While some appear content to sit on the sidelines, TiVo’s moving forward with announced plans to offer foreign, independent, and Disney video on demand services – in addition the existing Amazon library. Jaman‘s indie and foreign film content launches today, with Disney film rentals via CinemaNow arriving next week. Both services will be provided in standard definition (for now?) and MPEG2-encoded. I was hoping to get a sneak peek at Jaman last night, but their engineers were performing some last minute work. However, I can confirm Series2 and Series3/HD platforms are supported, with rentals starting at a low $1.99.
Bill Fearnley – FTN Midwest: [...] Steve, how are you thinking about Apple TV now? [...] If you look at the digital living room category and you look at the upcoming year of 2009, how do you look at the digital living room opportunity and how it relates to Apple TV?
Steven P. Jobs: Well again, I think the whole category is still a hobby right now. I don’t think anybody has succeeded at it and actually the experimentation has slowed down. A lot of the early companies that were trying things have faded away, so I’d have to say that given the economic conditions, given the venture capital outlooks and stuff, I continue to believe it will be a hobby in 2009.
Where do I even start? While Apple continues to believe providing digital media in the living room is a “hobby” the door remains wide open for those who are serious about this space. The big Steve-o is correct that current economic conditions are and will be a drag but, as Apple has shown, innovation doesn’t cease in the face of adversity. Within the last few weeks, we’ve seen Hulu land on D-Link’s DivX extender, ZvBox, SlingCatcher, and the PS3. But if I’m wrong about the increased momentum of converged “lean back” technologies, we’ll just have a quiet 2009 here on ZNF.
In case you haven’t tired of political advertising rhetoric, now you can catch up on campaign commercials of yesteryear. The Living Room Candidate offers an archive of presidential political TV ads from 1952 to the present. Want a refresher on Perot’s platform in 1992? Curious about the evolution of negative campaigning? Still waiting to see the famous Lyndon Johnson “Daisy Girl” ad complete with mushroom cloud? All are available on this site produced by the Museum of the Moving Image.
All cynicism aside, I had the privilege last week to hear a presentation by Carl Goodman, Senior Deputy Director at the museum, and then to speak with him afterward about The Living Room Candidate. Goodman’s got the right idea with online video distribution. Rather than just throw some video up on a site, his team is making the most out of the context they can provide around their video clips. The Living Room Candidate lets you search for ads by category, keyword, year, and type of commercial, and provides important details like campaign analysis and election results. In addition, the site has created “curated pathways”, which are commercial playlists illustrating different themes – like a party’s history with attack ads. And you can even create your own playlists if you’re a dedicated political junkie or a teacher looking for classroom material.
Even though The Living Room Candidate is a non-profit venture, its use of online video translates well to the for-profit sector. Want to engage viewers online? Give them the kind of context they can’t get on traditional TV – whether it’s baseball stats, actor bios, a guided tour of vacation hotspots, or, in the fall of an election year, presidential analysis.
This is utterly brilliant. People love their color iPods, personalized ring tones, and anything that makes gadgets uniquely their own. Sure, decals and engravings on laptops haven’t really taken off, but the Flip option is completely free, and is a simple add-on when you purchase your camera. (Above image is one of my own creations, and it took five minutes to generate) Not only is this great for consumer purchases, but imagine the commercial and promotional opportunities. Companies could give these away with their own images imprinted. Schools could create custom versions for fundraisers. And, through the partnership with Cafe Press, any designs can be added to the public marketplace and made available for purchase. Check out Andy Ihnatko’s fabulous creations.
The new personalized designs are only available for the Flip Mino, and I’m hoping this doesn’t mean Pure Digital is planning to move away entirely from the Flip Ultra, my preferred Flip version. In any case, this is a great addition to Pure Digital’s offerings. I suspect we’ll see a big holiday push with this and the upcoming HD Flip as we head in to the biggest gadget buying season of the year.
