Probstisms

  • More Evidence of NBC’s Stupidity

    I’ve already written about the silliness going on between Apple and NBC here and here. Now, NBC and Amazon announce that NBC’s shows are now available through Amazon Unbox. Let me paint the picture for you. Shows like The Office are available for $1.99 per episode and can be played on two PCs (Windows) and two portable devices (PlaysForSure) at the same time. The shows can also be downloaded directly to networked TiVo devices. You can download entire seasons at discounted prices. Does all of this sound familiar? This is basically the same pricing that we saw on the iTunes Store.

    So what’s the big difference here? Well, with iTunes, you can play the shows on five computers and any number of iPods at the same time. Is this possibly what NBC was complaining about when they decided to not renew their contract? So, they basically went from iTunes which runs on virtually 100% of personal computers and the iPod which holds over 70% of the digital media player market to a Windows only Amazon application and PlaysForSure devices which account for less than 30% of the market. How in the world did NBC think they were making the right decision here? This seems like an enormous step backwards to me. This has to be a bargaining ploy by NBC to try to get Apple to let them tighten up the number of devices on which their content can be played. Because the pricing is the same, this has to be the sticking point between Apple and NBC.

    Via (TechCrunch)

  • Rubin Knows Music, Not Consumers

    The New York Times ran an article in The Times Magazine on Sunday about Rick Rubin. For those of you who don’t know who Rick Rubin is, he is a legendary music producer that has been around the block with the likes of LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Johnny Cash. Rubin recently took on the challenge of leading Columbia Records with Steve Barnett. For the sake of a great record label like Columbia Records and the sake of the music industry in general, I hope Rubin is successful at transforming Columbia into a new kind of label.

    In his interview with The Times, he made some comments about how the future of music was going to be a subscription model. I cannot disagree more with Rubin on this point. It has been proven time and again that consumers have little to no desire to rent their music. The success of iTunes provides enough evidence for most to understand this. Music is a very personal thing. Music stirs emotions. Music brings back memories of certain times in your life. Who would want to rent something that important? This is the fundamental difference between music and video, and this is why all subscription based music products have failed to date.

    People want to own their music, period. There is something to be said about flipping through your old albums to find something you listened to in high school or college or when your kids were born. Who would want to pay subscription fees for decades to be able to relive memories like that? Let’s hope Rick changes his mind and leads Columbia in the right direction.

    Via (CrunchGear)

  • Apple vs. NBC Part II

    A couple days ago, I first wrote about the spat between Apple and NBC over iTunes pricing and policies. A couple press releases have gone back and forth with the two companies basically blaming each other for the contract problems. At this point, it’s really difficult to believe who’s being honest with the public. The biggest problem with the whole situation is that now that the two companies have started fighting in public, it will be even more difficult to come together for an agreement that makes it look like both companies win. Let’s hope that both companies make the best decision for the consumers who have come to rely on buying episodes from iTunes when they miss them on television. It doesn’t make any business sense for Apple to block NBC shows from being on iTunes, and it doesn’t make sense for NBC to not sell their shows on the best digital media store on the Internet. I have to agree with The Unofficial Apple Weblog on this one. The two companies will come together and come up with an agreement before the end of the year. Nothing else makes any sense.

  • Apple and NBC Having A Bit of A Spat

    There has been a lot of noise bouncing around the Internet this morning that NBC has chosen not to renew their agreement with Apple’s iTunes Store. NBC had to give Apple a 90 day notice to pull out of their deal or it would have renewed automatically at the end of this year.

    I’m not sure if NBC is using this as a negotiating tool or what, but it seems like an awfully dumb move on their part to pull their content from one of the largest digital media retailers in the world. I understand that all of the television and movie studios are experimenting with online delivery, but the iTunes Store is a proven model that works very well for all parties involved. Do you think that NBC would ever pull their DVD box sets out of Best Buy or Wal-Mart stores? That wouldn’t happen in a million years. iTunes Store provides a way for the studios to make money on each individual episode of their shows that they distribute freely over the airwaves. This just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.

    read more | digg story

  • Apple and VW to Get Together for iCar?

    I read on Mac Rumors yesterday that Apple and Volkswagen may be getting together to work on integrating Apple products more tightly into VW cars. If this is true, I think it’s a great move by both companies. They both target the same demographic of customers, and they both have the “cool” factor.

    Let’s think about what Apple products would work in an iCar. There will definitely be iPod and iPhone integration. The VW will come with a radio head unit that is completely integrated with the iPod and iPhone. Perhaps the controls will be displayed on a large screen in the center of the dashboard powered by Mac OS X. From that display, the driver can control the phone, music, video, and Internet assuming an iPhone was connected to the car. An iPod would provide music and video. Besides the large dashboard display, each headrest will have its own display, and the displays will be capable of playing different media at the same time. The passengers in the back seat will be able to plug in their headphones and enjoy their very own entertainment.

    Now, just imagine if you and three of your friends jumped into your iCar, and all four of you have your own iPhone. Near each seat is an iPod/iPhone connector so each of you can plug in your iPhone. Not only will the connector charge your iPhone, the driver and front seat passenger will be able to control the media on all of the devices from the dashboard display. How cool would that be?

    Besides iPod/iPhone integration, the iCar will have HD Radio and Satellite Radio built in as well as a GPS system completely integrated with Google Maps. Of course, the interface will have Apple’s normal touch of style so all of the features are easily accessible while driving.

    Integrating Apple’s media products with a Volkswagen has a lot of potential. What do you think the iCar will be able to do?

  • Interesting New Ways to Present Data

    This Is Where We LiveMy day job requires me to wear many different hats depending on the projects that are active at any point in time. One of my main responsibilities is report design and development using the latest and greatest version of Business Objects. Basically, it’s my job to gather and present data in a way that is meaningful and helpful for our clients. I have always been a stickler about presentation regardless of the media so when I develop a report for a client, I want the layout and format of the report to be perfect. I want my clients to be able to look at a report and quickly and easily see how their business is doing. One of the easiest ways to do this is by using graphs to visually display the data.

    I read a post from Smashing Magazine that had some great examples of how companies are getting more and more creative about displaying data. Some of the examples make regular graphs look completely antiquated. My favorite example by far is a 3D map from Time showing the population density of the United States. Readers can easily understand how to read the map, and it is visually stunning. Companies like Business Objects need to be keeping an eye on these great new ways to visualize data so they can add the functionality to their products. I know our clients would love to see their data in new ways like the examples in Smashing Magazine. Very cool and exciting stuff.

    Via (How to Change the World)

  • Hate to Say It, But . . .

    Not that I find great pleasure in saying this, but I told you so! This morning I wrote that I thought Apple would be announcing a special event soon and that they would be introducing new iPods and the availability of the Beatles catalog on iTunes. Well, it looks like I may have been right on with this one. Check out this post from AppleInsider. The media invitation appears to be based on the Cover Flow feature in iTunes so the news is most likely related to the iTunes/iPod/iPhone businesses. The kicker is that Apple used a quotation from the Beatles final press release as the caption: “The beat goes on.” I am so glad I have next Wednesday off so I can keep up with all of the live blogging that is sure to happening.

  • Is Anyone Else Noticing A Trend Here?

    Ringo StarrIs it just me, or is there a trend developing here? This morning, Ringo Starr’s catalog was added to the iTunes Store. So now we have Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and Ringo Starr on iTunes. That’s three out of the four Beatles!

    Here’s what I think will happen next. In the coming weeks, George Harrison’s catalog will be quietly added to the store. Then Apple will officially announce a special event, and the rumor mill will go crazy trying to figure out what Apple has up their sleeves. My guess is that they will use the event to introduce new iPods using technologies perfected during iPhone development, and they will bring Paul and Ringo on stage to announce that Beatlemania has officially come to iTunes. Heck, maybe they’ll even play for us!

    Now that would be an announcement worthy of a special event!

  • Apple + Legos = Awesome!

    Woz and JobsI saw this super cool Lego set on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) earlier today. I mean, really, how sweet would it be to have a Lego set designed in your honor?

    The company behind this brilliant piece of art is called PodBrix, and this is not their first Lego set featuring Woz and Jobs. Previous sets include a Jobs keynote address, a Woz minifig, and a recreation of the 1984 Apple Super Bowl ad.

    I think this is my new goal in life. I need to do something cool enough that someone decides to make a Lego set in my honor. Now that is a real sign of success. 🙂

  • The Internet May Be Boring, But The Content Is Great!

    Mark Cuban, known to most as the wacky owner of the Dallas Mavericks, wrote a post on his blog, Blog Maverick, on Friday that’s getting a lot of attention. In the post, he talks about how he thinks the Internet is dead and boring. This is the comment that’s getting everyone excited. If you read further into the post, what Cuban is saying is that he thinks the Internet has matured into a stable platform and has become a utility. It has stopped evolving. When he says Internet, he is referring to the network, not necessarily the content that runs on the network. I’d have to say that I agree with him on this point. The Internet is finally stable enough that developers and designers have been able to create some incredibly useful and entertaining products. If Internet browser makers and web developers didn’t have well defined standards to follow to build their applications, we would not have the rich experience on the ‘net that we have today. Does anyone remember when Yahoo! was just a text page? That site would look awfully dull and boring today.

    Now, just because the network is boring, it doesn’t mean that the content and the technologies that run on the network have stopped evolving. The opposite is actually the case. New and exciting sites and applications are released every day, and the content on the Internet is richer than ever. I think we have a long way to go to tap the potential of the current Internet, and hopefully, I’ll be able to contribute in some meaningful way.

    With all that said, I am looking forward to see how the next generation of the Internet changes the way we live. Just imagine the kind of content we’ll see when every house has a 100 Mbps connection to the Internet. How about 1,000 Mbps? Should be pretty sweet!

    Via (TechCrunch)