Tubes

Iran has launched a video-sharing site in its latest effort to provide alternative, government-sanctioned Internet services.

Dubbed "Mehr," the Farsi word for affection, the site aims to attract Persian-speaking users and promote Iranian culture, according to the About Us page reviewed by the Agence France-Presse.

"From now on, people can upload their short films on the Web site and access [IRIB] produced material," said Lotfollah Siahkali, deputy chief of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.

The Iranian government has been waging a battle against what it calls "inappropriate" content on the Internet. The government announced … Read more

Google today unveiled a fresh look for its YouTube video Web site, going with a cleaner design that emphasizes subscriptions and channels even more than before.

The company made the announcement on its blog, running through some of the changes.

Those changes include placing the video at the top of the page, putting it front and center for the viewer, and adding elements such as subscribe, the social action options, and the video information right below the player. Playlists are on the right, and can be browsed while the video is playing. The company said these changes are being made … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- From Peter Ha: What it was like launching The Daily.

- The importance of album track order in the Digital Age.

- Psy estimated to receive only $61,000 from Korean digital sales revenue for "Gangnam Style."

- Pizza Hut gives back with pizza-scented perfume.

- Verizon patents DVR box with camera in it.

- PA High School's "Gangnam Style" parody dubbed "Worst Video on the Entire Internet."… Read more

Nearly three months after its debut on the iPhone and iPod Touch, Google has updated its standalone YouTube app for the first time, adding compatibility for the iPad and iPhone 5.

As part of an update today, the app is now universal and works on the three different screen sizes.

Other additions include support for video streaming over AirPlay, support for URLs within video descriptions, and what Google says are "videos that start faster and play more smoothly."

YouTube was once a built-in application on iOS from the very first iPhone. Apple removed it, along with Google Maps … Read more

I have never robbed a bank, but some people find it invigorating.

Different people find different ways of expressing invigoration. So it may well be that one of them -- at least in the case of 19-year-old Hannah Sabata -- involves making a YouTube video boasting about how you've just robbed a bank.

Here, you see, is just such a video. Its contents allegedly fit comfortably with the facts of a robbery at the Cornerstone Bank in Waco, Neb.

Indeed, the Associated Press reports that it was posted the very same day that Sabata was arrested on charges of … Read more

Tubalr has been making a buzz among the Web community quite recently by bringing a service everyone has been asking for but has never been quite fulfilled until now. This simple Web app lets you create playlists from YouTube videos. Simply input a search term, select between 'only' and 'similar' depending on how much you want to narrow down your options, and Tubalr will auto-generate a video playlist according to your search. The 'only' function will bring up videos directly relevant to your key term while hitting 'similar' can bring up a variety of related videos.

For example, we started … Read more

A small music app named Tubalr took off this week when its developer posted about his app on Reddit, asking simply, "It's not Pandora, Spotify, or Rdio... but it's something I've been making the past 2 years. What do you guys think?"

Three days and more than 2,500 comments later, a side project that earns no revenue suddenly has a bright future. According to Cody Jack Stewart, the man behind the app, Tubalr "makes searching YouTube for your favorite artists/bands simple and quick." After using Tubalr today, I would have to … Read more

YouTube added six more languages to its closed caption feature today, allowing users to read a video's audio in German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Dutch.

Viewers just turn on the closed captioning by clicking on the "CC" button in the toolbar during the video. YouTube is also testing a translate feature, available in beta, that translates the caption into another language.

In addition to the automatic captioning, video creators will have editing tools to improve the automated captions since there will undoubtedly be errors in the initial text, according to YouTube. These tools include the ability … Read more