Scribd adds 9,000 Penguin Random House audiobooks including ‘Game of Thrones’

Steve Ballmer on Why Buying Microsoft's Biggest Phone Partner Makes Sense

Given that Nokia was already putting all its smartphone eggs in the Windows basket, it's a logical question to ask how Microsoft believes it will gain an advantage by purchasing Nokia's phone business.

No surprise, since he did the deal: CEO Steve Ballmer thinks the business will be stronger.

In an interview with AllThingsD, Ballmer laid out three reasons why things will be different once Microsoft owns Nokia's phone business.

First, Ballmer said, as close as the two companies were, there were legal and logistical barriers to total cooperation. Each company had to temper its investment based on separate business needs.

"As long as we were on a model with two different companies ... there was always some kind of a boundary along which it was hard to innovate from a hardware/software perspective," Ballmer said. "It doesn't mean we didn't do it, but we know we can improve our agility."

Second, Ballmer noted that each company was separately trying to build its own brand - a duplicative effort that diffused impact and wasted money.

"Just think about the Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 1020, and you will that know we can make simpler, clearer messages to the market," Ballmer said, noting that Nokia accounts for 80 percent of all Windows Phones, although Microsoft still hopes others will continue to make it even after Microsoft takes over from Nokia.

Finally, Ballmer said that as two companies, Nokia and Microsoft had to make different choices about where and how much to invest.

"We know, as we scale, we need to invest behind this business," Ballmer said. "It simplifies the business decision-making and thinking having the economics be more unified."

Translating from this business-speak, buying Nokia's phone business gives Microsoft a greater business opportunity, if it can succeed. Microsoft noted in its case for why the deal makes sense that it currently gets less than $10 in revenue from each Nokia Windows Phone sold, as compared to the $40 or so in profit margins Nokia stands to make.

Of course, Nokia - and soon Microsoft - also has to build the phones, manage inventory, deal with carriers and more. Plus, there's still that pesky challenge of growing beyond single-digit market share.

"We're the No. 3 smartphone player," Ballmer said. "We have a long way to go, and we have a lot we want to do."

RELATED POSTS:

• Microsoft CEO Promises to Limit Nokia Phone Names to 10 Syllables or Less
• Samsung, HTC Mum on Any Interest in Windows Phone Post-Nokia
• Elop in July: It's "Hard to Understand the Rationale" for Selling Nokia's Devices Business
• Microsoft Is Getting Nokia's Phone Business for a Song
• Nokia Shares Rise, Microsoft Falls in Reaction to Deal
• So Much for BlackBerry's "Clear Shot" at Being No. 3 in the Smartphone Market
• Selling Nokia Was Hard Emotionally, But Right Thing to Do, Says Interim CEO
• Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia's Top Designer, To Leave Company in November
• Steve Ballmer on Why Buying Microsoft's Biggest Phone Partner Makes Sense
• Nokia Interim CEO: We Have Three Strong Businesses Remaining
• Barcelona Rendezvous, 50 Nokia Board Meetings Led to Microsoft Deal
• Microsoft's Nokia Deal By The Numbers
• Microsoft Confirms It Gets Less Than $10 Per Nokia Windows Phone Sold
• Stephen Elop Is Now Microsoft CEO Candidate to Beat
• Microsoft Wants to Keep Licensing Windows Phone to Others, Post-Nokia Deal
• Microsoft Explains the Rationale Behind the Nokia Deal
• Microsoft to Buy Nokia's Device Business in Deal Worth $7.17 Billion

Jeff Bezos Reveals He Doesn't Have a Plan to Save the Washington Post

Asa Mathat / AllThingsD.com

Just because Jeff Bezos is going to own the press doesn't mean he has changed his approach to the press. When he speaks to journalists, he says nothing.

The Washington Post has the first interview with the new owner-to-be of the Washington Post today. If you're expecting Bezos to reveal anything about his plans for the paper, then you've never sat through an Amazon earnings call or listened to a Jeff Bezos interview.

The gist: Like he said before, he won't be running the paper day to day. And, like he does with Amazon, Bezos plans to manage the paper for the long haul.

But, when Bezos won't tell you how many Kindles he's sold, he's not saying anything because he doesn't want to clue you in to his plan. The key question for the Post and its readers (and employees): Does he have a plan this time?

If you take him at face value, he doesn't. He's going to take time - "years" - to experiment, and the only thing he knows is that it's important for readers to get value out of reading the paper.

It would be easy enough to dismiss that non-talk as cover for whatever Bezos really is planning for the paper. Except for this part, where Bezos argues convincingly that newspapers in general, and the Post in particular, are screwed. If they produce anything of value, the Web immediately swallows it up and spits it out for free:

But Bezos suggested that the current model for newspapers in the Internet era is deeply flawed: "The Post is famous for its investigative journalism," he said. "It pours energy and investment and sweat and dollars into uncovering important stories. And then a bunch of Web sites summarize that [work] in about four minutes and readers can access that news for free. One question is, how do you make a living in that kind of environment? If you can't, it's difficult to put the right resources behind it. ... Even behind a paywall [digital subscription], Web sites can summarize your work and make it available for free. From a reader point of view, the reader has to ask, 'Why should I pay you for all that journalistic effort when I can get it for free' from another site?"

This would be an excellent rationale for an investment in a Web aggregator like Business Insider, and, of course, Bezos has done just that.

But unless Bezos is suggesting that the Post is going to stop "uncovering important stories" because there's no money in it - and I don't think he is suggesting that* - then what he's really saying is that he can't figure out how to make it work. For now. Just like everyone else.

* Quentin Hardy, who is smart, thinks Bezos will in fact move to a "give the people what they want and/or are willing to pay for" mode, where Cyrus trumps Syria. And if he was making the investment on behalf of Amazon, I might give that theory some credence. But this is a personal investment, and I don't think Bezos wants to be a guy known for asset-stripping an American institution.

AOL's Huffington Post Adds Ecofabulous Content

AOL-owned Huffington Post is adding a large amount of environmental-focused content from Ecofabulous, and making its founder, Zem Joaquin, an editor at large of home and lifestyle. In a nonexclusive licensing and revenue-sharing deal, the dedicated Ecofabulous page said that the online content site "will host original product reviews and recommendations featuring environmentally conscious beauty, fashion, home, kids, tech, and lifestyle items; provide resources for readers aiming to live a green life; profile environmentally-pioneering companies; and serve as a place to inspire readers seeking the recommendations of expert editors and designers."

It's No "Game of Thrones" Finale, but Yahoo Logo-Palooza Ends Tonight

Here are a few choice things I wait for in rapt anticipation:

While "Game of Thrones" is on hiatus after its sensational "Red Wedding" finale, the next episode of "Orange Is the New Black" - which spouse and I are watching two at a time nightly, although I am considering sneaking by day to find out what Pornstache will do to Red.

The new iPhone, which will be unveiled next Tuesday at Apple's Cupertino, Calif. HQ - because I will upgrade to it, my older son will get my old one and my younger son will get his brother's old one as his first phone ever (it's a family of impatience over here).

Whenever anyone says they are "gladiators in suits" on "Scandal" or whenever its star, Kerry Washington as Washington fixer Olivia Pope, gives that long, sad gaze that comes from loving the wrong man who also happens to be President of the United States.

The Oreo version of Google Android - because I like Oreos. A lot more than KitKats.

And even - and I am ashamed to admit this - whatever the next cup-full-of-crazy thing Miley Cyrus gets into.

But, I'll be honest - except for the fact that I have to cover it at the time I would have been watching my daily dose of "OITNB" tonight - I will have to drastically gin up my excitement level over the new Yahoo logo that is set to be unveiled at 9 pm PT.

Doubtless, others have been pre-briefed on this new look, which was last changed a few years ago. But, for the rest of us, over the last month Yahoo has been showing 29 other logos it will not be using to get us all atwitter with expectation.

While I still don't quite get this move from a marketing perspective - it's like having a parade of all the people you decided not to marry before your wedding - there have been some design doozies in the bunch. That might have been the point: Show off all the bad so we will love, love, love the new one.

On that score, mission accomplished!

Such as this one from Day 2 that looks like an air freshener I declined to purchase last week at Safeway:

Or this one from Day 11, which looks like my grandmother, who had excellent cursive penmanship, wrote it (nothing says the future like a handwritten logo from the last century!):

Or Day 20, which resembles what happens when I let those kids of mine play on my computer and they screw up the fonts:

Or Day 28, which is pretty much a flat-out lift of the Yoo-hoo logo, a high-fructose corn syrup beverage I enjoy imbibing from time to time:

Finally, I really don't have one single clue about what's going on with Day 29:

Which, I think, is the goal of the marketers of Yahoo - after this parade of losers, we shall now get to gaze upon the gleaming new spouse that the Silicon Valley Internet giant will be wedded to for years to come. This jazz-hands rollout is very much in keeping with the tenure of new CEO Marissa Mayer, who is trying to generate as much excitement around Yahoo as possible as part of her turnaround efforts.

Presumably, this logo for the new Yahoo will be just the ticket! We'll see - but, until then, I am going to go and see what Crazy Eyes is up to, which is one sure thing to be interesting.

Viral Video: Daft Punk Rocking Out on Rosh Hashanah

It's Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and to celebrate it, here's a very fine video, "Get Clarity," from Aish.com. It is a cover of Daft Punk's hugely popular summer hit song, "Get Lucky," but with new lyrics and a shofar.

Enjoy, and Shana Tova:

On Chrome Web Store, Real Games Mix With Mario Knockoffs

We've heard it over and over again (and arguably for good reason): Nintendo does not make games for platforms it does not control. So, imagine my surprise yesterday when I stumbled across a dozen or so Mario games on Google's Chrome Web Store.

These games are no more real than that Rolex you bought for $15 in Times Square - they're unlicensed, generally low-quality knockoffs, taking advantage of the openness of Google's browser, which just turned five. Many of the store's new native desktop apps look like snazzy cousins of the apps you might find in the Google Play Store on Android; however, in Chrome's Web app store (I know, these product names are all confusing), it's still the Wild West.

In addition to the fake Marios, a cursory search of the Web app store yesterday turned up knockoffs of many other popular franchises: one for Fruit Ninja, two for Crash Bandicoot, four for Doodle Jump, nine for Candy Crush Saga and 10 for Sonic the Hedgehog. A source with knowledge of the store said Google investigates unauthorized apps if the content owners report the offending apps to the company.

These fakes mix with real apps, like Rovio's official Angry Birds Chrome Web app, and to separate the good from the bad, users have to check the developer's website name. For example, one of the Candy Crush Saga knockoffs lists as its website candycrushsaga.blogspot.com, which is not one of King's sites. The official site for that game is candycrushsaga.com.

I asked a Nintendo spokesperson if the company was aware of the Mario knockoffs, and she returned the following generic statement from Nintendo of America:

Nintendo video games are offered only on Nintendo systems such as the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Applications on the Apple or Google marketplaces that purport to be Nintendo video games are not legitimate and users who download these applications may expose themselves to spyware or other malicious software [...]

Wait, malicious software? Yes, it's possible, as 80,000 users learned last year by way of a fake Bad Piggies Chrome app. According to security company Barracuda Networks, that's the number of users who installed a bogus Bad Piggies and got some "aggressive adware" to boot. Bonus!

The Nintendo statement continued, "Nintendo actively monitors the unauthorized use of its intellectual property, and will continue to seek removal of any unauthorized content in these marketplaces."

Taking these specific games out of the Chrome store won't completely neutralize potential security threats posed by current or future games, of course. But the very thing that makes the store work - a search, discovery and recommendation-focused design that makes these games and services more accessible to Chrome users - may mislead gamers who don't think to look too closely.

"We remove apps from the Chrome Web Store that do not comply with our terms of service," a Google spokesperson said. Some of the Mario games I mentioned in my emails to the company have now disappeared from the Chrome store, but here is a screenshot of how they were showing up for me in the store's main trending section yesterday.

Apple Won't Introduce New Apple TV Box Next Week, Will Upgrade Software

There are very, very good odds you're going to hear about new iPhones at Apple's event next Tuesday.

But if you're looking for a new Apple TV, you're going to be disappointed.

Despite speculation about new Apple TV hardware on the way, Apple won't be unveiling any new boxes next week, according to people familiar with the company's plans.

That said, the company will be tweaking the software inside its Web TV box. Apple has already said that it will be bringing its new iTunes Radio service to Apple TV. And it has been adding new content partners, including Disney and HBO, throughout the summer.

Expect to hear about more changes next week.

Sources said that one new feature in the works will let people who've bought content from Apple play that stuff on other users' Apple TVs, via Apple's Airplay system and Apple's server. So if you bought a TV show or movie from Apple's iTunes store, you could watch it at a friend's house by calling it up on your iPhone and telling your friend's Apple TV to start streaming it. (The files wouldn't need to be stored on your iPhone or iPad)

You could have previously accomplished this by getting your friend to log out of their Apple TV box and then logging in with your own credentials. But that's awfully cumbersome - particularly with Apple's minimalist Apple TV remote. And you can already do a variation on this, though not as elegantly, with some Apple TV apps like HBO Go.

But if this makes it that much easier to watch "Pain and Gain" with your pals, then that's a good thing. And if that makes you less inclined to buy a $35 Google Chromecast and treat that as your Web TV device, then that's good for Apple.

No comment from Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr.

Here’s why the ArcticStartup blog is launching a print magazine for entrepreneurs called CoFounder

AOL Plans First "Programmatic Upfront"

AOL plans to sell some of its ads via what it is calling the first "programmatic upfront" event in September. The idea, modeled after the method TV networks traditionally use to sell their ads, is to convince marketers to commit to buying a certain amount of AOL's inventory using automated ad technology, a big push for CEO Tim Armstrong.

Google+ Brings Embedded Posts to Publishers (Just Like Twitter and Facebook)

In an effort to expand the reach of its social network, Google on Monday announced that third-party publishers can now embed Google+ posts into their websites.

Simply put: A site like AllThingsD could grab a publicly-made Google+ status update and, with the addition of a snippet of code, display it in a story.

At this point among the major players in social, it's a table stakes move. Twitter has long had embeds available, pitching the feature heavily to news sites and consumer outlets. And now both Facebook - which has made strides to surface more public-facing activity as of late - and Instagram have done the same. Google+ is a natural addition.

It's certainly a sensible move for all three companies, each of which aims for broad consumer recognition and appeal. It's also a trojan horse for potential new user signups if readers click through to the original social site.

Still, part of me wonders if there's a "peak embed" point. That is to say, if users will grow confused at the multiple types of embedded posts, and thereby not be inspired to click through. Or perhaps the different types of embedded posts will run together, and no one network will stand out.

Embeds should be available to publishers beginning today, with instructions on how to make it work found here.

"Just a Reflektor" Brings You and a Smartphone Into Arcade Fire's Latest Video

The band Arcade Fire has come out with another interactive music video designed to inspire and provoke, push the limits of Web technology, and make your laptop fan work in overdrive.

"Just a Reflektor" combines a Web browser, webcam and smartphone to include the viewer's point of view in the video, with the phone (or mouse) used to control what's illuminated. It's a neat way to make the experience of the video more visceral.

Like the band's "The Wilderness Downtown" before it, "Reflektor" was made using Google technology, specifically the Chrome browser, which it requires.

The short film was written, directed and produced by frequent Arcade Fire collaborator Vincent Morisset, and filmed in Haiti. Credits include the Google Creative Lab, the company's internal imaginative product marketing agency, and UNIT9.

On a tech explainer page that breaks down the various effects used in the video, the band highlights technology including the JavaScript Library three.js, WebSockets and the open-source TailBone project.

"Just a Reflektor" is also open source.

Why the University of Washington Wants Its Surgeons to Play Videogames

Randall Munroe / xkcd.com

In 1999, an Institute of Medicine study found that as many as 98,000 people die every year as the result of medical error in the U.S., incurring some $17 billion to $29 billion in hospital expenses. In 2009, the Safe Patient Project concluded that the situation may have gotten even worse in the decade that followed.

That's a tragedy, which Dr. Andy Wright - a surgeon and one of the core faculty members at the Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies (ISIS), a health-care education program based at the University of Washington - thinks can be helped by playing videogames.

Wright isn't advocating for surgeons' entertainment, although he personally identifies as a gamer.

"Being a videogamer doesn't get a lot of respect in a lot of mainstream professions," he said at the gaming conference PAX last month. "But, it has been instrumental to me in becoming a surgeon."

Wright's specialty is laparoscopy, meaning that his surgeries require very small incisions, some less than a centimeter long, which may be more easily monitored from a TV screen than by looking directly at the surgical site. His panel at PAX, "Videogames in Medicine," argued that the skills developed by games, such as hand-eye coordination and deliberate practice and teamwork, are also conducive to success in the operating room.

"Running a World of Warcraft guild doing raids is not terribly bad preparation for working in a hospital," Wright said in the panel discussion, noting that between two-thirds and three-quarters of those medical-error deaths were the result of miscommunication. As an example of what not to do, he played this infamous clip of the World of Warcraft guild Pals For Life, seemingly falling apart:

On a more down-to-earth level, Wright discussed how virtual training "games" like the Surgical Science product LapSim can help surgeon trainees. Although every patient is different, simulating surgeries allows students the chance to fail and get feedback without endangering anyone's life. Plus, simulators can easily throw those students into experiences that they might only see once in their entire careers, in order to prepare them for unlikely circumstances.

There's some data to back this up. In a study conducted in 2002, surgical residents trained in a virtual-reality simulation of gallbladder dissection were six times less likely to make an error in the real world than a control group that only received standard training.

However, a review of academic literature on virtual-reality training published in 2010 raised two caveats: VR makes the biggest difference with simpler skills being learned by less-practiced surgeons, and manual surgical technique is just one of the competencies that it takes to become a good surgeon, with good clinical outcomes strongly influenced by interpersonal communication skills and good judgment.

So, can normal videogames - the ones not intended for medical training - help with those non-manual skills?

"Absolutely," Wright told AllThingsD via email. "This is an area where I haven't seen any research on the application of videogames in that context, but the skills are the same," he said. "We teach judgment, team management, communication skills, conflict resolution, and error disclosure in the sim lab. You could easily see training those in a virtual environment or through gaming."

Pandora Media Names New CEO

Pandora Media Inc. named Brian McAndrews, a former aQuantive and Microsoft Corp. executive, as its new chief executive and chairman, a move that comes six months after Joe Kennedy said he would be stepping down from the Internet-radio company's helm.

Shares jumped 2.8 percent to $21.99 after hours Wednesday.

McAndrews's appointment is effective immediately. Pandora said that in the search for a new CEO the board had sought a candidate who could build on the company's leading position in Internet radio and accelerate its fast-growing advertising business.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Chair Entertainment Founder: "I Cannot Wait" for Physical Controllers for iPhones

At Apple's iPhone 5c/5s event on Tuesday, Chair Entertainment co-founder and creative director Donald Mustard debuted Infinity Blade 3, the newest game in the popular iOS sword-fighting series. Naturally, he's making the rounds this week to talk about the new game and how it takes advantage of the iPhone's hardware ... but that's not stopping him from hinting at more to come.

Mustard characterized Infinity Blade 3 as a "statement" of the power of touchscreen design, saying the series "spawned a whole new genre of game." However, absent from the iPhone event this week was an update on how iOS 7 will support physical game controller peripherals, one of the features mentioned at this year's WWDC keynote.

Mustard said he's excited for that eventuality.

"I cannot wait for the day when we can make a mobile game that's supported by a more traditional controller," he said.

He said fans have asked him when Chair would make a touchscreen version of one of its pre-Infinity Blade games, Shadow Complex. The answer: never!

"Shadow Complex wouldn't be good with touchscreen controls," Mustard said, adding that Infinity Blade would not work as well on Xbox. If Chair makes a mobile game for a physical controller peripheral, he said, it "would want to design the experience from the ground up."

It would also be possible to have a mobile game that combines both forms of control, he mused.

In the meantime, though, Infinity Blade 3 at least looked good in Mustard's demo. The battle he showed off on the iPhone 5s featured an imposing and smoothly animated dragon, which was far larger than the game series' previous bosses. Although the dragon will look best on the 5s, it and other animations in the game will still look "awesome" on the iPhone 4, Mustard said, calling the latter device "still pretty damn powerful."

IB3 will cost $6.99 when it goes on sale for iOS devices on Sept. 20, timed to the launch of the 5c and 5s.

Here Is Airbnb's First Television Ad

The peer-to-peer accommodation marketplace Airbnb ran its first television advertisement this week, and it wasn't your average 30-second spot. Instead, it was an allegorical short film that aired on the Sundance Channel Thursday night. How much did that slot cost? Nothing.

"Hollywood & Vines" is a four-and-a-half-minute piece about the life and aspirations of paper airplanes, composed entirely of six-second clips made with the Twitter-owned mobile app Vine.

Each short, postage-stamp-sized scene was submitted in response to an individual tweet from Airbnb, like "A paper airplane falls straight down onto a sidewalk. 2 seconds later a hand carries the plane away," or, "A piece of paper is thrown into a spinning world with other paper products. Darkness!" The company and its partners Mullen SF and B-Reel Productions got more than 750 submissions.

"It's an initiative to bring our global community together to create something meaningful and relevant to Airbnb's brand," said Airbnb spokeswoman Emily Joffrion, who added that the company is planning a set of accompanying events in Los Angeles. "The plot is about learning your place in the world through travel experiences."

Joffrion said Airbnb pitched the film to Sundance, and the channel understood it as more of a creative effort than an ad.

The final result is more than a little quirky, and it's definitely not an in-your-face advertisement for Airbnb. At all:

Meme's Life

The rapid shortening in the lifespan of a meme is apparent. It used to take months for a meme to run its course. Now, it's a good meme if it lasts a week.

- Cheezburger founder and CEO Ben Huh, to the Guardian's Adam Davidi

Apple's New Ad Grabs One of Rock's Best Songs

There's a new Apple ad. It's for the iPhone 5c. No need to say much.

But since you are still here, here's the source file for the ad's soundtrack, via Sleigh Bells' 2010 "Rill Rill":

Still here? All right! Now things get really good, because you get to hear the source file for "Rill Rill," courtesy of Funkadelic. For some reason, this 1971 song got renewed life in the last few years.* Which is great, because it's one of the best songs ever:

Ah. Okay. Denouement time. Here's the ad Apple ran another time it took a thing that was popular and made it available in different colors:

* Probably because of Sleigh Bells, I guess? But it showed up on a lot of TV and movie soundtracks.

More Tech IPOs: Criteo Files, and Rocket Fuel Is Ready to Start Trading Friday

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that video ad startup YuMe was trading below its $9 IPO price; YUME shares climbed back above $9 last week and closed today at $11.

Here's another tech company headed for the public markets: French advertising startup Criteo has filed its public IPO documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which means the company could be trading in less than a month.

Criteo's latest funding round, completed a year ago, valued the company at $800 million.

Like Twitter - and just about every other company that has gone public this year - Criteo filed its initial documents with the SEC in private earlier this year, using cover provided by the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act.

But, unlike Twitter, the timing of Criteo's filing isn't surprising at all, since the ad-tech world has been gabbing about it for months.

Criteo is a retargeting company, which means it helps e-commerce companies track prospects online and show them display ads. Last year, it made a profit of $1 million on sales of $354 million; in the first six months of this year, it lost $6.4 million on sales of $252.7 million.

More than half of Criteo's top-line dollars go back out the door via traffic-acquisition costs. It spent $205 million on TAC last year, and another $152 million in the first half of 2013.

Criteo, which is based in Paris, wants to list its American Depositary Shares on the Nasdaq under the "CRTO" ticker.

Criteo's filing follows disappointing public debuts for ad-tech startups this year. Marin Software and Tremor Media are trading below their IPO prices, and the general climate for ad-tech stocks has been lousy enough that Adap.TV chose to sell to AOL instead of following through on its IPO plans.

But now the conventional wisdom is that investors are once again willing to look at companies that combine technology and advertising, at least in some cases - see Facebook's triumphant return.

We should get a better sense of investors' appetite for ad tech at the end of this week, when Rocket Fuel, which helps advertisers buy "programmatic" inventory, is supposed to go public. People familiar with the company's plans said it expects to price its shares on Thursday, and head to the Nasdaq Friday morning.

(Image courtesy of Shutterstock/Everett Collection)

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that video ad startup YuMe was trading below its $9 IPO price; YUME shares climbed back above $9 last week and closed today at $11.

No Internet? No Problem: YouTube Getting Ready to Let You Watch Videos Offline, on Your Phone.

YouTube streams more than six billion hours of video a month. Soon it will let people watch some of those videos even if they're not connected to the Web.

Next month, Google's video site will let viewers save clips on their phones and other mobile devices for up to 48 hours, so they can watch them when they're not online.

The videos will still be free, and Google will run ads on the clips, which will be available via its mobile apps.

That's a big change for the eight-year-old company, which has previously required a live Web connection to watch its videos (though there are plenty of workarounds).

YouTube announced the move in a blog post published late last night, and started telling its partners about its plans via email, as well; YouTube said it will allow uploaders to opt out of the offline option.

The practical benefit for YouTube viewers is that they'll be able to watch videos in places where they've previously been unable to do so, like planes or cars.* This should presumably boost overall viewing for the site, which already generates more than a quarter of its views - that's more than a billion views a day - via mobile.

If so, that may put more pressure on YouTube's ad rates by opening up more inventory.

Here's the text of YouTube's post announcing the move:

We're always exploring ways to bring more viewers to your content. As part of this effort, later this year we'll launch a new feature on YouTube's mobile apps that will help you reach fans - even when they're not connected to the Internet.

This upcoming feature will allow people to add videos to their device to watch for a short period when an Internet connection is unavailable. So your fans' ability to enjoy your videos no longer has to be interrupted by something as commonplace as a morning commute.

This is part of our ongoing updates to give people more opportunities to enjoy videos and channels on YouTube mobile. Check out the YouTube blog when this launches in November for more details on how this will work for viewers.

* I'll check, but I don't believe the move is relevant to Google's Chromecast gadget, which is designed to work in conjunction with mobile devices, but which relies on an Internet connection to play content on your TV. UPDATE: That's correct.