GOT WI-FI?:GRAMSTAND NYC
Like any proper computer nerd, I size up every coffee/tea location by the free availability and ease of access to its Wi-Fi network. OK, I suppose the quality of beverage is an important factor as well. Hence, a new series for Daily Marauder: Got Wi-fi?. Over the next several months, I will embark on a mission to find the best Wi-Fi spot in the city be it coffee/tea house, restaurant, bar, or swanky hotel. My computer will boldly go where many computers have gone before it. Mine rocks a 17” screen which intimidates the competition.
Which brings me to, my first choice.
Located right around the corner from my humble abode, I have walked by Gramstand several hundred times before even noticing that it existed. But today, is a different day. I go in search of Wi-Fi and on this particular day on Avenue A between 13th and 14th Street, I find it.
Food/Beverage Selection
Even though Gramstand serves up both coffee and tea, they really pride themselves on their tea selection. Specifically, they offer over 50 types of traditional and exotic teas all hand-picked by the owner. Tea bag? I didn’t think so. I’m personally waiting for summer so I can try the Citrus Berry, a drink with ice cubes made of tea with a honey inside. Sweet surprise yumminess. On the food tip, they had a pumpkin muffin in the store that almost made me cry from happiness.
Wi-Fi Action
On to the Wi-Fi as prominently displayed in front of the counter. Wi-Fi issue? Nope. . .not here. Getting on to the network was flawless and speeds seemed relatively quick and crash-free.
Seating
Gramstand rocks an upstairs and shockingly. . .
a downstairs as well. Lets just say. You’ll never be without your comfy seating options. I hope you dig shabby chic. This Marauder definitely does.
Extra points for the Etch-a-Sketch downstairs.
Customer Service
Meet Hanly, Gramstand tea mistress and fellow blogger. In a sea of bitter New Yorkers, it’s nice to be greeted with a smile for a change. Here Hanly introduces us to Gramstand’s communication device for sending messages from the upper level downstairs. Click on her image above to check out her blog. Please please please check out her book club including the most awesome alternative to Eat Pray Love.
Final Call
If you’re not a tea drinker, this place isn’t for you. If you are, you’ve found mecca both in beverage variety and in the quality of the free Wi-Fi. Marauder Thumbs up on this one.
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
On April 22, MTV will premiere a second season of Tila Tequila’s “A Shot at Love” reality show. Last season’s finale of “A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila” averaged more than 6 million total viewers, the network’s highest tally for a series episode in five years. This season’s installment will be titled “A Shot at Love 2: The Hangover.” (Multichannel News 4/3)
Trailer for A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila
Is it wrong that I teared up while watching this?
MTV debuts the twentieth edition of The Real World: Hollywood April 16 at 10p. For the first time, the series will include hour-long episodes and the house in Hollywood will be the first to include eco-friendly products. Another first for the series, the seventh roommate, “Prettyboy” from Daytona Beach, FL was selected from 20,000 online applications. Over the 13 weeks, exclusive footage of the happenings will be posted online. (Cynopsis 4/4)
Real World: Hollywood Trailer
It is the “lucky” 13th season for King of the Hill as the animated comedy was renewed by FOX for the 2008-2009 season. FOX ordered 13 new episodes with the option for more from production company 20th Century Fox TV. A portion of the new half-hour episodes will air from February to March 2009 with the rest slated for the 2009-2010 season. (Cynopsis 4/4)
IFC has ordered 10 episodes of a new show titled “Z Rock,” a comedy inspired by the lives of real rock band ZO2, whose members will play themselves in the series. Additionally, IFC announced it has picked up “The Whitest Kids U Know” for a third season. (The Hollywood Reporter 4/3)
ESPN will begin its coverage of the 2008-09 NFL campaign on Aug. 7 with a preseason matchup between the Arizona Cardinals and the New Orleans Saints. On Aug. 18, the cable sports net gets the big boys, when the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants square off against the Cleveland Browns. (Multichannel News 4/3)
Television viewers barely left the couch during the Writers Guild of America strike, says a study by Nielsen. Strike-era viewers managed to increase the amount of time spent watching DVDs, playing video games and surfing the Internet while continuing to watch as much TV as before. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i281ae2fb9e8cf055210b04b7452f0b39 4/3)
The HD wars continue. Verizon rolled out its HD VOD product to 8 more states where FiOS TV is available; New York and Oregon will be the latest additions in the coming weeks. Verizon hopes to have 1,000 HD VOD titles by the end of the year. Not to be outdone, Time Warner Cable in New York and New Jersey is poised to up its HD offering to include 100 linear HD channels and more than 250 HD on demand choices by the end of 2008. (Cynopsis 4/4)
Liberty Media purchased an additional 78.3 million shares in DirecTV, increasing its ownership stake to about 48% of the company. (Cynopsis 4/4, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aroeGczU1eQw 4/3)
Comcast SportsNet Bay Area has announced that it will begin offering San Francisco Giants baseball games within a 24-hour window through its video-on-demand service, becoming one of the first regional sports nets in the country to offer MLB games via VOD. Ted Griggs, the general manager of Comcast Bay Area, said the company was in discussions with the Oakland Athletics about a similar deal. (Multichannel News 4/3)
AT&T Advanced TV, which will rely exclusively on Dish for carriage in nine Southeastern states, has introduced a series of programming packages that range in price from a monthly $19.99, which includes about 40 family-friendly channels, all the way up to $94.98 a month. The priciest package, the so-called America’s Everything Pak, includes 250 channels and has HBO, Showtime and Starz. (Broadcasting & Cable 4/3)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
The iTunes music-download store has sold more than 4 billion tracks since its 2003 inception and surpassed Wal-Mart as the No. 1 music retailer in the U.S., according to Apple, which quotes a new NPD Group study. In its report, NPD says 12 music downloads are equal to a single CD. (CNBC/Associated Press 4/3)
MySpace on Thursday officially announced plans to launch a digital-music service designed to rival top online music retailer iTunes. The News Corp-owned social network has teamed up with leading record companies Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group for its MySpace Music venture. Industry observers predict MySpace will spend about $50 million to $100 million on the project over five years. (The New York Times 4/4, Google/Associated Press 4/3, The Wall Street Journal 4/4)
Here’s what I don’t understand. I can’t find any music for purchase on the site save for the Snocap application which was already in operation. Most methods for purchase send users off-site to an alternative location. I understand that they are adding features in phases but MySpace should consider at least offering music for purchase from the featured artists before sending out the press release.
Fox Interactive Media could fall short of its fiscal 2008 revenue target of $1 billion, as it reorganizes to better exploit online advertising. The News Corp. division plans to launch its long-awaited online ad network, FIM Audience Network, consolidating its newly developed ad technologies. (http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN0444089220080404 4/4)
Companies such as Apple and Microsoft are putting heavy resources into a view of the future in which downloading movies will surpass optical discs as the preferred method of watching theatricals at home. But analysts say viewing downloaded movies on TV sets still carries a hefty price tag and requires some work from consumers. (Reuters 4/3)
CBSSports.com is expecting big numbers from this weekend’s March Madness match-ups. This year is the first time the site will provide simulcast coverage of the tournament’s Final Four games. More than 4.3 million visitors have watched games so far this year, up from 1.7 million last year. (Cynopsis 4/4, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-streaming4apr04,1,5779928.story 4/4)
Microsoft and Yahoo execs met this week to discuss Microsoft’s proposal to acquire the Internet company but failed to resolve any of their differences. Microsoft showed no willingness to raise its cash-and-stock offer, and Yahoo continued to refuse to enter formal talks without a sweetened bid. (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120728254600289107.html 4/4)
Facebook must defend against a lawsuit that accuses founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg of stealing computer code, an appeals court says. The decision revives a 2004 suit by ConnectU founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss that was dismissed last year on procedural grounds. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=ariFOMVAXrZw 4/4)
The first episode of season 3 of MOJO’s Three Sheets, a comedic travelogue following liquor connoisseur Zane Lamprey in his search for the world’s best alcohol, is now available online exclusively on Hulu.com, a week before its on-air premiere. (Cynopsis 4/4)
I decided to check this show out for myself and having family from Kentucky, I was forced to watch the bourbon edition. Fantastically entertaining show. Marauder thumb’s up on this one.
Meanwhile Paramount’s popular Facebook application VooZoo is launching in MTV Networks’vMTV virtual world and on Makena Technologies’There.com site sometime in Q2. VooZoo enables users to send video clips for $1 each from Paramount movies called “Voohoos,” representing distinctive emotions represented by memorable one-liners from flicks like Footloose, Flashdance and Zoolander. MTV will introduce its own clips of pop cultural moments through the VooZoo app. (Cynopsis 4/4)
I tested out the VooZoo application by sending a clip from one of my favorite movies on record to a variety of Clueless loving friends like me. A variety of clips are available from each movie in the library offering a number of personalized choices.
Thousands of video clips from Paramount Pictures’movie archives will be available to the virtual 3-D online worlds of There.com and vMTV. Users will be allowed to express themselves with video clips of movie one-liners — say, Danny Zucko’s “Be cool, huh?” from “Grease” — at a cost of about $1. (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080403/film_paramount_there.html 4/3)
Adobe Systems is starting public trials of software that will deliver advertising-supported subscriptions to television programs, including CBS series “CSI” and “Big Brother.” Media companies including CBS and Viacom will provide their programming through the Adobe Media Player. (http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN0333978920080403 4/3)
Filed under: WIRELESS
Google is confirming it bid in the recent government spectrum auction in an effort to open up a large chunk of the airwaves to outside Internet devices. But if it had won spectrum, Google says, it may have spooked investors due to the heavy investments required to build a new wireless network. (http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/google-confirms-bid-up-spectrum/story.aspx?guid=%7B193D298D%2DEB1C%2D4774%2DA10D%2D683520C9C747%7D 4/3)
Filed under: GAMING
Nearly three in four Americans played video games a year ago, a gain of 8 percentage points from the previous year, but a sizable upside still exists in the market, especially for online gaming, according to the NPD Group report. The research firm said that while 72% of the U.S. population played a game last year, 58% did so online. E-Commerce Times/San Jose Mercury News (4/3)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
Sony is releasing an 11-inch version of its XEL-1, which will mark the first TV available in the U.S. featuring organic light-emitting diodes, a technology that uses less power to produce a stronger picture on an ultrathin screen. The 16:9 widescreen set will retail for $2,500, but Sony demonstrated a 27-inch version in January and is expected to ramp up production on OLED models. (The New York Times 4/3)
PC World offers a guide to buying a portable GPS device for the car and challenges consumers to answer a host of questions before making a purchase, including: how far/often will you travel, where will you put the device in the car and how important is having access to frequent map updates. (PCWorld 4/3)
