This past week YouTube lifted the 720p-only upload restriction; users are now able to upload and watch full 1080p high definition videos on YouTube.  And what better way to celebrate this news than watch Heroes’ Hayden Panettiere uncork a bottle of champaign in slow motion, in reverse.  Enjoy, fellas..

There’s still more YouTube news hot off the press.  First, Google decided to shut down YouTube’s API access.  What this means is that all the set-top boxes (and other similar devices) no longer have the ability to access YouTube services.  Only YouTube-sanctioned devices like supported Blu-Ray players, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and TiVo will be able to feature a YouTube interface and provide videos to consumers.  Why is Google doing this, you ask?  Well, the unofficial reason is that Google, like any other company, wants to make as much revenue from its ads as possible and letting anyone and everyone have access to their YouTube service leaves them in a hard-to-control situation.  Come December 2 all set-top boxes and unauthorized devices will lose their ability to feature the YouTube service.

On a less somber note, Google is now allowing users to add automatic captions to their YouTube videos to make videos accessible to the deaf and hearing-impaired.  YouTube will utilize Google Voice speech-recognition technology to create automatic, on-the-fly captions for uploaded videos.  For now this service will be available to a handful of partners including PBS, National Geographic and a some universities until it is perfected.  For now, Google is implementing an “auto-timing” feature that will take written words in a user-generated text file and match the text to the words as they are spoken in the video.  Neat-o.

Oh, and there’s another (less exciting) 1080p video posted after the break.

[Via Engadget; Gizmodo, here & here; AP]