Filed under: Feature, TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Business, CE, Digital Downtown, Dr. Dre, Ferrari, Makes and Models, Meridian, Monster, NYC, Panasonic, Recreation, Shopping, Speaker, World Financial Center
DROP IT LIKE IT’S HOT: THE DIGITAL DOWNTOWN EXPERIENCE
So, being that Father’s Day is coming up (this Sunday for those oblivious), I thought I would give you my favorite picks from Digital Downtown closing tomorrow at the World Financial Center in NYC. The only problem: some of these aren’t even released yet. No worries. Give dad an I.O.U.
For the Car/Audio Enthusiast
Designed in collaboration with Ferrari, this little speaker is by no means little in sound. Here’s the story as I heard it. The President of Ferrari owned and loved a set of Meridian speakers to the degree that he sought out a brand partnership in creating a new line with Meridian, the F80. This speaker pumps out 80 watts of power through two front-mounted speakers and one rear subwoofer. Now, I have no idea what watts translate to in sound but in hearing it live, I can tell you, it sounded pretty amazing. The speakers include a built-in DVD/CD player along with the prerequisite FM/AM radio, a connector for your iPod, and connections for almost any video display.
The back:
Available in (no surprise) classic Ferrari colors:
The cost:
$2995
Yup, you better really love dad on this one. I definitely think the price is over-bearing. Paying extra for a Ferrari logo seems like a waste of money. That said, I still must say, these speakers drowned out the rest of the noise at Digital Downtown while not submitting to sound loss and that’s saying something. If still interested, purchase here. Don’t worry. Given the wad you’re throwing down, dad won’t mind if it’s late.
For the Movie-Theatre-in-Your-Home-Lover
If you’re watching this…
…then you really want one of these.
This LCD projector produces a stunning 1080p picture with impeccable contrast and brightness. If dad is too lazy to venture out to the local teenager-infested movieplex, give him the theatre experience at home. With this, he definitely won’t know the difference. Unfortunately, the sex scenes will still be unbelievably awkward when watched with your dad, perhaps even more so at home.
Price
$3499
Release Date
July 7th 2008 (IOU time)
When released, you can purchase directly from Panasonic here or search out a dealer.
For the Audiophile in a Mid-Life Crisis
For the dad who wants to be young again, here are the headphones. Designed by Monster in coordination with Dr. Dre, I have NEVER in my life heard bass in a pair of headphones like the sound produced in these. And being a former radio/club DJ, I’ve heard quite a few headphones in my day. . .when I was actually cool. Your dad can blast Kanye as loud as he wants.
These look cool and sound even better.
Price
$399
Release Date
July/August 2008 (IOU time)
These three are all way cool but below is my tested and approved Father’s Day Gift. This one always wins and the best part, it can be delivered immediately.
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Arts, Heidi Fleiss, Michael Kors, New York, New York Fashion Week, Nina Garcia, Project Runway, Tim Gunn
Project Runway sashays down the catwalk one more time on Bravo as season five begins July 16 in a new time period at 9p. Heidi Klum continues as host along with Tim Gunn as mentor to the contestants. Both Nina Garcia and Michael Kors will judge the 16 designers as they each hope to be among the finalist showing their creations at New York Fashion Week. After this fifth season on Bravo, Project Runway moves to Lifetime Television for Season #6. (Cynopsis 6/13)
A documentary on Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss — “Heidi Fleiss: The Would-Be Madam of Crystal” — and a drama built around a Latino nightclub in New York are among the latest projects announced by HBO. “Empire” writer Franc Reyes is developing the “Palladium” nightclub drama, while other projects in the works include adaptations of two British series, “Sensitive Skin,” starring Kim Cattrall, and “Bad Girls.” Multichannel News (6/12) , The Hollywood Reporter (6/13)
Featuring interviews with cast members and creator Matthew Weiner, “The Best of Mad Men Season One” will be televised at 11:30 a.m. Sunday on AMC. The special, which will also include the cast’s favorite scenes and on-set capers, heralds the series’second season, which debuts July 27. TVWeek.com (6/12)
Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and recent 2008 GOP presidential candidate, signed on to Fox News Channel’s America’s Election HQ program as a regular contributor. (Cynopsis 6/13)
ESPN announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Student Sports, Inc., a premier high school-focused digital media and event production company based in Torrance, Calif. (Cynopsis 6/13)
By the end of 2008, nearly seven in 10 U.S. households will own a DTV set, compared with 50% at the close of last year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. The group also found nearly 75% of U.S. consumers know about the pending DTV switch, compared with 41% two years ago. TVWeek.com (6/12)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: AdSense, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Time Warner, Yahoo, Yahoo-Google
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Yahoo announced it has ended talks with Microsoft regarding a sale, citing a meeting on June 8th in which Microsoft claimed it was no longer interested in pursuing the portal. As its share prices tumbled on the news, Yahoo announced a search partnership with Google enabling it to run ads provided by Google AdSense alongside its own search results or on non-search Yahoo web properties. Yahoo says the deal should yield $250-$450 million in the first year and as much as $800/year longer term. At that rate it will take about 15 years to make up for the $12 billion in lost value to shareholders when it first said no to Microsoft at $31/share. (Cynopsis 6/13)
It was sort of inevitable given Facebook’s monster growth over the last few years, but April 2008 was the milestone: Facebook officially caught up to MySpace in terms of unique monthly worldwide visitors, according to data released by Comscore and shown above. Both services are attracting around 115 million people to their respective sites each month. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/12/facebook-no-longer-the-second-largest-social-network 6/12)
Los Angeles based social network MySpace, which has 115 million monthly visitors worldwide (Comscore, April 2008), will be launching a redesign of its site next week. The first phase of the project, internally called “MySpace 2.0,” will launch on Wednesday June 18. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/12/redesign-a-first-step-in-bringing-order-to-the-myspace-chaos 6/12)
The Warner Bros. Television Group unveiled the next step in its digital content strategy, announcing ad-supported broadband video channels for TheWB.com and KidsWB.com to be distributed on a range of outlets from September including DailyMotion, Veoh, Joost, Sling Media and Tivo. The channels give a broader launching pad for its planned original online series beginning with Sorority Forever currently in the works. (Cynopsis 6/13) Mediaweek (6/12)
Comcast’s video site Fancast.com is featuring all 29 episodes of David Lynch’s cult favorite Twin Peaks, and starting Monday Lara Flynn Boyle will write a week-long blog answering questions about her experiences on that show as well as on David E. Kelley’s The Practice. Twin Peaks has enjoyed 9 lives on various channels and platforms over the years, including ABC, Bravo, NBCU’s Chiller and CBS.com. More Friday the 13th viewing on Fancast includes Night Gallery and The Crow: A Stairway to Heaven. (Cynopsis 6/13)
This combined with the article below confirm the Fancast/Hulu wars. I love a good web site deathmatch. Let the games continue. . .
The crew over at Hulu must be gleefully fist-bumping each other this week as Hulu scored a key strategic and public relations coup in adding to its lineup two of Comedy Central’s most popular programs, “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report.” Though officially positioned as a test, Hulu still deserves big-time kudos as the deal is an endorsement of its value proposition. (http://www.videonuze.com/blogs/mobile.php?2008-06-13/Hulu-Out-Executing-Comcast-in-On-Demand-Programming-/&id=1876 6/13)
Facebook announced its second F8 Developer event earlier today, to be held in San Francisco on July 23, 2008. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/13/facebooks-second-f8-developer-conference-announced-how-will-they-top-last-years-facebook-platform-launch 6/13)
Top 10 Search Providers for April 2008, Ranked by Searches (U.S.)
Provider Searches (000) YOY Growth Share of Searches
1. Google 5,109,444 35.4% 62.0%
2. Yahoo! 1,446,410 -3.4% 17.5%
3. MSN/Windows Live 796,038 30.0% 9.7%
4. AOL 352,039 -5.1% 4.3%
5. Ask.com 171,545 35.8% 2.1%
6. My Web 57,057 -16.0% 0.7%
7. Comcast 46,156 31.0% 0.6%
8. AT&T Worldnet 28,059 200.9% 0.3%
9. NexTag 21,996 25.4% 0.3%
10.My Way 16,742 -37.6% 0.2%
Source: Nielsen Online, MegaView Search
Filed under: WIRELESS
The AOL Radio app for the iPhone won for Best Entertainment Application at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference this week, providing users free access to over 350 online radio stations (including 150 local CBS radio stations) and more than 200 AOL Radio channels. Other iPhone App winners:
Best iPhone Game: Enigmo by Pangea Software
Best iPhone Social Networking App: Twitterrific by the Icon Factory
Best iPhone Productivity App: OmniFocus by the Omni Group
Best iPhone Healthcare & Fitness App: MIM from MIMVista
Filed under: GAMING | Tags: Grand Theft Auto IV, Nintendo DS, NPD Group, Playstation 3, Take-Two Interactive Software, Video game, Wii, Xbox 360
Take-Two Interactive Software‘s monster hit “Grand Theft Auto IV” helped drive gaming retail sales up 37% in May to $1.12 billion, according to marketing-research firm NPD Group. Nintendo’s Wii still topped the hardware sales chart, with 675,100 units sold, followed by the company’s DS handheld player, with 452,600 devices sold. It was the fourth month in a row that those two devices have headed the list. Forbes/Associated Press (6/12) , MSNBC/Reuters (6/12)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Blu-ray Disc, DVD, DVD player, High-Definition Multimedia Interface, High-definition television, MP3, Surround sound, Video
Marantz has sent to stores an A/V preamplifier that can send signals to three zones in a house via an Ethernet port and has a built-in digital media player, HDMI 1.3 inputs and 1080p upscaling at a $2,599 recommended price. The company has also introduced a power amp — the MM8003 — that goes with either 7.1 or 5.1 channel systems and provides 140 watts with eight channels at a listed price of $2,399. CEPro.com (6/12)
Panasonic has designed its new SA-BX500 AV receiver with Blu-ray and wireless surround sound in mind as it is compatible with Blu-ray audio codes and HDMI connectivity and supports 7.1 channel virtual surround sound from systems of up to five speakers. The SA-BX500, which will ship in July, also features 7 x 130 watt power output and has three HDMI inputs, six AV plus and full HD 1080p video switching. Pocket-lint.co.uk (6/13)
A portable DVD player that can go from the car to the hotel room, where it may be plugged into the television, is TEAC’s latest offering. The DVP904 features a 9-inch screen, multiple DVD and CD playback options, MP3 playback, an in-car charger and a lithium battery that provides two-and-a-half hours of play time. Current.com.au (6/13)
Sony Corp., Panasonic, Philips and Samsung Electronics have formed the RF4CE Consortium to develop a standardized protocol for radio frequency-based remote controls to operate audiovisual consumer electronics. The goal is to develop controls that offer better communication, reliability and flexibility than the current infrared controllers are capable of providing. finchannel.com (6/13)
Several major consumer electronics and information technology companies have signed binding memorandums of understanding on tru2way technology with the top 6 U.S. MSO’s, including Panasonic, Samsung, Sony Electronics, ADB, Digeo, and Intel. The chip maker plans to build a chip that will support a variety of tru2way devices, including DTVs, set-top-boxes and DVRs. (Cynopsis 6/13)
