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Back in August, we covered a really cool iPhone app that can dynamically curate and customize your RSS feed called my6sense. The app improves the standard RSS paradigm by filtering and recommending articles in your feeds based on stuff you have read, liked and shared in the past.

Today, the latest version of the app (version 1.11 — update your app if you already have it) is introducing something called mytweetsense, which takes those same technologies and applies them to your Twitter stream.

So much great content is shared through Twitter that many users use the service as their go-to place for information, news and recommendations. The only problem, of course, is that separating relevant content from the mix of other tweets can be a tedious process.

On the desktop, you have apps like HootSuite and Tweet Deck and Seesmic Desktop to help process things more easily. If you want to get a good idea as to what your Twitter content is actually sharing (rather than just text links), sites like Redux can visualize the content.

But what about when you’re on the go and using your mobile device? This is where the mytweetsense addition to my6sense becomes absolutely brilliant.

Using the same “Digital Intuition” technology that was applied to the RSS feed, mytweetsense helps you instantly see what a tweet is linking to. That means that when a link to an article is tweeted, you can read the brief RSS summary, and when a YouTube video or TwitPic image is posted, you can see the image or video right inside my6sense.

Mytweetsense will adjust what it shows you and how it ranks different tweets based on what you view and share. The more you use the service, the more accurate it becomes. You can view your stream by relevance or time. You can also save items to your personal stream or share them with friends via Twitter, Facebook or e-mail.

You can also import your Facebook and LinkedIn streams and interact with them in much the same way as you can your Twitter links.

After playing with the service on my Twitter feed, I was totally impressed with the accuracy and the features. If you use Twitter as your go-to source for information, the mytweetsense aspect of my6sense might just be the best iPhone app around for drilling through tons of content and finding the best info.

You can download my6sense [iTunes link] for free from the app store.

Reviews: Facebook, HootSuite, LinkedIn, Seesmic Desktop, Twitpic, Twitter, YouTube

Tags: aggregation, facebook, iphone, my6sense, mytweetsense, relevance, twitter

Recently, AT&T has been vocally combating Verizon’s ad campaign by using semantics and Luke Wilson to paint their competitor’s 3G network as inferior. Now, Ralph de la Vega, chief executive of AT&T Mobility, is taking on a new opponent: customers.

De la Vega has come out to candidly admit that wireless coverage in Manhattan and San Francisco is, as most customers already know, subpar (but, they’re working on it). However, while discussing efforts to improve the AT&T experience in those cities, de la Vega also insinuated that the carrier could start treating some customers differently, with different pricing plans that financially reward or penalize based on data usage.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that heavy smartphone users only represent about 3 percent of the customer base, but their mobile activities are accounting for 40 percent of data traffic. That imbalance is disconcerting to AT&T, and they’re going to do everything in their power — reportedly inline with net-neutrality and FCC regulations — to, as de la Vega says, “keep those subscribers from hampering the experience for everyone else.”

So what will AT&T do to curtail their users? Apparently de la Vega is considering offering these data hogs (i.e. me) incentives to alter their mobile consumption rates. The incentives sound more like a warning:

“Many customers don’t know how much bandwidth they’re consuming, Mr. de la Vega added. When AT&T conducted a broadband test, customers often reduced their data use. Longer-term, he said, a pricing scheme based on usage is likely, though it will be determined by industry competition and regulatory guidelines.”

Although the details are vague, we can’t imagine iPhone owners, who are the most likely culprits here, will be keen on de la Vega’s “incentives.”

Tags: att, ralph de la vega

As the news industry looks to reconstruct its suffering business model, the journalists of today must reconstruct their skill sets for the growing world of online media. Because of cutbacks at many news organizations, the jobs available are highly competitive. News companies are seeking journalists who are jacks of all trades, yet still masters of one (or more).

2010 will likely be a time of transition as today’s journalists catch up to learn the multimedia, programming, social media, and business skills they’ll need to tell their stories online. These new skills are especially relevant to startups that are looking to hire multi-skilled and social media-savvy journalists. Below we’ve gathered some skills that are quickly becoming basic requirements for the journalist of tomorrow. These skills are presented in no particular order.

1. Entrepreneurial and Business Savvy

As the foundation of the longstanding business model crumbles, both new and experienced journalists are becoming entrepreneurial and starting their own publications. They are creating the “future of journalism today” by starting publications like Cody Brown’s online-only NYULocal, (which covers New York University and has had months that got more Web traffic than the school newspaper Web site) or David Cohn who started the community-funded reporting site Spot.Us.

The journalist of tomorrow will have to understand the value of content and how the business model is changing, said Steve Buttry, C3 innovation coach at Gazette Communications. They will have to understand how to pursue commercial opportunities relating to the content.

2. Programmer

To better transition to online journalism, news organizations are looking for programmer/journalists. These are people whose programming skills can enhance their storytelling or reporting, and typically combine the use of HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, ActionScript3 and Python skills.

This means being able to report and present a quality story using multimedia, and having the skills to build and manage the platforms that present the stories. Creating Flash visualizations and building interactives that clearly display data are all key elements of online journalism.

3. Open-minded Experimenter

The challenge for new journalists will be a shift in mindset from control and content to openness and connectivity with audiences, said Alfred Hermida, Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

Hermida also says that though storytelling across multiple platforms will be important, the key will be to understand the strengths and weaknesses of different media so that the best one may be utilized for each story.

This also means being a learner that can spot trends and understand what new technology can do, according to Michele McLellan, a media consultant who blogs for the Knight Digital Media Center on news innovation. The journalist of tomorrow should be willing to experiment with new tools, not be afraid of them.

4. Multimedia Storyteller

Today, many journalists need to have multimedia skills to tell stories through video, text, graphics, audio and photos. Former photographers and reporters are picking up video cameras and audio recorders to create a multimedia experience for readers. Online video viewing is growing, and news startups like FLYP Media and DNAinfo are building their newsrooms around multimedia journalists. There are many resources out there for journalists to learn these skills, and many of the skills can be self-taught.

One of the best ways to learn is through hands-on experience by starting a video blog. Experiment with free multimedia apps like live streaming from your mobile using Qik, or podcasting with free sites like BlogTalkRadio. If you have some money to invest, buy a camera that takes quality photos and shoots video.

5. The Social Journalist and Community Builder

The new journalist will be a social journalist. This means engaging with your audience, promoting content and building personal brands as a thought leader. Social media increasingly focuses credibility on individual journalists as opposed to the news organization. Mathew Ingram, Communities Editor at the Globe and Mail, said that future journalists will have the ability to find and connect with communities of interest both online and offline.

Though right now, this role is often being filled by specialized community managers and social media editors. Ingram said that in the long term, every reporter should become their own community manager.

Journalists of tomorrow will also have new beats. Typically, this has involved covering a specific subject, topic or community. The new journalist will have what Ingram calls “virtual beats.”

This means building, communicating and engaging with communities online. Kevin Sablan, Web leader at the Orange County Register, said that journalists of tomorrow will spend more time “pounding the pavement” in online social spaces.

Matt Thompson, interim Online Community Manager for the Knight Foundation, said he thinks technological skills are secondary to the core desire to provide community in formats they can connect with.

6. Blogger and Curator

To be a social journalist and one that engages in online communities, journalists will have to practice blogging regularly and serve as curators of other content on the Web.

Journalists of tomorrow will be participating in the link economy by gathering, synthesizing and making sense of other content across the Web. We’ve mentioned this before as a crucial factor in the survival of newspapers. Journalists can curate the Web using tools like Publish2, Twitter, StumbleUpon, and other social bookmarking and sharing tools.

And with 86,000 print publishing workers laid off in the last year, there is some good potential for blogging to increase. But that’s not to say that only unemployed journalists should blog. Blogging should be done within organizations as well. This allows journalists to lend a personal tone to their company and connect with audiences. It will also help them build personal brands that they can carry beyond their current news organization.

Carrie Brown-Smith, Assistant Professor of Journalism at the University of Memphis, said that there is a growing body of research that suggests writing with “voice” — writing that is more analytical and has personality — versus the traditional authoritative style has credibility in online contexts.

“While not necessarily surprising, TV news anchors long had more credibility than newspaper journalists because viewers could see them and felt like they knew them. This is something I think news organizations are not yet grasping and exploring as they should,” Brown-Smith said.

There are many free platforms available to bloggers. Sites like Posterous and Tumblr offer straightforward posting options, while sites like Wordpress and Google’s Blogger are highly customizable and offer various social media integration tools.

7. Multi-skilled

Because of the difficult job market, Robert Quigley, Social Media Editor at the Austin American-Statesman, said that journalists no longer have the luxury of focusing just on one skill set. Journalists will need to have a combination of the skills mentioned, along with the fundamentals that have been taught for years.

“The most valuable journalist will know how to use social media tools, can edit and shoot video, can write a good headline, understands a little about html or programming or databases,” Quigley said. “Ideally, he or she can write a great SEO-friendly headline and understands why that’s important, knows how to write a sharp blog post and understands the value in interaction with the community.”

It sounds overwhelming, but it is becoming truer than ever.

8. Fundamental Journalism Skills

Though journalists are morphing into renaissance men and women with multi-layered skill sets, the fundamental skills of journalism will never be replaced. Skills like good writing, ethics, news judgment, investigation and verification will always be important, Buttry from Gazette Communications said. Brown-Smith said that it will be a marriage between core values and new media skills.

These fundamental skills will be more important than ever as audiences search for credibility on the Web.

What skills do you find to be the most relevant to journalism in the social media age? Please share them in the comments below.

More journalism resources from Mashable:

- 10 Ways Journalism Schools Are Teaching Social Media
- The Journalist’s Guide to Twitter
- Why NPR is the Future of Mainstream Media
- Social Journalism: Past, Present, and Future
- Everything I Need to Know About Twitter I learned in J School
- 10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, jgroup

Reviews: PHP, Posterous, SEO, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, Twitter, WordPress, iStockphoto

Tags: journalism, Journalist, journalists, List, Lists, social journalism

You know how your mother told you never to stand in front of the microwave? Well, pretty soon it will be basically impossible to ignore its siren call.

Apparently, two researchers at Keio University in Japan have developed a super cool food-zapper, the Castoven, that doubles as an entertainment system, streaming a random YouTube video that runs however long it takes to nuke that Lean Cuisine you plan on slurping down tonight.

Although the concept is essentially a thesis project, it does postulate an exciting/terrifying future in which media is integrated into every aspect of our lives. First we got commercials in cabs, then Pandora in our cars and now “The Pink Glove Dance” preceding our oatmeal.

Here’s hoping that this new invention comes with some kind of content filter — I’m not sure that I want to take in vomit ads before consuming my daily veggie burger. Check out the future after the jump.

What do you all think? Would you buy one of these suckers?

Reviews: Pandora, YouTube

Tags: castoven, keio university, pandora, youtube

Numerous Twitter users are reporting a peculiar bug this morning: random SMS messages of tweets from users that they don’t follow.

Some are even saying they don’t have mobile notifications turned on, period, but are receiving the unwanted texts anyway (you can enable SMS alerts for specific users).

While probably just a nuisance to most, keep in mind that unless you have an unlimited text messaging plan, tweets do count against you, so it’s a problem that potentially has at least some minor financial ramifications attached.

The bug has hit our own Jennifer Van Grove, who says she’s been receiving the unwanted tweets since Monday, and Twitter search indicates that it’s been an ongoing issue for others as well. No word yet from Twitter on the cause, but we’ll update when we learn more.

Here, Jenn highlights the tweets she’s receiving via text message from users she doesn’t have notifications turned on for:

If you’re experiencing the issue, let us know what’s happening in the comments.

Update: Jon Burg offers an interesting possibility – that this isn’t necessarily a bug, but rather the new retweet system in play. For example, if someone you have notifications turned on for retweets using the new system, it could appear as a tweet from a stranger via SMS. That still wouldn’t explain why users who claim to have notifications turned off completely are receiving the messages though. More to come …

Update #2: Twitter writes on their status blog that “Some users are seeing tweets (that aren’t retweets) from users they do not follow. We have a Known Issues page with more information and we are working on fixing the underlying cause.”

Reviews: Twitter

Tags: twitter

Firefox is one of the biggest players in the desktop browsing space, but when it comes to browsing the Web from a mobile device, Mozilla hasn’t made the leap. That’s all going to change soon, as the first version of Firefox Mobile (previously known by its codename Fennec) is being prepped for release by the end of the year.

Nokia’s new N900 will be the first phone able to run Firefox Mobile. The N900 runs on the Linux-based Maemo operating system, and already ships with a lightweight browser based on Mozilla’s Gecko layout engine.

First Release Candidate Expected Next Week

CNET quotes Mozilla’s VP of Mobile Jay Sullivan as saying: “Our goal is to have a release candidate next week. If things go smoothly, we’ll have a (final) version out in the next few weeks”

Current N900 owners can download the latest version of the beta by visiting Mozilla.com/m on their devices. Nokia doesn’t plan on shipping the N900 with Firefox Mobile, at least right now — but is open to including it in the next version of the Maemo OS, due sometime in Q3 2010.

You can check out Firefox Mobile in action in this video:

Extensions and Other Platforms

Although most latest-generation smartphones are powered by WebKit-based browsers (this includes Safari Mobile on the iPhone and Android’s browser), the big draw that some users might see with Firefox Mobile is its shared codebase with the Firefox desktop browser. Both Firefox Mobile and the upcoming Firefox 3.6 are based on the same underlying code. This means that plug-ins like Mozilla’s Weave can synchronize bookmarks, passwords and open tabs across browsers — both mobile and desktop.

For extension addicts, Firefox Mobile for the N900 can run many of the same extensions as its desktop counterpart. AdBlock Plus is one of about 30 currently available.

The Mozilla and Nokia teams have worked together to create tight integration between Firefox and the N900 platform, but Maemo isn’t the only planned platform.

The Windows Mobile version of Firefox Mobile is in the alpha testing stage, with the final version expected sometime in the first half of 2010. Mozilla is also actively developing an Android version of Firefox Mobile, but the due date for Firefox’s arrival on Android seems pretty far off.

Firefox Mobile has slightly higher hardware requirements than WebKit-based browsers, so we should expect to start seeing it extend to other devices as development — and technology — progresses.

The Future

Mozilla has big plans for Firefox Mobile, including support for JetPack and WebGL.

Firefox Mobile is a project with high aspirations. How well it succeeds will be dependent on how much support it can gather from the community and how many device manufacturers are open to embracing an alternative to WebKit.

For consumers, whether you end up using Firefox Mobile or not, we see this development as a good thing. Innovation is often best spurred by competition, and it’s nice to see WebKit get some mobile push-back.

What do you think about Firefox Mobile?

Reviews: Adblock Plus, Android, Firefox, iPhone, linux

Tags: Fennec, Firefox, firefox for mobile, firefox mobile, mozilla, N900

HootSuite bills itself as a professional client, and in the past year they’ve rolled out a number of features that make it a well-rounded Web application, complete with with Twitter Lists, statistics, multiple user/account management and brand monitoring for Twitter.

Tomorrow, the company’s iPhone app will make its debut in the app store, bringing the features that help consolidate and enhance your Twitter workflow to your mobile phone.

According to the announcement, HootSuite for iPhone will be available at 9 a.m. EST. The application will boast support for Twitter analytics, multiple accounts, scheduling tweets in advance, Twitter Lists, Twitter trends and accompanying explanations, photo sharing and even file sharing.

Since the app isn’t live yet, we can’t say whether the experience will be better than user favorites like Tweetie 2 and TweetDeck. If it’s as fast as it is robust in feature set, however, it could be the next killer iPhone app for Twitter.

Watch this video to see HootSuite for iPhone in action.

Reviews: HootSuite, TweetDeck, Twitter, tweetie

Tags: hootsuite, iphone, iphone application, twitter

As we reported last week, Ben Stiller is out with a new charity campaign called Stillerstrong and is looking to drive awareness to it through social media.

Part of the strategy naturally involves viral videos starring the actor, and today Stiller’s revisiting a past online success and asking the omnipresent Ryan Seacrest to retweet Stillerstrong to his 2.6 million followers.

The result is another amusing video, including a cameo by Robert De Niro and the suggestion of a blockbuster co-starring Stiller and Seacrest. Check it out:

Seacrest is yet to oblige (the video just went up 30 minutes ago), but if you’d like to support Stillerstrong, which is raising money to build schools in Haiti, you can go retweet Stiller yourself.

Tags: ben stiller, charity, ryan seacrest, social media

We’ve known that a major privacy overhaul has been in the works for some time at Facebook, and last week a letter from founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg let everyone know that changes were imminent.

Today, the company plans to start asking all 350 million of its users to review and update their settings as they roll out the new simplified privacy interface.

While Facebook’s spinning the changes largely as being about making things easier for users (which is true; the current privacy settings are enormously complex if you care to dive in), it’s also all about encouraging them to share more stuff publicly by letting them choose an “everyone” option each time they post something.

That will be key for Facebook becoming as valuable as Twitter in the realm of real-time search, where both are now integrated in Google. Although it has many times more users than Twitter, to date, most Facebook data remains private and, hence, inaccessible to search engines. We’ll see how that starts to change after today.

See Also: Facebook’s New Privacy Features – A Complete Guide

Reviews: Facebook, Twitter

Tags: facebook, trending

Yes, it happened: Live video streaming has come to the iPhone courtesy of Ustream.

In a move that many suspected would never happen — surely the carriers would loathe the increased data usage resulting from such apps — Apple has approved the Ustream Live Broadcaster application, bringing live streaming video straight from the iPhone to the uStream Web site and any embedded players posted around the Web.

The app works on 3G and Wi-Fi connections, supports yes/no polling of viewers, displays chatroom messages, serves up a viewer count, can transmit your location via GPS and allows you to adjust the resolution. Oh, and did we mention it’s absolutely free?

Suffice to say, this looks to be a killer app, and it’s worth giving a spin if you’d like to post live video from your iPhone. It’s available in the iTunes store here.

[via Techcrunch]

Tags: iphone, live video, ustream

For some people, a fancy new smartphone isn’t enough; they want to get into the belly of the beast and customize to their heart’s content. Hence, the popularity of jailbreaking iPhones to add unapproved apps and use an alternative network.

That hacker’s mentality has now extended to the Droid, with one smart modder announcing that he has gained root access to the device’s firmware, permitting administrative rights and opening up a slew of possibilities. The modder, who goes by the name Cyanogen, posted rooting instructions to the Alldroid message boards.

What can you do with root access? Wired has some ideas: “A person will be able to download widgets that allow them to overclock their processor or install themes that dramatically change the appearance of their phone. Cyanogen offers custom builds that truly customize a device and provides easy access to hidden features.”

Whether it’s smart to root your Droid is questionable though; if you’re not the hacking type, you could easily break your phone’s functionality. Verizon and Motorola won’t approve either. It’s likely you’ll void your service agreements by doing so. In short: There are very strong reasons not to do this, but for some the desire to tinker will be much too great.

Disclosure: Motorola and Verizon are Mashable sponsors.

Reviews: Mashable

Tags: droid root

Twitter apps are about to get a lot more exciting. All our favorite Twitter tools, from iPhone apps to Web apps and beyond, have so far been limited by the fact that developers only have access to a specific set of data, not the full “firehose” of tweets being created.

That’s about to change. Twitter announced today at LeWeb conference in Paris that the firehose will be made available to all developers in “early 2010″. This would give ordinary coders the same access to data that Google and Bing have, and create a platform for even greater innovation. Twitter’s Director of Platform Ryan Sarver said the firehose would be monetized via revenue sharing with partners, although did not provide details.

Combined with the launch of Google Real-time, the move could restart Twitter’s formerly rapid growth, which many say has flatlined over recent months.

[via VentureBeat]

Reviews: Bing, Google, Twitter

Tags: trending, twitter

TIME has published its top 10 of everything 2009, and the winner in the gadgets category is a relative newcomer: the Droid.

The Motorola phone on the Verizon network is a great device on the best network, TIME argues, making it the obvious choice despite being new to the market.

TIME writes:

Droid is a hefty beast, a metal behemoth without the gloss and finish of the iPhone, but you don’t miss it. The Droid’s touchscreen is phenomenally sharp and vivid, it has an actual physical (not great, but good enough) keyboard, and, best of all, the Droid is on Verizon’s best-of-breed 3G network.

We tend to agree; the Droid is a fantastic phone and a poster child for Google’s Android OS. Nonetheless, it’ll seem a lot less appealing next year if the iPhone finally comes to Verizon. We still think the iPhone is a superior phone, albeit on an inferior network.

Disclosure: Motorola and Verizon are Mashable sponsors.

Reviews: Google, Mashable, iPhone

Tags: droid, motorola droid, verizon droid

Google’s thirst for speed is unquenchable, it seems: Google Chrome (now on Mac, too) aims to make Web browsing faster, while Google Site Performance helps webmasters speed up their Web sites. Meanwhile, Google’s SPDY is a plan to make the Web itself faster.

Now Google is at it again, launching Speed Tracer, a Google Chrome extension that lets developers track the performance of their apps and make them faster. Speed Tracer’s Sluggishness Graph plots events and helps you to pinpoint what’s slowing down your app.

It’s a developer tool rather than one for general Web users, but we’ll all benefit — a faster Web is a lot more fun to use.

Reviews: Google, Google Chrome

Tags: google speed tracer

For fans of imeem and other third party music services that made use of its API, the future isn’t looking too bright. Since announcing the acquisition of the struggling music startup in mid-November, MySpace has apparently seen fit to effectively shut it down completely, according to CNet. The once standalone imeem.com site and personal profiles now all point to MySpace Music, which seems like quick work considering the deal was only finalized earlier today.

The free imeem mobile app for iPhone and Android, although still technically available in the iTunes Store and Android Market respectively, is likewise nonfunctional until MySpace pushes out an update. It’s “disabled momentarily” until MySpace can relaunch the app with their own licenses and features — which means there’s also no telling how long it will take or what changes might accompany the new version.

MySpace’s press release says they have plans to restore access to the playlists users have created at imeem, and have added material to their FAQ to reflect that goal. You’ll need to register a MySpace account with the same e-mail address you used to sign up with imeem, and we assume this would be valid for either new account creations or adding an e-mail address to your existing MySpace account (we’ve inquired with MySpace for confirmation). Still, it’s cold comfort for fans of imeem who had built up a large number of playlists and spent time on their personal profiles.

Developers: No API For You

ReadWriteWeb also notes that third-party services that once made use of imeem’s relatively robust API are also in danger. The creator of Twitter music app twt.fm that relied on imeem’s API posted on his blog about the unexpected pulling out of the imeem API rug from underneath third-party developers. Some users are reportedly also complaining of problems with blip.fm, another Twitter-like social music DJ platform making use of imeem’s API.

It’s a bit of a given that there can be some attendant fallout during an acquisition. Still, the silent treatment MySpace appears to be giving to the imeem developer community is troublesome. It also creates a deeper cause for concern over the online music space in general, given how wildly successful open API ecosystems have been in other realms around the Web (think Twitter and Flickr, just to name a couple of heavyweights). It’s hard to imagine MySpace — owned ultimately up the food chain by the same man who’s threatening to close off his content sites from Google — wholeheartedly embracing the open ethos and busting out an accessible streaming API. Right now the MySpace Developer Platform is much like Facebook’s: Third parties can build apps on top of it, but they exist inside the MySpace ecosystem and aren’t independent entities.

It will be interesting to see how this will play out both for imeem’s user community, developer community and the online music space as a whole. Let us know your predictions in the comments.

Reviews: Android, Android Market, Blip.fm, Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Twitter, iPhone

Tags: APIs, app ecosystems, apps, blip.fm, developers, imeem, music, myspace, online music

Today marks the launch of a new premium content portal experience, with Universal Music and Google teaming up on the VEVO service. Like Hulu before it, VEVO is another significant marker in the “premium,” a.k.a. “produced by professionals,” content space, this time specifically for music videos. Perhaps its closest analogue is Myspace Music Videos, another high-profile content collection from major labels backed by an already popular social network.

With the recent news that VEVO would integrate Last.fm, it’s clear that major mainstream media companies are finally jumping in full swing to bring their content online. It took a lot of time, love and tenderness for major labels and studios to get on board with the iTunes digital download model — and remember that when that first happened everything was slathered in digital rights management (DRM). It’s taken even longer for mainstream media to warm up to the idea of DRM-free MP3s and now, streaming content.

Disintermediating the Media

There’s a great word to describe what’s been happening to traditional media as the Internet increasingly becomes the go-to place to find cool content: disintermediation. Whereas once the pipes that delivered content were almost wholly owned and locked down by a handful of major media interests in almost every corner (music, film, television, books), now the traditional landscape is being upended by a plethora of new sources to find great stuff produced in large part by unknown creators.

On the flip side of that process, mainstream media companies are picking up on increasingly fragmented audiences and realizing they need to get their content online and in front of the eyeballs they once reached elsewhere. At the same time, companies like Google who invested in user-generated content sites like YouTube early on are realizing the value of “premium” content to increase revenue and attract even more audience share.

Enter premium content destination sites like Hulu, Myspace Music Videos and now, VEVO. It’s a sensible attempt on the part of Google to further one of the bigger problems it’s been trying to solve for the past few years: fully realize the revenue potential of YouTube. It’s also an acknowledgement on the part of the megalithic companies who own vast media verticals that even if the revenue model isn’t entirely on par with legacy distribution and licensing channels, they simply have to make some sort of play online and, if nothing else, figure it all out as they go along. And increasingly, they’re banding together in unprecedented partnerships to do it.

Business Models: Ads, Freemium and Subscription

VEVO, like Hulu and MySpace Music Videos, is embracing a free to stream, advertising-supported model. It’s the model YouTube itself has used since its beginnings and seems committed to optimizing and “make it work.” Still, it’s not the only model in town; both freemium and subscription models seem to be making their own headway in the premium content space as well.

Take the recent launch of MOG All Access as an example of subscription-style plays. Right now the $5-a-month service only covers all-you-can-eat streaming via the Web, but mobile support is promised to arrive very soon. Spotify is a currently Europe-only equivalent experiment in subscription music services, and aims to launch in the U.S. whenever it too can convince the labels to get on board.

In the freemium music realm we have Pandora with its Pandora One service ($3 a month for unlimited streaming after you hit your 40 hours of free listening), and Last.fm, whose $3 a month fee nets you uninterrupted listening (the free version will periodically play video ads), ad-free site services, a view of recent profile visitors and a special demarcation on your avatar as a subscriber.

Assuming the larger content portals can make complete advertising support work out (which still appears to be an open question), there seems to be no reason to imagine all three models couldn’t co-exist indefinitely. After all, lunch buffets haven’t put entrees out of business. Consumers approach music (and other forms of content) from different perspectives and levels of interest. If you only buy a few albums a year, you’ll probably be satisfied with an iTunes-style “own your collection” model and/or the occasional streaming session. If you’re a music buff who loves staying on top of every new release in your favorite genres, then shelling out a few bucks a month for a great streaming and playlisting experience starts to sound rather attractive.

Now that VEVO is live (and seems to be getting hit hard with traffic — it’s actually been up again, down again since it first went live), let us know your impressions of the new service once you can successfully access it. Overall, what are your favorite content sites and services in the online music sphere?

Reviews: Google, Hulu, Last.fm, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube

Tags: Google, music, online music, premium content, universal music, vevo, youtube

If bargain movie rentals are your thing, then you’ve probably already happened on those bright red self-service kiosks that dispense movie rentals at a ridiculously low price of a $1 per movie per night.

The company is called Redbox, and while their service is an entertainment hit with consumers (they have 19 percent share of DVD rentals), they’ve attracted the ostentatious indignation of studios who are feeling the pinch of major declines in movie sales.

Now new research, embedded below, from the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. (LAEDC) further paints Redbox as the enemy of the entertainment industry. Data estimates that Redbox’s discounted movie prices will cost the entertainment industry $1 billion in revenue and account for 9,280 jobs lost.

Is Redbox Really the Enemy?

We previously reported that studios were trying to force the hand of Redbox and Netflix to delay new release rentals by 30 days. While Netflix ponders the option, Redbox is suing many of the major studios who refuse to sell them their DVDs. The battle wages on, with some reports indicating that Redbox buys its DVDs from Walmart. If the data from the study can be trusted, we now have further insight into why the struggle is building up to be a battle to the death.

The LAEDC paints a picture of doom and gloom. From the report:

“In the event that new releases are available in Redbox kiosks at street date, there will be erosion of retail revenues. Additionally, to the extent that consumers substitute away from higher-priced rentals to lower-cost rentals, there will be erosion of rental revenues. While the magnitude of the revenue loss is difficult to disentangle from the myriad factors threatening this revenue stream, we estimate overall industry revenues of $1 billion or more will be foregone.

For each $1 billion of revenue in the domestic home video industry, the motion picture industry earns $520 million. Using the motion picture industry in Southern California as representative of overall industry activity, an extra $520 million in industry revenue would translate into direct, indirect and induced economic activity, including:

- At least $1,493 million in economic output (as measured by business revenues)

- At least 9,280 jobs with annual earnings of almost $395 million, of which at least
2,290 would be in motion picture and sound recording industries with earnings of at least $109 million

- Up to $35.4 million in contributions to health and welfare funds for guild and
union members, the majority of which would occur in union plans for below-the-line
employees

- Over $30 million of tax revenues at state, county and local levels.”

As NewTeeVee poignantly points out, the organization behind the study has a vested interest in growing the job market in the Los Angeles area, which could highlight their bias. The LAEDC also admits that other factors, such as the economic client and digital downloads, could have contributed to their findings, admitting “foregone revenues from low-cost new release DVD rentals may be hard to distinguish from other transformational shifts in the industry.”

If the LAEDC is to be believed, Redbox will bring down both the entertainment industry and L.A.’s job market. Of course, we tend to take a different perspective and suggest that studios attempt to understand the changing needs of movie consumers, who have clearly already demanded alternative purchase preferences with their wallets. The age of the DVD sale may have passed, but that could be entirely dependent on the changing attitudes and behaviors around entertainment consumption.

Image from Eddie Does Japan on Flickr

Reviews: Flickr

Tags: entertainment, Movies, redbox

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Postabon

Quick Pitch: Postabon helps you find and share the best local in-store deals and discounts.

Genius Idea: Postabon takes the location-aware nature of services like Loopt and Foursquare but focuses on finding good deals and hot finds. This means you can find out what places are having sales or running specials based on where you are right now or where you are heading to in the future.

There are lots of great sites to find deals online, but traditional retail shops still have great deals too. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to head to the mall or to the shopping district and instantly find out what places near you were running sales? That’s exactly what Postabon lets you do. The service, which is currently limited to New York City (but plans on expanding soon), lets people post and find deals based on their location.

You can use it from your phone or from your regular computer and Postabon lets you search for specific deals in specific areas. Check out this video:

Like Foursquare, Postabon has a game element, only instead of badges you collect Karma points. There’s a leaderboard for users who have the best Karma by region deal category updated every week. You can also follow specific Postabon users who frequently post good deals that interest you.

This is a terrific idea that we really hope expands to more cities soon. Geo-location and real-time are two of the biggest trends for 2010 and the fact that Postabon uses both technologies to connect users with ways to save money is pretty awesome.

Spark of Genius Series Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).”

Reviews: Foursquare, PHP

Tags: foursquare, geo-location, postabon, real-time

UPDATE: YouTube and Universal have just flipped the switch and VEVO is now live (though slow due to heavy traffic). More to come.

—

If you haven’t heard, YouTube and Universal are launching a new music video Web site tonight with great fanfare and a giant, star-studded party in New York City. VEVO will host most of YouTube’s music videos (85 percent of them, actually), including ones from EMI, Sony Music and Universal.

Rock legend Bono, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and others are revealing new and previously unknown details about the VEVO music service. Here are our notes. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more:

- On stage, Google CEO Eric Schmidt stated that Bono suggested the meeting started VEVO.

- Eight-five percent of all music videos will go through VEVO, with the rest going on YouTube.

- VEVO will manage all ad sales

- The music video site is focusing on getting rid of duplicate videos. If you have ever browsed YouTube, you’ll find that many music videos do, in fact, have duplicates.

- VEVO will not launch with HD. That will come out next year.

- Now this is awesome: VEVO includes synchronized and integrated lyrics

- The YouTube and Universal joint venture will be premiering new videos from 50 Cent, Mary J Blige and Mariah Carey tonight. They are all exclusives.

- You won’t have to watch a preroll every time you watch a VEVO video. It will serve ads based on aggregate usage.

- VEVO will come up any time you search for artists on YouTube

- VEVO’s launch sponsors includes AT&T, McDonald’s, Nikon, Mastercard, Dove, Colgate, Axe and Infinit.

- Aol and CBS are joining the VEVO music network. This means that users coming through their Web sites will get VEVO.

More details to come

Reviews: YouTube

Tags: vevo

‘Tis the season for holiday kitsch and Yahoo has embraced the spirit of Twitter and the season to bring you Social Mojo, Holiday Edition.

Modeled after the original Social Mojo experience, Holiday Mojo will analyze your Twitter stream using a “not very scientific” process to determine what kind of seasonal Twitter user you are.

Depending on your holiday tweeting ways, you could be one of eight different seasonal Twitter users. Are you a snowman, toast master, gingerbread man, or nutcracker? Just enter your Twitter name on the Yahoo Holiday Mojo page to find out.

It’s cute, harmless and yet another way to celebrate the time of year. So what kind of seasonal Twitter user are you? Let us know your results in the comments.

Snowflake – Drifting from here to there, no one is better at following people than you!

Regifter – You’re great at passing on the retweets.

Toast Master – You have a lot to say and take advantage of your 140 characters to say it!

Mistletoe Magnet – You like to bring people together with all those hashtags.

Snowman – Based on how rarely you tweet, you’re clearly the strong, silent type.

Nutcracker – You’re so good at uncovering the best URLs!

Gingerbread Man – All those followers make it clear that you’re quite sweet.

Noise Maker – You like to keep the conversation going with all those @replies.

Reviews: Twitter

Tags: holiday mojo, Yahoo