Vienna-based Avaloop has finally released a beta version of their Social Networking Game Papermint . Until now only available in German, this hyper-stylized 3D virtual world combines familiar interactivity with a smart Internet-forward gestalt.

Bandwidth hog Second Life choked itself on realistically rendered avatars and proliferating shopping malls. Neopets’ Web-based world is nearly completely realized in paltry illustrations. Disney’s Club Penguin is waddling along with the tween set. But Papermint develops a quality that has been seldom fully incorporated into Massively Multiplayer Online gameplay: artistic expression. (more…)

Intel and Yahoo have announced the Widget Channel, which will bring internet widgets to the TV set.

The Widget Channel, unveiled Wednesday at the Intel Developers Forum in San Francisco, is an interactive “snippet bar” at the bottom of the TV screen that shows weather, news, sports scores, stock prices, and Flickr photos, among (potentially) myriad other things.

Like Apple’s App Store, widgets will be available for download to TVs. Yahoo and Intel plan on releasing the development kit, which could be exactly what makes the Widget Channel a success. The participation of a heterogeneous and experimental development crowd could ensure that something potentially this awkward actually works. (more…)

The saga between Electronic Arts (ERTS) and Take-Two (TTWO) continues as takeover bids are proposed and rejected. The transactioninfo.com coverage only goes back to February, but late last August EA had already made an offer to the New York-based creators of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Repeated offers to Take-Two have all been rejected, for various reasons enumerated by Strauss Zelnick, Executive Chairman of the Board of Take2.

Among these reasons is that the unsolicited proposal from EA, made back in February, is simply inadequate. The tender offer of $25.74 per share was “inadequate, and undervalued” the franchises and business performances of Take-Two. Interestingly enough, the market saw TTWO at $23.07 August 19, the day after the conditional offer expired. (more…)

It has been a bad week for music on the internet, as one of the web’s most popular music sites was shut down, and another left word that it might be soon to follow.

Popular music-sharing site Muxtape, which allows users to create 12-song online mixtapes, has been shut down by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for hosting “illegal content.”

“Muxtape was hosting copies of copyrighted sound recordings without authorization from the copyright owners. Making these recordings available for streaming playback also requires authorization from the copyright owners. Muxtape has not obtained authorization from our member companies to host or stream copies of their sound recordings,” said a representative of the RIAA (more…)

On August 5 VUDU and the Adult Video Network announced a partnership to bring High-Definition adult-entertainment to a dedicated AVN channel on the VUDU network.

This latest step in TV set-top box entertainment further develops the trend in immediate access to full-resolution, full-length movies and television episodes to rent or to buy. It’s TiVo from the Internet, but more so. (more…)

On August 4th 2008, the US Court of Appeals permitted Cablevision Cable Company to offer the services of digital video recording (DVR) to customers who do not own personal Tivo hard drives. The alternative, endorsed by the Second Circuit in New York, allows cable companies to record the programs to a central datacenter, thereby mitigating capital expenditures. Redlasso, an online Web site recently forced to suspend their video search, post, and clip services due to legal action by Fox and NBC, may have a viable business plan as a result of this decision. If a Redlasso user purchases the right to record digital video from a cable company, what is to stop that customer from transferring those rights to his account with Redlasso?

In such a scenario, Redlasso is acting as the internet-provider of digital video to cable company DVR customers. Of course, this hinges on the cooperation between Redlasso and cable companies, who may want to develop this service independently. Another possible obstacle is that Redlasso’s video content is delivered over the Internet rather than over the television. Hank Williams of the Silicon Valley Insider does not see this as a problem: (more…)

NowPublic.com released Tuesday its second MostPublic index, showing the 50 most influential people in Silicon Valley/San Francisco. “The MostPublic Index is a detailed (and transparent) barometer of who’s [sic] voices are most heard in the digital landscape as new channels—Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and the like—transform how media is created and spread.”

The Vancouver-based participatory news network rated the individuals based on four measures: online visability; presence on user-generated content and social networking sites; interactivity and accessibility; and what they call The “R” factor, presence on microblogging platforms like Flickr, Twitter, and Tumblr. (more…)

A recent study reveals that one-fifth of U.S. TV viewers watch television online. This number represents a significant increase in the amount of online viewers since the fall of 2007.

Tuesday, Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI) released a report on “Online Viewership” affirming that 58.4 percent of online viewers are between the ages of 25-44, compared to only 19.1% of 13-24 year olds. The largest segment of online watchers is affluent, well-educated, 25-44 year old working professional Caucasian females (more…)

Most viral marketing on YouTube tends towards pomo chic or the cynical, like an extension of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” hosted by a Mission hipster. But Matt Harding’s “Dancing Man” videos – underwritten by the gum company, Stride – are a reminder that simple is not always stupid, that beauty and innocence are not always naïve. Now, after dancing his way across the world and becoming one of the most-viewed YouTube stars, Harding is committing his efforts to charity, raising money for laptops for children in Rwanda.

According to Reuters, Harding, “met United Nations officials this month and talked to the sponsor of his video, Stride, about raising money to buy and donate laptops to the poor in Rwanda where he danced with locals and plans to go to teach them himself.” (more…)

The judge hearing the “YouTube Divorce” has ruled against Tricia Walsh-Smith, the woman who famously posted brutal – and loopy – rants about her soon-to-be ex-husband on her YouTube account, finding the videos “cruel and unusual treatment.”

In the first video (see below), posted in April, Walsh-Smith mocks her husband for their sexless marriage, calls up his assistant and asks what to do with her husband’s stash of Viagra and condoms, gives us a tour of her Upper East Side apartment, and, as an added bonus, does her own Tarot reading. Walsh-Smith’s rant had over 3 million viewers on the video sharing website. (more…)