YouTube transcodes all its videos to WebM / VP8, H.264 still supported
We did know that Google is really in love with WebM since it added support for it and its codec, VP8 in Chrome. Now, Google is ready to take it one step further and begun a huge effort of converting their entire video portfolio (and we have no idea how many terrabytes of data that is – 6 years of uploads to WebM as well. Higher priority will have the files with more views and, like in everything else, the top 10% will get 90% of traffic. Until now, about 30% of the files are already converted through the usage of a cloud video processing infrastructure that can use massively parallel computer networks to spread the converting tasks around. Read more...
IBM Tailors BPM for Small Business
IBM has customized its new BPM (business process management) software to help small and midsized organizations set up their own automated workflows just like big businesses do.
Most BPM tools "are built for thousands of users and to run across multiple servers, and so they can get complex and expensive. This [software] addresses the BPM need in the mid-market," said Ron Kline, an IBM director for marketing to small and midsized businesses. "It fits the need for a midsized company, without it being too lightweight."
The software is based on the recently revamped enterprise BPM software IBM launched earlier this month, called Business Process Manager. Read more...
4 iPhone App Easter Eggs
Everyone loves finding hidden goodies in software--almost as much as developers enjoy putting them there. These "Easter eggs" are mostly for fun, but some might contain useful extra features or options. After digging around on the internet, I've found some of the more interesting Easter eggs in apps that you can currently download on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Kelley Blue Book
If you ever had the desire to browse through the very first Kelly Blue Book, then you are in luck. The Kelly Blue Book app for the iPhone actually has a hidden copy of the 1926 edition of the Kelly Blue Book just waiting to be found.
To get to it, simply open the Kelly Blue Book app. Once on the app homescreen, shake your phone for a bit and a new window will pop up with the 1926 version of the book. To return to the normal app, just press the "Home" icon on the top right corner of the screen. Read more...
Despite Improvements, Data in the Cloud Remains Dirty
Few parts of our lives remain untouched by software in the cloud. From connecting with friends on Facebook to organizing your finances on Mint, these tools are becoming increasingly embedded into our professional and personal lives.
But the seemingly innocuous act of "liking" this article, for example, uses real power--power mostly derived from burning coal.
This was the conclusion of a new study released by Greenpeace this week. The report--part of Greenpeace's "Cool IT" campaign--found that while leading IT companies have made significant improvements in efficiencies throughout their data centers, they continue to derive their energy through carbon-emitting energy sources, primarily coal.
That's good news for small business, which now have the option to purchase cutting-edge cloud-based business applications from among an increasingly robust group of providers, all fighting to make their services cheaper and more user friendly. Read more...
Sony chairman credited with developing CDs dies
As a young man, aspiring opera singer Norio Ohga wrote to Sony to complain about the quality of its tape recorders. That move changed the course of his life, as the company promptly recruited the man whose love of music would shape the development of the compact disc and transform the Japanese electronics maker into a global software and entertainment empire.
Sony's president and chairman from 1982 to 1995, Ohga died Saturday in Tokyo of multiple organ failure, the company said. He was 81.
Ohga's connection to music steered his work. The flamboyant music connoisseur insisted the CD be designed at 12 centimeters (4.8 inches) in diameter to hold 75 minutes worth of music — in order to store Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in its entirety. Read more...
Russia frees software tycoon’s kidnapped son
Russian police on Sunday freed the son of software tycoon Eugene Kaspersky after a five-day kidnap ordeal, ending one of the highest-profile abduction dramas in the country in recent years.
Police officers, agents from the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the special OMON police squad freed Ivan Kaspersky, 20, in the Moscow region, Moscow police spokesman Viktor Birukov told Russian news agencies.
Reports said that officers posing as middlemen who were to hand over a ransom lured the kidnappers into a meeting and then arrested them. Read more...
Chrome notebooks confirmed to be released June/July
You may or may not have seen the news about the Google Chrome production notebooks floating around the web today. Ariotech reports that "Google product manager Sundar Pichai said, Google were still fixing some bugs and improving compatibility with devices such as digital cameras on Chrome OS." and that they expected the company to release the devices during "Summer 2011." Read more...