Filed under: Feature, ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Vanity Fair, Blog
ONLINE SITE OF THE WEEK: A BLOG DIGEST
Ever wondered how all of these blogs stack up? A friend (let’s call her Jigga Hu) sent this to me a while back and I’ve been looking for any reason to send this around. Sigh. Opportunity strikes. If you haven’t heard of all of these, it’s an ideal time for investigation. Click on the image above to be directed to Vanity Fair’s site and links to all of the blogs.
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: HBO, ABC, American Broadcasting Company, The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles, Rod Lurie, Bipolar disorder, Nevada
HBO has given the green light to a pilot titled “Manic,” a drama that will be based on Terri Cheney’s autobiographical best-seller, “Manic, A Memoir.” The series will focus on a female lawyer who suffers from bipolar disorder. (Variety 6/29)
TNT has bought the rights to “Cracker,” a rough-around-the-edges U.K. police show. While ABC’s attempt to bring the show stateside in 1997 lasted only one season, TNT’s version is likely to be truer to the original, according to this article. (The Hollywood Reporter 6/30)
Showtime is working with Rod Lurie on a new drama called Hilary Jones about a woman who works as a vice cop in Los Angeles during the week and is a legal prostitute in Nevada on weekends, according to THR. (Cynopsis 6/30)
ESPN attracted an average of 1.41 million viewers in its nine-game coverage of this year’s College World Series, a 26% increase over the network’s five-game average in 2007. The channel’s telecast of the title game June 25 generated a 2.0 rating with 1.9 million households, according to Nielsen Media Research. (Multichannel News 6/28)
Supercharged interest in the run-up to this year’s presidential election has helped MSNBC close the gaps — both in terms of ratings and with advertising revenue — behind news icons CNN and Fox News Channel. During the first three weeks of June, for instance, MSNBC’s prime-time audience in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic increased 85%. (The Washington Post/Associated Press 6/29)
Several large advertisers shifted significant amounts of money out of broadcast television’s upfront coffers and diverted piles of cash to the cable industry, according to this report. Among the biggest were Yum! Brands, the parent of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, which shifted $25 million to cable; SC Johnson, which moved $20 million; and General Motors, which transferred between $15 million and $20 million. (Mediaweek 6/30)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Advertising, Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, Family Guy, FOX, Google, Playstation 3, Seth MacFarlane, Xbox 360
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
In September, Seth MacFarlane, creator of “Family Guy” on television, will unveil a carefully guarded new project called “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy.” Unlike “Family Guy,” which is broadcast on Fox, this animation series will appear exclusively on the Internet. The innovative part involves the distribution plan. Google will syndicate the program using its AdSense advertising system to thousands of Web sites that are predetermined to be gathering spots for Mr. MacFarlane’s target audience, typically young men. Instead of placing a static ad on a Web page, Google will place a “Cavalcade” video clip. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/business/30google.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 6/30)
And. . .if you’re a Family Guy fan, this photo I took in RI over the weekend should have meaning.
Google just announced its odd Google Media Server, a Windows app that finds photos, music, and video and makes it available to DLNA devices like the PlayStation 3, XBox 360, and most Media Center PCs. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/27/google-goes-after-the-tv-with-google-media-server 6/27)
In an industry first, Sony Pictures’ hoped-for blockbuster “Hancock,” starring Mr. Smith as a bungling superhero, hits theaters on Wednesday and will be available — after its theater run but before release on DVD — over the Internet, directly to viewers’ television sets. That is, if they own a Sony Bravia TV with a Web connection. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/technology/30sony.html?ref=technology 6/30)
Yahoo once again makes the case to shareholders that its existing directors are better equipped to lead the company forward than an alternate slate proposed by Carl Icahn. (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/yahoo-makes-new-pitch-to-shareholders-as-stock-drops-further/index.html?ref=technology 6/30)
Streaming music service Rhapsody has joined the likes of Wal-Mart, Amazon, and Napster by launching an MP3 store. Its move to offer unprotected music downloads has been anticipated since last Fall when Real Networks joined forces with MTV and Verizon. The Rhapsody MP3 Store offers music from all four major labels (Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, and EMI) at 99 cents per single and mostly $9.99 per single disc album. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/29/rhapsody-agrees-drm-is-dead-launches-mp3-store 6/29)
Apple’s iTunes will have more competition for consumers’ musical attention come August. The masterminds who started Hot Topic, a chain of clothing and accessories stores inspired by pop culture and music, have designed a digital-music store called ShockHound, which at launch will sell MP3s from at least three of the four major labels and hundreds of independent labels. ShockHound also plans to use MP3s to help increase sales of clothing and accessories carried by Hot Topic. (The New York Times 6/30)
And here I thought Hot Topic had died a silent but respectable death somewhere. . .
A key feature of Twitter has been down most of this week: Replies. The core Twitter service itself is alive, but the team took the Reply feature down on Tuesday when the service started to slow. As of now, Friday afternoon, Replies are still down. Disabling certain features is Twitter’s recent attempt to keep their frail architecture from failing completely. They tried it out during Apple’s recent WWDC keynote and it worked, so they’re clearly using this approach more often now to deal with problems. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/27/conversations-come-to-a-screaming-halt-on-twitter-users-simply-move-to-friendfeed 6/27)
Twitter angers and annoys me generally. I’m all for switching services but let’s be honest for a second here, Twitter still isn’t exactly mainstream unless you call new media fanatics typing away on their iPhones nervously twitching from too much caffeine mainstream.
EMI, which is looking less like a music label and more like a lawsuit label, is at it again. This afternoon they filed a lawsuit alleging “massive and blatant” copyright infringement by Hi5, VideoEgg and ten John Doe defendants to be named later. The core of the suit is over copyrighted EMI content that appears on Hi5, particularly music videos. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/27/emi-music-sues-hi5-videoegg-and-ten-defendants-to-be-named-later 6/27)
Need to schedule a meeting or phone call, but can’t agree on a time that is good for everyone? Try using When Is Good, a dead-simple Web app that does just one thing: zero in on a meeting time that is good for everyone without sending 20 emails back and forth. There are plenty of other apps that help you find a mutually convenient time time for meetings or events (such as Presdo, Scheduly, or Jiffle). But When Is Good strips the process down to its bare essentials. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/27/when-is-good-the-bare-bones-meeting-scheduler 6/27)
Ingenious. I would LOVE to avoid the 10-plus e-mail streams surrounding even the most simple tasks like lunch or coffee.
Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: Apple, iPhone, Mobile phone, Smartphones, Handhelds, Flipswap, International Mobile Equipment Identity, OpenTable
Sending in your old phone or iPod for money isn’t anything new, but I recently found Flipswap and they’re a little bit different than other services out there. For one thing, everything is free and they even pay for your shipping costs. I’m not sure how their algorithm works, but they claim to give the highest trade-in value for your phone. Simply input your info, answer a few questions about the device and the phone’s IMEI and they’ll give you an estimate of your device and send the check right out. First gen iPhones are currently fetching around $190. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/29/stuck-with-a-gen-1-iphone-flipswap-it 6/29)
I just tried it out and found my 4GB iPhone (at fair condition) is worth about $100. I also love that the site allows you to donate to a list of charities if you so choose. Perhaps that iPhone case wasn’t such a great investment in this situation. My incase looks fly but undoubtedly scratches the phone when particles get lodged between the case and the phone. Sigh.
OpenTable, the web-enabled restaurant management provider, has introduced a new mobile feature that lets users make restaurant reservations from their from their phone’s browser. The new site, which is available here, supports the 8,000 OpenTable restaurants scattered across the country. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/29/book-restaurant-reservations-on-the-go-with-opentable 6/29)
Filed under: GAMING | Tags: Aerosmith, GAMING Sony, Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero Aerosmith, Microsoft, NPD Group, Playstation 3, Video game
Sony’s PlayStation 3 gaming console has finally outsold Microsoft’s Xbox after a strong first part of the year that saw U.S. PS3 levels reach 4.5 million and 12 million worldwide, according to NPD Group, a research firm, and Sony. The results are the fruit of Sony’s newly aggressive strategy of linking its vast quantity of products and services. (Advertising Age 6/27)
Aerosmith has worked with Neversoft to create the first “Guitar Hero” game that is built around a specific band. Released Sunday, “Guitar Hero Aerosmith” combines elements of movie DVDs with the popular game. (
ClipSyndicate/WNYW-TV (New York) 6/26, The New York Times 6/29)
Check out the video below for some behind-the-scenes action on making the “Guitar Hero Aerosmith” installment. Loved watching the motion capture about as much as I loved watch Steven Tyler scatting.
Electronic Arts has decried a British proposal to create movie-style ratings for computer games aimed at 13-year-olds and up. EA said the scheme would confuse parents and cause many video games to be released later in the U.K. market than in other regions. (The Times (London) 6/30)
