I got several emails over the weekend in response to the story that ran on Saturday about how Spanish-speakers and Spanish-language stations are handling the upcoming switch to digital television.

Many of the surveys and research done lately indicate that awareness of the transition continues to rise. Now the big hurdle is making sure TV viewers know what to do about it. In a lot of cases, that means making sure consumers--no matter which language they speak--know how to order a converter box, or know how to tell whether they have a digital TV.

Confusion still surrounds low-powered stations and how they'll be affected by the transition. A lot of cultural programming and minority-owned stations are low-powered, which means their signals reach a smaller coverage area. Unlike full-powered stations (i.e., the major networks), low-powered stations aren't yet required to shut off their analog signals and upgrade to digital (although some are doing so on their own). So over-the-air viewers will still be able to get the low-powered stations after the transition, although they'll lose the more mainstream channels that go all-digital.

That also means that those viewers who upgrade their equipment--by getting a converter box or a digital TV set--won't be able to receive the low-powered stations unless they get a box with an analog pass-through feature. This will allow viewers to receive both digital and analog signals. (Some of these boxes are now available in retail stores as well as online).

Of course, Spanish-speakers aren't the only ones who will be affected by the transition. In San Francisco, for example, a special emphasis has been put on Asian languages. In that city, nearly 30 percent of the over-the-air households speak Chinese. Nearly one-fifth of all households are Asian. KTSF, channel 26 in San Francisco, broadcasts programming in 10 languages, ranging from Laotian to Filipino to Korean.

While many viewers are bilingual, they still enjoy watching dramas and newscasts in their first languages about their own countries, said KTSF general manager Mike Sherman. A big concern is helping the senior population with the digital switch, since they are often more dependent on over-the-air programming and are less technologically savvy.

Most multi-lingual broadcasters are making big pushes to educate their viewers about the transition. Progress has surely been made: nearly half of the total calls to order a converter box coupon go to the Spanish hotline, and Puerto Rico residents are ordering and redeeming the coupons in record numbers, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration says. The transition is less than seven months away, so we can expect an even bigger push to come soon.

Hungry Machine, a Georgetown firm that has made a dozen or so popular Facebook applications, got its first round of venture capital funding this morning--$5 million from Grotech Ventures in Vienna and Steve Case. The company is officially launching its LivingSocial site, which has been in beta until now.

Tim O'Shaughnessy, one of Hungry Machine's four co-founders, talked to me briefly on Friday to give me the details. LivingSocial lets users find reviews of products and connect with people who have similar interests in six categories: books, music, movies, video games, restaurants and beer. Each of these categories has applications on MySpace and Facebook, and the new site syncs up with those.

About 6 million people used LivingSocial in its beta form, and more than 80 million items--favorite books, albums, new microbrew beers--have been cataloged, he said. LivingSocial has become a pretty well-known name in the social networking community--which is probably why Tim is a panelist at this week's Facebook developer conference in San Francisco.

He and Steve Case have worked together before: Tim was a product manager at AOL and then at Revolution Health, Case's newest start-up.

Don't count on getting your hands on the new iPhone 3G today.

News service Bloomberg is reporting that only three of 188 Apple Stores -- in California, New York and New Hampshire -- have phones available to sell today. One analyst has predicted that the shortage will last well into August.

On Friday, I dropped by Montgomery Mall and talked to some folks at the head of the line outside the Apple Store there who had been waiting four hours to get the new iPhone (the AT&T store at the mall was sold out). But that's nothing: On Thursday, a friend of mine waited in line for eight hours at the Tysons Corner Apple Store to get an iPhone for himself and his wife.

Anybody got their hands on the iPhone 3G and want to talk about it? (Was it worth the wait...?) Or, has anybody out there tried out any of the new iPhone applications and feel like praising or panning any? Pandora and Sega's Super Monkey Ball game for the iPhone have been getting a lot of my attention...

Social media isn't just for Web-addicted teens anymore. It's now a full-blown marketing business that has sparked a cottage industry of public relations firms that specialize in helping corporations infiltrate the world of blogs, wikis and social networks.

Geoff Livingston has been a well-known evangelist for social media marketing in the past couple years. His firm, Livingston Communications based in Alexandria, has made a name for itself on the east coast for being at the forefront of the movement toward using conversations to reach customers and build brand equity. His blog has also become a reference point for marketing professionals. (Check out his latest post--"Top Ten Reasons Why I Sold Out." He helped organize BlogPotomac last month, a conference about the intersection of blogging and marketing.

Social Media Group, based in Toronto, has announced today that it intends to acquire Livingston Communications. The combined firm--a total of 20 people--will be the "largest independent social media operation in the world," said Maggie Fox, chief executive of Social Media Group.

Current clients include Ford Motors and the Consumer Electronics Association. Both Fox and Livingston admit there's still a lot of work to be done to convince corporations to harness social media, and to guide them in the most effective ways to do so.

"Right now we're seeing the shiny object syndrome, where every company thinks they need a blog, or a wiki or a widget," Livingston said. "In corporate America, the rules are different but everyone wants to know how they can communicate in a measurable way."

Many chief marketing officers are having a hard time finding social-savvy people who can help direct them on this path, Fox said.

There are already several agencies--many of which operate in the Washington area--that offer some social media services. Ogilvy, New Media Strategies, Viget Labs, Fleishman Hillard and Edelman are a few of the well-known names.

Fox said Social Media Group is not trying to "squeeze into the agency model," but is instead taking the consulting approach. Using blogs and Facebook groups doesn't work for every company, and it all depends on what the end goals are, she said.

"There's definitely still fear about what it all means, but there's a tremendous hunger for it out there," she said.

The Guitar Hero videogame franchise has landed another real-world guitar hero's music for inclusion in the next version of the bestselling game: Two Jimi Hendrix songs will be in this fall's "Guitar Hero World Tour."

The upcoming title will let players fake-rock their hearts out to "Purple Haze" and "The Wind Cries Mary" -- and feature a Hendrix avatar among the characters that players can choose from. Activision, Guitar Hero's publisher, says that more Hendrix music may become available down the road in the form of downloadable content for the game.

The latest installment steps up the Guitar Hero franchise's game by incorporating a microphone and drum controller option, kinda like Rock Band, that other big fake-rock game on the market. Guitar Hero World Tour is scheduled for an October 27 release.

Activision recently released a version of the game centered around the career of Aerosmith and a version of Guitar Hero for the Nintendo DS. (Anybody got opinions on those games? Please post away...)

By the way, if you're a serious Guitar Hero fan, be advised: Hard Rock Cafe and Spin Magazine are sponsoring a contest based on the Aerosmith version of GH. The top four scorers from among 16 competitions at Hard Rock Cafes across the country will win a trip to Boston, where they'll compete for a motorcycle with a look designed by singer Steven Tyler.

The competition hits Washington next Sunday (July 27). For more information, go here or here.

Shortly after people started flocking to Facebook and MySpace, companies tried to get in on that action by starting their own social networks to connect with customers and employees. The hope was that, by starting a conversation with these communities, the companies' brand names would spread, people would discover new products and the companies would get feedback from real people.

Well, according to survey findings released yesterday by Deloitte, these online communities haven't quite taken off. Most of the social networks have fewer than 500 active members, the survey found. Half of the respondents said getting people engaged with the communities has been the biggest hurdle.

Still, some corporations see it as a worthwhile venture. Thirty-five percent of the companies surveyed said the online communities helped them boost word-of-mouth promotion of their brands, and 28 percent said they've seen their overall brand awareness increase. About 24 percent of respondents said online communities are helping increase customer loyalty and bring outside ideas into the organization.

Other companies are still not investing enough time into the communities to make them effective. Nearly half of the respondents said the biggest challenge is devoting a sufficient amount of time to manage the social network.

The rise of these commercial social networks means more work for today's marketing departments. They're charged with running online communities to drive sales and improve customer service.

Is all this working, in your opinion? Personally, none of these communities has caught my eye or even compelled me to sign up. Are there some thriving communities out there I don't know about?

One of the most interesting parts of the Senate hearing yesterday, which examined the proposed search-advertising deal between Yahoo and Google, was a short scuffle over a comment reportedly made by Jerry Yang, Yahoo chief executive, at a meeting last month with Microsoft executives.

Brad Smith, Microsoft general counsel, recounted a meeting at which Yang said that the Internet search market had two poles -- Google makes up one pole and Yahoo and Microsoft make up the other. Any search advertising deal would pull Yahoo to Google's pole, freezing Microsoft out of the market.

Sen. Herb Kohl, (D-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, said such a charge was "pretty explosive stuff." Sen. Arlen Specter, (R-Penn.) pointed out that Michael Callahan, Yahoo general counsel, had not contradicted Smith's claim. Callahan said he disagreed with Smith's "characterization" of the comment. When Specter pressed him on whether Yang had made the comment, Callahan said he couldn't recall.

This sparked a flurry of reminders from the panel to the tech executives that they were under oath. Smith said he stood by his testimony and said the comment made a "very strong impression" on Microsoft executives, especially Steve Ballmer.

The senators vowed to follow up on this issue and promised their staffs would continue to gather information on whether a partnership between Google and Yahoo would be anti-competitive.

The Justice Department and several state attorney generals are investigating the deal.

In a note to investors today, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Blair Levin said they doubted a disputed comment by an executive to be a huge factor, but "we believe it would prove troubling to investigators if the reported Yang sentiment is reflected in Yahoo-Google internal documents."

They added: "The flap reinforces our belief that Yahoo and Google have some convincing to do."

TiVo has announced that users will soon be able to view YouTube content on their devices as a free new service.

"We're continuing to bridge the gap between TV and the Web and YouTube is certainly a critical part of that plan," said Tara Maitra, vice president and general manager of content services at TiVo.

Maitra said that beta testers trying out the new service had already come up with a few examples of how the bringing the onlne video service to TiVo enhanced their use of the digital video recorder. When watching a news clip about the recent death of George Carlin, for example, one user hit the TiVo's pause button and flipped over to the Tivo's YouTube connection to watch clips of the late comedian's performances. Others said they clicked over to YouTube during baseball games

The new service is available to TiVo customers with a "Series 3" or "TiVo HD" box. TiVo said the software update making it possibly for users to watch YouTube content will roll out "over the next few weeks."

Maitra said her team tested the new TiVo around the office by checking out popular TiVo clips like "Chocolate Rain and "Where the Hell is Matt?"

"It's more fun to stand around a TV than a PC." she said.

This has already been a big week in the area of Web-delivered video content, as Microsoft announced that Xbox owners will soon be able to stream Netflix movies to their game consoles and Sony opened up an online video store for the PlayStation 3.

Many videogame fans are pining to be in LA this week, as the industry's major annual trade show, E3, kicks off at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The show, once known for huge crowds and loud parties, reinvented itself as a small, business-focused event last year, but one tradition remains intact: The dueling news conferences, where the console makers each boast of their latest achievements and show off a few new titles in an effort to get the gamers of the world excited about what's coming this holiday season.

Microsoft had its press conference yesterday, in which it announced that Xbox owners with a Netflix subscription will soon be able to watch 10,000 titles in the rental company's movie library online.

Today, Sony rolled out some details of its own new video store, where PS3 owners will be able to buy and rent movies from studios like Sony Pictures, Warner, Disney, MGM and Lionsgate. Owners of both the PS3 and Sony's "PlayStation Portable" device will even be able to transfer movie rentals from the console onto the mobile gadget for watching on the go. The new service launches tonight.

Sony's console usually hasn't looked like much of a winner since the PS3's launch, as both the Xbox 360 and the Wii have consistently outsold it.

But some new figures from research firm NPD show the PS3 as possibly edging past the Xbox 360 in recent sales. The PS3's built-in Blu-ray player surely hasn't hurt consumer interest in the console, now that the format war over which media format will succeed the standard DVD is over (the other consoles do not have Blu-ray). PS3 owners are also singing the praises of a new software update to the system's software, which makes it easier to chat with other players, among other features.

Jack Tretton, president and chief executive officer of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, said the PlayStation 3 is "hitting its stride" and starting to reap the rewards of its long-term strategy for the console.

Nintendo showed off a hodgepodge of new titles today. The game company started its conference with a look at Shaun White Snowboarding, a new snowboarding game from the gold medalist that will have players standing on the Wii Balance Board controller.

A new hardware add-on to the Wii controller on the way, called Wii MotionPlus, allows the Wii to read a player's arm motions more accurately. With this add-on, in a new version of "Wii Sports", players will be able to throw a Frisbee to, say, a virtual dog with the new controller. This add-on device will also make a better class of swordfighting games for the Wii possible... some are in the works.

One new Nintendo title, called Wii Music, will let players conduct an orchestra or play various virtual "music instruments." Players will be able to, for example, bang a pair of Wii controllers like drumsticks, as a virtual set of drums plays onscreen. It's a game possibility that Nintendo has been dropping hints about since before the Wii's launch in 2006.

There was at least one Nintendo-related surprise -- for me, anyway: A version of Grand Theft Auto is coming to Nintendo's "DS" device. That's a bit of a first for the game system, which is generally more famous for its family-friendly content.