Next week, Bill Gates is launching the Gates College Tour, a three-day, five-school trip where he will open a dialogue with students. His focus will be around one question: “How do we get the world’s brightest people focused on its biggest problems?” To help spread the message and share his dialogue with the rest of the world, Mashable will be live streaming his final presentation. It will take place at Harvard University on Wednesday, April 21st.

The Shiba Inu puppies may have met their match. Ustream’s latest breakout animal star is Molly the owl, whose activities — including the birth of baby owlet, Max — are being broadcast live to the web. Molly is a wild owl inhabiting an owl house barn in San Marcos, California.

In the latest development in an ongoing standoff with China over censorship , Google has redirected its Google.cn property to Google.hk, its site in Hong Kong. The move follows reports this morning that Google would announce plans to shut down Chinese operations as early as today. Google first announced that it was considering pulling out of China in January, writing at the time that it would no longer censor search results at the behest of the Chinese government following a set of cyber attacks targeting human rights activists.

If you reeeeally want an iPad but don’t want to scrap together $499 for the entry-level model, then the iPodMeister service has an interesting solution for you — swap 600 CDs for Steve Jobs’s newest product.

Amybeth Hale is a Talent Attraction Manager with AT&T’s Interactive Staffing team. She uses social technology to help drive awareness of job opportunities as well as interact with candidates

If you were one of the million-plus viewers who tuned in during 2008 to watch the adorable antics of this famous litter of puppies, you’re in luck: The second wave of pups — from the original mother — has arrived. Get ready for cute overload. The first round of pups became a viral sensation after their San Francisco owners set up a webcam to monitor their movements while at work, streaming footage of the puppies live via Ustream .

Want to check out New Year’s Eve coverage on your mobile phone or computer? You’re in luck; Ustream is ringing in the new year with live video streams of New Year’s Eve celebrations across the globe.

Yes, it happened: Live video streaming has come to the iPhone courtesy of Ustream. In a move that many suspected would never happen — surely the carriers would loathe the increased data usage resulting from such apps — Apple has approved the Ustream Live Broadcaster application, bringing live streaming video straight from the iPhone to the uStream Web site and any embedded players posted around the Web. The app works on 3G and Wi-Fi connections, supports yes/no polling of viewers, displays chatroom messages, serves up a viewer count, can transmit your location via GPS and allows you to adjust the resolution.

Ustream , one of the best services for those in need of a free video streaming platform, has just launched the Android Viewer, an app that lets you watch any Ustream show on your Android device, provided you’re connected to the Internet via either 3G or WiFi. The Viewer is the second app you need for a full Ustream experience on the Android

Social media is a double-edged sword.