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At the San Francisco New Tech Meetup Wednesday, Podaddies CEO Nate Pagel presented his new company, which puts ads into user-generated videos so that people can make a few bucks from their wacky cats' antics.

The service inserts a call to its ad engine at the end of a video, and displays a streaming QuickTime ad from its library. No matter where the file goes, the ad call goes with it. But not the ad itself; this way, the company gets to serve the ad on demand and can track ad plays and bill the advertiser for them (and cut … Read more

It might be Christmas Eve, but the blogs are still abuzz--mostly with speculation about the big changes in the tech scene that we may or may not be seeing 2007. Over the past couple of days, momentum has been building on a number of stories that are starting to paint what might be one of the first concrete trends we see for '07. Will the coming year be the year of the "killer," the year when big and not-so-big companies join forces to try and topple the products that seem to have a stranglehold on certain niches of … Read more

Short of paying for hosting services or using P2P tools such as Pando, there aren't many ways to upload and share large video files. Viddler, which launched its public beta earlier this month, is a video hosting service with some new tools to enhance both the sharing and viewing experience. Videos can be uploaded to Viddler in batches as opposed to one at a time, a really nice feature. Unlike YouTube and Google Video, which have 100MB limits, individual video uploads are capped at 500MB. During the uploading process, you're shown two separate progress bars; one for the … Read more

Video clips are everywhere. It's hard to go a day without getting an e-mail or an instant message that has a link to a movie from a friend. If that doesn't happen to you, maybe you need new friends, or maybe you need Feedbeat, a playlist service that lets you create your own video channel. Clips can be pulled from a number of providers and ordered to your liking. You get your own custom Feedbeat Web page that other users can bookmark and watch almost like a TV channel. Adding more videos to your Feedbeat playlist is simplified … Read more

StumbleUpon has added a video tool StumbleVideo to its social bookmarking service. StumbleVideo pulls content from YouTube, Google Video, and MySpace. Unlike the original StumbleUpon, there's no toolbar to download, and no signup required to use it. Registration has its benefits though: After the tool has figured out your tastes, it will bring tailored content to suit you.

The interface is very slick. After about 10 seconds of not touching your mouse, most of the player's GUI fades, leaving just the video on the screen. When a video finishes, hitting the giant Stumble button brings up another. If … Read more

You know what I'm talking about. It's not your favorite YouTube video, but it would be if it were shorter, because it's got one hilarious moment bogged down in nine minutes of dumb commentary and bumping the camera around. Some people say that's what you've got to deal with when it comes to user-generated amateur video. But it doesn't have to be that way, according to Boston-based broadband video start-up Gotuit Media. It launched a new Web tool today that's hoping to make online video content more, well, adaptable.

Until this point, Gotuit … Read more

So you've been meaning to waterproof your iPod but haven't gotten around to it. And now the rainy season has begun, and you're afraid of getting it wet.

Why not just watch your videos on the umbrella? That's what researchers at Tokyo's Keio University do, with their invention called the "Pileus": a system that projects photos and videos onto your open brolly. According to Plastic Bamboo, it can even stream Flickr photos and YouTube videos directly through a Wi-Fi connection.

We assume the university won't be held responsible for the sidewalk accidents … Read more

If you can't get enough of exploding Mentos in Diet Coke bottles or the guy who showcases the history of dance, Verizon Wireless has some good news for you. The carrier announced today that it signed a deal with YouTube to bring a limited number of videos to Verizon's 3G handsets starting in early December. Users also will be able to use their phone's camcorders to record their own videos to share with other Verizon customers or YouTube viewers. Granted, the video quality from a camera phone won't be spectacular but if you want to catch … Read more

When Stephen Colbert launched his "Green Screen Challenge" a few months ago--encouraging fans to fill in the background of a video of himself running around with a "Star Wars" lightsaber--it was kind of a dorky novelty, much like Colbert himself. Now, brainy indie-rock act The Decemberists are jumping on the bandwagon. The five-piece Portland, Oregon-based group, best known for accordion-filled sea-shanty rock and lyrics full of words that you haven't seen since the SAT, has teamed up with MTVU for its own green-screen challenge.

Here's the lowdown, thanks to music blog Stereogum: The Decemberists … Read more