Last week Comedy Central announced the launch of a new website for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” which features clips from every episode which has aired since 1999. (Is also when Jon Stewart signed on as host) Comedy Central also claims that they will soon add full high quality episodes of every show ever filmed. Viacom, the parent company, made a pretty intelligent move by pulling all their clips off YouTube then launching this site. With this launch, viewers will no longer have to visit YouTube for this content and Viacom will make some big bucks through advertising revenue from their new site. This is also a big win for viewers since the content remains free, is now available in high quality, and is fully organized.

“There continues to be a rabid appetite for Comedy Central programming online,” Erik Flannigan VP Digital Media, Comedy Central. “With thedailyshow.com, we have created an online destination that raises the bar by providing an exhaustive video library for everything ‘Daily Show’.”

In addition to allow users to watching videos, The Daily Show’s website offers sharing the clips on a variety of popular social networking and link-sharing sites such as facebook, digg, and del.icio.us. Bloggers and website owners will also have the ability to easily add the clips to their own page. The content has only been made available due to advertisements and sponsors as expected. As a result users will be required to view an advertisement before they can actually begin watching the requested clip. Despite this, Comedy Central has taken a huge step by launching this site. Although NBC, ABC, and FOX now offer the ability to watch new prime-time shows online, no one (to my knowledge) has made their entire history available for free online. Hopefully larger networks will follow Comedy Central’s lead.

Links: The Daily Show | Comedy Central

This morning, Digg’s founder Kevin Rose announced a few new features that digg will soon be getting. The fist implementation, which will be pushed out tonight, will revamp digg’s user profile system by making it more “social”. Registered diggers will now have the ability to send each other quick messages called “shouts”. When the recipient logs in, a notification will be visible in the headers as well as his or her profile page. With the new “share” feature, users can also send other users links to digg stories. Previously the only method to share a story would have been to send an actual email. Digg’s new favorites feature seems to be replacing the “My #1″ feature. Once a story is dugg the option to add to favorites will become available. As for the profile page, it now displays larger profile pictures, full name, location, member since date, about section, personal photos, recently dugg/comments, favorites, and contact information. (50 new additions!) And just like Facebook, diggers will have privacy settings to choose whether or not to display each component. Only time will tell whether this feature will be accepted or ridiculed by the digg community.

Also, due to popular demand, digg will soon be implementing a pictures section next month. In addition they will also be fixing the problems with the slow comment loading system, offering email alerts, and automatic suggestions based off your digging history! Check back tomorrow to see the what’s changed and if you are in a hurry, a video demonstration is available on Digg’s Blog.

Links: digg.com | digg blog | my profile

Since the digg started, they have had a large issue combating spammers. This eventually lead to an amazing large list of banned sites. About six months ago this site, Skatter Tech, was for some reason added to that list. We had sent digg a few emails requesting the reason it had been blocked, but we received no response. We expected the ban to be lifted, but it never was until now! Digg has apparently lifted the blacklist on thousands of domains and has implemented a new algorithm for submissions to prevent spam from entering the main page. Hopefully the new code will do the trick and lifting the banned sites will not cause an inflation in spam.

Anyways, for our readers, this means the “digg” link found besides the del.icio.us on our permalink pages will now function properly. (No more submission error messages) Finally, if you find any of our articles “digg worthy” you are welcome to submit them.

(P.S. The digg logo in the image atop can be downloaded from DevianArt.)

Links: digg.com | digg blog
Related: Digg Search Widget

On June 6, 2006, the long awaited Digg v3 went live. Along with this update came a brand new theme, new sets of feeds, and plenty of new features. To maximize compatibility we have released the Digg Search Widget v2.0, which has been rebuilt from scratch. Although the widget may look similar to the previous edition at first glance, this new widget incorporates tons of new features. v2.0 includes features such as an Advance Search, Digg v3 Themes, RSS Reader, Text To Speech, and Story Alerts. To get the Digg Search Widget you will need the Yahoo! Widget Engine installed (available for Windows & Macintosh). Please give this a try and let us know what you think. Suggestions and comments are welcome.

Digg Search Widget v2.00 Features:

Search Features:

• Area: All Stories, Front Page, or Upcoming
• Age: From Anytime or Last 7/30/365 days
• Type: Within Title, Body, or Both
• Sort: Newest, Oldest, or Most Dugg First
• Buried: On or Off to Include Buried Stories

Theme Features:

• Widget Colors: Digg V3 Blue (plus Green & Grey)
• Info Slide: Display Description, Diggs, Category, etc.
• View Preference: Numbered Stories And Scrolling Items
• Timestamp: Add Time/Date To End Of Description
• Usericons: Get Submitter Username and the Usericon

Feeds Features:

• Optional: Collapse Feed Reader (search only)
• Main Feeds: Popular, Upcoming, Username, Friends, etc.
• Main Categories and subCategories: 37 available
• Headline Count: View 1-15 Headlines On Any Feed
• Update Interval: Check For New Stories Every 5-60mins
• Update On Demand: Right-Click and “Refresh Feed”

Speech:

• Computer Text To Speech With SlideShow
• Choose What To Read: Title, Diggs, Description, etc.
• Number Of Items To Read: All Items Or Choose 1-15

Others:

• Digg Logo Link: Homepage, Upcoming, Spy, And More…
• New Story Alert: Chime When New Stories Are Available
• Optional: Multiple Monitor Support To Allow Functionality
• Restore All Defaults: Incase Widget Becomes Damaged
• Software Updater: Notifies And Assists Updating Widget

Download: Digg Search Widget (win or mac)
Links: Widget Gallery – Digg Search Widget
Required Software: Yahoo! Widget Engine (aka. Konfabulator)

To add the “Digg This Bookmarklet” to your bookmarks do the following:

• Mozilla Firefox: Drag and drop the digg logo onto your bookmarks toolbar. Or Right-click on the digg logo and “Bookmark this link”
• Internet Explorer: Right-click on this link and press “Add to Favorites”
• Apple Safari: Drag and drop the digg logo onto the bookmarks toolbar.

Links: Digg.com | My Digg Profile
Related: Digg Search Widget (win and mac)

The Digg Search Widget (DSW) v1.0, was originally released on March 6th, 2006. About a month after the launch successful of DSW v1.0, I am pleased to announce The Digg Search Widget v1.70! DSW now includes such features as Advance Search, Themes, RSS Reader, and Alerts. (see details below) As you must already know, the DSW runs off the Yahoo! Widget Engine (aka. Konfabulator) and now functions properly on both Windows and Macintosh computers. The main goal of the DSW is to help Digg.com users easily access a large variety of Digg content right from their desktop. Please download the widget and try it out. I guarantee you’ll like it.

Digg Search Widget v1.70 Features:

Search Features:

• Area – All Stories, Front Page, or Queue
• Type – Title, Body, or Title/Body
• Age – All, 30 Days, or 60 Days
• Buried – On or Off

Theme Features:

• Widget Colors – Blue, Green, or Grey
• Tooltips – show digg story description on hover
• Scrolling Text – marquee long headlines
• Numbered Items – shows number of each item

Feed Features:

• Collapsible Feed Reader: On or Off
• Feed Selection: Home Page, Digg Queue, or Top Stories
• Category Feed: Apple, Deals, Design, etc. (16 total)
• Username Feed: Dugg, Submitted, Home Page, or Comment
• View Headlines: Display 1-15 Items from Any Feed
• Update Interval: Auto Update every 5-60mins
• On Demand Update: Right-Click then press “Refresh Feed”

Other Features:

• Logo Link: Digg Home, Queue, Search, Submit, Spy, and more…
• Beep on Update: Plays a Sound When There Are New Stories
• Software Update: Checks the Widget Gallery for Newer Version

For our next goal we will need your help! While keeping the file size under a 1mb (currently ~375kb) and making sure this widget stays simple and clean, we hope to add many new features to make the Digg Search Widget an even better tool. To help us out, please report any bugs, give suggestions, make comments, or request features in the comments.

Download: Digg Search Widget (win or mac)
More Info: Widget Gallery – Digg Search Widget
Required: Yahoo Widget Engine (v3.1.1)
Related: Digg Search Widget v1.0 – v1.68 Info

Update: Digg Search Widget v2.00 Released

The Skatter Tech Team has created a “Digg Search Widget” for all Digg users. The Widget runs on the Yahoo! Widgets Engine (aka. Konfabulator) and will function on both Windows and Macintosh machines. The widget can be used to search all of Digg’s archives simply by entering text into the highlighted field and pressing enter. Pressing on the digg logo will launch Digg’s homepage (digg.com) in the default browser. The best feature this widget has allows the user to set Advance Search preferences, which are available on Digg’s Advance Search page. (digg.com/search) To set the preferences you like right-click on the widget and press on Widget Preferences. If you have any questions, suggestions, or other remarks please reply in the comments below! (See Change Log)

Update: v1.60-1.68 now includes multiple themes, more search preferences, a slightly re-done interface, a collapsible rss reader, custom feeds, user set update intevals, update on demand, alerts, and more!

Update: Digg Search Widget v1.70 Released
Update: Digg Search Widget v2.00 Released

Download: Digg Search Widget
Links: Get Yahoo! Widgets
Related: Skatter Tech Widget

Many of you may have come across an article about six months ago (on sites such as [tag]digg[/tag]), which showed a crashed PSP with a blue screen. The image that was showed back then was actually a result of what would occur if your PSP were to crash when running a homebrew application. But the image seen above is actually a real Blue Screen that is a part of Sony’s PSP. From my experience I had never seen this screen before, but only appeared on my PSP with Firmware v2.60 when a game froze. The error message popped up when I accidentally hit the eject button on the Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories UMD while the game was loading. (This might also occur if you put a PSP to sleep when a webpage is loading.) The actual error message says:

Setting Information is corrupted. Press the O button to repair and restore default settings. (displayed in 10 languages)

When this occurs none of the buttons function (even power switch) other than the O button. Once it is pressed it starts to restart and it goes through the startup splash screen. After that it displays the setup process that everyone goes through the FIRST time the PSP is turned. Also to note, the PSP that got a Blue Screen has never had any homebrew applications on it and has never been downgraded. There was no mention of this crash screen anywhere in the manual or online, if this has happened to you let everyone know by commenting below.

Links: U.S. PlayStation.com | Latest Firmware Update
Related: PSP v2.60 Review | DownGrade PSP | TiVo 2 PSP

1) Google Maps now has plenty of High Resolution Satellite images from all around the world. Google recently also added in maps for the entire world, but currently only consists of country names.
Link: Google Maps | Google SightSeeing

2) Skyhook Wireless is using Wi-Fi to find lost laptops, smart phones, and all other Wi-Fi enabled devices. It can pin point any device and map it. It will work through out most major cities where they have setup plenty of WiFi access points.
Link: Information Week
Related: NetStumbler | PSP WiFi

3) Skype v1.3.0.51 is out. They have made many improvements to the program, mainly re-arranging the menus and buttons. They also modified the theme of the program. They also fixed the always “online” problem they had with many users.
Link: Skype (new website theme) | Download Skype | ChangeLog

4) Google’s Blogger service upgrades! Blogger has added in a new interface to allow uploading photos from your computer as well as the web. They have also allocated 300MB of space to store photos on your blogs.
Link: digg | +digg | GoogleBlog | Update Info 1/2/3

5) Digg 2.0 will be out soon, but digg has put out a beta version of how their site will be after they move to new servers and make some final changes. Just by looking at the interface it is easy to say that this might just become a “slashdot killer”.
Link: Digg Beta (un & pw: betatest) | Digg (Current Site)

Others:
iTunes songs are $1.05 instead of $.99 because of some new tax rules in some states. Not only applies to iTunes, but any type of paid downloadable service – link

Sony’s UMD Disc format was offically approved as a standard media format by the Ecma. A UMDs holds 1.8GB and are read by PSPs. Sony has sold 2.9 million units since March. – link

Yahoo! closes all user created public chat rooms due to large amounts of inappropriate discussions. Still allowed to create and invite users to your own rooms. – link