Filed under: Feature | Tags: Art Start, Bellagio, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Daily Marauder, Fountain, Home and Garden, Jump, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Nevada, NYC
JUMP!! 3: BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN NYC
Go on the third edition of Jump!! For a quick rewind on the genesis of the project, click here.
Location
This time around, we gathered at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for a new take on jumping in front of art. Art, otherwise known as nature. We also took one photo down the block in front of the Brooklyn Museum of Art in the shadow of the water fountains. Possessed by a desire to cool off after an hour of jumping, Kirstin and Cynthia took to the water fountains designed by WET Design, creators of the fountains at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
We were also joined by our friends from Art Start, an award-winning organization empowering at-risk children and teens through art. Let’s get our jump on y’all.
The Video
For more, click here to view the Flickr stream.
Check out previous editions:
Jumpers & Photo Credits:
Kelly Browne
Kissenia Chara
Mary Cunningham
Kirstin Knezevich
Ivan Oh
Cynthia Singiser
Rasheen Williams
Additional Thanks:
Aaron Ipsa, Johanna de Los Santos, Kiran Paranjpe, Allison Reimus, & Art Start
Jumping Links:
Live it loud.
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Arts, HBO, NBC Sports, NBC Sunday Night Football, NFL, NFL on NBC, Sports, Steve Rubell
The NFL and NBC Sports will announce a deal today to stream 17 regular season (mostly Sunday night) match-ups live on NBC.com beginning with the season opener on Sept. 4, reports The WSJ. The move, brought by the league to NBC, is being described as an experiment to lure new viewers and engage current fans with interactive elements including multiple live camera angles and up-the-minute fantasy stats. The NFL, careful to protect broadcast contracts that will earn more than $3.7 billion this year, has been the last of the major U.S. sporting leagues to embrace the web as a distribution medium. (Cynopsis 7/28)
Tell Me You Love Me from HBO Entertainment and Pariah will not return to HBO for a second after Cynthia Mort, the show’s creator/executive producer said the show is having problems finding its direction. The first season of ten episodes ran last fall and HBO quickly picked up a second season after the fourth episode aired in October. (Cynopsis 7/28)
A new scripted drama series is coming to Showtime – Studio, produced by MRC, is a fictional drama set in the 1970s at the infamous Studio 54 nightclub in NYC. The only character in the show based on a real person will be that of the club’s founder, Steve Rubell. According to THR, the show begins in the months leading up to the club’s opening in April 1977. (Cynopsis 7/28)
In its first sign of solidarity in months SAG members voted unanimously to reject the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers‘ latest new media proposal on Saturday, presented to the actors guild as a “final offer” earlier in the month. The AMPTP issued a statement in response saying the refusal means actors will continue to have to work indefinitely under the previous contract – expired as of June 30 – which includes no residuals for ad-supported streaming, made-for-new media programs or reuse of clips online. (Cynopsis 7/28)
A restructuring by General Electric left the global conglomerate with four distinct business segments, but the corporate construction of NBC Universal was left unchanged. NBCU, which owns several top cable networks, has been the subject of growing speculation that GE would try to sell the company soon after the Summer Olympics. (
ClipSyndicate/Bloomberg 7/25, Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg 7/26, Broadcasting & Cable 7/26)
The 15 largest ad-supported cable networks are having “a normal, solid cable summer,” said Mediavest’s John Spiropoulos, “and the premieres of many of their major scripted series have exceeded last year’s numbers.” USA Network’s “Monk,” for instance, recently premiered with 16% more viewers than last summer, and TNT’s “The Closer” debuted with 500,000 more people watching. (Mediaweek 7/28)
The Comcast Media Center has announced the addition of 14 high-definition channels from eight programming groups to the company’s HITS service. The new channels include History, Animal Planet, ABC Family, Lifetime Movie and USA. (Multichannel News 7/27)
According to an offer from Comcast, newcomers to the company’s “Triple Play” of digital cable, VOIP service, and high-speed internet will also be able to bag an honest-to-goodness Nintendo Wii on their way out the door. Sure, you’ve got to sign a two-year contract (à la mobile telco policy), but you’ll also walk away with a console that still can’t be found on a lot of store shelves. (http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/28/comcast-offering-a-free-wii-to-new-triple-play-subscribers 7/28)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Google, Google search, Googlers, Netflix, News and Media, Search Engines, Searching, Web search engine
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Search engine Cuil launched earlier this evening, claiming a bigger index size (120 billion web pages) than Google or any other search engine. The pedigree of the founders and execs, which includes three ex senior Googlers, means the service will be compared to Google from day one. And the way they will be compared is index size and, more importantly, relevance/ranking of results. Techcrunch has been testing the engine for the last hour. Based on their test queries Cuil is an excellent search engine, particularly since it is all of an hour old. But it doesn’t appear to have the depth of results that Google has, despite their claims. And the results are not nearly as relevant. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/27/google-beats-cuil-hands-down-in-size-and-relevance-but-that-isnt-the-whole-story 7/27)
In my own search tests, I also found the results less than Google-relevant in three attempts. I’m also not quite a fan of the visual search results. Perhaps, I’m just too used to the Google search results or perhaps Google search results are easier to scan through.
Netflix, which attracted 168,000 new customers during the second quarter, plans to stick with its current subscription models for movie rentals. “We don’t plan to enter the pay-per-view segment, where Apple, Amazon, Sony and others focus, or the ad-supported segment, where Hulu, YouTube and others compete,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said. “Both of those segments will likely be substantial, but our subscription segment will also be large and will provide Netflix plenty of room for growth.” (The Hollywood Reporter 7/25, Los Angeles Times/Associated Press 7/26)
Emboldened by Optimedia’s new Power Ratings survey that combines TV, streaming, iTunes purchases, and mobile viewing, The CW has changed its mind and decided to once again stream episodes of Gossip Girl on its web site. Gossip Girl ranks as the #15 on TV when factoring in multiple platforms and other intangibles. (Cynopsis 7/28)
Someone still needs to do something about the completely intolerable CW site but for this above, I am thankful. Now seriously, can someone work on making the site intuitive and simple in use. I think it’s a testament to how obsessed fans are with this show (present company included) that they would be willing to inflict CW.com on themselves.
CBS Interactive unveiled a new CBS HD Gallery on CBS.com containing clips and a few full episodes from a dozen of its prime time shows. You can check out clips from 6 new fall shows: The Mentalist, Eleventh Hour, Worst Week, Harper’s Island, The Ex List and Gary Unmarried there as well. Intel is sponsoring the offering to promote its Centrino mobile technology. (Cynopsis 7/28)
Jimmy Fallon, who will take Conan O’Brien’s place on NBC’s Late Night next year after Jay Leno leaves The Tonight Show, will hone his skills online in 5-10 minute segments beginning in the fall, reported the New York Times. (Cynopsis 7/28)
To promote the latest collection of short stories by Stephen King CBS Corp.’s Simon & Schuster is introducing a series of daily animated shorts on iTunes and Amazon.com today produced by Marvel Entertainment. A season pass for the Stephen King’s N, one of the stories in the Just After Sunset anthology, can be had for the economical price of $3.99 for 25 episodes. Click here to download an embeddable widget that will automatically deliver an ad-supported version of each episode for free. (Cynopsis 7/28)
Click the image below for the first episode. It’s like a cheesy version of The Ring but the artwork is amazing. And to try to redeem my snarkiness, here lies one very well coordinated widget strategy.
A new website called GoAnimate.com launched at Comic-Con enabling novice users to create their own cartoons using a simple menu-based interface. A new deal will also allow users to create reels with characters under the Entertainment Rights umbrella of licenses including Underdog, Richie Rich and Mr. Magoo. To kick things off (and attract talented animators) GoAnimate is hosting a contest looking for original creations, dangling $5,000 for the top-judged entry and $2,500 for the most popular entry. (Cynopsis 7/28)
Hulu is attacking that sizeable segment of the market that’s never heard of the service by unveiling a new Widget Gallery to help spread the word and remind loyal users to check back often for new shows. A selection of embeddable players allow users to queue and track featured, recently added or most popular videos from a number of environments including Facebook, Netvibes and Piczo. Hulu.com also began streaming its first soap opera – Guiding Light – on July 25 and will debut two other TeleNext Media shows As The World Turns today and Another World on July 29. (Cynopsis 7/28)
Microsoft is working with producer Peter Safran (Scary Movie, Meet The Spartans) to create a series of comedic shorts for free distribution on the 12 million member Xbox Live platform, directed by leading horror film directors including James Wan (Saw) and Marcus Nispel (Texas Chainsaw Massacre.) The 10-minute shorts, which will also be available on MSN and Zune, are actually pilots that could be developed into full blown online series, according to Microsoft. (Cynopsis 7/28)
NBCU’s Sci Fi Network announced a slate of new online programming (including another series of ten Battlestar Galactica webisodes) as well as a new stand-alone entertainment site based on the entertainment news section SCI FI WIRE, expected to launch during Q4. Sci Fi also plans to launch a new social network in the fall based around Ghost Hunters where users can share their favorite ghost stories and gear. The recently redesigned SciFi.com just finished its best quarter ever in terms of uniques (3.4MM), visits (5.7MM), page views (36.8MM) and video streams (5.2MM). (Cynopsis 7/28)
From the indefatigable vertical women’s online network Glam Media comes the Glam Application Platform, aka “Atako,” designed to allow developers to build apps and share in revenue generated when their apps are used by Glam’s 77 million monthly readers. For instance the GlamTV app lets publishers embed video accompanied by brand advertising, revenue from which is shared between publisher, video provider and content owner. The open source platform, currently in private beta, even has its own embeddable Glam Apps Store. (Cynopsis 7/28)
Short form videos still dominate online viewing, according to a new study conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates & Metacafe. The online survey, which looked at the habits of 2,000 users aged 12-64, identified Comedy (37%), music videos (36%), UGC (33%), news (31%) and movie trailers (28%) as the top 5 short form categories. Other findings include:
- 50% of respondents watch online video weekly
- 11% watch online video daily
- 28% of those who watch online videos report watching less TV as a result
- 19% of online video users report regularly sharing a link to a video with someone else
Facebook, LinkedIn and Imeem were the big gainers in Nielsen Online’s latest social networking rankings. Facebook added over 12 million new users during the last year, but it still trails industry leader MySpace by 20 million users, whose growth was almost perfectly flat. (Cynopsis 7/28)
Top 10 Social Networking Sites – June 2008
Site June-08 UA (000) June-07 UA (000) YOY Growth
Myspace.com 59,482 59,722 0%
Facebook 29,226 16,547 77%
Classmates Online 15,451 11,589 33%
LinkedIn 9,566 3,335 187%
Windows Live Spaces 8,546 7,825 9%
Reunion.com 7,481 4,098 83%
AOL Hometown 5,539 6,847 -19%
Club Penguin 4,347 4,218 3%
Flixster 3,662 2,626 39%
Imeem 3,558 1,603 122%
Source: Nielsen Online
Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: Apple, Apple Store, Handhelds, iPhone, iPhone 3G, IPod classic, iPod Touch, Smartphones
Apple may be looking to get a jump on last week’s criticisms over the iPhone 3G. The company has reportedly released iPhone firmware 2.1 to its beta developers that fixes known flaws and adds new features to recently released iPhone 3G. (http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/007347.html 7/28)
“Dexter,” Showtime’s series about a serial killer who dispatches the bad guys for all the right reasons, is going to be a game on iPhone and iPod Touch. The game, being developed by Showtime and Ecko Games, is expected to be interactive and make use of gesture controls, text messaging and phone calls. (Broadcasting & Cable 7/25)
Apple extended its store hours to try to handle the crushing demand for its new iPhone, but other snags have hurt the company, such as the longer procedure Apple instituted for activating the device that has sent consumers’ waiting times through the roof. A number of Apple stores told potential customers Sunday that they were sold out of the cell phone. (USA TODAY 7/28)
Japanese cell phone carriers have introduced fitness-related services to devices that mimic features found on exercise equipment, such as KDDI’s Au unit, which measures calories burned, steps taken and distance covered. The phones incorporate motion-sensor technology with GPS tracking to monitor and store workout information for later analysis on a computer. Network (World/IDG News Service 7/28)
Filed under: GAMING | Tags: 3D computer graphics, Casual game, GAME, Gamer, Massively multiplayer online game, Minigame, Moondo, Video game
Today sees the launch of Moondo, a new gaming “world” that is trying to merge the best parts of MMOs and the casual games that litter the web. The Moondo world is comprised of a number of multiplayer minigames that feature 3D graphics that rival those seen on most MMOs. Each minigame is intended to require only about 15-20 minutes, though they include multiple levels that should keep gamers satisfied for hours at a time. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/27/moondo-fuses-casual-gaming-with-massively-multiplayer-games 7/27)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Amazon Kindle, E Ink, E Ink Corporation, Esquire, Ford Flex, Hardware, KDDI, Peripherals
TECHNOLOGY
As part of its 75th anniversary the October issue of Esquire will be the first magazine ever to embed a revolutionary digital technology – electronic paper – into a mass-produced print product. When the issue appears on newsstands in September, words and images will scroll across the flexible electronic paper display cover developed in partnership with the Ford Flex Crossover and electronic paper display creator E Ink Corporation. Ford will feature its Ford Flex on the inside cover utilizing the same E Ink Vizplex flexible display technology in a double-page advertisement. E Ink, which also worked on Amazon’s Kindle eBook, will produce a run of 100,000 issues with the special cover. (Cynopsis 7/28)
Pantel is planning a three-model line of mirror TVs designed for the outdoors or in bathrooms, showers and saunas, according to the company. The 20-, 32- and 42-inch sets are water-resistant and double as mirrors when turned off. (TWICE 7/25)
Japanese cell phone carriers have introduced fitness-related services to devices that mimic features found on exercise equipment, such as KDDI’s Au unit, which measures calories burned, steps taken and distance covered. The phones incorporate motion-sensor technology with GPS tracking to monitor and store workout information for later analysis on a computer. (Network World/IDG News Service 7/28)
