How to Convert MKV Files

It often makes you feel depressed that so many devices are not compatible with MKV files. Then how to convert MKV files to other popular video files? Pleasantly, with Aiseesoft MKV Converter, converting MKV files is no more difficult. This best MKV to Video Converter can help you to fast convert MKV to AVI, MP4, WMV, DivX, XviD, MOV… and HD video, which could be played on iPod, iPhone, Zune, PSP etc.

Next is the detailed guide to teach you how to convert MKV files with Aiseesoft MKV Converter.

Step 1: Free download Aiseesoft MKV Converter, install and run the software.

Step 2: Click Add File button to import your MKV files.

Step 3: Click Effect, Trim, Crop to edit output video file.

Tips: Effect is used to adjust video Brightness, Contrast, Saturation; Trim can edit the start and end time of the output video; Crop function can adjust video aspect ratio.

Step 4: Choose your ideal output format from Profile list and click Browse… button to set destination folder to save the converted MKV file.

Step 5: After setting all parameters, press Start button to start MKV to video conversion.

In addition, this professional MKV to Video Converter provides powerful editing functions (Merge, Snapshot, Preview etc.) for you to make use of. Know more functions at: Convert MKV files.

Accel Partners’ Rich Wong Predicts an Android New Year

Last week, Mobilized headed over to Accel Partners to chat with venture captialist Rich Wong and see where he is betting things will go in 2011.

Wong is certainly not alone in his main predicton: “I think 2011 is going to be the year where Android really breaks out.”

The rise of Android, he said, will lead to a shift among developers, he said. “People are going to have to think of iPhone as not necessarily the first platform anymore and many developers are going to start thinking of Android (first).”

It’s going to take a bit longer for Android on the tablet side, he said, where fragmentation is a bigger issue, with hardware makers building products around different versions of the operating system.

“Frankly I think a lot of the tablet makers are just a cycle behind,” he said.

As for the other big mobile players, such as Nokia, RIM and Microsoft, Wong said, “The jury is really out on whether any of those three are going to succeed.”

Wong also predicted Facebook will play a bigger role on the phone, shifting from being an app that is on a lot of phones to being a true mobile platform, similar to the shift it has made on the desktop.

Paul Allen’s Suit Against Tech Industry: Take Two

Paul Allen’s Interval Licensing has revived a patent lawsuit against a number of tech companies, including Google and Apple, filing a new set of court papers on Tuesday.

Allen sued Google, Apple, AOL, eBay, Facebook, Netflix, OfficeDepot, OfficeMax, Staples and Yahoo in August, but the case was dismissed earlier this month, with Tuesday set as the deadline for Interval to file an amended complaint. As noted by open source industry blogger Florian Mueller, the new claims include allegations that Android infringes on Interval patents, adding to a growing list of legal claims being leveled in the mobile arena.

How to Put Your Blu Ray DVD to Your iPod/iPhone

Blu-ray movies are replacing the standard DVD movies for they are sharper, brighter and more detailed. You will feel you are watching movies in theater. Blu-ray is so nice that many people will think of putting them on their iPod or iPhone. It is possible that if you have a nice Blu Ray Ripper and maybe a iPod Transfer and iPhone Transfer.

Part 1: How to Rip Blu Ray DVD movies to iPod iPhone video format?

Step 1: Load your BD

Load your BD disc in to your blu-ray driver.

Step 2: Output Profile

Choose your output profile from the drop-down list according to your need. You choose output format as the generatoin of your iPod and iPhone.

You can also set the specific settings of your output video, such as "resolution" "video bitrate" "encoder" and so on.

After you have done all the things above, you need to click the start button to convert your blu-ray disc.

Tips:You can also do many video editing works about your output video.

1. Effect

You can adjust the "Brightness", "Contrast", "Saturation" of your output video and also you can select to use the "deinterlacing" function which make your video more enjoyable.

2. Trim

To pick up any part of your BD movie to converter, you can use "Trim" function.

3. Crop

You can choose any play area to convert by using the Crop function.

4. Watermark

You can add your own watermark on the output video, and the watermark can be words and also picture. You can choose the font of your words and other really enjoyable function.

Skype Is Working, No Explanation Yet for What Happened

After two days of struggling with an embarrassing pre-holiday system failure, Skype appears to be running again today. CEO Tony Bates appeared in a video message overnight announcing that customers would be compensated for the loss of service. Free and pay-as-you-go customers will get credit for a free 30-minute SkypeOut call to any landline phone in the world. Paid subscribers will get credit for a week’s worth of service.

Offline instant messages and group video chat services remain offline, he said.

Bates said Skype now knows what caused the crash, but he didn’t disclose it. He ruled out the possibility of some kind of malicious attack, and said it’s conducting a detailed postmortem.

This would probably be the worst time for Skype to experience a high-profile outage. Though the Skype service is working today, lots of people who might have used it to call family members heading into Christmas may have made alternate plans.

However, the failure, whatever its cause, is also a reminder that Skype isn’t always in charge of its own ability to stay online. In 2007 an otherwise routine Windows security update issued by Microsoft forced an abnormally high number of PCs running Skype around the world to restart at roughly the same time. A software flaw prevented the Skype peer-to-peer network from compensating properly and the service crashed for two days.

This incident will also hurt its reputation with two key constituencies: Prospective business customers and potential investors. Business customers will rethink plans to deploy Skype. And potential investors will question whether this company has its act together, hurting the potential benefit from its forthcoming IPO.

To its credit, Skype did manage to restore service much faster than it did in 2007, as SkypeJournal notes here.

System failure is one of the risks that Skype admits to in its S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Of the 2007 failure, Skype says in its filing:

“We experienced significant adverse publicity and lost net revenues as a result of this outage, and any similar outage in the future would likely harm our business. As we increasingly introduce products particularly targeted at business customers, any system failures could have a significant impact on our ability to attract or maintain our relationships with business customers.”

How to Copy DVD, Rip DVD, Convert Video on Mac

Many friends want to share their home-make DVDs and their DVD movies with others and also they always feel difficult to do that. Today I will share you a really easy way to Copy DVD to another DVD disc, DVD image ISO, or a DVD folder. Also I will also introduce you how to rip DVD and convert videos on Mac.

Part 1: How to copy a DVD to another DVD disc/DVD image ISO/DVD folder on Mac
Step 1: DVD Copy for Mac.
To copy a DVD on Mac, you need a DVD Copy for Mac to help you. Aiseesoft DVD Copy for Mac is a good choice.

Step 2: Load Your Source
This excellent DVD copy for Mac allows you to load DVD folder and DVD image ISO.

Step 3: Choose Output Info
1. "Full Disc" or “Main Movie”
This DVD copy for Mac enables you to copy the full disc and also the main movie according to your need.

2. "Audio", "Subtitle" and "Volume" name
You can choose your output audio from the "Audio" drop-down list, such as "all audio"/ "None"/ or some audio the DVD provide.

Subtitle is always an important thing, you can choose your output subtitle in "Subtitle" drop-down list.

You can also name your output volume's name

Step 4: Choose Your Target
You can copy your DVD to another DVD disc, DVD folder or DVD image ISO.

Tips:
1. You can also choose to copy the menus or not.
2. All the info you choose will be displayed on the "Info Box".

Part 2: How to rip DVD to video formats on Mac

Step 1: Download Aiseesoft DVD Ripper for Mac.

Step 2. Load DVD
Insert DVD into your DVD-ROM, run DVD Ripper for Mac, click "Load DVD", find the DVD folder of the movie you want to add from your DVD-ROM, and Click "Open".

Step 3. Set output format.
This best DVD ripper for Mac provides you output formats as many as you want. Just choose one from the drop down list "profile" according to your portable player.

Step 4: Conversion
You can just Click "Start" to begin your conversion.

Part 3: How to Convert Video files on Mac

Step 1: Download Aiseesoft Video Converter for Mac

Step 2: Load video
Easily click "Add File" to load your video that you want to convert.

Step 3: Choose output profile and settings
At the bottom of the interface there are a drop-download list named "profile". You can choose your output format here.

Tips:
1. Trim
If you want to pick up a part of the video to convert, please click "Trim" button and drag the "Start trim slider" to set the start time and "End trim slider" to set the end time. (a) You can also do that by clicking the "Start trim button" and "End trim button" (b). The third way you do that is set the exact Start/End time at the right of the pop-up window and click "OK".(c)

2. Crop
If you want to remove the black edges or you want to convert a certain area of your video, please click the "Crop" button. You can do this either by drag the frame around the movie (a) or set the crop value: "Top, Left, Bottom, Right".(b). Another way to do that is choose models from "Crop Mode"(c).
Aiseesoft Video Converter for Mac also allows you to chose the output aspect ratio above the crop pane, "Keep Original, full screen, 16:9 and 4:3" are available.

3. Effect
If you want to adjust the effect of your movie, please click the "Effect" button and a pop-up effect window will appear. It allows you to edit your movie’s effect including "Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation and Volume".

How to share the iTunes Music and videos between two computers for free

Some people may meet that situation: You and your brother both have iTunes library under the same credit card account. Occasionally, you want to get the same song, however you wouldn't want you both to pay the $0.99 where virtually the same account is purchasing the song twice. So how can you and/or he download the songs from each other once it's purchased on a single computer? This is a guide to tell you how to share iTunes Music and videos between two computers such as sharing iTunes Music and videos between Windows PC and Mac OS X, sharing iTunes Music and videos between Mac OS and Mac OS X and sharing iTunes Music and videos between Windows PC and Windows PC

Step 1, Networking computers.
If you want to share iTunes videos and music between computers, you need to network PC and Mac first.
If you do not know how to Network Windows with Mac OS X, go there:
Networking Windows (2000/XP/2003*) with Mac OS X (10.3/10.4)
Information you will need to know
1.The IP Address of your PC (Start > Run > CMD {return} > "ipconfig" {return})
2The IP Address of your Mac (Applications > Utilities > Terminal {Run app} > for ethernet connection "ipconfig getifaddr en0" {return} or for wireless "ipconfig getifaddr en1" {return})>
3.The workgroup the PC is in (Right click on My Computer, select Properties, and select the Computer Name tab)

System Configuration
It is important that the account you log in with on your XP system has a password set, if it does not you will not be able to login to your Windows share from OS X. You need to put your Mac in the same workgroup as your Windows PC. To do this open "Directory Access" (Applications > Utilities > Directory Access). Click on the padlock in the bottom left corner to make changes; you will be prompted for your password. If "SMB" is not ticked off, then tick it off. Select "SMB" and hit the "Configure…" button. Now enter the name of your Windows workgroup. In my case the name is "AD".



Setting up the PC to share files
You need to create and share a folder on your PC that you will then access from your Mac. To do this create a folder (or select and existing one) right click on it from Windows Explorer and select "Properties". Select the "Sharing" tab and share out the folder. I'd recommend you use a one word name for the share. For example "Mac", not "Apple Mac Share", it just narrows the risk of complications.



Setting up the Mac to share files
Open "System Preferences" (Applications > System Preferences). Go to "Sharing" under "Internet & Network", and tick off "Windows Sharing", and if it doesn't start by itself, click "Start". This will share out your entire home folder.



If You're running Tiger (10.4), you will also need to click the "Accounts" button and tick off the box next to your account name so that OS X knows to share out your particular home folder.



Step2, Go to preferences, under the sharing tab, enable "Share library..." and "Look for shared libraries..." on both computers.
Select the items you want to share.

It will show up in iTunes' side panel:


To require users to enter a password before they can see your shared items, select "Require password" and enter a password.
You will need to authorize both computers to play purchased content however. You may authorize up to 5 Machines per iTunes Music Store account.
Tips：If you want to share music with other users on your computer ，read this article: iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer

How to watch and play Internet videos on iPod touch and iPhone(3G)

Why do iPod touch and iPhone(iPhone 3G) can not play internet video besides youtube? The reason you can't view videos from other videos sites besides youtube is that they run on something called "Flash". iPhones and iPod Touches can't support Flash because of their software. This is why Apple created the YouTube application on your home screen.
Luckily, someone has done their best to fix this problem.
iTransmogrify! is a bookmarklet for iPhone and iPod touch which transforms embedded Flash content into direct links to natively supported formats. That means YouTube videos and MP3s can now be played from the iPhone's Safari web browser with just a few clicks. The iTransmogrify! bookmarklet recognizes and converts a variety of embedded Flash content from web pages so they will play on iPhone and iPod touch.
Currently supported formats include: YouTube, embeds and YouTube pages, Blip.tv, Revver, TED talks and embedded TED talks, Many embeded flash MP3 players ,Kink.fm podcasts, Flickr badges (videos are unsupported) , The Test Suite has more sites.
To install the bookmarklet, just drag the link to your Safari or Firefox Bookmarks, IE users should right click and choose “Add To Favorites” After adding the link, sync your iPhone or iPod touch.



Grab it now: iTransmogrify!
You can also add iTransmogrify from your iPhone!
Then, whenever you find a broken video, just select the bookmark to convert it.
Now, you can watch and play internert videos such as Blip.tv, Revver, TED talks and embedded TED talks, Many embeded flash MP3 players, Kink.fm podcasts, etc on iPod touch and iPhone.
More information, source code and bug-tracking is available on the iTransmogrify Google Code page.

If you want to watch your own videos on iPod touch or iPhone, you can follow this step by step guide: How to convert all video files and extract audio from video on Mac OS X ?
If you want to play dvd movie on iPod touch or iPhone, you can follow this guide: How to rip DVD to all sorts of video and audio files on Mac OS X?

Recommended iPhone 3G Software Links:
DVD to iPhone 3G Converter for Mac
DVD to iPhone 3G Converter for Windows
iPhone 3G Video Converter for Mac
iPhone 3G Movie Converter for Windows
DVD to iPhone 3G Suite for Mac
DVD to iPod touch converter for Mac

LimeWire Still Shedding Assets Before Shutdown – And a Federal Court Date

LimeWire’s slow-motion shut down continues.

The music filesharing service, which basically called it quits in October after losing a Federal court case, is turning off or shelving most of its related products. But it has found a home for at least one of them: Its LimeExchange.com services marketplace is being swallowed by Freelancer.com, which describes itself as “the world’s largest outsourcing marketplace.”

Terms of the deal haven’t been released; Freelancer.com says it will “migrate” LimeExchange’s users to its own platform.

What’s that? You had no idea the people behind LimeWire also ran a freelance marketplace? Me neither.

But now that I’m looking, I see that Lime Labs, which formally ran LimeExchange, also lists a domain registration/hosting business and an open source Web site building service among its assets. Anyone know what’s become of those?

Big picture: New York-based LimeWire and its affiliated companies look like they will all be wound down by the end of the month. Not coincidentally, the following month there are supposed to be Federal court hearings, in which the major music companies are going to try to extract millions from LimeWire owner Mark Gorton for copyright violations.

I don’t know that shuttering all the related companies will help Gorton hang on to his money. But anything that helps him focus on his legal problems can’t be a bad idea.

Bing’s iPhone App Is Getting New Features (But Windows Phone 7 Owners Will Have to Wait)

Although it was hard to see with all the demo glitches at the Bing Summit on Wednesday, Microsoft actually has a bunch of interesting updates coming to its iPhone app.

One feature, in particular, caught my eye. It’s the ability to take panoramic pictures just by waving the phone (and its built-in camera) around a bit. The result is a multidimensional Photosynth. People will be able to create panoramas for their own use or to share with friends, but Microsoft is also hoping that people will share them publicly and that some of them can be used to expand Bing Maps’ close-up capabilities.

Microsoft is also updating the Bing app with improved street-level photography options when using maps on the phone. Another new feature will allow the app to use the camera to capture and then read text, using any of the words it recognizes as the basis for a query. Also interesting is the ability to set the app to take action–such as check-in to a location-based service–when you reach a specified location.

Since the demos didn’t work so well for reporters on Wednesday, I offered Microsoft’s Blaise Agueras y Arcas a do-over and he was kind enough to give a demo for Mobilized and answer a few questions (see video below).

Although Microsoft didn’t outline it at the search event, the company is also making a series of updates to its Android app.

One side effect of the coming updates (which Agueras y Arcas said is coming very soon) is that it will actually further the gap between the iPhone and Windows Phone 7. That’s because Bing is not an app on Windows Phone 7, but an integrated part of the operating system. That means that the new Bing features won’t show up until the next OS update, at the earliest.

Microsoft, though, can ill-afford to cede the iPhone search market to Google. The Bing app, it notes, has been downloaded 5.5 million times, while the company has also finally managed to make Bing a search option in the browser.

It’s an issue that is likely to crop up repeatedly for Microsoft, unless it does something like create a separate Bing app for Windows Phone in addition to the built-in search capabilities, something that Microsoft officials held out as a possibility, though nothing is in the works at the moment.

Novell Patent Grab: “Cheap Defensive Insurance”

An interesting new development in the big Novell patent sale that went down in November. Turns out that CPTN Holdings LLC, the Microsoft-led consortium that purchased the 882 patent portfolio, includes quite a few other industry heavyweights. According to a Dec. 9 merger notification posted by the Bundeskartellamt–Germany’s federal cartel office–other members of CPTN Holdings include Apple, Oracle and EMC.

Which is intriguing.

Because while companies do sometimes ally to pool patent rights, this seems an…unusual alliance. Why are these patents–which presumably cover networking, virtualization and data center technologies–important enough that Microsoft, EMC, Oracle and Apple would create an LLC to acquire and cross-license them? That’s not entirely clear, though a source inside one of the four companies tells me it was essentially an alliance of convenience.

“We get to buy in at a cheap price and get a license to a very valuable portfolio,” a source inside one of the four companies told me. “It’s cheap defensive insurance.”

How to copy DVD to ISO file for Mac

ISO file is an unattached file format (like RAR and ZIP): it merges a series of files into one single file according to a definite format. So they are stored in an uncompressed format., then it is more practicable to to transfer it over the Internet or via a LAN connection.

There lists the capabilities of DVD Copy for Mac on ISO file:
Copy: the ability to copy DVD to ISO file for Mac.
Burn: the ability to burn ISO file to an optical Disc.
Extract: the ability to copy the content of ISO file to a hard disc.

Free download this DVD Copy for Mac to have a try!

Buy NowFree trial(Intel PPC)

Let’s take the example: How to copy DVD to ISO file for Mac

Click “Full Disc ” button or “Main Movie Mode” button on the main interface to select the copy DVD mode.

Select the source: Select the DVD-video disc here to copy your DVD file.

Choose the target: Choose the ISO image target here for copying your DVD files as ISO file.

Start to Copy:Click the “Start” to begin your DVD copying to ISO file on Mac.

learn more on: how to edit DVD file or ISO file with DVD Copy for Mac.

How to convert DVD, Movie, Music to iPhone ringtone and put ringtone on iPhone, iPhone 3G

Everyone wants his iPhone ringtone to be personalized,and sometimes want to make iPhone ringtone from a clip of their favorite DVD, movie or songs. Here I found a easy way to achieve this target for iPhone ringtone, hope it helpful.

The tools you need are Aiseesoft DVD to iPhone Suite and iPhone PC Suite (free), download links are as following:
Aiseesoft iPhone Converter Suite:
http://www.aiseesoft.com/downloads/dvd-to-iphone-suite.exe

iPhone PC Suite (Totally free)
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/iPhone_PC_Suite.htm

Note: iPhone PC Suite has to run under Microsoft .NET Framework, you can download it from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=333325fd-ae52-4e35-b531-508d977d32a6&DisplayLang=en

The iPhone ringtone guide is composed of 3 parts:
1. How to extract audio to ringtone from DVD?
2. How convert audio and video to iPhone ringtone?
3. How to sync/ put ringtone to iPhone without iTunes

Part 1 How to make iPhone ringtone from DVD?
Install Aiseesoft DVD to iPhone Suite and run it. For Windows Vista user, you may have to run this program as Administrator, right click the program shortcut and click “Run as Administrator”.
Run the DVD to iPhone Converter load your DVD by clicking “Load DVD” button, you also can load IFO file from your hard drive by clicking “Load IFO File” button.
Click drop down list and select iPhone supported format (AAC, MP3, WAV, etc.) you want:

You can also customize the sample rate, bit rate and other parameters of your iPhone ringtone by click “setting”



To extract a clip from DVD to iPhone ringtone, you can click button “trim”, set the start time and end time.



Then click “Start” to extract iPhone ringtone from you DVD, Done.

Part 2 How to make iPhone ringtone from videos and songs?
Start Aiseesoft iPhone Movie Converter, then click “Add” button to load video file which you want to extract iPhone ringtone from(You can also load audio file to convert music to iPhone ringtone).




Click drop down list and select iPhone supported format (AAC, MP3, WAV, etc.) you want:



The operation is similar as extracting iPhone audio from DVD with DVD to iPhone Converter, set sample rate, bit rate and other parameters of your iPhone ringtone by click “setting”

Most users’ iPhone ringtone are always short, so you may want to convert a clip from movie to set as ringtone. Click button “trim” to set the start and end point of your iPhone ringtone.

Then click “Start” to convert a clip to iPhone ringtone from your movies or songs.

How to put movies on an iPod

How to put movies on an iPod is always a problem that most iPod users are confused about. There are many tools can help you to convert video on iPod, such as avi iPod Converter for Mac, Mpeg 4 iPod Converter, 3gp converter for iPod and so on. Those tools can help you to put avi, wmv, 3gp, Mpeg on iPod easily. This is the easiest way to put movies on an iPod. You can also put movies from one iPod to another one and from computer to your iPod directly with iPod transfer tools.

This guide includes two Parts:
Part 1: How to put movies on an iPod for Windows (convert & transfer)
Part 2: How to put movies on an iPod for Mac (convert & transfer)

Part 1: How to put movies on an iPod for Windows
A. With Converter
Step 1: Download and install Aiseesoft iPod Video Converter.



Step 2: Add Video
Click “Add File” button to load your movies that you want to put on iPod.
Step 3: Choose output format
You can choose your output format according to your iPod’s generation from the drop-down list named “profile”. You can also adjust the settings of your output video by clicking “Settings” button.
Step 4: Start Conversion
Click “Start” button to begin your conversion.

B. With Transfer
Step 1: Free download Aiseesoft iPod Transfer.



Step 2: Plug iPod
Plug your iPods or iPhones to computer
Step 3: Find movies
Find the movies that you want to put on your iPod from the other iPod.
Step 4: Transfer
Click “Transfer” button

Part 2: How to put movies on an iPod for Mac
A. With Converter
Step 1: Download and install Aiseesoft iPod Video Converter for Mac.



Step 2: Add File
Click “Add File” button to load your movies that you want to put on iPod.
Step 3: Profile and Settings
Choose your output video’s profile from a drop-down list and you can also adjust the settings of your output movie.
Step 4: Conversion
Click “Start” button to begin your conversion.

B. With Transfer
Step 1: Download and install Aiseesoft iPod Manager for Mac.



Step 2: Plug
Plug your iPod via USB cable.
Step 3: Find Movies
Find your movies you want to put your iPod from your local disk.
Step 4: Transfer
Click Transfer button to begin your transfer and seconds later you will get your movies on your iPod.

Look, Sergey, a Christmas Card From the Connecticut AG! Wait…

Google’s amends for inadvertently harvesting consumer data with its Street View cars may have been good enough for the Federal Trade Commission, but not for Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal. Working with the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection, his office has issued a civil investigative demand, hoping to force the company to turn over the personal data it collected and to which it has so far refused him access.

“We need to verify what confidential information the company surreptitiously and wrongfully collected and stored,” Blumenthal said in a statement, adding that doing so is “crucial to assessing a penalty and assuring no repeat.”

Though Google has already shared some of the data with other regulatory authorities, it evidently sees little need for such verification and clearly has no intention of handing any data over to Blumenthal’s office.

“As we have said before, we are profoundly sorry for having mistakenly collected payload data from unencrypted networks,” the company said in a statement rehashing the endless string of similar statements that preceded it. “As soon as we realized what had happened, we stopped collecting all WiFi data from our Street View cars and immediately informed the authorities. We did not want and have never used the payload data in any of our products and services. We want to delete this data as soon as possible and will continue to work with the authorities to determine the best way forward, as well as to answer their further questions and concerns.”

Google has until Dec. 17 to give Blumenthal’s office access to the data. Or else…

PREVIOUSLY

• Google Street View Privacy Debacle Far From Over
• FTC Closes Google Street View Probe
• Google CEO Apologizes for Street View Schmidtstorm
• Google CEO’s Advice to the Street-View Shy: The Video
• Schmidt: Don’t Like Google Street View Photographing Your House? Then Move.
• Mr. Schmidt, There’s an Inspector Lestrade on Line One
• State AGs to Probe Google’s “Deeply Disturbing Invasion” of Wi-Fi Data
• No Harm, Big Foul: Google Intercepted Passwords and Email Extracts
• Germany Questions Google’s Data “Mistake”
• Google Street View Cars Collected Wi-Fi User Data for Three Years

Apple Finally Starts Supersizing Its Free iTunes Samples

Still not convinced you want to plunk down $1.29 for that new Black Eyed Peas single? Take your time!

And then take some more time: Apple has started to increase the length of the free music samples it offers at its iTunes music store, from 30 seconds to 90 seconds.

Will that help Apple and the music industry move more product? It shouldn’t hurt, right? And anything they can do, they should do: Download sales are starting to droop.

This move has been in the works for months, but Apple had been unable to get clearances from music publishers. I’m still not sure if Apple will be doing this throughout the store: As of early Thursday morning, most of the songs I checked, in a decidedly unscientific survey, still had 30-second samples.

But my hunch is that Apple will adopt the 90-second standard as widely as it can, and that the inconsistency we’ve seen so far is just because it hasn’t gotten around to changing everything yet.

For instance, if you want to sample the Beatles’ version of “Twist and Shout”, you can hear 90 seconds of the song, but you can only hear 30 seconds of “Day Tripper.” Etc.

The only consistency I’ve found so far is that no Sony acts seem to offer the extended samples. But, again, my gut is that’s a temporary aberration.

Meanwhile Amazon, which runs a very distant second to iTunes in digital music sales, seems to still be offering the shorter samples.

Involver Helps Brands Speak the Language of the Social Web

Involver, one of the leading social marketing start-ups, doesn’t want to be an ad agency. It wants to be a tech company. So instead of moving to do more specialized and custom work for its brands, as its competitors are doing, the company is now offering a tool to help brands do the work for themselves: Social Markup Language. The idea behind SML is to provide shortcuts and frameworks to enable front-end designers to easily build Facebook applications and Pages with elements like videos, music and coupons.

Involver, which is announcing the product today after beta-testing it for most of this year, will offer SML on a subscription basis. Brands receive hosting for the duration of their subscription. If they discontinue, they can take their app UI with them but have to redo the backend.

SML is a vast improvement on a previous WYSIWYG tool the company had offered, according to Noah Horton, Involver CTO and co-founder. He said brands, big brands especially, want their apps to be as customized as possible, so a template-based approach is less viable.

San Francisco-based Involver has 60 employees and has raised $10 million in funding. The company has helped brands from small to large create 250,000 total applications with 700 million fans. Customers include Sony Music, The White House, Real Madrid and Facebook. Involver’s biggest competitors are Vitrue and Buddy Media.

The majority of Involver’s business is on the Facebook platform, but the start-up also offers tools for other platforms. Facebook itself is actually one of Involver’s largest paying customers, according to CEO and co-founder Rahim Fazal. Involver built applications for such events as Facebook’s 500 million user celebration (a tool to share stories about experiences on Facebook) and the recent U.S. November elections (an app at the top of American users’ homepages asking them if they had voted).

I’m not saying anything’s happening, but you can imagine that if Facebook ever stopped making acquisitions purely for talent, it might want to take a look at helping marketers use its platform, and it’s clearly aware of what Involver is doing.

How to use DVD decypher to rip DVD to iPod, PSP, PowerPoint etc on PC

1. Use DVD decypher to rip DVD to VOB files.
DVD Decrypter is a free DVD ripper that can create backup disc images of the DVD-Video structure of DVDs. It can be used to image any DVD, but controversially it is especially useful for decrypting copy-protected movies. The program can also burn images to disc. CSS decrypting software (such as DVD Decrypter, AnyDVD, Smartripper, and DVD Shrink) allows a region-specific DVD to be copied as an all-region DVD. It also removes Macrovision, Content Scrambling System (CSS), region codes, and user operation prohibition.
Step 1. Install DVD decypher
Download it from: http://www.dvddecrypter.org.uk/. To install DVD decypher, simply mount the .exe archive by double-clicking it, and setp by step to click "next".
Step 2. Rip DVD using DVD decypher
After you insert a movie DVD into your DVD burner or player, launch DVD Decrypter. In the window to the right you will see all the files on that DVD.

NOTE: If the files are not shown in the right window pane, on the Task Bar, click on Mode and click on FILE F to place a checkmark beside it as shown in the picture above.
You can choose the output folder by:
Under "Destination", click on the Folder out to the right of the movie path, locate the folder you want to rip the DVD to, then double left click on folder to open it then click OK.



You can select to rip the whole DVD or choose to rip a segment of the DVD.
Explanation:
.IFO = The IFO files includes information such as chapters, subtitle tracks and audio tracks.
.VOB = The VOB files contains the actual video, audio, subtitles and menus.
.BUP = Backup files of the IFO files.



Step 3. Finish conversion
Click on the Hard Drive Symbol to the right of the green arrow. After clicking on the Hard Drive Symbol, you will have the screen which shows the decryption in progress.
After conversion by this free DVD ripper, you can find the VOB files in the "Destination".

2. Convert the .VOB files to video formats compatible with iPod, iPhone, PSP, PowerPoint, etc.
Now you need to use Aiseesoft Total Video Converter to convert .VOB files to formats compatible with popular players such as iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, PSP, etc. You can also upload the converted files form DVD (.VOB) to YouTube, Myspace, and other video sharing site. YouTube accepts a wide range of video file formats such as .WMV, .AVI, .MOV, and .MPG, etc. PowerPoint understands mpeg, asf, avi, wpl. wm, wmx, wmd, wmz, dvr-ms, mpv2, mp2v, mov, etc. If you want to put the VOB files on PowerPoint, you can choose .avi as output format.
Step 1. Download and install Aiseesoft Total Video Converter.
Step 2. Run Aiseesoft Total Video Converter, click "Load DVD" button to import the .VOB files, choose the output format, then click "Start" to start the conversion, the default setting works perfectly.



Step 3. After conversion finished, you can use transfer the converted files to the players.
For example :
use iTunes to transfer the mp4 video to your iPod, here are the steps:
1). Open iTunes and click "File" to add your converted videos to iTunes library.
2). plug in your iPod to computer, then iTunes will detect your iPod as a device.
3). Select your iPod device on the left panel of iTunes, click "Movies" tab, check the videos you want to sync and click "Apply", done.
Use Zune software to transfer wmv video to Zune player, here are the steps:
1). Install Zune software, you can download it from here for free: http://www.zune.net
2). Plug in your Zune player to computer
3). Drag the wmv video to Zune library
4). Click "start sync" to sync your Zune. OK.
Tips: Aiseesoft DVD Ripper can rip DVD to all popular video and audio formats directly. It can rip DVD to videos including MP4, AVI, M4V, 3GP, MPG, MPEG, FLV, etc; and it can convert DVD audio to MP3, M4A, AAC, AC3, etc. And it is more easy to use than Mac the ripper. You can have a try.

Put Limewire music, YouTube video on iPod

1. Put music and videos from Limewire to iPod
Limewire is a download tool I assume lot of us use. I often use it to download free music and videos and put them on my iPod. I also often visit Youtube to watch videos and sometimes I download videos from Youtube to put on my iPod.
Search and download songs from Limewire. You may get songs in all sorts of formats, but not all formats are supported by iPod. Usually I select three formats: MP3, AAC and M4A formats that are supported by iPod and can be directly transferred to iPod using iTunes. For the detailed specs info, you can visit http://www.apple.com/iPod/specs.html. After you download the songs, open your iTunes, click "File" from the upper left corner, select "Add file to library", browse your computer hard drive and find the songs downloaded by Limewire, select the songs you prefer, click OK and the songs will be put in your iTunes. Then you can just transfer the songs to your iPod from iTunes.

2.Youtube video to iPod
I often visit Youtube to watch videos and sometimes I download videos from Youtube to put on my iPod. Youtube videos are in FLV formats, so I use a free online FLV converter to do the conversion:
Firstly, go to Youtube and open the page of the video you want to put on your iPod. And you will find the Youtube URL of this video to the right of the playback window. Then copy this URL. See the highlighted area in the figure below:



Secondly, go to http://vixy.net/ , paste the copied URL into the URL field of this web page, and select "MP4 for iPod/PSP" from the "Converts to" drop-down list. Then click "Start" below this list to start the conversion. See the highlighted areas below:



Finally, after the conversion, this website will provide a download link for you to download the converted MP4 file. When you see the link, you can just download the final file from the link, save the downloaded MP4 file on your computer and use iTunes to sync it on to your iPod.

Recommended Products For you:
DVD to iPod Converter for Mac
It's a specially designed iPod conversion program to Convert DVD to iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, convert DVD to iTunes on Leopard.
DVD to iPod Converter for Windows
It is one of the best conversion programs for PC that can put DVD on iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano and so on.

New Zune2 review (part 2-1) upgrade, hardware, software and Social

When we first caught wind that Microsoft was in fact doing its own portable media player (and then published the first ever photo of the Zune), we hoped it might finally be the play to knock the iPod off its perch. Sure, in mid 2006 there was no shortage of devices more advanced than any given iPod, but then (and now) the iPod enjoyed unchecked dominance of the market in the US and many countries abroad. Steve Jobs knew the day would come that Microsoft would really enter the game.
What we were hoping for was that the portable media world might be in store for another Sony / Nintendo upset. Remember in the 90s how Sony and Nintendo's partnership went awry, and Sony, totally sick of Nintendo completely owning the game console space, brought out the original PlayStation? Before the console's second generation was through Sony had more market share than they knew what to do with. Sony upped Nintendo's game with the PlayStation, then upped their own with the PlayStation 2 -- and took over.
If Sony could do the impossible and topple the infallible Nintendo of old, surely Microsoft, the world's largest technology company, could make at least make a dent in Apple's armor. Yeah, the first-gen product is important, but the second gen product is crucial, because if you can't up your game -- and everyone else's -- you're just another player. This year, Microsoft really had to make the Zune count. Read on to judge for yourself whether they did.
The first generation Zune, as we all know, was little more than a slew of off the shelf hardware and software Microsoft cobbled together in a rush to make a play for the annual holiday gold rush. And the interesting part is, all things considered, it really wasn't bad at all. No one thought it was "done", but it was a lot better than some of the other PMC-based devices we'd seen to date. This year Microsoft brought a slew of new Zune products (and enhancements) to the table, including two new players (flagship 80GB and the flash model), new device software (which runs on all devices), new desktop software, and a new service (Zune Social, a music-oriented social network reminiscent of Xbox Live).



Device software
Yeah, we know Microsoft technically skipped right past device software v2.0 and jumped to 2.2, but the update is the best place to start since it affects the most users and devices. Microsoft won some well-deserved brownie points for ensuring all Zune players new and old can run the new firmware, meaning that for now your old Zune will have feature parity with the new hardware.
So here's the deal with the device software: it adds some crucial bits (many of which we expected the first time), takes away some minor but important things, and leaves the other 90% largely unchanged. First, the stuff Zune 2.0 takes away:
Song flagging
The five star rating system
The language menu The good stuff, though, is very good:
MPEG-4 and H.264 playback support
Podcasting support
Sync over WiFi (which we'll get to later)
In terms of performance, both old and new hardware and firmware were almost identical in testing. A lot of people have been claiming the new firmware is much snappier, but we didn't find that to be true at all. Two Zune 30 devices boot up within a half second between 1.0 and 2.0 series firmwares, and the flash-based Zune 8 we tested booted to home screen less than a second faster. Traversing menus took no more or less time or when syncing and the like. (Note: scrolling through long lists appears to happen slightly faster, but that's likelier an interface tweak, not a performance increase.)

Related theme:
New Zune review part 2-1
New Zune review part 2-2
New Zune review part 2-3
New Zune review part 2-4

Recommended Products:
Aiseesoft DVD to Zune Suite
It can help you convert DVD, IFO and all video formats to Zune, Zune 2 MP4, WMV and Zune supported audio MP3, WMA, and AAC etc.

Another Top Yahoo to Depart: Global Initiatives Head Keith Nilsson

Earlier today, BoomTown reported on the departure of Yahoo’s M&A exec, Andrew Siegel, from the company.

Tonight, I got a call that another top Yahoo–Global Initiatives Group SVP Keith Nilsson (pictured here)–was also leaving the Silicon Valley Internet giant.

Nilsson, a 12-year Yahoo veteran, had run emerging markets for the company, until he was appointed in January to his new job.

Reporting directly to CEO Carol Bartz, Nilsson was focused on supporting global relationships and alliances, as well as revenue partnerships.

It’s not clear where Nilsson is going, but he might be headed to a start-up opportunity.

It’s another big blow to Yahoo, where employee morale is worsening after a series of top exec departures and the prospect of a round of layoffs in less than two weeks.

The management capabilities of Bartz are likely to get further scrutiny by Wall Street investors if this talent drain continues.

But that kind of rigorous oversight is unlikely to come from Yahoo’s ineffectual board, which–in fact–is now having a regularly scheduled meeting at Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, Calif., HQ.

Here is a question they might ask Bartz: Why is Yahoo losing so many of its execs and how are you going to stop it?

Larry Ellison: Behind The Kimono

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has a mythology worthy of Edith Hamilton, full of corporate conquest, danger at sea and the odd fountain of youth quest, so Bloomberg Television’s “Game Changers” feature on him tonight sounds quite promising. Certainly, there’s fodder–and photos–enough for a fascinating “Behind the Music”-style examination of the swashbuckling, trash-talking Samurai CEO–these remarks from some folks close to him, for example.

• Stuart Feigin, Oracle employee No. 5:

  “There was no version 1 [of Oracle software] because everyone thought, well, no one buys version 1, it’s buggy. So we started with a version 2. Well, our version two was at least as buggy as anyone’s version 1…And I describe those early versions as the roach motel of databases. The data went in, but it didn’t come out.”

  “For some reason Larry told the Bank of America, I think he told them there were 15 of us when in fact there were five of us. Now I’m not sure why the Bank of America would think differently of you if you’re 5 or 15, but Larry had given them a number, which was a little larger than reality.”

• Bruce Scott, Oracle co-founder:
  “I remember him very distinctly telling me one time: Bruce, we can’t be successful unless we lie to customers.”

  “All the things that you would read in books of somebody being a leader, he wasn’t. But he was tenacious; he would never give up on anything.”

• Gary Bloom, former Oracle EVP

  “I have a theory that Larry’s succession plan for Oracle is he is trying to figure out a way that when he’s six feet under in a grave, he can still run Oracle.”

Sadly missing from the broadcast, my favorite Ellison story/folktale of all time: Back in 1999, he had an enormous boulder installed in the master bathroom at Sanbashi, his Samurai-style home in Woodside, Calif. Ellison reportedly “auditioned” several boulders, pretending to shower in front of them, before settling on the 30-ton stone that would become his “shower rock.”

Richard Branson’s iPad App: $2.99, Instructions Included. You’ll Need Them.

Richard Branson will hold a press conference in New York this morning to show off “Project,” his new iPad magazine app. But since it’s already live in Apple’s iTunes store, there’s really no need to wait. Pay $3, and you can see for yourself.

Should you? Depends: If you’re into iPad magazine apps, you’ll want to, because it’s a pretty good iPad magazine app, with some interesting deployment of art, video and live Web links. On the other hand, it’s pretty similar to most of the other iPad magazine apps you’ve seen so far.

Except more confusing–the navigation on all of these things changes from app to app, but this one seems even more random. Hence this one-page instruction manual (note to the guy who was confused – yes, this is an actual screenshot):

That said, if you do monkey around with this thing, you’ll find some cool stuff. My favorite so far is an ohmygodlookitathat photo of some nutjob kayaking off a waterfall. This image:

Expands into this image: