Amazon Prime = Netflix-Style Streaming

It has been rumored for some time, but apparently it is no longer a rumor. Amazon.Com is now offering unlimited video streaming to all existing (paid) Amazon Prime customers. I was already a customer for the discounted shipping (mostly for Christmas buying) so this is a NICE perk for me. It is likely to keep me a Prime Customer for the next billing cycle, anyway.

I am sure this intended to compete with NetFlix, but I doubt I'll be dropping one to keep the other. I guess we'll see.

UPDATE 7:00 PM: Experiments have proven that only the MAIN Amazon Prime account. Guest accounts are not eligible without upgrade.

Very Interesting Video Sharing Site

I know a few of our regular Mod-Blog readers are big believers in video sharing sites like YouTube as an alternative to television and DVDs. There is a new one out there, called Video Hybrid. Essentially, it is NOT a sharing site, per se, as it stores no videos. Instead, you can post requets for movies or TV shows. Then members "hunt down" the videos already existing on other Filesharing sites, and post links onto this site, including an embedded version for immediate viewing.

The quality varies widely, but I was able to quickly find THE SIMPSONS MOVIE, TRANSFORMERS, and KNOCKED UP.

Conservatives fail to learn from Air America, launch YouTube competitor

Despite the fact that the "Hillary 1984" commercial premiered on YouTube - along with several other powerful and controversial films that supported Republicans and tore down Demorats - apparently some Conservatives precieve the video sharing website as "too liberal." So in response for the 2008 election season they have founded their own video-sharing website called QubeTV. Using the tagline "Starring The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy", QubeTV wants to define itself as THE place to go for Conservative video commentary and propogada.

Have we learned NOTHING from the failure of Air America? Liberals saw the success of Conservative Talk Radio, and attempted to form their own talk radio station to counter it. The result? Millions of dollars of debt, and pretty much no listeners except for Conservatives who tune in to get angry at what is being said. You do not win the conversation by forming a new conversation far away from the original, excluding the people who started it in the first place. You win a debate by facing people down directly, where they are. All this is going to do is ensure a migration of Conservative thought away from YouTube, which is where the majority of Americans will be looking for grassroots political commentary in 2008.

Update: And, of course, QubeTV BARELY works on my Mac. I get audit, but that is it. Way to try to get the message out to everyone, guys. But we all know only liberals use Macs, right?