There were rumours back in April of a new video download service coming to the Playstation 3, with television and movie studio executives being given an early heads up of Sony’s plans.

Now, Sony have officially unveiled its plans for the download service, with Kaz Hirai and Howard Stringer detailing the plans for a summer launch at a Tokyo press conference.

USA Comes First

The new service will allow all owners of the Playstation 3 to download television programmes and movies to their console. The US will get the service first, before it is rolled out to Europe and Asia soon after.

Sony has already used the PS3 as a kind of trojan horse to get Blu-ray adopted as the high-definition DVD format of the future, and is now planning on doing the same for digital downloads as a viable distribution method.

We spend our time here at WebTVWire talking about online video, with high-profile companies such as Apple, Fox and Hulu getting mentioned at every opportunity.

However, to stand a chance of putting video on to the Internet via user-generated content sites such as YouTube, Metacafe or Daily Motion, you first need to have the tools to capture and edit the video to be view-worthy.

Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 Plus

This is where video editing software such as the Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 Plus comes in to play, enabling people everywhere to produce professional-looking videos, slideshows and DVDs without needing a degree in IT.

The Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 Plus is one of a range of video editing suites available, and in this field, consumers certainly have a wide range of products to choose from.

I’ve been a big fan of the BBC iPlayer ever since it first launched this time last year. And so it is with great delight to now find that the BBC have given the free Web TV service a rebuild.

The new BBC iPlayer version 2.0 is available from today in beta form, with the current software being put out to pasture on July 7th. With such a short testing period, the BBC needs all the feedback it can get.

Radio Now Included

So what’s new? The most obvious new feature is the integration between television and radio, with the BBC’s on-demand radio service now becoming part of the iPlayer.

The old static iPlayer landing page has been revamped to become a new dynamic page with many more interactive features, and a much more Web 2.0 feel to it. It’s confusing at first but after a while shows itself to be much more user-friendly.

Kaltura is going places. It just raised a second round of funding, and recently announced a joint collaboration with Wikipedia to put video on the site by the end of 2008.

This is in addition to recently announcing the release of a new and improved open-source video extension for websites using the MediaWiki software, the first open-source video software available.

Brightcove is an Internet TV platform and network which allows both established media companies and singular individuals to produce and publish video online and then make ad revenue from the resulting content.

It is now in the process of changing its service from the ground up, with Brightcove 3, a completely rebuilt service now going in to private beta before a full release in the autumn.

It seems that after Steve Jobs keynote at the WWDC earlier this week, where he unveiled the new 3G iPhone, everyone is trying to get a piece of the Apple action.

We heard a couple of days ago about Sling Media demonstrating the new SlingPlayer Mobile, and now we have Flixwagon doing the same with a live video broadcasting tool.

From Phone To Web

The Israel based Flixwagon specialises in software allowing mobile phone users to broadcast video live in near to real time over the Web. It has already provided the software for the Symbian mobile operating system and is now expanding.

The company is working on versions of the software for the iPhone, Java, and Windows Mobile. This will mean millions of mobile phone owners will soon have access to the software.

Steve Jobs spent his day unveiling the new iPhone 2, or 3G iPhone to a packed audience at the WWDC. And over the weekend, Sling Media announced plans for a Sling Player on the iPhone - Coincidence?

The timing is surely not coincidental, but unfortunately the new SlingPlayer Mobile that was announced and demonstrated for the iPhone is only pre-alpha proof-of-concept software.

Not Available Yet

Until Apple officially accepts the company in to the developer program then that is how this piece of software will remain, in limbo, and not available to anyone but the geeks over at Engadget.