Daily Marauder

GET HIP WITH IT: ENGRAVE YOUR TECH

In a world of mass production, here’s a company that helps you mix some personality into your tech. Engrave Your Tech, a Portland-based company, layers personalization onto your electronics via laser engraving.

Materials

Can engrave aluminum, stainless steel, or plastic

Turnaround

The work can be done within one day of receipt but shipping is a whole other story.

Pricing

Laptop: $100 - $150 depending on size

iPod/iPhone/Smartphone: $40 1 side, $60 for both

The question is, how much would you pay to rock the coolest laptop in the neighborhood?

BROADCAST/CABLE

Carolyn Strauss is leaving her position as entertainment president at HBO. Hollywood is said to be waiting for Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes, a one-time head of HBO, to make a bold move to rejuvenate its pay channel. Strauss is in talks about taking on a new role with the network. (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/sources-shake-up-inside-hbo 3/15, The Hollywood Reporter 3/17, Los Angeles Times 3/17)

Time Warner’s CNN switched to taped programming early Saturday even though a major story — downtown Atlanta’s first recorded tornado — literally blew right through its news headquarters. The storm shattered windows at CNN.com and in the network’s library. No one at CNN was hurt. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080315/ap_en_tv/atlanta_storm_cnn 3/15)

A Delaware judge is expected to rule in two weeks on whether John Malone’s Liberty Media can remove Barry Diller from his perch at IAC. The trial wrapped up Friday. Diller testified that Quadrangle Group is a potential buyer for IAC’s timeshare-exchange business Interval. (http://www.nypost.com/seven/03152008/business/diller_duels_in_delaware_102088.htm 3/15)

News Corp.’s new deal to launch two English-language satellite channels in the Middle East was engineered by James Murdoch, the head of the media giant’s Europe and Asia operations. The 35-year-old Murdoch is said to be boosting his reputation as a “potential visionary.” (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117982488.html?categoryid=2523&cs=1 3/14)

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

YouTube is starting to make higher-definition streams available on certain videos, based upon the uploaded source file. The feature applies to all clips, and is not restricted to partner content. Also: China is blocking YouTube after the video-sharing site posted videos showing protests in Tibet. (http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/03/youtube_slowly.html  3/14, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080317/ap_on_hi_te/china_youtube_blocked  3/17)

Note the link at the bottom of the video.  Click on the link to toggle between higher and lower quality.  It’s not HD but it looks a whole lot better.  One simple thing that that YouTube can improve on: when I click to change to quality, video playback re-starts.  OK for a 1 minute video but annoying for all others.

 
YouTube increased its lead over online video competitors in January, accounting for over a third of all views, according to the latest ComScore data, while overall video viewing dipped for the first time from 10.1 billion to 9.8 billion. More than 139 million U.S. Internet users spent an average of 206 minutes per person viewing online video in January. Google Sites also attracted the most viewers (80 million) and highest average minutes per viewer (109.9.)

Top U.S. Online Video Properties by Videos Viewed – January 2008
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Property                  Videos(000)    Share (%) of Videos
Total Internet           9,814,010           100.0%
Google Sites             3,363,335            34.3%
Fox Interactive Media   584,132             6.0%
Yahoo! Sites                315,001             3.2%
Microsoft Sites             199,288             2.0%
Viacom Digital             197,737             2.0%
AOL LLC                      118,033             1.2%
Disney Online                95,041             1.0%
Time Warner w/o AOL    85,467             0.9%
ESPN                            81,402             0.8%
ABC.COM                      49,017             0.5%
Source: comScore Video Metrix

 
Google CEO Eric Schmidt says he is concerned about the free flow of information on the Internet if Microsoft succeeds in acquiring Yahoo. Schmidt cites Microsoft’s “past history.” Also, Google is well positioned for a U.S. economic slowdown. “We tend to benefit from currency effects.” (http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/google-well-positioned-us-economic/story.aspx?guid=%7B717E3D0D-8AE8-45F1-8DC2-35314AC9D3D6%7D  3/17)

 
Time Warner’s acquisition of the Bebo social networking site might not fix the AOL Internet unit, which will find it difficult to lure new ideas under current management, says UBS analyst Michael Morris. AOL has “unrealistic expectations.” Time Warner “would be better off without AOL.” (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aoaTx5TN4iwo  3/14)

 
Nine Inch Nail’s Pay What You Can offering of the Ghosts I-IV album racked up $1.6 million in sales during the first week it was available, despite it being widely available on P2P sharing sites.

Yet another indication that people will pay when the offering is fast and easy to use.

 
The Rookie, one of the many web/mobile spinoffs based on Fox’s hit action serial 24, is back for another season of 3-5 minutes shorts on Fox.com, chronicling the further adventures of American Counter Terrorism agent Jason Blaine (played by Jeremy Valdez – who made a cameo in Season 5 of 24.) Producers MindShare Entertainment & Science + Fiction and sponsor Degree deodorant are increasing distribution efforts from today to include the web, mobile, Comcast On Demand and DirecTV.

The Rookie: Day 3

 
Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star Jeff Garlin says he made his last stand-up appearance this past weekend in Cleveland. Fans looking for their next “Curb” fix while the show is on hiatus can check out today’s Abigail’sTeenDiary posting for a riff from Richard Lewis.

 
NBC Universal is paying about $6 million for a 35% stake in DriverTV, a Web site and video-on-demand channel that specializes in videos aimed at car shoppers. The investment is an effort to snare more of the automotive advertising dollars migrating online. (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120571463040740423.html  3/17)

 
Peer-to-peer technology, best known for pirating movies and music online, is being adopted by media companies as a cheap way to get video content to customers. File-sharing firm Pando is helping NBC provide DVD-quality downloads of its shows. Also: P2P saves NBC “a lot of costs.” (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080314/ap_on_hi_te/peer_to_peer_business  3/14, http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/nbc-media-moguls.ars  3/12)

 
CBS is launching a partnership that will syndicate local news widgets to blogs and social media sites in the markets of network-owned television stations. The CBS-created widgets can be embedded in a Web page and include news, weather, politics, as well as advertising. (http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/03/cbs_news_widget_expands_ad_opp.php  3/17)

 
Craigslist is not legally responsible for discriminatory housing ads posted on the site, says a federal appeals court. A lawsuit in 2006 accused Craigslist of violating federal housing laws by publishing ads that read “No Minorities” and  “Requirements: Clean Godly Christian Male.” (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/15/BAVJVKN57.DTL  3/16)

 
Perez Hilton, the celebrity gossip blogger, is seen as a key music industry playmaker at South by Southwest in Austin, hosting one of the festival’s more coveted parties. Hilton’s blog postings are credited for helping to boost the sales of several music artists. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080316/ap_en_mu/sxsw_perez_hilton  3/16)

 
The United States is no longer the nation with the largest number of internet users. China overtook the US last month in users for the first time, according to the state-run China Internet Network Information Center. Researcher BDA China Ltd. estimates there are now over 220 million internet users in China, compared with 217.1 million in the U.S. Online ad revenue continues to lag in China, however, totaling $1.3 billion in 2007 compared to e-Marketer estimates of $21.4 billion in America.

WIRELESS

Flash Lite for mobile phones might not be good enough for Steve Jobs, but Microsoft is less picky. It is licensing Flash Lite for Windows Mobile. This is an acknowledgment of two things: there are a lot of developers and existing Websites out there that work with Flash, and the mobile version of Microsoft’s own competing Silverlight software is nowhere near ready to be deployed. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/17/microsoft-adopts-flash-lite-for-windows-mobile-as-a-stopgap-measure  3/17)

 
Google is confident the company’s forthcoming phones armed with the Android operating system will overtake the U.S. market from Apple’s iPhone. The iPhone is “limited,” because the potential for developers to build new applications using Android is greater, says Google exec Rich Miner. (http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3554119.ece  3/14)

GAMING

U.K. censors will allow “Manhunt 2″ to be sold to adults 18 and older. The game, by Rockstar Games, was twice rejected out of concerns it posed “a real potential harm risk.” (Pocket-lint.co.uk 3/14)

TECHNOLOGY

Scientific Atlanta, the name brand on cable set-top boxes for decades, is being officially retired and now will be called the Cisco Service Provider Video Technology Group. Cisco Systems also announced that, with the name change, Jim McDonald, SA’s chief executive officer since 1993, will be replaced by Tony Bates, the senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Service Provider Group, which oversees the Video Technology Group. (Multichannel News 3/14)

A backpack, a clip-on charger and a Bluetooth headset all use solar power to eliminate the need for traditional chargers. The devices reviewed in this article, which range in price from $80 to $250, use solar panels and cells to charge cell phones, MP3 players and other electronics. (The Seattle Times/Orlando Sentinel 3/17)

(Below) Now you REALLY won’t hear that car coming.  Sweet.

Hearing Components is looking to serve the consumer market with the introduction of a new set of earphones that feature patented passive noise-blocking technology the company supplies to U.S. Army helicopter crews and special forces. The earphones are designed to virtually block out ambient noise, according to the company. (TWICE 3/14)