Courtesy of Geek.com

By Sherri L. Smith, BlackWeb20.com

Remember when I said webcams were only good for podcasts, spam, and other voyeuristic activities? I may have found another use for them — movie making. Not your cheesy YouTube videos, but actually creating a film with an A-List roster of talent and multi-million dollar budget. Okay, I’m exaggerating but, start-up company Yoostar is pretty close.

Describing itself as “the next wave in social entertainment,” Yoostar puts you in the driver’s seat of your favorite movies and television shows, casting you as the leading man or lady. Using patented “Active Immersion Technology”, Yoostar digitally removes the actors from some of your favorite movie scenes and gives you the opportunity to show the so-called pros how it’s really done. You can play it by the book and recite the script word for word or you can get a little creative and improvise. Check out this video clip of Snoop Dogg and Marilyn Monroe in “Some Like It Hot”, think he’ll ask her to “Drop It Like It’s Hot”?

After you’ve recorded your award-winning performance, you can upload it to Yoostar.com for all the world to see or you can restrict access so only friends and other viewers of discriminating taste can enjoy the fruits of your labor. Users can also upload videos to their favorite social networking sites.

So how does this all work? In principle, it can be compared to the  Sony EyeToy that lets players shoot images of themselves and put them into the game. Yoostar, however is much more advanced. The Yoostar bundle includes a proprietary studio-quality webcam, a portable green screen, 12 movies scenes plus two bonus scenes and a remote control.

In addition to movie and television scenes, Yoostar has also partnered with the NBA so sports fanatics can live out their sports fantasies in a whole new way. Imagine having footage of you making the winning shot at the buzzer in the championship game, breaking ankles and dunking on the likes of Shaq, Lebron, or even Michael SCORE!

If you’re interested in making the ultimate remake of  “Coming To America” or “Forrest Gump”, you can pick up Yoostar at Best Buy, Bloomingdales, or on Yoostar.com for $169. Additional scenes can be purchased from the site for $1.99 each.

BlackWeb20.com covers website and application launches; culturally relevant Internet industry news; and mainstream Internet industry news from an African-American perspective.  They also analyze emerging web trends and how they apply to web properties that target African-Americans or African-American culture.

Motorola’s latest phone is a smartphone that isn’t. Made for those who want the cool look of a smartphone, but don’t necessarily need all the high-level functionality, the Motorola Evoke QA4 is cool looking mid-level phone. Created with the text generation in mind the Evoke has the potential to put Motorola back on the map.

An amalgam of the iPhone and upcoming Palm Pre, Evoke isn’t a slouch in the looks department. The curved 4.5 ounce phone will definitely feel good in the palm of your hand. Featuring a 2.8 inch, 240 x 400 pixel touchscreen complete with a full touch QWERTY keyboard, Evoke is definitely biting off Apple’s tree. The cool sliding keypad is a definite call out to Palm. But since it’s not a smartphone per se, the Evoke knows how to stay in its lane and keep its head down.

Billed as a “socially-inclined device,” Motorola chose to focus on texting and social networking rather than go toe-to-toe with the big boys on the app front. That doesn’t mean that Evoke doesn’t have a few tricks up its sleeve. The phone features seven preloaded quickstart widgets including YouTube, Google Picasa, and USA Today. Motorola made the questionable decision of including a MySpace widget in lieu of more popular social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. This could be detrimental to the phone’s success as there is no word of creating more widgets at this time. Evoke also comes with a full HTML browser. Other notable features include 256 MB of internal memory, microSD card slot for more memory, a 2 megapixel camera with 5x digital continuous zoom, quad-band CDMA connectivity, an integrated accelerometer and GPS.

While Motorola’s latest offering may not have all the bells and whistles of an iPhone, it definitely has a place in the market. The average smartphone buyer only uses a small percentage of all the apps and features available, meaning that most people shell out hundreds of dollars for a fancy toy they can barely use. The stripped down, easy to use Evoke will cater to people that want a nice looking phone with features they will actually use on the regular. Service provider Alltel is currently selling the Evoke for a competitive $99.99 on contract.

BlackWeb20.com covers website and application launches; culturally relevant Internet industry news; and mainstream Internet industry news from an African-American perspective.  They also analyze emerging web trends and how they apply to web properties that target African-Americans or African-American culture.

Would you Donate Cash to Soulja Boy?

If you haven’t been following Soulja Boy’s use of Web 2.0 techniques, some dating back as far as 2007 and earlier, you could be clueless to the kind of money he is getting using it. With many of his endeavors centering around the web, his cartoon and the various dances that accompany his records to name a few, he is clearly no novice at marketing. In fact one may consider him an expert and even follow his many tips that he dishes via YouTube on how to sell a cool milli online. 

Clearly he has more swag online than the average MC, however you might wanna think twice before you download that new Soulja Boy “Kiss Me Through the Phone” iPhone App for $1.99 or even pay $0.99 for one of his songs on iTunes. As if getting paid $.15 per comment and $0.02 per view on YouTube in addition to surely the other Stacks on Deck he has isn’t enough, he made a quick $28k for under 5 mins. of work on that video alone. So with ALL that DOUGH Soulja Boy has, why is he asking for donations on SouljaBoyTellEm.com?

Soulja Boy asks for Donations

Soulja Boy's company, S.O.D. Money Gang Entertainment's PayPal page from SouljaBoyTellem.com

I’ve been giving Soulja Boy props for how he uses the Internet and Web 2.0 tactics for a while now but he definitely gets the side-eye from me on this one. Regardless of what I or anyone else thinks about Soulja Boy accepting donations from dedicated fans there is no doubt there is a formula to his success and everyone seems to be trying to duplicate it, including Snoop:

Let’s hope donations from fans aren’t included in this “web 2.0 formula.” But if you’re feeling generous and LOVE Soulja Boy that much you can make a quick and easy payment to S.O.D. Money Gang Entertainment Inc. using PayPal. Psssshhhhhh. Maybe it’s just me, but is it okay for artists to ask for donations from fans…especially in this economy?

BlackWeb20.com covers website and application launches; culturally relevant Internet industry news; and mainstream Internet industry news from an African-American perspective.  They also analyze emerging web trends and how they apply to web properties that target African-Americans or African-American culture.

Rapper goes to Web in hunt for romance. Ladies, Lil’ Wayne is looking for you. If you’re 18 and older, you can upload and send a 30-second video to the Dirty South rapper, explaining why you should be his lady – nevermind that another one just delivered his newborn. That’s not important to the contest. Trouble seems to be that, either not many ladies know about the King Magazine- and YouTube-sponsored contest – or not many wish to be Miss Weezy. As of Monday, the YouTube contest page revealed only one uploaded entry, despite a Nov. 30 deadline and a beginning date in August. Hating on Lil Wayne may have just gotten a little easier.

Ex-”Grey’s Anatomy” star still upset over firing. Actor Isaiah Washington says he was never sent to homophobia rehab, despite reports after his dismissal from “Grey’s Anatomy.” “There’s no such thing as (gay) rehabilitation,” he says. “I was given an opportunity to go to executive counseling so I could get away from the media.” Washington was fired from the popular drama after he reportedly had a beef with co-star Patrick Dempsey, and slurred another cast member. “The world still thinks I taunted T.R. Knight and called him the ‘F’ word, which I didn’t,” says Washington.

Josh Howard on YouTube controversy: “That’s not me.”

A contrite Josh Howard says he’s sorry for offending fans and hopes to win them back after he was caught on video dissing the national anthem. Howard can be seen on YouTube video at fellow NBA player Allen Iverson’s celebrity flag football game this summer as the “Star Spangled Banner” is performed, saying: “I don’t celebrate that s–t. I’m Black.” Howard has since changed his tune, claiming that he was joking. “I know that’s not me,” he says. “I love this country. If it wasn’t for this country, I wouldn’t be out here playing basketball. For me to have that opportunity is the greatest.” He adds that he attended military school and that the widely viewed video doesn’t represent him. “That’s not Josh Howard,” says the Dallas forward. “That was an idiot.” Howard insists that he’ll win back any fans he’s lost. “Whatever it takes for me to do it, I’m going to do it,” he says.

Tennis phenom holds court in Germany. Venus Williams has moved into the second round of the Porsche Grand Prix after beating Anna-Lena Groenefeld. Williams is appearing in the German tournament for the first time in 10 years. “She hit some great shots, but my experience helped me,” Williams says of her Tuesday win. She ranks as a sixth seed in the competition and will next face Katerina Bondarenko.

Sports camp organizer said to have conned parents out of cash. The same Michigan man who cops had to help escape an angry crowd at a high school football game this week has been arrested. Anthony Bolden, 48, allegedly conned parents out of $17,000 by accepting cash from parents of youth who’d hoped to participate in a University of Michigan football camp. Cops say Bolden took the money, then wrote a bad check to cover the camp’s expenses. Parents were forced to pay a second registration fee in order to have their children attend the camp. Bolden is charged with five counts of larceny and has 40 criminal complaints pending against him.

The Internal Affairs Division of the Philadelphia Police Department is investigating what prompted a violent clash between officers and attendees of a baby shower that resulted in at least six injuries, including two toddlers and mothers who were maced, whipped with batons and otherwise roughed up, The Philadelphia Daily News reports. One of the victims, 1½-year-old Adima Davis, cried as she turned to her mother, Dionne Whitaker, and said, “Mommy, it burn.” Adima now has a bump near her left eye. Whitaker, 28, told the News that she had been at the baby shower in North Philly when a narcotics officers rushed into the yard and triggered a police “riot,” the newspaper reports. Officials with Internal Affairs and the city’s Police Advisory Commission are looking into the incident, according to the News. “These guys were totally out of control. They were worse than any thugs that I’ve seen,” said Joseph Williams, 47, whose nephew is the father of the soon-to-be-born baby. “It was like back in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, when Martin Luther King Jr. was marching . . . Women and children were maced and beaten. Kids are crying and these cops were laughing.” This wasn’t the first violent encounter with civilians for two of the officers. Thomas Schaffling and Sean Bascom were also involved in a May 5 beating of three shooting suspects that was captured by a TV news helicopter and broadcast repeatedly on network television. Shaffling, a member of the city’s Narcotics Strike Force, is the one pulling suspect Brian Hall out of the car and kicking him repeatedly, the News reports. Bascom slugged another suspect in the head, face and collarbone. Police officials claim that in the latest incident the officers had chased drug suspect into the yard where the baby shower was being held. “But those at the celebration said that the suspect had not cut through the yard and that police had mistakenly arrested a relative who had just arrived at the shower with a gift in hand,” the News reported.
Professor moons another scholar during debate. The real question is whether Fort Hays University debate coach Bill Shanahan would have pulled down his shorts and mooned rival coach Shanara Reid-Brinkley of the University of Pittsburgh if he had known it would be wind up being the hottest video on YouTube. But as it stands now, he is known more for his scrawny backside than he is for his intellectual prowess. The videotape picks up after a debate on a racial top has ended, and the two professors are apparently arguing over a technical point. Seconds later the two coaches are yelling at one another, mixing in a healthy dose of cuss words. Reid-Brinkley calls Shanahan an “asshole,” and he proceeds to give her a close-up view, bending over and dropping his drawers. Fort Hays says it is investigating the crude demonstration. Fort Hays Provost Larry Gould told KSNW TV in Wichita that he just learned of the YouTube posting. “College campuses are the place to have thought provoking discussion, however we don’t condone the behavior in that video, mooning the audience and use of foul language is just inappropriate in many ways,” Gould told local ABC affiliate KAKE.