kikstardt

Big Brother Boss

2009-03-17T15:27:00.000-05:00

The management game has changed drastically as a result of enterprise software systems, and with that change has come many separate privacy concerns. Software companies’ products strive to streamline sales processes, succession and management change-up planning, integrating new policies or guidelines, and just about any other corporate strategy theory put to use in a company, big or small. Unfortunately, all of those products rely on one main thing: data. That data comes from a lot of places, but for management software in particular, the most valuable data are typically reflective of employee behavior. And employees aren’t particularly happy about that.

Some data is aggregated from keystrokes, or phone call times, or even web-browsing (a more touchy topic with respect to privacy). Typically, companies restrict the data they collect to “business-only” behavior, that is, actions performed for business purposes. But for some jobs, the line between business and personal is often blurred. Steve Poppe, CEO of Roto-Rooter, employs 1,500 technicians, who all make their living on the road, repairing pipe after clogged pipe. Among their schedules visits, those employees are eating lunch, taking breaks, and performing other personal tasks throughout their day. Which is why most of them took opposition to Poppe installing GSP locators on their new, company-issued cell phones. Poppe’s rationalization for this apparent “breach of privacy” was to be able to send the nearest technician to a call in real-time, which is a valid claim when that is the majority of your business. For employees of the company, prior to the GPS system, they would have to manually report a job completion, and then wait patiently by their phone for the next assignment. Now, Roto-Rooter uses etrace software from GearWorks, integrated with their Nextel i58sr phones to view an interactive map of all their employees. It also allows technicians to carry portable printers connected to the mainframe system, capable of printing out invoices immediately, which immediately tells the company that the call is now complete. As a result of this software implementation, the company’s employees are now able to serve 20 percent more customers then before. That’s a pretty substantial increase in productivity at the cost of what was ultimately a low opposition to breach of privacy (Roto-Rooter’s employees’ opposition was short-lived compared to some other companies experience with GPS integration). Additionally, the employees directly benefited from the increase because they work largely on commission; the more sales, the more commission. Direct benefit may not be a valid justification for loss of privacy, but it will certainly help the cause at the corporate level.

There is also a new wave of corporate culture emerging at some technology companies that promotes a more organic approach to acquiring employee behavioral data. Cisco Systems, the largest producer of network and communications technology and services, has encouraged its employees to share their data willingly in the form of internal wikis, blogs, and various social networking accounts, both proprietary and open (such as Twitter and Facebook). This culture allows company employees to share information across divisions (such as engineering to sales), disseminate leadership and decision-making faster and wider, and manage what each employee is doing in a manner that is less invasive and more collaborative. If privacy is the concern, that solution is one that should be considered by companies having difficulty integrating management and tracking software. If a company the size of Cisco (which currently has $39 billion in revenue and $22 billion in cash while most companies are underwater), it certainly could work for others.

new site

2009-01-26T12:59:00.003-06:00

I've switched blogging platforms to Wordpress, check it out at http://mattlabz.wordpress.com!

targeted does not always = relevant

2009-01-11T22:42:00.000-06:00

I think there has been a confusion in the digital advertising and social media industries between the delivery strategy of targeted ads and contextually relevant ads. With the development of sophisticated ad platforms at Facebook and MySpace, the advertising industry has had their eye on the prize of [finally] creating effective online advertising. Unfortunately, many dollars, man hours, and experiments later, that prize still remains very wrapped.

Delivering a targeted advertisement does serve the message--whatever it may be--to a theoretically receptive audience based on data collected on their browsing behavior and, in some cases, published interests, connections, and personal information. However, the reason the CPM model exists is because only a very small portion of those designated "targets" will be receptive to the product/service when the ad is served. This is based on numerous variables, many of which are uncontrollable. When an ad is served at an inopportune time, that user can react one of two ways: he/she can glaze over the banner/search/interactive message (as most do), and remain indifferent about the brand serving the message; or they can become frustrated by the ad's neutral or, as is increasingly the case, negative utility to the browsing experience. The latter creates a detractor for that brand, and as conventional wisdom tells us, a brand promotor will tell 1 person while a detractor will tell 10. This is a cost that is continuously rising as users become more and more empowered and less passive to being subjected to constant advertisement. Obviously channels have opened up as social media becomes more ubiquitous, but the attempts have been less than authentic (such as CEO Twitter accounts, branded Facebook games, etc). But while authentic content creation is a good initiative (and is quite cheap), its hard to tell whether it actually leads to purchases down the line, either direct or via trickle-down promotion.

Perhaps the blanket strategy is getting tired, and instead of paying a low cost-per-impression on a broad market segment, firms should begin focusing on a smaller but more receptive (and thus more valuable) audience, and leave the indifferents to browse in ad-free bliss. Unfortunately the nature of the digital ad business is restrictive to this concept, because ad networks are really the ones serving the ads, not the advertisers, so the incentive is more to serve as many ads as possible and keep their inventories flourishing. We may see some shake-up in this sector with respect to that model (publisher-ad network-advertiser) this year given the times and constraints (fingers crossed).

The difference between targeted and relevant advertising lies in the mood of a user at a given point in time. Relevancy is more difficult to achieve because that value is always changing, but there are ways to estimate that behavior. A targeted ad can measure what a user likes to listen to, watch, who he/she likes to converse with, co-brand with, etc, but those are generalizations that apply to that user's entire personality, not their specific mood. Targeting systems can also identify what a user is reading at the time or what previous articles/posts/videos/other content that user is coming from, but jumps at the sell the first chance it (the ad spot) gets. If I were trying to sell a client on an expensive new IT system, I wouldn't approach the CEO if their stock price has recently dropped by 70% and they'd laid off 40% of their staff. No, I would either wait for a more opportune time, or sell a different product, such as a more efficient system that would save the company money. Now, that's an extreme example, but the point is, the way any solicitation is received makes the difference between a sale and a dud. If a user jumped to a page with an article about the auto industry, GM or, even better, Toyota ads appear. But that user isn't nearly as valuable as the user who spent 30 minutes researching what mid-size sedan has the best crash-test rating. The dollars should be put into a more useful ad served to the second user than blasting the first user hoping their disdain for American cars might throw them right into a Corolla.

I'm just touching on the overarching problem plaguing online advertising currently, and many a clever ad exec has been wrestling with these problems for years. I think the constraints really lie in the disjointed model placing the ad network between publisher and advertiser, as well as the ad industry's starry-eyed reliance on new technologies to fix the problem through sophisticated platforms. Google knows search, Facebook knows networks, but Burger King knows burger eaters, and Crispin Porter + Bogusky knows how to market them (supposedly, those new Angry Whopper ads I'm not so sure about...).

$how me the money!

2008-12-19T17:43:00.000-06:00

So its been 2 1/2 years, and still no business model from Twitter (even with a co-founder by the name BIZ Stone...c'mon!). Obviously this method isn't anything new for the Web 2.0 pioneers in social media...Facebook has tested the limits of this practice, and still hasn't released a viable model. This youthful style of ready-fire-aim has been questioned by the critics and traditional business analysts time and again, the response always being (in either an aggravated or snobbish tone), "we'll figure it out!" And its hard to argue with, seeing as how Larry and Sergey did it 9 years ago with Google. But search is certainly different than social media, and the latter has only been mildly validated by MySpace, who actually entered the space with the intention of becoming a PROFITABLE enterprise.

Twitter has maintained that it does in fact have dollar-earning plans for its micro-blogging community, and they "plan" to announce those next quarter (they've already hired their very first head of Product Development). But they should really stop outright dodging the question, especially co-founder Evan Williams. Every time he's asked, he makes it seem like they're a bunch of kids who got too much money and scaled to a point where their out of their league. For the record, I still very much believe in Twitter's viability; they have a very loyal and outspoken user base that is growing very healthily, their distribution has continued to open up all across the social stratosphere (they've just partnered with Facebook Connect, MySpace ID and Google Friend Connect), and their application is being used in hundreds of different contexts to increasingly valuable niches. One niche in particular is the socially apt finance world. While the industry itself may be the Grinch that stole Christmas (and its bonuses), StockTwit, a recent startup, just raised $800k in a Series A this month (via CrunchBase). Its web applications like these that spread Twitter's utility around in healthy doses. The virtual infrastructure is certainly in place, it is simply a matter of solving the monetization problem. And I really hope its not ad-based, because the most recent attempts companies have executed on Twitter in hopes of connecting on a more personal level with their customers have been all but disgusting and inauthentic.

look daddy, straight a's!

2008-12-18T16:52:00.000-06:00

What the son isn't pointing out is that the classes are workshop, home ec, and Enligh as a Second Language. And herein lies the problem currently facing the advertising and marketing world. With the country now officially in a recession, advertising budgets are the first to get cut, specifically experimental and unquantifiable media. This means companies are looking to areas such as direct response ads (which have grown 27% YTD while most other ad products have decelerated), which have easily derived ROI's. This is basically an attempt for the marketing department of a company to prove itself to the board so the VP's don't get chopped as just another gangreined limb.

Unfortunately, we are in a time when companies need to reach their customers in the most cost-effective and relevant way possible, and more often then not that does not include media with easily derived ROI's. We are beginning to see this take effect in the digital ads space, specifically in display ad sales and the declining rate of CPM's. Firms are simply realizing these impression metrics simply aren't as valuable as everyone has been thinking. What needs to happen is the emergence of an entirely new online advertising model (or a paradigm shift to something like mobile), but unfortunately for the next however many months, companies simply won't have the cash to experiment and execute. Ad networks and advertisers alike should really begin (or should have already begun) rethinking their traditional models and find a way to monetize on alternative forms of digital media or, God forbid, without the reliance on advertising altogether. Either way, the model's broken and no one has the tools or manpower to fix it. We'll see a significant drop in the online advertising market over the following year as a result, but hopefully the old sayance "necessity breeds invention" will hold true and we'll see a beaute emerge.

Until til, keep your heads low and keep posting those A's.

Neilson online advertising spending breakdown (via AlleyInsider)

ad [hoc] irony

2008-10-13T13:59:00.001-05:00

Well, the most recent advertising forecasts are out...and we all wish it was the 60's on Madison Avenue, because even if the industry was in the same state it is now, at least we could pound some scotch at the office.

John Janedis from Wachovia cut his forecast from 1.5% growth to a 0.8% decline in ad spending this coming year. Most of the big ad firms are cutting jobs. Two WPP subsidiaries (Landor and Brand Union) announced cuts last week, as did Starcom MediaVest and TBWA/Chiat/Day (150 and 20 people, respectively).

One silver lining I see to this mess in the ad world is the completely necessary disruption of failing business models, and the forcing of creative, economical and valuable ad models to emerge. And its about time. Right now I'm looking to Hulu to lead the charge on web-based video content, they've definitely got something. And with more people viewing the Thursday night SNL special after the broadcast (via DVR or online) rather than live, that "guaranteed" audience TV networks once relied on are migrating from 10 ft to 2 ft experiences in a hurry.

It is a bit ironic how one of the most popular shows at the moment depicts a dated (albeit glamorized) advertising age that is run on a network (AMC) barely scraping by on the advertising it runs during the show's breaks. I think that's too many levels to even be funny, its just confusing and hurts my head. Need more scotch.

ohh, apple's STOCK is dying, not its ceo. gotcha.

2008-09-09T20:55:00.000-05:00

While Steve wittingly quashed the rumors of his terminal illness once again to open his keynote address today, the delivery of his new products was underwhelming...mainly because the products themselves weren't the mind-blowing, industry-altering gadgets the public was expecting. And their stock suffered; down nearly 4% today, hitting lows not seen since April.

The products revealed were a slimmer, sleeker iPod Nano, update v2.1 for iPhone (coming Friday...fingers crossed for copy/paste function), and HDTV availability on iTunes. See what I mean? Nothing too fancy or too interesting. But hey, they have really cool colors for Nano, so at least your iPod won't look as depressed as you, Apple shareholder!

Full video of the keynote here.

spider with a viral bite (oh, and its enormous)

2008-09-03T21:39:00.001-05:00

So, like, I know the Brits are weird and all...but this? A giant robotic spider repelling down the side of an office building in Liverpool? I don't quite follow. There are speculations on Engadget's comments section that its a viral campaign for Ghost in the Shell, a popular anime program (it resembles one of the characters).

Whatever it is, its certainly viral. Just like that full-sized UFO crashing near London Bridge promoting the Vauxhall Insignia car in the UK, its another attention-grabbing installation...not sure if its directing people towards cars or anime, but hey, its certainly interesting.

buffer.me from shitty design

2008-09-03T13:36:00.000-05:00

As reported on TechCrunch this morning, Buffer.me has launched a private beta site, bringing sleek and intuitive design to the Youtube experience. And its about damn time...the Youtube site has become less and less appealing (search function, video UI, cluttered layout, etc), and has caused me to revert much more to watching Youtube videos only when they are embedded on third-party blogs, news or websites. The other video sites out there have a sleek, appealing layout and UI (Hulu, Vimeo), why can't Youtube? Well, wish no more. By the way, this whole site was concieved and designed by one dude.

Buffer.me

aza raskin, superman for UI

2008-08-26T18:49:00.000-05:00

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Aza Raskin, the boy-genius son of famed "human-computer interface" developer Jef Raskin--responsible for Apple Pascal and the Macintosh Project for Apple Computer (and a few other remarkable things)--has struck a chord within the relationship between language and the Web. He has created an interface that allows you to use natural, informal language to call upon certain Web services in a very organic fashion. "twit this," "map this location," "translate this," "highlight." Very good stuff.

Aza, by the way, gave his first UI talk when he was 10 years old. He dropped out of middle school and high school, went to the University of Chicago to study math and physics, and researched Dark Matter (which he followed into an ultimately abandoned PhD program at CalTech). He also studied at the University of Tokyo, though U. Chicago was his only fully completed stint. He is also the founder of Algorithm Ink and Songza. Yeah, he's kind of a big deal.

update: students who hacked the MBTA get gag order lifted

2008-08-19T14:38:00.000-05:00

Via SlashDot:

"Judge O'Toole said he disagreed with the basic premise of the MBTA's argument: That the students' presentation was a likely violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a 1986 federal law meant to protect computers from malicious attacks such as worms and viruses. Many had expected Tuesday's hearing to hinge on First Amendment issues and what amounts to responsible disclosure on the part of computer security researchers. Instead, O'Toole based his ruling on the narrow grounds of what constitutes a violation of the CFAA. On that basis, he said MBTA lawyers failed to convince him on two points: The students' presentation was meant to be delivered to people, and was not a computer-to-computer 'transmission.' Second, the MBTA couldn't prove the students had caused at least $5,000 damage to the transit system."

Nice.

weekly diy: ceral box to gift box

2008-08-19T13:10:00.001-05:00

So you bought the perfect gift for your buddy's birthday, but realize a half hour before the party that the nicest thing you have to wrap it in is a Duane Reed grocery bag. I feel your pain (and embarrassment). Well, with this DIY you can cut open your favorite cereal box and a couple of folds later you've got yourself a box. Bueno.

The folding steps are relatively precise, so I'm sending you over to instructables.com to check out the exact method. There are about 8 folds, then a gluing step. That's it.

Materials needed: cereal box, sharpie (to decorate).

Tools needed: glue gun, dexterity.

Instructables step-by-step.
J.J. Abrams talk @TED on box design that seemed to inspire our DIY-er.

walmart noticing nobody wants to buy cd's...bingo

2008-08-18T10:18:00.000-05:00

WalMart may have the exclusive release of ACDC's new album dropping this fall, but that might be some of the last music the retailer will carry. Like everyone else, they have finally realized the lack of demand of music through mediums such as WalMart (the decline began at those obsolete brick and mortar music stores like Tower Records, Sam Goody, etc). And the demand curve for music at WalMart is even more kooky, because it is based on the impulse purchase demand and not music listener demand. That's how WalMart, Target and Best Buy sell the vast majority of music in the US. People who want to buy music use iTunes and Amazon, people who want to buy dishwasher detergent and cereal and happen to walk past the music section and see Tim McGraw on the shelf for $6.99 buy music at WalMart. As soon as they start to take away that inventory, people will obviously stop buying, but those sales won't carry over to online music stores...they'll just kind of die.

Somber, just like to music industry. Bronfasauras, take note.

aside: aapl worth more than goog

2008-08-14T10:56:00.000-05:00

Bam. For at least this moment, Aug. 14, 2008 @12:01pm, Apple's market cap is $158.93B, which just happens to be slightly more than Google's $158.61B. Ouch. They both look pretty shocked to learn it, too.

schmidt to cramer: mobile's gonna kick desktop's ass

2008-08-14T10:16:00.000-05:00

Everybody has been talking about mobile advertising like its going to blow everything else out of the water. That talk's about ten years tired now, and still...nothing. Its a tough problem, one that faces all forms of advertising: how do we not annoy the crap out of our consumers? There have been examples of mediums that didn't solve this problem (who in fact used its existence as a means of accessing consumers). Those would be pop-up ads on your browser. The endless sea of pornography and gaming sites covering your entire screen...yeah, that builds great brand image.

So when Eric Schmidt goes on Cramer and says that Google will eventually make more money from mobile ads than desktop? Big statement, especially considering that the problem is still, well, a problem. Schmidt went on CNBC's "Mad Money" last night to discuss the mobile ad concept with Cramer (full transcript here), and was quite optimistic of the role mobile will play in Google's future. He also reiterated that, even though www.google.com is ranked #2 on the web in traffic (behind Yahoo), there will (hopefully) never be any ads littering the site's real estate. "We absolutely are not going to sell that page," Schmidt told Cramer. I think we can all understand the value of keeping that page, and by extension the company's image, clean.

But how to make money in mobile? Cramer poses the question with regard to the greed of wireless carriers (maybe Android is the answer??). Even if Google figures out a smart and non-invasive way of placing targeted ads (as they most certainly will), is it possible to structure the economics in a way that makes enough money (at least comparably to their desktop model)? AlleyInsider also brings up a good point: if Google were to make more money in mobile than desktop (currently bringing in over $20B for the company), the mobile ad market would have to grow from less than $1B to over $50B (SAI is assuming that Google takes about 50% of the market). That's a lot of growth. Just please, no location-based coupons like that hairbrained Starbuck's example.

weekly diy: time hater work around for VMware licensing bug

2008-08-12T10:02:00.000-05:00

So this week's DIY is kind of an excuse to post on VMware's big licensing bug that is prohibiting users running their enterprise virtual ESX server from accessing their systems, but its a good lesson in workarounds and where to find them.

This morning it was discovered that anybody powering up their VM servers on ESX 3.5U2 in enterprise configs will be met with a brick wall. That's a big uh oh for companies running their systems nearly entirely over the virtual servers provided by the software (ESX doesn't require an underlying OS, it simply runs directly on the server hardware). So, when you go to boot up, and you get a general error message and have no idea what to do? First, talk to your IT guy. But if he doesn't know? Go to the community forums for the company producing your software. In this case, its VMware Inc, and their community boards today are buzzing with this bug. The workaround comes courtesy of LeoKurz2, and has to do simply with setting the date back to any day prior to August 12 (today). Apparently the licensing bug runs an expiration error once it hits August 12, so you can set the date of all ESX 3.5U2 hosts back to the 10th, or even 11th of August, and it should work just fine. There are a couple of ways to do this outlined on the forum.

The lesson is to always go to the source. IT help desks aren't always the most efficient (certainly with regard to time) way to fix a technology problem, so go to a discussion directly related to the issue: forums hosted by the software provider. You'll usually find a lot of people with the same problem as you, and solutions provided by intelligent people who don't get paid to sit on phones all day. Of course, the problem itself is usually fixed with a patch released to users within a day or so (sometimes within hours), but if you need that "quick fix," so to speak, go forth and forum.

virtual turnstile jumpers met with physical restraining order

2008-08-11T14:46:00.000-05:00

So everybody knows kids from MIT are wicked smart. And when they hack systems, they usually like to brag about it and get as many eyes on the security flaw (embarrassing the architect) as possible. But these three kids who hacked the MBTA fare system? They're holding a conference on their hack.

DefCon, the world's largest "hacker conference," which takes place in Las Vegas this week, is host to the planet's most brilliant minds in computers. Late last week, Zack Anderson, R.J. Ryan and Alessandro Chisea announced they were holding a talk entitled "The Anatomy of a Subway Hack: Breaking Crypto RFIEDs & Magstripes of Ticketing Systems." Unfortunately, they hadn't quite warned the Massachusetts mass transit system authority--who operates the fifth largest transit system in the US--about their intentions. So they were essentially going to teach people how to hack their way out of subway fares, and not give the transit boys enough time to reengineer their system.

How did they halt the talk? Not through circuits and internet connections, but through a restraining order limiting their physical presence. Pretty sneaky, even for government boys.

According to Wired's Threat Level blog, the three students had figured out a way to reverse engineer the magnetic stripe on paper passenger tickets (called the CharlieTicket), and cracked the smartcard tickets, or CharlieCards (which accounts for almost $500,000 in revenue per weekday).

Maybe the kids shouldn't have taglined the talk "Want free subway rides for life?" Slightly conspicuous. Sidenote: the NY Transit Authority just upped the fine for jumping turnstiles to $200 (up from $100).

what does 60M downloads mean? its not a device, its a platform!

2008-08-11T12:35:00.000-05:00

Though there may be a few rotten apples in the bunch (ahem, I Am Rich), what the App Store has proven is that iPhone is not just a device, a handheld, smartphone, or any other name for a mobile; it is an entirely new software platform. Steve Jobs is predicting "half a billion in sales...soon. Who knows, maybe it will be a $1 billion marketplace at some point in time," he told the WSJ this morning.

According to Silicon Alley Insider, App Store sales are up to $30M, with the top ten developers netting $9M. Remember, Apple keeps a third of that for placing your app on their platform and marketing it through the App Store, as well as providing the tools to develop (if you haven't played around with the new iPhone SDK, you certainly should).

As these web and mobile applications become more readily accessible for the average consumer (not that iPhone consumers are average), they become more pervasive. Twitter, Loopt, Evernote, who cares how they monetize? Google didn't know at first either. Once these guys can access a broad market, they'll have the customer base and data to do great things, whether its in advertising or whatever other business model they stumble upon. One thing is certain: the opportunity in the mobile device market is only just being realized, there's still a whole lot more to discover.

Some cool non-iPhone exclusive apps: BaseCamp, LiveJournal, GrandCentral, LiteFeeds, NextBus.

i'm rich, bitch! oh wait, you're just dumb and downloaded a $1K app

2008-08-07T09:39:00.000-05:00

When you look at an App's details, and see "0.1 MB" listed as the file size, chances are its not gonna do a whole lot. The aptly named "I Am Rich" iPhone App delivers on that promise. At $999.99, you get a swirling, glowing ruby that gyrates around the screen. Yay.

Apple has finally pulled the App, adding to the two other yanked apps over the past few weeks. But at least the others (NetShare, which turns your iPhone into a wireless modem which, as you might suspect, violates AT&T's user agreement, and BoxOffice, which simply listed movie times) performed functions.

However, Armin Heinrich, the developer, may have just been attempting to market his other applications. If that's the case then bravo, because he got plenty of hype from a very simple, very cheap creation that displays his name overhead. This recent trend of controversial, borderline viral (with perhaps more sickness than spread) marketing is having mixed receptions. Burger King's Subserviant Chicken was a success measured by unique hits, but did it make people buy more Whoppers? Virgin Mobile had its famed "mangina" controversy, but did that many more people sign up for the service because they had more media impressions of "virgin mobile" next to "mangina"? Who knows, the data and tactics are all too young to measure any significant effect.

It is good to know that some companies are thinking a bit more outside the box. But c'mon Armin, enough with the worthless Apps. Seriously. Give us something useful.

Knock-offs inspired by "I Am Rich" per Adrian Kingsley from zdnet: "I Am Stupid" ($1999.99); "I Was Rich" ($10,000,000); "I Am Poor" ($.01).

sell sell sell

2008-08-07T09:12:00.000-05:00

BusinessWeek has reported that many top-level execs--including one Mark Zuckerberg--have been trying to sell some of their shares in their still private company Facebook. And guess what? Its not at the same price Microsoft bought in. Boy that's a shocker.

Last October, Microsoft bought a small stake in the wildly successful start-up that implied a total value of $15B. There were rumors that the price tag of their stake was amped up by a faux bidding war launched by Google to force Microsoft to overpay as a kind of humiliation tactic, but however you look at it, they overvalued (though they did get preferred shares with special liquidation preferences). Mark & co have reportedly been brokering their shares at as low a valuation as $3.75B, and as high as $5B. Lower-level employees will be able to sell up to 20% of their vested options at $4B starting this fall.

So what does this all mean? Is Mark finally agreeing with the pundits that social networking might not be the next Google? Their growth, along with MySpace and others, has slowed considerably over the past nine months. And their advertising platform has yet to prove very effective, although its design is quite impressive. Maybe the Facebook users are just too desensitized to care about banner ads. I know I am. Sell away boys, while you still have ten figures to your price tag.

weekly diy: all-in-one device charger

2008-08-05T10:53:00.000-05:00

These days the theme with regard to devices seems to be the more the merrier. I respectively disagree, but while you're holding your personal iPhone, company Blackberry and Bluetooth headset, you may be nodding your head. So, what do all of those devices have in common? They all run on batteries, which means, they all have to be charged. And that means three separate cords, and three times the clutter. What to do?

Get yourself a bread basket, measure a drill bit to the size of a rubber gasket, drill however many respective holes in the top, and gasket 'em. Drill another hole in the back of the container for the power source. Stuff your powerstrip into the box, plug your devices into it, and snake the cords out the top. Et voila.

Materials needed: powerstrip, rubber gasket, steel breadbox (or some other more aesthetically pleasing container), gaffer tape (or something close).

Tools needed: Drill with metal-drilling bits.

Check out the how-to video.

NOW the shape of that remote makes sense...

2008-08-05T09:08:00.001-05:00

Vudu, the relatively expensive set-top box for movie rentals, has been chugging along at a meager but positive rate. The problems lie, as AlleyInsider points out, in its high price (relative to AppleTV), and its closed-system (AppleTV accesses iTunes and Youtube).

But they may have found a valuable addition to their movie libraries (which at the moment consist of about 5,000 titles): porn. And not just any porn, but HD porn. The Adult Video Network (AVN) is now a channel on Vudu, and titles can be "rented" the same way normal video titles are. Whether or not this venture will be profitable in the face of massive amounts of free porn available on the internet is anybody's guess, but maybe people will appreciate its subtletly ('Honey? I'm just gonna go, uhhh, rent a MOVIE on Vudu, see you in an hour and a half...'). All I know is that already questionable remote just got a bit more suggestive.

Gizmodo Report
Vudu.com

canuck telcos get punched in the moose lips

2008-08-04T08:28:00.000-05:00

Gotta love mobile carriers. The crazy contracts, hefty cancellation fees, insane hidden data transfer rackets, and it only gets better. A couple of lawsuits have turned up in Canada against two major service providers, Bell Canada and Telus, regarding the newly imposed incoming text message fee. Yes, when you receive a text, you get charged (in addition to outgoing, of course). While there has been plenty of hub bub over the fees, its starts to get legal when they impose these fees mid-contract, and kill ya with hefty penalties when you attempt to cancel as a result.

Oh, and those spam text messages that pop in unsolicited? You're charged for those too. And that, my friend, is illegal. Slashdot provides a great rant against this situation. Check it: "Because service providers are aware of the volume of unsolicited texts, we feel they are liable for the inconvenience to their clients for preventing spam charges, and more importantly under no circumstances should service providers profit from spam. We also feel that requiring us to buy text bundles to avoid the inconvenience of reversing spam charges constitutes extortion. They can charge me for texts when they stop the spam."

Keep up the rants Slashdot, they're very becoming of you. As for Bell and Telus? Stop extorting your customers and start providing value. While you're at it, tell your friends, they could use a lesson in customer satisfaction as well. That is all.

finally the killer mobile app?

2008-08-01T11:04:00.000-05:00

We may finally have a competitor to iPhone's mobile web browser. Skyfire, which has been peaking our interest for quite some time about their ultra-capable mobile browser software, has finally found a medium. The software debuted on Windows Mobile and is in private beta on Symbian's S60 compatible Nokia phones (including the N95, pictured above) as of today.

The browser has all the capabilites of mobile Sarfari on iPhone (zoom, dragging, sliding, etc), but with one big enhancement. It runs Flash and Ajax sites, and it does it all without the need of downloading separate apps. How? As TechCrunch reports, "[i]t does this by offloading most of the heavy lifting to its servers rather than the mobile client." Youtube and fancy websites, no longer a problem.

Check out the video run-through on CrunchBase, pretty neat stuff.

how to lose $15.5B in one quarter

2008-08-01T10:39:00.001-05:00

On SeekingAlpha's "How is GM Still Alive?" post, blogger Felix Salmon points to the "Financial Highlights" section of their most recent 10-Q. $57B total shareholder's deficit. Quite the highlight indeed. Oh, and that's up from only $4B last year.

So in addition to losing their shareholders a shitload of money, what else does this company do? Well, they sell 12 mpg SUV's while gas and crude prices are at all time highs. They take on debt like they're pulling cash out of an ATM. They slash their workers' pension plans and benefits. Oh, and have Rick Wagoner as CEO. I would say short but the big guys already took care of them, there's nothing left but scrap metal and oil.

GM on Google Finance.

move that gigantic cotton candy

2008-08-01T09:29:00.000-05:00

Well, its not cotton candy, but its certainly just as obnoxious. Think of all the things that bother you on an overcrowded commercial flight these days. Ok, now add 15 self-important pricks yelling into their mobile devices, attempting to be heard over crying babies, intercom prompts and, oh yeah, jet engines. Well, Congress just eliminated that nuisance for you. The new bill, bizarrely named Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace Act (or HANG UP), puts a moratorium on in-flight cell phone use, at least for now.

The bill comes at a strange time though, seeing as how most domestic carriers are putting WiFi access on their flights in the very near future. Slashdot reports that Orgeon Representative Peter DeFazio believes "it won't be long before the ban on voice communications on in-flight planes is lifted. Cash-strapped airlines could end up charging some passengers to use their phones while charging others to sit in a phone-free section of the plane." Yikes. What a mess.

square to circle and...ta da! no more lawsuit

2008-07-31T11:25:00.000-05:00

These guys are fast. Just two days after the Scrabulous developers got pulled from Facebook, they're back. Meet WordScraper, the new Fbook app from the Agarwall brothers. Its quite similar to Scrabble, but with circular tiles and the ability for users to customize the "rules." Its surprisingly smooth, which tells me they probably had this one sitting in the back room collecting dust until they ran into problems such as Tuesday's. Whatever the case, their daily active users aren't quite what Scrabulous was (500,000+), or even Scrabble (64,744), but at 3,569, its a start.

I think lawsuits should start to be treated like timeouts...start with a finite number so you use them wisely. Where's the love Viacom? Hasbro? MediaSet?

youtube in some more hot water

2008-07-30T13:06:00.001-05:00

Yet another suit has been filed against Google's Youtube for copyright infringement, this time all the way over in Italy. The suit, filed today in Rome courts, is seeking $779M in damages for illegal use of its copyrighted material. Scrapers from Mediaset, Italy's largest television broadcaster (controlled by Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi), found "at least 4,643 videos and clips, equivalent to more than 325 hours of transmission without having rights." They claim that is equal to 315,672 days worth of broadcasting. Now, that number is questionable, considering the videos were posted after the shows aired, but who's counting? Only the courts, researchers, press and Google. Nobody of real importance.

Google is also facing a $1B lawsuit from Viacom (the famed Daily Show squabble), which puts a good amount of pressure on the Google legal team. Good luck boys and girls.

sweeeeeet

2008-07-30T10:20:00.001-05:00

What comes to mind when you think CPU cooler? Well, certainly not this gorgeous piece of copper. Retailing for $60, the Thermaltake V1 CPU Cooler has to be the prettiest computer accessory I've ever seen. And screw its functionality, I'm settin' this one up in my living room.

Oh, and it won the Red Dot Award for Design. Naturally.

Official site.

phillippe starck - we are mutants

2008-07-30T07:38:00.000-05:00

The man who designs not for the design but for the result, has found yet another aspect of life to master: philosophy. Phillippe Starck's presentation at the TED Conference back in 2007 tackles evolution as design through mutation. Tough. And he does it all with the thickest French accent I've ever heard. Tougher.

His basic concept is that we are more than evolving, we are mutating through history. 4.5 billion years ago life had no idea what it would be like today, and today we have no idea what life will be like 4 billion years from now. And based on those numbers, we are about halfway through the journey. He finds this to be our "poetry, our romanticism."

Starck has designed the most obscure and diverse portfolio of objects, from hotels and condos, to motorcycles, to toothbrushes, and even the new Virgin Galactic Space Station in Arizona.

Check out his "network" here.

i need a 6-letter word beginning with 'k' including the letters 'l','d','e','l','i'

2008-07-29T11:54:00.000-05:00

Killed. Hasbro, the company that holds the copyright and trademark for Scrabble in the U.S. and Canada, filed suit against Rajat and Jayant Agarwall--the developers of the popular Facebook App Scrabulous--last week for copyright infringement. Today it was ruled effective, and Facebook took the application down. If you go to access the app, you get this message: "In response to a legal request from Hasbro, the copyright and trademark holder for Scrabble in the U.S. & Canada, the developers of Scrabulous have suspended their application in the U.S. and Canada until further notice."

Earlier this year, Hasbro had approached the Agarwall bros with a hefty check for a "claim to the Scrabble brand," according to Silicon Alley Insider. That amount may be left to nada now that the app is down and killed. That sucksulous.

More from SAI on the topic.

weekly diy: road sign coffee table

2008-07-29T09:34:00.000-05:00

Tired of going through coffee tables like tic-tacs? Me too, and after pulling a third Chris Farley on your glass Pier One table, consider something a little....hmm...less expensive. I give you the road sign coffee table.

Find two cardboard boxes (preferably one that's ~ 24"x24"x16", and the other ~ 16"x16"x4". Those numbers are completely arbitrary, btw). Fill each box with Styrofoam. Get a roll or two of duct tape, and tape those bad boys together, in a nice, even manner. Take some more duct tape, roll up a few pieces to make it double-sided, and slap the road sign on top. Bada bing, bada bang, bada boom. You have yourself a coffee table.

Materials needed: two cardboard boxes, duct tape, stolen road sign.

Tools needed: none.

Total out of pocket: $3.95

you've got 60 seconds...go

2008-07-29T08:41:00.000-05:00

TechCrunch, in its infinite wisdom and ever-growing number of derivations (CrunchGear, CrunchBase, TalkCrunch, MobileCrunch, Gillmor Gang, and the list goes on), has created a platform for entrepreneurs to upload a 60 sec video clip of their "elevator pitch," accompanied with a few key facts about their start-up (web address, founding date, funds raised to date, and a brief description). This is a great tool for anybody involved in early stage companies; from VC's and angels looking for places to put their funds, to other entrepreneurs looking to scope out the competitive landscape. Its also great for users looking for cool new apps, widgets, or platforms that are a little alternative to the status quo.

And if you don't fall into any of those categories, its always fun to chuckle at the nervous pitchers who can't stop glancing at their cue cards, sweatin' like a whore in church.

Some notable pitches: Smarkets, Jackson Fish Market, Yovia, Semanticator.

ad space moves from madison avenue to wall street

2008-07-28T15:17:00.000-05:00

There once was a day when a tired sales force spent hours haggling on the phone with ad buyers, trying to dump their leftover inventory off at prices that justified their labor hours. No longer.

There are markets for everything, and they are becoming increasingly technical and efficient. There are now several exchanges where ad buyers bid on remnant ad space (excess inventory that was unable to be sold at a premium price), and create a market around the specific spot. These spots' prices are grossly reduced (a typical ad selling at $20 per 1,000 impressions may go for $1 per 1,000 on the exchange, discounted for reduced demand levels and more headache involved), and the volume is growing (about 6B transactions per day).

Some advertising research firms are setting up complex trading algorithms to profit on the open market, by exploiting arbitrage opportunities just like in normal equities markets. There is hope of the market evolving to demonstrate more similarity to exchanges such as the Nasdaq or NYSE, including secondary markets, options, futures, and derivatives. In 2007, about 15% of remnant ad space, and about 5% of overall ad space, was sold over the exchanges, so it seems as though we're well on our way.

The endgame is obviously a more sophisticated and useful market for ads in general, applying, theoretically, a fair market price to each spot.

Check out the full article here, and the largest exchange, the Adsdaq, here.

new favorite phrase: "slime bucket"

2008-07-28T12:40:00.000-05:00

And we can thank Steve Jobs for delivering it to us (while we're at it, let's thank him for this beautifully contorted pose at his keynote address). The recent woes about Steve's health have finally been buried: Steve Jobs does not have a recurrence of cancer.

Joe Nocera, the NYT reporter who criticized the Savior-in-Chief and his employer for not revealing what he (and a lot of other people) considered to be notable information for shareholders, got a virtual, geotagged slap in the face from iSteve. To some degree, I agree; with a company so reliant on its founder and main creative force, detriment to his health, or any risk of early retirement, is an event that could impact the performance of the company. On the other hand, it is indeed our right as human beings to maintain confidentiality over our medical records...one of the few liberties still upheld today. So, is the risk of thousands of shareholder lawsuits worth it to keep the lid on a can of worms threatening our very civil and human liberties? Probably. I'm just glad Steve's OK and it didn't come to that.

Oh, by the way, Steve's opening line to Nocera: "This is Steve Jobs. You think I’m an arrogant [expletive] who thinks he’s above the law, and I think you’re a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong." Nice.

suck it comcast

2008-07-28T08:38:00.000-05:00

One small step for high bandwidth users, one giant leap for net neutrality.

The FCC has finally ruled that Comcast's limiting actions taken against a "small percentage" of high bandwidth users (users Comcast claims were transferring large amounts of p2p files) were wrong. Agency officials cite the violation of federal policy by "deliberately preventing some customers from sharing videos online via file-sharing services like BitTorrent."

Frankly, its about time somebody cracked down on these crooks. If anybody has dealt with their cable or internet services, you know what I'm talking about.

Full article on wsj.com here.

the stones' farewell tour: bye bye EMI

2008-07-25T11:43:00.000-05:00

After a long push-and-pull relationship, The Rolling Stones have finally buggered off of EMI's rapidly shrinking client list. Who wins? Well, the Stones, now that they don't have to deal with crazy financier Guy Hands any longer; Vivendi Universal, who get's the band's catalog dating back to the 70's (and any rights to new releases, but don't hold your breath); and Abcko, who gets to hold onto the earlier stuff. But not LiveNation, who everyone thought would be the recipient of the Stones' performance dollars or pounds. They are choosing to remain "indie" on that front, and good for them. LiveNation has been a bit overzealous in its recent signings (see previous EMI post), and as a result Michael Cohl, the exec feverously persuing these 7-8 figure deals, got canned.

As Mc says, "I won't miss you child." Sorry Mikey. And Guy. But not really.

weekly diy: homemade play-doh!

2008-07-22T14:36:00.000-05:00

Really bored? Let's make play-doh.

Materials needed: 2 cups flour, 2 cups warm water, 1 cup salt, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon cream of tartar, food coloring (your choice of colors), scented oils (oo baby)

Tools needed: stove-top burner, mixing bowl, a child's imagination.

Its quite simple: throw all your ingredients into the mixing bowl, stir 'em up. Put your concoction over low heat, heat until it resembles mashed potatoes. Let it cool. Glop the dough on a counter top, and roll vigorously into balls. Create a dimple in each ball and place your desired food coloring, and work the color into the dough (use gloves for this). Work the oils in so it doesn't smell so weird. Then play to your heart's content.

Here's the instructable.

put the lime in the...wait, what?

2008-07-22T14:09:00.000-05:00

Scientists believe they have found a solution to our rapidly increasing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, and they call on nothing more than a hint of lime (well, maybe a bit more than that, I'm still unclear how much a "hint" really is). These scientists have developed a theory that by adding lime to our oceans, the water's ability to absorb and hold CO2 is drastically increased, effectively reversing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. It would, according to their theory, restore CO2 levels to an amount not seen since before the industrial revolution (CO2 love us long time).

The lime required is actually from limestone, and was previously thought too expensive to extract. But Tim Kruger, from the consulting and private equity firm Corven, thinks that due to regions with "stranded energy"--flared natural gas or high solar energy levels in deserts--too remote to exploit economically, are areas that this process could be feasible.

For more on this quite unique solution to CO2 emissions and ozone protection, here's the full article.

Put the lime in the ocean and make global warming stop.

dark knight swallows the green screen

2008-07-21T07:56:00.000-05:00

As we all knew it would, The Dark Knight--Chris Nolan's second installment of his adapted Batman trilogy--broke the box office record for both opening weekend and single day gross ($155.3M and $66.4M, respectively). And they did it all without a green screen (the same cannot be said for the now second place weekend grosser Spiderman 3). If you've seen the film, and you didn't already know this, your jaw should be dropping about now. Yes, that villain snare of Lau from his Hong Kong office, beginning with an 88-story base jump into the window of another equally tall office building, only to be "Sky-Hooked" back out of the window holding the now thoroughly intimidated Chinese criminal? Real. 3 week prep time.

God I love Chris Nolan.

Beyond the authenticity of the explosions, stunts and machine gun spitfire, there is an element of deep darkness that surrounds, in my opinion, the greatest villain performance of all time. The late Heath Ledger's Joker instills a sense of total abandon for human decency, a feeling that stays with you long after you exit into the fluorescent light. Rounded off by true crime thriller plot weaves, twists and turns, and nods to some of film's greatest crime dramas (including Dog Day Afternoon and The Seven-Ups), this film really has it all. My one negative was the lack of closure the audience gets on the Joker, as we are left hanging, as he is, from an unfinished skyscraper by the ankle.

Go see this movie, and if you have already, go see it again.

going back in time...to deliver your weekly diy, yesterday

2008-07-16T08:48:00.000-05:00

So a tricky look at DIY this week: how to snag the new 3G for $199 even if you didn't buy first-gen and aren't eligible for an upgrade through AT&T. This comes to you via Alley Insider and MacRumors, and may or may not work (but still bears less risk than, say, keeping your money in an FDIC insured bank account...ahem, IndyMac).

Step 1: snag your iPhone-toting friend's device, replace his SIM card with your own.
Step 2: log onto iTunes and activate the phone as your own.
Step 3: remove your SIM card and return the phone to your buddy.
Step 4: march on over to the Apple store and buy a 3G iPhone. Your account should show up as having had a first-gen iPhone, making you eligible for the upgrade, and thus saving you that extra $199 non-upgrade kick-up.

Materials needed: willing friend, willing friend's iPhone, your old SIM card.

Tools needed: ninja-like sneakiness.

Total out of pocket: $0 - $199 = -$199 (yay savings).

Don't get caught...and if you do, we never had this conversation.

its like rain on your wedding day

2008-07-11T11:20:00.000-05:00

Its not ironic, it just sucks.

You know the market's having a bad hair day when Apple (AAPL) releases its most hyped product yet, and they're still down ~1.5%. To add insult to injury, its now confirmed (via Engadget) that the iTunes servers are completely down, after working intermittently throughout the morning rush. This means that you can't activate your new 3G, and when you upgrade from the first-gen, it disables your SIM, so you're stuck holding two worthless (but beautiful) devices. The servers went down due to (expected) excessive demand. Apple and AT&T stores are sending people home to activate through iTunes remotely. Guess you're gonna have to wait for those cool new apps just a little longer.

That does suck.

weekly diy: usb cd fan

2008-07-08T08:51:00.000-05:00

Ah, finally a useful function for the CD. Now, instead of using them for entertainment while you hurl them against walls to watch them shatter, you can cut them up, stick 'em on a cork and blow yourself (insert Tobias grin here).

Its very simple really; you cut a CD into fan-like appendages (as shown in the above picture), heat it so you can bend them off-axis, find a small motor or battery-charged fan, and connect the two with a cork. If you have a USB cord, cut one end of the cord off, strip the wires and connect them to the battery unit of the motor. Done deal.

Materials needed: Michael Bolton CD, cork, candle, small motor/battery-powered fan.

Tools needed: Solder, soldering iron, wire cutters.

Total out of pocket (not including tools): ~$10

Check out the instructional video here, or the Instructables.com article here.

dat's a lotta downloads

2008-07-03T12:48:00.000-05:00

Mozilla Firefox, the most popular internet browser, has just gotten itself into the Guinness Book of World Records. What for? The first ever most downloads in a day award...Mozilla broke it with a "record" (this term is used loosely because its the first ever recorded) 8,002,530 downloads in 24 hours (from 1pm June 17 to 1pm June 18, EDT). The company transferred 62,419,734 MB (over 62 terabytes) of data. Impressive.

Mozilla, for those of you who don't know, was started by Mitch Kapor (lotus anyone?) who's a super-cool tech entrepreneur/philanthropist. The Mozilla Foundation is a 501c(3) non-profit, and operates Firefox through its for-profit subsidiary, Mozilla Corp. The company makes meager revenues for such a killer product, and donates all the profit to its foundation (the majority of its revenues come from the little Google search bar in the upper right-hand corner of the browser). Killer product, killer record. This should kick on the ole' competitive engine and up the ante for apps and browsers. Good things.

weekly diy: portable solar charger

2008-07-01T14:10:00.000-05:00

So beginning this week, I'm going to be doing a weekly DIY posting, every Tuesday. I'll try to keep the projects simplistic, requiring little specialized knowledge and few tools (light soldering, some electrical knowledge, etc).

This week, I've found a DIY instructional for a solar charging unit. You can create this baby using just a simple car charging unit that plugs into your cigarette lighter. And with that solar panel, now you can charge your Blackberry when it runs out of batteries when you happen to be stranded (with a solar panel handy, mind you) in the middle of the Mojave desert...talk about clutch.

Materials needed: Solar panel (you can pick these up at Wal-Mart now, believe it or not); universal DC2DC charger; quick connect.

Tools needed: Solder, soldering iron, screwdriver.

Total out of pocket (not including tools): ~$45

Check out the step-by-step instructions here. Enjoy.

RIMM (research in [downward] motion)

2008-06-27T15:28:00.000-05:00

The past couple of days have seen Research in Motion erase nearly two month's in gains. This tumble looks very similar to Apple's plunge after the news of the 3G iPhone missing production estimates, yet its due to far less disastrous news. In RIMM's case, they missed their EPS by a penny, and cut outlook slightly, perhaps hinting that their meteoric growth numbers have finally begun to slow in light of market conditions.

While it hurts to see a tumble like this, it also presents a good buying opportunity for a long term play. Research in Motion has terrific underlying economics and their enterprise smartphone market share doesn't seem to be going anywhere, even with the new iPhone claiming they finally have a competitor to the Blackberry. Bberry has its segment, and Apple's iPhone its own . I doubt we'll see much deviation.

gates: shit...microsoft sucks, huh?

2008-06-26T12:13:00.000-05:00

Its long been understood that when it comes to consumer-friendly platforms and software, Microsoft is about as friendly as a rabid badger cruisin' on three crack rocks. Installation lag times here, incompatibility issues there...its a mess.

Now it appears that their founder has joined the ranks of haters. From a leaked memo in 2003 from Gates to development, "I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don't drive usability issues." His email goes on to describe a tussle he had with Microsoft.com and its downloads section while trying to obtain the application MovieMaker. Check out the full transcript here.

I'm glad that even Bill Gates can recognize the pitfalls of his ginormous company, and can join in the healthy criticism that is so easy its almost not even fun (almost). I think it'd be a nice gesture for Steve Jobs to head up to Redmond and drop off a brand new Mac. 'Cept Ballmer would probably implode.

(Gotta love that mugshot, especially since its for speeding in his 911 in Albuquerque. Nice)

bill clinton playing robert de niro in "bill clinton: its frosty"

2008-06-25T10:21:00.001-05:00

Bill Clinton finally endorsed the Barack Obama bid for the White House today after many months of criticizing Senator Obama and his campaign. He refers to his relationship with the Senator as "frosty." Meanwhile, Obama has called for his donors to help relieve Senator Hillary Clinton of her nearly $10m of debt incurred on the campaign trail. Clinton is nearly $22m in the red, a large amount of which is her own dough. Talk about skin in the game...too bad you got burned. Boo ya.

google: thank you for making me clever

2008-06-20T15:48:00.001-05:00

You're typing a proposal, a blog post, column, essay or email, and you realize you've used that clever little quip one time too many. Uh oh, they'll see that and think I'm an idiot! Never fear, Google's here. Hop over to Google, type that tired old word/phrase into the search box, and boom, before you know it you not only have a new catchphrase, but have found a clever article, savvy, useless knowledge and a new favorite blog to boot. People have problems with this new found reliance on search-based knowledge at our fingertips, and maybe I'm just lazy...but I'm all for it.

For your enjoyment: noob

fist-a-cuffs, google tv...put 'em up

2008-06-18T10:52:00.000-05:00

While Steve Ballmer figures out more ridiculous poses in front of his mirror, the rest of the Microsoft team is busy trying to trump Google, any way they can. Currently in their crosshairs: Google TV. Its kind of like going hunting for an elk, missing, and on the way home sniping a grazing cow in a pasture to make yourself feel better, but whatever.

Microsoft just announced it has purchased the TV ad technology vendor Navic Networks for an undisclosed amount. The company has raised $83m and has about 35m users through its partners Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications and Cox Communcations. Their technology allows TV ads to be "enhanced" with graphics, microblogs, and links to further information about the product being advertised. Clever technology, and very similar to Google TV's set-top targeted service.

While TV ad spending is still growing (cable spending up 4.1%, broadcast up 0.8% in Q1), its shelf life seems to be nearing an end (growth rates have been slowing in recent quarters). Nevertheless, Microsoft seems content on their soon-to-be victory over any Google division, as it was with the proposed Yahoo! deal earlier in the year. "Who cares if the company doesn't represent a sustainable addition to Microsoft, we're gonna beat Google TV!" Keen strategy. Good luck with that.

time may not be on emi's side...but the stones still are

2008-06-17T09:17:00.000-05:00

There was speculation over the weekend that the Rolling Stones had followed in the footsteps of Paul McCartney, Radiohead and others by leaving their tired record labels for more creative revenue streams with promoters and merchandisers. However, EMI can breath a sigh of relief (for now), because the Stones have squashed the rumors.

Ever since sophisticated financiers have tried to catch the falling anchors of outdated record labels (see Bronfasauras), artists have been on a moneyless train to nowhere, and are now forced to seek alternative ways to monetize their work (see Madonna and Jay-Z's 9-figure deals with concert promoters, Radiohead's consumer-priced album release and McCartney's Starbuck's partnership). Record labels' roles are getting phased out in the wake of a shopping spree by PE shops for the big 4 (Bronfman with Warner, Guy Hands' Terra Firma with EMI); and these financiers, knowing little about the business to begin with, have only hastened its demise. Coldplay, a band with EMI, agreed to release their newest album under the label's name only if EMI paid for an outside marketing and branding firm (because the internal A&R and marketing at EMI is a complete joke, mostly due to Hands' cost cutting and ridiculous focus on social network marketing).

Seems like Coldplay's move paid off...they now have the highest number of pre-sales for an album in iTunes history. Good work fellas.

avec sarif, sans ice

2008-06-13T13:29:00.000-05:00

David Neeleman, founder and former CEO of JetBlue, has transplanted his entrepreneurship south of the equator to create Azul Airlines, a Brazil-based carrier. And Neeleman's switching it up (slightly) from his previous venture: new planes, new country, even new font (Azul uses Helvetica, while JetBlue used a different sans serif font known as DIN). But gee, Azul, that sounds familiar...translation? Azul is Portuguese for "blue." Hmm, maybe its not all that different.

But David's favorite distinction? There ain't no ice in Brazil to ground 1,100 planes.

one decent guy

2008-06-12T21:35:00.000-05:00

What better way to follow the sale of collegehumor.com to IAC than to open up a....donut shop? Ah the wit of a hipentrepreneurster. One day, sell your wildly successful web start-up to Barry Diller; the next, open a sweet donut shop in Williamsburg, where the "donuts will be scratch-made by cute girls imported from Bavaria," (his words). The next? Maybe some sick silk screening (see embedded video above). And all of it with such modesty. Strong work, Zach Klein.

i'm leaving for uhh...good reason. can i have my $2 billion now?

2008-06-11T08:44:00.000-05:00

Carl Icahn's very public proxy battle with Yahoo has finally yielded a result: if he wins the battle by vote, the $2.4b severance plan Yahoo put together as a blowfish defense against Microsoft will be activated. This is what we call a lose-lose-lose...-lose.

1) Yahoo loses because if and when Microsoft decides to step in when Yahoo's stock is sitting in the toilet, it'll have even more reason to cut its number due to the higher cost of the plan.

2) Carl loses because he started this battle hoping for a low 30's takeover price, which won't happen for a whole list of reasons (tacking this one onto that list).

3) Microsoft loses because its now looking at an even more bloated target to swallow.

4) The shareholders lose because now tired executives who are fed up with this whole mess have incentive to leave it all behind (at a huge cost to the shareholders), and plenty of wiggle room too (citing "good reasons" is sufficient for resignation + severance).

At least you still have those cool shades, Carl.

best employee handbook ever

2008-06-09T15:40:00.001-05:00

If anybody has the gall to resurrect sluggish, nerdy old Microsoft from its very public playground-esque beatdown by Apple in the recent "Mac vs. PC" campaign, its these guys. Crispin Porter + Bogusky have been behind Coke Zero's "taste confusion" lawsuit with its more classic brother, freaked people out with Whopper shortages, and got the Burger King King in bed with Brooke Burke. Surely they can get Mac to say uncle by year's end. With a $300m retainer, they better.

With employee guidelines like "don't throw sand" and no meeting policies, they seem to be headed in the right direction. They may need to reeducate Ballmer a bit, because I'm pretty sure he can't take a piss without holding a staff meeting to figure out who's job it is to zip him up.

Check out CPB's website for a full list of their work.

what? apple's production line not a sure thing?

2008-06-07T09:12:00.000-05:00

Poor Steve. Projected 3G numbers of 12m units by the end of Q3? No longer. It now looks more like 10-10.5m units by the end of Q4. From Barron's this week: "These sources [tech hedge-fund managers] say that Apple has slashed its internal expectations for iPhone unit sales by up to 16%." Now this certainly doesn't affect the financial performance of Apple (the iPhone is minuscule in overall financial contribution), but it certainly will affect sentiment, and ultimately the stock, given the rumors prove even slightly founded. This comes at a bad time, just after reports that while Apple's smart phone market share dropped 7.5% from Q4, RIM's and Palm's market shares rose 9.4% and 5.5%, respectively. Perhaps its Steve who's having nightmares of Lazaridis boldly beating him with, well, a Bold.

Maybe I wasn't crazy for getting out at $189...I guess we'll see.

Delay culprits: Infineon (IFX); Foxconn International Holdings; AAPL

a solution to this mess from a karaoke king

2008-06-04T09:02:00.000-05:00

When he's not rocking out karaoke-style to appease his Japanese business partners, he's locked in the "Idea Lab" of Cupertino, California-based Encrio Inc., inventing things like Push-to-Talk and flash memory...five years before their applications were even conceivable. Now if I could only get Nagesh Challa to stop stealing my IP...

He now has his sights set on solving the problem shown in the picture above: clutter. Wallets filled with credit cards, coupons, movie tickets, boarding passes--to Challa there's a solution, and its in our phones.

People have tried without success to figure out a way for phones to carry around barcodes for quite some time. The brick wall was always in reading the code; the scanner would always pick up light reflections from the phone's screen, making the code unreadable. Then Challa noticed that little LED light that blinks on the top of the handset. And so MoBeam was created. The technology uses LED light that mimics the sequences of the bar code, so you can carry your credit card, boarding pass and online movie tickets around in one gadget. Pretty handy. Could we make that a TV remote as well? I'm tired of flipping cushions.

that traveling salesman is NP-hard

2008-06-02T09:20:00.000-05:00

Flipping through this month's issue of Technology Review, I came across an interesting article on a company I hadn't heard much from in some time. British Columbia-based D-Wave Systems, the "Quantum Computing Company," has been claiming to have developed the first (ultimately) commercially viable quantum computer for a little over a year now, with little evidence to support their claim.

Though they're efforts thus far have only yielded an inefficient (and quite pricey) prototype with a mere 28 quantum bits (or qubits), the thought of an applicable quantum computer is pretty astounding. While that size isn't anything to write home about, the direction they're taking (and the amount of sophisticated VC dollars pumped into the venture) looks to lead down an interesting road.

For those unfamiliar with the concept of quantum computing, my excitement stems from the possibilities that could be if we were able to utilize quantum parallelism in computation. While classical computers process information broken down to a bit level yielding two possibilities, True or False, Yes or No (or as they are symbolically represented, 0 and 1), quantum computers can, theoretically, register or explore 0 and 1 simultaneously (known as superposition). What this allows for is the ability to explore exponentially possible candidates for an answer in parallel, creating processing speeds many many times faster than exist today. And so the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). While the problem requires a search for a solution among exponentially many possibilities, a quantum computer could (eventually) test all of those possibilities simultaneously, and signal with complete certainty when it found a successful solution.

The applications are endless: What is the meaning of Life? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Toostie-Roll Pop? Longoria or Mendes? Endless...

the crazy ramblings of the perma-stubbled bronfasaurus

2008-05-30T14:34:00.000-05:00

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)

2008-05-30T07:52:00.000-05:00

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?

2008-05-29T14:01:00.000-05:00

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

2008-05-29T12:18:00.000-05:00

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/