Interesting News Dave Hasn’t Covered

Never enough time… Copy and collate Internet video with Tioti. (TechCrunch) Tag DRM-ed Amazon products as such. (Defective by Design) Buy an HD DVD player, get three HD DVDs free. (EngadgetHD) Another Apple iPod touch screen patent application. (Apple Insider)

Who You Gonna Call?

Need a little help with your gadgets? You don’t have to call tech support anymore. I’ve run across two applications recently taking different approaches to solving your gadget woes. The first is Retrevo. Launched at DEMOfall last month, Retrevo is a vertical search engine that lets you look up your devices to find product documentation, … Read more

Hollywood and Technology Endure Awkward Blind Date

One of the pranks I used to play in college was to dial the phone number of one of my friends, who typically was having relationship problems, and as soon as their phone would start ringing, I would immediately put them on conference call and dial their recent ex and then sit back and watch as both people thought that the other person was calling them. In retrospect it probably wasn’t a very nice thing to do, but the results were always unpredictable and hilarious.

Sometimes they’d just start fighting, other times they would actually make up, but most times there would be a certain awkwardness as both parties thought the other had called, but couldn’t figure out why. While it may not have been the nicest practical joke, today Forbes magazine played a similar version of this gag when they invited some of the top technology firms to interact with Hollywood fat cats at their MEET (Media Electronic Entertainment Technology) 2006 conference.

The list of technology experts was a literal who’s who of the geek world. TiVo, Sling, Netflix, Apple, Google, YouTube, you name it, the list went on and on. While many of these technology companies came to court Hollywood into embracing them as business partners, they faced a tough crowd and a hard sell for an industry that hasn’t been forced to make significant changes in the last 30 years. In a nice overview of the conference, Paul Bonds with The Hollywood Reporter, gives a great run down on some of the more memorable recaps.

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Can You Hear Me Now?

Well here’s a shocker: Jupiter Research predicts that spending on mobile advertising will more than double between now and 2011. It’s a new medium for advertisers and I can only hope they’ll be a little more creative than they’ve been with TV over the last decade. (Think about it – even most of the Super … Read more

Starship Netflix, You Are Cleared For Liftoff

Recently, I was looking at some of the online data that is available on GameFly and I remarked to Motley Fool contributor Daniel Rubin, that I was surprised to see that internet video game rentals hasn’t turned out to be more popular option for consumers. Online video games have been something investors and customers have been very vocal about wanting, yet Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings has stood steadfast in his commitment to stick with just DVD rentals. Rubin’s response to my comment was a true testament to how much Reed Hastings has shown an uncanny ability to understand the DVD market better then anyone in the industry.

Isn’t this yet another spectacular display of strategic leadership by Reed Hastings? The guy’s like a Starship captain flying this sucker through an asteroid storm and outmaneuvering every one and every thing.The man has thrashed Blockbuster (one of the biggest brands in busines history), beat off Wal-Mart, scared off Amazon, and now may have dodged a huge bullet by having NOT wasted time on a failed venture at this critical juncture when time is of the essence. I’ll take Red Envelope Entertainment and the value that will come from proprietary content over video games any day.

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DVD Jon Is A Masochist

DVD Jon, the guy who cracked DVD encryption, has set up shop in California as DoubleTwist Ventures. His goal is to pirate license technology enabling iTunes to play on non-iPods and non-iTunes DRM-ed tracks to play on iPods (how’s that working out, Real?). It would be nice if Apple’s copy protection scheme (aka FairPlay) was … Read more

iPod Celebrates Birthday, Dave Prepares For His

Today the iPod is officially 5 years old. What really broke the seal on the portable MP3 (or is that AAC?) player market was Apple’s intuitive UI and minimalist controls. Despite the initial price premium, they sold a ton and created an industry (iTunes probably also saved the recording industry from itself). I’ve owned a … Read more