Coming soon: The YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 Grand Finale live

What began with auditions from around the world uploaded to YouTube, millions of video views, and hours of rehearsals, finally comes to life this Sunday, March 20. It has been an extraordinary experience for the 101 winning musicians of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, and in just a couple of days their collaborative experience will come to life at Sydney Opera House.

Here’s a preview of what’s to come:


The week-long YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 festival includes musical collaboration between orchestra members and world-class mentors, outdoor performances, local Aussie experiences, ensemble concerts and more. In just a few days, the creativity and technology that have powered this journey will literally light up Sydney Opera House—with animated visuals on the interior and exterior projections on the iconic sails, all synchronised to the music of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011’s performance.

You’re invited to experience this wonderful event, whether you’re inside Sydney Opera House, out around Sydney Harbour, or watching from your computer elsewhere in the world. The Grand Finale will be live-streamed on youtube.com/symphony beginning at 8:00pm Australian Eastern Standard time, and rebroadcast until the concert performance is uploaded in full, so tune in on Sunday, March 20.

Ernesto Soriano III, YouTube Australia, recently watched “YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 Day 4 Highlights.”

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MyYouTube International Launch: eight new countries, featuring 142 local artists.

After eight weeks of fierce competition, on February 16 we announced the winners of the MyYouTube U.S. contest. Christina Grimmie, Selena Gomez, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, and Justin Bieber claimed the top five spots and received a special winner’s masthead on the YouTube homepage.

Given the high level of involvement in the US program, we decided that MyYouTube couldn’t end there. So we ventured out to other countries to find their top local talent and get them on-board for a new wave of MyYouTube contests.

And on Wednesday, the international competitions began. The MyYouTube Contest launched in eight countries (Argentina, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico and Taiwan) and boasts a brand-new catalogue of local artists.

Check out Zoe in Mexico, Los Autenticos Decadentes in Argentina, Malaika Arora Khan in India and 2pm in Korea. Plus, we’ve sprinkled in a few global artists from the U.S. contest as well (Rihanna, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez... to name a few).

In each international contest the artists compete to score the most points. And the only way they can score points is when YOU subscribe to their YouTube channels and share to your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

By subscribing to an artist’s channel on YouTube, you get their latest videos delivered straight to your YouTube homepage, so you can easily stay up-to-date on their latest activity.

To up the stakes even further, every artist (both local and global) is offering five prizes to five people who score points for them in the contest. All you have to do is sign-in to your YouTube account, go to youtube.com/myyoutube and click “Subscribe” and “Share” for your favorite artists! You can also watch the artists’ shout-out videos and discover other YouTube channels recommended by each artist.

So head to youtube.com/myyoutube now and help your favorite artists win the MyYouTube contest in your country!

Check out all the International contests, like the Argentina one below, by clicking on the MyYouTube WorldWide drop-down in the top right corner:

Becky Chappell, Product Marketing, recently watched “Rebecca Black - Friday (Official Video).”

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Cool Spy Gadgets, Gears, Stuff, Toys and Tools

Spy gadgets are usually designed for police investigations or for the private investigation business. Usually, users of these spy gadgets are retired law enforcers or ex – military officials and sometimes, civilians that undergo a special training for this type of investigation. They are the ones who become Private Investigators.
But, not all people can afford to hire a private investigator. So our genius surveillance researchers have come up with this new batch of spy gadgets that were aimed to be user friendly.

Cool Spy Gadgets for Civilians

The trend now in the surveillance industry  is to make gadgets that are user friendly. Their mission now is to bring spy gadgets closer to every normal civilian who needs to investigate something but don’t have the capability to hire a private investigator. Here are some gadgets that anyone, including you, can buy.

Spy Phone Software

This mobile phone software can be used to track personal calls and message logs. It also has GPS Tracking System, SIM change detection and you can actually hear live phone calls through this. This software is very flexible because of its many features. You can use it by installing this software to the targeted phone and that’s it. You’re now an instant spy.

Wireless Spy Camera Pen

This camera has its own features of 1/3 inch CMOS, 60 deg angular field of view and 3Lux illuminations. It also has automatic white balance, 48db S/N ratio, 5 to 35 deg of transmission operation, video resolution of 882 x 240 at 30fps, backlight compensation and 2412Mhz transmission frequency. Do you know what it means? It only means that it is a camera tailor-made for spying purposes. Every second of the target’s transparent activity will be clearly captured. It has a 64MB memory capacity and a 2GB SD/MMC Card. It also has the capability to record MP3 audio at 32-320 Kbps bit rate.

Mobile Phone Jammers

This type of gadget can mess up a wireless phone's signal. So with this capability, it can temporarily remove the ability of a phone to call or even send a message. With this, you can prevent your chatty neighbors from giving out your secrets to the entire neighborhood or prevent communications of your family members with someone you do not want them to talk to.

Wrist Watch Voice Recorder

This simple watch is best used to record conversations with clear quality. It has a multistage equalizer to make that happen. Besides spying, you can also use this as a MP3 Player for listening to music.

Spy Kite

This is a wind flyer that has a digital camera attached on the frame and is capable of taking photographs from air. It is made up of fiber glass and comes with a wireless remote control that enables you to take photographs while your own feet are on the ground; best for aerial surveillance.

Com-Bat

Another form of aerial surveillance, aside from the Spy Kite, is this six-inch robotic spy plane modeled after a bat. It can send information like smell, sound and photographs to its operator. COM-BAT looks like it is designed to have power hunting potential. Its best feature is that it can get recharged through sunlight and wind.

Mini Spy Tracker

This tracker uses a GPS tracking system to locate itself. It has an accuracy of 2.5 meters, so you won’t have any problem about its precision. You can track this gadget through internet because it works with Google Earth. This gadget also records the time, date and location of movements. It has 2 LED indicators, one for GPS lock and the other for battery charge.

“Convenience and Practicality will be the primary weapons of this new generation of spy gadgets.”

This is a guest post. Author Bio and link removed as the author was selling an illegal software.

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YouTube NextUp: Are you the next big thing on YouTube?

Last year, our top YouTube partners generated more than 100 billion views and drew in millions of dollars through our revenue-sharing Partner Program. Talented Partners drew huge audiences with channels that showed people how to crochet flowers, apply the perfect lipstick - and sometimes just how to have fun.

We believe that the successful singers, dancers, actors, producers, musicians and make-up artists of the future are practicing their craft on YouTube today. As we said recently, Partners are the heart of our platform, and we want to see even more of them take the next step in their YouTube careers and turn their video hobbies into careers or even businesses.

Today we’re announcing YouTube Next’s second initiative, designed exclusively for up-and-coming YouTube Partners: YouTube NextUp. YouTube NextUp is about accelerating the growth of the next big YouTube stars. Up to 25 Partners from around the United States will be selected for the development program, which offers:

• $35,000 in funding to produce a new project, purchase new tools or advance their overall YouTube careers
• A spot at a four-day YouTube Creator Camp in which they’ll benefit from 1:1 mentoring and learn an array of production techniques from leading industry and YouTube experts
• Promotion of their final work and channel
• The opportunity to become better connected with a special community of aspiring and talented content creators from around the world

We’re asking existing YouTube Partners to apply with a short (up to three minute) video that best represents their craft and the initiatives that they’d like to pursue on YouTube--whether it be a new brand of talk show, short film, or other type of new content. We’re also asking for short written responses that explain how they’ll use the $35,000, why they want to be part of the program, and what they hope to learn at the YouTube Creator Camp. Partners can apply at youtube.com/youtubenextup by midnight PT on March 27, 2011.

Our Partners succeed thanks to the support and interest of the YouTube community, so we’re encouraging the community to cast their votes on the long list of finalists from March 29 to April 8 at youtube.com/creators, to indicate who they want to see among the next generation of stars. And after this public voting ends, a final shortlist of Partners will go forward to the final round, judged by a panel of YouTube representatives. Final YouTube NextUp winners will be announced on April 20 at youtube.com/creators.

Who should apply? Up-and-coming Partners (those with less than 300,000 subscribers) who are committed to advancing their YouTube careers and to produce the next generation of fresh, compelling content. Last week, we announced another initiative from YouTube Next, the YouTube Creator Institute - please note that eligible Partners need to choose whether to apply for either that program or YouTube NextUp - sorry, you can’t apply for both! Full program and application rules are here.

Stay tuned for more YouTube Next initiatives over the coming months--both for Partners and creators in the United States and abroad. We’re excited to see what novel new online experiences and genre-pushing productions our talented Partners come up with. Apply today!

Heather Wall, New Business Development, recently watched “Star Wars According to a 3 Year Old.”

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