Horizons

This file image of a screen grab provided by Google Inc. shows the YouTube website. (Google Inc./AP/File)

YouTube: Eight years in and 1 billion people strong

By Aimee Ortiz / 03.21.13

YouTube has reached one billion monthly users, crossing the threshold a mere five months after Facebook. 

The now Google-owned company announced the achievement at a press event and on its blog on Wednesday. So what does this mean? According to YouTube, one billion users means that “nearly one out of every two people on the Internet visits YouTube” and it doesn’t stop there.

The numbers

The official blog goes on to explain that YouTube’s monthly viewership is the same as roughly 10 Super Bowl audiences. It also claims that if YouTube were a country, it would be the third biggest country in the world – surpassed only by China and India. Or, as YouTube so quaintly put it, one billion users would mean that Madonna and Psy would have to perform Gangnam Style for a packed audience 200,000 times.

According to YouTube’s statistics page, 72 hours of video are uploaded each minute and over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month. Some 70 percent of that traffic comes from outside of the US. YouTube is localized in 53 countries and comes in 61 languages.

Alexa.com, which tracks website popularity, ranks YouTube as the third most popular site in the world behind Google and Facebook, respectively.

The competition

It’s not surprising to see YouTube ranked near Google and Facebook but what about the other sites? Alexa ranked Yahoo in the fourth spot and Baidu.com, a Chinese-language search engine, nabbed number five. 

So where did other popular sites land? Wikipedia swept up the sixth spot and retail giant, Amazon, sits at number nine. 

The little bluebird of the Internet, Twitter, comes in at number 11.

Then and now

YouTube, which began back in 2005, quickly rose to global success. The website was started by three ex-Paypal employees who saw an opening in the market. By November 2006, the company had reached such fame and success that Google bought it for $1.65 billion.

What started off as a small start-up company has blossomed into a giant subsidiary of Google. In fact, YouTube's success has played a part in the decline of television viewership. 

“To appreciate how important YouTube is, it’s worth knowing the Television Bureau of Advertising reported that total ad spend last year was $74 billion, “ writes Forbes contributor Mike Rogowsky. “And a lot of that money went to television networks whose audience is disappearing in the click of a mouse or the tap of an app.”

The same Forbes article explains the drastic the drop in TV viewers. According to Mr. Rogowsky, "It wasn’t that long ago that a show could become big and find an audience of nearly 20 million regulars (think early Grey’s Anatomy). Now, something like NBC’s Revolution is considered successful with less than half that."

What’s next

While Google's plans for YouTube's future are still a mystery, a small glimpse may have already been released. 

“YouTube confirmed early this year that its evolution as an Internet stage for video may include subscriptions to content that creators expect people would pay to watch,” writes the AFP. 

For YouTube, the road to fortune is paved in cat videos, music, professional content, and more importantly, the people in front of the computer screen. 

For more tech news, follow Aimee on Twitter, @aimee_ortiz

The Oculus Rift, which made waves at this year's CES, could finally bring the technology into the mainstream. (Oculus VR/YouTube)

The Oculus Rift aims to make virtual reality gaming viable

By Jeff Ward-Bailey, Contributor / 03.19.13

Virtual reality might have been a concept ahead of its time -- VR headsets promised immersive gaming experiences in the 1990s, but bulky headsets and relatively primitive graphics kept them from being widely adopted. The technology has come a long way in 20 years, though, and now a company called Oculus is trying to put us inside games in a way that no screen can. 

The Oculus Rift, one of the most talked-about products at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, looks like a plastic rectangle attached to a pair of ski goggles. (In fact, the original Rift prototype was literally a pair of goggles with LCD screens integrated.) But when the company approached crowd-funding site Kickstarter with a $250,000 funding request, it raised almost ten times that amount -- and attracted the attention of some big names in the gaming industry.

Now, six months later, Oculus is preparing to ship 10,000 developer headsets to its Kickstarter supporters, and we’re seeing the very first signs of Rift-compatible gaming. Team Fortress 2, the popular first-person shooter from Valve, will be getting a “VR Mode” update in a few weeks, and id Software has talked about giving Doom 4 a similar treatment. The Oculus Rift isn’t ready for consumers yet, but it’s headed in that direction. It helps that the headset will cost only a few hundred dollars -- since most of its components are the same ones found inside tablets and smart phones.

What does using the Oculus Rift feel like? Tech journalists who have been lucky enough to try a prototype headset describe a disorientingly realistic experience.

“The initial feeling of being instantly teleported is jarring,” writes Engadget’s Ben Gilbert. “You can turn your head to turn in-game, and you can freely aim all over the generous field of view without altering said field of view.” Over at The Verge, Sean Hollister writes: “With the 3D visuals, the wide field of view, and the motion tracking that shows you whatever your head points at, it feels like you’re truly in another world... only you’re looking at that world through a mesh helmet. The reality is that you’re seeing the actual rows of pixels, but your brain fills in some of the blanks.”

Compared with the complicated VR setups of yesteryear, the Oculus Rift is pretty simple: a single cable connects the goggles to a control box that accepts power and video. The headset itself can be adjusted to the shape of the user’s head, and even takes near- and far-sightedness into account.

In spite of these advances, Oculus still faces an uphill battle before VR headsets become commonplace. Convincing game companies to make compatible software is one hurdle; helping would-be users adjust to a new method of input is another (keep in mind that the Rift only responds to the user’s head movements; controlling of a video game character’s body is handled by a traditional controller). But the company hopes that its open-source ethic will enable those who are interested to help push the technology forward. And few would dispute that the headset, even in its infancy, is proof of the viability of a new approach to gaming.

Readers, what do you think about the Oculus Rift? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

For more tech news, follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffwardbailey.

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Google cofounder Sergey Brin wears a pair of Google Glass. (Eric Risberg/AP/File)

Google Glass: Apps, gestures, and audio revealed at SXSW

By Jeff Ward-Bailey, Contributor / 03.13.13

Given how much buzz surrounds Google Glass, we know curiously little about it. Glass, which consists of a miniature heads-up display and camera attached to lensless eyeglass frames, promises all sort of info on demand, but Google is notoriously strict about letting people test it out -- and as a result, details on how Glass will actually fit into our day-to-day lives have been sparse.

But thanks to a Google presentation at the South by Southwest conference this week, we now know a little more about Glass, including how it’s controlled and how apps might work on the device.

Senior developer advocate Timothy Jordan took to the stage in Austin to show how Glass responds to user input. We knew already that the glasses can be controlled by voice -- “Okay, Glass, take a picture,” for example -- but Jordan demonstrated touch and head gestures as well. By subtly moving your eyes, you can turn the screen on and manipulate information; by gently tilting your head you can scroll through different screens.

During the presentation Mr. Jordan also used Glass to take photos and post to the Google+ social network. He also replied to an email by using voice dictation -- Glass displayed the text of his reply, and allowed him to edit it before sending. And Jordan used Glass to translate the phrase “Thank you” into Japanese; the audio result was loud enough for him to hear but too quiet for the audience to catch.

We also now know a little more about how third-party apps will work with Glass. Jordan modeled a few apps that are still under development, including one that displays headlines and photos from The New York Times, and another called “Skitch” that lets users collaborate by doodling on or otherwise marking up images. Jordan cautioned that because Glass is so different from smart phones, developers will need to write new software for the platform rather than trying to port their existing apps to Glass. And he added that developers should keep apps simple, since the glasses are positioned right in front of a user’s eyes. (It’s a safe bet that no one wants to be bombarded with ads and trivial updates thrust directly into their field of vision.)

Google also announced that Glass will work for those who would be wearing glasses anyway: “The Glass design is modular, so you will be able to add frames and lenses that match your prescription.” The design for prescription frames is still under development, but the news likely comes as a relief to anyone who was hoping to turn their glasses into Glasses.

Readers, what’s your take? Are you getting more excited about Glass as more information is revealed? Or is this something you’d never be caught dead wearing? Let us know in the comments section below.

For more tech news, follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffwardbailey.

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The new SimCity has arrived. (Electronic Arts )

SimCity crumbles under online issues

By Aimee Ortiz / 03.08.13

On March 5, gamers eagerly downloaded Electronic Arts's (EA) latest game, SimCity. By March 6, players were angrily posting about the game (or lack thereof) and by March 7, Amazon stopped selling it.

SimCity was highly anticipated. Early reviews heaped on praise, but what should have been a magnificent launch for EA has turned into a nightmare. The latest SimCity game will not work unless you are playing online. Games save to EA's servers automatically and friends can build up regions together. But things fell apart, either by fan overwhelming the servers or through simply mismanagement on the part of EA. 

“We are hitting a number of problems with our server architecture which has seen players encountering bugs and long wait times to enter servers,” writes SimCity Senior Producer Kip Katsarelis. “This is, obviously, not the situation we wanted for our launch week and we want you to know that we are putting everything we have at resolving these issues." 

So what is the problem with SimCity? Well, to start off, the long wait times for server connection have frustrated players across the Internet. Wait times of 30 minutes or more have been reported as well as saving problems. That last one, the saving problems, has had a huge effect on digital mayors. Players have reported losing hours of work and planning due to connectivity problems.

“How would you feel if you waited for the new Corvette to come out, preordered one, and when you try to drive it home with its massive V8 engine the dashboard tells you, ‘Gas Pump not connected, aborting’?” writes Amazon user Jonny. “Bottom line: Go up to a random stranger, preferably a musclehead, hand him your $60 and ask him to punch you in the face. You'll get more out of your money, and it'll be less painful to watch."

The game’s previous high ratings have slipped. Amazon users hold it at one star and the site has a notification up, warning users about the server problems. Polygon has dropped its original rating of the game, a 9.5, down to a mere 4.0.

SimCity’s always-online requirement has been seen as the root of the problem. Unlike the previous Sims games, SimCity requires the gamer to be online at all times. The need for an Internet connection is a way to promote the social connectivity of the Sims as well as a way to slowdown piracy. Users’ games are stored in the cloud, giving them access to their game anywhere, that is, if the game would work.

EA’s Maxis studio previously explained that the online requirement exists because all of the cities created in SimCity are a part of a larger region. The region shares factors like pollution, resources, and crime. In order to keep the region alive, the game must be online. However, not all fans of the game want to be a part of the region.

There was some success for the video game. According to Mr. Katsarelis, the first 24 hours of SimCity brought 38 million buildings and 7.5 million kilometers of digital road.

For more tech news, follow Aimee on Twitter, @aimee_ortiz

Apple's rumored iRadio streaming music service may be delayed due to tough negotiations with record labels, say reports in the New York Times and New York Post. Here, a woman tries out an Apple iPad in a retail store in Mumbai, India. (Vivek Prakash/Reuters)

Apple's rumored iRadio service could be delayed until summer

By Jeff Ward-Bailey, Contributor / 03.08.13

iRadio might be Apple's worst-kept secret: the company's never announced it (or named it), but details have been trickling out for months of a Pandora-like music service that would come installed on iOS devices and would serve up a free, personalized stream of tunes. Leaks suggested that Apple was hoping to unveil iRadio early this year, but now a report from the New York Times says we probably won't see it until summer at the earliest.

It all comes down to label negotiations, according to the Times. In order to operate iRadio, Apple has to secure record labels' permission to play the songs in their catalogues. That means paying the labels a small amount of money for each song played on the service (and, hopefully, making that money back through ad sales). But the Times says those negotiations haven't been going well. Sony/ATV is allegedly giving Apple a particularly tough time, which isn't surprising: back in January, the company successfully negotiated a 25 percent increase in royalties from Pandora.

A separate report published in the New York Post outlines more of what's tripping iRadio up: according to anonymous sources, Apple is offering a royalty rate of six cents per 100 songs streamed, half of what Pandora pays (12 cents per 100 plays) and about a sixth of what Spotify pays (35 cents per 100 plays).

It's possible that Apple is playing a long game here, rather than simply trying to lowball the record companies. Thanks to the ubiquity of the iTunes store the company controls about two-thirds of the market of (legal) downloadable music, which gives it some extra negotiating muscle. And there's always the possibility that Apple has something more up its sleeve than a simple Pandora competitor, since similar services abound already -- Rdio, Mog, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and a host of others.

There's one more piece of evidence that Apple had hoped to launch iRadio already: tech site 9to5Mac found some code earlier this month that suggests a "Radio" feature will eventually be activated on iTunes for iPads and iPhones. If you're using iTunes on a computer or iPod, you might already be familiar with Radio, but because the iPad/iPhone code includes a "buy" button, there may be some extra features afoot.

The standard warnings apply here, of course: both the Times and the Post got their information from "people briefed on the talks" between Apple and record companies, so the reports shouldn't necessarily be taken at face value. Nevertheless, these sources all point in a similar direction: to get iRadio off the ground, Apple might need to offer a higher royalty rate to the music companies.

For more tech news, follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffwardbailey.

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Visitors are reflected in a mirror at the Samsung stand during the Mobile World Congress at Barcelona, Feb. 27, 2013. (Reuters)

Samsung Galaxy S IV: Here's what to expect

By Aimee Ortiz / 03.07.13

Seven days. That’s how much longer the world will have to wait to see Samsung’s Galaxy S IV (GS4). With the follow-up to the world's most popular phone close at hand, the rumor mill is as alive as ever. The occasional leaks have given smart-phone enthusiasts hope and, possibly, a small glimpse of what will arrive on March 14. 

It’s important to note that even the most reputable leaks are still rumors. No mock ups, sketches, or drawings of the GS4 have been revealed. So, to save you the time and trouble of finding each tiny rumor, here is a list of what Samsung is expected to unpack.

Screen size

One of the first whispers out of the rumor mill is that the GS4 will carry a plus-sized screen. Huffington Post’s Jason Gilbert writes that the GS4 will come packing a five-inch screen. This will make it one of the biggest phones on the market, once again dwarfing the iPhone. The GS4 is also expected to come with a full HD resolution (1920x1080) or 440 pixels per inch.

Faster

With the GS3, Samsung provided a 1.4GHz quad-core processor. The GS4 will definitely see an upgrade on its processor but the question comes down to how much of an upgrade.  GSM Israel, an Israeli blog that is claiming to have screenshots of the still-under-wraps phone, published that the GS4 will carry a 1.8GHz quad-core processor.

“Smart” features

The GS4 is expected to have “Smart Scroll.” This technology would allow the phone to use the front-facing camera to sense when your face is looking at it. So, say you’re reading a website and you reach the end of a paragraph. The “Smart Scroll” feature would automatically scroll down, allowing you to continue reading.  GSM Israel’s screenshots of the supposed GS4 show that “Smart Scroll” would indeed be a feature, as well as, “Smart Rotation,” “Smart Pause,” and the return of “Smart Stay,” which checks to see if you're looking at the screen. For example, if you're reading something on the phone, the screen won't dim because it senses that you're still looking at it.

The rumored specs

Processors, “smart scroll,” and size aside, the GSM Israel-alleged GS4 screenshots gave away a few specs. The International Business Times compiled the data from GSM Israel into a neat, easy-to-read list:

- Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

- 2GB RAM

- Storage capacity of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB

- A 13-megapixel camera with Orb camera technology (1080p video capability)

- A 2-megapixel front-facing camera

- Dimensions of 140.1 x 71.8 x 7.7 mm

- 138 grams

- Home button with touch buttons

- Plastic back

- Removable battery

- Black and White color options

As we mentioned before, these are all still rumors. One week from now, Samsung with confirm or deny them all. For now, all we can do is continue to speculate, hope that Samsung got it right, and take each rumor with a little grain of salt. 

For more tech news, follow Aimee on Twitter, @aimee_ortiz 

Actor Rich Sommer plays Kinect on Xbox 360 at the Xbox booth during the E3 2010 conference in Los Angeles June 15. ( Vince Bucci/AP Images for Xbox)

Microsoft's vision: What an upgraded Kinect means for consumers

By Aimee Ortiz / 03.06.13

Walls with digital interfaces, voice-controlled machinery – that’s the future that Microsoft has envisioned. With the company's latest boost to the Kinect, it may actually be possible.

This week, Microsoft debuted new research into what the Kinect hardware is capable of. The research allows for gesture controls like pinch-to-zoom and swiping as a way to control a PC.

The Kinect was originally released for the Xbox 360, Microsoft’s gaming console. The Kinect, an add-on device, hooks up to the Xbox 360 and allows users to control their Xbox without a controller. This means that people can use gestures and voice commands to control their Xbox experience.

Microsoft soon capitalized on what became the world’s fastest-selling gadget. Do-it-yourselfers quickly began taking advantage of the Kinect, creating code and using the motion-sensor device for much more than controlling video games. The vast array of uses that hackers created for the Kinect led Microsoft to release a Windows software development kit (SDK).  

In a video on the Engadget website, Cem Keskin, a researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, England, demonstrates the way the enhanced Kinect works. The Kinect now sees hands as hands, as opposed to seeing them as a single point in space. Technically, the hands are seen in “hand states” meaning they are either opened or closed.

“Since we have these two hand states we can simulate hand grip and therefore, we can inject touch events to drive Windows applications,” says Mr. Keskin in the video.

Keskin goes on to open up the Fresh Paint application. It appears as if he seamlessly connects with the device, allowing him to draw a rather crude house. However, his artwork is not the focus of the video, it is the Kinect’s ability to respond to hand motions accurately and at a timely fashion.

Engadget reports that there is no certainty on just how Microsoft will bring the gesture controller to its audience. Whether it will be a simple SDK, a hardware update, or even the rumored all-new Kinect (to go along with the rumored all-new Xbox).

The Kinect is just a part of how Microsoft sees the future. 

“We want to excite customers about the direction we're heading in and show that we are constantly thinking about new scenarios based on trends and real work in Microsoft Research and the business groups,” says Microsoft’s director of strategic prototyping, Jonathan Cluts, in an interview with EWeek. “These scenarios are based on reality, not science fiction.”

So far, this version of the Kinect will only be available for PCs. Microsoft has not announced any plans to bring the gesture controller to its video games.

2013 is turning out to be a big year for gesture controllers. The Leap Motion Controller, due out in May, adds hand gestures to Macs and PCs. Microsoft has not yet released a timeline or launch date for the enhanced Kinect. 

For more tech news, follow Aimee on Twitter, @aimee_ortiz 

[Editor's note: This article has been changed from its original form to better reflect that this Kinect research is still experimental.]

Google Shopping Express would compete with Amazon Prime and other online-to-offline shopping services, according to a new rumor. Here, the Google logo is modified with two one-Euro coins in an illustration. (Michael Dalder/Reuters/File)

Rumor: Google Shopping Express will compete with Amazon Prime

By Jeff Ward-Bailey, Contributor / 03.06.13

If you’ve got an Amazon Prime account, you know there’s a lot that $79 a year gets you. Access to a library of stream movies and TV shows, e-books that can be downloaded to your Kindle, and free two-day shipping on a hefty portion of the stuff Amazon sells. Now, according to a new rumor, Google is planning to launch a competing service that’ll cost a little less money -- maybe just $64 a year.

TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis reports that “Google Shopping Express” is in development, and is being built to serve as a “focal point” for the company’s existing Google Wallet and Google Shopping services. Put simply, Google is already the first place many people go when they’re researching a product -- and Google Shopping Express could be a way for the company to get a piece of the action when people do decide to buy. TechCrunch also notes that the service would do Amazon Prime one better in an important regard: it would offer same-day delivery from big retailers such as Target, Safeway, and Walmart.

This rumor should be taken with a grain of salt, of course, but it’s not far-fetched to imagine that Google would want to increase its e-commerce presence. And the rumor is reasonably detailed: TechCrunch says Tom Fallows, one of Google’s e-commerce managers, is heading up the project and that Google employees are already “dogfooding” the service (testing it by using it for their own needs).

It’s also worth mentioning that Google recently acquired two e-commerce companies: Bufferbox, a package-delivery service, and Channel Intelligence, a product-referral business. Bufferbox, which is based in Ontario, Canada, bills itself as a kind of parcel delivery alternative. Since lots of people aren’t home to sign for packages, the company says, they can ship them to nearby pickup stations instead. The acquisition certainly gives Google the beginnings of a service that can ship things quickly, although BufferBox is geographically limited right now.

Channel Intelligence, on the other hand, is focused on the online side of things -- providing e-commerce software and services to make it easier for merchants to sell their products online. This includes a “where-to-buy” feature that lets online shoppers know whether a brick-and-mortar store has the product they’re looking for in stock.

This may be a side project, of course -- there’s no guarantee Google will unveil Shopping Express anytime soon (or even at all). But taken together, the rumor and the company’s recent acquisitions seem to suggest that Google is looking at ways to step up its commerce game.

Readers, what’s your take? Does the idea of Google getting into the retail business seem far-fetched? Would you use Shopping Express? Let us know in the comments section below.

For more tech news, follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffwardbailey.

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Facebook purchased ad company Atlas from Microsoft this week, and could be working on creating its own ad network. Here, a mural at Facebook's California headquarters stylizes the code on which the social network runs. (Paul Sakuma/AP/File)

Facebook scoops up Atlas. More social ads incoming?

By Jeff Ward-Bailey, Contributor / 03.01.13

Facebook has a mountain of data on its users’ activities, locations, and other data -- which allows it to serve up advertisements that are pretty narrowly tailored to individual tastes. Now that ad-focusing ability could get even better.

On Thursday, the company announced it will buy Microsoft’s “Atlas,” an business that helps companies buy, manage, and track ads.

What will Atlas do for Facebook? Neither company has laid out specific plans yet, but the first part of the theory is that better data will lead to more advertising dollars. Facebook has been working for a while to increase its ad revenue -- especially on tablets and phones -- and Atlas brings some powerful data tracking features to the table, which would allow Facebook to better measure how effective its ads are.

Peter Kafka at AllThingsD predicts (based on intel from “smart folks who have some skin in the game”) that once Facebook can prove the value of its ads, it’ll be able to increase ad pricing.

This is important to Facebook, because Atlas is a direct competitor to Google’s ad service -- and right now, Google is eating Facebook’s lunch. DoubleClick can better quantify the success of its ads, and because of this, lots of companies choose to advertise with Google (which means the company can charge more for ads). Atlas could give Facebook the same kind of leverage.

Atlas brings another strength to Facebook: It lets advertisers target ads even more closely, based on the social habits of Facebook users. In other words, advertisers will be better able to understand the relationship between the things you do (as captured by Facebook) and the things you buy, and can capitalize on this information. Eventually, this could lead to Facebook developing an ad network and selling ads outside of its own site. And because the company has such a vast amount of data on what things people are sharing and “liking,” a Facebook-driven social ad network would likely be pretty effective.

Atlas has been around for awhile. Microsoft acquired the company in 2007 when it bought the advertising firm aQuantive for $6 billion. That purchase proved to be ill-fated: Microsoft ultimately wrote off most of the acquisition cost, and has apparently been trying to sell Atlas for some time. In October, Jason del Rey reported in AdAge that Microsoft was working to sell it to New York ad company AppNexus.

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