Digital Video/TV Technology

JOHNSTON, Iowa - Former U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt pushed Friday for Iowa to expand its focus on public health, arguing the state has the medical infrastructure in place to make it a leader in the field. Full Story »

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Media mogul John Malone said the U.S. No.1 satellite TV operator DirecTV Group is not up for sale in an interview with business cable network CNBC on Friday. Full Story »

PARIS (AFP) - Thousands of French Internet users flooded video sharing websites Friday to enjoy a lampoon of their glamourous first couple, almost a week after they appeared on the US show the Simpsons. Full Story »

In a step to make YouTube videos more accessible to deaf people as well as to anyone else searching for videos online, Google has launched an automatic video captioning service. Full Story »

TOKYO (AFP) - Sony Corp. aims to launch next year a new online service that will allow people to download content such as music and movies to their televisions and other electronic gadgets, a top executive said Friday. Full Story »

Google fired another shell at Microsoft's fundamental business model on Thursday, when it released the code behind its Google Chrome OS. What happens when you turn the operating system into just another advertising medium? Quite a number of things. Full Story »

Sales of plasma HDTVs have been on the decline for some time now. Although plasmas are generally cheaper than comparably-sized LCD models, their picture isn't as bright; as a result, their images often appear dark and washed out under the bright, fluorescent glare of the local big box store. However, plasmas are often favored by home theater buffs, who savor the display technology's fast refresh rates and often superior reproduction of black and dark tones. Full Story »

TOKYO - Sony's new online service connecting the whole range of its gadgets to downloadable content like movies and games should help build brand loyalty, a top executive said Friday. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Google, in a significant development for deaf Internet users, announced it was adding automatic caption capability to videos on YouTube. Full Story »

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Liberty Media Corp Chairman John Malone said on Thursday that DirecTV Group would be "compatible" with a telephone company if either of its current partners showed an interest in buying it. Full Story »

For the California Energy Commission, the voluntary guidelines of the Federal Energy Star program aren't enough to curb energy guzzling by HDTVs. In a unanimous vote, the CEC just introduced the nation's first state-mandated regulations for energy efficiency. The regulations will apply to televisions up to 58 inches in screen size. Full Story »

In a move to make YouTube's massive inventory more accessible to deaf and hearing-impaired people, Google announced plans to add automatic captioning technology to the video site. Google has combined its automatic speech-recognition technology with the existing YouTube caption system. Called auto-caps for short, the captions rely on the same voice-recognition algorithms in Google Voice to automatically generate captions for YouTube videos. Full Story »

Shareholders approved the formation of a new company out of DirecTV Group Inc. and some of Liberty Media Corp.'s entertainment businesses, as the chairman of both firms dampened speculation about a sale to a big phone company. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - Think of it as closed captioning for the new media world. Full Story »

Televisions are notorious for draining huge amounts of energy, which is why California is cracking down with energy efficiency regulations. But your HDTV isn't the only home tech product that's slurping up power. Here are 5 other gadgets that you should turn off when not in use: Full Story »

DirecTV Group Inc. chose the vice chairman of PepsiCo Inc. as its chief executive Wednesday, filling a vacuum created when its former chief left just as the nation's largest satellite TV provider was in the midst of a spinoff. Full Story »

Social networking has been the face of Web 2.0 for many years now. But until now the phrase has been synonymous with Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. Despite the efforts of companies like LinkedIn to bring social networking into the business world, in many ways organizations have been slow to adapt to the new technology. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - EMI Music announced Wednesday it will offer free music videos and concerts on Hulu.com, making it the first major label to strike a deal with the increasingly popular US-based online video site. Full Story »