its first week, Nielsen has just reported.

 
 

NBC Not Ditching Microsoft’s Silverlight, Report….and Online Olympics Revenues were Much Higher than Widely Reported

Our colleague Chris Albrecht over at NewTeeVee has done some investigating around reports that Microsoft’s Silverlight had been tossed overboard by NBC in favor of Flash.  It’s just not the case, Microsoft and NBC tell Chris.

 
 

Checking out the TechCrunch 50 Demo Pit with Rafe

Rafe Needleman, editor in chief of CNET’s Webware, takes us for visit to the TechCrunch 50 Conference demo pit.  He visits Rate Surfer, Jibidee and Givvy.

 
 

Tweegee, New Web Platform for Kids Debuts at TechCrunch Conference

Tweegee is one of the TechCrunch 50 companies.  Kelsey interviewed CEO Shay Bloch on Monday. Here’s what Josh Lowensohn of CNET wrote about the new start-up: Tweegee is a virtual world that mixes e-mail, personal organization, and Flash gaming. It centers on an anime-like avatar that users build part by part. Likewise they can use […]

 
 

“MySpace Meets Second Life:” Hangout.net Launches at TechCrunch Conference

We are starting to blog dozens of video interviews from the TechCrunch50 conference.  We have a mix of the 50 companies and cool ones we found in the demo pit.  Here is Kelsey’s interview with Pano Anthos, CEO of Boston-based hangout.net — which is one of the TC 50.

 
 

Google’s Marissa Mayer on Chrome, New Web Browser

Yesterday in San Francisco, Kelsey Blodget, associate producer at Beet.TV sat down for an extensive interview with Google Vice President Marissa Mayer.  In this segment, Marissa talks about the development and functionality of Chrome, the new Web browser from Google.

 
 

Businesses Use “Hives” to Build Niche Communities

HiveLive, a platform for building business-oriented custom social communities, lets users create custom blogs, wikis, and forums with Web 2.0 building blocks called Hives. While a social network like Facebook is geared toward the mass consumer market, HiveLive is carving out a viable niche for itself the enterprise market. The company’s different focus means it […]

 
 

Blame it On Photoshop: Dartmouth Computer Scientist Finds Fake Photos…Videos are Next

While the technology now exists to identify fake photos on a one-by-one basis, there’s no one-click solution to detect the enormous amount of doctored photos, says Dartmouth Computer Science Professor Hany Farid.

 
 

Scoop: Flash Video Will Have Metadata in Workflow Soon, Senior Adobe Executive Says

In what could be a watershed event for online video, Adobe Systems, the developer of the ubiquitous Flash video ecosystem, will introduce voice-to-text functionality into the workflow of Flash video production soon.  Jim Guerard, who heads all rich media at Adobe, says in this exclusive video clip, that we will see this functionality later this […]

 
 

NBC Online Olympics Viewing Soars, Nielsen Reports….Beet.TV Gets Olympics Workflow Story from Microsoft

The number of unique visitors to NBC Olympics video site soared to over two million on Monday as viewers tuned into the Games from the workplace, Nielsen announced today. These numbers show that the much-grumbled about time delay of the online coverage hasn’t had a negative effect on online ratings. Not all of the coverage […]

 
 

Mobile Media Technology Company Readies U.S. Entry

Mobile video ads targeted at a user’s demographics and location could soon become a reality. GoldSpot Media has developed technology that can insert targeted ads into mobile broadcast networks in real time.  GoldSpot is already in commercial trials with broadcasters in Europe and Asia, and is currently in talks with broadcasters in the U.S., CEO […]

 
 

Going Deep on Video Viewing Metrics: Visible Measures Tracks Audience Engagement

When online video watchers pause, rewind, and play, Internet video measurement firm Visible Measures knows. The company has developed software that can be integrated with video players to measure not just video views, but audience engagement. Once there are standard metrics for online video ads, publishers could "see bigger ad buys coming online," Visible Measures […]

 
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