Cuban Likes Obesity

Mark Cuban
There aren’t many of us who could call bulls__t on Preston Padden–at least not in front of a room full of press and politicos. However, Mark Cuban, CEO of HDNet and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, did it twice in 10 minutes at the Consumer Electronics Association’s 2006 Entertainment Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. Preston Continue Reading →

The Myth Of Personal Video

iPod
MY VIDEO IPOD LOVES ME! Unfortunately, I only like it “as a friend.” It all started last December when we met at a holiday party–the chemistry was extraordinary. It was sleek, beautiful and full of mystery (“Lost”), drama (“Law & Order”) and intrigue (“Desperate Housewives). It had a sense of humor (“SNL”) and even a Continue Reading →
HDTV
It’s the dawn of a new year–filled with excitement, possibilities and promise. By now all of the new HDTV sets are hooked up, new iPods are formatted, iTunes accounts are set up, and BitTorrent 4.2.2 is properly installed. Let the media frenzy begin. Just one problem … according to studies by SA and Leichtman, over Continue Reading →

Who Are The Real Pirates?

Pirates
We hear the content industry and rights holders complaining about piracy everyday: file sharing, physical piracy, theft-of-services, derivative works, etc. But has anyone stopped to think about how many times consumers are asked to pay for the same content? Computer files may be the final form factor, but that is not stopping media companies from Continue Reading →

The Apple of my Video iPod

iPod
Did Steve Jobs finally screw up?  After all, if there was such a thing as the portable video business wouldn’t everyone would have been walking around with a Sony Watchman for the last 20 years?  No and no. Apple’s new video iPod probably won’t capture the imagination of consumers quite the way its audio predecessor Continue Reading →
F-Troop
Growing up in the 70s on Long Island, I had a pretty set after-school routine. Throw my coat over the living room railing, throw my books on the kitchen counter, grab a soda and a big bag of chips or cookies and throw myself on the couch in front of the television set. Most afternoons Continue Reading →
Verizon
The Los Angeles Times Reports: Technophiles predicted that the PDA would go the way of the dinosaurs, and it looks like the prediction is about to come true.   Thanks to the success of the MP3 player generally and the iPod specifically, cell phone manufacturers are turning PDA/phones into music-playing PDA/phones, and wireless carriers are Continue Reading →

Apple Cuts iPod Prices

iPod Shuffle
In addition to its bigger announcements of iTunes 4.9 and its new color screen iPod lineup, Apple today quietly dropped the price of the 1GB iPod shuffle to $129, from $149.   The price cut is seen as a move to boost sales and distance the device away from the lower-end iPod mini model. It Continue Reading →
Bill Gates
This article appeared in the New York Post.  It’s priceless.  There’s Sabre rattling and then, there’s Sabre rattling.  On a more specific topic, you can be sure that the cell phone purveyors are thinking about a phone-based MP3 world.  But, as history has so often shown — thinking doesn’t mean you going to get it Continue Reading →
Music
  Jonathan Bokor of ABC Enhanced TV sent in this item which confirms, among other things, that Bokor’s crystal ball is working perfectly.  He predicted this particular probable future … looks like he was right! Washington — While the percentage of Internet music downloaders who said they used peer-to-peer file-sharing systems has declined to 21%, Continue Reading →