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The idea of YouTube having premium content on its site isn’t anything we’re not familiar with, and according to French site Le Figaro, the Google-owned video giant’s about to bring a similar styled service to the home of the Eiffel Tower. Rumor has it The Tube’s quite close to striking a deal with content creators in France, one that’d allow it to offer prime channels from production companies such as Endemol and actors like Jean Dujardin. Furthermore, Le Figaro goes on to say programming partners involved in the deal would see between €500,000 and €1,000,000 (about $1.2 million) for pumping out more than 20 hours of original content in a 12-month period. The “premium” channels are said to be coming as early as October of this year, however we’d hold off on expecting to catch Oscar-winner Dujardin on the small, internet-based screens until something becomes official.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet

YouTube’s reportedly working on adding ‘premium’ channels in France originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jul 2012 18:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here is a little bit of a pop quiz – if you were one of those who did not manage to make it to the recently concluded Google I/O Conference which was held in San Francisco, did you manage to check out the I/O 12 Android application which actually streamed the live developer sessions from Google I/O via YouTube? Those who answered in the affirmative and are extremely partial to know how things work underneath the hood, you will be pleased to hear that you were taking part in history, using a totally new and unreleased YouTube Android Player API.

This particular API was announced, or at least, touched on, during one of the YouTube developer sessions, although we can expect Google to step forward with a full announcement sometime down the road. With the YouTube Android Player API, it ought to be able to pave the way for a full, native YouTube video experience right there on your Android-powered smartphone, now how about that? This would definitely be progress in the right direction.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Video content moving to YouTube, YouTube for Android gets redesigned with new UI, quick access to channels, and video preloading,

When setting up a gadget for review, delicately unboxing and smelling the carcinogenic whiff of freshly molded plastics, we typically feel some amount of excitement and anticipation to see how it stacks up against the competition. It’s either that or a resigned sense of duty as we run yet another iterative evolution of this or that laptop through the same benchmarks to see just how this year’s model stacks up to the older model now being sold on discount. With the Nexus Q, though, we felt something different altogether: genuine curiosity.

Why? Well, it’s a high-end device with a $299 MSRP, a price that’s multiple times higher higher than media streamers like the Apple TV, anything from Roku and, indeed, Google’s own Google TV. And yet, the Q has considerably less functionality than any of them. Largely because of this, many who witnessed its unveiling at Google I/O were quick to write it off. Despite having our own doubts we pledged to give it a fair swing, a week of solid use at home and with friends. How did it do? Does this high-concept device with high-end componentry make up for some decidedly low-end capabilities? There’s only one way to find out.

Continue reading Nexus Q review: Google’s mysterious little social streamer

Nexus Q review: Google’s mysterious little social streamer originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 12:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Face detection is a common sight in still photography, but it’s a rarity in video outside of certain research projects. Google may be keen to take some of the mystery out of those clips through a just-published patent application: its technique uses video frames to generate clusters of face representations that are attached to a given person. By knowing what a subject looks like from various angles, Google could then attach a name to a face whenever it shows up in a clip, even at different angles and in strange lighting conditions. The most obvious purpose would be to give YouTube viewers a Flickr-like option to tag people in videos, but it could also be used to spot people in augmented reality apps and get their details — imagine never being at a loss for information about a new friend as long as you’re wearing Project Glass. As a patent, it’s not a definitive roadmap for where Google is going with any of its properties, but it could be a clue as to the search giant’s thinking. Don’t be surprised if YouTube can eventually prove that a Google+ friend really did streak across the stage at a concert.

Google patent filing would identify faces in videos, spot the You in YouTube originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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