Hulu Is Looking Brand New

I hadn't been on Hulu in a good minute so I figured it would be a nice time to clean up my queue.  Movie trailers can really clog that bad boy up, but I digress.  Anyway, I've always liked the site's layout, but it appears even cleaner, now.  Check it out:

Hulu & Facebook Become Closer Friends

Interact. We are excited to announce a new feature that is the first-of-its-kind and one that we think will become a staple at Hulu going forward. One of the most exciting features we are launching today is the ability to comment on a specific moment in time while watching any video on Hulu, and with one click, instantly share those remarks — and the relevant video moment from the program — on Facebook for all your friends to see. When you comment on a Hulu video, that exact moment will appear on Facebook so your friends can jump in and react right away. And since friends can respond to your comments, you can have those water cooler conversations online at any time. We’ve been using this feature in test mode here at Hulu HQ for a bit…and we are officially addicted. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

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@MayorEmanuel Steps From Behind The Keyboard & Onto Colbert Report

The Daily Show Investigates Batman's Muslim Sidekick

For a peek behind the curtain of the Daily Show you can read the ComicsAlliance.com's Chris Sims' account of his time in the hot seat. Here's a sample:

When I told the producer at The Daily Show that Jon Stewart was taller than I thought he was going to be, he responded with "That's the first time anyone has ever said that."

Admittedly, I only saw him from across a room and there's a good chance that there might've been some weird optical illusion going on, but really, I'm a fan of the show and after ten solid years of jokes about how short he was, I was expecting him to be like a more politically aware member of the Lollipop Guild. As it turns out, he's just slightly shorter than average.

I saw Jon Stewart while I was at The Daily Show's New York City studios to film the segment that aired last night, in which correspondent Aasif Mandvi covered the controversy over Nightrunner, the French representative of Batman, Inc. who is also comics' newest Muslim character.

For the rest of the piece click here.


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Viacom + Hulu = Welcome Back Jon Stewart

We are extremely happy to announce a broad content agreement between Viacom and Hulu that brings The Daily Show and The Colbert Report Report back to Hulu and now also to Hulu Plus, beginning this morning. Each of the shows will be available the morning after they originally air.

The only thing that I actually care about is the return of The Daily Show & Colbert Report to Hulu, but if you are interested to find out what else this deal brings see Hulu's blog.

Random Geekery: Reformat The Planet

Reformat The Planet is a feature length documentary which delves into the movement known as Chiptune, a vibrant underground scene based around creating new, original music using old video game hardware.

Childish Gambino (bka Donald Glover) - Culdesac

You may know Childish Gambino a little better through his day job on NBC's Community or his campaign to be the next Spider-Man, but this isn't his first foray into music.  He's put out two mixtapes under this pseudonym I Am Just A Rapper & I Am Just A Rapper 2.  The reason why you don't see either of them on this blog before this post is because, I hated the first one so much that I deleted both from my hard drive before listening to the second.  They may have been your taste, but they were far from mine.

I say that to say this: where the past releases may have failed, this one succeeds.  To be clear, the problem I had with the other mixtape was not his actually rhyming, but his musical selections. Culdesac is a huge step up.

Click Here To Download

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Hulu Plus Is Official

Straight from Hulu's CEO, Jason Kilar:

Hulu Plus is not a replacement for Hulu.com. Hulu Plus is a new, revolutionary ad-supported subscription product that is incremental and complementary to the existing Hulu service. For almost all of the current broadcast shows on our service, Hulu Plus offers the full season. Every single episode of the current season will be available, not just a handful of trailing episodes. Now there’s never a bad time to jump in on a hot new show like Modern Family (which I recommend highly). From Family Guy to Glee, from The Office to 30 Rock, from Grey's Anatomy to Desperate Housewives, from Parks & Recreation to Parenthood, from House to Saturday Night Live, and dozens of other hits, the best time to jump in on any series is any time, and with any episode, that’s right for you.

As a Hulu Plus subscriber, you’ll now also have access to back seasons or full runs of some of TV’s greatest shows. All nine seasons of The X-Files. All three seasons of Arrested Development. Ten seasons of Law and Order: SVU. All five seasons of Ally McBeal. Seven seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and three seasons of Roswell. Every episode ever of Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. Classic skits from the first five and most recent five seasons of Saturday Night Live. The list goes on. This is all on top of hundreds of shows already on Hulu.com today. It’s a treasure chest in the cloud for TV lovers.

Subscribers to Hulu Plus will also be able to download a Hulu Plus application for certain Samsung televisions and Blu-ray players that have an internet connections. Hulu will also bring Plus to the iPad, iPhone 3GS & 4 as well as the iPod Touch. Apparently Hulu has no love for us Android users. Also, it appears that Hulu and Sony have finalized the deal to bring Hulu Plus to the Playstation 3. The Hulu Plus service will be $9.99 a month, but for the moment it will be invite only. You can apply for an invite at Hulu.com/plus.

For more information, here's the full press release.

Hulu's Getting Closer To Subscription Service

For $10 a month, viewers will reportedly have access to a wider selection of shows than the free, ad-supported version Hulu currently offers. The service would work on PCs and specialized devices such as the iPad, video game consoles and set-top boxes. The company plans to test a version of this “Hulu Plus” subscription, an expected development, with select users as early as this month to find out whether they’ll will bite, according to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal and All Things Digital.

To read the rest of the article shuffle on over to Wired.com.

More Details On Google TV

Here are answers to some of the frequently asked questions, straight from Google:

Q. What is Google TV?
A. Google TV is an open platform for TV-related devices that brings together the best of TV and the best of the web to deliver the premier entertainment experience for the living room. It is built on Android and runs the Google Chrome web browser.

Q. What does it mean for the developer community?
A. The Google TV platform will bring developers into the living room. Web developers can start taking advantage of the big TV screen as soon as products hit shelves this fall. In the future, the Google TV platform will allow developers to navigate TV content. Android developers will not only have access to most of the Android APIs currently available but also to Google TV-specific API extensions that tap into the power of TV. We will have more details later this year.

Q. When will Google TV be available?
A. Google TV devices will go on sale in fall 2010.

Q. Will Google TV work if I don’t subscribe to paid TV service?
A. You don’t need a set top box for Google TV to work. However, a set top box and service is required to access your TV feed.

Q. Does Google TV require Bluetooth support? Can I use Bluetooth keyboards and game pads with the devices announced?
A. Google TV will come with its own input device. In the future, other input devices may be created and used with Google TV.

Q. When will the SDK add-on for Google TV be available to developers?
A. The SDK add-on with Google TV-specific extensions will be available a few months after first product availability.

Q. Can I download Google TV? When will it be open sourced?
A. No, Google TV is only available pre-installed on Sony TVs and blu-ray players, as well as Logitech companion boxes. We are working hard to open source the code for the Google TV project, and hope to release the source code next year.

Here's some of what Engadget had to say:

The basic facts

Google TV isn't a single product -- it's a platform that will eventually run on many products, from TVs to Blu-ray players to set-top boxes. The platform is based on Android, but instead of the Android browser it runs Google's Chrome browser as well as a full version of Flash Player 10.1. That means Google TV devices can browse to almost any site on the web and play video -- Hulu included, provided it doesn't get blocked. It also means that Google TV devices can run almost all Android apps that don't require phone hardware. You'll still need to keep your existing cable or satellite box, however -- most Google TV devices won't actually have any facility for tuning TV at launch, instead relying on your existing gear plugged in over HDMI to do the job. There's a lot of potential for clunkiness with that kind of setup, so we'll have to see how it works in person.

All Google TV devices will have remotes with some form of QWERTY keyboard, and you'll be able to use Android phones as remotes as well. Using an Android phone opens up some extremely intriguing possibilities, like searching for content using Google Voice Search and navigating by gesture, but it's not clear how deep the integration between Android on Google TV and Android on phones will be at launch.

Partners

Google's not going into the living room alone -- the company's launching Google TV with an impressive array of partners, each of whom has a different spin on the platform. Here's the list:

• Sony plans to build BRAVIA Internet TVs and Blu-ray players that run the platform, all expected to launch this fall.
• Logitech is building a Google TV "companion box" that can control your entire A/V rack using Harmony technology, using and Android phone or an iPhone as the remote.
• Dish Network was actually the beta test partner, but we don't specifically know what its plans are -- there's no hardware right now, and Google demoed the platform using a custom IP protocol to control a Dish receiver. We're guessing that means there's no custom hardware coming, but look for Google TV-ready Dish boxes sometime in the fall as well.
• Adobe's obviously building Flash 10.1 for the platform.
• Intel's making the Atom CE4100 chip that's used in all these devices -- it's actually kind of a burner. More on it later on.
• Best Buy has partnered to sell Google TV devices in its stores, so there's going to be a big retail push

If you're interested in more info, Google TV: everything you ever wanted to know.

Hulu Updates It's Desktop Player

Hulu's Effort To Be More Social

Hulu is introducing Watch Now, which is a Facebook app that allows users to streaming content on Facebook as soon as it is posted to Hulu. 

• You can post real-time updates as you watch, sharing them with your friends and others.
• Facebook events for the show premieres, so you can plan a time to watch online with other fans
• You can also RSVP for upcoming events for other shows by following the event links from their Hulu: Watch Now app pages.

Source

Hulu Desktop Application

If you're on Hulu, please be my friend. Also, if you have tried out the application, tell me what you think of it. I'm going to download it & try it out this week.

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