Study: iTunes more popular than many P2P sites
Published: June 7, 2005, 10:27 AM PDT
Link to complete article on Cnet.com

"One of the music industry's questions has been, when will paid download stores compete head-to-head with free P2P download services?" Russ Crupnick, president of the NPD Group's music and movies division, said in a statement. "That question has now been answered. iTunes is more popular than nearly any P2P service."

From CNN today - The Top Ten "Unwired" places in the United States (i.e. with the most wireless hot spots):

1. Seattle
2. San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland, Calif.
3. Austin, Texas
4. Portland, Ore.-Vancouver, Wash.
5. Toledo, Ohio
6. Atlanta
7. Denver
8. Raleigh-Durham, N.C.
9. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.
10. Orange County, Calif.

Link - http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/07/technology/personaltech/wireless.reut/index.htm

More Bling Tones
From Chicago Tribune's Red Eye - 06/07/2005

Call it hip-hop to go. Russell Simmons' Def Jam Enterprises and greeting card company American Greetings are launching several new wireless services under the name Def Jam Mobile, according to the New York Post.

Artists including Chingy and Method Man have signed on to produce new tunes exclusively for mobile phones.

Among other subscdriber services: news from allhiphop.com, Rev. Run's Daily Word and Simmons' Laws of Success, all delivered to your [mobile] phone. For more, go to www.defjammobile.com.

Let's Learn About Radio Frequency Identification - RFID
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/1619/1/1/

RFID Brings Messages to Seattle Sidewalks
An RFID system being deployed next week will send marketing and assistive information to users carrying active RFID tags.
By Mary Catherine O'Connor

May 26, 2004—Think you're already exposed to too much advertising? Then you might want to avoid Seattle's downtown and Pioneer Square areas next week. Awarea, a Seattle-based startup, is deploying six RFID reader stations atop Qwest phone booths near retail stores and cafes. Passersby carrying key fobs with an embedded active RFID tag will trigger the stations to broadcast various audio marketing messages through speakers mounted on the phone booths or above store entrances. The content of the messages is based on the tag holder's preconfigured profile, and the user can press a button on the active tag to get further information or to accept a special offer.

... this is an excerpt ... Read the full article here

Apple Vows to Make Podcasting Easier
By RACHEL KONRAD, AP Technology Writer
Published June 7, 2005, 6:26 AM CDT

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple Computer Inc. CEO Steve Jobs called podcasting "the hottest thing going in radio" on Monday and promised to make it easier for audiophiles to create and distribute the digital recordings. ...

... Business Week, Forbes, Disney and Sirius have podcasts, as do hundreds of individuals including wine aficionados, baseball fans and political junkies. ...

... At a technology conference on Monday, Jobs previewed iTunes version 4.9. The software allows users to click on and subscribe to different podcasts, then automatically delivers the shows to any connected iPod

-- far less cumbersome than the third-party applications many listeners now need.

Link to complete article on Chicago Tribune dot com: click here now

United Airlines announces in-flight Wi-Fi

Link reference:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/sns-ap-united-wi-fi,1,6312356.story?coll=chi-business-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

The Good News:
"The Federal Aviation Administration will let United's parent, Elk Grove Village, Ill.-based UAL Corp., install the cabin equipment necessary to provide wireless Internet connection to passengers and crew members on U.S. domestic flights. United becomes the first domestic airline to get FAA approval that allows passengers to surf the Internet while riding through the sky."

The Bad News:
"United Airlines and Verizon, which already provides airfone capabilities for the carrier, said it must still get approval from the Federal Communications Commission before the new service can officially launch."

Baby steps, people. Baby steps. Or as Seth Godin calls them ... "soft innovations."

Who Says Technology is for Techies? - Free Online Seminars from Apple

Guitarists and the Mac: A Conversation with Pat Metheny (Online Seminar)
Join Pat Metheny in this free online seminar and learn how the Mac can help you take your music to the next level.
For more information visit http://seminars.apple.com/seminarsonline/guitarists/apple/index.html?s=203

Mobile Field Editing with Journalist Dr. Bob Arnot (online seminar)
Join Dr. Bob Arnot to learn how the Mac can help you become a more successful storyteller and videographer by editing video on-the-go using tools from Apple.
For more information visit http://seminars.apple.com/seminarsonline/mobilefieldediting/apple/index.html?s=203

Let's talk about RSS
It's really simple syndication. Commonly called News Feeds. You want to know when a Web site's been updated? Subscribe to its RSS News Feed. Now, Apple and Microsoft are making it simple by adding RSS features into their respective Web browsers: Safari RSS and Internet Explorer respectively.

Safari RSS with built-in "Live Bookmarks" (Mac OS only)
More info on Apple's site

Firefox RSS with built-in "Live Bookmarks" (Windows and Mac OS)
More from Mozilla's site

Microsoft's RSS Basics
More info on Microsoft's site

Here's a Screen Shot of a popular Windows RSS Reader
Click here to see it

Most Popular RSS Reader for Windows - RSS Bandit Screen Shots
See multiple images here
Note: RSS Bandit lets you see images with text while previewing news stories from sites such as NYTimes.com and Salon.com

My Fave RSS Reader for Mac OSX - Newsfire RSS
Go get your own
Note: The single best feature of Newsfire is command+D, which lets you search for RSS Feeds within any web site's domain; for example, by typing "www.pbs.org" I get back a listing of all PBS News Feeds (which now number in the dozens).

Subscribe to This Blog!
Copy this URL -- http://norev.blogspot.com/atom.xml -- and paste it into your RSS Reader (Bandit, Newsfire or whatever). Henceforth, when I've updated this site, you'll receive a notice with a blurb of text from my latest update.

Now That You've Got That Blog Thing Down, Time To Jump On The Vlog Wagon

Rocket Boom
This is one of the more popular and entertaining Vlogs out there. Great one to start with. Go back in the archive and watch the May 23rd and 24th videos. Amanda talks about Roadcasting (see post below for Wired Magazine story). But more importantly, she showcases a new electronics product called the Akimbo player ... then she reviews it (favorably in fact).

Go see the Akimbo player for yourself. It's just like TiVO, but it stores Web content (feeds, video, streams, webcasts, vlogs, etc.) instead of cable TV shows.

THE WORLD'S FIRST ALL-PODCAST RADIO STATION

EXCERPT:
The world's first all-podcast radio station will be launched on May 16 by Infinity Broadcasting, the radio division of Viacom. Infinity plans to convert San Francisco's 1550 KYCY, an AM station, to listener-submitted content. The station, previously devoted to a talk-radio format, will be renamed KYOURadio.

Far Out There Forecast of the Day: Roadcasting
Courtesy of Wired Magazine

EXCERPT: Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are developing an ad hoc networking system for cars that would allow any driver to broadcast music to any other vehicle within a 30-mile radius.

Developed by a group of current and former master's students at the Human Computer Interaction Institute, the Roadcasting project would allow drivers to stream their MP3 music collections by Wi-Fi or similar technology to any other vehicle within range that is equipped with compatible hardware and software.

Seth Godin wrote about the Idea Virus a few years back; if you missed it, you can download a free sample here. By the way, "idea virus" is another way of saying "word of mouth."

Don't Believe The Hype ... Part IX

Article about Diet Coke's "What's Your 20?" Web Series ... Back in March 2001. It' flopped.

Here's one that nobody gives a f**k about Oneify. It's got "Webisodes" and everything ... yet ... pffft! (It's Pepsi One, btw.)

Go to ARCHIVE-DOT-ORG and use the spiff on the home page for the Way Back Machine ... it's a storage database of Web sites that're now ... gone. Just type in a URL and take a trip back to the good ol' days of HTML 2.0.

Lookit whatcha get when you type in www.fcb.com -- Funny, no?

Also, visit the Live Music Archive and download tens of thousands of shows. Mostly jam bands like the Grateful Dead, Phish and Umphrey's McGee ... String Cheese Incident, Yonder Mountain String Band, Donna the Buffalo (there's a show from May 14th ... y'know, a couple of weeks ago), etc.

The shows are offered in MP3 and Shorten formats. Ah ... what's Shorten? It's a lossless digital format that compresses files without diminishing audio fidelity. So ... that Calexico show from Sweden sounds like you've patched into the soundboard yourownbadself.

Also, check out the Moving Picture Archive -- http://www.archive.org/details/movies -- with vintage TV spots, movies and various reels that will blow you mind.

May 23, 2005 10:50 am ET MacCentral

Jobs says Podcasting support coming with iTunes update
By Jim Dalrymple jdalrymple@maccentral.com

Apple CEO Steve Jobs told the assembled crowd at "D3: All Things Digital," that Apple would add Podcasting support to its next version of iTunes (4.9), which is due within 60 days. Apple will also be launching a service that will allow users to upload Podcast content -- Apple will then choose which content it will make available through iTunes, people at the event told MacCentral. Jobs also indicated that Apple had 70 percent market share for downloaded music.

From Reuters: A ringtone soars to top of charts in Britain
'Crazy Frog' single outselling Coldplay hit, takes over No. 1 (Updated: 6:18 p.m. ET May 29, 2005)

LONDON - The Crazy Frog mobile phone ring tone shot straight to the top of the British singles chart on Sunday — the first time a ring tone has achieved such a feat. The Official UK Charts Company said Crazy Frog’s “Axel F”, which went on sale as a CD last week, knocked Coldplay’s new release “Speed Of Sound” into second place.

I highly recommend you read the complete story of how this ring tone came into existence -- it's truly stranger than fiction.

BBC NEWS ARTICLE

Synopsis -- Some kid in Sweden made a home recording of himself imitating the sound of a motorscooter. He gave permission for Jamster (http://www.jamster.co.uk) to post it as a ring tone. Then, somebody along the way mixed a "mash up" of the Swedish kid's mouth music and Axel Funderburk's (sp?) theme song from an 80s movie (Beverly Hills Cop, if memory serves). Viola! A pop culture phenomenon (in the UK at least).

See the video here -- AXEL FROG VIDEO

Note -- You can buy *four* different mixes on the US iTunes music store RIGHT NOW! (Or download the EP for only $3.96).

And now a sobering dose of reality: Polyphonic ring tones remain fairly scarce in the USA. Unlike European cell phone networks that *all* use a 3G network backbone, the USA's cell phone carriers run on something like three network platforms. So, it's costly to post ring tones that work on *everybody's* cell phones; but it's also imperative to release a ring tone that works on *everybody's* phones.

Now some good news: Network aggregators have started up to pull together content (such as text messaging, text voting and ring tone downloads) for multiple USA cell carriers. That's why, for example, you can now vote on American Idol even if you're not using an AT&T/Cingular wireless phone.

This article from the NYTimes presenting yet another reason why Podcasting (or Radio On Demand/ROD as it will inevitably become known ... even Adam Curry doesn't really like the moniker "Podcasting" per se) is changing, well, everything. And why the shift in marketing from power of the brand to power of the consumer continues to show us how the best ideas often come from enterprising DIYers who just wanna have some fun.

--

May 28, 2005
With Irreverence and an iPod, Recreating the Museum Tour
By RANDY KENNEDY

If you soak up the Jackson Pollocks at the Museum of Modern Art while listening to the museum's official rented $5 audio guide, you will hear informative but slightly dry quotations from the artist and commentary from a renowned curator. ("The grand scale and apparently reckless approach seem wholly American.")

But the other day, a college student, Malena Negrao, stood in front of Pollock's "Echo Number 25," and her audio guide featured something a little more lively. "Now, let's talk about this painting sexually," a man's deep voice said. "What do you see in this painting?"

A woman, giggling, responded on the audio track: "Oh my God! You're such a pervert. I can't even say what that - am I allowed to say what that looks like?"

The exchange sounded a lot more like MTV than Modern Art 101, but for Ms. Negrao it had a few things to recommend it. It was free. It didn't involve the museum's audio device, which resembles a cellphone crossed with a nightstick. And best of all, it was slightly subversive: an unofficial, homemade and thoroughly irreverent audio guide to MoMA, downloaded onto her own iPod .

FROM DAVID JONES --
Radio Gets On Podcast Bandwagon
Even though 99 percent of Americans have no idea what a podcast is, thousands have sprung up and hundreds of companies are chasing them with open wallets. Rush Limbaugh has joined the movement and will make his radio broadcasts available as a podcast. Clear Channel will offer podcasts of certain programming as well.

In a unique move, San Francisco's KYCY-AM has become a station programmed completely by podcasts submitted by listeners. It's all the rage now but it isn't dot com insanity. With the explosive growth in usage of MP3 player (on which podcasts can play) and the increasing amount of citizen-generated programming, podcasting, in our opinion, will take off and become a viable medium providing both individuals and corporations to cash in.

From Stephen Strong --

MediaPost's Out to Launch covers the debut of a viral campaign for the MTV Movie Awards which contains cutting room floor footage of auditions and award category clips that didn't make the final edit such as "Best Almost Topless Scene," "Best Man-Dog High Five" and Best Man In A Pirate Hat." The guys behind Two Headed Dog, NightAgency, crafted this one. There's also an MTVeatmovies.com viral that poses as a casting agency, Sunrise Casting Studios, which contains horrific faux audition clips for Troy, Ray and Spiderman.

• CATEGORIES http://www.mtveatmovies.com/categories
• AUDITIONS http://www.mtveatmovies.com/auditions

All this talk about viral campaigns brought back a memory of The Trojan Games, a viral campaign for Trojan Condoms from 2003 in the UK (it won a Gold Lion at Cannes in 2004, btw). The agency that created it (and several more for brands such as Ford and Microsoft) is called The Viral Factory.

The Viral Factory

Go take a look. You'll be surprised by how organized, advanced and mature their approach already is. After all, they've been at it for almost five years now.

/Miguel

Please note: Some videos contain adult situations and nudity that reflect the values and standards of the UK and Internet. For example, it is fairly common to see a topless woman in European advertising whereas it's practically unheard of here in the US.