Mobile web browser Skyfire is one of the only browsers around that lets users watch movies from online video site Hulu. Or rather, it was. WMExperts reports that Hulu has begun blocking Skyfire users.

This development comes on a long, protracted battle between Hulu and Boxee, a media center application for OS X, Windows, and Ubuntu Linux that provides access to web video from dozens of sources.

After killing Boxee support, Hulu eventually launched its own desktop application, cleverly called Hulu Desktop. Does this mean that Hulu might be working on a mobile viewing device? I wouldn't be surprised if the company simply wanted more control over how users can interact with the media on its web site. On the other hand, since Boxee, Skyfire, and most other applications that allow users to watch Hulu video leave the advertising intact, I can't see how it should make much difference to Hulu and the company's content partners how you watch the videos.

[via AppScout]

Fortunately, Wikipedia's video options won't end up like this

When I first read the headline that Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia, is preparing to offer editors lots of new video tools and support, I was immediately filled with dread. I instantly started imagining the types of videos that overly pedantic Wikipedia editors would create, on such scintillating topics like the "Mary Sue" archetype in fan fiction (and 3200 words on that, really?) or that really awesome episode of Battlestar Galactica (don't flame me BSG fans, Cylons rule and whatnot). Fortunately, the new video features that are going to be coming to Wikipedia aren't about content creation, at least not yet.

According to MIT's Technology Review, in the next two or three months, Wikipedia editors will have access to an "add media" button that allows them to find, annotate, choose the relevant portions of a video and then embed the resulting clip into any article. The whole thing will be web-based and will rely on open video standards. Three sources will be available in the beginning, the Internet Archive, Wikimedia Commons and Metavid, but eventually Wikipedia hopes to allow users to scour the web for content.

Despite my early skepticism, the idea is actually pretty interesting. When I think about the first-wave of "book encyclopedia" killers, the CD and then DVD-ROM based multimedia offerings (like the late Encarta), the video content always sticks out as one of the biggest high points. Having quality video or audio content add context or augmentation to a text article can really make a subject more clear.

Of course, having to rely on copyright-free video or public domain works might make it difficult for Wikipedia to achieve those same goals.

[via Mashable]

Spezify is a kind of freeform search tool that incorporates websites, videos, images, microblog posts and more into a grid of results. It's not going to beat Google at finding some specific thing you're looking for, but it's impressive if you're looking to get an overview of a topic, especially if you're a visual person. Instead of showing text results, like Google, Spezify is more like a multimedia wall that you can scroll across vertically or horizontally to take in information at a glance.

Spezify also provides a list of related words at the top of the results screen, which can help you explore a topic further. Videos in the results are all embedded, and can be played without leaving the site, and a lot of the text results feature slightly longer previews than Google results do. All in all, I don't think Spezify is meant to replace any of the major search engines, but you might consider using it when you want a visual summary of a given topic.

So there's this thing called "the Internet." You may have heard of it.. 15 years ago, Tom Brokaw filed a report about this strange thing, and today it looks like something out of a time capsule. Of course, the fun thing about Time Capsules is opening them, so it was awfully nice of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to post an early Brokaw report on the Internet on Hulu.

In it, Brokaw visits the "computer convention" in Las Vegas, and talks to Bill Gates, and Eric Schmidt, among others about the internet. What's funny about the clip is that Tom Brokaw, Bill Gates, and other people don't look that different, but the computers shown in the video look ancient, as do the little bits of internet content shown in the video.

[via The Business Insider]

Three movie studios have banded together to launch a new premium movie channel called Epix. The project was first announced in January. Eventually the network will be available from cable and satellite providers, but today Epix launched in private beta as a web site. Which makes sense, because the idea behind Epix has always been to offer HD video content both through the TV channel and over the web, Hulu-style.

Epix is a partnership between Paramount, Lionsgate, and MGM. The goal is to offer the network for a low fee to cable and satellite providers so that Epix can be included in your basic programming package at no extra charge. Subscribers will then also have access to the movies online. In 720 resolution. Ad-free.

NewTeeVee reports that there are about 100 films available to private beta users today, including Iron Man. The video player is based on Flash and streams content at up to 3Mbps. There's also a social element to the video player that lets you schedule simultaneous viewings with up to four friends over the internet.

Incidentally, Epix never got around to purchasing the Epix.com domain name from its current owners. Instead, the site is hosted at EpixHD.com.

Pixelpipe defies definition a bit, but basically it's a mo-blogging / mobile micro-blogging tool that satisfies nearly every sharing feature I've ever wanted from my mobile since the first time I picked up a smartphone.

When I mention Pixelpipe to people they usually say, "Oh, like Ping.fm." Yes, yes, Ping.fm lets you update a ton of services but, Ping doesn't do video or audio -- although they've been threatening to do video for a while. On the other hand, while Pixelpipe does text, audio, photo and video, until recently there wasn't a convenient way to get your video to Pixelpipe while on the move.

Friday Pixelpipe launched a new version for Android phones, taking advantage of the newly released video recording features in Android 1.5. When I read the anouncement, I realized -- as much as I've pimped out Pixelpipe on my own Twitter feed -- I've never actually posted about it on Download Squad. For shame!

With clients for Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android, you can send quick updates, longer blog posts, just-snapped photos, just-taken video, and audio snippets to over 75 different social services. All your favorites are there (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Youtube, 12seconds, etc.. ) along with some services you might not have used -- If you can name all the logos on the PixelPipe list, you're doing better than I am.

Added to that, Pixelpipe will do traditional, non-social sharing like uploading to any ftp server, email any address or post to just about any blog.

Pixelpipe clients for all platforms are available for free at PixelPipe's site, and the updated Android client is available via the Android Marketplace from your phone.

There are a lot of ways to download videos from YouTube, a lot of ways to convert those videos, and a lot of ways to download music from MySpace. I'm used to thinking of all that as requiring a few different apps or web-based tools, but Farkie does it all. Farkie aims to be the only downloader you need for videos, music, flash games and other media on websites, and it's even got a Firefox add-on.

To use Farkie, you just have to paste the URL of the page you want to download from into Farkie's form, and let it do the rest. You'll get a list of all the media on the page (and check boxes for file types, so you can filter if there's a lot there), and you can download any of the available files via links.

It can even convert YouTube videos for you, into wmv, m4v, mov, and a bunch of other formats.

Torrents have gained some infamy as a way for users to share resources and quickly download large files, but their potential as a way to watch streaming video is comparatively almost unknown. StreamTorrent is a Windows app that taps that potential to let you watch online TV, including HBO, the BBC, and plenty of sports channels. It works the same way torrent downloads work, with a collection of users "seeding" parts of the video to other users as they watch.

It might not be practical unless you've got a lot of people watching and seeding, but you could theoretically stream your own channel over StreamTorrent. Users would only have to search for it to connect. This could prove to be an affordable way of providing large video files when you don't have the cash to pony up for high bandwidth fees, and it can, at least in theory, stream to an unlimited number of users.

[via gHacks]

Yooouuutuuube is a fun web toy that turns a single YouTube video into a surreal grid made of copies of itself. It's a little difficult to explain without a visual, but the rows of the grid are slightly out of sync with one another, creating a ripple effect. One of the best demonstrations of how much fun Yooouuutuuube can be is this amazing Alice in Wonderland one that's been going around.

The options you can control include the frame size of the grid squares and the size of the rows and columns. While you're watching, there are pan, track and zoom controls that let you move over the whole bizarre like it was one screen. Even the lamest YouTube videos feel like art when you put them into Yooouuutuuube, but the best ones are absolutely delightful.

And before you ask: yes, it does work with the Dramatic Chipmunk.

There are lots of services for sharing photos and music over Twitter, but sharing YouTube videos has lagged behind a bit. Sure, you could just link someone to YouTube, but it's not the prettiest site in the world by any stretch of the imagination. Where's TwitPic for embedded videos? A new site called YouTubeTweeter gets pretty close.

Put in your username and a YouTube link, and YouTubeTweeter generates a short url and a button to post it to Twitter. The video pops up in a nice-looking overlay on a copy of your Twitter page, so it's obvious who's sharing the video. It also shows you how many people have viewed your video. Closing the video takes the user to your Twitter page, which is probably better than having them land on YouTube. It's not a perfect solution - it would be nice if it worked with embed codes from other video sites, especially - but it's a step in the right direction.

Popular streaming video provider Mogulus has released a free desktop broadcasting app called Procaster, designed for use with its service. The featureset looks pretty amazing: it promises to broadcast anything from a webcam or from your screen -- or both, side-by-side -- with synced audio and no lag in framerate. There's also a game broadcasting mode that seems explicitly targeted at World of Warcraft players, and audience interaction features, like live chat, that work automatically with any broadcast.

One big advantage of Procaster is that it's free, and so is the Mogulus service, so you the startup costs to create your own web show are extremely low. You can browse and play video clips for your audience in real time, as well, which helps if demos are part of your plan. If Mogulus' service and bandwidth can keep up with the potential popularity of Procaster, I see this app becoming a standard tool of the social web trade. It's only available for Windows right now, but the site says a Mac version is on the way.

Meeting24.tv is a great idea in theory. It's sort of a Yahoo! Live-style video chat (remember Yahoo! Live?), where you can have up to 24 people in a meeting at once. There's a big upside to the service: it's free, it's easy to use, and it doesn't require signup for anyone but the host of the meeting. The downside is that you might run into major lag. When I tested the service, each user's audio and video was lagging by several seconds.

A free account comes with the ability to host a meeting room for 24 hours at a time. The time limit is basically irrelevant, because the number of rooms you can start isn't limited, so you can get around it by starting over. I'm not sure I'd use Meeting24.tv for an actual meeting, as the ability to throw illustrated heart icons at other people is a bit unprofessional.

If you've ever felt like Twitter's 140 character limit is just too restrictive -- because it gives you too much space to work with, Flutter is for you. OK, Flutter's not an actual service, but the folks at Slate have put together a mockumentary on a new "nano-blogging" service that forces users to send updates in 26 characters or less.

The video mocks both users and the companies trying to build and monetize micro-blogging, life-streaming, and social media in general. But it's the kind of funny that you laugh at, and then go and forward to your friends on Facebook and Twitter. It's not quite as mean-spirited or dismissive of micro-blogging as some other parodies.

[via Mashable]

With the discontinuation of VisualHub, one of the most popular video conversion apps for OS X, someone had to release an app to fill the void. That app might be VideoMonkey, which builds on VisualHub's source code and concept to convert videos to and from a number of popular formats. VideoMonkey actually improves on VisualHub in some ways, especially because it's a native Cocoa app, where VisualHub was built around AppleScript.

VideoMonkey uses the FFMpeg encoder for most of its work, but it also has the ability to combine with other tools and automatically figure out how to convert even some weird filetypes. For example, if you edit a WMV with Quicktime Pro and save it, VideoMonkey understands how to separate the audio and video and recombine them in a new format of your choice. This all goes on behind the scenes: for the user, it's a 1-click process. If you loved VisualHub, and you're looking for a replacement, VideoMonkey is all that and more.