Mashable is reporting on the launch event and this is what they've learned so far:

• On stage, Google CEO Eric Schmidt stated that Bono suggested the meeting started VEVO.
• 85% 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 websites will get VEVO.

Word is that the site is actually already live but bogged down by traffic. Is anyone able to access it? [Vevo via Mashable]

Feather is the name of YouTube's new lightweight version of the video streaming site. You can try it out now via Google's TestTube collection of beta trials.

What you lose with the lightweight option is the ability to view videos in High Quality, and most of the commenting and sharing options have been stripped out. But hell, that's a small price to play for being able to watch the above gem on your $249 netbook, right? [YouTube Feather via All Things D]

First, enjoy the video by playing it full screen. Switch between 1080p and 720p while you do it.

Better yet: Use Firefox's Download Helper to get the 720p and 1080p MP4 files into your hard drive, then play them side by side or at full screen. You will see that the 1080p version is clearly sharper than the 720p, helped by the extra pixels. In the 1080p version you see can a lot more of the delicate textures of the Muppets' fabrics, as well as fewer artifacts, and more details in all the objects in the screen. Don't believe me? Check this comparison gallery then.

Remember when YouTube used to be a tiny little window with pixels the size of my fist? [Thanks, GitEmSteveDave!]

The news comes from the COO of Syabas, the company that makes the Popcorn Hour set-top box. Up until now they'd had a "loose agreement" with the 'Tube: They could stream video from YouTube for free, but YouTube could change the terms of the deal whenever they want. Which they did!:

YouTube has always retained the right to change its terms of service in the future should it ever wish to do so. As a result of Google's decision, Syabas is no longer allowed to access YouTube through its APIs. To be clear, Syabas is not being singled out. With the exception of a few strategic partners Google has chosen to work with, the company has informed Syabas they are asking all over-the-top device makers that are currently connecting to YouTube content through its APIs to take down the service.

To quote every set-top box manufacturer in the world, probably: "shit." YouTube access had become the kind of thing you take for granted in a connected box or Blu-ray player, and it was nice to have. Now, it'll be limited to sanctioned devices like the PS3, Wii, TiVo, officially supported Blu-ray players, etc—backed by the kinds of companies who have the clout to pressure Google, or the money to pay them—leaving everyone else to search for some kind of hacky workaround, the last of which got them in this bind in the first place.

I understand that Google wants to squeeze some ad revenue out of YouTube, and that letting anyone and everyone access raw, ad-free through the backend probably isn't the best business plan, but this isn't Hulu—it's not like they have many powerful content providers to appease, just a bunch of teenagers with webcams. Unauthorized set-top box folks, whoever you are: watch your free video cornucopia dissolve on December 2nd.

UPDATE: YouTube's statement:

Since July of 2008, YouTube's Terms of Service has restricted implementations for televisions based on our APIs. YouTube has been in active discussions with various developers on how best to implement YouTube on set top boxes and TVs. There are several companies, however, that have deployed solutions, like video scraping technology, to circumvent the rules and violate YouTube's Terms of Service. Companies that have negotiated agreements to use our APIs, like TiVo, Sony, Panasonic and Sony's PS3 are not impacted.

So, companies like Syabas have been in violation of YouTube's terms of service for some time now, and knew this was going to happen. The question remains, though: Why haven't they just "complied", and gotten a deal like TiVo or Sony? Does it cost anything? Is YouTube selective? Does it just take a while? [Syabas via Engadget via Lifehacker]

Because the speech-recognition technology is still a work in progress, Google is launching the automatic captioning service on the YouTube channels of just a handful of partners, including PBS, National Geographic and a few big universities. But the company promises that the technology will improve over time - and it hopes for a much broader rollout.

In the meantime, Google is adding a new "auto-timing" feature to its existing manual captioning service to make it easier to use. Video creators will now simply have to create a text file with all the words spoken in a video and Google's speech recognition technology will take it from there - matching the text to the words as they are spoken. Google hopes this will encourage more users to add captions to their videos.

[AP]

YouTube's Going 1080p So That You Can Watch Silly Videos In High-Def

Unsatisfied with simple 720p, YouTube is going to a full HD experience with 1080p. They're about halfway through the process of re-encoding the current content, so it shouldn't be long before you can watch Rupe Murdoch rant in high-def. [CNET]

Yet Another "Virus" Attacks Unsecured Jailbroken Phones

The number of ridiculous iPhone viruses, worms and hacks is gradually growing as the number of idiots who refuse to change the default root passwords when running SSH on their jailbroken iPhones remains the same. Secure your iPhones already. Please.[BGR]

USB AM/FM Tuner Made By Company Who Hasn't Heard Of Internet Radio

This USB AM/FM tuner is useless without a computer, but if you've got a computer in front of you odds are good that you also have an Internet connection through which you can access most radio stations. And while it's lovely that it allows you to record broadcast content, it would be a bit more handy if the gadget also had some flash memory on board. [OhGizmo!]

Pirates Decorate Their MacBooks With Crossbones

MacBook decals appear to be turning into a trend as even pirates are getting into the game. Arrr, yo-ho-ho matey, or something like that. [Crunchgear]

Lion's Gate, Sony and Warner Bros are all reportedly discussing such a service with Google (who owns YouTube), although details are thin. Negotiations are still ongoing, so a lot of major issues (will downloads be available? Which films would be ad-supported versus a flat fee? What about TV shows?) are still unresolved. But if YouTube could get a solid, competitive system going, they'd have a fair chance at competing with Hulu, iTunes and Crackle and maybe even turn a profit one of these days. [WSJ]

We've seen comparisons like this before and as we move into terabytes of digital storage they're less and less useful (and interesting). But the move to the cloud is pretty intriguing: Facebook photos, Hulu videos, YouTube, all that stuff is pretty much unlimited and will continue to grow. And as a Netflix devotee, I'm glad to see a chart of exactly how thoroughly it's kicking Blockbuster's ass. [Mozy]

Earlier today several competing social networks banded together to fight the DDOS attacks on their respective properties. Google and Facebook were able to keep the effects minimal while Twitter and others suffered periodic outages and severe slowness through out the day.

Max Kelly, chief security officer at Facebook, explained that the attack specifically targeted Cyxym, and was directed toward websites which he frequented or on which he held accounts, including his LiveJournal, where we find the first suggestion that there was a big target painted on his virtual back:

Cyxymu's LiveJournal page wasn't accessible, but a cached version showed that it was updated on Thursday with a message about the denial of service (DOS) attacks on his accounts on the US-based sites. "Now it's obvious it's a special attack against me and Georgians," the message in Russian said.

There is no word on exactly who was behind this attack and Kelly declined to speculate. But we wonder: Did Cyxym have a Gizmodo commenter account too or was the DDOS attack on Gawker Media an entirely unrelated coincidence? [CNET]

It's a little rough right now, but it's already plenty of fun to play with, at least until your inevitable migraine sets in. The interface lets you switch between a fairly long list of viewing options, be it a particular type of glasses—red/cyan or amber/blue—or a simple cross-eyed option, all rendered from a single source file. It's incredibly obvious, simply mashing two-panel source video together in a variety of ways, but it's a surprisingly elegant way to deal with fragmenting 3D technologies. Details about how to activate and upload for the feature, as well as some samples, are available here. [SERoundTable]

RealPlayer SP is the evolution of the long-running RealPlayer software, which has become a multi-limbed beast of a program: It's a media manager and player, along with a packaged web browser, a subscription and a la carte music store (Rhapsody), a gaming store (Real Arcade), an audio recorder, and now a streaming video ripper/converter with ties-in to social networking sites. It is at the moment Windows only, though we're assured a Mac version is forthcoming. The beta comes in two versions: One is free, and the other costs $40 and includes H.264 conversion, DVD playback and DVD burning.

The SP stands for Social/Portable, so you can get a hint of where they're going with all this. In addition to RealPlayer itself, the software integrates a button to rip video into your browser (Firefox, Chrome, and IE are supported, Opera is not, no word yet on Safari). This new addition includes a converter to pretty much every portable video format you could imagine, from BlackBerry to Symbian to iPod to Zune.

Where RealPlayer SP is convenient is in this video conversion, especially if you've got a more niche phone or PMP (and I certainly do). Normally, conversion to Zune-supported video is kind of a pain in the ass, but RealPlayer SP handles it easily and well. For newer devices like the Palm Pre and BlackBerry Bold, RealPlayer SP can pass the converted video right through to the player, while it's able to go through iTunes to get video onto an iPhone or iPod touch. Older or less common devices, like my BlackBerry Curve 83xx and my Zune, are still supported, but you'll have to copy the new video files over manually.

The problem with this new iteration of RealPlayer isn't the new features, it's the underlying RealPlayer media software. iTunes, Zune, MediaMonkey and WinAmp are all better and more full-featured media jukeboxes, and unfortunately, Real's new focus on streaming video is new to that category of software but certainly not new to any of us. Hell, Firefox has had extensions that can do the exact same thing for years, with admittedly weaker codec support.

I also wasn't thrilled with the conversion speed or efficiency. Real claims a 1x conversion time, meaning 1 minute of video will take 1 minute to convert, which is actually quite pokey. A 3.2MB music video took 3.5 minutes to convert, and I ended up with a 6.6MB file. Sure, it's not a big deal for such a tiny video, but it feels like it should have been far snappier.

RealPlayer SP is also tied in to various social networking sites, but it's pretty half-assed: For Twitter, it just provides a link to the page of the video you downloaded, along with some prime advertisement for Real that kind of makes you sound like a jackass. The default tweet is "just downloaded so-and-so video with RealPlayer!" followed by a link to the RealPlayer download site. So get ready to follow every single one of those Twitter posts with "Clarification: I do not work for Real."

Really, the new features in RealPlayer SP aren't bad at all. It's a good idea to integrate streaming video ripping into a media jukebox, and RealPlayer SP does about as good job at it as we could ask. But the overall package needs some work: RealPlayer SP is way too bloated to work as just a video ripper/converter, and as a media jukebox it's outdated and cumbersome. Real has a good idea here, but RealPlayer needs more than some flashy add-ons. We'd love it if Real would put out the SP features in a simple applet, and leave off the browsers and media managers that we don't give a damn about.

So who should actually use RealPlayer SP? If you're a BlackBerry or Zune owner who uses Windows, loves YouTube and is confused by the multitude of third-party video converters, RealPlayer SP would be an excellent choice for getting video clips on your phone. [Real]

The interface isn't quite the full experiential revamp that a dedicated app like Hulu Desktop is, but it's definitely a different approach than the normal site (and an improvement on their last attempt at TV optimization). Text is kept to a minimum (no comments, even), navigation is carried out through fat, bold buttons, and video controls are simplified and enlarged. The end result is intuitive, if not terribly attractive. Scratch that—this thing is ugly.

Google says the app supports remote controls, and claims that app is meant for larger screens and web-connected TVs, as well as the PS3 and Wii. But the interface has another equally obvious use: as a touchscreen portal for tablet PCs, MIDs or touchscreen AIO hardware like HP's Touchsmart or Dell's new Studio.

You can try YouTube XL by navigating to Youtube.com/XL in any browser. [Lifehacker]

As you can see in the gallery, the effect they achieved looks almost exactly like the real thing on your computer. screen. I have to admit that I'm going to try doing a few of these, with really weird settings. [Dialy Nifty—Thanks Kumiko!]

p.s. I've modified the original into various versions, so you can resend them appropriately in Twitter, Digg, Fark, Facebook, and YouTube.

[Shoeboxblog—Thanks David]

The site is a grid of various YouTube videos, each a couple of minutes in length, each showing a musician playing a simple Bb major texture. You can play them in any order using as many as you like, starting some as others stop or having them all go at once. It's remarkable. Seriously, don't take my word for it, go check it out now. You won't be disappointed.

Want to participate? Just make a video of your own going by the guidelines on the site and send it in to be included. This can only get more interesting as more videos are added. [In Bb 2.0 via Anthony King]

If you want to ask a question, just tape yourself asking it in 30 seconds or less, upload to YouTube, and then post the link on Polansky's Twitter. He'll be answering a few questions per week, so if you've got a question our fantastic guest blogger Leroy Chiao didn't get around to covering, this'll be a great way to get an answer. [Press Release via Gadget Venue]

The guys at winandmac say they've noticed a change in the YouTube app's stream handling. Now, instead of defaulting to the low-res OTA version of a YouTube video when connected via 3G, the app plays the high-res version previously reserved for Wi-Fi.

Meanwhile, in our comments and over at the iPhone Blog, AT&T-bound Beta 5 users are reporting that the simple MMS stopgap hack is no longer possible.

It's only been few hours since Beta 5 burst forth into this world, naked and screaming, so more changes are bound to bubble up to the surface—there are already rumblings that new anti-tethering measures have been implemented, but this hasn't been confirmed (and may have more to do with new security features in iTunes 8.2 than iPhone OS). [winandmac and the iPhone Blog]

Reports the BBC:

Marc Stephens watched the videos as a precaution when his wife Jo started to feel some discomfort.

Four hours later, his wife went into labour and started giving birth before an ambulance could arrive at their home in Redruth. "I Googled how to deliver a baby, watched a few videos and basically swotted up," Mr Stephens told the BBC.

That said, don't let Stephens fool you. He's a natural. "This is our fourth child now and while for our first I spent most of the time at my wife's head, now I'm not afraid to go down to the business end."

Truly, a heart-warming story in an age that sees despicable baby-related smartphone apps being approved for the general populace without missing a beat. [BBC News via Google Blogoscoped]