According to the latest research by Pew Internet, online video is hotter than ever. 57% of internet users have watched videos online and most of them share what they find with others.

Highlights of the research:

The growing adoption of broadband combined with competition among content providers has helped pave the way for mainstream audiences to embrace online video viewing. The majority of adult internet users in the U.S. (57%) report watching or downloading some type of online video content and 19% do so on a typical day.

• Three-quarters of broadband users (74%) who enjoy high-speed connections at both home and work watch or download video online.
• Looking separately at those who have access to a high-speed connection at home, 66% report online video consumption, compared with 39% of home dial-up users.
• Yet, some online video viewers who have dial-up at home are able to supplement their access with broadband connections at work. Among those who are truly relegated to slow connections at home and work, just 31% say they have watched or downloaded video online.

Young adults (those ages 18-29) are among the most active video viewers. Three in four young adult internet users (76%) report online consumption of video, compared with 57% of online adults ages 30-49. Less than half (46%) of internet users ages 50-64 watch or download video and just 39% of those age 65 and older do so. On a typical day, young adults’ video consumption also outpaces that of older users:

• Roughly one in three (31%) internet users ages 18-29 said they watched or downloaded some type of video on a typical day during the period of this survey.
• By comparison, 18% of internet users ages 30-49, 12% of those 50-64 and 10% of those 65 and older watch or download any type of video on the average day.

Video viewers who actively exploit the participatory features of online video, such as rating content, posting feedback or uploading video, make up the motivated minority of the online video audience. Young adults are the most active participants in this realm.

Google is looking for mad video-making skills, nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills….

Actually, just the mad video-making skills. Here’s the scoop from Google:

A few of us on the Gmail team came up with an idea to stitch together a bunch of video clips that all share one element: someone hands the Gmail M-velope in from the left of the screen, and hands it off to the right. Put them all together, and they form one long chain of hand-offs. We thought it would be fun to let everyone in on the action. Just go to http://mail.google.com/mvideo, where you’ll find directions on how to submit your clip (including a PDF of the Gmail M-velope you can use in your video). We’ll be accepting clips until August 13th. We’ll then take a selection of the submitted clips and edit them together into one final video, which we’ll release to the world on August 20th.

Here’s a preview of what they are looking for:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed suit against Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), asking a federal court to protect the fair use and free speech rights of a mother who posted a short video of her toddler son dancing to a Prince song on the Internet.

Stephanie Lenz’s 29-second recording shows her son bouncing along to His Royal Purple Badness Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy, which is heard playing in the background of the video. Lenz uploaded the home video to YouTube in February to share it with her family and friends.

Last month, YouTube informed Lenz that it had removed the video from its site in response to a request from Universal that claimed that the recording infringed a copyright controlled by the music company. Under federal copyright law, a mere allegation of copyright infringement can result in the removal of content from the Internet.

“I was really surprised and angry when I learned my video was removed,” said Lenz. “Universal should not be using legal threats to try to prevent people from sharing home videos of their kids with family and friends.”

“Universal’s takedown notice doesn’t even pass the laugh test,” said EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry. “Copyright holders should be held accountable when they undermine non-infringing, fair uses like this video.”

Here’s the video that Universal doesn’t want you to see:

iPhone hackers are buzy trying to free up some of the capabilities of the iPhone. One of the most interesting projects developed so far is srelay, a SOCKS proxy server.  

srelay running on your iPhone turns it into a gateway that you can use to connect your laptop to the Internet using the iPhone’s EDGE connection.

The hack is for only for the brave, for now.

The iPhone has benefited from unprecedented hype, generating more articles and buzz than any other recent gadget introduction. The iPhone has also been a critical success, getting rave reviews from tech sites and mainstream news outlets alike.

Yet, analysts are disappointed by iPhone sales. AT&T recently reported 146,000 iPhone activiations in the second quarter. Analysts had expected there to be 500,000 to 700,000 activations in that time. News of the slower than expected iPhone sales has sent Apple’s stock down more than 6%.

After receiving unprecedented hype and with solid technology, why isn’t the iPhone more of a hit?

There are lots of reasons – and it’s not just the network. Here are five things Apple needs to do to fix the iPhone:

Fix the pricing – pricing was identified as a problem for the iPhone months before the device went on sale. After Apple’s iPhone announcement, one in four people wanted to buy one. However, only one in a hundred people said they’d pay $500 for it. As a result, Apple has a lot more iPhones than it’s selling. If you check iPhone availability at the Apple site, there aren’t any shortages. The $500 entry price is leaving lots of iPhones on the shelves, and keeping the iPhone platform from growing quickly.

Fix Publishing From The iPhone – many people that buy a $500-600 phone want to not just consume media with the phone, but to create and publish media with it. While Apple’s managed to make listening to tunes, watching videos and surfing the Web easy and useful on the iPhone, it hasn’t made the iPhone a publishing platform. This seems like an opportunity squandered by Apple; they’re already leaders in the area of podcast and video podcast publishing, they’ve got a deal in place with YouTube, and they’ve got their own blog and podcast publishing technologies. Other vendors are turning their phones into mobile video blogging platforms and are passing Apple by.

Verizon Wireless announced today a feature that we expect to become more and more common with digital cameras, video cameras and mobile phones – direct uploading to the Internet.

Verizon customers can record video with their wireless phones and upload the videos directly to YouTube using an easy to remember number – YTUBE (98823).

To use the service, Verizon customers need to update their YouTube accounts with their wireless phone numbers by visiting http://www.youtube.com/mobile. Users can then upload short mobile videos to YouTube over Verizon Wireless’ wireless broadband network by sending their message to YTUBE (98823). Videos will post live in minutes. Standard messaging rates apply.

While Verizon’s announcement is¬†a move in the right direction, we’d like to see mainstream device support for open publishing standards, so that people could easily post photos and videos from their mobile devices to not just Flickr or YouTube, but also to personal blogs, vlogs and video podcasts.

 

The British government has rejected a plea to extend copyright laws for sound recordings to beyond 50 years, prompting the music industry to accuse it of not supporting musicians and artists.

The government would have had to push the European Commission for a change in the law but said such a move did not seem appropriate as it would not benefit the majority of performers and could lead to increased costs.

“The UK is a world-beating source of great music, so it is frustrating that on the issue of copyright term the government has shown scant respect for British artists and the UK recording industry,” John Kennedy, head of the IFPI body which represents the international recording industry, said in a statement.

Microsoft has confirmed plans to release second-generation Zunes for the holiday buying season, and will be delivering users a big present by adding podcast support to the device.

Here’s the text of Microsoft’s statement (via WhizByte):

“We have seen the rumors floating around, but we haven‚Äôt announced specific dates or details for the next generation of the Zune devices or service. That said, Zune follows the cycle of the consumer electronics cycle so you can expect an update later this year prior to the holiday season.

There are three predictable paths along which we’ll expand Zune:

• Device family ‚Äì adding in new sizes, styles and price points
• Features ‚Äì we‚Äôll move towards parity with iPod building in support for video, podcasting, etc and at the same time build on key differentiators such as the wireless feature, the FM tuner, etc
• Geographic Markets ‚Äì we‚Äôll start to expand the international footprint of Zune over time but only when we can ensure an offering which is tailored to that market

And one thing about Zune that’s really great for consumers is that the device is future-proofed. Consumers can buy without fear of their device becoming obsolete. Zune’s software (firmware) can be updated so their device gets automatically updated with new features when the new software is launched.”

The New York Times published a photo of podcast publisher Sue Bratton today to illustrate an article on the Association for Downloadable Media.

It’s a nice shot of Bratton, but there’s something wrong with the image – something that may not be important to the readers of the New York Times, but that is important to podcasters.

Got any ideas or opinions? Let us know in the comments….

Tonight, CNN will be hosting the first of the CNN-YouTube debates of presidential contenders.

Democratic candidates will be answering videotaped questions that were submitted by people via YouTube. Questions were submitted between June 14 and July 22 and then selected by CNN’s political team.

Some are heralding the event as a sort of democratic revolution, putting citizens in charge of the debates.

“The fact that this debate is even happening just goes to show the enormous impact that user generated-content has had on society,” writes Webware’s Harrison Hoffman. “Ten, even five years ago, something like this would have had no chance of happening.”

Just A Gimmick?

While it’s obvious that presidential candidates didn’t have to deal with YouTube videos five or ten years ago, they have had to deal with difficult questions from citizens during debates, suggesting that the YouTube angle may be more gimmick than game-changing. Previous debates have featured audience questions live, which was more direct than having questions filtered through CNN’s lens.

More significantly, the potential video questions have been available on YouTube, giving candidates time to review them, identify the most challenging ones and prepare for them. This reduces the likelihood that any surprises will come out of the debates.

Even YouTube seems to be downplaying the significance of these debates. At the site, the debates get less front-page space than Heinz’s Top This TV Challenge.

Video podcasts, vlogs and other forms of citizen media have the potential to significantly shape the upcoming election. Some would argue that they already are shaping the election, eliminating would-be candidates like former US Senator George Allen (with his “macacacide“).

But, while citizen media is likely to play a major role in the upcoming election, it’s unlikely that soliciting questions via YouTube will. YouTube videos may make citizens’ questions seem more vivid….but they’ll also encourage politicians to prepare “canned” responses.

More coverage at NYT.