Andy Plesser

Surely one of the big stories at CES has been the introduction of the Palm Pre, a new smartphone.  Earlier today, CNET announced that the device has won the "best of show" for CES 2009. We've embedded a CNET video rave review and a demonstration of the new hand-held by Kent German, mobile phone editor. […]

YouTube has been encouraging aspiring video journalists to post videos to Project Report, a YouTube channel which is part of the expanding role of media and journalism on the mega video sharing site.  The channel is also a revenue generated for YouTube with marquis sponsorships from Sony VAIO and Intel. With the assistance of the […]

During the Inauguration of Barack Obama on Tuesday, Jan. 20, CNN.com Live users will be able to update their own Facebook status directly from the CNN.com Live player; and also see status updates from their friends and other Facebook users on CNN.com Live. On Facebook, the status updates for those using CNN.com Live will be […]

LAS VEGAS, NV — Blu-ray, the new generation of entertainment DVDs, has an interactive component called BD Live. The functionality allows consumers whose television sets are connected to the Web to interact and integrate additional material into their viewing experience. This integrated platform was talked about at the last CES and there have been a […]

We read with interest this weekend’s big interview in TechRadar with Google Sr. VP Marissa on the future of Google.  Good story about her role at Google and how she sees the future of  the company. In September, we interviewed Marissa at the TechCrunch 50 event in San Francisco.  I’ve republished the interview in which […]

Gabe Rivera, the founder and creator of the powerful technology news aggregation site Techmeme, has published a list of the 50 "biggest" stories of 2008.  Michael Arrington, whose site TechCrunch has long lead the Techmeme list of the most popular site on the aggregation site has five of the 50 biggest stories.  The only other […]

Hollywood is still “dawdling” over DRM, film rights and downloadable media, according to a Business Week story by Steven Wildstrom.  In June, I interviewed Sony Pictures CTO Mitch Singer about plans to make motion pictures more easily shared between devices.  We chatted on the Sony lot in Culver City.  I have republished the interview today. […]

In June, YouTube announced a category of content creators called Reporters.  The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization, which has made a decision to place many of its news clips on YouTube, has found a growing audience.  Since it began in March, it has over 12,000 clips up as of today.The AP is finding […]

The networked home might become a bit more networked with the introduction today of HP's updated version of the MediaSmart server for the home.  HP announced the launch of the product today, which is capable of managing data from both PCs and Macs. It connects to an HDTV television set.  Gizmodo has an extended story […]

Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning, writes in The New York Times that the custom-label social network platform has been deployed on 600,000 networks. She is the guest author of the article.  In September, we caught up with Gina on the campus of MIT where she was keynote speaker at the EmTech08 conference.  Handling the interview […]

As video game publishers introduce more games for the iPhone, the device will become an increasingly used video game platform, says Libe Goad, editor-in-chief of AOL's PlaySavvy.com, a popular guide/information portal about video games.  While rudimentary games for the iPhone are popular, such as TapTap, more sophisticated games are coming to the iPhone soon, including […]

The transformation of news consumption is dramatic, as reported recently by the Pew Research Center.  Dan Farber, editor-in-chief of CNET News.com has published an analysis of the study and shares his thoughts on the opportunities for independent content creators in this period of change.  In addition to his post at CNET, Dan was recently named […]

Mediabistro, the New York-based publisher of 13 media-related publications including TVNewser and Agency Spy, as well as job boards and training programs, will launch a new publication to cover the digital media business.  The publication, called WebNewser, is live but will have its official launch in early January. Heading up the new effort is Mediabistro […]

Just about a year ago, Beet.TV broke the news that msnbc.com would be the first television network- affiliated online publisher to allow its videos to be embedded.  That strategy has been adopted by virtually all the U.S. news sites as well as Reuters.  Charlie Tillinghast, president at msnbc.com, told me that instead of sending viewers […]

Most media companies will do deals with YouTube in 2009, ending what has been a confrontational relationship for many, expects Michael Learmonth, staff reporter at Advertising Age and veteran reporter of digital media, having worked for the Industry Standard, Reuters and Variety.  Michael recently blogged for the Silicon Alley Insider.  Michael thinks that the ownership […]

We expect that Kaltura's open source video solution will find increased adoption in 2009.  We have learned that Big Think, a video site of thought leaders, will implement Kaltura's open source video player, allowing users to edit and mix videos. This will happen in January. Today, Kaltura announced the release of its first version for […]

Adobe's Flash platform continues to expand its domination of the world of online video distribution.  Industry researchers say that Flash is on 99 percent of Internet connected desktops in "mature markets."  Since September, some major video publishers moved to Flash including MLB.com, MySpace Music, DirecTV and Sunday Night Football/NBC Sports. At the Beet.TV Online Video […]

VIEQUES, PR — I sure was glad to get out New York early Friday morning just before the snowstorm and get down to Vieques, the Caribbean island just 10 miles off the eastern shore of Puerto Rico.  It's been five years since we discovered the place and nearly four since we've owned our home which we […]

Akamai, the world’s largest content delivery network, a giant network of servers around the globe which streams video for Reuters, MySpace, Metacafe NBC, CBS, CNN, the BBC and many others, is sponsoring Beet.TV for the next 30 days with an exclusive in-stream advertising message running in our 800 clips.  The overlay links to a marketing […]

One of the big software developments of the year was Adobe’s introduction of AIR, a desktop computing environment which marries rich, local applications with the live interactivity of the Web.  Today, the company announced that it has brought its version for Linux out of beta.  It already has AIR for Windows and the Mac. Linux […]