Medialoper

We're Not Who You Think We Are

Will The Real Video iPod Please Stand Up

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Rumors are swirling about a new video iPod that may or may not be announced on Apple’s 30th anniversary (April 1st). Think Secret is reporting that the new device will feature a 3.5 inch screen that will take up the entire front of the player. The mechanical click wheel will be dropped entirely in favor of a virtual click wheel that appears when the user touches the screen. The long rumored wireless support will apparently not be built into the new device (you gotta save something for the next iteration after all).

If these rumors are true, the choice of a touch screen interface is particularly interesting considering the grief Apple has gotten over how easily the Nano’s screen scratches. Presumably the new iPod screens will be made out of some super secret scratch resistant material. Perhaps clear titanium.

Here’s the complicated part about all of this speculation. It’s not clear whether this will be the 6th generation iPod or the 5th generation iPod. One line of thinking is that the current 5th generation video iPod is actually just a modified 4th generation iPod. As this line of thinking goes, the current video iPod is not the real deal. The apparently soon to be released video iPod is the true video iPod. Maybe.

Attack of the Hell Phones!!

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Funny piece in Slate about current pop-culture depictions of the evilness (evilosity?) (eviltude?) of cell phones. Both the current #1 New York Times best seller, Steven King’s Cell and the current #1 movie When a Stranger Calls, have cell phones smack dab in the middle of How It All Goes Wrong. Scary!

While a cynic might point out that a new Stephen King novel and a remake of a movie that contributed one of the most-loved movie quotes ever (“The call . . . it’s coming from inside the house!!) might debut at #1 anyways, that misses at least part of the point: a cutural uneasiness that we are possibly becoming a little bit too connected.

On the other hand, the cell phone doesn’t get a total bad rap in all of pop culture: how else could Jack Bauer save the world every single year with out his magic cell phone that allows him to yell “Do it! Now!” for 24 hours straight without ever losing its charge? Now that’s a service plan that I could get behind.

If A Book Doesn’t Need To Be A Book, Why Waste The Paper?

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I am a sucker for radical concepts mixed with a dose of paranoia. Hmm, I wonder why? The Times Online has published an article with a great central thesis (the kind of central thesis that requires ending the paragraph early because I want to let this idea stand alone before getting into what might be the bigger topic):

First, we stop publishing books that needn’t be books. People who don’t really read don’t really need books so let them have Jordan and Becks in lots of other ways. Audio, animated-audio, that is, audio with pictures is just about right for most celebrity publications.

Publishers, someday, you are going to look back at those words and see the beginning of the beginning. Why do all books have to be in printed, bound format? Especially those books designed to capture the pop personality of the moment? These are not books designed to sit on shelves, to be picked up, reread, passed between friends, shared among generations. There are many books that are the literary equivalent of paper napkins. I say start with the genre known as celebrity autobiographies (and I use the prefix “auto” advisedly).

You’re starting to see publishers playing with the traditional book format more and more (see: McSweeney’s Wholphin). Why not take it further — clear the shelves of books that will be remaindered almost before they’re unboxed. You will feel better for it.

Almost immediately after her call to arms, Jeanette Winterson sees the dark cloud, the downside of digitizing rather than printing (I did promise you paranoia):

There are whole teams of bearded computer nerds advertising their services to retrieve ancient pieces of work filed in the 1970s. The discs and machines are obsolete. This will go on being the case. It will be easy for governments to control thought by controlling access to information. Anyone can pick up a book — the 1970s already need specialist knowledge and equipment — so bad luck if you left the key to the universe on a floppy disc the size of a 78rpm record.

This is why Kirk, when he reads this, will argue for the need for open standards when it comes to digitizing the past and the future. Locks and keys and proprietary formats will only make the future more expensive — I’d rather spend my money on new shoes than decrypting the manual that will save the world.

Comedy Central Gets It

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Comedy Central, encouraged by the response to the downloads of their shows on iTunes is taking the next step, and debuting a series on their own broadband channel, MotherLoad, a few months prior to its debut on their linear channel.

The show is a stand-up comedian showcase called Live at Gotham, and it looks like they will record a show one night, and premiere it the next day. Much like rock artists who offer CDs of the show you just attended as you walk out of it.

While Comedy Central’s MotherLoad isn’t a download service, but rather streaming with commercial, this is still a smart idea, because no doubt the popularity of things The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and the eternal South Park, among others, means that every time there is a buzz episode of those shows, they get a ton of traffic. So why not try to create a new hit show with that traffic?

It seems to be a pretty smart strategy: MotherLoad for those who just want to stream and watch and/or iTunes for those want to download and own. And since the multiple broadcasts that cable offers were probably one of the first cracks in the “window” — timeshifing offered by the source of the programmers themselves (and yes I know that it means that they don’t have to create as much content that way, but it also means more choice for me and, presumeably, higher quality from the programmer) — they seem to be on the leading tip of smashing it completely.

Super Ratings

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Despite the supposed lack of glamour teams, this year’s Super Bowl was viewed in more homes than any other event in TV history except for the M*A*S*H finale in 1983. Were the recent articles bemoaning the fact that we don’t have mass entertainment moments anymore wrong? Nah. Fragmentation still rules; popularity is still dying. The Super Bowl is just the exception that makes us question the new rules.

Look. The Super Bowl isn’t really about the game – it’s more about having one more excuse for a party. In a unscientific poll taken at our place on Sunday, only 25% of the people there were interested in the game: the rest were there for the food, friends and fun. Which is fine of course, but makes the Super Bowl more like Christmas or Thanksgiving, just with a dollop of violence, commercials and officiating controversy.

Networks, Reality, and The Internet

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Two years ago — my, how time flies — I was looking at the future, or more specifically, looking at the treatment of revenues and expenses related to Made-for-Internet productions. It was a gray area then, and remains somewhat of a gray area now. There are all sorts of financial issues related to the backend needing to be resolved, but that’s not stopping networks and studios from launching Internet-first productions.

NBC is jumping onto the American Idol bandwagon with a new series called StarTomorrow (in the future, it seems that new series will be camel case rather than separate words, but I’ll let someone else ruminate on that). The series will flow through NBC.com, and while it’s unclear how the weekly voting concept will translate to a time-shifting audience, it’s a worthy experiment for a few key reasons:

“StarTomorrow” will cost about 20 percent of what it would cost to produce for the network; advertisers will also pay less for spots, making it (at least initially easier) to attract their interest (and dollars). More importantly, “StarTomorrow” takes NBC further into the realm of digital entertainment.

By staying in the reality television realm, content producers are likely deferring big backend decisions, but as has been made clear, even reality comes with participations and residuals. It will be interesting to see how this rush to push content online resonates with talent. And, of course, I’ll have thoughts on that issue in the near future.

Showtime Inks First Pay TV/iTunes Deal

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I’m going to be honest — I thought HBO would be the first pay television network (it is no longer a channel) to cut a deal with iTunes. I’m not sure why, but my incorrect belief made today’s announcement of a deal between Showtime and iTunes that much better. Sort of like finding a Tootsie Roll in the middle of a sucker.

The press releases tout the new availability of shows like Sleeper Cell and Weed (which my household hasn’t seen yet, but will surely check out now). We’re also looking forward to seeing the last season of The Chris Isaak Show and other series that we missed due to our decision to limit our pay television cash outlay.

And I would be remiss if I neglected to note that CBS owns the Showtime Network.

iPod Prices Approaching Free

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Apple has just lowered prices on both of its iPod Shuffle models and introduced a new 1GB iPod Nano priced at $149. The company now has a wide range of iPods priced from $69 to $399 – seemingly something for everyone.

As Cringley noted last year, Apple seems to be pursuing the King Gillette Strategy (give away the razor to sell more blades)- although at the time Cringley assumed that Apple had turned the Gillette model on its head by eliminating the loss leader altogether.

With every price cut Apple makes it starts to look more and more like the iPod is becoming the razor and that media sales are turning into the the blades. I’m beginning to wonder how long it will be before Apple releases a free 256mb iPod Shuffle tethered to iTunes.

Given a choice I think I’d take a free iPod over an invisible iPod. Although, for the time being, the free iPod is invisible.

HarperCollins Tries Online Publishing On For Size

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There is growing consensus in the publishing community that certain types of books really lend themselves to online ventures. O’Reilly Media has implemented “Rough Cuts”, where readers can access books about new technology while the manuscripts are being written. In a world where people can master the software before the traditional publishing timeline sends a book to market, this new approach represents both great customer service and increased market share.

HarperCollins, looking, oddly enough, to old media models for inspiration, has launched an advertiser-supported program. Readers get the content for free. Remember when you didn’t have to pay to listen to songs? Think pre-Napster.

Why is this revolutionary? Only because it shouldn’t be. To quote Jane Friedman:

“We hope this pilot will demonstrate a win-win for publishers, authors and search engines. The new era does not need to be a zero sum game,” HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman said Monday in a statement.

It’s a nice article, right up to the point where I remember that journalists seem to have lost the ability to analyze statements:

There has been disagreement in the publishing community over the effects of making material available on the Internet. Some worry about online piracy and about readers simply downloading the text, as opposed to paying for it.

This is where the author neglects to point out that consumers will happily pay for content — if it’s delivered in a manner they can readily use. He also neglects to point out that there are legitimate anti-piracy methods available to publishers. The music industry could never wrap its mind around the idea that consumer desires could co-exist with industry desires; I hope the publishing industry doesn’t make the same mistake.

These are not trivial considerations. No one model will fit all sizes; the key to success in the future is serving the maximum number of consumers in the maximum number of feasible ways. That means not assuming anything about the end user. Because as fond as I am of M.J. Rose (and I am), her statement in this article doesn’t necessarily pass the smell test:

But several writers, including marketer Seth Godin and science fiction author Cory Doctorow, have made a point of offering free content online, believing that it helps sales. M.J. Rose, a marketing expert and author of “Lip Service” among other novels, praised HarperCollins for its “smart” initiative.

“We all know that readers don’t want to read the whole book online,” Rose said. “But as Seth Godin proved with `Unleashing the Idea Virus’ — people will start a book on line and if they get hooked — click over and purchase it.”

There is no proof — mostly because it hasn’t been tested — that readers don’t want to read the whole book online. Currently, online texts don’t have user-friendly features, like bookmarks. If I could bookmark stuff at Project Gutenberg, I would. I might even pay for a “My Project Gutenberg” feature because I access classic literature often enough that it makes sense to me. It might be an innovative way to support a great initiative while providing cool service.

If I were a self-help, non-fiction-of-a-certain-bent (say diet books, for example) person, I’d want to access the whole book online at my convenience. Heck, look at the O’Reilly example. “Rough Cuts” might prove to accelerate the adoption and maturation of many programming techniques (not to mention teaching your mother to work her DVR, if they go in that direction). The key is to remember that each consumer is going to interact with media in a way that works for that particular consumer — it is no longer the right of the content providers to dictate the terms of consumption. The generation behind the generation behind me already has inherent assumptions. That is where publishing should be looking.

Meaning books as we know them won’t die. But books as we know them might become the productions their authors envision. And HarperCollins shouldn’t view one experiment in isolation. They see the future, and it’s not going to be a slam dunk. At first.

Another Week, Another CBS Fiasco

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Here’s what happened while CBS wasn’t trying to make up its mind:

  • Pirates: It Takes One to Know One: Will the music industry read this? Probably not.
  • Survey says: music costs too much, and it sucks – Of course this same survey could have been taken in 1966 or 1976 or 1986 or 1996 and had the same results. People have been complaining about the price and quality of music for decades.
  • A Wi-Fi iPod – Looks like Apple is working on an iPod equipped with wi-fi. Great… there goes another $400.
  • TV event draws a rare big crowd – It certainly drew a large crowd to our apartment, but of course it may have been the free food that drew everyone and not the game itself.
  • Digital Deadline Set: 2/17/09 – This just came over the telegraph: over the air analog TV transmissions will cease on February 17, 2009. Of course, if you still have a pair of rabbit ears on top of your TV, you’re probably not reading this anyway.