Rather than write some long-windedpage with reasons to switch to GMail, Google have played things nice and simple and gone down the Web 2.0 road, creating Google Theatre: Episode One.

To date, the video has been viewed over 1,000,000 times, and truth be told, it’s a wonder that more companies don’t make use of the services that they actually own. Yahoo, for example, could be greatly benefitting off traffic and leads through MyBlogLog, but instead rarely use the service to their own ends. Now I’m not saying that this is a bad thing, but if done right (as with this funny lil’ YouTube video), then the viral factor WILL kick in. Kudos to you, Google, and keep up the great work!

Thanks Chris for sending me the link to this YouTube video. Incredible. Vista positively looks dated! Have you seen this 3D desktop? I’ve heard people raving for the past couple of weeks about a new uber-Linuz which looks spiffy, but till just now, I’ve seen no reason to take them seriously.

I’m serious - If all my software could be ported to Linux, I’d be over there right now. This thing looks incredible!

Domo arigatio Mr. PC! The Japanese do “I’m a Mac” ads too, so it seems…

For those who are wondering, my limited knowledge of the Japanese language *cough* Google Translator! *cough* tells me that the Mac in the advert used the informal Japanese for ‘hello’, whereas the PC used the far more traditional ‘Konnichiwa’. That is how you spell it, right?

Moving back to the English language, it seems Novell have gone down the viral advertising root, spoofing the highly popular Mac ads that we see all around is, in now-a-days modern culture.

She needs a haircut! Anthony thinks she’s just a ‘cute chick’ though. The YouTube community seemed rather amused also with the comments they left the video.

I think the Linux girl should be about 40 pounds overweight to reflect the awful bloated Novell java apps.

And that’s the end of that… A Zi Media update is coming sometime today! Check the new poll and get yourself high on sugar-coated HTML tags before the launch on Friday!

We all know that this past year, politicians left, right and centre have been kicking up a huge fuss about online security, convinced that their hippity ‘2.0′ attitude will win them elections. I present to you, The Facebook Skit.

So how does that make you feel before networking? We all know the moral of the story here… Think before you poke!

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This hilarious Steve Jobs/George Bush parody is so darn hilarious that even if it’s not 100% tech news/ranting child related, I couldn’t not post this. Just check it out…

Of course, even behind the very funny video, a serious message lies. Back to the funnyness of the situation, check this comment I noticed below the video.

Repost this 6 times and you will
see the taco bell dog run across
your screen. If you repost this 8 times Ronald McDonald comes out and
attacks the taco bell dog.

It is really funny and it works!!
You have to try it!!

Gee… This one’s a classic!

Breaking news has just come in. All Blue-Ray & HD-DVD titles have now officially, been cracked! Stuff like this must be doing wonders for all of the major Hollywood companies, already skeptical about which format to back.

Thanks to the great hackers at the Doom9 forums, it’s not even been two months since discovering a way to extract the HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc “volume keys” to decrypt AACS DRM on individual films, and we’re already getting reports that the proffesional DRM hacker ‘arnezami’ has found the so-called “processing key” that are being used to decrypt all of the DRM that is being used on the next-gen formats. Simply put, this means that instead of requiring keys for each individual HD film, this single processing key can be used to unlock, decrypt, and backup every HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc film released to dare. No doubt that this will change soon, but all current titles on the shelves are 100% copyable. No individual codes needed! Just all-for-one, and one-for-all! According to DRM hacker arnezami, the now internationally infamous finder of the codes, “nothing was actually hacked, cracked or even reverse engineered.” So in other words, this means that all arnezami needed to do, was to keep a little list in his memory, or on a post-it-note, see which numbers changed, and voila! The key appeared. Or so Engadget make out. If, it’s kind of a wonder that nobody beat these kick-ass hackers to the job anyway…

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Gizmodo played a very smart move, acting as the ‘dumb consumer’ in the latest Apple date leak. Matt Buchanan, ProBlogger, hopped along to his local Apple Store (Soho), and asked various employees about “that new Apple TiVo”. The employees politely explained that infact, it wasn’t just another “TiVo” and that they ship on February 27th. Oops! Somebody let the cat out the bag…

According to Matt, it’s not a rock solid date, but it’s all we’ve got to go on so far. Nice digging!

The death of TV? Not so! Perhaps it’s just moving into a new era… The online era. The fact that we’re all raving about the death of TV as we know it, and the never-ceasing triumphs of Web 2.0 and online videos, seems not to have put off several well-known Web 2.0 companies anyhow, from creating their own mock-up TV adverts and sticking them on YouTube. In amongst all the deadly serious startup news, capital fund raising, etc, it’s great to see that Web 2.0 still has a ‘getting down and dirty’ with the community element within it. Others see this as ‘Social Spamming’, however I disagree. Several startups involved in the YouTube ads stint include massively popular Meebo, Meez , Multiply, Plaxo, Technorati and RockYou. All of the companies have done great jobs on these videos, and it’s only fitting to give them each a look.

Here, RockYou have done their very best at creating a kung-foo style MySpace profile battle. Whilst getting across some important elements, they also manage to expertly incorporate enough laughs to make it memorable. For those that don’t know, RockYou is a highly popular, simple tool, that lets you create fancy-looking slideshows, that let you, as they put it, ‘Pimp Your Profile’.

“On the Internet, there are passengers, and there are drivers.” It’s a great, mock-up Volkswagen video, with the end message of ‘Developers wanted for Meebo’. Feeling creative? Head on over! Meebo? Why they’re the web-based IM client! Very useful for using Jabber, Google Talk, AIM, etc in school or at work.

Meez. The 3D-ID people. In this video, you can catch “Roscoe Meez”, the avatar in the video, as he “shows off his athletic prowess, does a crazy love scene and even dresses up as a cheerleader”. A very interesting video. Prior to this, I’d not used Meez, now I’ve given it a go, I can attest to how great this 3D avatar service really is!

The Multiply YouTube video is very well made. Simple, yet for those who’ve never checked out Multiply, at the end of the video, you’ll be left with no other choice. I guarantee that your curiosity will have gotten one over you. “Multiply is not a beer. Visit Multiply.com to see what it is.”

Unfortunately, this video is slightly quiet, but in my opinion, without a doubt, it’s the best. ‘Tom’, an office worker, has promised his boss to work overnight, but is persuaded by two co-workers to go out for ‘just one beer’. As you can imagine, things escalate. ‘Tom’ ends up running around town naked, and is spotted by his boss. ‘Getting a job? New house? New number? You’re address book for life.’ Now I see why Plaxo may be useful…

Note that this final one, the Technorati WTF video, has some swearing in, which is ‘kind of’ blanked out. This is a very well-made film, but at the same time, it seems far more professional, and has none of the ‘home-made charm’ of the others. Nevertheless, it’s a great watch.

It’s most interesting that Web 2.0 companies are choosing now, to advertise in this way. Is this yet another move forward into online media? Adverts infesting our beloved social media? Who knows, as only time will tell. Sourced from Mashable.

A flying car? Not in our lifetime! Great as it seems, somehow, this still seem well-beyond anything we’ve currently managed to whip up. Sure, we’ve got hover crafts, but they’re not exactly 100 feet in the air. Asides, that thing is ugly.

Nevertheless, I can see when something like that could be extremely useful.

A superbly animated non-superbowl advert, showing the all to unpleasant consequences of not strapping yourself on to the wiimote.

Gizmodo caught up with Super 78 aswell…

“I really love the Wii and I had been reading these stories about Wii controllers flying out of peoples hands. We had some down time at the office so I got together with one of the animators and I sketched out a storyboard of the spot. In the board the controller is this high energy maniac and the nun-chuck just wants to get away. So our most talented animator Michael Smith created this fun spot there is a lot of character…This was done by us, Super 78, using our own resources, no agency was involved, no money changed hands.”

Great sound effects too.