What I'm Drinking on Thanksgiving.

November 27, 2008 by @smokejumper · 1 Comment 

Here is my guest blog post on The Savvy Sommelier . . . . 

“It’s time for the obligatory blog post about wine to pair with your Thanksgiving feast. But alas it is Thanksgiving eve, the short week has slipped away, you’ve probably bought your wine already and the real Savvy Sommelier has gone out with the girls.

So now that this lowly spouse has grabbed the reigns of this blog, what could I possibly add to the conversation?”  Read on . . . . 

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Veoh Dumping Veoh TV

November 23, 2008 by @smokejumper · Leave a Comment 

After recently launching a new web-based video player, Veoh is abandoning support for VeohTV.  The Veoh Web Player allows you to watch videos of any length in your browser.  Previously, on Veoh, any video of more than 30 minutes had to be viewed in VeohTV (which was a hassle for many users).  

The Veoh Web Player still involves a download but offers benefits such as being able to view download videos at a time when you are not connected to the Internet.
For more information and download of the Veoh Web Player . . . .

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Cable 2.0 Is (Finally) Upon Us

November 20, 2008 by @smokejumper · Leave a Comment 

Interesting coverage out the SJ Mercury News today about web video developing into a viable alternative to cable tv.    This is very much in line with my post early last month “Why I’ll leave cable t.v. behind . . . .”

With the entry of Sling, joining other sites such as Hulu, Joost, Veoh and others, most of what is available on cable is now available on the web.  Now I can watch my favorite shows:  The Office, Prison Break, Law & Order, Brothers & Sisters, ER, House, The Daily Show and Colbert Report . . . when I want.  
The only major hurdle is that I can’t easily watch them on my TV.  And watching on the 13″ screen of my MacBook after I’ve been on it all day is not joyful.  Worse is attempting to watch on my iPhone.  That will change and when it does I won’t miss cable.

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Look Important With FakeCalls

November 3, 2008 by @smokejumper · Leave a Comment 

I first traveled to Brazil some 13 years ago on a business study trip. At that time the Brazilian cellular industry was taking off. We observed a couple of the interesting dynamics that contrasted the Brazilian experience with that of North America. One was that people were bypassing landlines altogether, rather investing in a cellular phone as their only and exclusive phone number. Two, for people who couldn’t afford an actual cellular phone, they could purchase a “virtual” number which provided them a phone number and voice mail. The voice mail could be accessed via a pay phone and presumably any message could be returned via this manner as well. In effect, this represented a low-cost, virtual answering service. (I don’t expect this type of service exists much anymore).

The most interesting service we learned about at this time was a service that would call you on your cell phone at a pre-arranged time. It was a way for Brazilians who could afford a cell phone back then to look important in front of friends, business colleagues and dates. Nothing like having to interrupt an in-person conversation to take a very important call. Of course there was no one on the other line.
With the prevalence of cellular phones in much of the world today, the last thing most people need is their cell phone to ring in order to impress. (Often, it has the opposite effect). However there are times when you’d like to extract yourself from an awkward situation. That’s were FakeCalls app for the iPhone comes in. It mimics the phone call receiving process on the iPhone. Load up the app, set the time you’d like to receive a call and after that amount of time passes . . . voila, your phone starts ringing and vibrating indicating an incoming call. See VentureBeat’s coverage of FakeCalls.
Best way to get out of mind-numbing business meetings, family dinners or blind dates that have gone awry!

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Monetization of Online Video

November 3, 2008 by @smokejumper · Leave a Comment 

News covered by TechCruch that MySpace has implemented a system that allows them to automatically identify any uploaded video clip from shows produced by MTV.  The ad platform, called Auditude, displays an overlay at the bottom of the screen when a clip is played.  This identifies which episode the clip originally came from, air-date and links to where users can buy the entire episode.  Read coverage . . .

More analysis from James McQuivey . . . he anticipates as more networks sign on with MySpace this will become standard practice.

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