A new study by Comscore will be released on Wednesday that may give hope to social gaming startups trying to monetize users. 35% of the survey respondents said that they engage in “marketing actions” to earn virtual currency (such as watching a video, filling out a survey, etc.), and 53% said they be willing to consider marketing action for currency if given the choice.

The study was conducted by Comscore, sponsored by Offerpal, and included responses from 799 Comscore panelists who play games on social networks at least once per month. 54% of panelists play games at least daily.

This is good news for game developers who’ve had their monetization choices somewhat fenced in over the last few months. Gamers 25-34 are the most likely to earn virtual currency for marketing actions, according to the study – 71% of panelists in that age group said they are “very likely” to consider this.

The study also showed that about 30% of panelists don’t have the ability to pay cash for virtual currency. But more than half of all panelists, including a majority of those that can pay cash and a majority of those that cannot pay cash, were willing to consider marketing actions.

The bottom line of the study is that even users who have the ability to pull out their wallet want options when it comes to social games. And as long as they don’t get scammed along the way, we’re just fine with it. Watch a video in exchange for Zynga points? That’s a better deal than the credit card.

Yahoo is backing a cycling team. I don’t know why — but they’re doing it. And today their passion got a little boost: from Google.

Google is announcing tomorrow at the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC that Google Maps will now include biking directions in the U.S. Apparently, this was the most-requested feature for the service, as some 57 million Americans ride bikes.

Thousands of miles of bike trails have been added to the maps. And there is also step-by-step directions, much like you can see for driving or public transportation directions in the maps. There is also a new layer that shows bike trails and bike-friendly areas on roads. Yes, it’s a bike-lover’s dream.

To make this new feature happen, Google partnered with Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit group that converts old rail lines into bike trails. The group have given Google information on some 12,000 miles worth of trails in the U.S.

To coincide with the launch, Google also has a cycling contest. To enter, you simply have to tweet with the hashtag #bikewithgoogle. The randomly selected winner will get a voucher for $2,500 to be used at American Cyclery.

I fully expect that hashtag to be dominated by members of Yahoo’s cycling team tomorrow.

Find out more about the new feature in the video below.

Jon [Miller] came to us and said, `Would you like to be co-presidents?’ We said, `Hell yeah.’ We didn’t have to move our desks,”

– Former MySpace Chief Product Officer Jason Hirschhorn’s reaction to the abrupt firing of his boss and his promotion to co-president of MySpace.

I find myself, and I’m sure tons of others, caught in the Adobe Flash Player vs. HTML5 battle. Flash Player runs terribly on my iMac. Videos on different sites either tell me to install Flash components, show up as blank white areas, load perpetually (CNET TV) or tell me to adjust global storage, and so on. If they do play, I often get the stuttering/buffering that drives me crazy. I had the latest version of Flash Player, uninstalled that and installed the latest 10.1 Beta3, and it’s just as bad.

I considered signing up for YouTube’s HTML5 beta test, but that only works for Safari, Chrome, and IE, not Firefox. I’ve read about Mozilla’s stance on this issue, too.

I apologize for the long intro to my question, but do you know of any Firefox add-on or plug-in that installs the H.264 codec? We already have to install a plug-in for Flash Player, so perhaps it’s possible someone can do this for H.264.

Thanks for any help,
Fighting with Flash

Howdy Fighting,
That’s a good question, and unfortunately one to which there’s no great answer. It actually is technically possible to play HTML5 YouTube videos in Firefox, but it’s extremely convoluted (details below)—and Mac users like yourself won’t have any luck. First, for those who aren’t familiar with why Firefox is excluded from YouTube’s (and some other video sites’) HTML5 support, here’s why:

The Problem

In order to move to HTML5 from Flash, video sites like YouTube need to host their videos in formats friendly to Flash-free HTML5 embedding. Unfortunately there’s no default standard for the format HTML5 videos should use.

As a dedicated open-source, open-standards browser, Firefox chose to support the Ogg Theora video format for HTML5 video. Like Firefox, Ogg Theora is free and open; it’s not covered by any patents, so it requires no licensing and is completely free to use for everyone involved.

Other browser makers, like Chrome and Safari, support H.264 for HTML5 video. Unlike Ogg Theora, H.264 is patented, and would theoretically require browser makers to pay licensing fees to use it (though the company that owns licensing rights to H.264 have said that they’ll offer it royalty free until 2016). Additionally, the issue isn’t just about licensing.

Some tests have shown H.264 to perform better than Ogg Theora in side-by-side comparisons. Apple’s stance on the matter, via Wikipedia, is that “H.264 performs better and is already more widely supported.” For video sites like YouTube, the main concern is likely which format can deliver the highest quality video with the greatest compression rates. Unfortunately for Team Firefox (and supporters of free and open web standards), it’s looking like H.264 might deliver the best results.

It’s worth nothing that browsers can support multiple video formats for HTML5 support, but currently Chrome is the only browser that supports both H.264 and Ogg Theora (though through the Frankenstein efforts of Google Chrome Frame, Internet Explorer also gets support for both). The chart below (from Wikipedia) lays it all out:

As you can see, unless either Firefox changes its stance or sites like YouTube decide to support a free alternative like Ogg Theora, Firefox fanatics don’t have a clear way to watch HTML5 YouTube videos.

The “Solution”

If you’re extremely desperate to watch HTML5 YouTube videos but you absolutely do not want to switch to another browser, you’ve got one simple-yet-absurd solution that’ll only work on Windows:

Watch HTML5 YouTube Videos in Firefox (on Windows)

1. Install the IE Tab Firefox extension (or one of the other IE-in-Firefox extensions).
2. Install Google Chrome Frame for IE.
   
3. In the IE Tab preferences inside Firefox, set YouTube to always open inside an IE Tab (see image below).
   
4. Visit the YouTube HTML5 Video Player opt-in page (if you’ve set up IE Tab correctly above, it should open in an IE Tab inside Firefox) and click the Join the HTML5 Beta link at the bottom of the page.
   
5. Go watch an HTML5-supported YouTube video.

And… that’s it. Ridiculous, but I’ve tried it, and it seems to work. (Though, unsurprisingly, it seemed buggy, and worked much better in straight Chrome than it did in either IE with Chrome Frame or Firefox with IE and Chrome Frame.) Unfortunately it doesn’t help Mac users like Fighting with Flash much, but it’s the best we could do.

More than anything, the convoluted process involved in watching an HTML5 YouTube video in Firefox only serves to underscore the problem. It’s not something that’ll likely be solved overnight (though I guess if Mozilla decides to cave into H.264, change could come pretty quickly), but it’s a good reminder that important, web-changing technology almost always comes with a few speed bumps.

Love,
Lifehacker

Got a better method you’re using, or want to weigh in on this whole H.264 vs. Ogg Theora battle? Let’s hear it in the comments.

You could be a great fit if:

• You love and understand a lot about technology, and have a knack for tinkering with software and bending gear to your will. (Bonus points for command line/programming junkies in general.)
• You know how to slap together nouns, verbs, and the occasional em dash and enjoy a good href.
• You can deliver clean, crisp, and informed takes on everything from software and web sites to food and personal finance.
• You’re creative, and you’ve got all kinds of ideas that would make for great Lifehacker features. (We particularly love a good how-to feature.)
• You’re ambitious, looking to make a name for yourself, and are prepared to work hard.

I’m emphasizing the hard work aspect because Lifehacker is a job that does require some serious hours and dedication, and if you don’t have the time or aren’t interested in a job that requires a lot of hard work, it’s probably not for you. But if you’re a good fit, it’s also an extremely rewarding job.

If you think you may be a good fit, send an email to tips at lifehacker.com with “Lifehacker Job Application” in the subject. Don’t include any attachments. Do include your Lifehacker commenter ID if you have one, along with anything else you’ve written, Lifehacker-y ideas you have that you think would make you a good fit, or anything else you think might wow us.

The position we’re looking to fill is part-to-full time and pays accordingly. We’re expecting a lot of submissions, so we won’t be able to respond to each email individually; rest assured that your interest is much appreciated.

There’s no denying that the Mini 5 is real, but up until now, we’ve had to provide all of our own promotional material. At long last, it seems as if the suits in Round Rock are finally getting around to crafting the first advertisements for the upcoming slate, and while we knew about the 5-inch WVGA (800 x 480) touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, capacitive touch front buttons, front-facing VGA camera (for video chatting) and the 30-pin docking connector, we weren’t aware of Dell’s plans to reveal a slew of vivacious color options. If this here flyer proves legitimate, we could eventually see the Mini 5 available in an array of premium finishes and hues (thanks, Design Studio!), and we’re hoping for a few different spec builds as well. So, are you opting for the pink, or are you crossing your fingers in hopes that Dell allows you to print that embarrassing shot of you and Mr. T on the rear of one?

Update: Oh, snap! We just landed a few more official slides from an internal Dell document, and it’s safe to say that the company is going to call this beauty the Streak. Or, at least that’s the internal codename. Better still, it looks as if it’ll launch with an Amazon content partnership, which will bring a Kindle e-book reader app, Amazon MP3, Amazon video streams and pretty much any other material that Amazon sells in digital form right to the slate. C’mon now — how’s about a ship date and a price?

Leaked Dell Streak flyer shows multitude of color options, confirmed specifications originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bluetooth Access Point brings text messaging, voice messaging, email to the friendly skies originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More bad news for an already bullet-riddled MySpace: three key employees have left the company to join Gravity, a cross-town startup founded by former MySpace COO Amit Kapur, SVP Steve Pearman and SVP Jim Benedetto.

We covered Gravity’s launch in December 2009.

The three MySpacer’s are Chief Software Architect Chris Bissell (we previously reported Bissell’s resignation), Chief Systems Architect Dan Farino and Development Manager Robbie Coleman.

All of these employees approached Gravity on their own, says our source. But MySpace’s somewhat zealous legal department isn’t shy about engaging in the occasionally ridiculous turf war. We’ve also heard that the best MySpace employees continue to head for the door, and companies that know which employees actually get things done aren’t going to turn away good people.

MySpace declined to comment on this story, other than to confirm that the three employees are no longer with the company. Gravity also declined to comment.

By and large, EA Sports’ Season Opener event here at GDC was underwhelming, but one glimmer of newness did manage to shine through. Nearly a year after Active hit stores (video after the break) and encouraged Wii gamers to drop those unwanted pounds before hitting the soft sand in the summer, the company has announced that Active 2.0 (a working title) is currently in development for Wii, PS3, iPod touch and iPhone. We’re told that a “new suite of fitness products” will be launching in the fall, with the Active 2.0 program delivering “true fitness results by featuring an innovative wireless control system powered by new leg and arm straps with motion sensors, a heart rate monitor to capture intensity and a new online hub to track and share workout data.” Outside of that, details are nonexistent (like how exactly the iPod / iPhone components will factor into this equation), though we get the feeling that Xbox 360 owners may be left out of the party. Here’s hoping we’re wrong.

Continue reading EA Sports introduces Active 2.0 at GDC, complete with sensors galore

EA Sports introduces Active 2.0 at GDC, complete with sensors galore originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Andrew Wilkinson of MetaLab has just written a blog post accusing Mozilla of plagiarizing the design of its FlightDeck editor. To make matters worse, Wilkinson says that MetaLab actually bid on creating the design for FlightDeck months ago, but was turned down by Mozilla.

While Wilkinson is understandably upset, at this point,it looks like the plagiarized image is just a mockup on the Mozilla wiki — not the actual product (though it’s obviously still in bad taste). We’ve reached out to Mozilla for a comment. You can see a screenshot comparison from Wilkinson’s blog post below.

Update: Here’s a comment from Mozilla, stating that the copy-and-paste design was a proof of concept:

Mozilla is now aware of a post by MetaLab that shows a Mozilla developer copying prior design work. The mockups they cite were an early proof of concept created by cut-and-paste, never final designs. Mozilla respects the hard work of all designers and at no time meant to plagiarize original content. The in-progress designs for the Jetpack SDK’s IDE are available here and following initial sign-off on the proof of concept, the IDE was developed entirely independent of MetaLabs’ work.

On its wiki, Mozilla describes FlightDeck as a tool to “enable the community to rapidly, collaboratively develop both extensions that utilize the Jetpack framework and Jetpack Capabilities crucial to the expansion of the Jetpack framework’s core.“