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Every time I watch "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," I insult along with the French knight, sing Sir Robin's praises, and fervently wish I had a coconut to add horse-trotting sound effects to my life.

Design studio Original Content London has figured out how to bring the sounds of Monty Python-style equine movement to bicycles. Trotify is a wood kit that mounts on the front of a bike. As you pedal, the tire triggers Trotify to clomp a coconut up and down. You'll have to provide your own minstrel and squire. … Read more

Medium, a publishing platform being developed by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, has hired a director of content.

Williams announced on his company's blog yesterday that Medium has hired Kate Lee, former literary agent at International Creative Management. Lee left her job at ICM in April, after deciding that she wanted to have some time off. She spent 10 years at ICM and focused heavily on bringing blog writers to the book publishing world.

In her new role at Medium, Lee will serve as director of content, a job that will see her "help get great stuff onto Medium,&… Read more

Flip4Mac WMV Player is used to play Windows .WMV files on your MacBook or iMac. Since WMV files are ubiquitous on the Internet, the ability to play these files natively without converting them is a nice feature. Flip4Mac WMV Player plays WMV files through QuickTime, so any application that supports QuickTime can be used to play WMV files, including Mac-supported Web browsers like Safari, Chrome and Firefox.

Flip4Mac WMV Player is free, although there is limited functionality unless you upgrade to the full Pro (or higher) version. Flip4Mac WMV Player Pro has some conversion capabilities, so you can convert WMV … Read more

Even if you have a dashboard display showing what's behind your car when you back up, it's hard to be 100 percent sure you won't hit something. Or someone. That's why researchers at Japan's Keio University are working on a system that makes the back seat invisible, so to speak.

From the driver's perspective, the back of a car, in this case a Prius, is transparent, thus eliminating blind spots that could conceal hazards. The system is called the "see-through Prius" and it's being showcased this month at the 2012 Digital Content Expo in Tokyo. … Read more

YouTube is rolling out a major upgrade to Content ID, its digital toolset for copyright policies and content management for videos posted by everyone from freelance producers to major media companies.

Most of the updates revolve around content legality claims and what to do with challenges to them. So far, over 3,000 content owners have supplied more than 500,000 hours of reference files to the Content ID system.

First is the new appeals process in which users have more choices in challenging Content ID claims. The key to the new process is that when a user files an … Read more

Turkey and YouTube have a checkered past, so today's news isn't a big surprise -- the video-sharing site will now operate under a local Web domain -- "com.tr" -- and be subject to the country's content regulations and taxes.

According to Reuters, Turkey had been working to get YouTube to agree to this set-up for some time.

"This is an important development," Turkish Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim told Reuters. "For a long time we have made a call to Internet firms in Turkey: 'You are operating in this country, … Read more

Kids can't do it alone. Parents can't do it alone.

Making sure children have safe access to technology requires the participation of hardware vendors, app developers, service providers, educators, industry leaders, and the media. But ensuring the safe use of tech products by children begins and ends with parents.

They're the ones who gauge how much technology the child can handle, who establish the parameters for the child's use of computers and phones, and who keep a close-but-not-too-close watch on how the child is using the technology.

Monitoring your children's use of the family computer … Read more

When searching Google for something such as a specific product, it's likely you have come across a content farming Web site or 10. These sites are meant to draw you in to click on their ads or buy their products, which are usually unrelated to the topic or item you were searching for to begin with.

To combat this issue, Google created a Personal Blocklist extension for its Chrome Web browser. The idea behind the extension is to help users easily block content-farming Web sites easily, so they can find what they are actually looking for. Here'… Read more

Apple's set-top box could be destined to stream live TV channels, according to a new report.

Citing "people familiar with the matter," the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) says that Apple has been in talks with cable operators in the U.S. to pitch its $99 streamer as an alternative to the set top boxes cable subscribers rent.

The report suggests no deals have yet been made toward that goal, but that Apple has at least talked with cable provider Time Warner.

The Apple TV has remained what Apple considers a "hobby" device when compared … Read more