speak.to

NetFlix is beginning to roll-out a new Watch Now feature that should be available to all subscribers by June. The great thing about this is that it’s included at no additional charge. One hour per month of online viewing is included for each dollar paid in subscription fees. I’m thrilled, my unlimited three-disk plan will give me 18 hours of online viewing per month. The films available to watch online are still limited, but they already have more films than iTunes. It’s also great that you don’t need to rent a specific film, and can use a few minutes of time to preview films before getting them on DVD or switching to something else. It looks to me like NetFlix has just

It received so much news coverage that it’s hard to imagine that anyone didn’t hear about Apple’s introduction of the iPhone, but if you haven’t seen the introduction in Steve Jobs' Macworld keynote, I recommend watching it. The iPhone's interface and multi-touch display are very impressive. It’s already having a big impact; even though it's expensive, there are still lots of questions, and it isn’t available ‘till June.

Ninja knowledge is a funny flash animation about disseminating expert knowledge--or something like that--it shows an expert ninja discussing his web site and his geek ninja webmaster, who is so advanced that he is beyond even web 4.5.

Especially funny if you’ve followed the web 2.0 kerfuffle ...or before you try that to do that.

Someone asked, "What’s web 2.0, why is it so important, and why are folks so upset?" I’ll try to explain. Web 2.0 is not important. In fact, it doesn’t even exist. It’s just a shorthand term that people use to describe up-to-date interactive web sites. That’s all. Lots of folks like O’Reilly and IT@Cork (in Cork, Ireland) have conferences about the web. People are upset because O’Reilly’s partners, CMP, have demanded that IT@Cork change the name of their conference. They are claiming control of all use of the term web 2.0 in the title of any live event. Many folks think that claim is silly and should be withdrawn.

A danish designer stopped people on the streets of New York and Copenhagen to ask what they were thinking right at that moment, and to take their pictures. The result is The Thought Project.

A disturbing but professionally produced hoax commercial has worried Volkswagen. The ad uses the tag line from a real VW ad campaign: Polo. Small but tough. It shows a suicide bomber’s explosion at a sidewalk cafe being contained within the car. An article at snopes.com and the ad itself can be seen at the link above.

Increasingly, companies are using grassroots viral marketing schemes, and individuals are creating unauthorized ads. It can be difficult to determine which ones are actually sanctioned.

The award winning civil rights documentary Eyes on the Prize, which originally aired in 1987 on PBS, is now in limbo due to copyright clearance issues. It can no longer be legally shown in the U.S. This can be a problem for documentary filmmakers when budgets only allow them to buy rights for a limited time. The complexities of licensing required a $65,000 grant just to determine the cost of re-licensing. Wired has written an article about the situation.

A suprising home-brewed video (24mb), lip-synched to the 1983 Peter Schilling revision of the original David Bowie song, includes some disturbing images (that you've seen on the news).

A nice home-brewed iPod ad drew lots of attention recently. After being discussed on several blogs, it was viewed over 37,000 times before Wired wrote this article about the teacher who, as a big fan of the iPod, created the ad and posted it on his web site. Take a look at the ad (11mb) or visit his web site.

Apple stictly controlls their image, an

These are beta services that require invitations. Gmail is Google's beta email service. Orkut is Google's beta social-networking site. Rojo is a news-feed reading service with group moderation. If you're interested in trying these services, just add a comment to this entry requesting an invitation to one or more. I'll send invitations to the email address you used to register here.

No need to Google and beg strange bloggers--I've already done it for you. Hmmm... does that make me a beta whore?