Archive for June 29th, 2007
If you haven’t read Time Magazine’s in-depth story on (and interview with) Rupert Murdoch yet - it’s a must read. The story covers a lot of ground, from Dow Jones to MySpace. The story also susses out a key detail - one that might be helping drive all the concern over News Corp’s bid for the Wall Street Journal:
In 1976 he bought the failing, family-owned liberal New York Post and solemnly pledged to “maintain its present policies and traditions.” Then he yanked it hard right and down-market.
June 29th, 2007
I took a gander at the page we teased earlier today that allows you to check to see if Apple stores still have the iPhone in stock. Methodically clicking through each state, I didn’t find a single “red light.” The page notes that it is updated each night at 9pm. So either a) it hasn’t been updated, or b) every single Apple store still has the gadget in stock. CNet News.com reports that there haven’t been any real supply woes as of yet.
June 29th, 2007
LR’s been following Google’s efforts to sell advertising on traditional media outlets for quite some time - since the company bought an outfit that specializes in giving advertisers a way to purchase airtime online. Now the CEO of one of the nation’s top broadcasters is speaking out. “That is further commoditizing our product. I think it is a fundamentally flawed model. It says we cannot sell all of our inventory,” Citadel Communications chief Farid Suleman told a radio symposium Thursday. Radio & Records says Suleman told the crowd that he worries what happens when Google makes a deal for a chunk of station’s inventory - and can’t sell it.
June 29th, 2007
The Apple PR control freaks could only watch helplessly as Meredith Viera fumbled with an iPhone on NBC’s Today on Friday morning. She couldn’t get some features to work, and said “Mine refuses to work for me - this is why gadgets drive me crazy.” Then a bid to stage an incoming call from Matt Lauer in London went even worse. In total, the glorified advertisement of a news segment turned out to be a disaster. Somehow, I don’t think the debacle will hurt sales… Watch.
June 29th, 2007
A new web only video is being produced by foxnews.com called “Dotcom Daily.” Anchored by Courtney Friel, the webcast is a fast overview of the top stories on the site, with the traditional Fox flash. Strangely, the video is not easy to find on the site, and it looks like it was only produced four days this week. TVNewser found the video on the AOL Video site. (By the way, when did Fox News start hiring so many beautiful newscasters?)
June 29th, 2007
Stopped by the Apple store in Chestnut Hill, MA (just outside Boston) to see how the line for the iPhone looked. As of 12:35 ET, there were 42 people in a surprisingly quiet line. Many of them were in lawn chairs, and at least one was someone’s kid who clearly wasn’t there to buy an iPhone. Still, he quietly played his PSP. A few security guards stood around looking a bit too imposing. There is a giant iPhone mockup in the window of the store. I asked a clerk “When does the craziness start?” “It already has,” he said. Sales begin at 6 tonight.
Apple store, Chestnut Hill, MA. (Taken with my decidedly non-iPhone cameraphone.)
Update from Cory: Apple has been very reluctant to hand out devices in advance. Look, here are the Digg guys in line, and Stephen Colbert even resorted to begging on the air.
Update: Did you see this? Fox reporter’s microphone swiped during iPhone line live shot.
June 29th, 2007
In a 170 page report, the FTC has effectively said no to Net Neutrality. “In the absence of significant market failure or demonstrated consumer harm, policy makers should be particularly hesitant to enact new regulation in this area,” FTC Chair Deborah Platt Majoras wrote in the official statement (pdf). FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz issued a separate concurring statement that supported the FTC’s position with regards to consumer protection, but said that reactive antitrust actions might not work as well to protect consumers as enacting net neutrality into law. The complicated issue here is that consumers are also enabled as publishers in the evolving world of the Fifth Estate, and it is not completely clear that the FTC is appreciating that the Internet is not simply another broadcasting medium, but a communications platform.
June 29th, 2007
(This column originally appeared in the June 27 edition of the AR&D Media 2.0 Intel Report.) Forget, right away, the many times you’ll read “Is the iPhone the next iPod?” It isn’t. It can’t be. It won’t be. The iPhone, even if it is a runaway hit that everyone wants, can’t be universal. That’s because Steve Jobs threw in his lot with AT&T. To use the iPhone, you need AT&T (the former Cingular, as you are no doubt sick of hearing from the ads) as the wireless provider. The deal is exclusive for three years. So right away, everyone who isn’t an AT&T customer - you’re out of the iPhone potential market pool.
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