CNN Enhanced on Dish is in the Wild…

TVWeek (free registration required) may have been the first to report this, under the headline ‘Interactive TV Gets a Big Boost’ – CNN has launched their first major one-screen interative TV application. I was the product manager on this effort, and it’s great to see the trades picking up on it. If you have Dish, please check it out and let me know your thoughts. The app combines photos and stories from CNN.com you can read while the CNN linear network continues to play in squeezeback. So for those couch potatoes among us who want a little more control over your news, this one’s for you! The TV Week story goes on with an interesting quote from Ian Olgeirson, an analyst with Kagan Research: “Certainly, being able to deploy the application to more than a small amount of customers is pretty critical to making the model work on any level,” he said. Still, ITV is not likely to lure new customers, he said.”

Update (2/20/06): MediaPost has a story focused on the OpenTV back-end details. A nice quote from Joel Hassell, the SVP/GM at OpenTV who notes the value of the application providing content from CNN.com to a satellite television viewer:

“Television is ubiquitous, but the Internet is not, as yet–so you have a number of households that can get a real benefit in terms of staying connected.”

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SI Swimsuit on Your iPod

While some may find it hard to believe, I’m quite happy to not be involved in the coding, editing and (ahem) ‘quality control’ of the annual SI.com Swimsuit Edition. The NYTimes picked up on this year’s efforts, and goes into great detail on this much-heralded product launch tomorrow (on Valentines Day, ‘natch). The annual staple has grown to not only include the magaine itself, but videos for your iPod, AIM icons, mobile phone wallpapers, and a cross-country series of parties with Anheuser-Busch (which picked up this sponsorship after Miller bowed out recently). Not to mention a few hundred very nice photos on SI.com. Get ready, get set – now go make sure all those images are cropped correctly in three different size formats, the swimsuit credits are correct, and no one left off any thumbnail images for gallery 42 of 50! Believe me – stare at those pictures long enough, and you’ll grow hair where you don’t want it – or perhaps get tired of supermodels. Probably NOT the latter, though.

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My Four Things

As if I didn’t have enough to do, I was tagged and need to post my response (more examples of the Four Things meme here).

Four jobs I’ve had in my life:

  1. Thrifty Hardware & Supply Company clerk – worked for my dad, doing fun things like working the pipe cutting machine and getting covered in the lubricating oil. I’d come home looking like I’d been in one of those Wesson-oil wrestling matches.
  2. Waltham Camera & Stereo counter sales – back in college, I earned extra $$ working at this high-end stereo and photo store. We’d spend hours listening to our favorite music on these $25k systems, and I was able to buy all sorts of gear at cost. Heck, I still have some of the speakers I bought back in the day.
  3. Photojournalist – I was a stringer for the AP during college, then a staff photographer and editor for the Savannah Morning News and The Augusta Chronicle. Amazing experiences during that time – from travelling with the U.N. to Sarajevo in ’92 to photographing the antics of the ill-fated ’86 Red Sox, to covering the darker side of my home town during the violent crack-gang violence in the early 90s. 
  4. Turner Broadcasting – that would be my current job, and it’s been a blast, from the annual Swimsuit Edition for SI.com to iTV projects for CNN and the rest of our brands, it’s been a great experience. PS – Swimsuit 2006 launches on Valentines Day next week!

Four movies I can watch over and over:

  1. The Princess Bride
  2. Local Hero
  3. Rear Window
  4. Monsters Inc.

Four TV shows I love to watch:

  1. 24
  2. Survivor (yeah, I know)
  3. Curb Your Enthusiasm
  4. Family Guy

Four places I’ve been on vacation:

  1. Isla Mujeres, Mexico – wonderful small island off Cancun – peaceful and beautiful
  2. Haifa, Israel – rather like Carmel, California. Went before the Intafada, when the only worries were rockets coming in from Lebanon
  3. Volcano Village, Hawaii – among the many places we went on our honeymoon, by far the most magical
  4. Highlands, NC – a great escape from Atlanta – wonderful hiking, amazing food and wine, and good geocaching!

Four of my favorite dishes:

  1. Toro!
  2. Osso Bucco
  3. Lobster, pretty much any way you serve it
  4. Berries

Four websites I visit daily:

  1. CNN.com
  2. Digg.com
  3. SI.com
  4. HDBeat.com

Four places I would rather be right now:

  1. The aforementioned Big Island of Hawaii
  2. At home, with my wife and son
  3. Savannah, GA (my hometown)
  4. Boston (my adoptive hometown)

Four bloggers I am tagging:

  1. Lee Clontz
  2. 3Gs
  3. Hollandtower
  4. Boblog

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Another day at the Zoo

Flickr Photo

It was a mild morning this Sunday, so we trooped off to Zoo Atlanta for a bit of exercise. Of course, the tele lens and camera were in tow. Apparently due to some rain this morning, the place was nearly deserted. We were literally alone with the docent in the Panda exhibit. One was asleep, but the other was splayed out eating some of the thirty pounds of bamboo she scarfs on a daily basis. Sam really enjoyed the up close look.

Flickr Photo

The photo safari continues after the link…

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Photos, musings and miscellany – New and Improved!