Massive free video host YouTube has just announced the pilot program for their paid content channels that went live today.  At a cost of $0.99 a month you can take advantage of popular YouTube channels like Cars.TV, Comedy.TV, and 51 other subscription channels you can check out here. So there you have it. $0.99 a month for 53 subscription YouTube channels. Who’s down with that?

“Starting today, we’re launching a pilot program for a small group of partners that will offer paid channels on YouTube with subscription fees starting at $0.99 per month. Every channel has a 14-day free trial, and many offer discounted yearly rates. For example, Sesame Street will be offering full episodes on their paid channel when it launches. And UFC fans can see classic fights, like a full version of their first event from UFC’s new channel. You might run into more of these channels across YouTube, or look here for a list of pilot channels. Once you subscribe from a computer, you’ll be able to watch paid channels on your computer, phone, tablet and TV, and soon you’ll be able to subscribe to them from more devices.”

Here in the US the education system has been taking a beating and politicized taking the emphasis off the kids who are struggling and placing blame for their apathy and declining GPA’s on budget cuts and disgruntled educators. Somewhere in Duncanville (wherever that is) there is student who has had enough and apparently intended to voice his objections while departing his classroom on what can only be a familiar walk to the principals office. His tirade seemed at first staged and well rehearsed but after listening to it a second time it seems he is more upset than I first thought because it sounds like his voice is cracking towards the end of the video before he walks out.

Take away what you want from this but in any case it is still pretty funny!

You rely on your smartphone for many things. One area that is lacking is integration with your TV watching. At best, the smartphone was used as a simple remote control to change channels. New apps make use of your phone as a search tool and scheduler. Finally, the phone and TV might really work together.

DirecTV Taps Into Your Phone

This summer, DirecTV will release into beta its latest app, DirecTV Voice. They have been working with Nuance, creators of Dragon Naturally Speaking, to create a voice controlled app to search DirecTV channels for your favorite shows. Their goal is to finally get rid of scrolling through the program grid displayed on the TV screen to find programs.

By using voice recognition, they are trying to also get away from pushing buttons or sliding through nested menus. Nuance is the county’s premier voice recognition specialists so they plan this release to have a high rate of success with this voice-driven application. Think of it as Siri with infinite knowledge of TV shows and movies.

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Kristofer Brozio: testfreaks.com: AT&T HTC One Not Quite Compatible with HTC Media Link HD (Yet)

Marti Meyers: Ugh.

Jim Szymanski: I’ll say it again, and again, and again if need be. HTC makes some great hardware, but every one of their software engineers should get booted today. They are destroying the reputation of a good company. And when a software problem is detected, it takes a new HTC model to get it fixed. HTC could take some pointers from Nokia in the software development area. Make sure it works before you release it. And if despite that, there is still a problem, drop everything and focus all your attention on the current issue, for your current customers. Not for those who may buy your next One.

Murani Lewis: I seriously don’t understand how some people come to secure such positions and miss such obvious things. These are the types of things that simply require common sense to be caught and fixed.

Ramon Trotman: Sense…. Muahahahaaaa…. I see what you did just there.

Marti Meyers: Haha that was totally unintentional. But now funny

Comment now if you got the HTC One from AT&T!

There is no doubt that iOS is in desperate need of upgrading. It has been around too long in it’s current state. Android and more specifically Windows Phone have a much more intuitive and modern look. Apple even borrowed some of Androids notification goodness in iOS 5. Now it seems that Apple may borrow some of Microsoft’s Metro UI flava for it’s own in the upcoming release of iOS 7. 9to5Mac is stating that multiple sources are claiming the new interface and general design will be “very, very flat”. While other sources are stating that the new design "loses all signs of gloss, shine and skeumorphism"

Jony Ive, who is now in charge of the iOS design team is said to favor the Metro minimalistic style and bring elements of that UI into Apple’s new UI that should be previewed at the WWDC 2013. Macrumors has a pretty cool mockup of the new UI and I can already tell you I am not a fan. What makes the “flat” style work on Windows Phones is that it is now tunable to your own desire by being able to make the truly live tiles bigger or smaller and move them around at will.

If these formerly called icons could be more like Android widgets and have the scalability of Windows Phone I think it would be more of a hit. It is also being stated that the "new panels [that] swipe from the left and right side of an iOS device’s display."

So it could very well possibly be that iOS 7 falls flat in a good way, but Apple better have something more up it’s sleeve than the mocked up image or it could find it’s not so shiny new UI falling flat in a bad way.

Stephen Mesik: Outlook blog: Skype comes to Outlook.com

Robert H: I will never use Skype again. Malware is running like wildfire on Skype. PCMag: New Malware Propagates on Skype, Mines Bitcoins

Ramon Trotman: How? What’s the process to get infected?

Robert H: Most Skype malware is by clicking links like in Facebook but there is one virus (worm) is by drive by…..meaning you are talking to a friend and the friend has the virus on their machine…..then the worm will jump to your pc. Let me get the name of the worm and will send a new reply. Securelist: An avalanche in Skype

Doug Simmons: I hear that the Chinese version of Skype has awesome extra features including neat tricks whereby if you say one of a few thousand key words relating to topics of dubious intrigue, like tankman, BBC News, human rights,  HTC, Tibet and so forth, you’ll automatically get red flagged and enter a contest to meet awesome agents of the government for an exciting mysterious adventure, brought to you by Redmond (though they blush and try not to take the credit for the work of their pals in the Hong Kong office, noting they must comply with laws and yada yada). Microsoft / Skype has gone four years (since it was published in the WSJ and many other publications) without having patched a vulnerability that lets anyone easily figure out and track the IPs and locations of any Skype user whether their signed on or not. What’s up with that?

Matt Anderson: Unpublished feature. ;-)

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, you know those folks with all the cool toys like  particle accelerators and detectors, hold the distinction of having the first web address on the internet. Also known as CERN, they made the first website live in 1991 but it wasn’t until April 30th 1993 that the “www” technology was made widely available for royalty-free. CERN has located a copy of the website from 1992 and has put it back up using the original web address:

http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

It is a pretty simple page (Simmons would be proud) with some basic text and links to various information.

Read here for more on the webs first URL.

Looks like another leak has emerged regarding the new Xbox slated to be “Revealed”  on May 21st. This rumor, not the first, has to do with what the new name will be for the Xbox. It had been speculated that it would be called the 720, but sources on Reddit have now named it Infinity with some obtained images. I will say that Infinity sounds a lot better than 720 but enough about the names, let’s just hurry up and get to May 21st so we can see the new Xbox first hand!

[read]

The popular Android personal assistant has not come to the iPad and iPhone but I don’t look for it to replace Siri anytime soon. Even though I have a love hate relationship with Siri there is a deeper integration that with Google Search which is where Google Now is buried. First thing is to fire up your iOS device and head to iTunes and either download or update Google Search. Once downloaded and you fire it up, the Google Search screen is pretty boring. At the bottom of the screen there are some notifications that you can lift up (swipe) and will display multiple cards. The cards will appear based off your location results and selections for example with sports and teams. When you are done with a card you can swipe it the heck out of there. Which is kind of neat. I’m still working with Google Now for iPad but so far I am pretty underwhelmed and the Android experience with Google Now is much better.

Mark your calendars because Tuesday May 21st Microsoft will reveal the Xbox! Even better news is that live from the Xbox Campus, Microsoft will globally stream the event on Xbox.com. It will also be broadcast on Spike TV in the US and Canada.

On Tuesday May 21st, we’ll mark the beginning of a new generation of games, TV and entertainment. On that day, we’ll be holding a special press event on the Xbox campus and we invite you to join us via the live global stream that will be available on Xbox.com, Xbox LIVE and broadcast on Spike TV if you are in the US or Canada.

On that day, we’ll share our vision for Xbox, and give you a real taste of the future. Then, 19-days later at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, we’ll continue the conversation and showcase our full lineup of blockbuster games.

We are thrilled to pull back the curtain and reveal what we’ve been working on

It has been a long wait and rumors like all things in the tech industry have been floating around for some time now. Whether it will be called the Xbox 720 or just plain Xbox. All things will be revealed on Tuesday May 21st so stay tuned!

[via Major Nelson]