Video Archive

Amazon has announced that as part of their streaming video launch on the PS3, they are offering the ability to view the first episode of over 100 television series for free. The free watching period runs for a week from today unless you have an Amazon Prime account which will allow you to watch the full seasons of each show for free.

Some of the series you can watch the first episode for free include:

• Storage Wars (Dave Hester is the man!)
• The Office UK
• Hawaii Five-O
• NCIS Season 1
• Pawn Stars
• Parking Wars (you best park correctly in Philly!)
• Shipping Wars
• Project Runway
• The A-Team Season 1 (BA!)

Amazon notes that “Instant Video” is also available on the Kindle Fire, Roku, televisions, Blu-ray players, and set-top boxes.

View all of the series here.
Continue reading “Amazon Offers Free First Episode of 100+ TV Shows Free” »

This might be the biggest deal of all of the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend. Amazon, the company known most recently for the launch of a brand new tablet called the Kindle Fire, is running a lightning deal for VHS tapes. Amazon, the company that powers the web infrastructure for thousands of major Internet companies through Amazon Web Services, is running a lightning deal for VHS tapes. Amazon, the company that allows you to watch television shows and movies instantly, is running a lightning deal for VHS tapes.

Specifically, the lightning deal is for, “Maxell T120GX/8PK VHS Cassette Standard Grade T-120, 6 Hour, 8 Pack”. I would be all over this but the tapes are only standard grade. I always look for premium grade in my VHS tapes.

I don’t know about you but when I think VHS tapes the first thing that comes to my mind is recording Kelly Kapowski on Saturday mornings back in the late 80′s.

You might be wondering why anyone would want to buy this 8-pack of VHS tapes. Well, first, they make great stocking stuffers. Second, they are great to teach your children about what life was like pre-Netflix. Thinking creatively, you could use the film as party poppers by offering a tape to each of your New Year’s Eve guests!

If you want in, you better hurry – the lightning deal ends in just about one hour! And in a shocker, over 15% of the quantity is already gone!

Continue reading “Amazon Runs HUGE Lightning Deal for Maxell VHS Tapes” »

I just received an email from NCR, the company that owns the Blockbuster Express rental machines, that beginning on November 8, 2011, the rental pricing will change. Their subject line explains how great this change is, “New $3-$2-$1 Pricing Means More Choices for a Great Movie Night”. All I see is that some movies are now $3?!? Michael White at Bloomberg says that the movies have been $3 for a while, all I noticed over the last few months is that Redbox moves to $1.20. Of course if you know where to look, you can always find a coupon code for a free rental.

The big change is the introduction of a $2 tier for movies that have been out longer than 28 days but less than 90 days. This $2 compares to the $1.20 that Redbox charges for the same movies.

Here’s the new Blockbuster Express machine pricing:

• For the first 28 days, new releases on DVD (our Hot Movies) will be $3 plus applicable tax.
• After 28 days, Recent Releases on DVD will be $2 plus applicable tax for the initial night.
• After 90 days all movies on DVD will be $1 plus applicable tax for the initial night.

Oh and if you want a Blu-Ray movie, add on another $1 so a new release rental is $4.

I used the Blockbuster Express machines when I lived in NYC because they were more convenient for me than Redbox. Here in Texas, the opposite holds for me although when I posted my initial review of the Blockbuster Express machine, the rentals were $1.

As a deal hunter, my question is whether the deals that NCR posts about once-a-week on the new deals sites including Groupon and Living Social will change. Most of the time the deals offer 5 rentals for $2 so it will be interesting to see if the deal changes after the November 8th price increase.

I’ve always been against texting while driving, videotaping while driving or talking on your mobile device without a hands-free headset while driving. It makes me angry when I see videos on YouTube where a driver is holding a camera and videotaping themselves while driving (many times at high speeds on the highway). As Judge Judy says, it’s one thing if you want to take your own life, but when you are reckless you put so many others in the path of potential harm. It’s too bad that local police agencies don’t go after those who post their videos on YouTube showing off their “oh so important” video they just had to create while driving.

If you think driving your car while filming a video is not appropriate, what about a city bus driver driving a bus down a busy street using his elbows while operating two cellular phones? The bus driver is operating the bus in Rome and appears to be talking on one cell phone while setting up email and other online accounts on the second phone.

Here’s hoping the bus operator was able to get out that important tweet, check-in to his bus, Like his bus, or tip his important update. Those things are certainly more important than passenger safety and the safety of those around the bus.

Here’s the video from the incident — I am unable to confirm whether the driver has only been suspended or whether he has been fired.
Continue reading “Italian Bus Driver Suspended After Driving Bus With Elbows While Hands on Two Cellphones (video)” »

Two days ago we wrote about Google Video basically going offline for hosted videos. On April 29, you will no longer be able to watch videos hosted on Google Video and on May 13, you will no longer be able to download the videos you have uploaded to Google Video over the last few years. Thanks to Jason Kincaid and Nimish Sawant for their links.

I like Francine Hardaway’s comment – she wonders why Google didn’t create a simple one-click “transfer this video to YouTube” option. Assuming Google doesn’t create a transfer to YouTube option, here are three ways to download your videos from Google Video. No matter which option you use, if you have a lot of videos on GV, it will take some time to grab all of them. I’ve listed the options in order from easiest to more complicated.

Option #1 – Use Download Button

In my research it seems about 50% of Google Video users have a “Download” button appearing next to their videos. I am not one of those people – no button shows up on my Google Video page. Click the download button and then after you download the video, it will change to “downloaded” to let you know that you have downloaded that video.

Here’s what the download option looks like:

Continue reading “How To: Download Your Uploaded Videos From Google Video” »

One of my colleagues in Switzerland just forwarded an email from Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) which includes a very important update regarding the Google Video service.  Two years ago Google announced that they would discontinue support for uploads to Google Video. At that time Google noted, “Don’t worry, we’re not removing any content hosted on Google Video — this just means you will no longer be able to upload new content to the service.”

It appears that might be changing. The email below (in German) basically includes the following changes:

• As of April 29, 2011, you will no longer be able to view videos hosted on Google Video
• As of May 13, 2011, you will no longer be able to download videos hosted on Google Video
• Google suggests you re-upload your videos to YouTube

Update Friday 9pm: We can now confirm that these changes are worldwide. Early this morning we reported that the changes might be for the German Google Video but the email below (now in English) confirms that the changes are worldwide.
Continue reading “Updated: Google Video To Delete Uploaded Videos on May 13” »

This afternoon I attended the Affiliate Summit meetup in Austin. The Affiliate Summit monthly events take place around the world so you can locate the one nearest to you. The event included lunch and a talk by Affiliate Summit founder Shawn Collins. Unfortunately I got lost locating the pizza joint so I missed the lunch bit (of course as a real NY’er, I would never eat “Chicago” stuffed pizza, especially outside of Chicago).

I’ve embedded Shawn’s presentation below — the slides are somewhat hard to read in the video so download the slides here.

Shawn covers the following topics:

• Finding topics you care about
• How and where to find the best affiliate programs for your topic or niche
• Domain names and hosting
• The importance of patience

Lastly Shawn explained that instead of writing a book directly, he setup ExtraMoneyAnswer to create his book by blogging about how to make money online.
Continue reading “Shawn Collins on Affiliate Marketing for Newbies (video)” »