If you’ve been on Google.com today you may just possibly have noticed a gigantic blue arrow that drew itself across your screen and pointed ever-so-subtly to the Google+ link on the black bar across the top of the page. That’s Google’s unassuming way of telling the world that you no longer need an invitation to join G+–everyone everywhere is welcome, so come on in. READ MORE
If you’ve ever wanted to edit video that you’ve shot but either haven’t had the time or the ability to do it, there’s a fun new automated service that just launched. Magisto is an Israel-based start-up that will take your unedited footage, run it through its sophisticated computer vision technology to pick out the best scenes, stabilize your images, remove excess “noise” and add smart effects and transitions that interact with the content in the video. READ MORE
Netflix will split its video-stream and DVD-mailing services into separate companies after losing a million customers over its pricing snafu. Consider this an ideal lesson in re-branding. READ MORE
Netflix dethroned the former video-rental upper class, the Blockbusters, the Hollywood Videos, by creating a rabid fan base that appreciated the ease of its service. Now those customers are deserting Netflix. READ MORE
Jesta Digital, a mobile-video group, has pledged $15 million toward creating a start-up incubator for businesses looking to move into cloud computing, social media, and mobile web technology. READ MORE
From Monday to Wednesday in San Francisco, TechCrunch’s latest Disrupt Start-up Battlefield competition is showcasing entrepreneurs from 30 start-ups, all vying for a $50,000 prize by making six-minute-long pitches to a rotating panel of venture capitalists, tech influencers, angel investors and Silicon Valley players. Tuesday featured three more sessions of Start-up Battlefield, titled Customer-Friendly Enterprise, Local Networks and Increasing Understanding; here are the start-ups presented in session four: Customer-Friendly Enterprise. READ MORE
Coming to the land of first-person shooters and Sonic the Hedgehog: A movie genome project similar to Pandora. Microsoft has announced a licensing agreement with Israeli start-up, Jinni, and may soon make it available to XBox users. READ MORE
Poor Netflix continues to have a really rough few weeks. Customers squawked at its pricing changes. Starz walked out on its streaming-video service. Now Blockbuster says it will start its own online streaming service. READ MORE
A group of computer geeks may decide at least a bit of TV’s future in a 24 hour period this coming weekend. The event, Hackday.tv, will take place at innovation playground General Assembly, and teams of developers will have a day to whip up new TV-based applications. They’ll get access to APIs from a several existing TV start-ups and other related programs. READ MORE
Better check out as many episodes of 30 Rock as you can. It seems that change may soon hit Hulu. The leading indicator? Hulu’s launch in Japan. Hulu Japan has several subtle differences with the U.S. version. READ MORE
