Loaded: Be all you can be in 'Second Life'

>> YouTube offers widescreen embeds. Amazon helps you shop with your iPhone. And how to join the U.S. Army in Second Life. It's Thursday, December 4, I'm Natali Del Conte and it's time to get Loaded. ^M00:00:11 [ Music ] ^M00:00:14 >> YouTube only just started offering widescreen video options, but already the site is letting you embed them in that format. These are the 16 by 9 widescreen videos. If you embed them in this format, the video will also include a YouTube Search Box which of course is handy and good for YouTube as it drives traffic back to the site. Amazon released a new iPhone shopping application. It has all the features you would expected to have including secure shopping, the ability to use your existing Amazon account, access to your wish list, payment and shipping options and your order history. But what has the Internet abuzz is the new Amazon Remembers feature. Using your iPhone's built-in camera you can snap a photo of any product you want and Amazon will keep a visual memory of that product. If they find it, they'll e-mail you a link on how to buy it through the site. I tried it yesterday with the book that was on my desk and Amazon e-mailed me a link to buy it within just 20 minutes. This isn't tera-computing advanced image recognition though. Amazon has people actually looking through your photos to match them to products, so you probably should keep those photos clean and be careful what you send because someone is watching you. In more Amazon news the company has gone international with the launch of the U.K. Amazon MP3 Store. This marks the first time the online retailer has sold digital music outside of the U.S. Tunes will still be available in high quality 256 kilobit per second unprotected MP3s. And for now individual songs will cost our brothers across the pond 59 pence and whole albums for 3 pounds. That works out to be about 4.39 U.S. Dollars per album. Otherwise the shopping experience and interface is said to be same as it is in the U.S. MP3 Store. I didn't actually VPN into a British server or go to the U.K. to test it out, but let the record show I was more than willing. For all you karaoke lovers, here's a great gift. Memorex just released the SingStand, which lets you karaoke to your iPod. It's basically a microphone stand with a 3.5-millimeter line in for any MP3 player. The base of the microphone has as a set of full-range speakers with controls for balance and echo and a guitar and keyboard input along with two microphone inputs, so you won't have to rock out on your own. You can now buy one of these from the Memorex site for 69.99. Just a little while ago, Microsoft launched the ability to stream Netflix movies to the Xbox. Well it looks like Samsung is releasing a new firmware update for its BD-P2550 line of Blue-ray players enabling it to stream Netflix's Watch Instantly service. Users however will be limited to standard definition output on their high definition displays. If you're considering joining the Army, you'll soon be able to get a taste for the experience in Second Life. ^M00:02:50 [ Music ] ^M00:02:56 >> This is the Army Today from Soldier's Radio on television. >> Sometime in the next month or two, the U.S. Army will build out two new islands in the virtual world. The first one will be a welcome center where you can get information about joining and learn how to contact a real life recruiter. The second island will have Army life simulations where you can jump out of airplanes and use weapons and do a million pushups and basically whatever it is they do in the Army. This seems like a fun idea, but did anyone tell the Army that Second Life is kind of over. Google released a new plug-in that lets Mac users use Google Earth in the browser. Previously, this plug-in only work for PCs. Now Mac users can download the software and enjoy Google Earth features on the Web rather than just in the downloadable client. Beware of the plug-in size though it's 47-megs, which is a lot for a simple plug-in. Those are all your headlines for today and that wraps up your week of getting Loaded. Before I go, I wanna wish a happy birthday to Sam [assumed spelling] in the U.K., Markus, Jeff and Lydia [assumed spellings]. Thank you for watching Loaded. Remember if you've missed any episodes this week, you can catch up loaded.cnettv.com. Have a great weekend. I will see you on Monday. I'm Natali Del Conte with CNET TV and you've just been Loaded. ^M00:04:04 [ Music ]