The NCAA has launched NCAA Vault, a new website with videos of nearly a decade of games from the annual NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Users can isolate a specific play from each game, and share links to their favorites with friends.

Videos don’t appear to be embeddable, but you can share them to Twitter or Facebook, or simply hand someone the URL. You can search by team, year or player and see highlights or complete games, then break those down into the plays you want to share via social media.

The site also offers featured videos of dunks, great shots, blocks, plays, finishes, the most outstanding players and current stars. NCAA Vault — which is powered by stock footage company Thought Equity Motion — is free because it’s ad-supported. The video quality isn’t amazing but it’s not poor, either.

Sports broadcasters have been wary of putting archive footage up on the web, preferring instead to try to get people to watch on broadcast or cable television, but there have been enough web video successes — particularly in the sports arena — that the folks who run this content are becoming more comfortable sharing it online on sites like this one and YouTube.

Tags: basketball, march madness, NCAA, ncaa vault, News, sports, thought equity motion

Two betrothed German geeks/gamers just upped the ante when it comes to wedding invitations.

The pair, who shared their story with Offbeat Bride, programed two versions of a Mario-inspired 8-bit video game as their wedding invitations and sent them out to friends and family. Guests are also challenged to beat the game should they wish to unlock the wedding details.

Their video game wedding invitations — dubbed Incredible Adventure — also included some remarkable custom packaging (as seen below) and two different versions of the game so would-be guests could play as either the bride or the groom.

The 8-bit game is also available for download [.exe file] should you wish to try your hand. For the rest of us, you can get the gist from the video below.

[via Boing Boing]

[img credit: Offbeat Bride]

Tags: games, trending

As the battle between HTML5 and Adobe Flash continues to heat up, Virgin America has chosen a side: their brand new web site design ditches Flash in favor of HTML.

The reason? The startup airline plans a big push into mobile this year and wants to be sure iPhone users can access the Virgin America site and check-in process via the iPhone. Already absent from the iPhone, Flash support will also be notably lacking from Apple’s iPad. Steve Jobs also reportedly had some choice words on the company’s attitude toward Adobe’s interactive web technology, adding fuel to the Flash vs. HTML fire recently.

Our own readers chose HTML5 as the favored candidate in our Faceoff Series last week. On the other hand, Adobe itself went on record with us recently to voice the company’s continued support for HTML and to downplay the rivalry between the two technologies as a “misperception.”

Now that Virgin America has put its own stake in the ground, do you see other companies coming forward to side with one technology or the other? Will Flash vs. HTML continue to heat up primarily in the mobile realm, or is the majority of interactive web content at stake? Can the two platforms happily co-exist? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

[img credit: Brewbooks]

Tags: adobe, adobe flash, apple, Flash, HTML5, ipad, iphone, Mobile 2.0, virgin america

BuzzAware is a new GoogleBuzz-focused app directory that is focused on keeping all Buzz related add-ons, apps and plugins in one place.

Google Buzz launched a few weeks ago, and even without a completed API, somef developers are still building their own tools and apps to take advantage of buzz and make it easy to integrate with existing websites.

We covered some of the options for integrating Google Buzz with your WordPress blog and how to create a separate Buzz desktop app, and now we’re seeing programs like BuzzAware cropping up.

BuzzAware was created by the same team that created Twitdom, a highly successful Twitter application directory with more than 1,500 apps. The new program isn’t quite as extensive as the Twitter version — so far the selection is limited to 18 applications divided into four categories: browser, desktop, mobile and web.

The web category, which includes both blog plugins and tools like a Twitter contact importer, has the most entries right now — which is to be expected.

Still, the Adobe Air-based Google Buzz desktop app and some of the browser plugins might be new additions to Buzz-seeking users.

The success of the BuzzAware project will largely depend on how quickly the Buzz API is expanded and opened up to developers. However, BuzzAware is off to a good start.

What is your favorite Buzz-related plugin or utility? Let us know!

Tags: buzzaware, google buzz, software, web apps

The sharing service ShareThis is familiar to lots of Internet users — thanks to its popular plugin and sharing buttons. Now the service is introducing ShareThis Stream, which adds a real-time and social element to what is being shared by your friends and other ShareThis users all over the web.

The ShareThis team explains some of the key new features of the new service. Here are some of the highlights:

– Sign-in with Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo and more — You can sign in with your existing identities and curate what you are sharing across your networks

- Sharing Buttons with a Counter — ShareThis publishers can now have a new ShareThis button that not only includes the ability to share across or to different networks, but will show how many times something has been shared

- New Related Content-Sharing Widget — You can put an updated and “related posts” widget onto your sites

- Real-time ShareThis Stream — You can watch what is being shared across the ShareThis network in real time, along with trending topics, a la Twitter

Check out this video:

This is actually a pretty innovative way to address the real-time nature of sharing links and information. And while on the surface it might not seem that dissimilar to Google Buzz or the built-in options for networks like Facebook and Twitter, what makes this different is that it aggregates data from across all of the different platforms. So you can see and search what people are sharing to Google Reader and Facebook and Twitter.

That’s the beauty of multi-sharing tools like ShareThis — it makes it easy for people to share content on their networks of choice. Adding a real-time streaming option is a real boon for both ShareThis publishers — who can now see what’s popular and also track what’s getting shared from their sites — and for users, because they can now see what’s getting shared around and what related posts or information people might also be sharing.

What do you think of real-time sharing tools? Let us know!

Tags: real-time, sharethis, sharethis stream

Update: Sony PlayStation Network has been restored.

—

It may be some time until Sony PlayStation 3 owners can resume their usual online activities, according to a new blog post from Sony revealing it could take 24 hours to fix the glitch, which hit numerous users yesterday.

Sony has gone so far as to advise PS3 owners “do not use [their] PS3 system” until a fix has been issued.

News of the problem — which only affects owners of older PS3s — started to emerge yesterday. PlayStation has been keeping users updated via its Twitter feed.

“We believe we have identified that this problem is being caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system,” explains Sony in the blog post.

As we’ve reported, the problems are related to the PlayStation Network, Sony’s online gaming service and store. As well as changing the PS3’s date, the bug signs users out of the PSN service, fails to display trophy data and also affects video playback.

“We are doing our best to resolve the issue and do apologize for any inconvenience cause,” says Sony. We will keep you updated with news on the fix.

Tags: down, outage, playstation 3, playstation network, PS3, PSN, sony, sony playstation

It’s time once again to pit two contestants against each other in an all-out battle for the hearts and minds of Mashable readers. In this week’s Web Faceoff, we wanted to get a sense of which online console gaming service Mashable readers prefer: Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE or Sony’s PlayStation Network?

Last week we saw HTML5 take down Adobe Flash in our dynamic web faceoff, and we’ve previously looked at handheld gaming’s big three. But what about the two major online console services: does the totally free PSN hold sway or does the freemium model of XBLA offer a service compelling enough to offset the optional cost many choose to pay?

For many it will simply come down to platform preference, but if you’ve used both services and can vote (and comment) on the relative merits of each individual online component, please do. Check back later this week for the results!

Who would win in a fight: Xbox LIVE or PlayStation Network?opinion

Faceoff Series: Overall Results

Week 1:
– Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome
– WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)

Week 2:
– Tumblr vs. Posterous
– WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)

Week 3:
– Pandora vs. Last.fm
– WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 votes)

Week 4:
– Twitter vs. Facebook
– WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)

Week 5:
– WordPress vs. Typepad
– WINNER: WordPress, 2714 votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 357 votes)

Week 6:
– Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard
– WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 votes, Tie: 121 votes)

Week 7:
– TweetDeck vs. Seesmic Desktop
– WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 votes (Seesmic Desktop: 1055 votes, Tie: 260 votes)

Week 8:
– Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs
– WINNER: Microsoft Office, 1365 votes (Google Docs: 994 votes, Tie: 315 votes)

Week 9:
– Apple iPhone vs. Google Android
– WINNER: Google Android, 3323 votes (Apple iPhone: 1494 votes, Tie: 228 votes)

Week 10:
– AT&T vs. Verizon
– WINNER: Verizon, 1161 votes (AT&T: 538 votes, Tie: 118 votes)

Week 11:
– Google vs. Bing
– WINNER: Google, 2180 votes (Bing: 519 votes, Tie: 97 votes)

Week 12:
– iPod Touch/iPhone vs. Nintendo DS vs. Sony PSP
– WINNER: iPod Touch/iPhone, 704 votes (Sony PSP: 639 votes, Nintendo DS: 482 votes, Tie: 108 votes)

Week 13:
– Digg vs. Reddit vs. StumbleUpon
– WINNER: Digg, 14,762 votes (Reddit: 11,466 votes, StumbleUpon: 2507 votes, Tie: 1032 votes)

Week 14:
– Old versus new Twitter retweets
– WINNER: Old style retweets, 1625 votes (New style retweets: 699 votes, Tie: 227 votes)

Week 15:
– Gmail vs. Outlook
– WINNER: Gmail, 3684 votes (Outlook: 980 votes, Tie: 590 votes)

Week 16:
– Boxee vs. Hulu
– WINNER: Hulu, 626 votes (Boxee: 591 votes, Tie: 106 votes)

Week 17:
– Nexus One vs. iPhone 3GS
– WINNER: Nexus One, 6743 votes (iPhone 3GS: 2818 votes, Tie: 592 votes)

Week 18:
– Foursquare vs. Yelp vs. Gowalla
– WINNER: Foursquare, 1182 votes, (Yelp: 661 votes, Gowalla: 509 votes, Tie: 143 votes)

Week 19:
– AIM vs. GTalk vs. FbChat
– WINNER: GTalk, 2189 votes, (AIM: 1257 votes, FbChat: 511 votes, Tie: 203 votes)

Week 20:
– Music Ownership vs. Music Subscription
– WINNER: Ownership, 533 votes (Subscription: 299 votes, Tie: 237)

Week 21:
– Match.com vs. PlentyofFish
– WINNER: Plenty of Fish, 430 votes (Match.com: 334 votes, Tie: 187 votes)

Week 21:
– Google Buzz vs. Facebook Vs. Twitter
– WINNER: Facebook, 3353 votes (Twitter: 1828 votes, Google Buzz: 1298 votes, Tie: 651 votes)

Week 22:
– HTML5 vs. Adobe Flash
– WINNER: HTML5, 3892 votes (Adobe Flash: 1779 votes, Tie: 660 votes)

Tags: games, microsoft, playstation, playstation network, polls, PSN, sony, video games, web faceoff, xbla, xbox, XBox live

Sony PlayStation 3 owners in multiple regions (including North America, Europe, and Australia) are facing the inability to sign into the PlayStation Network online gaming service, corrupted user data and inability to play some games online or off. The problems are accompanied by the 8001050F error code.

When they try to load up certain games — including the just-released Heavy Rain — they receive the error code and the following message: “Registration of the trophy information could not be completed. The game will now quit.” After the message, the system reboots. The problems seem to mostly affect older, “fat” models of the PS3. Slim models are either not impacted or affected far less frequently.

Trophies are prizes given to players for accomplishing certain tasks in each game; the trophies are synced with the PlayStation Network so players can compare their achievements. Gaming blog Joystiq found reports that the consoles were having their dates reset to 12/31/1999; that might somehow be related to the trophy syncing problems.

Once reports of the problems started to appear, Sony tweeted: “We’re aware that many of you are having problems connecting to PSN, and yes, we’re looking into it. Stay tuned for updates.” That’s all we’ve heard from them so far. There’s no solution just yet; even disconnecting your console from the Internet doesn’t help. We’ll post an update immediately when we hear about a resolution.

Tags: down, outage, playstation 3, playstation network, PS3, PSN, sony, sony playstation

Scribd — the online document-hosting service — is announcing a major play for the mobile device document market today: a new send-to-device feature, pending mobile apps, and fresh e-reader and smartphone APIs.

Scribd’s send-to-device function is a fantastic feature for consuming cloud-based docs on the go. Users can now send all Scribd documents to e-readers and smartphones for a mobile-friendly version on everything from the Kindle and Nook to iPhone and Android devices. Essentially almost any mobile device can now double as a gateway to consume files hosted online via Scribd.

The send-to-device feature is nice, but it’s just a small part of Scribd’s mobile strategy. Come March you can expect Scribd iPhone and Android applications that will bring a more robust version of the document service to smartphones with support for Scribd search, browsing and social media sharing. Plus the new e-reader and mobile device APIs will enable developers and device makers to further integrate and support Scribd’s vast repository of online documents.

The company is also planning to make PDF documents available in EPUB format, a popular open standard for e-books and the same format that iBooks (on the iPad) supports.

Ultimately the idea is to make Scribd universally accessible. It’s a smart strategy given the array and popularity of e-readers, the fact that smartphones are selling like crazy, and the notion that the mobile web is taking over the world.

Tags: APIs, Mobile 2.0, scribd

The random videoconferencing sensation Chatroulette has been all the rage lately, but we can’t blame you if you haven’t actually given it a try just yet. Casey Neistat approached the new site for a more scientific breakdown of what might be found there, confirming much of our suspicion and hesitation: the average composition on a weekday afternoon includes 14% of users doing things you really don’t want to see.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Chatroulette concept, the video below is certainly an entertaining introduction. Be warned there’s some NSFW language in there, although thankfully any truly offensive visuals were left out.

chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

Have you used Chatroulette? What’s your opinion of the site?

[via The Awl via Holykaw]

Tags: chat, chatroulette, nexted, social media, video