The reason for the switch is simple: There has been a boom in showbiz coverage, but much of it is hearsay and spin, making it hard for readers to separate rumors from truth. A lot of the “reporting” has become more sensational as many of our online peers have been lured by the notion of bringing in more consumer eyeballs (and, they hope, more ad money). At Variety, we are apologetically focused on people in the industry. Think of the paywall as a velvet rope, allowing you access to stories that have been confirmed by impartial sources and stories that will better inform you about the world you’re working in. Denied access behind the rope are items based on gossip, half-truths and anonymous rants.

So it would appear that publications face a choice: put up paywalls, or write about “gossip, half-truths and anonymous rants”. It’s really not clear what one has to do with the other; after all, Variety can write about whatever it wants, how it tries to charge for it is a completely separate matter. What’s really amusing though, is that Variety is basically trying to dress up its paywall as some guarantee of quality for readers. In essence, it’s saying “since we are charging for this, you know it must be good.” But when its full letter to subscribers contains seven typos, it looks like Variety is more interested in having the appearance of quality and authority than actually having quality content.

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With the coming of the iPhone and the beginning of the smartphone craze, feature phones took a back seat, and so did the chase for the best equipped handset out there. Yes, specifications still matter, but people are now a bit less concerned with how many megapixels your phone’s camera has, and a little more interested to know what apps it can run.

Still, every now and then comes out a handset that has everything, and does everything – on paper, at least – a little better than the other devices on the market. Judging by the leaked specs of HTC Incredible, unearthed by BGR, it is one such device.

Here’s a short rundown: 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 8 GB internal memory, microSD memory card support, an 8 megapixel camera with autofocus and video capture, and a 3.7”, 480×800 pixel OLED screen. Everything else you expect from a top smartphone is there, too – WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, 3G, Accelerometer, and it runs the latest version of Android, 2.1.

Having had the opportunity to try out both HTC Legend and Desire, I can say that these two phones seemed quite fast and polished; HTC Incredible tops them with specs, and there’s no reason to believe it will underperform in any way. If you’re on the lookout for a top-notch Android smartphone, Incredible might be worth the wait.

For more mobile coverage, follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook

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Once again, it’s a time of anticipation for Apple fans everywhere as the Apple Store is currently down.

It can mean nothing, of course, but with all the MacBook Pro rumors that have been flying around lately, you never know. If the rumors were correct, we can expect an update for four MacBook Pro models; three 15″ MacBook Pros and a 17″ MacBook Pro.

Tags: apple, Apple Store

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Realtime media sharing platform TweetPhoto this morning announced that it has raised $2.6 million in a Series A financing led by Canaan Partners, with additional investment from Anthem Venture Partners (one of the original backers of Android) and angel investors Tim Kelly (ex-Googler), Frank Asaro, Jack Corrao and Shane Brisbane.

Also investing is Qualcomm, according to TweetPhoto founder & CEO Sean Callahan because most photos are and will continue to be shared via mobile phones.

The startup says it will use the additional capital to bolster its core offering, a platform of open APIs and mobile SDKs for real-time media sharing across the social web, introduce new products and expand its developer relations program.

First launched back in April 2009, TweetPhoto allows users to share and interact with media across multiple social networks through its developer platform.

TweetPhoto users can link their accounts and publish media instantly to Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, and other popular social networks, and the TweetPhoto APIs support features such as photo commenting, favoriting and voting, meta-data filters, geo-tagging, location-based search, friend feeds and customizable widgets.

One year after launching the service, TweetPhoto says it currently serves close to 15 million monthly unique visitors from various social networks, 40 million API requests a day and 250 million images on a monthly basis. A quick glance at Compete suggests that it is trailing competitors like Yfrog and TwitPic, however.

I asked Callahan the obvious question: with all the brouhaha following Twitter’s decision to start filling some holes and purchase iPhone app developer Atebits (maker of Tweetie), isn’t he afraid that Twitter might get into the media sharing field sooner or later either by acquisition (e.g. of rival TwitPic) or by launching a service of its own?

Callahan says that every one of the investors asked that same question, and his answer was always the same: he claims that feature-wise, TweetPhoto beats the competition by a long shot, and that by diversifying where traffic is coming from (as it’s not only a Twitter media sharing service) they migigate the risk of any one social network cutting off the spicket. Callahan adds that TweetPhoto is an agnostic platform for the social web as a whole, with software development kits for a variety of languages and social networks.

This sounds to me exactly what other developers of Twitter applications (such as Seesmic) are saying, but I would really love to hear them repeat those words once Twitter effectively makes some moves.

Callahan, for one, says he has a plan B ready, although he declined to go into detail.

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Funny. Wasn’t it just a year ago that IBM was pressured to abandon its patent application on offshoring?

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Earlier this evening, we broke the news that Twitter was about to launch its new ad platform. The news has just been confirmed: moments ago, the New York Times published a report detailing the new platform, which is officially being called “Promoted Tweets”. Update: AdAge has published a report as well.

Here are the details outlined in the articles:

• As we previously described, the new system serves up ads based on keywords in Twitter search queries.
• Promoted Tweets will appear at the top of the search results page, with small text indicating they were sponsored. The Times piece notes that companies could use this to combat negative tweets (they can place a positive tweet at the top of the page)
• A Promoted Tweet isn’t guaranteed to stay afloat for a long time — if the tweet isn’t tracking well in terms of replies, clicks, and a number of other metrics Twitter is calling “resonance”, it will be pulled, and the advertiser won’t pay for it.
• One ad will be shown at a time



• Initial ad partners include Best Buy, Virgin America, Starbucks, and Bravo
• Advertisers will be paying on a CPM basis initially, with plans to adjust the model once Twitter can better gauge how people are engaging with Promoted Tweets

Both reports note that Twitter will eventually allow third party Twitter clients to integrate Promoted Tweets, with the app developer receiving a cut of the revenue.

In a move that may raise the ire of Twitter users, the articles also state that Twitter plans to eventually put ads into your Twitter stream:

In the next phase of Twitter’s revenue plan, it will show promoted posts in a user’s Twitter stream, even if a user did not perform a search and does not follow the advertiser.

For example, if someone has been writing posts about the Fourth of July, they could see a promoted post from Virgin America on holiday fare discounts.

Now would be a good time to point out some of the comments made about the upcoming ad platform by Twitter COO Dick Costolo at our RealTime CrunchUp last November:

“It will be fascinating. Non-traditional. And people will love it… It’s going to be really cool.”

Do Promoted Tweets live up to that promise? At this point, we haven’t gotten a chance to try them out for ourselves, but this is certainly more conventional than I was expecting. It also sounds a whole lot like TweetUp, the new Twitter search/ad platform that Bill Gross launched last night.

Image via AdAge

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Tonight, Cisco-owned Flip has announced a new addition to the company’s highly popular line of web video-friendly cameras. The SlideHD features a slide-up touchscreen and new navigation. This model, which can record up to four hours of HD video at a time, will retail for around $279.

The device features a 3-inch tilting LCD screen and stereo speakers for video viewing. Playback seems to be a core value proposition for Cisco; the company even goes as far as coining the phrase “shoot and show.”

In a press release, the company states, “With SlideHD, anyone can capture an exciting event and then relive the moment with immediate playback as friends gather around[...] Playback makes it ideal for many occasions such as entertaining the kids with their own personal video show or fine-tuning a tennis serve.”

The camera, with 16GB of memory, can also store up to 12 hours of user videos, movies and content from Flip channels. HD video is recorded at a 1280×720 resolution in H.264 and MP4 formats. Personalized designs will be available.

The full product specs are as follows:

Internal Memory: 16GB (4 hours)
Screen Size: 3.0″ Transflective Touch Screen
Screen Resolution: 400 x 240 pixels
Video Resolution: 1280 x 720
Frame Rate: 30 frames per second (constant frame rate progressive scan)
Video Bitrate: 8.8Mbps (average – auto adaptive algorithm)
Video Format: H.264 video compression, AAC audio compression, saves as MP4 file
Lens Type: Fixed Focus (1.5m to infinity)
Aperture: f/2.4 (fast lens for great results in low-light environments)
Zoom: Smooth multi-step 2x digital
Interface: 8 Touch-Sensitive Buttons (Power, Play, Delete, Record and 4 way navigation), Touch slide strip (to quickly scroll through videos)
Dimensions: 4.13″ x 2.17″ x 0.98″ (H x W x D)
PC Connection: Built-in flip-out USB arm (up to 2.0 USB speed)
TV Out: HDMI™ Mini Connector. Standard HDMI™ cables sold separately (buy now)
Battery Life: Rechargeable lithium ion battery, charges on both USB and Flip Video power adapter (buy now).
Tripod Mount: Yes
Operating Systems: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
Mac OSX
Min. Requirements: (PC) 3.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or faster processor, Windows XP SP2 with 512 MB of RAM, Vista or Windows 7 with 1 GB of RAM, and USB 2.0 port
(Mac) 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster processor, 1 GB of RAM, OS X, Leopard 10.5 or Snow Leopard 10.6, and USB 2.0 port
Software: Pre-loaded FlipShare™ software for instant viewing, editing, one-click emailing, and online sharing:
Browse, playback, organize and archive your videos
Create movies with video clips, music and titles
Edit clips and create still-image snapshots from video
Instantly upload to Facebook™, MySpace™, YouTube™ and other video sharing sites
Share your videos privately using attachment-free emails or greetings cards (free and unlimited video sharing)
Create private Flip Channels to share your videos with groups of family and friends

Tags: camera, Flip, slidehd, web video

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