iTunes Australia Day Sale
January 26th is approaching fast. Australia Day is the day where we celebrate everything that makes this great country awesome. Apple and more specifically iTunes is having a sale to commemorate the occasion.
“We all know “our land abounds in nature’s gifts but this year it also abounds in music, movies, TV, audiobooks, apps and podcasts. At fair dinkum prices, iTunes has pulled together the best Australia homegrown entertainment to help you celebrate the national holiday and commemorate our local legends. Browse through and make your Australia Day one to remember.”
The reality is your not gunna save much, but hey, if its a couple of dollars that can go towards some drinks or meat for the BBQ, then that’s gotta be a winner.
Panasonic Skype TV demo’d on video
One of the more interesting TV developments coming out of CES is 720p Skype video calls. The video below shows it working on upcoming Panasonic TV’s, what’d be really nice is a solution for those of us who already have HDTVs.
More @ Engadget
TiVo ditches Yahoo7 TV Guide for AJAXy goodness: Genie
One of the nicer features of TiVo is the ability to schedule recordings remotely from any web browser. The TV Guide used for remote scheduling belonged to Yahoo, in association with channel 7. While technically it worked as advertised, the user experience was pretty poor. Slow page load times and far too many screens required to actually make the recording happen. Furthermore there was never any control for season passes, so TV shows had to be set for recording one at a time.
Launched yesterday is a brand new beta for remote scheduling – TiVo Genie. This provides all the functionality a TiVo owner could want. A very slick ajaxy TV guide, quick access to record shows, the ability to add season passes, even A’La Carte choice from upcoming episodes of your favourite shows.
Mobile users also have remote scheduling in their pocket with a mobile-formatted site. Sure, not as nice as a dedicated app, it’s a nice start. It also provides access to search, guide, 1 click record and more.
My only complaint is that TiVo only grabs updates about every hour, so you have to think ahead of time. It’d be nice if the TiVo received a ping from TiVo Genie to grab updated recording information.
Check it out @ http://genie.mytivo.com.au
The old Yahoo7 TV Guide. 
All the stats behind Australian YouTube users
Check out the video below, from YouTube that explains a LOT about the habits of Australian YouTube users. It’s actually a pretty entertaining and informative 4 and a half minutes, I find it ironic that the same can’t be said about most videos on YouTube.
More @ YouTube blog
Revision 3 launch yet another new show – App Judgement
Sure the iPhone app store started the mainstream trend, but almost every mobile platform now has an app store.
Despite this the first episode seems very heavily weighted towards iPhone apps. Not too surprising given it’s popularity.
Patrick Norton’s the host of AppJudgement, and while I usually like Patricks work (like on DL.TV back in the day or HDNation), but this show could really have used a fresh host. Sorry Patrick.
Anyway, if your after mobile app reviews, without spending the money to try them out, check out App Judgement on Revision 3.
Update: Episode 2 is now out and features David Prager as the host, so perhaps we’ll see a rotating roster.
When did NineMSN get a video wall ?
NineMSN and its partners produce a lot of content, more and more often that content is video. So it makes sense that there’s a visual way to navigate all of this content.
Head on over to http://video.ninemsn.com.au/ to check it out for yourself. Simply wait for the “Most Popular” video thumbnails to load, then moving your mouse will pan across the video wall. To view a video, simply click the thumbnail and your watching.
Tip: To get back to the video wall, simply hover over the “Video” graphic in the top left and you’ll see a “Back to HomePage” link.
Thanks to a friendly linker, this morning I was linked to this new-ish site from NineMSN. I’m not sure how long this has been around, if anyone knows, please leave a comment and let me know.
YouTube Channels get a makeover
Whilst YouTube Channels haven’t historically been the most beautifully designed sites in the past, YouTube are beginning to roll out new layouts to users. For those who don’t like change, Google have accommodated with a revert button.
Customisations options are plentiful, yet still reasonably restrictive. There’s some pretty bad template themes to choose from, or you can (and I suggest you do) create your own. The biggest addition is the ability to upload a background image, similar to twitter’s implementation it wraps around your content (see top image).
Overall a welcome change to YouTube channels, if you haven’t checked out the techAU YouTube channel before, then head over to http://youtube.com/techaudottv.
