Markoff Didn't Do the Math on Leopard vs Vista Pricing

John Markoff in this morning's NYT gives Steve Jobs a platform to tout Friday's release of Mac OS X Leopard. While Jobs graciously declined to comment on Vista's slow sales and lackluster reviews, he did slip in a zinger about pricing. He said that with Leopard, "“everybody gets the Ultimate edition and it sells for 129 bucks, and if you go on Amazon and look at the Ultimate edition of Vista, it sells for 250 bucks.”

Right. And Steve's other point: Apple has been tossing out a big cat every year and expects to keep it up for another decade.

On the other hand, it took Microsoft seven years to get Vista out the door, with Windows 7 slated for 2010.

So, Microsoft collects their $250 upgrade tax twice in the decade ($500) and Apple collects their $129 tax eight times ($1032). It's the ol' "eight easy payments" game

(OK, there's a big fallacy in this analysis: nobody keeps a computer for ten years. At some point(s) you get a new computer with the OS bundled. And surely the 2010 versions of either Mac OS or Windows won't even run on a 2000 vintage computer. On the other hand, in a multi-computer household, there are always a few computers that will need the upgrade. The screen-sharing features in Leopard will create viral pressure to promulgate this upgrade. Except among the paranoid.)

Mickeleh's Take: I never doubted that Apple could sustain another decade of innovation. The only question is have they run out of cat names? After Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, and Leopard where do we go now? Tabby?

And, yes. I've already ordered the family pack.

(Tags:Leopard, Vista, Mac OS X, Apple, Mac, Microsoft, Markoff, PC)

Can Leopard's Super-Smart Client Make Us Love Email Again?

Apple is on the verge of releasing an email-on-steroids client as part of Leopard (next major release of Mac OS X, slated for Oct. 26). The release hits at a time when alternatives to email are in ascendance. (see, for example this Business Week debate in which Robert Scoble steps forward as the champion for the "moving past email" camp.)

So it's worth asking, is Apple on to something or out of step with the zeitgeist? How will Leopard's mail fare in a Web 2.0, social net world?

Prince McLean at Macinsider has the history of mail on Macintosh, including third-party software and the major tributary branch that began at NeXT. McLean covers two massive, visionary, but unsuccessful and largely forgotten projects from the 90's, PowerTalk (AOCE) and Cyberdog. Both of these projects could be poster-children for how Apple went off the rails during the Steve Jobs interregnum; they overwhelmed available hardware, underwhelmed the market, and screwed the developers.

They also were terribly timed and irrelevant before they shipped. They completely misread the impact of the dominance of Windows, the rise of Internet-based mail standards and the explosion of the Web as a mass-market phenomenon. (Cyberdog had a Web browser, but in those days, Netscape had the world's attention, setting the pace for innovation and enhancements to HTML. Cyberdog could only chase after the evolving Web like a greyhound after a mechanical rabbit.)

In McLean's article, this past is prologue to a rundown of what's in the Leopard version of Apple's email client. If you want to skip the history, you can start right in with his description of what's ahead on page 3. It's almost as breathless as Apple's marketing page for Mail.

The new Mail will bid to be a center of our personal workflow, incorporating to do lists, notes, RSS reader and smart integration with Calendar and Address Book and more—thanks to the return of Apple Data Detectors. (This bit of technology from pre OS X days can parse your email for events, addresses, contact info and intelligently offer to file it or act on it.)

Mickeleh's Take: Email isn't going away any time soon. Apple's approach has the potential to transform the way we deal with it. But exploiting the full potential of the features baked into Leopard's email client will require lots of behavioral change on the part of the user. I'm skeptical, yet hopeful. But the acid test is whether Apple's new mail client will seduce Scoble.

(Tags:Leopard, email, mail.app, NeXT, Apple, Mac OS X, Scoble)

Loren on the Plight of the iPhone unLocker

Our story so far: Apple releases the iPhone. It only works with AT&T in the USA. Some folks hack it to unlock it for use with any mobile carrier (losing some features in the process, but gaining freedom). Apple discovers that some of these hacks "cause irreparable damage to the iPhone's software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable" after the next software update. Oops.

Loren Feldman, of 1938 Media, master of empathy, commiserates with the brave souls that unlocked their iPhones.



Mickeleh's Take: Look on the bright side: you still get your $100 store credit.

(Tags:iPhone, , unlocked iPhone , Apple, 1938 Media, , Loren Feldman, funny, humor)

Microsoft Tool Forecasts Continued iPod Dominance over Zune

Steve Rubel points to a new Microsoft tool that helps advertisers sharpen their ad buys by rating the Online Commercial Intent of various queries and visits to websites. The idea is to rate the value of advertising not simply by counting impressions exposed to a target audience, but by whether the audience visiting a given site or entering a given query has a commercial intent to purchase.

Enter a URL or a query into a tool and you get a rating. Rubel lists various popular sites by their Commerical Intent index, with Consumerist and Gizmodo ranking at the top and Web 2.0 faves Wikipedia, Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter ranking near the bottom. (Bear in mind that there's a hefty disclaimer saying this is merely proof of concept and "the tools do not provide or display conclusive results; rather, they are designed ro produce anecdotal information that might indicate a trend or behavior that seems pertinent to an individual advertiser.")

For fun, I tried queries on iPod and Zune. Turns out that people searching for iPod have better than a 93% commercial intent, while those searching for Zune have between a 68% and 76%.

Oddly, the tool won't give you the same number twice in a row. For Zune the results varied widely: successive submissions yielded results of 0.7259, 0.7496, and 0.65499.

Mickeleh's Take: Anybody remember back a year when Zune was promoted as the iPod killer?

Google Docs May Be Good. Their Video is Great

Today, Google fills out their online application suite with a presentation tool. I don't have time to evaluate it and review it. I don't need to, because I'm sure that others are rushing to do so. Check with Techmeme.

What I'd like to do is review the marketing video that introduces the concept on Google's blog. The video was made by CommonCraft and it's brilliant in its simplicity and clarity. CommonCraft, by the way, is two folks who live just across the lake from me in Seattle: Lee and Sachi LeFever.

They found simple visual metaphors, a low-cost production technique and, above all, they make the benefit of the product crystal clear. If you need to explain something complex, get in touch with these folks.



Mickeleh's Take: I love that you can see the strings. That's the coolest thing about this video.

iPhone Early Adopter Tax refund? (Thanks Unca Steve)

I'm sure there's something I'll be able to do with my $100 store credit. Kudos to Apple for responding so quickly to the waves of resentment triggered by the sudden dramatic price drop on iPhone.

I'm in New York with the MWA production crew that put on the HP event last night. Two of my colleagues (including the actual MW of MWA) snapped up two of the now cheaper iPhones.

I'm posting from the Apple Fifth Avenue Store looking for Genius Bar service since my MacBook suddenly decided to show me the dreaded folder icon instead of booting up.

The place is mobbed at 10:15. Everyone is schnorring some free computer and internet access. Except for the fact that there are no drinks and no chairs. And the tables are a little low for comfort, the place has the feel of an Internet Cafe.

One of my fellow net schnorrers is dealing with the low table by adopting a Senator Craig style wide stance. But with the trousers up.

That iPhone Early Adopter Tax (shrug)

I missed the announcement yesterday. (I was working with the MWA team on producing the HP product event that ran last night, and somewhat pre-occupied.)

I learn this morning that Apple had revved the entire iPod line, but the only bit that penetrated my pre-occupations yesterday was the price-drop on the iPhone. (The Jefferson Graham and Ed Baig Q&A with Jobs focused on the price drop and captured the lede this morning on Techmeme as well.)

The only email I got on Apple's event this morning was on the price-drop. Someone asked me if I had any theories. Yeah, I got a theory: Steve wants to sell a shitload of iPhones.

iPhone was clearly designed (and marketed) for the mainstream. Apple is buying a lot of TV time to get the iPhone mini-demos in front of gazillions of viewers. But $600 for a phone is not mainstream pricing. Frankly, neither is $400. Ah, but $400 as a price-drop from $600? Now that smells like a bargain.

Mickeleh's Take: A price drop on iPhone was inevitable and widely predicted. The surprise was the timing. So soon? I paid $200 for only six weeks of what Owen Thomas pegs as nothing more than smugness? Did I overpay? Could I have bought that much smugness for less? Probably not.

(Tags:iPhone, Pricing, Apple, Steve Jobs)

Criswell & Scoble Predict

Here's my take on the recent unpleasantness instigated when Robert Scoble offered sweeping (and very unlikely) predictions of the future of search.

Back-story for those who don't follow these things. (For those who do, then skip to "for those who do.") Actually, for most of those who don't follow these things, this is your stop.

Last weekend, Robert Scoble posted videos to his Kyte channel with some brave predictions about the future of search. A ton of bricks fell on him. He cataloged some of the heaviest bricks on his blog. The refuteniks rated Scoble's original video somewhere to the south of the immortal Criswell opening of Plan Nine from Outer Space.



Many bits were slaughtered, splayed, and sprayed through the ether in the mayhem that ensued. Robert fought tirelessly and railed against his enemies (Nixon nostalgia?) until Dave Winer reminded him that he actually knew better. Dave can get Robert to listen (sometimes). Things changed. But while Robert responded to Dave's post, IMHO, he never quite embraced the essence of it.

For those who do follow these things, pick it up here:

I think there were (at least) six layers to this perfect storm.

1) Robert's predictions about the future of four companies—unlikely scenarios based on misperceptions and shaky assumptions;
2) Implied endorsements and embrace of Mahalo, Techmeme, and Facebook--and the entrepreneurs and/or developers behind them.
3) Robert's presentation and medium—unsearchable, unskimmable, requiring a higher investment on the audience than text; (and being harder to revise and improve before posting.)
4) Robert's persona in the videos as all-knowing oracle—belied by the preposterousness of the story and incompleteness of his knowledge; He didn't present it as a hypothesis to be tested and vetted, but as a done deal. (Did anyone hear the famous Scoble laugh in the Skype videos? I confess, I bailed long before the end, so I don't know for sure.)
5) Robert's standing and status in the blogosphere—which will always draw challengers.
6) The size of the bet that Robert made by the magnitude of his claims—he was going for broke and claiming first chair in the visionary section.

Some of the prominent participants in the melee were clearly gunning for Robert based on 4,5,6. (And you know who you are.)

It became impossible to track the conversation back to layer 1 where the collaborative dynamics of "we'll fact check your ass" apply. Anything less than agreement became an attack.

It's clear, however, that Dave's relationship with Robert gave him a unique standing to break his cycle of defensiveness.

Mickeleh's Take: If it were possible for everyone to focus on the top layer and talk about the story and why it might or might not be plausible, the conversation would have had a different tone.

Note To Politicians Planning to Take August Off

August is much in the news lately. We've come to the point where months get two weeks of promotion just like new movies.

What we're told about August is that the Iraqi parliament plans to take it off. So does the President. So does the U.S. Congress. But not, of course, the soldiers and marines serving in Iraq.

So here's something to think about during the month of August. The month is named is named for the Roman emperor, Augustus Caesar about whom Edward Gibbon wrote:

... it was easy for him to discover that Rome, in her present exalted situation, had much less to hope than to fear from the chance of arms; and that, in the prosecution of remote wars, the undertaking became every day more difficult, the event more doubtful, and the possession more precarious, and less beneficial.

Know any current "remote wars" that might apply to? "... the undertaking became every day more difficult, the event more doubtful, and the possession more precarious, and less beneficial."

Mickeleh's Take: Hey, Bush: Still looking for legacy? Try peace. You've already demonstrated you're hopeless at war.

Scoble fires back at Nielsen.

Did Jakob Nielsen actually attack anyone in his recent Alertbox?

Doesn't really matter. Robert Scoble, took it personally and worked himself into a high dudgeon. (BTW: Do dudgeons come in low and medium, too? or is it only high?)

(Cue Carly Simon: "You're so vain. I'll bet you think this blog is about you. Don't you? Don't you?")

OK, here's da ting: Suppose that Nielsen had advised people to be like Scoble. That advice would be impossible to follow. Scoble is a force of nature. He never stops. He's relentless.

When I was ten, my piano teacher told me that in my entire lifetime I could never even copy all of the music that Bach composed in his lifetime. Likewise with Scoble. I could never just watch all the videos he produces. I could never even read all the posts he writes, all the tweets he tweets, and I don't even want to think about keeping up with him on Facebook.

Robert Scoble is generous and open, often wrong and insufferable, but right more than wrong. If journalism is the first draft of history, Scoble's blog is the zero draft sketchbook. But that's okay, because he's gathered an audience of friends, fans, boosters and detractors who provide corrective wisdom or unbridled inanities that make Scoble appear wise by comparison.

Mickeleh's Take: Here's why Nielsen's advice is better than Scoble's: a mere mortal has a chance of following it. There's no point in trying to be Scoble. The job's taken. (Oh, and by the way, didn't Scoble actually follow Nielsen's advice when he worked with Shel Israel to write Naked Conversations?)

PS: I read Scoble much more often than I read Nielsen. But I have a t-shirt with Nielsen's picture on it.

(Tags: Jakob Nielsen, Robert Scoble, Scoble, Shel Israel, Blogging)

Can I Post on Jakob Nielsen's Advice Not to Post?

Usability Guru Jakob Nielsen makes a cogent case for slowing the pace of discourse. He favors writing serious, well-researched articles rather than snappy blog posts. (Scoble, Winer, Israel, et al. not withstanding.) Whether your aim is to promote yourself as an individual expert or to promote your business, Nielson argues for quality and substance over quantity. (My favorite blogger who embodies this philosophy: Guy Kawasaki)

Nielsen may be right. But it doesn't matter any more. Our brains are hopelessly scrambled and scrunged. After a decade of blogs, two decades of PowerPoint and SMS, six decades of TV—both programming and advertising—and a century of research and development in how to by-pass logical discourse that runs from from Hopkins to Bernays to Goebbels to Luntz, it's just too late. If people don't get it in a quick emotion-charged hit, they're on to the next thing. We're always reaching for the clicker—whether it's the remote or the mouse.

Jakob is standing athwart history. The game was over before it began. The late Neil Postman nailed it in his 1985 classic, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Discourse in the Age of Showbusiness. We've moved on to the age of the sound bite embodied by Twitter, Jaiku, and Pownce. (If they merged, they'd have a great name. But is it for a law firm? ad agency? or do they do repo for auto loan companies?)

Update: Scoble fires back at Nielsen. (But did Nielsen actually fire at Scoble?)

Mickeleh's Take: It's the age of the dot-com meets the dot-dot-dots. Walter Winchell, Herb Caen, you left too soon.

(Tags:Blogging)

iPhone Parody Ad: The Real Internet (minus Flash)

Thanks to Scoble for the pointer. (Scoble is prowling and posting from the iPhoneDevCamp being held at the Adobe offices. Y'know Adobe... the folks who sell Flash. But this isn't Adobe's conference; they're just one of a couple dozen sponsors of this BarCamp. Oh, and it's most certainly not Apple's conference, either.)



Mickeleh's Take: I knew I was wise to wait. (Keep telling yourself that, Mickeleh. How long will you be able to hold out?)

(Tags:iPhone, Flash, iPhoneDevCamp)

On the Soapbox: Top Ten Rants on the Scooter Commute

Over on the political side, I've linked to the top ten rants I've seen on the Scooter Commute. (It goes to eleven and includes some bonuses.)

Mickeleh's Take: They knew we'd be outraged. But they're counting on the outrage to fade quickly as some other news crowds this out of the headlines. The best ways to keep it in the headlines: write to Congress. Encourage inquiry. Blog about it. Write letters to the media. Post on Other blogs. And stay informed.

Steve Jobs' Other June 29 Product Launch: Ratatouille

If Steve Jobs had just brought us the iPhone on June 29, 2007, dayenu--it would have been enough. But that date also marks a simultaneous launch of a groundbreaking product from Steve's other company, Pixar (now in the corporate maw of Disney): Brad Bird's Ratatouille. (If you're lucky enough you can find out where it's playing on your iPhone.)

The review I'd write, had I time and talent is by A.O Scott in the New York Times. But don't read the review until you've seen the movie. Scott gives away too much that you should have directly from Bird.

Bird takes the standard formula for commercial success in animation (write for the kiddies and throw in some sophisticated jokes and cultural references to keep the parents from squirming) and turns it on it's head. Ratatouille is a film for adults about the essence of excellence and the soul of creativity with enough madcap mayhem, chases, fireworks, spills and gags to keep the kiddies from squirming. (It's been known since the dawn of movies: falling into water is funny. Remember that if you ever want to make a comedy.)

As in The Incredibles (2004) Bird finds a way to translate the look of drawn caricature into the language of 3-D models. The character design is hilarious, and the character development is rich and distinct—even for the supporting cast. As in every Pixar feature, the look of every frame is meticulous, thoughtful, and invested with love and delight of craft. The best Pixar features are love songs to the worlds that inspire them. Just as Cars bursts with deep knowledge and joy of car culture, Ratatouille takes food, kitchens, and restaurants seriously. The filmmakers tackle the challenge of depicting the senses of smell and taste without resorting to the cartoon cliche of wavery, wafting, smoky aroma lines. This film is so delicious, you can almost taste it.

Moore's law and an army of clever coders will guarantee that each year's crop of big budget animated movies will have richer palettes of texture, lighting, fire, fur, and liquids to throw up on the screen, But what catches our breath and holds our attention in a Pixar film is not the atmospherics, but the story. No one works harder or better at building animation stories than Pixar, and Ratatouille has, perhaps, their best, most satisfying story ever. Director Bird also has screenplay credit on Ratatouille and shares story credits with Jim Capobianco and Jan Pinkava.

Mickeleh's Take: As a meditation on excellence and creativity, Ratatouille can be taken as a commentary on iPhone. Great movies and great products (like great kitchens) are the product of teamwork, top ingredients, dedication, risk, and love. They also are expressions of a singular, driven, creative vision. Chuck Jones said that it's combination of a lot of work and a lot of love, but when it's done right, all you notice is the love. Thank you, John Lasseter. Thank you, Steve Jobs. Thank you, Brad Bird.

(Tags: iPhone, Ratatouille, Apple, Pixar, Animation, Movies, Steve Jobs, Brad Bird)

iPhone is Bigger than Paris Hilton (Today, Anyway)

As the six o'clock iPod launch hour marched westward across the U.S. time zones, CNBC gave it the kind of coverage that cable usually reserves for wayward blonds, and school shootings. Feeds from Palo Alto, San Francisco, Walnut Creek, New York, and Chicago. Pundits, geeks, business folks gladly volunteering to become props and shills for the promotion of iPhone. The privilege of being in line was payment enough. (except for those few who sold their place in line to the more privileged and less sane at prices from $400 to $700.)

Mickeleh's Take: Kudos to Apple for a communications and PR blitz that managed to knock coverage of America's wayward blondes off the air for a few hours.

(Tags: iPhone)

Survey Most Dem Candidates Use Linux; Repubs, Microsoft

Kos points to a survey by Douglas Karr of the server software running presidential candidate websites. Kos notes:

... several Republican campaigns are using Rackspace, which is one of the most expensive hosts around. That's money pissed down the series of tubes. Most Republicans are on Windows, most Democrats are on Linux. The lone Democrat to host their site with the evil empire? Hillary's, of course.

Mickeleh's Take: There may be more to that Hillary/1984 parody than we thought.

(Tags: Windows, Linux, 2008)

Does this mean Cory Doctorow Isn't Getting an iPhone?

Pop Quiz: Which of Apple's iPhone partners is famous for the motto "Don't be evil"?

Hint: it's the one that finds seafood restaurants for people in San Francisco who hanker for calamari while watching Pirates of the Caribbean.

If you answered AT&T, you might want to take a refresher course at the university of Boing Boing with Professor Doctorow. He doesn't actually say they're evil, but he does call them scumbags and vows, "Seriously: the only day I wouldn't piss on AT&T is if they were on fire."

A tip of the Mickeleh Yarmulke to my sister for pointing me to Cory's post.

Mickeleh's Take: If anybody sees Cory Doctorow with an iPhone, ask him who his carrier is.

(Tags: ATT, AT&T, iPhone, Cory, Cory Doctorow)

Are People Ready for Another Techmeme Circle Jerk?

You bet they are. It's the weekend, so out in the blogosphere, you'll find a gazillion people ready to spend their time reading and writing, huffing and puffing about some grand ethical issue exposed by Valleywag and facilitated through Techmeme.

And what are people ready to churn up the internets about this weekend? It's a John Battelle-brokered scheme to let A-list bloggers pocket some Microsoft bucks in return for a saying a few words about a Microsoft marketing coinage. (These would include, for example, a famous A-lister whose nose turned in the direction of up at this declassé version of blogging for dollars. But who now takes the Talmudic view that it's okay for a woman to lie about her age because everyone knows that's what they do.)

Mickeleh's Take: If I were to have an opinion about this one it would be Dave Winer's. And if I were to point to someone who handled this almost honorably, it would be Om Malik. (I say almost, because a close reading reveals he's offering only an "I'm sorry you were offended" non-apology perfected by politicians. I say honorably because he promises not to do it again.)

But I'm sitting this one out. Disclosure: nobody paid me for not offering an opinion.

(Tags: techmeme, people ready, Microsoft, Pay Per Post, Federated Media)

YouTube on AppleTV; it lasted a night, now it's down; back after power-cycling

Had some folks over to play with AppleTV (now with the great taste of YouTube).

Here's the good news: It's fun. If you have folks in the room, browsing on TV changes the YouTube experience into a comfortable social experience. Some of the clips look very fine. They even show up in full widescreen glory. (see Matt Haughey for more on this.). . Low bit-rate clips that suck on a PC screen suck as much or more on TV.

My sister had an a-hah moment, saying that with YouTube, AppleTV finally makes sense to her. My roommate logged into his account through the TV interface and was able to browse through his favorites to show some of his clips. Performance was excellent—a short pause for buffering and then the clips played through smoothly. We didn't see any that had to pause or hiccup to gulp down some more bits

The bad news: While it let me log in, when I tried to save a clip to my favorites, it suddenly said it didn't recognize my password. (My roommate didn't have this problem.) One gotcha: it's likely that most of the clips in your Favorites are not yet available on AppleTV. Only a tiny fraction of the YouTube library has been encoded in H.264 as required for AppleTV. Most of them are still in Flash video format.

The worse news: This morning, I couldn't get the lists for Most Recent, Most Viewed, Featured, or Top Rated to load. (endless spinning). History, which I guess is cached on the box, came up and I could stream any of the clips on that list, so I'm pretty sure the box is online. After unplugging and replugging the AppleTV, YouTube worked as expected.

If you want to sample the experience for yourself, Brian Lam posted a tour on Gizmodo.

Mickeleh's Take: Last night I saw the future. This morning I learned that the future isn't here yet. Maybe it will work better on iPhone.

(Tags: AppleTV, YouTube, YouTube on Apple TV)

Cool Tool for Cooks: Grease Blotter

Kevin Kelly offers a neat tip for cooks who need to get the grease and fat out of stews and such.

Mickeleh's Take: Think of it as liposuction for soups stews.

YouTube on AppleTV; first look

The download completed. (had to keep checking, because AppleTV went into screensaver mode). Then another click to install and restart. Bonus: you get another view of the startup movie.

Neat translation of the YouTube U-I into AppleTV. (Could it be anything less?) Video quality? Better than I expected, but it varies per video.

There's an onscreen keyboard for search (you can navigate by arrow keys on the remote), and another keyboard with a different design and many more, much smaller characters for logging in to rate videos and save to your favorites.

The announcement said that they'd start with 10,000 videos available in the ecoding format that AppleTV requires (H.264), and it's already up to 11,500. The plan is to have the entire library available by year's end.

I'll offer a considered opinion of the experience after I've used it at leisure. But at first glance, it's a solid and well-designed translation of YouTube to the living room.

Mickeleh's Take: I wonder how many AppleTV users will a) know that the update is available, b) know how to pull it down, c) take the trouble to do it? Compare this to, say, TiVo, Moxi, or any cable DVR: when a software update is ready, it's pushed to the box willy-nilly. Apple is following PC rules—don't mess with the user's software without knowledge or permission. But now that they're in the CE space, maybe it's time to be a little more paternalistic.

Either way, the triumph is this: Finally, something even more mind-numbing than TV. Technology Marches On.

(Tags: AppleTV, YouTube, YouTube on Apple TV)

YouTube on AppleTV; downloading now

Apple announced an update to AppleTV software available today. They don't push it. You have to go into Settings and ask for it. Which I did. Spinning.

Vince Foster's Revenge: Clintons Gleefully Wear The Mantle of the Mob

Okay, it was funny. Someone emailed me about it. I passed it on. I mentioned it on Twitter. It made Olbermann. It was the funniest Sopranos parody by a politician ever. Not quite on the level of the great MadTV parody of a few years back, but a fine piece of work. Hill and Bill as Tony and Carm. (Carm and Tony?)

I don't want to overthink this but I can't help myself. Tony's song was "Don't Stop (Believing)" Bill's was "Don't Stop (Thinking about Tomorrow)." Hmm. Did they really want to revive all of the Bill Clinton whacks his enemies crap? Hmm. Did they have to pick a song by a Canadian? Hmm. That Canadian? Do they know that half the country thinks that the cut to black at the end of the Sopranos signifies that Tony was whacked? Hmm.

Mickeleh's Take: Great way to co-opt the culture and soften the candidate's image."You and I were meant to fly." —Celine. "Fly, you fools!" —Gandalf

(Tags: Hillary, Hillary Clinton, Sopranos, Sopranos_parody, Clintons)

Addendum: Things you can learn in the blogosphere. The Clinton spot was filmed at the Mount Kisco Coach Diner. If you're ever there, try the chocolate pudding, says Marty of Martin's Musings.

Second Addendum: Did I say, "soften"? Stacey Parker AAB has thought this through much more deeply than I.

Krya Sedgwick Blurts About a Demo Steve Jobs Never Showed Us

This morning's Fake Steve Jobs post warns of the inevitable media backlash against Apple. (Thanks, Scoble, for the tip.) Fake Steve, as usual, offers truth, wisdom, comedy, and darn good writing. I think he's right about the backlash. When Christopher Escher was doing PR at Apple, he called it the clock theory: when you're at the top of the clock (noon), it's time for the media to start predicting your fall. When you hit bottom (six), it's time for the comeback story.

But it ain't happening yet.

Early Friday morning on Conan, Kyra Sedgwick gave Steve and Apple a priceless plug, asking us to imagine a demo that, so far, has never made it into a Steve Jobs Keynote.

CONAN:
I’m curious about something. Your career is, of course, going very well, but this must be a little difficult—your husband, of course, Mr. Kevin Bacon, lives in New York with the kids. This is, uh, so you’ve got to keep this relationship going long distance. That’s gotta be difficult

KYRA:
Yeah, it’s hard. You know, but there’s the phone and there’s iChat.

CONAN:
iChat!

KYRA:
Yeah

CONAN:
Is I chat..? You find that better than the phone?

KYRA:
Yaah. Because you know, you can see each other and… (long pause, lips pursed). Let’s just say I’m really grateful for Steven Jobs.

CONAN:
Right. Right.

KYRA:
He’s kept my marriage together.

CONAN:
Right. So... it gets kinky over iChat? Is that what you’re suggesting?

KYRA:
Maybe. Sometimes.

CONAN:
You know I dfon’t think that’s what… I think when they came up with the computer, they weren’t… that wasn’t their first thought. Maybe it was?

KYRA:
But It was there second thought. Let me tell you. Because, I mean, I Chat, I mean realy. What are people gonna use that for

CONAN:
But how hot and heavy can it get on iChat.. I mean, I’ve experienced that a little bit. It doesn’t look like you can really be whoo-whoo-whoo- (pantomimens lifting his shirt to flash his chest) It doesn’t look that exciting to me.

KYRA:
You have to use your imagination. No it’s good though. It’s gotten better and better.Maybe you don’t have the right camera.

CONAN:
You just solved all my problems

Mickeleh's Take: So, does that earn Steve a Kevin Bacon number?

(Tags: iChat, Kyra Sedgwick, Kevin Bacon, Steve Jobs, Fake Steve)

Safari for Windows Take 2: It's all about iPhone

Tim Moynahan has the clearest take I've seen so far on the impact of Safari for Windows. Sez he: it's a ploy to get the Windows development world engaged in apps for iPhone.

Safari for Windows

An Apple branded browser for Windows is something nobody expected and nobody needs. If you have Windows, you already have a browser (IE7), and if you don't like IE7, you can choose Firefox, If you don't like Firefox, you can help yourself to any one of a sturdy bunch of excellent hopefuls. Obviously, Safari for Windows is just a big yawn. Or so you'd think.

Take a gander at Techmeme this morning and it seems everyone in the world wants to say something--usually something critical--about Steve Job's announcement yesterday that Apple was releasing Safari for Windows. Ryan Block is skeptical. Michael Gartenberg hails it as a "great strategic move." While I'd expect the pundits and analysts to pundificate and analyze, it's astonishing to see the large number of folks who took time from their busy Monday to not only follow the keynote, but to download the beta, test it, and blog about it. Top takes: vulnerability to malware, fuzzy font-rendering (though this one is debated), and yes, it's fast.

Mickeleh's Take: Don't we have anything better to do than download irrelevant software? Shouldn't we outsource this odious task to India or China? When Walt Mossberg quizzed Steve at the D Conference about why Apple was doing apps for Windows, Steve quipped, he was bringing ice water to people in hell. If the critics are right about Safari font rendering, I guess it's fuzzy ice water.

(Tags: Safari, Safari Windows, WWDC)

The Sopranpose

How can anybody complain about an episode in which A.J. discovers Dylan, Agent Harris gets laid, Little Steven gets to relax his mouth and hair from the silly Sil grimace and do, Paulie gets to call Tony, "my liege," and we all get to enjoy a nice game of Pop Goes the Weasel's Head?

Mickeleh's Take: Ending Schmending. Kudos to David Chase and the entire cast and crew.

(Tags: Sopranos, The Sopranos, Soprano, Soprano finale, David Chase)

I'm back

Good gracious, what a hiatus. I've been "off the air" almost as long as the gap between Heroes episode 18 (Parasite) and 19 (.07%). You'd think I'd fallen off the edge of the world. I tried to, but it turns out there is no edge of the world, so I wound up in Shanghai instead (working with the MWA crew on the HP "Mobility Summit"). I know I could have blogged from Shanghai, but I was having too much fun. Or I was working too hard, which is much the same thing in the workaholic game).

Fame and the Future of Mass Murder

Yesterday, I took NBC to task for its willingness eagerness to advance a killer's agenda of becoming famous. On Huffington Post, Cintra Wilson takes it further. Reminding us that Cho explicitly aligned with the Columbine killers and sought to top them, she asks whether NBC hasn't contributed to raising the bar and ensuring that the next sick mass murderer will do even more damage than Cho.

I think we can cut through the arguments about whether future "copycat" killers are likely. They're inevitable. The VTech killer himself tells us that he was a disciple of the Columbine killers. Some tiny fraction of human brains turn out to be horribly buggy. And some of the buggy ones will inevitably be drawn to the fame game. As with TV ratings, movie grosses, and IPOs, unique visitors, and Technorati rankings, the infamy game has a scoreboard.

How long will we wait for the next buggy-brained sociopath to go off his meds and play a round of "Can you top this?" It might be years, but it will happen.

Next time, however, the mediation of a major broadcast network may not be necessary. (for the early-adopter crowd, it wasn't necessary this time.) Dave Winer contemplates the marriage of our evolving arsenal of social media services and abuser-generated content. Dave also has some worthwhile links to other voices in this grim conversation.

Earlier in the week Dave and Doc Searls argued for the release of the entire package unedited and unexpurgated. Doc views it as an application of crowd-sourced debugging:

"More eyes will make the this bug shallower. It may save lives. Even if we see a zillion mashups of the original video, which we'll see eventually anyway."

Doc expanded on that on an NPR interview with Xeni Jardin and in his own blog.

Jeff Jarvis takes the same position that got Tex Antoine fired many consciousness-raising revolutions ago.

Mickeleh's Take: NBC should have used their editorial judgment, but reversed the filter. Instead of broadcasting and posting the Rambo-glam dress-up movie posters and the bling-envy poetry, they should have aired the sickest, most profanity-laced, and least comprehensible rantings of the killer. That would have serve two purposes: If Doc is right and crowd-sourcing the bugs will help us fix them, then NBC should have put the buggiest bugs out there. If Cintra is right and copycats will look to Cho for guidance, then NBC should have made it really hard for anyone to latch on by showing Cho only at his least accessible, and most incomprehensible.

(Tags: VTech, VT, Virginia Tech, Cho, Cho+Seung+Hui, NBC)

By Airing Cho's Video, NBC Became His Willing Accomplice

VTech killer Cho Seung-Hui had a grandiose suicide plan that began with mass murder and concluded with a worldwide airing of his raving grievances and poses. He accomplished the murders by himself. But to complete his scheme he enlisted NBC. They were more than happy to carry out his wishes, confirming a killer's right to show under the guise of the public's right to know.

At long last, having recovered a sense of decency and firing Imus for hate speech, NBC dropped to full pander and gave Cho more coverage than he could have hoped for.

Even Keith Olbermann, who a week earlier had pressed his managment to drop Don Imus, participated in the spectacle of all-Cho all-the-time.

Fame, notoriety, and attention are prime motivators for the deranged, tormented souls who do mass murder. By fulfilling Cho's desire to be the auteur of his own world-wide video portrait, dumb-as-a-peacock NBC became his willing accomplice. They've demonstrated to other carriers of simmering, ungoverned rage, that major broadcast networks will assist them in reaching a worldwide audience.

Mickeleh's Take: Where advertisers have to pay cash for airtime, NBC offers it to mass murderers for the price of bullets and corpses. This is not comforting.

(Tags: VTech, VT, Virginia Tech, Cho, Cho+Seung+Hui, NBC)

Senator Edwards' Statement on the Shootings

I don't look to presidential candidates for comfort and grace in times of disaster.
But this morning I found it in Senator Edwards' statement on the Virginia Tech shootings.

"We are simply heartbroken by the deaths and injuries suffered at Virginia Tech. We know what an unspeakable, life-changing moment this is for these families and how, in this moment, it is hard to feel anything but overwhelming grief, much less the love and support around you. But the love and support is there. We pray that these families, these students, and the entire Virginia Tech community know that they are being embraced by a nation. There is a Methodist hymn that gave us solace in such a moment as this, and we repeat its final verse here, in hopes it will help these families, as it helped us:

'In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity;
In our doubt there is believing, in our life, eternity,
In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.'

Our dearest wish is that this day could start again, with the promise of these young people alive. Knowing that cannot be, our prayer is for God's grace and whatever measure of peace can be reached on this terrible day."

CNN has compiled this with statements from other candidates.

New Information on Gonzo-gate: Did Bush OK Firing Iglesias?

There's new information linking Bush to Gonzo-gate. I just posted about it on the Soapbox.


(Tags: Bush, Rove, Gonzalez, Domenici, Attorneys, Iglesias)

Why Imus Had to Go—David Carr Nails It

David Carr in The New York Times analyzes the perfect storm of forces that converged to force Imus off the air (and the cable). Why was "nappy-headed hos" any more egregious than previous bits of nasty Imus insult that passed without consequences? Carr explains why Imus was doomed this time.

Mickeleh's Take: The fatal Imus flap sullied the brands of both NBC News and CBS while driving away advertisers. That Imus was suddenly unsustainable while Savage, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Beck, Boortz, and Gibson continue to cruise along pleasing their audiences, advertisers, and networks is outrageous. Imus was simply was crude and mean (not that I'm defending crude and mean). But these other guys are not only cheapening discourse, they're aligned with forces and agendas that are ruining our environment, trashing our constitution, depleting our military, and keeping us at war. If you sully brand CBS, you're fired. But if you trash brand USA, you get to keep your microphone? Before this firestorm abates, I wonder if it can take out one or two of the truly bad guys. (Media Matters has transcripts on these verbal vermin).

Amen to Al Franken, who told Larry King that CNN needs to can Beck.

Questions: Anyone listen to Howard Stern this week? Did he have anything to say about it? Will Imus pack it in this time or wind up with another (maybe satellite) show.

(Tag: Imus)

A Haiku About Twitter

A haiku (not a Jaiku)about Twitter.

Messages online
From people I've never met,
Junk food for the brain.

Mickeleh's Take: Find me on Twitter, here.

(Tags: twitter, Jaiku, Haiku)

Thanks to Scoble and His Twitter Friends for Hot Mac Software Recommendations

Now that Macs can run Windows (thanks to their Intel processor and Parallels), Robert Scoble has decided it's safe to switch. As a Mac newbie, he reached out to his vast followership on Twitter (more than 2500) for software recommendations and they came pouring in. If you're a Mac user, it's a good list to peruse.

Mickeleh's Take: I've been on Mac since 1984 and I found a few gems I hadn't known about. If you have some to add, you might leave a comment on Scobleizer.

(Tags: Scoble, Robert Scoble, MacBook, MacBook Pro, switchers, Mac software, Mac utilities)

Dave Winer: The 10-year Anniversary That Almost Wasn't

Last year, April Fool's day fell on March 13. On that day, Dave Winer posted on why he would stop blogging. Thank goodness he thought better of that and Scripting News persists. Yesterday, it passed its tenth anniversary. Mazel Tov.

Mickeleh's Take: Dave earned my eternal gratitude for writing Think Tank and More. He could have stopped there. But he didn't and he still hasn't. Consider that for most of his career he's worked as an individual or as leader of very small companies, yet he has done more to shape what I and many others do on the net on a daily basis than most of the giants. Thank you for being a hero not only to me, but to scads of my other heroes. Keep the fires lit. And keep holding everyone's feet to them.

(Tags: Winer, Dave Winer, scripting.com, Scripting News, Anniversary, Blogging)

Last Year On Mickeleh's Take: Pesach, Roosevelt, and us

Pesach begins tonight. Because of the way the Hebrew lunar-solar calendar occasionally adds a leap month instead of a leap day, Pesach coincided with the anniversary of FDR's death. I wrote this on that occasion.

Mickeleh's Take: Still holds.

(Tags: Pesach, Passover, FDR, Roosevelt)

EMI Deal: iTunes Gets First Dibs... But EMI Will Offer to Other Retailers

There are two reasons why I (usually) buy CDs from Amazon rather than download them from iTunes: no DRM and higher sound quality. Those reasons went away (for some recordings) when EMI and Apple announced a new tier of DRM-free, higher bit-rate tunes. (At least that's how Steve Jobs sees it. It remains to be heard how the well the improved--but still lossy--tracks compare to CD quality.)

Price on a single tune goes up from $.99 to $1.29, but the album price stays the same. (This is the second move from iTunes aimed at offering incentives to buying the album rather than cherry-picking favorite cuts. Last week they offered to allow people to complete albums for the price they would have paid in the first place.)

A neat deet: If you have already bought the lower-quality DRM-shackled version of the song for $.99, you can upgrade for the price difference--$.30.

While iTunes gets first crack at this deal, EMI said it will offer the same deal to other retailers in a choice of formats (AAC, MP3, WMA, and others).

Mickeleh's Take: I'm seeing one of those movie scenes in an aquarium where the camera cuts to a small crack in the glass. And then keeps cutting back as the crack lengthens, until, with a great roar and a rush of waters, all the actors are drenched and covered in fish. Thanks, in advance, for all the fish.

You don't suppose that EMI decided to set the music free in honor of Pesach (also known by it's slave name, Passover.)

More at Techmeme

(Tags: DRM, iTunes, EMI, Apple, Music)

One Week With Apple TV

What's wrong with these pictures? The copy in this Apple promotional graphic says "widescreen TV," but all of the TV images are standard 4:3 format. Hmmm. It's a good metaphor for the gap between the promise of Apple TV and the reality. But for me, the reality is plenty good (for now).

I'm late with my promised Apple TV review because I can't stop watching and listening to it. The boob tube is back and this boob is glued to the couch. All in all, though, I'm watching much less of the stuff that comes down the cable channels. (We used to call that stuff TV, but I think we're going to need a retronym for it à la "snail mail" and "acoustic guitar.")

Apple TV has been one of the year's most anticipated, reported, reviewed, analyzed, (and, now, hacked) products. So, if it's a topic that interests you, you probably know more about it than I'm about to reveal. But that's blogging for you, thousands of people writing more or less the same thing over and over. Let me thank you in advance for reading it here.

What you've heard and read is all true: Setup is astonishingly smooth and effortless, the U-I is engaging and clean, with a dash of tasteful eye candy (iCandy?).

Apple TV performs as advertised. It does not, however, perform as fantasized. As you probably know by now, it has its limits. It presents in last year's sound and picture quality (last century's, actually). It doesn't get YouTube. It's not a DVR. The movie section in the iTunes Store has bupkis. Apple TV has a tiny hard drive by today's expectations (40GB). It gets very warm to the touch. And, yes, XBox not only does more, but Xbox Live offers true HDTV. (And they announced more HD titles this week.) how much more does Xbox do? Jodie Cadieux reminded me that XBox is even stopping drug and gun trafficking in Mexico as officials there are giving out a free Xbox for every gun turned in to law enforcers. Match that, Apple TV.

That Apple TV, despite its limitations, has captured so much attention and early success mystifies some and infuriates others. I'm not here to argue the case. I'm just here to testify that I'm happily enjoying my Apple TV for what it delivers, and I'm not fretting about what's missing. It will get here.

I took Apple at their word: iTunes on my TV. That, right there, is enough to give me two things I've been waiting for: I wanted to connect the music collection on my office computer to the really good sound system in my living room. Second, I made a pledge to Scoble to watch ScobleShow, when I could do it on Apple TV. (is that a recursive reason?) Well, there's lots of other good video podcasts worth subscribing to. Kasper Hauser and other video podcasts on the big screen. Turns out that, even though Ze Frank has ended The Show has putting the archives up on iTunes.

More than I expected

I can tell you that I not only got the two things I bought it for, but I found some bonuses: It was easy to convert my own videos into Apple TV format (QuickTime Pro 7.1.5 has a command "export movie to Apple TV). Now I have Day of the Longtail and a bunch of other videos I worked on with Peter Hirshberg, Michael Witlin Associates, etc. into Apple TV format where they stand ready to inflict on unsuspecting house guests. What's more, it's not a big chore to download clips from YouTube and convert them to play on Apple TV.

Music from background to foreground

Even though the product has "TV" in its name, what I value most is is being able to hear my iTunes music on my best speakers. (Sneaker-netting the iPod into the living room or using AirTunes with Airport Express wasn't cutting it because there's no big screen U-I for browsing.)

Apple TV's oh-so-tasty screen saver is simple and satisfying, offering a multi-plane display of over lapping album art. (memo to self: resist temptation to re-scan all album art to higher resolution.)

About that Teeny Hard Disk Drive

I'm not overly concerned about the small hard drive. The drive is required only for photos. For all other content, you can stream from your computer(s) to Apple TV. I'm having no problems, no glitches streaming over my home WiFi network . (Your mileage may vary.)

The catch is that I have to have my computer on and iTunes running. If I could fit all my content onto the internal Apple TV drive, I could leave my computer off while using Apple TV. If you're running from a notebook, you can leave the house with it, and the folks back home can still enjoy the Apple TV. With content on the internal drive, you can even unplug Apple TV, take it over to a friend's house.

In order to manage what actually gets sync'd to Apple TV, iTunes 7.1.1 has set of panels, similar to the panels for managing the content that syncs to your iPod. You set set which playlists, photo albums, or podcasts should sync to Apple TV.

Up to Six Computers Can Play

Up to six separate computers can register to stream to a single Apple TV, so if your household members have multiple computers, they can share a single Apple TV. Only one computer, however, can register to sync content to the Apple TV hard drive. You can mix and match PCs and Macs.

How good is the picture?

Depending on the source, it varies from yuck to not-half-bad to pretty close to DVD—and occasionally better. So if your goal is a new source of HDTV quality programming, look elsewhere.

How good is the sound?

Quality is fine. But it's stereo or Dolby pro-logic only. Despite the presence of a digital audio port (optical S/PDIF), Apple TV does not now support discreet 5.1 or 7.1 surround formats.

Ben Drawbaugh offers a clear table on the technical limitations of Apple TV vs HD DVD

Mickeleh's Take: March has seen some huge steps aimed at flipping TV away from the established cable and satellite walled gardens for delivering TV shows and movies. Online video is moving in. Amazon Unbox started downloading movies to TiVo. NBC Universal and News Corp. initiated an everybody-but-Google consortium with AOL, MSN, MySpace, and Yahoo planning to put a vast film and TV catalog online. Joost beta went live. And Om Malik launched a redesigned NewTeeVee to report on it all.

There's little doubt that a revolutionary change is underway, but it's one that will be years in the making. Bandwidth and intellectual property battles are the biggest constraints.

What's makes Apple TV successful despite its limitations is that it fits well with the current state of things. For me, cable is still my only source of HD programming. But for music, podcasts, and TV access to my own videos, Apple TV is proving well worth it.

(Tags: Apple TV, HDTV, podcasting, podcasts, video, videos, TV, Apple, music, cable)

Hey, Internets: Stop Spoiling the Jokes. I Mean it.

Hey, Internets: Here's what's not cool on April Fool's Day. It's not cool to say so-and-so has a Great Joke up on the web. Stop spoiling the gags.

If you spot a great bit of fraud, perpetuate it. Comment on it. Go along with the gag and rope more people into it. Or just keep your frickin' fingers off the keyboard and let it be.

But please stop blogging, twittering, emailing that so-and-so has a Great Joke. We won't think you're a sucker if you pretend to fall for it. Or even if you do fall for it. We'll thank you.

If you want to heap praise on an April Fool's story or confess that you fell for it, please wait until tomorrow. And that includes A-listers. You don't get a pass on this.

Mickeleh's Take: I will never forgive the anonymous fanboy who passed me as he was leaving the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard on May 21, 1980 while I was standing in line for the second showing on the opening day of The Empire Strikes Back and who proclaimed loudly to his companions, "Who woulda believed that Darth Vader was Luke's father." It was only after I saw the film that I learned the correct response to such a revelation: Make a screwy looking face and scream, "No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-." (Yeah, it serves me right for waiting for the second showing. But hey, I was at the first showing of what was then called Star Wars on May 25th 1977 at the Charles Theatre in Boston.)

(Tags: April Fool, Spoilers, Star Wars)

Francine Explains the What's and Wherefores of Nanotech

Francine Hardaway posted a clear, concise, intro to nanotechnology as a business opportunity. She covers the basic questions: what? what for? why? and why now?

Mickeleh's Take: Francine explains it so well, even an English major can understand it. Even an English major who stumbled into marketing.

(Tags: nanotech, nanotechnology, Francine)

Apple TV Claims First Victim: HP Drops Digital Entertainment Center

[sheepish grin] This is the same point I made in an earlier post. I just like this headline better.

Mickeleh's Take:There's no direct connection between the Apple TV launch and HP dropping DEC. Both choices are informed by the same read of the market. It's actually a tribute to HP's new marketing savvy. They're getting smarter about what consumers will and won't find attractive.

Disclosure: I've worked with Michael Witlin Associates on some HP marketing projects.

New Blow to Vista? HP Drops Their Media Center Line

Is this the biggest blow to Vista since Chris Pirillo's breakup last month? HP is dropping its version of Media Center rather than migrate it to the new OS. The HP Digital Entertainment Center was the slickest package for making a PC fit into the living room.

CE Pro has the news, including this full-throated make-nice statement from product manager Doug Robert: "It doesn't mean Media Center isn't going to be successful. It's just that we're discontinuing development." (Translation: "It's not you; it's me.")

Mickeleh's Take: This is not so much a slam at Vista as a recognition that asking people to pay the price of a full PC to sit next to the TV is hookah-vision marketing. A Mac Mini, maybe, but not an $1800 to $3000 behemoth. What you want near the TV is a client device such as Apple TV, Xbox, SlingCatcher, or the Netgear Digital Entertainer EVA8000. (memo to Netgear: hire a naming consultant.)

HP, meanwhile, is pursuing a new vision for getting digital media from the PC to the TV: but first you have to buy an HP MediaSmart TV...

(Tags: HP, Media Center, Apple TV, Xbox, SlingCatcher, MediaSmart TV)

Apple TV: Scoble Likes It!

Robert Scoble was an early skeptic about Apple TV. He not only bought my argument (that it would be an easy way to get his own video podcasts on the big TV), he bought the product and now says it rocks.

Mickeleh's Take: Told ya.

(More on Apple TV this weekend when I set mine up. It stings to be such a technoloy laggard.)

(Tags: Apple TV)

Other Mickeleh's Takes on Apple TV:

Pixel-Punchy Scobel's Rant about Apple TV
The Big Gotcha of Apple TV: It Might Not Work on Your TV
Apple, Pioneer of Accessible Solutions, Neglects Closed Captions in Apple TV

ABC Mulls Pop-up Ads for TV to Trick DVR Owners Into Watching

Newest nefarious scheme to make us watch advertising:

Newest brilliant idea to defeat the rude habit of DVR viewers who skip your commercial: Where today's practice separates shows from spots with a discrete dip to black, ABC tells advertisers their spots may actually start playing on a screen inside the show (on that TV in the corner, perhaps, or someone's cell phone) and then pop-up to the viewer's full screen.

Looks like we may be moving from product placement to commercial placement as TV gets more like life. Ads will be everywhere.

Thanks to Cory Bergman at Lost Remote for spotting this.

Mickeleh's Take: The current practice of writing to a suspenseful cliff-hanger at each act break actually increases the viewer's motivation to skip the ads and get back to the story. Will writers and producers take to the new practice and work commercial placement into their stories? If ABC can charge a premium for an in-story placement and shares revenues with the shows, you bet they will. Can't wait for Aaron Sorkin to build a preachy episode around this on Studio 60.

(Tags: TV, Advertising, ABC)

Props to Arianna for Outing the Author of Hillary 1984 Mashup

Arianna Huffington and the HuffPo staff did some digging and found out who made the Hilary 1984 mashup. He's Phil de Vellis and he tells all on HuffPo.

Is this How You Dress for Congress? If the Globe is Really Warming You Do.

The Styles, They Are a Changin'.

Above: In 1920, this is how folks dressed to line up to get into a Ebbets Field and watch a game: Suits, ties, hats. (Well, it was the World Series.)

Below: Today, this is how Dr. Bjørn Lomborg, adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Consensus Center in Denmark, dressed to testify before the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works: a short-sleeved polo shirt. What's that all about?



Mickeleh's Take: The contrast between suits to a ballgame and polo shirts to Congress might communicate more than just a radically changed fashion sense. Lomborg's message is that Gore, though well-intentioned, is exaggerating the dangers of global warming. But doesn't that 1920's World Series crowd looks like they got dressed on a much cooler planet than ours? Lomborg desses like someone on a rapidly warming globe. Visuals trump verbals every time.

(Tags: global warming, fashion, Gore)

Why Did the Hillary Video Take Off? Drudge!

The Hillary video was posted to YouTube on March 5. Talking Points Memo and Huffington Post linked to it the same day. They generated a little more than 23,000 views between them.

It didn't go hockey-stick until yesterday when it started airing on TV News. And who do the TV news desks follow like sheep? Greg Sargent on the TPM Horse's Mouth blog tells who. Matt Drudge posted it late Sunday evening. And that when the TV networks got interested.

Hillary Meets Orwell With Surprising Resonance

I completely misjudged the impact of this one.

My sister emailed me early yesterday to check out Vote Different, a slick mashup of Apple's 1984 commercial and Sen. Clinton's presidential campaign announcement.

In my years at Apple I'd seen more parodies and mashups of 1984 than I can remember. For Marketers, riffing on 1984 is about as common and trite as comedians riffing on The Wizard of Oz. So my first reaction was to dismiss it as yet another 1984 ripoff.

Oh, was I wr... wr... wr...

Over the last 24 hours, Vote Different has gone hockey-stick, with well over a million views. Last night Olbermann devoted an entire segment to it, running it continuously as cheap B-roll.

There's something about Hillary as a droning Big Sister that sticks. Whoever authored this piece gets the grammar of media, and the power of resonance. A fine example of Tony Schwartz's key insight: the most powerful communication is something that resonates with what you already know, feel, and believe. Even though Vote Different leeches the insight, design, and production investment that Apple made with Chiat/Day and Ridley Scott back in 1984, let's not forget that the original ad was leeching on the resonance of Orwell's novel and imagery.

Mickeleh's Take: The tagline of Vote Different promises that we'll see why 2008 won't be like 1984. Not so. In our new political and media world every year will be like 1984.

(Tags: Campaign , YouTube, Media, Apple, Advertising, Hillary, Obama)

Cleaning Tips for Black MacBook

I just de-smudged, and de-oiled the finish of my black MacBook. Looks good as new.

Playing Heloise for MacBook, Josh R. Holloway has the recipe--and the disclaimer (expanding on a hint on the InsanelyMac Forum).

Mickeleh's Take: Mickeleh offering cleaning tips? The world must be coming to an end.

(Tags: MacBook, Cleaning)

Robert's Rules of Order: Scoble Nabs Three of Top Four Slots in Google Search for "Robert"

Search Google for "Robert" today and three of the top four results are for popular blogger Robert Scoble. Mysterously, an obscure actor who once played fictional taxi driver Travis Bickle and actual boxer Jake LaMotta manages to squeeze it into slot three.

Microsoft's live.com lists the Wikipedia article on the name "Robert" first, and then moves on to a pantheon of iconic Roberts, such as composer Schumann...poets Burns, Frost and Service... actors DeNiro, Iler, Prosky, Duvall, Downey Jr., and Mitchum... comedian Schimmel, blues maestro Johnson... photographer Mapplethorpe, wine maker Mondavi, attorney general and senator Kennedy, authors Sabuda and Stevenson ... singer Palmer, pig farmer and serial killer Pickton... and Broadway's own Goulet. You'll go through pages of Roberts before running into geek blogger Scoble.

Guess which one Scoble thinks is a better search engine?

Mickeleh's Take: Will "will Google supplant Microsoft" supplant "Mac vs. Windows" as stronger link bait?

(Tags: Google, Microsoft, scoble, search)

Dear NBC: Tone Down the Heroes Spoilers, Please

I share Jeremy Toeman's complaint about NBC airing too many spoilers in their promos for Heroes. It's not just the "next week on..." preview at the end of the episode—I know those are coming and I can duck them.
But, as Jeremy points out, NBC is peppering clips from Heroes throughout their schedule. You never know when they're going to hit. (Hey, NBC, don't force me to use the nifty 30-second skip button on my Moxi to blow past all your promos and ads. I know you don't want that. But what choice do you give me? Oh yeah, I can stop watching anything on NBC except Heroes.)

Mickeleh's Take: It's getting worse. The newest wrinkle is to run promos within the episode for something that will happen in the next act. Gimme a break here. Heroes is a hit is because of WOM, WOW, and WOB (word of mouth, web, and blog). It's built to hold an audience. Trust it. If it ain't in the writing, casting, & production, then pimping an explosion in Act IV, won't get me past Act I. If I need an explosion fix, I'll reach for the DVD of SCTV and watch Farm Film Report. They blowed up things real good.

BTW: Check out Jeremy's Unofficial Heroes Drinking Game. But not if you're driving. There have been some chugs in recent episodes.

(Tags: TV, Heroes)

The Big Gotcha of Apple TV: It Might Not Work on Your TV

Apple says it's going to be a little late turning its homework on AppleTV (see AppleInsider for the deets).

That give them a little breathing room before the flood of buyers returning the product in droves because they can't make it work with their televisions.

Apple says it clearly, if not prominently:

"Apple TV works with widescreen, enhanced-definition or high-definition TVs capable of 1080i, 720p, 576p, or 480p resolutions..."

But I wonder how many people won't notice that until they open the box?

While TVs that meet Apple's requirements dominate current retail sales, they're far from dominating the installed base of TVs. (See also Scoble's lament that his Dad isn't in the digital TV generation.) If you have an older TV, you're just not going to be able to make the connection.

Mickeleh's Take: There are more than enough modern TVs to make Apple's numbers, but there are also many more older TVs that will make headaches for the returns counter at the Apple store. Apple's delay on shipping the product gives them another few weeks to stock up on aspirin.

Other Mickeleh's Takes on Apple TV:

Pixel-Punchy Scobel's Rant about Apple TV

Apple, Pioneer of Accessible Solutions,
Neglects Closed Captions in Apple TV

Newest Mad Scientist Threat: A Machine that Remembers Everything

[This article spans technology and politics, I've cross posted it in Mickeleh's Soapbox.]

The Scooter Libby case goes to the jury today. It hinges on this question: did he lie to the FBI about how and when he learned about Mrs. Wilson, or was he innocently mis-remembering?

Apparently, we will soon have the technology to expedite trials like this. Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell, in Scientific American, describe research they are doing at Microsoft on harnessing the technology to record everything.

Scientific American: A Digital Life [ INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ]
New systems may allow people to record everything they see and hear--and even things they cannot sense--and to store all these data in a personal digital archive

Storage is getting cheap. Processors continue to obey Moore's law. Network access is getting ubiquitous. Sensors of various types being embedded everywhere. (Carry a cell phone? Then you're carrying a microphone and a camera that know where you are. hmmm.)

Mickeleh's Take: Feds Using Cell Phones to Eavesdrop
...feds can download software to many kinds of cell phone and then have the ability to turn on the microphone and listen in. Even when the cell phone is turned "off."

Bell has amassed 150 gigabytes of data in six years, and his descriptions of what he can do with it make it sound really cool. Without a good overlay of intelligence and analysis, an archive of everything in our lives might turn all of us into clones of the Borges character Funes, the Memorious, who remembered everything but understood nothing.

Bell and Gemmell acknowledge that "the prospect that identity thieves, gossipmongers or authoritarian states could gain access to such records is frightening." And, with the optimism of every scientist in a fifties sci-fi movie seem assured that technologies can be tamed so as to minimize potential dangers. I wonder if Admiral (Total Information Awareness) Poindexter would agree.

(See also my recent posts in the Soapbox: To Engineer a Totalitarian Takeover, First Appoint a Clown to Be President)

Mickeleh's Take: Is it time to join the Luddites yet?

Mind of an Impressario, Soul of a Venture Capitalist, Heart of an Agent

Mickeleh's Take: That Tail gets longer by the minute.

What's Web 2.0, Anyway? The Video

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us


Video by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Kansas State University. The director has placed a higher quality version on MediaFire and made it available for download. For more info, click through to YouTube and then click "more" to the right of the video window.

Mickeleh's Take: I love this video. There's much to learn here, both about Web 2.0 and using motion graphics to tell a story.

Lawrence Lessig Has a Modest Suggestion for iTunes DRM

Lawrence Lessig points out that there are independent artists on iTunes who would be happy if the DRM on their music were turned off today. Why doesn't Steve start there?

Amazon Video Downloads; Now with the Great Taste of TiVo

The battle for movies online just got a lot hotter. Amazon's Unbox is coming to a TiVo near you. This makes things a lot simpler. Steve Poland on Techcrunch says "Amazon steals Walmart's thunder." But there wasn't that much thunder to steal.

More on Techmeme

Mickeleh's Take: Yesterday's Take is now slightly obsolete. Call this Take Two: The video download game is decidedly less geeky this morning. Now there are two top tier players with attractive end-to-end solutions: Apple, and Amazon-TiVo. Except that the potential TiVo audience is tiny (1.5 million with broadband connections). Apple TV has a zero audience today, but rumors on AppleInsider suggest they could easily outpace TiVo within a year.

(Tags: Walmart, Netflix, Apple TV, TiVo, Movies)

Can I Be the Only Blogger with Nothing to Say About Steve Jobs Open Letter on DRM?

I can't recall ever seeing so much commentary on anything at Techmeme. Steve Jobs writes an open letter to the music industry inviting them to allow him to cut the locks off the music he sells at the iTunes store. And the crowd goes wild. His strongest argument is this: the horse is already out of the barn; why bother keeping the door shut?

Mickeleh's Take: Bravo Steve. Very cool move. Steve Jobs is a master of timing. He bravely asks the industry to drop DRM two weeks after the NY Times says they're already thinking about doing it. That's leadership. Find a parade. Grab a flag. And run to the front, yelling, "follow me, boys and girls!" Works every time. Mr. Gates, you've made a fortune by copying Steve. Please continue.

Another reason for the timing; Europe is giving Apple grief around the DRM lock-in that ties iTunes music sales to the iPod and only the iPod as a portable player. (Steve's letter has a pretty explanation for why Apple can't share it's DRM mojo with anyone else. It's the Ben Franklin defense: "three can keep a secret if two of them are dead." In other words, if Apple shared the secret sauce, then the secret would get out and if the secret gets out, then, according to its deals with the music industry, Apple has to stop selling music.)

You'll notice, by the way, that movie-mogul Jobs isn't thinking about dropping DRM for any of the Pixar and Disney flicks. (Those horses are still in the barn, and we're keeping the door shut tight, thank you very much.) But if Steve won't make the case for dropping DRM universally, Cory Doctorow will. In fact, he already has at Microsoft and at HP.

(Tags: Steve Jobs, DRM, iTunes, iPod, Music)

New Anti-Vista Mac Spot: Hilarious, Vicious

Ouch.