Redmond software giant Microsoft today announced an invitation-only beta of a new user-generated video site called Soapbox on its existing MSN Video service.
"Soapbox delivers on a critical component of the MSN growth strategy of deepening audience engagement by enabling people to participate in the content experience," said Rob Bennett, MSN’s general manager of Entertainment and Video Services in a release. "By adding a user-uploaded video service, we are rounding out our existing investments in commercially produced and original content on MSN Video."
What they aren’t saying is that Microsoft is clearly looking to tap into some of the buzz and industry momentum currently being enjoyed by YouTube and open another front in the company’s online struggle with Google for online viewership and, of course, billions in online advertising dollars.
Microsoft hopes to differentiate Soapbox to video creators through easy-to-use tools, and attract viewers through new waysof discovering and sharing entertaining content. Soapbox organizes videos into 15 categories and enables users to find related videos, subscribe to RSS feeds, and share favorite selections with their friends without interrupting the video they’re watching. (Of course, whether users can effectively multitask enough to watch a video and subscribe to an RSS feed remains another story.) Users are invited to rate and tag videos, share links via email, and embed Soapbox videos right in their own Web sites or blogs. Video creators might appreciate single-step uploading. In a somewhat unusual move towards acknowledging not everyone uses Windows or Microsoft software, Soapbox says it accepts all major digital video formats, and works with Firefox on Windows and Mac OS X.
Microsoft says it will remove any copyrighted material illegally uploaded to the service once alerted by the rights holder, which is a policy remarkably similar to YouTube. Soapbox won’t carry any ads during its testing period, but when the service (ahem) goes "live" in the next six months or so, yo can bet Redmond will have worked on monetizing the site.
In 1950, Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. Rather than argue over definitions, he turned the question into a party game, where an interrogator trades typed messages with hidden players and tries to work out who is who. Since then, chatbots have gotten so good that they have already fooled humans in modern versions of the test.
So, four researchers from Paris Cité University asked the obvious follow-up question in a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports: can AI at least catch its own kind?
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.