September 7, 2008
Google Turned 10. Inrterview of the company's first employee
Google turned 10 this week. Fun to remember way back then.
And on the BBC in video, an interview of Google's first employee, Craig Silverstein.
September 6, 2008
Microsoft explains the Jerry Seinfeld ad -- it's about nothing!
The new Microsoft commercial, featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates out discount shoe shopping, was unveiled Thursday night on TV. Today it's near the top of YouTubee's most viewed list, and many of those viewers are leaving a trail of rancorous confusion all over the Web. People are asking, nay, demanding to know what the minute-and-a-half-long spot is trying to convey. The La Times reports.
Seemingly anticipating the lack of enthusiasm, Microsoft offered an explanation for the commercial:
After seeing the new ad from Microsoft, which debuted today, some may wonder what Jerry Seinfeld helping Bill Gates pick out a new pair of shoes has to do with software. The answer, in the classic Seinfeld sense of the word, is nothing. Nevertheless, the spot is the first and most visible sign of an ambitious effort by Microsoft's Windows business to reconnect with consumers around the globe
The post went on to explain that the campaign will show how Windows "has become an indispensable part of the lives of a billion people around the globe," not just on their PCs but also now online and via mobile devices."
[via TV Tattle]
A New View On TV
It didn't take long after America started tuning in to television that people started to worry about what it was doing to children.
"... In 1977 a panel appointed by the College Entrance Examination Board suggested television bore some blame for the drop in SAT scores. Indeed, the decline began in the mid-1960s, just as the first students heavily exposed to TV took their exams.
"But University of Chicago Graduate School of Business economists Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro aren't sure that TV has been all that bad for kids. In a paper published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics this year, they presented a series of analyses that showed that the advent of television might actually have had a positive effect on children's cognitive ability."
Read full article in the WSJ.
The new Joost: Like Hulu but social
OM broke the news yesterday, that peer-to-peer startup Joost, in a major shift to the company’s strategy, is going to stop making its desktop client, opting for a browser-only option. Most of its content is going to be available through a browser-based player - with content discovery more socially oriented.
Liz Gannes tried it out and gives a full review on NewTeeVee.
September 5, 2008
The sibling rivalry between TV and the web: Peter Hirshberg on TED.com
Speaking at the 2007 EG conference, Peter Hirshberg offers an absorbing look at emerging media and tech history. He shares some crucial lessons from Silicon Valley and explains why the web is so much more than "better TV."
[via TED]
19% of U.S. Households Watch Online
“Nearly one-fifth” of American Internet households watch TV broadcasts online, double the viewership from 2006, according to latest research from The Conference Board and TNS Mmarket Research.
"In its study of 10,000 households, TNS and the Conference Board found that of those who watch TV online, 43 percent tune into the news, the most popular category. Thirty-nine percent watch drama shows, 34 percent sitcom/comedy shows, 23 percent reality shows, 16 percent sports, and 15 percent user-generated content."
[via NewTeeVee]
Seinfeld and Gates pair up for intense shoe-fitting session, cryptic advertisement
To counter Apple's popular "Get a Mac" ads, Gates and Seinfeld made their television pair-up debut last night.
The campaign is said to be based on the idea of "Windows, Not Walls," stressing the need to "break down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting."
[via engadget]
Michael Moore plans Net-only film premiere
Filmmaker Michael Moore plans to premiere his latest documentary exclusively on the Internet for free, forgoing the traditional theatrical release.
Slacker Uprising, which documents Moore's 62-city tour through swing states during the 2004 U.S. presidential election to rally young voters, will be available for download for three weeks beginning September 23.
A DVD of the 97-minute film will be released on October 7 through Amazon and Netflix.
[via cnet news]
September 4, 2008
HBO puts Entourage characters on social network
Not to be outdone by Mad Men twittering, HBO has placed various fictional characters from TV show Entourage" on location-based social network Whrrl. cnet news reports.
"Events from the television show will end up as annotated items on a href="http://www.whrrl.com/entourage">Whrrl's user-generated map. You can subscribe to whichever of the characters you want, and each of their items go into your central friends feed along with regular users who are providing "real" ratings and locational bookmarks. As the series progresses, locations seen on the show will continue to be placed on the map."
[via The Raw Feed]
Blood-red splatter for a "Dexter"-inspired dining room
Metropolitan Home magazine and Showtime Networks are collaborating to create a "showhome" featuring the network's programs as interpreted by some of the country's top interior designers and brands. Adage reports.
"Each designer is using Showtime's slate of original prime-time programming -- including "Dexter," "Californication" and "The L-Word" -- as inspiration to redesign telecom mogul Michael Hirtenstein's Gramercy Park home. Think an "L-Word" boudoir or white latex walls with blood-red splatter for a "Dexter"-inspired dining room.
... The house will be open to the public for tours from Sept. 13 to Oct. 26. Proceeds from the $25 entrance fee will benefit Happy Hearts Fund, a nonprofit children's charity founded by model Petra Nemcova. "
[via TV Tattle]
Sarah Palin's Remarks at the GOP Convention
Remarks by Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin to the 2008 Republican National Convention - including an introduction of her family. Children; Track, Trig, Bristol, Willow and Piper and husband Todd, a world champion snow machine champion.
Fascinating.
Amazon extends its paid video service to streaming
NewTeeVee reports that "Amazon has extended its paid video service to streaming, Macs, and compatible Sony BRAVIA devices and televisions.
"Amazon Video On Demand beats iTunes on TV because it has NBC, and it beats Hulu on movies because it has far more of them. Netflix’s movie service, meanwhile, only provides streaming for PCs."
European and other-than-US-connecting-viewers are once again left out in the cold, here's the message I get (from Switzerland) when trying to stream a Dr House episode.
Student Sentenced to Death For Downloading an Article
A 23-year-old student in Afghanistan is currently sitting on death row because he downloaded an article on women's roles in Islam on the Internet. Seen as blasphemy, the young man now faces death.
A video worth spreading to hopefully stop something unfathomnable.
[via Geek Sugar]
September 3, 2008
Google Chrome fueling demo frenzy on YouTube
Google's newly released browser Chrome is fueling a video-demo frenzy on YouTube.
September 2, 2008
A Marketing Move the ‘Mad Men’ Would Love
Some people who use Twitter are posing as characters in their favorite shows. Notably, there is an unusually active group of people whose screen names are from the AMC television show “Mad Men,” and they have been posting updates in the characters’ voices. The New York Times reports.
"... For instance, the Twitter version of Don Draper, the creative director for a circa-1960s advertising agency, adheres rather closely to his television persona. “Heading into a meeting with @Roger_Sterling,” the user wrote on Wednesday, referring to Mr. Draper’s television boss.
Mr. Draper’s virtual self has nearly 2,000 followers on the Web site. There are also Twitter accounts in the names of Mr. Sterling and Peggy Olson, as well as other characters from the series.
Whether AMC approves or disapproves of the “Mad Men” characters on Twitter — or is indeed playing a role in a good publicity stunt — is unclear. Last Monday, Twitter suspended several of the accounts in the names of “Mad Men”.
Related: - Mad Men obsessives Twitter away
Other innovative way of using Twitter: - Authors experiment with twiller as new writing medium
Hulu Launches Fall Lineup, Premieres Before TV Broadcast
Hulu on Tuesday announced that it has launched its Fall Premiere Lineup, which over the next seven weeks, will be the place to find season premieres of Prison Break, Bones, House, Heroes, The Office and 30 Rock.
To build up the hype around new shows or those in their second season, Hulu will also debut the first episode of Knight Rider, Lipstick Jungle, Chuck and Life, one week before they air on broadcast television.
[via TechCrunch]
YouTube on the intranet: Google Video for business launched
Companies making use of Google Apps as part of their business operations can now share videos within an organization without having to upload them to YouTube or another video sharing service. [via ars technica]
"Google introduced Google Video for business today, which allows businesses to upload a video to Google Apps, then invite others to view it securely without having to worry about messing with privacy settings.
The feature is already available for enterprises making use of Google's services, and will soon come to education customers, as well. "
September 1, 2008
Top TV series premier schedules
Top TV series premier schedules. Count 1-3 days more for availability on video sharing websites.
Gossip Girl premieres September 1st
Prison Break premieres September 1st
The Shield premieres September 2nd
Heroes premieres September 22nd
Lipstick Jungle premieres September 24th
Criminal Minds premieres September 24th
Ugly Betty premieres September 25th
Grey's Anatomy premieres September 25th
Dexter premieres September 28th
Californication premieres September 28th
Desperate Housewives premieres September 28th
Pushing Daisies premieres October 1st
CSI premieres October 9th
30 Rock premieres October 30
Both Mad Men Season 2 and Weeds Season 4 are back already.
Ex-girlfriend strips for YouTube revenge
Angry girlfriends are finding the perfect way to shame their love rat exes - on YouTube.
The craze for publicly humiliating cheating boyfriends has reached new heights, with hundreds of postings on the video sharing website.
[via Metro]
For Web TV, a Handful of Hits but No Formula for Success
Producing Web content may be easy but profiting from it is hard. While a small number of writers, producers and actors are making a living with webisodes, they are still a long way from establishing the form alongside television and feature films. The newfound industry lacks clear business models and standardized formats. And so far, it also lacks audiences.
[via The New York Times]
CW's Shows Go Mobile
The CW offering includes full episodes and short clips of all its series. AdWeek reports.
"CW TV offering includes full episodes and short clips of all its shows, including America's Next Top Model and Gossip Girl. Episodes run between two to five minutes
The only exception is Smallville, due to a contractual syndication agreement that precludes the network from incorporating it into the lineup."
Cable Quietly Introduces On-Demand YouTube Rival
Seeking to compete with the immediacy of the Internet and slow the movement of advertising dollars online, cable operators are using a little-known political channel to offer an alternative to sites such as YouTube. All Headline News reports.
"Elections '08 On Demand is the first product of Conoe Ventures, a project of six cable companies, including Comcast, Time Warner and Cox Communications. The goal is to entice advertisers with better way to guage who is watching and the effectiveness of their promotions."
August 31, 2008
After the Curtain Falls, the Web Gets Into the Act
Theater is the ephemeral art -- except, that is, when it's bootlegged on YouTube. The Washington Post reports.
You can't actually watch Broadway's "Jersey Boys" online, and you can't balm the sorrow of missing out on "The Lion King" by downloading its majestic parades and anthems. Theater isn't the movies, and digital piracy isn't the kind of billion-dollar threat that has plagued Hollywood for years.
Still, Broadway is hardly turning a blind eye to what is being dubbed, for contract purposes, "new media."
August 28, 2008
Veoh Copyright Case Dismissed
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that video-sharing service Veoh Networks Inc. isn't liable for copyright infringement for material that was uploaded to its Web site, dismissing a 2006 case filed against it by Io Group Inc., an adult-entertainment production company.
Sony unveils world's thinnest LCD HDTV - 9.9mm KDL-40ZX1
Sony has come out with the thinnest LCD HDTV. At just 9.9mm thick the KDL-40ZX1 nearly halves the depth of Hitachi's former champ.
[via engadget]
A rap on particle physics is a YouTube hit
A rap video of the European Organization for Nuclear Research's (CERN's) Large Hadron Collider is a hit on YouTube, reports USA Today">USA Today.
The unlikely hit on YouTube (over 400,000 views so far) is the brainchild of Kate McAlpine, 23, who used to work in the press office of CERN, where they are about to power up the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on Sept. 10.
The rap should dispel some misconceptions - "Nobody wears lab coats." - and make LHC's mission and method more accessible to the masses through music."
August 27, 2008
'Entourage' pairs with Virgin Airlines
This is wild, to promote the fifth season of Entourage, airing September 7, a JFK to Vegas flight will be renamed after the HBO show. Variety reports.
"HBO has paired with Virgin America to rebrand the airline's flight from New York's John F. Kennedy Intl. Airport to Las Vegas as "Entourage Air" throughout September.
Effort promotes the fifth season of "Entourage". At the same time, HBO programming becomes available on all Virgin America planes as part of a licensing deal that runs through October 2009."
New Dexter
Readying the launch of it’s promotional push for the premiere of Dexter’s third season on September 28th, Showtime has concocted their own mock cover of The New Yorker, replacing the usual masthead to trumpet “New Dexter,” accompanied by a wonderful cartoon likeness of the smiley slayer portrayed by Michael C. Hall.
[via Josh Spear]
YouTube screens 'No End' docu
Filmmaker Charles Ferguson is bringing his documentary No End in Sight to YouTube. [The Hollywood Reporter]
"An Oscar nominee for best feature-length documentary and winner of a special jury prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, "No End" casts a critical eye on the decisions made during the early months of the war in Iraq.
Between Sept. 1 and Nov. 4, the film will screen in its entirety on YouTube, becoming the first widely released feature film to play in full on the site."
August 26, 2008
Flight attendants on in-flight porn usage
According to CrunchGear, as in-flight internet becomes more widespread, watching porn has become a popular choice on those long and lonely flights.
"A few airlines have taken the issue upon themselves to lock down certain themed sites but that doesn’t rule out already downloaded material. Then other airlines, such as American Airlines, are offering unfiltered service and thus leaving the discretion up to the user — and flight attendants."
[via CrunchGear. Image from Airliners.net]