the crazy ramblings of the perma-stubbled bronfasaurus

Bronfasaurus

Class: Carnivore
Preferred Food Group: Value
Habitat: Warner Music HQ, 75 Rock, NY, NY

While music continues to migrate towards its natural equilibrium price of $0.00, industry dinosaurs (excuse me, veterans) like Edgar Bronfman, Jr. keep coming up with new reasons why record labels should still exist while providing little to no utility for musicians, songwriters, and ultimately the consumer. I think Bronfasauras' brain works inversely to everyone else's, because any idea he pitches not only seems to defy all logic, but assumes consumers' preferences to be exactly the opposite of what they clearly are. Take, for instance, his most recent proposition--co-pitched with the ever-popular Jim Griffin--of placing a tax surcharge on monthly subscription-based services to gain access to unlimited music. "People love taxes, right? This is a knock-out, they'll love it! Jim, draft up a proposal, call it 'IRS meets DRM.'" If he wasn't the heir to the Seagram's fortune I'd be worried about his future.

Eat up Bronf, you're about to be knocked down a few notches on the food chain.

thin is in (almost)

Unlike eating disorders and skinny jeans, this is one thin trend I'm all for (an aside for all you non-eaters: come join the rest of us at the dinner table...food tastes good, really good, I promise). But I digress. OLED is upon us, and I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm pretty excited to have a 3mm thick screen perched atop the cardboard box and Styrofoam it arrived in (at $2,499.00 for an 11in screen hell no I can't afford a stand).

For those of you unfamiliar with OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology, here's someone who can explain it better than I ever could. Oh, and for you WikiFreaks, go nuts.

In the interest of fiscal responsibility, I recommend not being an early adopter of this technology, unless you're that guy. Sony just pumped another ¥22b ($204.5m) into its OLED production line, focusing on medium- to large-sized screens, set to hit the States in FY2009, and as Engadget points out, their production timeline mirrors that of Samsung's...let good 'ole competitive markets help out your wallet and be patient for 6 months to year.

However, if you feel the need to splurge...have at it.

be bold...please?

RIM's "bold" new 'berrys have hit the street, and I will admit, not bad. Not an iPhone killa by any means, but they have introduced some similarities in design (that fancy new silver border? flattened appearance?). If only the fancy street camo skin shown above (part of the unskippable intro on the phone's website) was an available option...

Look for some sweet little apps to come along shortly for the Bold (a.k.a. Blackberry 9000). Similar to Apple's $100m iPhone iFund (thank you Mr. Doerr and Kleiner Perkins) and Google's $10m Android app contest (check out the eco2go app that lets you calculate your carbon footprint), RIM has launched a $150m fund to entice Bberry developers. A little strange, given the Blackberry application space has been well-developed for a while now. So why the hefty incentive? I think somebody's got a little 3G phobia. I wonder if RIM's co-CEO Mike Lazaridis has nightmares of Steve chasing after him weilding a Macbook Air? (sidenote, check out just how sharp the Air is here)

Go forth and be bold.

finally, carnies have a media player too

Though they may smell of cabbage, the notoriously small-handed carnie demographic have finally been specifically targeted by new-tech. iriver’s new shrunken Lplayer PMP can only be described as freakish in, you know, all the right ways. And it certainly adheres to the ever popular “I have enough disposable income to splurge on needless devices so tiny I expect to lose three yet continuously buy more” trend. Well played iriver, although I don't see much function in its form, unless of course the value lies in its stashability (hipsters in skinny jeans eat your heart out). In any case, carnies: enjoy your new toy.

Check it out:
www.iriver.com/