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USA Today announces new Internet programming for 2008

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usatoday.pngUSA Today Live, the television arm of USA Today, announced a new line-up of television and online projects for 2008. USA Today Live will partner with Fuse, Versus and Mojo HD on a variety of series-based programming, in addition to continuing to create regular online video features for USAToday.com.

City Limits Fishing is a six-part weekly series on Versus which highlights places where anglers regularly catch limits of fish in not so far-off, exotic destinations. City Limits Fishing will travel to New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Chicago, Tampa and Sacramento showing secret places within cities where the fishing is world class. The show premieres on Feb. 15.

10 Great Reasons, an eight-part weekly series on Fuse, premieres Feb. 19 at 10pm. The show will pay tribute to acts, genres, rumors and stories about our musical guilty pleasures and why we love them so, but may be just a tad embarrassed to admit.

Gotta Get Gold is a 10-part series on Mojo HD which launches Monday, July 28 and runs for 10 consecutive weekdays. USA Today Live will team up with Gannett Broadcasting to produce this series. This 10-episode series focuses on what it takes to train and to compete at the highest levels in athletics. The show will identify athletes poised to excel in Beijing, and will follow them through their intense training schedule.

Originally posted on January 14, 2008 @ 10:10 am

PageOnce secures $1.5 million in funding

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pageonce.pngPageOnce, the Personal Internet Assistant, announced that it has secured $1.5 million in funding led by Liron Petrushka and Bobby Lent. Petrushka is a serial entrepreneur who founded Commercebid.com, which was acquired by Commerce One. Currently the Managing Partner of Hillsven LLC, Lent was the co-founder of Ariba, the recognized leader in Enterprise Spend Management. PageOnce also announced that Petrushka and Lent have joined the company’s Board of Directors.

PageOnce, currently in private beta, offers consumers a new way to manage their Internet experience and marketers a new way to become a part of the daily lives of their customers. Using its patent-pending technology, PageOnce brings consumers and marketers together.

Originally posted on January 8, 2008 @ 4:04 pm

FCC to probe Comcast for blocking Net traffic

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comcast.gifAs announced during the the Consumer Electronics Show 2008 in Las Vegas, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be probing US cable provider Comcast for allegedly restricting traffic to file-sharing services such as BitTorrent.

The bone of contention is net neutrality or equal treatment of all data regardless of its content, source or destination.

As expected, the company has denied the allegations and claimed that its bandwidth management technology might have slowed down the transfer of files. Moreover, it promised to cooperate with the regulator to straighten matters out.

“We believe our practices are in accordance with the FCC’s policy statement on the Internet, where the Commission clearly recognized that reasonable network management is necessary for the good of all customers,” said David Cohen, a Comcast executive vice president, in a news article.

Originally posted on January 10, 2008 @ 9:28 am

YouTube on TV now possible with Panasonic VIERA

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Ever dreamed of watching YouTube videos on TV? It is possible now, thanks to the new Panasonic VIERA PZ850 line of Plasma Internet-connected HDTV. As a bonus, you can also access Google’s Picasa Web Albums easily and seamlessly.

This is the outcome of the partnership between Matsushita Electric, the maker of consumer electronics under Panasonic brand, and Google. Don’t get overexcited for you can only access those originally created YouTube videos and not those video clips from your favorite TV shows.

“This is the first time mainstream consumers will be able to easily enjoy YouTube videos from the living room with the enhanced quality of a fully integrated widescreen TV experience. YouTube is already a huge worldwide sensation, and Panasonic VIERA Internet-connected HDTV’s will greatly expand users’ entertainment options,” said Toshihiro Sakamoto, President of
Panasonic AVC Networks Company.

All you need to do is click a button on the remote control and it will automatically direct you to YouTube or Picasa. These HDTVs will be available in spring 2008. However, there is no word on the pricing yet.

Via Forbes

Originally posted on January 8, 2008 @ 10:58 am

One Laptop per Child raises $35 million for Give One Get One campaign

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laptop.pngOne Laptop per Child (OLPC) announced the results of its Give One Get One campaign that ran from November 12 through December 31, 2007 in the U.S. and Canada. In total, the campaign raised $35 million and more than 100,000 XO laptops are already in the process of being distributed to children in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mongolia and Rwanda.

In addition to making it possible to seed the launch of programs in a number of countries, the Give One Get One campaign greatly expanded community participation in the project. The community has already jumped in to help: the level of activity in OLPC forums, chat rooms, email lists and wiki has risen dramatically. Give One Get One participants have asked lots of questions – and have uncovered some new bugs – but they also have lots of answers and have submitted some new software patches.

Originally posted on January 7, 2008 @ 6:13 pm