It’s amazing what’s available on the web today. Who needs user-generated content when you can post network TV? Guba.com appears to be like most of these services – another storehouse for UGC material. Some enterprising soul has searched that site for nuggets – not gold, mind you, but network and cable television full episodes. They’ve organized all that content into another site – peekvid.com – that offers up a nice handy list of episodes from shows like 24, Family Guy, Monty Python and The Sopranos. Not that these can’t be found on BitTorrent, but I can see the cease-and-desists flying through the air now… (via Thomas Hawk by way of Digg).
13.3″ MacBook Expected Tomorrow
ThinkSecret is reporting the iBook replacement is coming tomorrow. Now where is my 12″ MacBook Pro? Integrated graphics just don’t cut it IMHO.
sources have nailed down next Tuesday, May 9, as the introduction day for the Intel-based laptop
Overhasty Obit for Aperture
Macworld sits down with Apple’s Sr. Director of Pro Apps Marketing to dispel rumours which were rampant last week that the development of Apple’s flagship pro-image workflow application had fired or reassigned it’s entire staff.
“The reports of Apple reducing their commitment to Aperture are totally false,” Kirk Paulsen, Apple’s Senior Director Pro Applications Marketing, told Macworld. “In fact, we’ve got more people working on Aperture right now than ever before. (Macworld)
Think Secret had reported that the team had been axed after extensive criticism of the first version of the application, but Paulsen says this is not the case at all. Daring Fireball heard from his sources at Apple, the departures were an ugly bit of mismanagement of the original team – and all had left of their own volition. This quote sums up the situation:
Aperture’s current engineering team was assembled before the original team left. Aperture was never without an engineering team, and the product’s future was never in jeopardy. (Daring Fireball)
And Remind Me Why I’m Paying…?
A few weeks back we all heard that Microsoft had acquired Massive Inc., a company focused on the nacent in-game advertising market. Despite some rough starts, there’s clearly a great deal of promise to this area for marketers, reaching the valued 18-34 male demo as they find a new home away from broadcast television. The news from the weekend indicates that the first deployment of this tech for MSFT will be inside the XBox Live service.
“Advertisers are having a tough time connecting with the elusive 18- to 34-year-old male demographic because this group continues to spend less time watching TV and more time playing video games,” said Joanne Bradford, corporate vice president of Global Sales and Marketing and chief media revenue officer at Microsoft. “Massive and Microsoft can help lead with our shared vision of delivering more targeted, measurable and effective opportunities for advertisers to reach today’s youth audience in a largely untapped market.” (From the press release)
Now, speaking as a consumer, I’m already paying something on the order of $50 a year for the priveledge of enabling the online features of all the $60 game titles I’ve purchased for the 360, and the thought that this experience is now going to be plastered with ads pimping that new soda I don’t give a %^#@ about is kind of annoying. Will we see a price drop in the sub fee? Will the Xbox community react positively to this ‘enhancement.’ I’m not holding my breath…but I do know that the makers of the new consoles on the horizon (Wii and the PS3) will watch closely.