Joost is getting all the attention at the moment - particularly if you’d like a free Joost Token, but this being 2007, and not 1997, it already has a pretty kick-ass rival - Babelgum, started by the founder of IPTV  - Fastweb. The interface is simple to use and elegant. Is this the start of the VideoWeb wars?  Thats all we need, another war

Here’s the blurb from Bablegum:

Babelgum ushers in a new era for television, blending the lean-back experience of traditional TV with the interactive and social power of the Internet.

-Watch in full screen

Babelgum uses cutting-edge peer-to-peer technology to stream video to your PC safely and efficiently at near-TV resolution.

-Make it personal

Create your own TV channels with niche-to-mainstream content from around the world tailored to your interests. As you use it, your TV learns what you like and just gets better.

-Share your views

Discover new content through friends, contacts and people with shared interests, and tell others about the content you love or hate.

Babelgum is creating a whole new medium for viewers, content owners and advertisers. So keep your eyes wide open.

BTW, none of these compare to my preferred TV package: TVUPlayer

You know something loses it’s cool the moment it becomes massive.  Well today Web2.0 lost it’s cool - in a big way.  What made Web2.0 loose it’s groove?  IBM and Lotus Notes - the three words sure to strike fear into any emedia rockstar.  If you’ve ever suffered with Notes as an Email application, you’ll know *excactly* what I’m talking about.  IBM, being IBM, has decided the new edition of Lotus Notes, aka Lotus Connections (ewww) will embrace Web2.0 much the same way your Grandma embraces you with a sloppy one on Xmas eve. 

According to BusinessWeek, Connections wraps five social networking technologies up into one integrated package—similar to what Microsoft’s Office does for traditional desktop productivity software such as Word and Excel. And, if IBM handles this right, its package could rapidly spread the use of so-called Web 2.0 applications in the business world. “While social computing software is perceived as being at the fringe of most large businesses, it’s actually moving to the center fast—because it’s about how the next generation of employees communicate, and create and share ideas,” says Franks Gens, senior vice-president for research at tech market research IDC.

Right then, I’m off, time to move onto something really cool, the Interweb - I’m gonna download it all tonight onto my 5.25″ floppy.

Btw, thought I’d throw in an image of the new PC from IBM, you can download hundreds of kilobytes of data to the green-screen.

Not for the first time, YouTube and it’s master, Google has been warned and sent a not requiring it to remove over 100,000 video images from the site.  Now I’m just a lowly international emedia rockstar, but I know for a fact that if I had a bunch of music or movies on my server, I’d be getting more than a warning, I’d expect the RIAA and MPAA to send the dogs over to my house and demand not only my savings, but my car, my house and my first born.  How does Google/YouTube get away with it, not once, but 3 times - each time for over 100,000 infringements?

Never backward about coming forward, outspoken ex-media maverick Mark Cuban has also weighed in with his thoughts: “Gootube has taken the arrogant position with big media that ‘You can’t stop us … if you want us to (filter infringements of your material), you have to do a deal with us’,” Cuban blogged.

I guess the record/hollywood execs don’t want to piss Google off too much, else we’d be seeing them in court - Napster style. 

Looks like LA Style were about 12 years ahead of the groove -James Brown is now officially dead, and their dance anthem “James Brown is Dead” now works on so many different levels.  If you were dancing your arse off at Bowlers or Shellys in the early 90’s you’d know exactly what I’m talking about.

There’s alot of hype and rumors about Apple’s iPhone - everyone is hoping it’s gonna be a whole lot better than the iTunes phone last year - not that it’ll be hard to beat! In the meantime, Sony is now on thebandwagon as well. Possible 3D renderings of Sony’s future Ericsson Ai cellphone line have been running around the web. There’s a slim candybar and slider version. If these turn out to be the real thing, Motorola and Nokia are going to have some stiff competition in the cellphone market.