WebProNews spoke with Chris Tolles, the CEO of Topix, who told us that voters are trending online because they get a more balanced view. The study also found that voters are going online in order to participate in political discussions and debates.

Tolles told us that this trend would increase in the coming years as voters strive to have a “personal relationship” with news. He also said that politicians would have to learn how to leverage online platforms such as Topix, Facebook, and Twitter, to ensure that they are connecting with the conversation.

Where do you go for your political information? Let us know.

Jaquet tells WebProNews that Roku was the first device to stream Netflix to the television when it first came out. Since that time, Roku has become an open platform. “We’re really a platform for the delivery of content to the TV,” Jaquet says.

Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, and sports leagues like MLB, NBA and NHL can all be accessed via the Roku device. This includes live and on demand games. That’s not to say that these outlets are the only sources for content. There’s TWiT.tv, Revision3, Blip.tv and many other content providers.

Providing a range of content isn’t the only thing that Roku is doing to differentiate itself in the web TV arena.  Jaquet tells WebProNews that price and value are very important factors as well. “We are really well priced and positioned in that regard,” Jaquet says. There are three different Roku models ranging in price (and features) from $59.99, $79.99 and $99.99.

In addition to price, Jaquet tells WebProNews that simplicity is very key to adoption. “We’re trending towards a much older demographic,” Jaquet says. “So it needs to just work out of the box. You know, five minutes and you need to be set up.”

Because web TV is such a hot space right now, there’s also a lot of competition. One obvious competitor to Roku is AppleTV. Jaquet tells WebProNews that the proliferation of competition can actually be a good thing. “When Apple released their new product last year, it immediately sold very well,” Jaquet says, “but our sales doubled as well.”  The benefit here is that Apple–a recognized brand–was able to bring visibility and credibility to a new and growing space.

As far as the future of Roku and web TV, Jaquet tells WebProNews that more content is forthcoming. The more content available to web TV users, the less reliant they become on traditional cable. As a matter of fact, Jaquet says that about 12% of customers buy Roku to cut the cable cord. Of course, people still want their local sports and news as well as live in-market sports. “Twenty-five percent of our customers either cut the cord or severely diminish the number of premium services they have with their cable provider,” Jaquet says. This “cord shaving” approach, Jaquet says, is then complimented by the Roku solution.

As Adam Cahan, the company’s CEO, explained to WebProNews, television programming takes up 62 percent of consumers’ leisure time, which, besides sleeping and working, is the largest activity that people partake in. In addition, studies have shown that around 60 percent of people are also on the Internet while they are watching television.

For these reasons, the company wanted to create a way for users to be able to easily connect with their friends around the content that they are watching. The app does this by identifying television programs after only hearing a few seconds of them. Cahan said that the app allows users to look at their social connections, find out what they share in common, and start conversations around those areas of interest.

“For us, what was really exciting was the ability to establish those connections to say you and I both share the same show, and therefore, start a conversation around it,” he added.

Although the app is fun and interesting (it was even named Apple’s App of the Week last week), WebProNews asked Cahan why people would really be drawn to it since many of them already talk about their TV experiences on Facebook and Twitter. In response, he emphasized that IntoNow is not trying to own the conversation.

“It’s about getting recommendations and about getting a sense of your tastes, your friends’ tastes, and then starting to come back to you with ideas around things that we think you should like,” he said.

The technology that enables this experience is based on IntoNow’s SoundPrint platform. Cahan calls the process “fingerprinting,” since it takes the audio signal layer from a snippet of content and translates it into an algorithmic representation of the audio signal.

SoundPrint records 130 channels of live television continuously and is always adding to its catalog. It also has a “back catalog” that includes about 5 years of television, which equates to roughly 2.6 million individual airings.

Cahan told us that IntoNow has several ideas for monetization and is currently talking with one of the largest television manufacturers about embedding the service into TVs. He also said that we could expect an Android version and a Web application soon.

“If social networking sites implemented software to check each stream, they could identify copyrighted subject matter, create a report, negotiate compensation for the value chain and sell targeted advertising for related goods and services.”

Digimarc said the technology relates to what professional photographers and stock photo agencies have done for a decade.

Dell’s Idea-Storm website started rumors of Dell considering presenting customers the option of preinstalled Linux distribution when buying new PC’s from the company. Dell’s growing dissatisfaction with Windows Vista and the appealing price of Linux distributions have guided customers toward the operating system. Ars Technica’s Ryan Paul thinks consumers switching to Linux should do so with caution.

“I’m not saying this because I think that Linux isn’t ready for the desktop. I’m saying this because I don’t think that Dell is capable yet of providing full technical support for desktop Linux. Dell has a hard enough time as it is supporting Windows.”

Dell users may have to make the switch from Windows or OSX operating systems in the future, but right now it seems just speculation.

The Leichtman Research Group conducted a survey to show that 14 percent of adults watched online video once a week as of December 2006. The survey established that the total online video usage has improved, but the time spent watching TV has stayed about the same. A previous LRG study discovered that four percent of adults viewed online videos daily and another eleven percent weekly. TV leads online video with 93 percent of adults viewing around one hour a day. Men from 18 to 34 made up the online video viewers demographics. This demographic also holds true for more than two-thirds of adults who visit YouTube and any other user-generated content site on a daily basis. Only eight percent of online video watchers agreed to watch TV less often.

LRG’s Bruce Leichtman becomes excited about online video.

“Rather than replacing TV, in the near term, emerging video services like online video are best viewed as opportunities to complement and augment traditional TV viewing options.”

Horowitz Associates and Points North Group show 68 percent of online adults have an interest in watching downloaded TV shows on their televisions, but 45 percent would watch longer videos on their computers. EMarketer estimates the online video audience will grow to 157 million people by 2010.

The deal incorporated CBS shows on YouTube, sharing advertising income and Google would sell inventory from CBS radio.

Google would have guaranteed advertising revenue of more than 500 million dollars for CBS. Google sought after a five-year contract, while CBS found the deal un-workable.

Recently Viacom demanded YouTube remove 100-thousand copyrighted videos. Last year Google CEO Eric Schmidt put the idea forward that they may guarantee up to 500 million dollars in advertising revenue over several years to license Viacom’s videos. Google wanted to pay Viacom around 70 percent of advertising revenue, but Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman wanted more control of advertising and technical issues before negotiating the money. Viacom took Comedy Central away, and arranged a deal with Internet television service Joost.

NBC television executives have become furious from illegal postings of TV shows on YouTube. Ali cited a six-page letter from N-B-C to Google insisting Google keeps unauthorized content off of YouTube.

Google can’t seem to come across allies in the television business.