President Obama will be hosting his first Google+ hangout tonight at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. In the discussion, the president will be answering questions that were submitted over the past few weeks through YouTube. Google maintains that the White House has had no role in which questions will be selected. Google’s team will instead choose the top-rated questions among those submitted, ensuring there will be several different issues discussed. The event will take place in the Roosevelt Room of the White House and is scheduled to last 45 minutes. The hangout will also be streamed on the White House’s web site, and reporters and press cameras not permitted inside during the event. Obama has previously hosted town hall meetings on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, all of which received harsh criticism and claims that the President ignored subjects that drew the most questions.

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Earlier this week, Google announced that the company would combine individual privacy policies from a variety of its products into one main policy. The idea behind it was to provide users with a “more intuitive Google experience.” Critics of the change are worried that Google is now collecting more data than ever, however, leading members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee to demand answers. Read on for more.

The search giant claims that it is not collecting more data and the new terms merely clarify how existing data is used to improve the Google experience. “We’re making things simpler and we’re trying to be upfront about it. Period,” said Google’s policy manager Betsy Masiello in a blog post. “You still have choice and control. You don’t need to log in to use many of our services, including Search, Maps and YouTube.”

Users will also have access to privacy controls, with the ability to customize options for search history, Gmail, and other services. “You can use as much or as little of Google as you want. For example, you can have a Google Account and choose to use Gmail, but not use Google+,” Masiello added. “Or you could keep your data separate with different accounts — for example, one for YouTube and another for Gmail.”

Google recently confirmed that YouTube now receives more than 4 billion video views per day. Reuters reported the news Monday morning and noted that the site has seen a 25% increase in videos viewed per day since May. Google, which owns YouTube, also confirmed that there are more than 60 hours of fresh video uploaded each minute, up from the 48 hours of video added per minute in May. Advertisements on videos generate roughly $5 billion in revenue each year, Reuters said, but just 3 billion videos feature ads each week. The growth in viewership was attributed to users accessing the service from smartphones and televisions.

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Google on Tuesday announced that videos on YouTube were collectively played more than 1 trillion times this past year. In its look back on the year in YouTube videos, Google revealed that it served more playbacks than ever before in 2011. To quantify the massive figure, the company noted in a blog post that a trillion playbacks represents about 140 views for each person on earth, or more than twice the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Hit the break for a quick countdown of the 10 most popular YouTube videos of 2011 hosted by none other than Rebecca Black.

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YouTube served up more than 20 billion video views during the month of October — 49.1% of all 42.6 billion video views on the web during the month. The research was recently published by comScore, which also found that Google and YouTube had a total unique audience of 161 million viewers, nearly three times that of Facebook, which served up the second most video views during the month. Facebook had 59 million unique viewers and 346 million video views. VEVO, the popular music video website, was the No.3 site with 56.9 million unique viewers but a greater 827 million video views. Additionally, comScore found that the average YouTube viewer watches more than 7 hours of video each month.

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YouTube exists, and this is why. You see, if it wasn’t for YouTube, there’s no way this guy would have been able to put together this video and share his life-saving insights with the world. From an iPad, to a Kindle, to just sitting in a room full of electronics, dirty electricity is all around us. And it’s dangerous. If you aren’t properly grounded, you’re exposing yourself to harmful radiation. The only way to save yourself? Go buy David Wolfe’s grounding mats, grounding sandals and grounding sleeping bags, hunker down, watch the video, and you too can be free from dirty electricity. Hit the break for a heaping dose of snake oil.

Google’s YouTube team on Wednesday announced two milestones to help celebrate its 6-year anniversary. Most notably, YouTube stated that as of this past weekend, the site now serves over 3 billion videos each day. That’s equal to half the world’s population watching one YouTube video each day, and it represents an increase of 50% over last year. The company also said that over 48 hours of footage is uploaded to the site every minute, which is a 100% increase over last year. Needless to say, YouTube has become an Internet staple over the past six years and try as they might, competitors have yet to come close to seeing the tremendous adoption YouTube has experienced.

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Nokia’s N9 handset has made a brief cameo via a one-minute, official-looking video clip. What do we learn from said video? Not a heck of a lot. What we do see is a 12-megapixel camera complete with Carl Zeiss optics flash before our eyes, and the iconography seen suggests that the device will be a Symbian offering complete with the Anna software update. The rumor mill states the N9 will be a pentaband GSM handset that could make an appearance stateside, although… since Nokia is going all-in with Windows Phone, we’re not sure what the fate of this handset is. The video is after the break. Have a look for yourself.

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Can’t get enough Sony tablet madness? The company has just posted a teaser video for their just announced S1 and S2 tablets set to debut later this fall. We’re talking about products that could change at any time (even the names aren’t final), but it’s still great to see a visual representation of what they’ll presumably offer, no?

The first commercial promoting Samsung’s new flagship Android handset — the Galaxy S II — was a bit bland. And while we can’t say this second commercial sport has blown us out of the water, it does a much better job accentuating one of the device’s new enhanced features, Voice Talk. Bottom line: if you find yourself in the Arctic — wearing a parka, mukluks, and mittens — Voice Talk is going to be extremely useful. The thirty-second clip is after the break.

Vietnamese site tinhte.vn has published a video of what it is claiming might be the iPhone 5 — though it is more likely to be a white iPhone 4 with a storage bump — running a test version of iOS that includes a new multitasking UI and a revamped Spotlight search function. The minute-plus clip shows a new application switcher in action, complete with a handful of crashing apps. The video could be a custom UI skin running on a jailbroken iPhone, but this site has a history of solid scoops so we’re more likely to believe that this is a test build of iOS that is indeed running on a white iPhone 4. The video is after the break — have a look and let us know what you think.

UPDATE: According to another video from tinhte.vn, this iPhone is running test build 8A216 of iOS 4.

[Via Engadget]

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Samsung is starting to advertise its new flagship Android smartphone, the Galaxy S II. In its first commercial spot, the Galaxy S II’s screen is portrayed as being so realistic, you are compelled to drown it in a tank of water… or something like that. The twenty-one second spot pimps the phone’s Super AMOLED Plus prowess, albeit in a rather boring fashion. Regardless, if you’re interested in seeing the G-rated commercial it’s waiting for you after the break.

[Via Android Central]

You remember the BlackBerry Touch — also known as the Monaco or Monza — don’t you? Of course you do. The device we brought you exclusive images of last month has been nabbed again, this time on video. The two-plus minute clip showcases the device running BlackBerry 6.1 and, from what we can see, it looks to be pretty snappy. The video’s narrator is speaking in Thai — which is not a language in our linguistic wheelhouse — so we’re just going to have to let you observe and pass judgement on your own. The video is waiting for you after the break. Enjoy.

[Via BBNews]

Google’s YouTube on Friday announced that it is rolling out its new YouTube Live beta platform located at www.youtube.com/live. YouTube will use the channel to stream live events, concerts, interviews and more. Users will be able to subscribe to partners streaming on YouTube Live and will be notified of events as they approach. The online video service said it is only working with a few partners initially, but that “the goal is to provide thousands of partners with the capability to live stream form their channels in the months ahead.” The service also allows viewers to interact with live streamers and each other during broadcasts using YouTube’s live comments feature.

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Planning on picking up an Android tablet in the next month or two? If you are, we definitely have a video that you’re going to want to watch. Because whether those plans include HTC’s Flyer tablet or not, the 7-inch device makes an extremely strong case for itself in this official video. The six minute spot posted by HTC focuses on some key differentiators of the Flyer; the Scribe pen and Sense user experience. The clip shows, in great detail, just what you can do with this 21st century stylus and how the Sense experience can help aid everyday tasks. The video is waiting for you after the break. Have a look and let us know what you think.