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It’s not revolutionary, it’s one big distraction.
My coworker Erin and I are the lone holdouts at our office staunchly refusing to purchase, let alone acknowledge, the iPhone. The device has taken over technology news in much the same way Paris Hilton has taken over mainstream news. It’s the socialite gadget that some of us love to hate, but most of us can’t get enough of, and we’re sick of it. You can’t turn on the TV, open a newspaper or have a civil conversation without inexplicably turning to the iPhone. You can’t even surf the Web without running into news, reviews or analysis about the iPhone–which, sadly, this blog post falls in line. News stories with the “iPhone” shoot to the top of Digg.com’s front pages faster than Ron Paul, and a simple Google search yields over 81 million pages (Paris Hilton gets 74 million).
Wired is reporting that, starting tomorrow and continuing for two weeks, Xbox Live customers will be able to download the Fun With Weapons episode of South Park, free of charge. The episode’s anime styling will upscale to HD nicely, but anything else from the series will probably look unchanged since the animation is intentionally lo-fi.
Obviously, the free episode promotion aims to generate more interest in the already thriving Xbox Live Marketplace, which, along with iTunes appears to be the only successful online distribution model and advertise the upcoming season. I realize South Park has a ton of clout, but why not offer a more visually enticing show, like oh I don’t know, Afro Samurai? Sam Jackson in HD? Oh yes, mothafucka.
Technorati Tags: south+park, HD, afro+samurai, xbox+360
I always love it when fiction presages reality, and doubly so when said fiction takes the form of comics. Despite the recent run of comics-based motion-picture blockbusters, comics as a medium have always suffered from an image of cultural irrelevance. As it happens, Grant Morrison’s animal-rights dystopia, We3, has come quite a bit closer to reality.
Apparently, Chinese scientists have concocted a way to control the flight of pigeons using electrode implants which mimc natural brain signals. Similarly in Morrison’s story, a cat, a dog and a rabbit are fitted with cybernetic armor and neurological implants to facilitate rudimentary speech. We3, as they are designated by the military, serve as an experimental covert ops arm of the US Air Force. The Times article ends on an ominous note stating that the report “does not specify what purpose the pigeons may perform,” but it doesn’t take a great stretch of the imagination to picture the lil’ fellas dive-bombing insurgents in Iraq.
Today, Virtual Venues Network announced that they will team up with Limelight Networks to “Project high-resolution concerts onto local stages anywhere and charge admission at the door.” Let me just preface this rant by saying that virtual concerts are one of the few innovations in the music industry that actually pique my interest; from The Gorillaz’ 2005 virtual tour to the collection of concert audio available–for free–on Wolfgang’s Vault to the, albeit disturbing, popularity of Second Life, where virtual concerts and music-casts are the norm. The idea of streaming live concerts appeals to me on a visceral level, because, as much as I love the concert-going experience, the logistics of it are often a real fucking hassle.
But not at all surprising the music industry missed the entire point. Why bother crowding into a shitty dive bar to gouge my eyes on projected images of Fall Out Boy, or whoever the fuck has signed on for this ridiculous thing, when my computer is sitting right in the next room? Not to mention there would be little to no fan-performer interaction, unless the venue owners install some sort of webcam functionality, but the likelihood of canned footage seems almost certain. In fact, why bother recording a concert at all? They could shoot the whole thing on a sound stage, mix it and dub in crowd effects. It’s Kiss Alive! all over again.
The glaring fault in Virtual Venue’s logic is that it completely undermines the concept of on-demand content. If I have to put on my pants and the leave the house then it’s not really on-demand, now is it? I’d much rather chill out in front of the box, where a (real) virtual concert is just a click away.
Just found this: it’s a recording of the Battlestar Galactica Panel at this year’s NY Comic Con. In attendance, James Callis (Gaius Baltar), Tricia Helfer (Caprica Six) and some Sci-Fi Channel Marketing dude. Oh yeah, and it’s moderated by Kevin Motherfuckin’ Smith. Sweet.
Highlights — BSG Direct to DVD movie on the way, Sci-Fi Virgin (how apt) comics line coming, Tricia Helfer is fucking *HOT*[digg=http://digg.com/television/Battlestar_Galactica_NYCC_07_Panel_Audio]
No more than a month ago around CES time, everyone seemed to be circle jerking around the 64 GB Flash Hard Drive for notebooks. Solid state drives like the one above are fantastic for laptops simply because they read and write data faster, use less power and are less susceptible to jostling– But you all knew that already. The real good news is that storage on said drives has jumped yet again, this time to the more than adequate 160 GB model from Adtron. While we can expect the newest model to be priced stupidly high, this does boad well for the consumer. At this rate, capacity on Flash HDDs will smash Moore’s Law and, hopefully, as more companies jump into the market, prices should level off from increased competition. Nice.
In case you’ve been out of the loop, Yahoo! Music has joined EMI and Apple as one of the few major proponents of abandoning DRM protection software. I had a chance to speak with Ian Rogers, Yahoo! Music’s VP of Product Development about DRM’s waning deathclock, music labels passing the buck and UMG CEO Doug Morris.
DV: What was Yahoo Music’s reasoning behind experimenting with DRM free music? Did you perform any market research? What did you find out?
Yahoo! Music: Music companies are selling DRM-free media every day, the MP3, yet online they sell an inferior product that makes it difficult for our users to do what they want with their music (such as copy to their iPod). We believe DRM is a red herring which only benefits large technology companies and doesn’t provide any user value.
DV: How will DRM free mp3s affect the consumer? How have people reacted to the change?
Yahoo! Music: Digital songs purchased online will “just work” anywhere, regardless of the device. MP3 is the dominant design; all platforms are comfortable with it. The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. We’re encouraged by how many people understand the issue and are supporting our efforts doing the right thing for the user as well as the labels.
DV: Do you think the addition of DRM hurts sales in the long or short term?
Yahoo! Music: There is no question it is hurting sales in the short term and will continue to in the long term unless DRM technology improves greatly and becomes a widely adopted standard.
Digital songs purchased online will “just work” anywhere, regardless of the device. MP3 is the dominant design; all platforms are comfortable with it.
The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. We’re encouraged by how many people understand the issue and are supporting our efforts doing the right thing for the user as well as the labels.
DV: How is Yahoo Music different from iTunes?
Yahoo! Music: Fundamentally, Yahoo! Music is a user-centric software company, delivering users the full range of digital music experiences from radio to on-demand music. Apple is a hardware company and all their efforts in the digital music space are efforts to sell hardware, not necessarily provide users with the best music experiences.
DV: Is there a market for music for non-apple devices?
Yahoo! Music: Absolutely. SanDisk, Creative, Samsung, iRiver, and others are happily selling non-Apple hardware. Could the market be much bigger if there weren’t a technological divide over DRM? Absolutely.
DV: Are there plans to offer more songs as mp3 files?
Yahoo! Music: Absolutely. Our goal is to offer our entire catalog for sale in MP3 format. How far we are from doing that is completely up to the record labels. We are ready when they are.
DV: What has been the response from Music Labels?
Yahoo! Music: Very positive. Our friends at the labels appreciate and understand the issues. In many cases it’s just taking them a good long while to convince their corporate parents.
DV: Do you find that your users have preference of portable media devices?
Yahoo! Music: The market has shown that for the most part users prefer iPods today. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a healthy non-iPod market, though, and that there isn’t a point where the dis-integrated solution wins. In Clayton Christiansen’s “The Innovator’s Dilemma” he points out that “when the technology is not yet good enough, the integrated solution wins”. In other words, the complexity of DRM (”not yet good enough” technology) has allowed the iPod (the integrated solution) to dominate. If the labels sold tracks asMP3 I think there would be far more competition in the portable device market.
DV: How is Yahoo music giving unsigned and obscure bands exposure?
Yahoo! Music: Our music catalog contains more than two million songs, many of which come from companies like CD Baby, where you and I could send a CD today and have it show up in our catalog automatically. But we also promote unsigned and obscure artists through our personalized radio network, where users who are begging for new music get just that, and get to rate and effect the music’s rise or fall through the Yahoo! Music community.
DV: How do you respond to the comments of UMG chairman/CEO Doug Morris: “These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it. So it’s time to get paid for it.”
Yahoo! Music: I’d politely point Doug to many studies which show the majority of music on portable devices comes from ripped CDs and a relatively small percentage from P2P.
DV: MTV used to be the place to find music videos, but their programming has become increasingly geared towards reality television. Do users still want music videos and would be willing to buy them online?
Yahoo! Music: Users clearly still want Music Videos, we serve them hundreds of millions of them every month. I’m sure some people would be happy to buy them online, but I’m sure many many more would be happy to get them for free and be willing to watch an add if the price remained zero. That’s exactly the strategy behind Yahoo! Music Videos, the #1 music video property on the Internet, which serves billions of music videos every year.
DV: And the Million Dollar Question, do you think online music retailers will abandon DRM at some point?
Yahoo! Music: Every retailer would do it tomorrow if the labels would let them. I think you’ll see at least two of the major labels selling content online in MP3 format bythe end of 2007.
