While we (the writers and readers of blogs like ZNF) tend to think the universe of consumer electronics revolves around us, the truth is big brands are after a much larger and more lucrative market: the soccer mom and her family. Hence the new trend toward lifestyle marketing. Apple stores sell a “digital experience;” Comcast has created an “electronics spa” in a retail experiment with Circuit City; Sony Style stores have popped up all over the US.

This is a real shift in approach: the idea of architecting a digital home instead of selling gadgets. And at a Sony Style store over the weekend, I was somewhat amazed at how many dads, moms and tots were being drawn in by the lifestyle lure.

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Wonder what’s become of the life-transforming, human-transporting Segway? Apparently it’s all the rage among cops at the King of Prussia mall this season. My question is, do the cops stay on their Segways during an actual criminal pursuit? Also, since everyone was giving this guy a wide berth, what are the odds he’s going to see a criminal in action?

Dave had this to say (with Jamaican accent):

Bad boys, bad boys
Whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do
When the Segway come for you?

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One benefit to covering cool companies is the subsequent rise in status to “official insider.” After writing about Gotuit at the TechCrunch NY party, the company contacted me to set up a pre-brief on a new product announcement. The new product, SceneMaker - which launches today - is a consumer application for tagging video segments within larger video clips. Gotuit calls SceneMaker the “first social video tagging application.” I personally think the word social should have been retired from the lexicon immediately after Zune’s “Welcome to the Social” campaign hit, but semantics aside, SceneMaker is a welcome addition to the world of online video.

Scenemaker works like this: You copy a video URL from YouTube or Metacafe into the SceneMaker application and add metadata to any segment you want within the clip. These user-generated tags are called VideoMarks. Once a video has VideoMarks, that metadata is included whenever someone runs a search in Gotuit’s InVideo search engine. You can also embed a video segment on your website or blog that only includes the section of a video you’ve marked. For example, the middle 30 seconds in a three-minute clip. (more…)

Want to know how cable and telecom operators are going to compete in the short-term? One word: content.

Verizon has put a few notches in its lipstick case with recent sports content deals. Exhibit:

1. FiOS TV Signs the NFL Network
I’ve been skeptical of the NFL Network, but it does carry a few critical games that aren’t otherwise available in certain markets. There’s been a big brouhaha over this in both San Antonio and Washington DC, where the regional cable operators will be depriving fans of a Dallas-Atlanta game and a Ravens-Bengals game respectively. (Verizon kindly posts a cable v. FiOS comparison on the matter on its new blog…)

2. NFL Online
Starting December 7^th, Verizon will offer “live NFL Network sports and entertainment programming� online to its broadband customers.

3. Verizon Gets Comcast SportsNet (?!)
Presumably in a move to appear anti-monopolistic, Comcast has given Verizon the right to carry Comcast SportsNet on its FiOS TV service. This is a big deal for Verizon because some customers might not consider a switch to FiOS if they couldn’t watch local games shown only on Comcast SportsNet.

So Verizon’s doing well in the sports department. But don’t think that cable operators are sitting idly by. Comcast, for example, has signed a deal for extensive VOD content from Disney, including popular ABC shows. The content wars are just beginning.

I’ve seen a lot out of Sun recently, and I’m not sure if I’m simply more attuned to it, or if the company is trying to up its profile. First there was the woman I met at DEMOfall from Sun who talked about her team of colleagues walking the show promoting Java. Then there was reading about Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz’s blog. (It’s been around since 2004 – where have I been?) Then there was Sun’s big announcement in November about the official Open Sourcing of Java. And now there’s The Big Mashup.

Sun sent out a press release last week on its new “unique online experience” that’s supposed to show how Internet technologies are converging online and creating a “Participation Age.” This is a wagon that many companies are trying to hitch their carts to – the concept of convergence, new ways for people to interact and be entertained, etc. Sun’s Mashup sounds like a reasonably good idea, but its goals are nebulous at best, and currently the execution is seriously lacking.

If the Big Mashup is meant to be a participatory, multimedia form, it’s got a ways to go. The press release talks about a documentary, which is really a 12-minute video montage speaking at a very introductory level about new technology tools for user-generated media. The release also talks about a community blog, which I did not see anywhere. Instead there were individual blogs from industry notables, several of which linked to other sites, and some of which had very limited content.

Finally, Sun touted something called Snapp Radio, which brings together online music and Flickr images. (Everyone’s integrating Flickr…) A cool idea, but it requires registration with online music sites, and it appears to me to be more of a novelty than anything else.

So The Big Mashup isn’t much to look at, or listen to today. But it’s interesting to watch Sun forage into the great wide world of convergence communications. Is it purely marketing shtick, or will we see more out of Sun in the way of consumer-facing, media convergence efforts?

I admit to feeling some trepidation when my Slim Devices Squeezebox review unit arrived. Since buying a house a year and a half ago, my stereo from early high school has sat unused in our basement. (Note the cheesy, Space-Invaders-like display on the screen and the layers of dust.)

I popped open one of the tape decks and look what I found:

Looking at the Squeezebox, I wondered not only if I could make it work with my stereo, but if it would even be worthwhile given my decidedly low-key approach to music.

Here’s the answer: Yes, yes, unequivocally yes. Can I have it for Christmas, please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

Every new thing I tried with the Squeezebox just made it better — Starting with streaming my own music, then accessing the SqueezeNetwork and finally going full out with Pandora. If you want to skip set-up and some of the more gory details, scroll to the end for a list of pros and (very few) cons.

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It’s kind of like the war between spammers and anti-spammers. As soon as one side comes up with a new technological weapon, the other builds something for the arsenal to counter it. So it goes with television advertising.

Charter is starting a trial in hometown St. Louis of dynamic, on-demand advertising. The reason this is significant is because it greatly cuts down on the amount of time it takes to insert ads into VOD programming. Instead of planning weeks in advance, advertisers can deliver and update content virtually at any time.

The technology does look cool. Changes to content can be made without re-encoding and re-distributing the surrounding video, which suggests interesting applications for television outside of advertising. (Update a sitcom in re-runs with jokes that are relevant to current events. Serve up VOD news and update it with developments throughout the day…)

As far as advertising goes, we knew DVRs wouldn’t ultimately spell doom for the TV ad model. And I’ve got nothing against folks needing to make money by advertising their products. However, can we try to avoid overdoing advertisements in the new era of digital television? The amount of programming in a TV hour has significantly declined. I’d like a little more TV show with my hour of ads, please…