Video

Add Panasonic to Vudu's growing list of hardware partners.

As of Wednesday, Vudu's streaming video service will be available on all of Panasonic's 2010 Blu-ray player models. It will join a panoply of other online entertainment options already available through the VieraCast menu on those players, including Netflix, Amazon Video-on-Demand, YouTube, and Pandora.

Also of note: Panasonic becomes only the third vendor (besides Samsung and Vizio) to offer both Vudu and Amazon, both of which offer similar subscription-free, a la carte online video streaming services. (Vudu emphasizes the video and audio quality of its 4,000-plus HD … Read more

If you're a Netflix subscriber, you should be happy with the sounds coming out of Hollywood.

One entertainment executive told me last week that other Web video companies looking for content should use Netflix as a model for how to work with the major studios. He called the company a "good partner," high praise coming from an industry in which few have anything good to say about Internet companies. This bodes well for Netflix's chances of obtaining more streaming content. When it comes to the studios' complaints about Netflix, there's also something positive to be … Read more

On today's show, Gowalla teams up with Disney to offer virtual pins, instead of the real ones everyone actually wants. And we discover Molly's never been to Disneyland, so maybe Gowalla should sponsor a road trip! Also, Google eyes Groupon, Cox becomes the first cable company to get into the mobile phone game, and carriers threaten to stop subsidizing iPhones if Apple tries to free the phone from carrier confines. --Molly

Time Warner Cable will soon test a less expensive cable TV package called "TV Essentials" as the company tries to cater to lower income consumers.

Time Warner Chief Marketing Officer Sam Howe provided details of the new low-end video offering for the first time at the SNL Kagan Cable MSO Summit in New York on Thursday. The new package will be offered as a test in New York City starting Monday, where it will cost $39.95 per month. It will also be offered in parts of Ohio, where it will be priced at $29.95 per month. … Read more

All the news today was totally shocking: MySpace and Facebook having an announcement? Together? Stuxnet now the "biggest threat to industry" everywhere? National Unfriend day!? What!? Also, the scariest robot we've ever seen: Snakebot. Oh, and I have my own dirt track to nowhere in the UK. Suck on that, haters. --Molly

Orb TV is aiming to succeed where Google TV and Boxee have stumbled.

The new video-streaming product from Orb Networks aims to let users watch a wide variety of streaming video on their big-screen TVs. That sounds like a wide variety of Internet TV products that we've seen introduced this fall. The difference with Orb TV is that it should be able to deliver unfettered access to a wide variety of online video sites, including TV network sites (Hulu, ABC.com, NBC.com, CBS.com, and so forth) that have since been blocked when accessing from the built-in Flash-enabled Web browsers found on Google TV products, Boxee, and the PlayStation 3.

What's the catch? There are two, right off the bat. The Orb TV doesn't offer HD video, and it requires users to run the Orbcaster server software on a Mac or Windows PC elsewhere on their home network. That software streams the Web video to the Orb TV, which displays it on the television to which it's connected (via composite or component AV cables). In other words, you'll need to keep the PC running whenever you're watching the Orb TV.… Read more

Turns out, you get punished for being a cute girl on Facebook ... at least that's our speculation about the bug that was disabling some women's profiles. Also, Google Voice debuts in the iTunes app store, Hulu Plus drops to $7.99, and we watch the Green Lantern trailer live and ... we're not impressed. Plus, Cooks Source Magazine elects to go quietly and passive-aggressively into this dark publishing night. --Molly

Americans and Japanese watch more television than residents of any other country in the world, a new study from Motorola has found.

According to Motorola's Mobility's Global 2010 Media Engagement Barometer study, American and Japanese viewers spend 21 hours per week watching television and video content. South Koreans watch the least TV--just 13 hours a week. The average amount of time spent watching TV each week around the world is 17 hours. Motorola said most television viewers watch scheduled programming, but 34 percent watch scheduled content in addition to online video and on-demand shows.

The study, which looked … Read more

Amazon.com has gone Hollywood.

Debuting yesterday, the new Amazon Studios is looking to make commercial motion pictures based on scripts and movies submitted by budding screenwriters and filmmakers.

Anyone with dreams to make it big in the big-screen business is invited to submit a full-length movie or script. Through both monthly and annual awards starting in 2011, Amazon plans to offer cash to the best submissions and develop the top projects as commercial movies through Warner Bros. or another Hollywood studio.

Filmmakers can upload their movies at the Amazon Studios Web site. Movies must be full-length--at least 70 minutes--and … Read more