Archive for March 16th, 2007
Some of you have asked about the other quirky audiences Lost Remote crosses over into. Do a Technorati search for “Lost Remote,” and you’ll see a strange number of matches for Chuck Norris. Now, Chuck’s awesome, of course. But what does he have to do with LR? Nothing, of course. However, you may have seen a list of jokes about how tough Chuck Norris is that is making the rounds and which has been cut ‘n pasted ad nauseum throughout MySpace and other blogs. Every few days someone posts it, and every few days, my Technorati alert tells me about it. Why the match? Because “Chuck Norris once lost the remote, but maintained control of the TV by yelling at it in between bites of his “Filet of Child” sandwich.” And yes, I realize by making this entry, I am only helping our cause in the Chuck Norris niche. (And increasing the traffic to that MySpace page.)
March 16th, 2007
Most people I’ve talked to love Wired.com’s new design, but Wired reminds us by posting reader feedback that you’ll always get ripped for a redesign by people who hate change. And these people are always the ones who write in. “Sorry to be blunt, but what the hell have you done to your homepage? It looks like a big oversized kiddie page,” writes one. “No. No. No. Bad Wired. Surely this is some cruel joke because you withheld pizza and caffeine from the html coders, yes?” writes another. And my personal favorite, “To which middle school art class did you farm this out?” Ah, the glory of web design.
March 16th, 2007
A company called Headplay has introduced this wearable video monitor called a Personal Cinema System. Headplay says it’s just like watching a 52-inch TV from 6 feet away. “While watching, I kept questioning whether the screen looked like a big screen, or a small one that looked like a big one because it was only a few inches away and I was wearing the equivalent of a scuba mask,” writes CNET’s Michael Kanellos, who says the picture quality is a lot better than you might think. Price tag? $499.
March 16th, 2007
Nielsen’s new service tracks the game console market, and the first report clearly shows that much of the usage is taking place when people would normally be watching conventional TV programming. The report, “The State of the Console,” finds that the penetration of video game consoles soared nearly 19% during Q4 2006 and are now in more than 45.7 million homes, which account for 41.1% of TV households. Advertisers and media planners who are buying television are going to notice these numbers, folks.
March 16th, 2007
Peter Bart at Variety notes that there is a huge disconnect this year between favorably reviewed movies and successful box office hits. (This is new?) The new movie “300,” for example, is getting widely panned yet is a success. Ditto “Ghost Rider,” “Night at the Museum,” (Which the LR Spouse and LR Offspring loved), “Wild Hogs” and “Norbit.” Bart asks “If the established media want to stay relevant, should their critics make a passing attempt to tune in to pop culture?” I ask “Why do we bother with reviewers when we could have tons of people seeing movies and have their thoughts aggregated and summarized?” I care what one film snob thinks? Also - we’re about to get whacked with a snowstorm this weekend in New England. Movie receipts will be down. Imagine how “300″ could recoup that if the studio announced it was putting it on Pay-Per-View. (Check out Variety’s interactive box office chart.)
March 16th, 2007
(This originally appeared in this week’s AR&D Media 2.0 Intel Newsletter.) Baseball season! It’s back, and along with it, lots of bad baseball metaphors. Who am I to resist? Here’s mine: your website is not your TV newscast’s minor league. (More, after the jump.)
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