A least one movie studio has seen the future, and in early May, is going to offer film downloads that will burnable to DVDs which will be easily watchable on your TV.
That studio: Vivid Video, one of the leading producers of hardcore porn.
Video iPod Delay Not Such A Bad Thing For Apple
There have been reports in the last week or so that Apples “true” video iPod — the one where the entire front part of the player was both a viewscreen and a track wheel — has been substantially delayed.
Once rumoured for release as possibly as soon as this month, it looks more like Q4 this year is a more realistic release date. Sure, while product delays are often met with predictions of outright disaster — hello HD-DVD! — in this case, I think it’s actually a case of where a outwardly bad situation will pay off dividends down the road.
[Read more…] about Video iPod Delay Not Such A Bad Thing For Apple
The Weekly ‘Loper – April 16, 2006
While you were recovering from taking part in the final battles in the War on Easter, and already planning your renewed assault on Christmas, here’s what we were looking at:
- When Good Things Happen To Good Television – Kassia discovers Scrubs. The rest of us (especially the ones who discovered it last year) wonder what took so long.
- Don’t Look Back: Start Over Might Be Gaining On You – Time-Warner’s “Start Over” might be a little bit too appropriately named: they want us to start over at the beginning of TV, when there was no way to fast-forward through commercials.
- Apple Does Windows – Big Deal (maybe) – Apple’s latest method of getting people to switch involves putting XP on a Mac. So they prove how sucky XP is to people who already believe that it’s sucky? Hey Apple, you want more people to purchase your machines? Lower your prices!!!!!
A Quick Peek Inside The Amazon Digital Locker
So right now I’m listening to the new Drive-by Truckers album, A Blessing and A Curse, which doesn’t come out until this Tuesday, April 18th. I’m also listening to a perfectly legal, paid-for version of the album. So how is that possible? It’s a bonus — a bit of a thank-you from Amazon to me for purchasing the physical CD. They just directed me to a feature of the online giant I hadn’t yet used: my Digital Locker.
[Read more…] about A Quick Peek Inside The Amazon Digital Locker
That’s What I Like: Veronica Mars
To inaugurate our new weekly column — all about things that we really really like, OK love — I thought that I would choose something obvious, something that I’ve been raving about for well over a year: the best show on (broadcast) TV, Veronica Mars.
Best show? Yes. And, despite that, it’s probably going away. Even though it’s pretty much garnered nothing but critical raves from the moment it debuted, the ratings have been abysmal. For example, for the week of April 3-9, it was ranked 122nd, which means that only 2.85 million viewers watched Logan accidentally execute Weevil’s revenge against Thumper. Ka-boom!
And if you don’t know what the hell that meant, I’ve got some reasons why you really should.
Where Have All The Howard’s (Fans) Gone?
A recent article in the LA Times asked the question: where have all of Howard Stern’s listeners gone? As Howard himself complained to Entertainment Weekly, not enough have followed him to Sirius, and as the early ratings have shown, many didn’t stick around to listen to Adam Carolla or David Lee Roth.
I can’t speak for the 9,999,999 listeners who didn’t go to Sirius, but as a Stern detractor who became a listener who became a fan over the past decade, I can tell you why I didn’t go to Sirius and why I’m probably not helping Adam Carolla’s ratings.
Number 3 With A Pound Key
In what is nearly the polar opposite of U.S. record labels trying to goose album sales by not releasing singles for downloads, the U.K. music industry is releasing a cell-phone only single.
That’s right: a cell-phone only single. “Stop Me,” by Planet Funk. Can anybody say “Publicity Stunt”??
Don’t Look Back: Start Over Might Be Gaining On You
Time-Warner Cable, who seem to be at forefront of trying new things with cable programming, are expanding their “Start Over” service beyond their original test market in South Carolina.
In and of itself, “Start Over” is a pretty good idea: if you’re flipping around, and you find a show that you’ve missed the first few minutes of, you can use this service to watch that show from the beginning.
There is a catch, however: you cannot fast-forward through commercials.
Here is my reasoned analysis of that limitation:
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[Read more…] about Don’t Look Back: Start Over Might Be Gaining On You
The Weekly ‘Loper – April 9, 2006
While you were busy rationalizing leaking classified information in order to embarass your critics, here are some of the things that we’ve been covering on Medialoper in the past week or so:
- The Prism DuroSport 6000 – Worst Digital Audio Player Ever! – The controversial review that put the heretofore little-known DuroSport Electronics company on the map. Considering their response to our reviews of their player and accessories, I have a feeling that we haven’t heard the last of them.
- Why People Download Shared Music – The thought process, broken into four easy steps! Also: The Replacements!!
- Piracy, Perks, and DRM – How buying used CDs hurts artists. The solution: no more physical promo copies, and DRM for downloadable promotional music. Whaaaa?
- Why People Steal Movies – At least partially because the much-touted movie downloads are more hat than cattle at this point.
- Why Google Music Won’t Matter – iTunes has the lead, and the only way to really break that lead is to offer something different to the consumer by doing things that the Music Industry doesn’t like. Different things, BTW, than the things that iTunes is already doing to piss the Music Industry off.
- Podcasting Versus Fundraising: The Public Radio Challenge – How podcasts can help public radio stations build audiences who will give during fundraising.
Life in the Medium Lane
One of Stephen Colbert’s recent running jokes has been that he’s all bought into the current Sopranos hype, but that he’s only watching it on DVD. So he’s always talking about how Big Pussy is his favorite character.
So when a recent Slate article discussed the travails of someone who purposely didn’t subscribe to HBO, but waited for the DVDs, it made me think about how difficult it is for us to even wait a full day to watch our tivoed episodes of Lost and Veronica Mars, much less weeks, months or even years.