Before everyone gets in a huff, let’s consider Amazon’s intentions with these patent applications. Surely they would never allow advertisements to be placed in books which you have purchased legitimately at full price, so let’s put that out of our heads. But what if you could take a few bucks off the cover price at the cost of a few contextual ads relating (if possible) to the book’s content? Personally, I wouldn’t mind — partially because I don’t use a Kindle or intend to any time soon, but more because it’s a no-lose situation. Amazon wouldn’t risk alienating its loyal Kindle base with dirty tricks like this, so it’s safe to assume it’ll be at least somewhat opt-in.

An abundance of free or reduced-price content would widen the appeal of the reader — I imagine many people are put off e-books by the idea that they are not getting their money’s worth. As offensive as the idea of inserting ads into a book is to me (and surely to the average reader), it’s almost certainly part of a value proposition which increases the utility of these expensive little buggers.

While not every tweak to YouTube’s system deserves a post, this one is pretty significant, though very straightforward as well. First, the 1GB file limit for YouTube videos has been doubled to 2GB; this is a boon to many users who have been uploading high definition content more than a few minutes long. Ten minutes of 1080p footage can easily exceed a gig, especially if you’ve been editing it and weren’t careful about re-encoding. A 2GB limit should soothe that particular pain.

Next, the update now allows for direct linking to HD streams, as well as easy embedding of same. While it wasn’t impossible before now to get an HD video by default on your page, or to link right to one, it required a little work. But now YouTube has apparently decided that they are ready for the bandwidth shock as thousands and thousands of users default to HD instead of SD — increasing the average amount of bits being sent by a huge amount.

Did you know you can switch tabs in Firefox by making a twisting motion with your fingers on a multi-touch surface? I did. Turns out I’ve been doing it for months — I thought I was late to the party and was too ashamed to mention it to anybody for fear of an epic internet ribbing (”What, you just figured that out?”). But no, apparently it was top secret and highly experimental. That was in the beta, though; it looks like the official version has reduced it to a hack.

Fortunately, mastering this multi-touch-enabling technique will allow you to tweak your gestures, resulting in everlasting glory.

Reuben Langdon is a motion capture artist in motion pictures and games — you’ve probably directed his actions without knowing it in such games as Resident Evil 5 and Dead Rising. Most recently he’s been working on James Cameron’s epic CG film, Avatar.

He took some time out of his busy backflipping schedule to talk to us about motion capture, having his own studio, and working with Cameron on the biggest and most ambitious CG movie of all time.

Step aside, Mint. Pageonce just launched a major update to its iPhone application, and it blows you out of the water. Pageonce’s v3 update is absolutely fantastic, and Mint’s app pales in comparison. Pageonce’s premium app, A Personal Assistant Premium, allows you to connect all of your online accounts to one login (and one application).

What do we mean by all accounts? We mean damn near everything: from Facebook and Twitter to American Express to AT&T Wireless, Pageonce allows you to connect with pretty much every account that you have online. And it actually works.

The Pre is emerging as a polarizing device, even more so than the G1 (which everyone agreed was kind of beta), probably because it’s the closest thing to a legitimate threat that the iPhone has faced. Who wouldn’t get defensive? With strong sales in its first two weeks and an entirely new OS for developers to do their thing with, it’s strong out of the gate but controlled — because the jockey is holding the reins tight. Palm didn’t expect a dynamite launch or a million app sales in a week; what they’ve got so far is, if we can believe what they say, pretty much what they’d hoped for.

Of course, the TechCrunch network is a treasure trove (a rat’s nest, some would say) of opinions, and we have been known to attack the Pre (savagely and repeatedly) despite our interest in it. The app sales numbers for the Pre need more context than a direct comparison to the iPhone App Store, but that is an important data point, so let’s do it thoroughly.

It’s the changing of the guard. In an continuation of Palm’s reinvention of itself, pioneering ex-Apple exec and Pre torch-bearer Jon Rubinstein will be sitting in the CEO chair at Palm come Friday. Ed Cooligan, the current CEO, will be moving behind the curtain to work with Elevation Partners, a major investor in Palm.

Whether they bet the job on the success of the Pre or had it arranged months ago, it’s probably a good step for Palm to take: the smaller and more agile Palm with its new OS and design will likely function better under the guy who was instrumental in that change.

CrunchGear is on the scene down here in LA, and today was the first big day of the show — even though it doesn’t really even start until tomorrow. Today was actually the day of press conferences by some of the big players, where they drop all their big news and tell you where to check out the latest big franchise games. It’s also a showcase for the latest acquisitions and technology, as well as announcing partnerships and that sort of thing.

Today’s events included Microsoft’s Xbox event this morning, then heavyweight EA’s press conference in the early afternoon, then Ubisoft in the later afternoon (they win the guest presenter contest, with both Pele and James Cameron). They dropped some interesting stuff, though I’d be lying if I told you they didn’t introduce a game where you do fantasy make-up.

Looks like Windows Media Center, that hub for video and audio which I’ve never used, is getting full Netflix streaming support. This is good news for those of you running HTPCs with Vista on them — no need for an extra layer or front-end, just open up WMC, enter your info and you’re on your way.

If you’re not a member, hit up some free trial action and you could be watching a movie in about two minutes without leaving your chair.

We like Android. But let’s be honest, even without that little “beta” tag, we know this is a work in progress. Having had a chance to use our Android phones regularly for several months now, we’ve come across all the issues one would expect in a massive rollout of a mobile OS. Sure, battery life is way better now than it was at launch, and I don’t have to reboot my phone to free up memory any more, but there are still plenty of things we’d like to see added, improved, or fixed.

With the long-awaited Cupcake update coming, we’ll be seeing a lot of new features, but these particular ones seem to have missed the cut. So, without further ado…

Streaming video platform Brightcove has added another partner to its already-impressive group of associates. Vudu, purveyors of fine set-top boxes, have struck up a deal to stream Brightcove-associated content. Brightcove has, at last count, about twenty-one trillion API partners, and delivers video for big names like AOL and the NY Times. Those aren’t available on the Vudu box yet, though; it’s just launching now and the first (and only) video service to hit is Sony’s MyPlay, through which you’ll be able to watch Sony Music videos to your heart’s content. Joy of joys!

A year ago, I would have considered the idea of Sony letting me stream their content onto my TV for free a ridiculous notion, but here we are. Pleasant surprises are mighty rare in this sector.

This last Friday, a few of the developers behind Microsoft Surface took some time out of their schedules to meet with us and talk about what’s coming in their Surface Service Pack 1, due to be rolled out today. Now, it’s called a service pack for a reason — as opposed to a fun pack — this update is a response to the requests and concerns of the community using and developing for the Surface, so it’s not about flashy new gizmos and eye candy, but usability.

There are still a few new visible features, and it’s always fun to play with a Surface, so there’s a nice video for you to watch if you’re interested in how the Surface is changing and how Microsoft is responding to developer feedback. It’s easier to show them than explain them at length, so check them out in the exclusive video inside.

HP wins again with the latest Laptop Hunters episode. Is it just me, or are they doing some really creative editing with the dialogue? It’s like NPR interview editing on steroids. As for her choice, I personally would go with a Mac at that price (not so much at $1000 or $1500), or at least go with a more interesting PC. It’s widescreen and it has a good processor and video card? Okay, that’s every laptop at that price.

Over a period of three years, fantasy author Peter Brett wrote 100,000 words on his HP iPaq during his long subway commute. And here I get all excited when I manage to post a new word I learned to my blog, while sitting at a bar. Given the length of most epic fantasy novels (or cycles) I would have thought it an impossible task to thumb out more than, say, 5-10% on something like a smartphone. But this guy seems to actually thrive doing it.

The headline makes it sound a little more sinister than it is, but that’s really the gist of it. QB1, a robot created by Swiss group OZWE, is essentially a next-generation music playing machine. While things like Pandora and Genius playlists are changing the way people interact with their music within the confines of the traditional OS, OZWE wanted to change the way we interacted with our entertainment devices in the first place. It’s aware of its surroundings in 3D, recognizes faces and pictures, and can interpret gestures. I was skeptical at first, but on reflection, the QB1 seems like a really interesting and powerful idea.

Think of the convenience of multi-touch gestures applied to all your media, and not limited to a small patch on your laptop. Raise your hand and make your fingers into a shelf, then lower it — the volume decreases. Spin your finger around clockwise to fast forward, counter-clockwise to rewind. Speak the name of a song, or the track number, or hold up an album cover to play it. This from anywhere in the same room as the QB1 — or whatever successor makes good on these ideas.
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The first real casualty of the economic crisis has emerged, and it’s a lovable robotic dinosaur. Decreased demand for expensive toys has left Pleo’s creator, Ugobe, wallowing in debt. As a last ditch effort to remain solvent, they’re going to try to auction off the rights to Pleo, but there’s no guarantee that the poor critter will ever be made again.

Pleo has always been a favorite over here at CrunchGear, so we put together a little goodbye tribute video in case the adorable robosaurus is indeed extinct.

Well, we had a good run. The Renaissance, going to the Moon, inventing the Snuggie… but all that’s done now. World of Warcraft is no longer restricted to home and laptop use. Its grip on humanity will be total. Penny Arcade was remarkably prescient in this case; I wonder who Satan (who is the devil) is working for right now? Could be Apple, could be Blizzard, or maybe he’s just freelancing. Now there will be no reason to log off for the poor souls whose evenings are already consumed in questing and raiding.

Most people are familiar with the original X-Prize, won by Burt Rutan and Paul Allen’s SpaceShipOne. The foundation now supports a few other endeavors, including rapid genome sequencing, Lunar exploration, and creating super-efficient vehicles. This last contest is making news this week by announcing all of its 111 entrants at the New York Auto Show. Seems a strange place to show off a lot of cars, Manhattan, but it’s probably a good place to find investors.

The entrants, hailing from 11 countries (but 80% American), range from upstart EV maker Tesla to University teams to a Neil Young-backed outfit running a ‘59 Lincoln with hybrid-electric guts. But no Big Three in sight.

You asked for it. Actually, you asked for girls washing cars. But you have to understand that this year in Seattle, when it hasn’t been raining, it’s been hailing. So just be satisfied that it’s not entirely bearded guys high-fiving each other — although I threw in a little of that for those of you who secretly liked it. It’s a sort of slow-motion smorgasbord.

Like the last reel, this was shot on the Casio Exilim FC-100, the review for which is publishing at the same time as this. I highly recommend both the camera and the lengthy review, the former because it’s good and the latter because I wrote it.

The CrunchGear mobile newswagon is parked in downtown San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference, and although this is a more industry-orientated show, we’ve managed to find some pretty interesting stuff — and of course, a few of the latest games. Check out some of the highlights inside.

This took a little time, but we’ve managed to tether the iPhone using the instructions written by Erica Sadun. It takes about 20 minutes to get it done. You’ll need some basic knowledge of editing configuration files.

As we noted before, this is an at-you-own-risk operation, and if you aren’t a developer you run the risk of having your phone locked. And, of course, the other risk is that your battery life will go from poor to abysmal.

We’ve got one of Casio’s Exilim FC-100s for review right now, and of course the first thing we had to do was test out its vaunted super slow motion functionality. I was going to save this little reel for the review, but it was too fun not to share.

NVIDIA is known primarily for their PC graphics cards, but they’ve been in the news recently both for the expansion of their CUDA and PhysX initiatives as well as (allegedly) developing a CPU to challenge Intel and AMD. They’ve been proponents of parallel processing for quite a while, naturally, and have made some investments in companies like MotionDSP and Elemental Technologies, both of which are developing software that really leverages the GPU.

The success of these investments is difficult to measure (NVIDIA’s been hit as hard as the other semiconductor-related companies, losing 50% of its revenue), but it’s hard to argue with the fact that parallel computing is where practically the entire industry is heading. In light of this, NVIDIA has started what they’re calling the GPU Ventures Program, by which they hope to “identify, support and invest” in companies that are working on GPU-based computing applications.

Good news for those of you with the well-liked Roku player. As we heard was going to happen, and then we heard was in testing, the little thing can now access the many videos on Amazon’s VOD service.

Not too much else to say — I don’t have one, so I can’t test it out. Anybody care to let us know how it works? It should be live as of this posting.

When people think of games on demand, Steam is usually the first thing that comes to mind since so many of us have it by default, having bought Half-Life 2 and whatnot. But there are services that have been around for just as long and which offer the same huge variety of games, like GamersGate, which we’re highlighting because of CrunchGear’s ongoing war with accepting the tech status quo (see Zune).

Online game distribution is becoming as standard as ordering books and electronics online — so why should you tether yourself to a single store? It’s no different than checking prices on both Newegg and TigerDirect — just open an extra tab. You may find GamersGate’s clientless format more or less convenient, or maybe the game you’re looking for is on sale at one but not the other. There’s no reason you shouldn’t put your search into more than one box if it means a chance to save a couple bucks.