Google Maps and YouTube on Your Sprint Handset - A new collaboration between the companies has been announced. The American company Sprint has announced today that it would expand its collaboration with the Mountain View giant, Google. Sprint is a wireless and wireline communications service provider that offers its products to both mainstream and business users. Google and Sprint have joined forces for the development of another project that was also announced today.

The new agreement will allow Sprint users to access some of Google's most popular products. As part of its efforts to improve users' dynamic mobile experience, Sprint will start providing easier access to Google Maps for mobile, YouTube and many others. The new tools provided to the Sprint clients are meant to lure more consumers, mostly with the help of the continuously increasing popularity belonging to Google's products.

Providing a fast and easy way to access the Google mobile search engine from their own Sprint handsets will most certainly allow users to better appreciate Sprint's services. Doug Garland, vice president of product management at Google declared that "Google and Sprint have a lot in common when it comes to our vision for the mobile web". He also added that "we both believe in openness and providing compelling, easy-to-use mobile services that consumers can use every day. We look forward to working together to deliver a great experience."

The collaboration between the two companies dates back to November 2006, when Google's Gmail was made available from Sprint's portal.

Google's interest in the world of mobile handsets has long been speculated. There were a number of rumors over the release of a potential G-Phone developed by Google but until now they were only simple speculations. The only thing that Google released, which comes close to a G-Phone, is the Android. The Linux-based operating system was unveiled in November 2007, as a joint venture between Google and the Open Handset Alliance.

Source: news.softpedia.com

Read More............

As we have already informed you, Google has done a good job in providing Google Earth users with information about the latest disasters that struck Asia. Besides the large amount of data meant to inform users about the status of the Myanmar victims, users can also see satellite imagery of China's 7.9 magnitude earthquake. This can be easily done by downloading a KML file to your own Google Earth.

If you want to increase your knowledge about the earthquake disaster, the best way to do so is to turn to YouTube. There, you will see cell phone recorded videos, uploaded by people who lived through the disaster. According to the Chinese mainstream media, there are approximately 600 million cell phone users in China, which means that you are going to see an impressive number of videos uploaded on YouTube. According to the official YouTube blog, most videos and photos have been uploaded by users from China's Sichuan province.

The 7.9 magnitude disaster is the worst experienced by the Chinese people in over 30 years. The earthquake that struck China in 1976 is said to have been the worst mankind has experienced in the 20th century. Estimates indicated it had a dead toll of approximately 255,000, with several thousands being severely injured. Until now, the 2008 earthquake hasn't reached the high amount of victims of its 1976 counterpart, but the number of reported people is in the range of thousands.

Videos that might be considered shocking by some can now be seen on the largest Internet video service. A number of users have uploaded footage from surveillance cameras that displayed people running in the midst the disaster. Scientific videos showing the movement of the tectonic plates and offering a better insight into the causes of the disaster are also available. People are also trying to offer their support to the victims, by placing a pay tribute and trying to raise money and supplies through a YouTube video.

Source: news.softpedia.com

Read More............

Have you ever been at a party and right when your favorite song comes on, somebody next to you starts singing the lyrics wrong, loud and completely aphonous? That must be unnerving, and many, many can testify that it is one of the moments you just feel like going berserk. Here’s a quick tip for everybody who’s found himself or herself in that position: the next day, send a message to the ‘singer’ containing this Firefox script that has the lyrics to most of YouTube’s music videos, along with a joke about people who should not be allowed to sing. Ever.

YouTube’s got it all, and ever since the record labels have become partners with the world’s biggest video sharing site, most of the songs are available, along with the official videos. The one thing missing and dragging hard are lyrics, but this script makes it all happen, blending everything in.

When used, the Greasemonkey script creates a container titled "Lyrics" below the clip’s description and shows the lyrics when expanded. There’s a ‘must’ involved, though, the title of the video must contain the artist and the name of the track, but that should be only natural. If the script does not find the lyrics of a song, simply change the site providing, and Ionut Alex. Chitu, who brought this forth, suggests lyrics.astraweb.com for the job.

The next time you’re all alone and feel like a superstar, jump out of the shower with your spray for a mike and work this script with YouTube. You’re definitely going to have your repertoire increase exponentially after using it a few times. Plus you’ll get to be the center of attention at the next karaoke party your company throws. Unless you’ll be booed down from the stage due to lack of vocal abilities, you’ll be a smashing hit.


Source: news.softpedia.com

Read More............

Last November the YouTube co-founders announced while attending in a TeeVee conference, that their company was toying with higher resolution videos replacing the low res that currently makes up for more than three quarters of the total clips uploaded. Because of the cryptic and almost Spartan ‘leak,’ the media jumped and all sorts of estimates started floating. "Will it be HDTV? Obviously, the Google owned video sharing service must be feeling Hulu breathing heavy down its neck and decided to step up its game," was one of the trains of thought.

Arguments immediately appeared showing that no tool in the world would enhance a resolution that much, or, at any rate, better than the original file uploaded. It’d be too costly and simply not worth it. Yet. A consensus was arrived at, and it was probably the only one possible, shaped after an old saying: we’ll live and see it.

Four months after that conference and one month longer than predicted, YouTube is testing higher quality video. At the moment, the option is available for a limited number of clips and trying it out is a bit boorish in fashion. Ionut Alex. Chitu of the Google Operating System noticed that by appending &fmt=6 to the URL of a YouTube video, a new page should open and it should have the video in a higher resolution. The screenshots on the left are his exemplification of the difference, while I couldn’t find any that would be included in the limited number that have the option made available.

The regular version of 320 x 240 was modified to that of 448 x 336, and the audio encoding was upped from 22050 Hz to 44100 Hz. It’s not a big increase, but a step in the right direction. Probably once the testing phase will come to an end, a button for switching to high res will be added somewhere on the page. Note: a video with better resolution will load slower.


Source: news.softpedia.com

Read More............

Late last week, the YouTube development team flashed before our eyes the option to virtually add a social layer to the popular video sharing site and said that the changes would come ‘soon.’ Naturally, a couple of days later when you read that there’s been an update, you have your hopes high that it be the one promised, but no such luck. The experimental personalized homepages are still in the testing, with only few people actually using it. If you should want to opt-in on the hot action, here’s a link that will get you on board.

One of the new features appearing on YouTube is Character counter for video comments, useful for when you just start typing and don’t know when to stop, or lets you know just how many words you can fit in before hitting the ‘submit’ button.

Contextual help in ‘My Account’ is the second newly-added feature, and it has to do with the new help icons that have appeared next to some of the buttons in the account page. "To see instructions and helpful information related to managing things like your channel design and videos, just hover over the '?' icons. Click the 'read more' link to go directly to the full article related to that particular feature in our Help Center," the team’s blog reads on the topic.

Those two and the possibility to opt-in for the personalized home pages are the highlights of the update. As usual, there’s some work done that doesn’t usually catch everybody’s eye, but a heavy viewer will immediately notice. The Sort by Relevance and Sort by Date options have been brought back after receiving scores of feedback from the users that demanded this to happen. Two out of the four sorting methods have been added, but when could we expect the Sort by Ratings and Sort by View Count? Probably, the next update will clear the air, but you have to demand it in a strong voice.


Source: news.softpedia.com

Read More............