Interesting things are happening at YouTube, now owned by Google. The cloud, cloud computing, is trying to be a big deal though it’s seems to start and stop. But this could be a shot in the cloud. Google says YouTube’s new editing tool allows users to manipulate video online, FREE.

Apparently there’s no complicated software download and a very shallow learning curve. You can be up and running, editing your video clips in the cloud to your heart’s content. YouTube Video Editor has a vast library of borrowable tracks to enhance your work and add some fun. You’ll need to register a free account to use the tools – all it wants is your name and email address.

Take a look, give it a try, and see if you can create your own cool portfolio of videos online. If that appeals, don’t forget to take a look at Animoto, as well.

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Try editing your videos free with Animoto.com

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Display the World Wide Web with HTML5

If you follow tech news, you’ve heard a bucketful about the virtual war between Apple and Adobe (makers of FLASH) over web design. Apple supports adopting HTML5 and Adobe still says FLASH is the thang. What’s it all about? Money and sales, of course, but here are some facts about how HTML5 may relate to your Internet experience in the near future.

Definitions HTML5 and FLASH

HTML is hyper text markup language, a fancy way of describing the coding tags web designers have used since the dark ages of webpages to make plain old text look fancy. HTML causes a browser to display specific or general colors, fonts, text styles, images, links, and everything else that goes into making webpages cool. HTML is part of the web page, a container for design elements.

FLASH is Adobe’s add-in program that causes web browsers to interpret video, animation, special effects, and interactivity. It was invented by Macromedia, a property of Adobe who makes Photoshop and other imaging software.

Like all things digital, HTML (and FLASH) goes through various iterations of itself as the powers-that-be adopt changes and improvements. The coming generation, being fiddled with now but not in wide use, is HTML5. Because the two platforms overlap in functionality, there’s an ongoing debate about which is better, HTML5 or FLASH, for cell phones, computers, etc. Apple’s Steve Jobs (CEO) is a master of calling attention to his company and so, has made it his hobby to bash FLASH and Adobe. This has no impact on us, as people.

The 10 facts about HTML5

I’ve been writing HTML code since, I don’t know, like 1998? and I like it. It’s easy to write, easy to use, and it’s an open-source platform. That means no one owns or controls HTML. So here’s how HTML5 will impact your coming experience.

1. Any designer, including you or me for our home pages, can do stuff like liquid particles without much learning curve.
2. Web users won’t have to download new versions of HTML5 like we do FLASH. Designers have to keep up on new tags. You just browse.
3. It won’t cost you anything to use it, write it, read it.
4. FLASH may have serious security issues. It’s doubtful that would ever be the case with HTML as a platform
5. HTML should be transparent to users (you and me) and has the potential to be read in any browser or adopted by any cell phone manufacturer.
6. Because it’s open source, it’s development as a platform will gain from contributions of some of the world’s brightest developers. No one has to hire them. The developers just contribute. We win.
7. Browsers will be backwards compatible – meaning old browsers will ignore new HTML5 tags they don’t understand and still provide you a usable website experience.
8. Embedding video in web pages will be easier and standardized so you can add video to your blog or page, play it on any browser, and enjoy more of it.
9. It may become possible for us to have web applications that run offline even if you do not have an active Internet connection running.
10. There will probably be lots more gadgets or mini-apps on the Web, just like those found for cell phones now, that you’ll be able to download and play with. Many will be free.

HTML5 vs Flash

At the end of this story is a simple fact. Right now, HTML5 isn’t doing much for you, but behind the scenes it’s maturing like a toddler in a growth spurt. Right now, browsers mostly don’t know what to do with it. Developers for Microsoft’s IE, the most ubiquitous web browser, need a swift kick in the template to get them moving on adopting HTML5 as current reality.

Safari is onboard, others are partially onboard.

FLASH is FLASH and it’s insecure, and can cause display problems.  Adobe seriously needs to tighten up FLASH and make it safer and more stable.

The future isn’t here yet, but HTML5 will be in it, and really, I can’t wait. In all likelihood, you and I will never make a webpage with FLASH, it’s too complicated. I can write HTML all day long and enjoy the process, and so could you if you picked up one reference book. I think HTML will be fun for designers and for users.

More cool digital stuff:

High tech design for U.S. currency

The digital side of real estate

Home theater on the cheap

Tooling around the web I found some fascinating tidbits about Nintendo. My quest began when I browsed the editorial calendar from one of the publications I write for. It said Nintendo, the company, was founded in 1889. It’s been around almost a century and a quarter. Digital trivia I needed to know more about, and I was surprised by what I learned.

Nintendo (the word, says the company website, means something like “Leave luck to heaven” in Japanese) originally made card games. Later, according to Wikipedia, they dabbled in being a taxi company, a TV Network, an instant rice maker, and what is carefully described as a “love hotel.”

Now, they’re mega-players in one of Japan’s busiest industries, electronic gaming. They own the Seattle Mariners baseball team and are worth almost $100 billion.

Before Nintendo wowed the world with two guys, Mario and Luigi, they owned Japanese distribution rights to a video game system most baby boomers will remember, Magnavox Odyssey, often considered the world’s first home video game system. Odyssey was first demonstrated in May, 1973 (again, according to Wikipedia). I recall clearly playing Light Tennis until my eyes went glassy and I had to pee so badly it felt like my teeth were floating.

The first NES game system debuted in the U.S. in 1985 – accompanied by Super Mario Brothers, still a hands-down favorite among serious game enthusiasts. If you think back, you’ll recall that it came with the light gun and Duck Hunt, too, an amazing feat of electronic wizardry for its time.

From manufacturing cards to swamping the electronic home game industry with the innovative Wii system in 2007, Nintendo has come a long way. They’re winding up to pitch a 3D handheld DS game this year, and keep tossing out new ideas all the time like a program to integrate DS game decks into school curricula.

Leave luck to heaven might well be the company motto. Skill and business sense seem to be where it’s at for this firm that employs about 4,000 people in more than half a dozen countries. You go, Mario.

Read more:

Nintendo for baby boomers

Learn about Ubuntu – the op sys that can dump Windows

Edit your videos FREE

DIY videos good and cheap

Animoto.com is an online do-it-yourself video production program so easy your grandchildren could absolutely create their own videos. It’s effortless and affordable. We found it fun and quick enough that the shortest attention span can hold out during the production process.

For free trial use go to the site and clicked on the get started link. We found seven options to make shorts, full-length, unbranded video and four kinds of greeting cards. We got an immediate nudge for upgrading to a paid subscription, but hey, they’re in business to make money. Once you buy a membership – you can begin creating videos. We chose the All Access level and decided to make an unbranded, short video.

We found we could turn photos or clips into a 30 second video the one featured above, with storytelling text. The site is straight forward and easy-to-use. We uploaded still images from our computer to the site. You can use your own images, select from Animoto’s stock library or retrieve from another website like Flickr, Facebook, Picassa. You’re responsible for monitoring copyrights on your own. In other words – use only material you have rights to.

Once we uploaded, the amount of time required was governed by length and resolution of the videos or stills. Animoto allows 8-15 elements (clips or images) in shorts. We chose four still images, typed a little text  and clicked. Animoto took us to background music selection, the  we gave the video a title and short description. Our video processed, analyzed and rendered, letting us know what it was doing each step of the way, for about 60 seconds. Then Animoto began actual production, showing us in color animation what it was doing. I was interested in following the progress over one and a half minutes it took to complete the video.

When finished, Animoto loaded the do-it-yourself video into the page and emailed me a copy. I didn’t have to keep the browser open. You can go do something else, or start another video in the meantime. The end result was attractive, high quality video in less than ten minutes. This process is slick and appealing. You can produce videos for your social media – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – or email them to friends and family. They would be suitable for showing customers your entrepreneurial products, or for sending a video resume to employer prospects.

An enterprising person could buy the pro-quality level and start a business producing wedding or family videos for profit. Animoto has been around for about three and a half years and began as a consumer level product. It has expanded to serve photo professionals and will increase its capabilities this year. Bottom line – we couldn’t find anything to complain about. The prices are justifiable, the quality outstanding, the process simple and fast. We recommend you give it a try. My partner, not easily impressed, said, “This is actually totally cool.”

Price points:

Pro account $249 annual subscription – produce unlimited length, unbranded, commercially licensed high res videos. Three months for $99.

All access: $30 per year. Unlimited full length greetings and videos for the price of an evening at the movies. Finished product has the Animoto brand name on it with music video style credits on it indicating your name as producer. It’s like watching real music videos and there are awesome embellishments available. Animoto will provide a downloadable MP4 file for $5 or a DVD for $20. If you can’t find a use for this product, you’re not a photo enthusiast.

Here are some of the best posts from your Digital Grandparent. We make every day technology comfortable for baby boomers – or for anyone else.

Professional bookmakers take on Apple and other tablet computers. Who will win the consumer wars?

Save $1000 on home entertainment.

Should cell phones be permitted on commercial airlines?

You missed clean out your computer day - but it’s never too late!

Eleven cool websites to share with children

If you aren’t hearing well, see an audiologist - it isn’t your grandma’s hearing aid, folks!

Make your own soda pop at home

Birthdays – we all have ‘em. We all have to remember other people’s — and what a hassle that is for me.  I found a perfect solution — FREE! There’s an online site I’ve used for a year that sends you automatic reminders of birthdays you want to remember.

Drop in to Birthday Reminders and take a few minutes to set it up. The coolest thing for me was that I entered email addresses for the folks I want to remember, and the site sent them a request to update their birthdate for me. That’s my idea of a good time. All the work is done.

Birthday Reminders sends me email reminders three times before each birthday, anniversary, or whatever and I can send a card, make a call, or buy a gift. I’m remembrance-challenged and I’m hoping this will change my life-long handicap in that vein. It isn’t that I’m ambivalent about people’s special days – I just flat out can’t keep track. Scatter-brained.

This site, by the way, also allows you to send egreetings, ecards and singing birthday ecards. It’s fun and practical – and again, it’s FREE. The site managers claim their turf is ad-free and spam-free. They swear they do not share your info with anyone. In a year, I haven’t has any spam or cause for alarm.

I read a recent email from a PR agency that works with entertainment clients, and I almost hit delete. The email quoted book making odds on which electronic reader will top the 2010 market in sales. I though it was plain silly – and useless to argue odds about whether Apple iPad will bludgeon the rest of the readers. But then, I figured my readers have a right to know. So here it is.

Bookmaker’s odds – will iPad beat Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader and the rest?

The email press release says:

With the recent unveiling of the new iPad, it has without doubt raised awareness on how it will compare to similar pieces of technology on the market today. CEO Mickey Richardson and his team at Bookmaker.com, one of the leading sportsbooks, have put together odds on the BEST SELLING TABLET IN 2010.

The +/- Indicates the Return on the Wager. For Example: Betting on the candidate least likely to win would earn the most amount of money, should that happen. The percentage is the likelihood the contestant(s) will win.]

That’s for what it’s worth. My two cents-worth: None of these electronic book readers is quite there yet. I’m waiting for electronic paper, promised by gurus since the early ’90s. It will, they say, look, sound, and feel like paper. (Harry Potter’s newspaper?) I also want the equipment to be smaller, and to do more, and to multi-task.

I haven’t seen iPad up close yet, so I won’t critique it. Early word is early adopters of that unit will be folks who are slightly less tech-oriented. No problem there, plenty of baby boomers like technology but don’t want to wallow in it. Let’s see how it goes.

The odds above are not much use to me, but if you’re in to that sort of thing, maybe you can get up an office pool or something. Of course all proceeds would go to charity, and none of you would gamble….

More reading:

What the heck is a tablet?

High class papers for photo printing via inkjet

Reading this may save your grandchild’s life–or yours. Using a cell phone and sending text messages while  driving is as dangerous as drinking to excess and getting behind the wheel of a car.  Texting is the most dangerous distraction on the road and an epidemic among teens whose heads are firmly in their back pockets. If you know teen drivers – ride herd on them until they get it. You’ll save lives.

Are the Feds hiding evidence?

Two consumer groups FOIA-ed (Freedom of Information Act) documentation that indicates possible hanky panky in 2003 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Network news mediasays NHTSA declined to conduct a study related to cell phone use by motorists.

NHTSA allegedly squelched pounds of existing documentation that indicates extreme danger when drivers use cell phones. Even hands-free cell phones. Drivers on cell phones, says that documentation, caused nearly 1000 highway fatalities in 2002 and were responsible for 250,000 accidents. The data in 2002 said 6% of drivers were using cell phones at any given time. Imagine what that figure is now.

In 2003, traffic fatalities due to cell phone use more than doubled, and texting didn’t even exist.

I took a defensive driving course a couple of years ago, something I strongly encourage my peers to do. It was fascinating – I learned things I had never known and revisited basics I had forgotten.

A key points our instructor made: Your car, at highway speeds, goes half the length of a football field in under 2.5 seconds. If you look away from the road long enough to locate and pick up your beverage, unwrap your burger, swat your misbehaving child, or glance at your map, you can easily find yourself in an emergency situation facing a traffic hazard you never saw coming.,

If you are texting, you look down in your lap. Your thumbs are busily punching text buttons while your knees steer the car. You compose a text to your BFF (best friend forever), it could be your last thought. Or the last moment of someone else’s life. All because of 140 characters of text that were so urgent.

You don’t text, you say? How about your kids, nieces and nephews, grand kids? My daughter does. My neighbor texts in the car. My real estate agent texts or talks on a cell phone constantly.

You don’t think it’s a big problem? This year, many cities, like Chicago, outlawed texting while driving. I challenge you to watch other drivers carefully as you drive home today. See how many swerve slightly as they go. Are their heads canted downward, toward their laps? Are their hands on the wheel…or texting? You’ll see an amazing number of people in that position as they fly down our roads and highways. If you honk – you’ll get the finger.

If that text-addict screws up – you may get dead.

More to read

Should passengers use cell phones on airline flights?

11 top sites to share with kids

FREE anti virus is your best bet

Let’s take a quick look at CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, before it opens in Las Vegas and see what might be coming to consumers in 2010. Baby boomers are often early adopters, since we have some discretionary income and resources, and, of course, free time. But baby boomers, while we buy electronics and like them, are very discerning about quality and purpose.

I wandered the Web looking to see what the consensus is. My take, no one is expecting much in the way of mind-blowing excitement. We may not be buying truckloads of gadgets this year. The big thing is expected to be electronic readers, if you’re talking how many will turn up in CES booths.

Electronic Readers

Molly Wood, of my favorite podcast, Buzz Out Loud from Cnet, says it will be raining readers. Only trouble is, most agree that of the dozens or maybe even a hundred that will debut, only three or fewer are likely to have much new to offer. And the prices still suck. Color is still not going to be a factor since the technology is too pricey.

As for 3-D TV

3D sets will probably be available. Molly says it’ll be dead on arrival, no one wants to wear the glasses at home – the providers will charge high premiums; it’s just not main stream. It’s a toy for people who have too much money and too much time. But who fits that demographic these days? 3D was to have been the big deal for 2009 and it fizzled out. As I see it, some people will buy the set, watch one show and say, “Is that all there is?”

Other electronic stuff

Google’s Nexus One Phone will get attention, for sure. I hope they don’t attach it to a particular carrier – rather see it come out unlocked, meaning it can be activated on more services than a single carrier. Three major cell carriers are tooting about 4G technology. Okay. Yawn.

The superstar of CES?

I would love to see wireless recharging – but not a dozen for a dozen different devices or manufacturers. I want a universal. If someone brings one out at CES, I’d buy it – so would a lot of other people. But I’m not going to buy all new electronics so I can recharge batteries wirelessly.

Something like 25,000 new electronic items will spring from about 3,000 companies before millions of show-goers. Some years, consumers latch on to new stuff and spend money like crazy — ya gotta have the latest and greatest. But since 2009 was the year that taught us how dangerous it can be to practice such conspicuous consumption, I don’t believe crowds will line up outside the big box stores, especially crowds of smart baby boomers, like us.

Read More:

Eleven cool sites to share with kids

Free book downloads for boomers

People are taking sides on whether or not cell phone usage should be allowed on commercial airline flights. DigitalGrandparent has no opinion – we seldom fly. But your take on this is important so here’s a video from the Inflight Passenger Communications Coalition (IPCCC) to explain their point-of-view.

IPCCC Director Carl Biersak is the speaker in the video (runs about three minutes).

It’s one-sided, of course, but makes some fair points. Ring in with your point of view. Comment below and say whether you’d be in favor of cell usage on air planes, against it, or neutral. there are all kinds of issues to consider – passenger convenience, safety (from all angles), whether or not the conversations could become intrusive.

DigitalGrandparent welcomes dialog. Let us know what you think.