Filed under: Feature | Tags: Boom Box, Camera phone, Flight of the Conchords, Get Retro, Hung Up, Lasonic, Madonna, Talk Box, VCR
GET RETRO: LASONIC GHETTO BLASTER
Get Retro continues with a bit of a swerve. A swerve is my terminology for anything that attempts to combine the past with either the future or current. Let me introduce the Lasonic High Performance Portable Music System. The updated Lasonic version is 15 lbs and includes a dock for plugging in your iPod. The 26-inch wide boom box won’t rock the boulevard at 15 watts per channel, but it will be loud enough to bring Rakim to your part of the subway platform.
The unit premiered at CES a month ago but still hasn’t been officially released as of this posting. Priced at $169, the boom box also supports USB flash drive.
Another example of a swerve is the Flight of the Conchords camera phone merging a cell phone with a camera. Hottness.
A Swerve
The Lasonic Ghetto Blaster recalls a time when walking around with a boom box on your shoulder while blasting Eric B was just a normal part of everyday life. Just to remind you of the boom boxes from yesteryear, check it.
Boom Box Family
Turns out, Madonna also loves the boom box. The boom box was a featured character in Madonna’s 2005 music Video, Hung Up.
Madonna Hung Up
For more of the Get Retro series:
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy will move back to its Thursday 9p time period which bumps Lost to the 10p slot starting April 24. Resuming production post-writer’s strike, Grey’s and Lost will each have five new original episodes. The verdict is still out though on when additional episodes of Eli Stone will air and when Men In Trees and Women’s Murder Club will return.
Yesterday, ABC filed an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit against the FCC. The point of contention is a 2003 NYPD Blue episode that the FCC declared indecent and on Tuesday fined ABC a total of $1,237,500 for the 45 affiliates that aired the program. Despite being opposed to the fines, ABC paid them in full yesterday, making the FCC decision appealable.
News Corp. is raising its stake in Premiere, Germany’s biggest pay-television company, to 19.9%, a month after buying 14.6% of the shares. The media giant says it sees “enormous” growth potential in Germany. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=anmpEZjmnObk 2/21)
Time Warner says in a regulatory filing that it expects to cut more jobs in its magazine publishing division in the first quarter, resulting in $10 million to $20 million in expenses. Time Inc. says that the job cuts affect fewer than 100 people, and that most of them have already occurred. (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080222/time_warner_filing.html 2/22)
Showtime cast The Sopranos star Edie Falco for a new pilot. The untitled 30m pilot is a dark comedy about a nurse working for a New York hospital who does whatever it takes to save lives while managing her difficult personal life. The Hollywood Reporter (2/21)
HBO has secured the rights to controversial documentary “Taxi to the Dark Side,” which it will televise in September. The Oscar-nominated film, about the murder of a taxi driver in Afghanistan, will debut on basic cable in 2009 on Discovery Communications’ Investigation Discovery. (The Hollywood Reporter 2/22)
TBS ordered eight new episodes of its late-night comedy series Frank TV, starring impressionist Frank Caliendo as he “channels” celebrities and pop culture icons such as Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino and President George W. Bush. The series, produced by TBS Productions, will return to TBS’ line-up later this year.
Rufus Sewell has been signed to take the lead role in Jerry Bruckheimer’s pilot project, The Eleventh Hour for CBS, reports THR. The project is based on a UK show which starred Patrick Stewart, and focuses on a government agent/scientist who with his trust sidekick and bodyguard, protects people from scientific abuses.
Analysts are expecting an increased profit at Viacom when the company reports quarterly results next Thursday, but will be anxious to hear the media giant’s advertising forecasts. The same issue will weigh heavily in the reaction to CBS’s quarterly results, to be released on Tuesday. (http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/higher-profit-seen-viacom-ad/story.aspx?guid=%7B5E378CCA%2D8996%2D40C9%2D971D%2DDEEF190FA786%7D 2/21)
The three Republican members of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission are voting to approve the deal swapping control of DirecTV from News Corp. to Liberty Media. Even though the deal has majority approval, it cannot be released until all five commissioners vote for it. (http://www.smartmoney.com/bn/ON/index.cfm?story=ON-20080221-001134-1751 2/21)
Comcast, on May 10, 2009, could become sole owner of G4 if EchoStar Communications exercises its right to sell its 15% stake in the gaming channel back to the cable company, according to SEC filings. The price of EchoStar’s portion would be determined by an outside appraiser, but estimates on the value have hovered around $100 million. (Multichannel News 2/21)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
More details about Google’s Video AdSense program, officially in beta as of yesterday:
- Participating publishers must serve at least 1 million U.S. streams/month
- Ads come in two formats – Overlaid InVideo ads are paid on a CPM basis, activated when users click on a prompt
- Contextual AdSense text ads are paid on CPC basis triggered by tags in the video, taking the user to the advertiser’s website when clicked on
- Online ad networks YouMe and Tremor Media will integrate with the program
- Best of all, there are no pre-rolls
Google co-founder Sergey Brin calls Microsoft’s takeover bid for Yahoo an “unnerving” maneuver that threatens innovation on the Internet: “When you start to have companies that control the operating system, control the browsers, they really tie up the top Web sites.” (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080221/ap_on_hi_te/microsoft_google 2/21)
Facebook is said to be mulling the appointment of a well-known exec to top management, as perhaps a second-in-charge to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The 23-year-old founder of the social networking phenom is seen to lack needed experience in marketing, advertising and operations. (http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080222/facebooks-next-management-moves-the-un-zuckerberg 2/22)
(Below) I’m not ready to signal the death bell for social networking and especially not for Facebook. Yes, users seem overwhelmed by spam and requests of many kinds. That said, it seems like Facebook at least is responding quickly in an attempt to curb the problem. There’s no question that people will continue wanting to communicate with each other online. The question really seems: where do they spend most of their time doing that communication without feeling overwhelmed?
Facebook is seeing a decline of British users of the hit social networking site. However, “one month of falling audiences doesn’t spell the decline of Facebook or social networking,” says Alex Burmaster of Nielsen Online. “At some point its phenomenal growth rate would have to end.” (http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3412926.ece 2/22)
Facebook
is planning on allowing users to add activities from third party social networking site directly into their Facebook news feed, we’ve confirmed. The goal is to centralize all that activity in one place. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/22/facebook-targets-feedfriend 2/22)
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is establishing a branded Oscars channel on YouTube. The Web site — www.YouTube.com/Oscars — will feature Academy Awards show highlights and exclusive video interviews with members from each of the academy’s branches. (http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Entertainment/2008/02/21/oscars_get_channel_on_youtube/7947 2/21)
The new Jackassworld.com, jointly run by MTV and “Jackass” star Johnny Knoxville, will be “like an R-rated film,” says Knoxville. “You can show whatever you want and it’s immediate. When you’re filming a TV show it takes a couple of weeks to get to air. … Viacom left us alone.” (http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9876275-7.html 2/21)
The boys were in Times Square this past Wednesday to promote their website and their 24 hours on MTV starting at noon on Saturday. Nice bow tie.
CBS Interactive is dusting off a selection of its own classics from the CBS Library for distribution across the CBS Audience Network. Full-length episodes of Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Hawaii Five-O, MacGyver and Melrose Place will be available for free on an ad-supported basis through more than 300 member sites. (http://www.forbes.com/media/2008/02/21/cbs-internet-advertising-biz-media-cx_lh_0221cbs.html 2/21)
Verizon is casting subjects for an online technology makeover show, The Upgrade Show, to showcase its television and high-speed internet products. Email them a testimonial (300 words or less) at verizontvshow@gmail.com This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it about why you would be the perfect candidate for a sweet new home set up, along with jpegs of your family and home.
The show is called My Home 2.0 and features the tech guru stylings of these three below. At first, I wanted to hate this blatant copy of other popular home make-over shows (cue the family crying sequence). That said, I’m pretty intrigued to see a telcom doing something this innovative to grab the interest of consumers. So from a marketing angle, I say, well done.
The New York Times should kill the print product, deliver news online only and add social-networking features to nytimes.com, recommends tech pioneer Marc Andreessen. Also: A New York Times Co. asset sale and reinvestment in Internet outfits is “not practical,” says Goldman Sachs. (http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/21/news/newsmakers/quittner_andreessen.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008022207 2/22, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ajkkeK7pOF80 2/22)
Time Warner’s AOL is launching AOL.com.mx, a site for users in Mexico that combines free e-mail and instant messaging features with local content in Spanish. Mexican magazine firm Grupo Editorial Expansion, which is owned by Time Inc., will provide content. (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080221/aol_mexico.html 2/21)
Google slightly extended its share of core searches in January to 58.5 %, according to ComScore. Yahoo sites ranked second with 22.2%, followed by Microsoft sites (9.8 %), AOL (4.9 %) and Ask Network (4.5 %).
Top Visited US Broadcast Network TV Show Sites (Week ending Feb. 16, 2008)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 FOX American Idol 16.85%
2 NBC Deal or No Deal 12.82%
3 CBS Survivor: Micronesia 5.22%
4 ABC Lost 4.30%
5 FOX America’s Most Wanted 4.00%
6 CBS Jericho 2.51%
7 ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 2.10%
8 NBC American Gladiators 1.97%
9 The CW One Tree Hill 1.96%
10 ABC Dance War: Bruno vs. Carie Ann 1.64%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise
Filed under: WIRELESS
Google is floating an idea with Arizona-based Space Data to deliver wireless coverage to rural areas using hot air balloons, reports The Wall Street Journal. Cost is the motivation: $1,500 wireless receivers could be carried in $500 balloons, a fraction of the cost of a wireless tower.
NBC Mobile is offering movie fans instant text alerts of Oscar award winners as they are announced on Sunday, along with the usual red carpet and backstage video interviews. Coverage kicks off tonight at 4 pm ET.
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
LCD TVs accounted for 80% of the TVs sold during Super Bowl week, which ended Feb. 2, and racked up $250 million in sales. “LCD TV obviously made up the bulk of the advertising this year but what is compelling is the increased push for 1080p televisions, which ensures greater overall profitability for resellers and manufacturers,” said Samir Bhavnani, The NPD Group consumer-technology director. (TWICE 2/21)
A pair of new in-car CD players from Pioneer restore harmonics to music emanating from Apple’s iPod that are diminished during the compression process, the company announced. Pioneer is touting its Advanced Sound Retriever technology for improving sound quality and connectivity for all portable music devices, especially iPods. (Smarthouse 2/22)
