Didn’t I say Apple would be getting social? Still nothing for Safari though… Hm. Anyhow, this is a small step in the right direction by providing personalized iTunes-related RSS feeds and graphical badges of various categories, color schemes, and sizes. Of course Apple isn’t being entirely altruistic here — they hope to mobilize customers in advertising iTunes content.

My iTunes features:

iTunes is giving you an effortless way to keep your friends up-to-date with your favorite music, TV shows, movies, and more. My iTunes widgets are simple, self-updating add-ons for your web page, social-networking profile, or blog.

Use My iTunes to share your top reviews, favorite artists, and new music, movies, and TV shows from the iTunes Store with anyone who visits your site. You can also use the My iTunes feed with any standard RSS or ATOM feed reader.

And never mind those random musical selections to the right. I have no idea who they belong to. Jerry Was A Race Car Driver? Yick!

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs.

• Wii - Gaming Genius or Fitness Fad: TechLore
• Mark Cuban Kills The Internet: Connected Home 2 Go
• Belaboring the CableCARD Issue: Connected Home 2 Go
• Terayon and Targeted Advertising: Connected Home 2 Go

The Simpsons Movie opens today. Which probably isn’t news to anyone, given their massive advertising campaign - I don’t recall a movie ever pushed across such different media like this. On my flight out to CA, not only was my television advertising The Simpsons (above) but every cocktail napkin was also imprinted with the message that Springfield flies JetBlue. And maybe you heard of the 7-11s rebranded as Kwik-E-Marts. If you’re not as burned out as I am on all-things-Simpson, there’s two web widgets worth checking out: Simpsonize Me (theoretically) lets you upload a picture for a makeover and the Simpsons Movie site let’s you create an avatar from scratch. Wonder what Tracey Ullman thinks about all of this…

Forrester Research recently came out with a bold claim that paid internet video downloads have no future. The report claims that paid downloads will give way to ad-supported models.This claim waivers on one major issue: will quality internet video only be a mainly ad-supported business? And the answer is most definitely no.

The reason is mainly tied in with DVD sales and the fact that content owners will not want to switch to a questionable ad supported business when they have a lucrative DVD sales. However, they will be prepared to offer paid video downloads in addition to selling DVDs. Mike Wolf of ABIResearch is also thinking along the same lines.

This is something we can clearly see happening today with a variety of paid movie download sites such as Amazon Unbox, and a lack of legitimate free streaming TV episodes and movies. (more…)

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs.

• The “Upfrontâ€? DVR Battle And Other Advertising Skirmishes: Connected Home 2 Go
• Web TV Tourist Guide Takes You Around Philadelphia: Web TV Hub
• Motorola’s New Phones: Connected Home 2 Go
• GuideWorks, Your Regularly Scheduled Programming: Connected Home 2 Go

The good news for Cox customers: Disney’s ABC and ESPN programming will be available on-demand. The bad news: You won’t be permitted to fast forward through any advertisements. That’s one heck of a trade off and a good argument to record shows yourself using the DVR of your choice. The advertising model, of course, is designed to fight (the possible perception of) DVR ad-skipping and to find new revenue streams. According to the WSJ:

The amount of advertising incorporated into the on-demand offerings is still under negotiation, according to George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports. Cox will likely get one 15-second commercial per episode to pitch its own products. The remainder of the spots will be a mix of national ads sold by the Disney-ABC Television Group and local ads sold by ABC’s affiliated stations.

And here I thought the future was product placement.

Wondering how much the new My TiVo Gets Me television, print, and web advertising “blitz” costs? According to the NY Times: more than $15 million. Yowza!

The Times also reports the ad agency behind this campaign (in which everyone gets TiVo antennae) as Kaplan Thaler, who we probably know from the Aflac duck and women enjoying Clairol Herbal Essences commercials.

TiVo has just launched My TiVo Gets Me, a marketing website with social networking features (create a searchable profile, link a YouTube video). In conjunction with the new site, they’re giving away a Series3 and 42″ plasma to the person who submits the best video detailing how TiVo delivers their “deepest passion.” Speaking of deep passion (huh?), TiVo is hosting mixers in the next week for those of you located in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Boston, and San Francisco.

Update: Perhaps this is the “marketing blitz” Bear Stearns referred to… As the My TiVo Gets Me campaign also includes online and print advertising plus some well-produced television commercials: