Apple must have realized just how many people use a third-party iTunes controller, because it has added the functionality directly into the latest version of its media application. The feature is built on top of what was just an album art viewer back in iTunes 9.2.1, adding Quicktime X-esque controls.

Launching the Controller

Getting the controller which is built into iTunes 10 running is simple enough; in the bottom left of the iTunes window is an icon which looks like a triangle inside a square. Click that to slide up the Now Playing pane, which shows the album art of any currently playing media.

Now all you have to do is click the Now Playing pane once. A new pop-out window will appear: simply a square containing the album art you just clicked on.

This window can be resized to as big as you like. It might not look anything special, but it’s a different story when you hover over this image while the song is playing. The name and artist of the song are displayed in the small title bar, and all the iTunes controls you could think of are shown near the bottom in the same way as when you watch a video in iTunes or QuickTime X.

Why this is better than a third-party application

For a start, using iTunes itself negates the need to run another application, which often takes up a space on your Dock, and uses considerably more CPU. Another reason I prefer to do it this way now is the fact that the pop-out window has standard window controls, so you can minimize or close the window as you would any other. All the dedicated controller applications I’ve seen require quitting the software to hide the album art.

While some may argue that this method isn’t as feature-rich as it could be — other applications offer the ability to rate songs — I find that once I’ve started iTunes playing, I leave it be until I want to pause or skip a song. I don’t rate my songs, and I certainly don’t need to be able to turn shuffle on or off once I’ve started the music. There’s also no control over the window’s appearance other than its size, but again, that’s something that doesn’t concern me too much.

The only niggle I have is that the window doesn’t like sitting in the very bottom corner of the desktop. When you click on it or when the song changes, it automatically floats up above the height of the Dock for some reason.

Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so post in the comments the application you favor to control your iTunes content consumption.

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Oh, and as we reported, the price for renting TV shows in HD is dropping from $2.99 to $0.99 HD TV shows is shifting from $2.99 to buy to $0.99 to rent for the ABC and Fox shows that will be available at the outset. Other broadcasters have yet to commit to the service, but Jobs said that “other studios will see the light soon, and get on board with us.”

HD movie rentals are set at $4.99 for first-run films, which Jobs says will become “cheaper as time goes on.” The new store also includes Rotten Tomatoes ratings and cast/crew listings “for the first time.”

Jobs called the Netflix interface on Apple TV “the best implementation of Netflix yet,” though he was probably saying that because the interface is a direct ripoff of Apple’s Front Row interface.

Jobs also announced a complete overhaul of the iPod line, including FaceTime for the iPod touch. The iPod nano now has a square face and is smaller, and today’s demo emphasized the device’s music player and other features, including a clock face. The iPod nano camera has been removed, and the square screen implies that there’s a de-emphasis on video.

That just means more cameras for the iPod touch! The new version of the device will have front- and back-facing cameras, allowing people to communicate using FaceTime. On-device editing and direct upload to YouTube will also be possible.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): Apple’s Path to the Living Room

We all want to keep up with the latest news and trends in our industry along with learning more about other areas of interest, like our hobbies. With only so many hours in the day, people often struggle with finding the information they need to be successful while not spending too much time sorting through massive quantities of data. Here are a few tips to help you whittle the information down from a fire hose to a trickle of only the most relevant content.

RSS Readers

If you don’t already use an RSS reader, you should find one, since this is the best way to get only the information that you want pushed to you while being able to easily see which posts you have read and which you have not. Google Reader and Netvibes are good places to start. For the rest of you who already use RSS, there are many ways to make it more effective.

Firstly, change the way you think about RSS; it’s more like a newspaper than email. If you fall behind on the daily newspaper, you aren’t going to keep trying to catch up and read papers that are months old. RSS is just like a newspaper, so don’t worry if you don’t get to everything, and don’t feel like you need to catch up. Right now, I have thousands of unread items in Google Reader, but I am OK with it. If that big number of unread items bothers you, simply take advantage of the “mark all as read” feature once a week if it makes you feel better or, better yet, use an RSS readers that lets you hide the number of unread items.

Secondly, do some pruning and get rid of the dead wood. Spend a couple of hours looking at which feeds give you the most value and get rid of the rest. If you are feeling overwhelmed and overloaded, you are probably oversubscribed. Some RSS readers even have tools to help you find feeds that you rarely read or are rarely updated.

Third, spend as little time as possible in your RSS reader by prioritizing your feeds. I use folders in Google Reader to group my feeds, and I put the most critical feeds right at the top. I make sure that I read through those high priority feeds first to spend more time on what I need to know while hopefully having some time left over to read a little extra. I also encourage you to learn the keyboard shortcuts for your RSS reader, since this can shorten your RSS reading time.

News Aggregation

While RSS readers are great for the things you know you want to read, they are not the best way to find new sources of information or news from unexpected sources; this is where news aggregators really excel. My favorite aggregator is Twitter Tim.es, since it takes the links from the people that I follow on Twitter and displays them in newspaper-like format, with the links that have been posted by more of my friends appearing as headlines on my Twitter Tim.es page. I also use Techmeme to find the topics that people are discussing online. Depending on your interests, you might be able to find other news aggregation sources focused on your areas of expertise.

Filtering

Filtering RSS feeds takes a little work, but it is worth it in the long run if it helps you find only the information on the topics that you want to see. While there are many filtering tools, my tool of choice is Yahoo Pipes. I use Yahoo Pipes to find out when people are talking about me or the topics that I am most interested in. For example, I have Pipes that comb through industry analyst feeds looking for a few specific keywords, which allows me to find the reports from analysts on those topics while ignoring the rest.

The best thing you can do to avoid overload is to stay focused on the most important information while not worrying about what you might be missing. If you can become more efficient at finding and consuming the right information for your needs, you can easily stay informed while minimizing the feeling of being overwhelmed. Read what you can and don’t stress about what you don’t have time to read.

What are your tips for managing content information overload?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Are You Empowering Your Mobile Workforce?

Photo by Flickr user See-ming Lee 李思明 SML, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license

2.0

Veoh filed for bankruptcy in February. The site competed with YouTube early on and raised more than $70 million in funding, but suffered from a number of strategic missteps along the way, including the focus on a desktop player and exorbitant spending of up to $4 million per month on staff and infrastructure. A copyright infringement lawsuit brought against it by the Universal Music Group didn’t really help to turn things around, either.

Qlipso offers users the ability to combine web videos and other media assets to playlists, personalize these playlists with 3-D avatars and share them in a live web chat. The company has apparently gone through a number of iterations and was previously also know as Icontaqt, 2Peer and Playr. It is backed by Jerusalem Venture Partners and led by CEO Jon Goldman, who previously co-founded the video game developer Foundation 9 Entertainment.

Related content on GigaOm Pro: Viacom v. YouTube: All Over But the Shouting (subscription required)

Conceptually, there’s a lot that doesn’t really work here. After all, the joy of a show like Project Runway (to which Reinvent the Wheels compares itself) is that those competing have trained hard in their chosen professions, and you know that each week, you’ll get a glimpse into talented people executing their craft under extreme circumstances.

However, the “creatives” who pitched their ideas in the hopes of winning $30,000 and a brand-new car were comprised of two DJs, two filmmakers, a make-up artist and a pastry chef. Not only do these professions have nothing to do with the automotive industry, they don’t even have anything to do with design (the one possible exception being the make-up artist). Frankly, the idea invokes memories of that Simpsons episode where Homer’s long-lost half-brother gives him a chance to design a car and Homer designs the worst car in the history of the universe. I wonder what real automotive designers, especially those currently looking for work thanks to the collapse of the American auto industry, think when they watch this.

Of course, the point is that the cars being proposed by the creatives aren’t meant for popular consumption — they’re meant to reflect “their personal vision” (as well as assist in their careers). And they’re not building the cars all by themselves: Each creative selected to create their dream-mobile is paired with a “builder” who represents a well-respected custom auto shop. The bulk of the show’s tension, based on the second episode, seems likely to come from the relationship between the creatives and builders, as the builders do have some veto power over the stupider ideas.

So I suppose that there’s some fun to the fish-out-of-water element. Plus, while on a production level the show doesn’t reinvent any of competitive reality’s trappings, it does execute them perfectly — talking head interviews, blathering host, dramatic music — and the approximately 10-minute episodes were nicely paced, never feeling overly padded.

However, the show’s inclusion of outsiders to the car world feels like an attempt to appeal to non-car nuts, which is a big misstep if you ask me, at least when you consider the success of car-focused shows like Top Gear. Targeting a niche audience never hurt anyone online.

One final note. Each episode of Reinvent the Wheel begins not with a welcoming theme song, but something I don’t believe I have EVER seen before on a web series: A five-second copyright notice. “The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright, including infringement without monetary gain is investigated by the FBI and punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.”

Seriously, dudes, you are not a VHS copy of The Little Mermaid that cost my parents $20 in 1990; you’re branded content for the web. It’s the in-show partnerships that are making you money, not whatever banner ads you have running on the site. And thus, eyeballs are eyeballs, and so making a huge deal about copyright infringement on a show you don’t even know people are going to watch? SERIOUSLY?

Related GigaOM Pro content (subscription required): Fact or Fiction: Where Is Branded Online Video Going?

Blockbuster Dips a Toe in the Mobile Stream; the company released an application that allows users to watch any of the 10,000 titles of its digital catalog on mobile devices. (NY Times Bits Blog)

Lady Gaga First to Hit 1B Video Views; Visible Measures reports that Lady Gaga’s music videos have cumulatively carried her beyond the 1 billion online-views threshold, becoming the first performer to do so. (CNET)

Blip.tv Doubles Video Views, Scores with New Ad Formats; the online video network for independent producers generated 85 million video views in February 2010, double the amount from a year ago. (VideoNuze)

Sky Player Extends Connected TV Options; Sky will launch its online TV service on a new range of connected TVs and set-top boxes after striking agreements with Cello and 3 View. (Broadband TV News)

Turner Sports Goes Interactive for NBA game; Turner Sports will offer a package of technologies during an NBA game on Thursday, including Twitter, multi-camera coverage online and a live chat in a move to attract fans watching on TV, the Internet and cellphones. (Reuters)

While there’s no denying that the crossover between web video watchers and comic book readers exists — if it didn’t, there wouldn’t be much point at all to the comics review/interview series A Comicbook Orange — there’s also no denying that this is a new medium and thus a new audience to engage. Fortunately for newcomers to the world of The Guild, the series isn’t a continuation of the web series’s third season; instead, it’s an origin story exploring just how all the members of the series’ eclectic gang came together.

Reading it this morning, the most surprising thing I found about the first issue is that for a comic inspired by an multi-award-winning comedy, it’s actually pretty sad. The reason is that right away, we’re thrust head-first into the head of Cyd, not quite yet known as Codex (who Day plays in the series), and it’s not a happy place. Cyd, as we meet her, is struggling with an insensitive boyfriend, an unfulfilling job and the intense need to escape — problems her therapist is useless at solving, leaving her to find her own solution.

Day’s use of classic comics writing techniques like thought bubbles, fantasy inserts and other classic comics tropes makes the issue an intimate exploration of Cyd as a character. It’s why things get a little uncomfortable halfway through the issue (when — SPOILER ALERT — Cyd starts playing the game), for, as much as you want to emphasize with her finding an outlet for her feelings, it’s uneasy watching the early signs of addiction take hold. It’s tough to speculate on how much of Day’s past experience as a hardcore World of Warcraft gamer informs the storytelling here, but there’s no denying the narrative’s personal feel, which makes at least this first installment very affecting.

Adapting a live-action franchise for comics is a tricky proposition, as the artist is challenged to accurately capture the look of an actor while still managing to make them work in a comics context. Fortunately, artist Jim Rugg manages that ably here, drawing in two different styles — a clean minimalist look at the real world (which will be familiar to anyone who’s seen his past work — Street Angel is an old favorite of mine), as well as a water colored fantasy-novel-inspired approach to the world of the game, which also gives audiences their first look at what the in-game personas of the Guild might look like beyond their avatars.

The Guild is not the first web series to get a comic book prequel with Dark Horse — the Zack Whedon-penned Dr. Horrible single-issue came out last fall — but Dr. Horrible only sold about 25 thousand copies, placing it at number 80 on the November 2009 sales charts. When I picked up my copy this morning (from a stack on display at the front counter), the friendly counter jockey at Meltdown Comics said that several regular customers had requested that The Guild be included in their weekly orders — but those were customers who also read comics set in the “Whedonverse,” including the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel series. However, this isn’t the first time that Day has delved into a new medium and found an audience — we’ll have to see how many converts she finds in the comic book world with the release of this and the next two issues.

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The bill, dubbed “Building Star” and  playing off the name of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program, would cover about 30 percent of the cost of energy-related equipment and services including energy audits, building envelope insulation, mechanical equipment upgrades, lighting and energy management and monitoring equipment. If passed, the program is expected to save building owners more than $3 billion on their energy bills annually by reducing enough peak electricity demand to avoid the need for nearly three dozen 300 MW power plants, according to a statement by Sen. Jeff Merkley, a cosponsor of the bill.

Buildings account for about 40 percent of total U.S. energy use, with the commercial sector, such as office, retail and healthcare facilities, making up 18 percent of the total.

While the energy-saving portion of the proposal will resonate with some, the bill’s supporters appear to be largely focused on its ability to stimulate job creation. The Energy Future Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group that was heavily involved in Building Star’s drafting, says it would create at least 125,000 jobs (see this 13-page white paper by the coalition for a more detailed look at the Building Star proposal). Much of that work would be for the construction industry, which has taken a particularly tough beating in the economic downturn. The coalition estimates the program would spur $15 billion-$20 billion in market activity.

Patrick Hughes, a spokesman for the Energy Future Coalition, said Building Star could get wrapped in with the Home Star bill, which Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman said earlier this week he wants to move quickly to launch. President Obama, who has called saving money through energy efficiency “sexy,” touted Home Star program in a speech on Tuesday.

The announcement marks the first commitment by a major homebuilder to construct all its homes in a region to the GreenPoint Rated standard, an important validation for the nonprofit that was established in 2004 (so far more than 10,000 single- and multi-family homes in California and Nevada have been or are being built to meet Build It Green’s green building criteria). But more importantly, the move shows that giant homebuilders are beginning to believe that there are enough mainstream buyers interested in green to warrant a shift toward building homes with features like highly insulated windows and walls and the use of recycled materials.

“Consumers want homes that will save them money in operations and that are green,” KB Home spokesman Craig LeMessurier, told us. “The two go hand in hand.” Over the last three years, KB Home has built about 1,100-1,200 new homes in Northern California, and the company operates in 11 U.S. states. LeMessurier wouldn’t say if the company might expand the commitment to other regions, nor would he say if the new green homes in Northern California would cost more to build than conventional construction. If there is a premium passed to buyers, however, KB Home clearly believes it can win over customers with lower energy and water bills and the marketing power of green.

KB Home isn’t alone in its shift, albeit still slow, to green building. Miami-based Lennar, a leading U.S. builder, has unveiled a line of green homes called PowerSmart Homes that are designed to save up to 40 percent on energy use. The company says it aims to have all its new homes in Minnesota achieve its PowerSmart criteria. Pulte Homes, which calls itself the nation’s largest homebuilder, is increasingly focused on adding green features to its structures and last year won the U.S. Green Building Council’s “Outstanding Production Builder” award for its Villa Trieste project in Las Vegas, which includes 185 single-family homes that met the council’s highest standard, LEED Platinum.

The announcement by KB Home is also noteworthy because the company chose to hang its hat on an independent rating system, in this case Build It Green, rather than brand its homes green based on in-house criteria. GreenPoint Rated, like LEED, depends on third-party verification and that means KB Home’s structures in Northern California will have to show that they’ve been built to standards developed by independent experts.

The credit line, offered by the China Construction Bank, will allow ECOtality to finance vehicle charging projects for its customers and reduce the upfront capital they otherwise would have needed to invest to get the projects moving. That, in turn, “will accelerate EV adoption worldwide,” CEO Jonathan Read said in a statement. Read said the deal would provide ECOtality with the capital needed “to become the dominant player in the EV marketplace with no current dilution to our shareholders.”

The focus on China isn’t new for ECOtality, whose subsidiary eTec snagged a nearly $100 million federal stimulus grant last year to support the construction of more than 12,000 charging systems in five U.S. states. The company announced last September that it had formed two joint ventures with Shenzhen Goch to manufacture, assemble and sell EV charging equipment in the country. ECOtality said then that Shenzhen Goch would contribute $15 million for the joint ventures in exchange for exclusive sales and distribution rights for ECOtality’s charging systems in China.

ECOtality, at the time of the announcement with Shenzen Goch last year, seemed to emphasize that a major benefit of the partnership would be to sell its charging systems in China, which is expected to account for nearly half of worldwide installations by 2015, according to at least one research report. Today’s announcement makes it clear that ECOtality’s partnership with Shenzhen Goch is as much about selling into the Chinese market as it is about exporting products to markets worldwide, including to the U.S., which was specifically mentioned in the statement. As Josie Garthwaite has written before on Earth2Tech, there is growing chance that the charge point you pull up to in the U.S. in the future will have a “Made in China” sticker on the back.