Archive for September 6th, 2007
When the iPhone was first announced back in January, I wrote why I wouldn’t be getting one straight away. I had learned - Apple punishes early adopters. You read here at LR eight months ago. I didn’t foresee the remarkably (and suspiciously) quick price drop, but I did get my way with this wishy-washy request on behalf of early adopters: “We should get upgrade discounts or trade-in rebates or something.” So no regrets out of being gouged that extra $200, anyone. Your pals at One LR tried to talk you down.
September 6th, 2007
(This article originally appeared in the Sept. 5, 2007 edition of the AR&D Media 2.0 Intel newsletter.) Most local media websites have “politics” sections. In these sections, we find whatever stories the TV station/newspaper has run related to politics. But this doesn’t begin to harness the real power of the Web - and it doesn’t reflect the shift that’s happening in the way the Web is changing elections. The electorate is talking politics online. They are debating issues. They are talking, shouting, fighting and arguing. It’s messy and it’s wonderful. For the most part, this is happening on national news sites and blogs. It’s not seen that much in local and state elections. This is a shame - our passions are just as strong, if not stronger, when it comes to whether that lot down the street is going to be zoned commercial. We can do better.
Read the full post September 6th, 2007
Wow, Steve Jobs is responding to the outpouring of frustration from iPhone users who shelled out serious cash to buy the phone two months ago only to learn yesterday the price had dropped by $200. “Being in technology for 30+ years I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy,” he writes in a letter on Apple.com. “(But) we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price.” So Apple will offer $100 store credits to anyone who bought an iPhone before yesterday’s price drop — assuming they didn’t receive a rebate or price reduction. “We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple,” Jobs writes. (Thanks for the tip, Jake!)
September 6th, 2007
This is good news for bloggers. The U.S. Federal Election Commission has ruled that political blogs like Markos Moulitsas’ DailyKos are exempt from campaign finance laws that put a cap on how much money they can receive as contributions. Here’s the key quote from the FEC: “While the complaint asserts that DailyKos advocates for the election of Democrats for federal office, the Commission has repeatedly stated that an entity that would otherwise qualify for the media exemption does not lose its eligibility because it features news or commentary lacking objectivity or expressly advocates in its editorials the election or defeat of a federal candidate.” BetaNews summarizes this in one line: “the presence of bias does not indicate the absence of media.” Interesting, huh? (Via PaidContent)
September 6th, 2007
McClatchy’s Real Cities Network has just added 51 more properties from the MediaNews Group. “We felt that it would be advantageous to us both to make their entire company an affiliate,” said David Fitzpatrick, vice president of sales for McClatchy Interactive. “What we’re doing is offering up our expertise in becoming a national sales channel for them. They have empowered us to become a sales extension of MediaNews Group.”
Both groups are part of the Yahoo newspaper consortium, and Fitzpatrick said the Real Cities expansion doesn’t impact that relationship.
September 6th, 2007
Here are some important tips from Don McMillan. (Via Cyberjournalist, thanks Jeff!)
September 6th, 2007
Microsoft has officially released Silverlight out of beta, and the content makers are starting to release their new Silverlight-driven web presentations. There’s already a decent list of adopters, including Major League Baseball and Fox movies who will use Silverlight for streaming video. Entertainment Tonight, The Home Shopping Network, WWE and Break.com will also use it, according to InformationWeek.
Entertainment Tonight will be creating Silverlight-based sites highlighting the “Emmy Awards” and other future events, HSN will use Silverlight for a live stream of its cable television network, the WWE will use Silverlight as a portal for wrestling videos and Break.com will launch a video search tool with a user experience based on the technology. Microsoft.com will also launch some Silverlight content, including a high-definition trailer for Halo that has already been using a test version of Silverlight.
The Entertainment Tonight content is new today and looks nice, but I’m still trying to figure out if this will all really be a threat to Flash. I will say this, the live-streaming technology with Silverlight appears far more stable than live video with Flash. That alone could have many content developers lean towards it. We know the CBS O&O’s are looking at using the technology, but a possible launch date isn’t public yet. Is anyone else looking at moving towards the Silverlight platform? What are your thoughts on the technology and the sites already using it?
September 6th, 2007
