JUMP!! IN PRINT: THE ART NEWSPAPER
Allison Reimus, of JumpinginArtMuseums fame, recently contacted me to tell me that a photo from Jump!!: The MoMa edition (far left) was recently published in the June edition of The Art Newspaper.
From new media to print media. Woot!
Many thanks to the photographer Cynthia Singiser and the subject of the photo Kelly Browne. For the full photo set from Jump!!:The Moma edition, click here.
LUGGAGE TAG OR SWEEPSTAKES?
While I was in D.C. over the weekend, I was accosted by adorable 20-somethings in Plain Sight tank tops distributing these luggage tags. The tag includes a link to the In Plain Sight homepage (a new show on USA) which then links you off to a quick-to-enter sweepstakes. I can’t say for sure after watching a few seconds of the preview video, but the show looks mildly entertaining although a wee bit kitschy.
Last Sunday’s debut of “In Plain Sight” on USA averaged 3.97 million homes and 2.3 million adults 18 to 49. The series, about the federal witness-protection program, turned in the best demographic performance for a USA premiere since the second-season start of “The 4400″ in 2005. (TVWeek.com 6/2)
Mobile post sent by Marauder using Utterz. Replies.
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: 20th Century Fox, Animation, Arts, Entertainment, General Electric, Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal, Simpsons
Production has resumed for the 20th season of FOX’s The Simpsons as the starring voice talent signed a new four-year agreement with 20th Century Fox TV this weekend. Salary negotiations between the cast and studio have delayed production on the show and as a result only 20 episodes will be completed instead of the usual 22. The agreement increases each voice actor’s salary to around $400K per episode and adds new duties for some. (Cynopsis 6/3)
Fans of FX series “Rescue Me” will get a little something extra beginning June 24. That’s when the channel will begin running five-minute “minisodes” of the Denis Leary-starring comedy as a way to bridge the nearly two-year gap between the fourth and fifth seasons of the show. (Variety 6/2)
NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker is being forced to find creative ways to finance deals after getting the financial equivalent of the cold shoulder by parent General Electric. Slowing growth prospects and investor pressure are making GE’s financial pockets “much shallower.” (Iwantmedia 6/3, http://www.nypost.com/seven/06032008/business/nbc_goes_it_alone_113758.htm 6/3)
A new study from IAG Research showed that viewers of advertising that appears within the video-on-demand format as opposed to linear TV are far more likely to remember the spots. The study found that viewers who saw a series of Lexus commercials within VOD shows were 68% more likely to recall the ad messages and 83% more apt to remember the brand itself. (Mediaweek 6/2)
In today’s changing environment, media moguls are said to struggling to understand whether they should buy or sell assets. “Old-media guys are trying to transform into new-media ‘it’ girls,” says one observer, “while upstarts are thinking, ‘Hey, maybe I can take down a dinosaur.’ ” (Iwantmedia 6/3, http://www.thedeal.com/servlet/ContentServer?cid=1211840632968&pagename=TheDeal%2FNWStArticle&c=TDDArticle 5/30)
Rainbow Media’s Voom, a 15-channel suite of high-definition channels, has filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against Dish Network, charging that the satellite service unfairly dropped Voom channels in mid-May. The suit, filed with the New York Supreme Court, says the Dish move has cost Voom more than $1 billion in damages. (Multichannel News 6/2)
Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield upgraded small-market provider Mediacom Communications from “neutral” to “buy,” noting the company’s recent success at signing customers up for its triple play of services. The move boosted the company’s stock price as much as 24% on Monday. (Multichannel News 6/2)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Google, Jerry Yang, Lawsuit, Live Search, Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, Yahoo
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Microsoft secured a victory in its search engine battle with Google by striking a deal with HP to have the No. 1 PC company place a toolbar on its machines that links to the software giant’s Live Search engine, the companies said Monday. In the agreement that takes effect in January, HP — which will end its a similar deal with Yahoo! — will also make Live Search the default engine for Microsoft‘s Internet Explorer browser. (
ClipSyndicate/New York Financial Press 6/2, The New York Times/Reuters 6/3, Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg 6/3)
Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang ordered up a draft press release rejecting a Microsoft takeover bid several months before January’s unsolicited bid, according to newly unsealed company documents. The new disclosures bring to light Yahoo’s resistance to a merger with a software giant. (Iwantmedia 6/3, http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0229819820080603 6/3)
Some juicy details were revealed when a judge unsealed a document in a Yahoo shareholder lawsuit filed after the company’s board rebuffed Microsoft‘s advances. Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang appears to have thwarted the bid by instituting an expensive employee severance program on Feb. 12 that would have cost Microsoft anywhere from an extra $514 million to $2.4 billion. (Cynopsis 6/3)
As Techcrunch wrote last week, Facebook is turning parts of its application platform open source, the company announced today. It’s available here for download. This comes a little more than a year after Facebook Platform first launched to allow third party developers a way to get their applications directly onto Facebook. The company says more than 24,000 applications have now been built on the platform and more than 400,000 developers are building these applications. 140 new applications are added to the directory each day. “Nearly all” Facebook users have added at least one of those applications. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/02/facebook-turns-platfrom-open-source-via-fbopen 6/2)
Today iLike co-founder Patrick Koppula unveils his latest project, ffwd which is trying to take channel surfing to the web. ffwd behaves like a video recommendation site that mixes StumbleUpon, Last.fm, and Pandora. The site will begin taking applications for their beta today, though it won’t begin until later this summer. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/03/ffwd-channel-surfing-comes-to-the-web-and-your-wii 6/3)
(Below) Let me break this down for you as this scares the hell out of me. The standard package (snail-speed and low capacity) is $29.95 monthly at 768 kilobits per second with a cap of 5 GB of data. If you’re simply an e-mail/web page kind of user, no worries. You probably won’t ever reach capacity in a month. If you download TV shows or movies, take note. A typical standard definition movie is 1.5 GB whereas a high-definition movie is 6 – 8GB. One HD movie surpasses the 5GB cap in one swoop. To be fair, there is a more expensive option for $54.99 monthly which offers a 40GB cap. Time Warner Cable should focus on providing faster broadband speeds rather than charging users additional fees for access. If Time Warner Cable was afraid of services like iTunes or Netflix, perhaps they should work on improving the product (on demand and archaic menu interface) rather than attempting to outwit them with these hidden fees. Disgusting business move in my opinion.
Time Warner Cable will soon become one of the first Internet service providers to charge extra for people whose online activity goes beyond a certain monthly limit. The trial will begin Thursday for new subscribers in Beaumont, Texas, who will have monthly allowances for uploads and downloads and will have to pay $1 per gigabyte if they exceed those limits. (The Washington Post/Associated Press 6/2)
In an effort to save on bandwidth costs Veoh Networks took steps to block international users in 33 countries from accessing its videos, reports NewTeeVee. Expect more belt-tightening at these highly funded, low-revenue generating video start-ups. (Cynopsis 6/3)
The Filter, the media recommendation engine that Techcrunch covered last April, has opened its doors to the public. The Peter Gabriel-backed company offers an entertainment start page that provides recommendations on movies, music, and online video (it is mostly focused on perfecting its music recommendations for the time being). (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/02/the-filter-launches-with-a-message-from-peter-gabriel 6/2)
Peter Gabriel Discusses The Filter
Buzznet, the social network whose CEO once said that he would like to build “the next Viacom,” is launching a sister site: Celebuzz.com, a community for enthusiasts of celebrity news. Celebrity gossip fans are said to use “more than one source to get the same exact story.” (Iwantmedia 6/3, http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9957573-36.html 6/2)
At a press conference to kick off Internet Week New York, a festival promoting New York’s digital industries, mayor Michael Bloomberg is unveiling NYC Seed, a venture firm for local tech start-ups. (Iwantmedia 6/3, http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9957814-36.html 6/2)
The Internet will become the primary news source within five years, says a new report released at a meeting of the World Association of Newspapers. Newspapers are advised to explore mobile and Internet markets. They “cannot count on their print editions alone to keep them solvent.” (Iwantmedia 6/3, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080603/ap_on_hi_te/sweden_newspaper_congress_digital 6/3)
Lloyd Braun, the former Yahoo entertainment czar turned Hollywood and online programmer, is said to be teaming up with Microsoft to develop a Web site aimed at aggregating celebrity and entertainment news. The still-unnamed site will rival AOL’s TMZ.com, Perez Hilton and others. (Iwantmedia 6/3, http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080602/bermanbraun-will-make-both-msn-celeb-site-and-also-yahoo-lunacy-report 6/2)
myLifetime.com is rolling out a regiment of digital extras for Season 2 of Army Wives premiering on the network June 8. Fans can stream full episodes or a 9-minute season recap of season 1 for free, connect with fans through a variety of social networking tools and view in depth character pages. (Cynopsis 6/3)
A snooze for me but hey, I’m not the target demo.
Season 1 Recap
Google and Amazon.com will be long-term winners on the Internet, while Yahoo and IAC InterActiveCorp fall by the wayside and eBay becomes a merger target. So says Sanford Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay in a new 310-page report entitled “U.S. Internet: The End of the Beginning.” (Iwantmedia 6/3, http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN0232735820080603 6/3)
Filed under: WIRELESS
With seven days to go before WWDC, the 3G iPhone rumor mill is pretty much on fire. Some of the rumors are pretty bonkers, but most of the more popular ones are pretty darn reasonable. In the name of science, Techcrunch has pushed all of the rumors through our FCF (Fanboy Crap Filter), and rated the more likely rumors on the PKL (Pre-keynote Legitometer) scale. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/03/iphone-2-rumor-round-up 6/3)
Filed under: GAMING | Tags: Arts, Dave Howe, Holy Grail, Sci Fi, Sci Fi Pictures original films, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Strap, Universal Serial Bus
Sci Fi is developing a multiplayer online game that will be tied to a TV series in which players and viewers will be able to partially influence story lines and character development. “This is the Holy Grail for us, without a doubt,” said Sci Fi president Dave Howe, referring to the as-yet-untitled project set to launch in 2010. “This is groundbreaking.” (Financial Times 6/3, Los Angeles Times 6/2)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Acer, Asus, ASUS Eee PC, Atom, Financial Times, Hardware, Intel, Intel Corporation
If you’re anything like Techcrunch, you might be tired of lugging around a full-sized laptop from airport to airport and meeting to meeting. Enter the ultraportables. While we are all aware of the cake-cutting Air, manufacturers like ASUS and now MSI are jumping into the ultraportable market with laptops that are usable and highly portable. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/03/road-warriors-take-note-msi-launches-another-ultraportable 6/3)
Intel will formally introduce its Atom line of chips designed for budget computers priced at $200 to $350 for laptops and $200 to $300 for desktops. While companies such as Acer and Asustek — builder of the popular low-priced Eee PC — are expected to introduce Atom-based products, strong demand for chips could lead to delays in producing the machines, according to reports. (The Wall Street Journal 6/3, Financial Times 6/2)
Acer’s Aspire One, at a price of $379, is one of the laptops using Intel’s Atom chip.
Convergent Living this year will introduce three wall-screen systems to control home functions. The NEO Smartscreens will have 8-, 10.4- and 15-inch monitors and are expected to be released throughout the year. (ElectronicHouse.com 6/2)
Convergent Smartscreen
SanDisk, TDK and Intel are just a few of the companies introducing new solid-state drives — which are more energy-efficient and tougher than hard-disk drives — at this week’s computer show in Taiwan. The drives are proving especially popular in small computers and smartphones such as the Eee PC and Apple iPhone, with Asus introducing a 40GB version for its upgraded Eee, double its original size. (CNET 6/2)
