SAN FRANCISCO, 2:05 PM, SAT JUL 5 | 4 POSTS IN THE LAST 24 HOURS | tips@valleywag.com | RSS
Posts Tagged “

lifecasters

deathcasters

Sarah Austin plurks the road


"Everywhere I go on Twitter everyone is talking about Plurk right now!" exclaims tireless neo-camgirl Sarah Austin, the videoblogger formerly known as Sarah Meyers, and before that Sarah Austin. In this video report, filed via some future-fantastic combination of Web services and mobile-phone video live from the street in Manhattan, Sarah not only gets the story, she almost gets hit by a car. Gee whiz, kids, look both ways before you blog: More »

lifecasters

Justin.tv -- one year old and still full of illegal content

Lifecasting site Justin.tv has come a long way since banning a broadcaster for one night of indecent exposure — that is, sexual acts. There may be less porn now, but other illegal content now graces Justin.tv's servers. Right now I'm watching a stream of Fox Sports Net West's broadcast of the San Diego Padres playing the Los Angeles Angels. Last night, more than 2,000 people watched the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers play. Given Major League Baseball's draconian online reporting rules — no more than seven photos from any game; audio and video clips can be a maximum of two minutes and can't be streamed live — we doubt the MLB is happy about this. More »

rumormonger

Ustream.tv may turn down Microsoft's $50 million

Yahoo's move into live video could have kneecapped startups like Justin.tv and Ustream.tv. Instead, its botched launch just proved that serving up streams is a harder business than it looks — and got Yahoo rivals like YouTube interested. We hear Ustream.tv is now leaning strongly against taking Microsoft's $50 million bid, and going with a top VC firm instead. Cofounder Brad Hunstable would only concede that "something is going on." Anothing thing going on: Yet another new boss. "Chuck Wallace is the CEO," Hunstable told Valleywag. Note the present tense. If Wallace is replaced in conjunction with a new round of funding, it would be the third time an investor has installed new management.

online video

Ustream.tv and Justin.tv respond to YouTube's live streaming gauntlet



YouTube cofounder Steve Chen confirmed that YouTube is working on a live streaming product which would put it in competition with lifecasting startups like Ustream.tv and Justin.tv, as well as the "experimental" Yahoo Live service. We asked Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel and Ustream.tv CEO Brad Hunstable how their companies felt about the move. More »

exclusive

Ustream.tv negotiating $50 million sale to Microsoft

Sources tell Valleywag that lifecasting startup Ustream.tv is in advanced discussions with Microsoft to acquire the lifecasting service for more than $50 million, but there are other companies in the bidding as well. Ustream is currently raising a very large initial round of VC financing, and Microsoft is attempting to grab them prefunding for a cheap price. Our tipster also mentions that Microsoft would use Ustream as a way to promote its Adobe Flash competitor, Silverlight. Ustream has raised around $2 million from angel investors, and seems to have hit the market at just the right time. More »

lifecasters

Yahoo's lifecasting service is Live! Sort of!

Yahoo's lifecasting service has "launched" — if you can call it that. As we reported, Yahoo Live allows users to stream live video for users to watch, similar to the services of startups Ustream.tv and Justin.tv. This marks the first time that a major company has gotten into the lifecasting space. At launch, the featured user was "JT the Bigga Figga," but sadly, Yahoo seems to be running out of server capacity and is streaming only intermittently. Yahoo's Bradley Horowitz announced in his Twitter feed that "live.yahoo.com is, well, live... Help us crush it with load." I guess he wasn't kidding. If it decides to work, watch Splunk the Pony streaming live, after the jump. It's by far the most interesting lifecast I've ever seen. More »

geeks gone wild

Yahoos face future careers as camboys, camgirls

"Reduced," "reallocated," "redeployed," "realigned." Can Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang not find the words to describe Yahoo's anticipated 1,000 layoffs? Here's a suggestion: The Yahoos who lose their jobs should use Yahoo Live, the Web portal's new employees-only lifecasting service, to record their meetings with HR as they receive the pink slips. That could be almost as entertaining as AOL France's poignant farewell.

exclusive

Yahoo soft-launches lifecasting service

Yahoo is launching a new video service called Yahoo Live. Initially available for Yahoo employees only, the service allows users to create their own "social broadcasting experience." Translation: Yahoo is the first major company to get into the lifecasting space currently occupied by startups like Ustream.tv and Justin.tv. Last week, we reported that Yahoo was looking to launch some splashy products to distract from its financial problems and layoff rumors. Yahoo Live seems to fit the bill. Catch the notice posted on Yahoo's intranet, Backyard, after the jump. More »

ijustine

iJustine confession: "I was a lifecaster" -- and unfortunately, she still is



iJustine, the videoblogger who's almost as clever as she is blonde, flails about in an attempt to parody herself. The videoblogger mimics her viewers' invasive demands: taking her top off, poking out her eye with a fork, throwing herself under a truck. Don't bother watching — she doesn't deliver on any of it. But is she self-aware, or should we just be wary? More »

DeCentral.tv, the company behind Kyte.tv, egoblogger Robert Scoble's favorite drive-while-you-film-yourself lifecasting site, has raised $5.6 million from Spain's Telefonica. No wonder Scoble is yet to confirm that he'll be working at Fast Company come January. [NewTeeVee]

lifecasters

iJustine to run her own show

As reported a couple of weeks ago, Justine Ezarik, the blonde videoblogger better known as iJustine, has opened her own website, iJustine.tv. Neither of her potential suitors, Justin.tv and Ustream.tv , appear to have won her heart outright. Ezarik's maintaining channels on both lifecasting startups, and also posting videos using Viddler and Revver. The girl knows how to keep her options open. Her latest affair is with ChannelMe.tv, a little-known .tv domain registrar, video-streaming service, and advertising platform. Unsurprisingly, ChannelMe's site now features iJustine. More »

ustream.tv

What's a wantrepreneur? Ask Ustream.tv's founders

For the definition of "wantrepreneur," look no further than the founders of Ustream.tv, a lifecasting Web-video startup you've likely never heard of — probably for lack of nude lesbians. Here's what you should know about Ustream: Twice in its short history, an investor in the company has felt compelled to take over. More »

lifecasters

iJustine dumping Justin.tv for single life?

Rumor is spreading that Justine Ezarik, the blonde videoblogger better known as iJustine, is leaving Justin.tv. Ezarik, who holds the dubious distinction of being the most popular lifecaster of the moment, is currently denying that she's leaving the self-broadcasting service where she made her name. Ustream.tv, where Justine first started videoblogging before she made it big on Justin.tv, has regained the affections of the vlog hottie, or so the story goes. As is often the case when two are competing for the attention of one woman, neither suitor ever really wins. More »

bad ideas

Lifecasting ad absurdum

One lifecasting video entrepreneur makes it big, and suddenly the Internet is crawling with me-too networks and absurd self-broadcasting mashups. The latest such venture moves from simple audience observation to audience participation. Mod My Life pegs itself as a new form of virtual reality. One of its "modstars" (a witless if not unwitting chap armed to the teeth with broadcasting equipment) is unleashed in New York City. Think of it as Digg meets Subservient Chicken: Viewers submit actions for the bloke to perform, and in Digg-like fashion, the most popular suggestions are voted on, and then the lifecaster is forced to perform them. Genius examples include "pretend to be the bouncer at the Taco Bell" and "try and sell a free newspaper." I'm waiting for "have a quickie in a needle-laden alleyway" or "defecate on Prometheus at the Rockefeller Center." Bonus points awarded for "holding my attention for more than five minutes" and "making its way out of beta."

justin.tv

Lifecasting site bans lifecasting

We've been covering — so to speak — the exposed skin at lifecasting site Justin.tv not because we think the company should enter the porn business. Even if that's the site's best shot at actually making a buck. No, we're fascinated at how the startup is willing to cut off its core audience of self-involved youth, who want every moment of their lives on the Internet, titillating and stupefyingly boring alike. The company only received any attention at all because of the any-thing-goes, 24/7 habits of its founder Justin Kan. Now, the startup seems to have abandoned the spirit of "lifecasting" altogether. More »

justin.tv

Last defense of nude-lesbian haters removed

Lifecasting site Justin.tv no longer has any reason to restrict nudity and sexual content on their broadcasts. This morning's news of a United States Court of Appeals ruling overturning the recordkeeping provisions of the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act of 1988, might have some effect on YouTube — but it's going to have a much bigger impact on lifecasters like Justin.tv. More »

A Justin.tv "lifecaster," who sports a head-mounted camera wherever he goes, is a huge jerk to a very polite movie-theater manager who asks him to remove his camera when he enters the theatre. Then he gets worked up and defensive when people call him out for his rude behavior. Ah yes, this must be what Al Gore envisioned when he invented the Internet. [TechCrunch]

lifecasters

Do you honestly have nothing better to do than gawk?


If ever you wanted a sign of how neglected Valleywag is at our publisher's New York headquarters, look no further than the new Gawker channel on lifecaster Justin.tv. Clearly, no one at Gawker reads Valleywag. They're set to learn the hard way how pointless lifecasting is. There are, at present, a grand total of 100 people watching what has to be one of the most mundane and boring forms of entertainment ever created — a live webcam feed from Gawker HQ. Wow. Look at all the dirty, unshaven bloggers. It's like some sort of deranged petting zoo. All this is doing is stroking head honcho Nick Denton's already overblown ego — with the unfortunate side effect of promoting streaming video as the next big Internet phenom, which it clearly is not. Quit your gawking and move on.