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Influentials Aren?t That Influential?
2008-01-31 00:49:00
There?s a very cool article that came out yesterday that discusses the unimportance of influencers in marketing. We should probably get Raquel involved when she?s back and the office and do a white paper, but I think a blog post that goes something like this might be good. Any ideas? I imagine we?ll be writing a ...

Big Four Mobile Trends @ CES (Part 2)
2008-01-23 03:07:00
Standardization will be key for real growth in mobile It’s hackneyed these days to complain how Japan and Korea–and even the UK, to some extent–are so far ahead of the U.S. with their mobile technology. In downtown Tokyo, for instance, you can use your cameraphone to snap a picture of a billboard with a QR code (or quick response code, which is like a traditional barcode, but can store a massive amount of data), and immediately book a summer vacation to Bali–including payment. This is possible only because the wireless operators, the handset makers, and the financial institutions have all agreed on how to do things. The hardware, the software–and, by extension, the marketing–all work together seamlessly. Whereas the story in the U.S. is much akin to trying to build the web while still debating on whether it should be in HTML or some other language. Now, some of the lag is understandable: America is a far bigger, diverse, and more complicated marke...
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Big Four Mobile Trends @ CES (Part 1)
2008-01-19 02:00:00
As promised, here are the four major trends we saw getting picked out and prognosticated at CES. If you follow anything that I write (and, hey, thanks you two!), many of these won’t be unfamiliar concepts to you. But it’s always interesting to get a fresh take, as well as some “motivated spin” ...
More About: Mobile , Trends , Part

Tracking The Spread of Viral Videos
2008-01-17 22:23:00
Gawker has also posted another bit of quick news for all you folks interested in how information flow works on the Internet. And, for all you marketers not interested in this, shame on you! The study of information flow is the basis for how you create a "viral" marketing campaign, which is something of a ...
More About: Videos , Viral , Tracking , Spread

Free Books on Gaming
2008-01-17 21:55:00
For all you gaming fanatics out there, I have a quick bit of very cool news. Both Steven Poole’s Trigger Happy, which is about the aesthetics of games (and includes many cool references to the Amiga and the Commodore 64), and Julian Dibbell’s My Tiny Life have been released under the Creative Commons ...
More About: Gaming , Books , Free

D.C. ESA PAC OMG LOL?
2008-01-17 00:03:00
Okay, sorry about the acronyms. I just can’t help myself some days. Ever since I was in high school, when I actually met someone who used “LOL” in speech (they pronounced it “lowel”), I’ve been addicted to these things. The real meat of this story, though, is that the Entertainment Software Association is creating a lobbying ...

The Best of the Best - CES Tech Round-Up
2008-01-12 00:14:00
Raquel and I swung by the innovation and design awards area at the show yesterday and found some pretty cool stuff. For those of you who don’t know, this is a special area over at the Sands Expo where they showcase which devices displayed at the show were outstanding in their specific fields (incidentally, it’s ...
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Mayhem at CES
2008-01-11 22:53:00
I hate to admit it, but this is probably the funniest thing I saw at CES. The merry pranksters over at Gizmodo acquired a device that allowed them to turn off television screens and used it to create some hijinks on the convention floor.
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Big Thinkers and Disruptive Technologies
2008-01-11 21:52:00
I sat in on CES SuperSession titled “Big Thinker s and Disruptive Technologies .” Panelists included representatives from Nettwerk Music, Facebook, HP, Zoran Corp. and Sonic Solutions. The panel focused on each participant’s definition of disruptive technology and predictions for new disruptions in their respective industries. Read on for summaries and highlights from each panelist. Nettwerk ...

CES Day 4 - Trends
2008-01-11 10:00:00
Wireless Everything WiFi, WiMax, Bluetooth, Near Field, Infrared. One of the most obvious trends this year is the continuing shift towards wireless everything. The advancements in wireless protocols and bandwidth have finally given CE manufacturers a choice of infrastructures that can support the high volume of data needed to make the move to wireless connectivity feasible. ...
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Sharing is the New Black
2008-01-09 21:00:00
Yesterday I attended a seminar called "How Social Media is Changing the Rules." Here are some highlights of the conversation: Share and Share Alike The very vocal panelist, CEO of Broadband Mechanics, Marc Canter (from Macromedia fame) insisted that users want to find friends, share media, and read reviews. The younger generation is used to sharing and ...
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CES Observations From A Media Insider: The Media is the Platform
2008-01-09 20:48:00
The screens continue to get bigger and the fidelity crisper of the devices on display at CES but what seemed truly new were the number of companies inviting the developer community to make applications that run on their properties. Apps for internet connected TVs, apps for mobile phones, and apps for instant messenger platforms were ...
More About: Media , The Media , Observations , Platform , Insider

CES Day 2: Cool Sightings
2008-01-09 14:25:00
Wireless TV ScreensSeveral large-screen manufacturers including Sony, LG and Samsung are releasing flat-screens that may once and for all eradicate the tangle of spaghetti behind the average set. The system, which is based on the 802.11n high-speed Ethernet standard, will allow a receiver to transmit a high-def image to its associated screen wirelessly. Just hang ...
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The Revenge of the Smart Appliance
2008-01-09 08:52:00
Visitors to the lab will probably have noticed the fairly high tech refrigerator in our kitchen. It’s got a nifty little LCD screen on it that allows us to watch television and the like while we stand and stare at the refrigerator. What newer visitors may not, though, is that we originally had a refrigerator ...
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LittleBigPlanet: New social game for the PS3.
2008-01-09 02:42:00
I’ve just been treated by Pete Smith, a Senior Producer with the European branch of Sony Computer Entertainment to a demo of LittleBigPlanet, a new game title designed for the PS3. While the game strategies are somewhat basic as a result of the targeted younger demographic , what makes this new title unusual and attractive ...
More About: Social , Game

I?ve Got A Crush!
2008-01-09 02:18:00
People probably won’t consider this the pinnacle of high tech, but I got the chance today to witness what is probably the most interesting devices at the show in action. First, though, remember back to those days when you were a little kid and would, say, look at a rock on the playground and think ...
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CES Day 2 - Mobile Trends Peek
2008-01-08 23:36:00
For today’s post, instead of recapping the big mobile trends that the industry insiders are talking-up here at CES-which I’ll save for tomorrow-I thought I’d share a collection of interesting mobile news bites, product releases, and factoids. Okay, maybe just one trend for now: Thanks to the visionaries up in Cupertino, 2008 will be the year ...
More About: Mobile , Trends , Peek

Extending Entertainment Experiences
2008-01-08 20:53:00
A day long hike through the exhibition halls at this year’s CES has further highlighted the investments and advances many CE manufacturers have made in connecting and extending internet and VOD content to the living room. In true Vegas form, companies like D-Link are spreading their bets across a field of platforms featuring unique content and ...
More About: Entertainment , Experiences

You Better Take Me Seriously?
2008-01-08 18:35:00
Hello from CES. In fact, hi from Rm 254 North Hall "Taking the Blogosphere Seriously" seminar. Why take it seriously? Because the blogosphere has helped to create an authentic digital media society, and whether you are an organization or individual, you better be ready to handle the truth. The panelists agreed, all companies need to take the ...

Reinventing?the Buzzword
2008-01-08 01:15:00
With it being the first day of CES and all, I’m going to hold off on the hardcore mobile stuff until tomorrow morning. For now, I’m all caught up in the hype, and am compelled to make my first blog about Digital Hollywood’s "Reinventing Advertising" panel I just sat in on–which, un-coincidentally, featured the Lab’s ...
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End of a Digital Era?
2008-01-07 20:42:00
With the usual fanfare, CES begins its week-long feeding frenzy with a kick-off keynote by Bill Gates. He has given this opening keynote at CES 11 times. It has become one of the portends of the technological strategy for the coming year and a rare glimpse into the thinking of one of the most influential ...
More About: Digital , Digital era

The Next Digital Decade
2008-01-07 20:29:00
Last night at a pre-kickoff for CES, Bill Gates gave his last official keynote as the big kahuna at Microsoft. A few of us at the lab were invited to an event by the Microsoft eHomes team to sip cocktails and watch the keynote on a large screen — a much more comfortable way to ...
More About: Digital

Recent Lab Visitors
2008-01-02 23:33:00
Here are a few technology providers, publishers and vendors that have visited the Lab over the last couple months to share their latest offerings: EyeTracking, Inc.: San Diego based company that has pioneered eye tracking and analysis for U.S. military, CPG, retail and online marketing clients. EyeTracking’s patented technology measures where people look and ...
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Sony Releases First Playstation 3 Advertising
2007-12-05 18:53:00
Sony’s made its first foray into the dynamic advertising space with the release of Pain, a downloadable game for the PS3 that allows players to use a giant slingshot to shoot a small person into objects. Advertising can be placed on billboards that the person flies past. So, yeah, dynamic advertising on video game consoles has ...
More About: Playstation , Sony , Playstation 3 , Vert

Text In for a?Toilet?
2007-12-01 01:36:00
In London and looking for a loo? Well, Westminster City Council–which oversees London’s bustling Oxford Street, Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament–this week launched “SatLav”: a text-based toilet-finding service. Tourists, shoppers, and (most importantly) pub patrons in London’s West End can now text the word “toilet” to 80097, and receive an SMS message back with ...
More About: Toilet , Text

Cuban makes Facebook Radical
2007-11-29 22:18:00
Internet entrepreneur, blogger, dancer and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is launching Radical Buy, a classifieds application running on Facebook . The premise is pretty straightforward, list your sale items and broadcast your wares to the wide world of Facebook users. RadicalBuy twists the traditional online classifieds model by opening up the sales channel to brokers. ...

Writers? Strike: Impact and Implications
2007-11-20 00:10:00
With the writers’ strike now underway, we still do not have a full handle on specific programming strategies of all the broadcast networks. But we do have enough information to predict how audience levels might be affected. 2008 Is Not 1988The Writer’s strike in 1988 lasted for 22 weeks, and resulted in about a 9 percent ...
More About: Writers , Strike , Implications

What Will the G-Phone Look Like?
2007-11-08 01:55:00
If it?s going to be successful, the answer is ?like any other phone,? for starters. We?re talking, of course, about the new Google mobile phone venture officially announced yesterday by the Google-led Open Handset Alliance. After months of speculation, the big ?G? has officially signaled its intent to create mobile software that can access advanced Internet ...
More About: Phone , The G

OpenSocial: Strategic Facebook Competitor
2007-11-07 02:14:00
The latest noise in the social media arena last week was about Google and their OpenSocial initiative. Basically, OpenSocial will allow third party developers to write applications (aka widgets and gadgets) that will work on all sites that decide to implement OpenSocial. Logically, the open-source model makes sense. The idea is to harness the collective ...
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Doritos Unveils UGC Xbox Game Finalists
2007-11-03 00:21:00
Back in the summer, Doritos asked its fans to submit their best video game ideas to the cool ranch chip manufacturer with the intention of creating the first user-generated game available for download on the Xbox 360. Now, the company has just released beta versions of the top five finalists’ games on the web. The idea ...
More About: Finalists , Game