(* Source: Jason Kincaid *)

Jason says...

It’s becoming increasingly common for the web’s many publishers to offer their own native smartphone applications in addition to mobile-optimized web versions. But few web publishers have the resources to actually develop an app for themselves. iSites is a new service launching today that allows publishers to quickly build applications for the iPhone, allowing them to create a customized and branded app in as little as 10 minutes. And soon, you’ll be able to use the platform to simultaneously publish Android apps from the same platform.

Of course, you’re not going to be able to build out a particularly complex app in ten minutes, but if your primary goal is to syndicate your stories to users, with basic features like browsing by categories and the ability to ‘favorite’ stories, this will suit you just fine. Building an app is straightforward: first, you tell iSites which RSS feed it should include in your app. You can also include feeds from a dozen popular web services like Twitter, Blogger, Flickr, and Wordpress.  Once you’ve figured out what content you’re going to include, you can tweak the color scheme of the app, add your own logos, and attach an icon and a description to include in the App Store.

Once all that’s done, you submit the app and wait for it to appear on the App Store (iSites handles the submission process). Once the app is live, you can log in to your iSites account to view analytics on the app’s performance, including which content in your app is the most popular.

One of the nice things about iSites is that even after you’ve deployed your app, you can modify the various feeds the app is pulling content from. And soon, you’ll be able to deploy apps to both the App Store and Android Market (the Android version is currently in Beta testing, with release planned in the next few weeks). Changes made using iSites (like your app’s layout or feeds) will be reflected on both your iPhone and Android apps.

iSites costs users a flat fee of $25 for the standard version, or $99 a year if you want to be able to include your own AdMob ads. The service is currently being used by a number of clients, including university papers like The Daily Californian, The Stanford Daily, and The State Press.

iSites certainly isn’t the first player to offer a solution for helping publishers build mobile apps — we’ve been seeing similar tools for nearly as long as the App Store has been around, with competitors including AppMakr, Mobile Roadie, and plenty more.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Viralblog *)

Another year, another mashup. DJ Earworm created a mash up of the top 25 hits of 2009, according to Billboard; “United State of Pop 2009“. Last year, the DJ created the same kind of mash up for the year 2008. This video generated almost 2 million views. This year’s version, containing Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas and Beyonce, got over 4.5 million views in just 1 week time on YouTube alone. So enjoy the best of 2009, in a little over 4 minutes, one more time!

A Mashup of the Top 25 Hits of 2009, according to Billboard.

http://facebook.com/earworm
http://djearworm.com

The Black Eyed Peas - BOOM BOOM POW
Lady Gaga - POKER FACE
Lady Gaga Featuring Colby O'Donis - JUST DANCE
The Black Eyed Peas - I GOTTA FEELING
Taylor Swift - LOVE STORY
Flo Rida - RIGHT ROUND
Jason Mraz - I'M YOURS
Beyonce - SINGLE LADIES (PUT A RING ON IT)
Kanye West - HEARTLESS
The All-American Rejects - GIVES YOU HELL
Taylor Swift - YOU BELONG WITH ME
T.I. Featuring Justin Timberlake - DEAD AND GONE
The Fray - YOU FOUND ME
Kings Of Leon - USE SOMEBODY
Keri Hilson Featuring Kanye West & Ne-Yo - KNOCK YOU DOWN
Jamie Foxx Featuring T-Pain - BLAME IT
Pitbull - I KNOW YOU WANT ME (CALLE OCHO)
T.I. Featuring Rihanna - LIVE YOUR LIFE
Soulja Boy Tell 'em Featuring Sammie - KISS ME THRU THE PHONE
Jay Sean Featuring Lil Wayne - DOWN
Miley Cyrus - THE CLIMB
Drake - BEST I EVER HAD
Kelly Clarkson - MY LIFE WOULD SUCK WITHOUT YOU
Beyonce - HALO
Katy Perry - HOT N COLD

Posted by brian tiong at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Gagan Biyani *)

Gagan says...

Some mobile startups do something that can’t be done online. Others copy an online business and bring it to mobile. And then there are companies like Scoutmob [iTunes link]. They take a great online business and make it ten times better by allowing you to take advantage of the service on-the-go.

Scoutmob is Woot on mobile, done on a local scale. Scoutmob provides location-aware coupons directly to your mobile device. They launch in Atlanta, and their first offer is for 50% off at Murphy’s, which is a 4-star restaurant according to Yelp. The offers, according to CEO Dave Payne, have a rapid expiration time (in this example, 24 hours), so you need to use the coupon within one day. They’ll have a different offer every day, so don’t weep if you can’t fly into Atlanta by midnight – you’ll be able to hit up Octane Coffee Bar and Lounge tomorrow.

For those of you who caught it, one obvious downside is “they launch in Atlanta.” That’s not to say Atlanta isn’t a cool place (hey, they brought us Coca-Cola and the Dirty Bird), but just that I doubt there are as many iPhone owners there as in San Francisco or New York City. That said, Dave’s existing business, SkyBlox, is a company that provides WiFi to 2,500 local businesses in Atlanta, so they’ve got an incumbent customer base to draw on for their offers.

Scoutmob seems to be entering an interesting business at a great time. Real-time and location-based mobile apps are hot as balls right now, and the virtual coupon business is making headlines too. Of course, it’s also super crowded – as there are many location-aware coupon apps on the iPhone, including Yowza!, which has made headlines because its founder is Heroes star, Greg Grunberg.

An interesting side-story (and a knock against Scoutmob) is that Dave has no technical expertise himself and does not have a technical team to make or maintain the application. Instead, he outsourced the technology to a web developer friend from college who didn’t know Objective-C. How the hell did he make an iPhone app with Push, a native UI and geolocation with a web developer? He used Appcelerator’s Titanium product, which enables web developers to create iPhone and Android applications. I’ve sat down with CEO Jeff Haynie, and Titanium, which is free, seems to be a cool way for web developers to create native-looking iPhone apps without having to code in Objective-C.

Scoutmob is available on the iTunes store and their first promotion is today.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Goldman *)

Landline TV is a New York-based production company that specializes in comedy. Here is their version of how Google's new phone destroys the competition by systematically terrorizing iPhone's users.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: John Biggs *)

Jonh says...

What AppMakr lacks in vowels they make up for in coolness. AppMakr is a dead easy app design engine that allows you to enter a URL or search term, pick a few images, and publish an app to the App Store in a few minutes.

The service uses RSS feeds and searches to build a comprehensive feed of your website or “personal brand” that is updated automatically. You can then push the app live for $199 or download the app to your own machine for $499.

The pricing is a little weird. Here’s the official skinny:

$199 – The Easy Way: AppMakr Publishes Your App
Submit your app in minutes, with AppMakr as the publisher. Skip the difficult parts of making an iPhone app, like having to work with Xcode and figuring out the app certification and provisional process. You can even insert your own ads in the app. Apps built with this option will have a small AppMakr logo on the app splash screen.

$499 – You’re In Control: Publish Under Your Own Brand
Take control of the app building process by creating an Apple Developer Account and loading your certificates into AppMakr. We’ll take care of the rest, including the provisioning, building and management of your apps. You’ll also be able to test apps on your own phone with Ad Hoc builds.

#gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; }

You can also hire the company to help you for $120 an hour, although that’s not really necessary.

The process is simple. You first enter your URL or search terms. The system searches for feeds and media and then places it into a browser. You can also grab logos from your disk or a URL. The simulator demos your app as you build it.

You then ad various feeds including YouTube, Digg, and TweetMeme data. The main feed shows on the front page while subsidiary feeds appear when you tap buttons at the bottom.

The current templates do not allow for “static” pages – About pages, for example – but that is coming.

The company just launched last night and we saw it live at a CES event. It seems like a great way for personal micro-brand-aware individuals to monetize their current feed value through the use of highly targeted data chunklets in a mobile context. Ha! Just kidding. But if you have a blog, it’s worth looking into.

Posted by brian tiong at 08:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Leena Rao *)

Leena says...

We’re big fans of TripIt, a nifty site that creates customized travel itineraries from travel confirmation emails. Today, the service is becoming even more useful by integrating Yapta.com, an airfare and hotel tracking service, into its platform.

Yapta lets you track fares from most of the major domestic and international airlines, allowing users to select flights to track, and then be alerted when the price fluctuates. If the price declines after you purchase it, Yapta will help you get a refund or credit from airlines that have lowest guaranteed fare policies. Travelers can now forward their flight confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and can choose to have Yapta start tracking their flights for airline refunds or credits. TripIt members can then link their account to Yapta in order to be alerted when they are eligible for a refund or credit based on an airline’s “guaranteed airfare” policy.

Yapta, which has been able to gain a steady group of consumer followers since its launch in 2007, is revealing a few compelling statistics about airfare price fluctuations. To date, Yapta has conducted approximately 500 million airfare price checks, showing that seat prices on 45 percent of flights will drop before the cabin door closes. Approximately 15 percent of these flights are eligible for a refund or credit and since May 2007, Yapta has identified over $250 million in savings for its members, an average of $334 per traveler each year.

Yapta stands to gain a new influx of users with the integration with popular service TripIt. It’s made Michael’s list of products he can’t live without for three years running, and is quickly gaining fans among frequent travelers. Yapta also offers a companion hotel price tracking service.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Erick Schonfeld *)

Posted by brian tiong at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Mike Johansson *)

Posted by brian tiong at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: b-side *)

Join Piers and friends in his Good Ideas series of talks in Tokyo this month...

PSFK says

Good Ideas Salons are where forward-thinkers come together to share ideas to make things better, whether that’s better work, better play or a better world. Drawing from a range of industries, Good Ideas Salons bring together people with a focus on lateral thinking, the desire to showcase their knowledge, and the wish to renew existing relationships with likeminded peers as well as forge new ones. 

 

More info here

Posted by brian tiong at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thank you Michael

Posted by brian tiong at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: MG Siegler *)

 A smart piece of production using the community tweets as content... karaoke anyone?

Posted by brian tiong at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Paul Isakson *)

Resonance from Continuum on Vimeo.

"As important as understanding what to do next is having the confidence in being right to make it real."

As I was catching up on Design Sojourn the other day, I came across this great video on Continuum's approach to and beliefs about design strategy. It's a very worth-while watch - providing a lot of good things to think about.

When you step back, it's really about putting people at the center of the approach, rather than profit or your own desires as a company. Not only is this relevant to design, but it is also paramount to creating great advertising.

One of the things that could easily get lost in this, but I think is important to call out, is our role as creative thinkers and strategists - to find ways to surprise and delight people. When you think about what makes a great product or a great ad great, it's often that there is something, or multiple things, about it that surprise and delight people.

That's why having a smart insight is one thing, but bringing an idea to life that addresses it in an interesting and relevant way is much harder, often takes more time, and really is something that not everyone can do.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Kumegirl *)

Kumegirl says...

Several years ago a lot of pundits were discussing generation C. Jake Pearce wrote in idealog in 2006;

“Trendwatching.com says it’s C for ‘content’, meaning Gen C are defined by their production of original material. The bloggers at Digital Hive say it’s all about ‘creativity’—that Gen C want to become co-creators of their world (“Don’t just sell me a car—involve me in designing it”). Tomi Ahonen, a Swedish telco consultant and author, has another definition: C is for ‘community’. He says young consumers walk around with “a gang in their pocket”, continually txting, phoning and pxting their friends and families. “No decision is now made as individual, everything is done in community. Tom Eslinger, Saatchi & Saatchi’s worldwide interactive creative director, says it’s all the above but is also C for ‘channel’. “You can have all the digital devices and creative skills you like, but opening a channel to reach millions of customers and fans marks out Generation C.”” Whatever people thought that C stood for ( the generation that had to deal with climate change, or generation cash) - there was an acknowledged shift.

How that shift has panned out has been best expressed by Nick Gadsby of the blog Dark London in a cluetrain related post

“It seems that rather than businesses becoming more like consumers, consumers were becoming more like businesses. Thanks to the communicative and distributive tools of the internet anybody could advertise themselves and lots of people did. This trend has only accelerated – players of online games form hierarchical top-down organisations, techies develop apps in their spare time, ebay and amazon encourage people to become virtual stores. Even the less commercially minded will cumulatively spend hours updating profiles and uploading photos. If the sprawling chaos of the Myspace profile was the infomercial, Twitter is the streamlined 30 second ad where detail is less important than impact. ”

This is the dynamic that now lies behind what is being referred to as The 4 C’s. Here the 4 c’s include converation, collaboration, crowdsourcing, co-creation, or here or here content, context, continuity and connectivity. Either way, c words are current in web 2.0 discussions.

The final comment from Dark London, “I think when businesses start aiming to be the experts again that then they will be ready to have a real conversation with consumers about what they are doing and what they should be doing because they’ll have an opinion and the confidence to debate its worth.”

Posted by brian tiong at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jason says...

Ning’s social network-building platform is getting a huge boost today, with the private beta launch of Ning Apps, a new suite of applications and features that Network Creators will be able to deploy across their networks with only a few clicks. The news has been a long time coming - network administrators have long been asking for features that could enhance their networks. But because of the nature of Ning, which houses hundreds of thousands of unique social networks, Network Creators were often requesting totally different things. Now they’ll be able to make everyone (or nearly everyone) happy.

At launch, Ning Apps is offering 90 new features to Network creators, built by 52 different developers that encompass a wide variety of web services. Network creators will now be able to integrate live video chat through TokBox, condunct contests with Wildfire, and create Wikis. Even better: network admins will be able to easily integrate monetization options, selling merchandise through Cartfly and tickets through Amiando and other ticketing apps.

Ning is likely going to be a very enticing platform for developers, too. Unlike social networks like MySpace, when a Ning network creator chooses to deploy an application, they have the option of deploying it to all of their users at once. And with some networks reaching more than 500,000 members, that translates into a huge jump in users. The applications are based on the OpenSocial standard, with some modifications to make them suitable for network-wide deployments. Still, even these changes are pretty minor - Ning says that developers have been porting their applications from other social networks in just two to three days.

Access to applications is beginning to roll out to a small number of Network Creators tomorrow, and will be available to everyone by the end of the month. At launch, all of the applications will be free to install (though some of the apps that involve money, like Cartfly, will take a revshare at the time of transaction), but Ning may well decide to deploy premium applications in the future.

Before now Network Creators have had access to some added functionality through third party applications. But Ning didn’t support these, and some of them were eventually removed from the site entirely. CEO Gina Bianchini says that Network Creators installing applications through Ning Apps can have ‘absolute confidence’ that the applications will work as advertised.

Aside from the launch of Ning Apps, things seem to be going quite well for Ning. The site recently saw the creation of its 1 millionth network (of which 200,000 are active), and is seeing 85,000 to 100,000 new users per day across all of its networks.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Anjali Ramachandran *)

Anjali says on PSFK...

Record labels don’t always have a smooth relationship with music artists. If a band chooses to release their music using alternative means, one of the most common assumptions is a) that their music wasn’t good enough to get them signed by a label or b) that they were difficult for labels to get along with. For established 20-year music veterans De La Soul, neither was the case. Releasing on iTunes tomorrow, De La Soul has partnered with Nike to bring us the “Are You in?: Nike+ Original Run,” 44-minute workout LP. This marks the return of the hip-hop trio to the music scene after a break of 5 years.

The album, part of Nike’s SportMusic range of music, is yet another example of the brand’s complete dedication to constantly reinventing themselves. Marketers have ventured into branded music before, but the SportMusic albums are different because they sell for $9.99 each, making them a revenue stream of their own accord. De La Soul have admitted to being approached by other brands, but say they went with Nike because they shared a common approach to the project. The group especially appreciated the fact that they were able to get feedback from Nike Plus runners.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Lee Ryan *)

Lee says...

"It’s possibly even easier to ignore the digital world in parts of Asia, but all of us are researchers though for different companies or freelancing. I don’t think we can continue to research and advise clients on brand communications as if it was 1999. I also don’t think it’s good for our industry to be at the back of the queue when it comes to experimenting, trying new stuff, and being prepared to have a view. I don’t know what the future of advertising is going to be, but i’m certain that there is a significant shift going on"

 

 

Posted by brian tiong at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Robin Wauters *)

People generally love sharing things, and Twitter has made broadcasting updates to anyone who cares to care on what you’re doing, wearing, reading, commenting on, eating, using, etc. a breeze; in 140 characters or less, even. It’s only natural to see so many users also share which music they are listening to at any given moment on Twitter, as this has been a fairly popular use of status feeds on other social networking and communication services for years (Facebook, Skype and Windows Live Messenger leap to mind).

Here’s a number of ways to use Twitter for just about anything related to music:

* Blip.fm - dubbed the “Twitter for Music” when we first reviewed the service, it got its own API in late 2008. Blip.fm enables anyone to start their own music station and broadcast tunes to Twitter and other status sharing services where people can interact with the choice of music.

* Twiturm does much of the same - upload music and share it with all your Twitter followers in a heartbeat. Intended for artists who want to share their own music, hence the name (”Twitter Ur Music”).

* Twisten.fm - Escape Media Group linked its music discovery service Grooveshark and its URL shortening service TinySong with an application that crawls Twitter for messages about music (and “then you listen to them”).

* Twt.fm (anyone see a naming pattern here?) - type in an artist, track, and your twitter username. Twt.fm will then generate a track page for you using your twitter page design and you’ll be able to tweet it to your followers.

* Tweetj - include a #tweetj tag in your tweets when you’re listening to music and it’ll be posted to a public playlist. The playlist allows you to discover new music and immediately purchase tracks on Amazon.

* A similar service is WiiZZZ (yes, that’s the actual name) - it allows you to listen to entirely random songs that have been posted and shared by Twitter users on any given day.

* Play Twitter - allows you to easily play mp3 files directly on Twitter or Identi.ca. MP3 links will automatically become playable right on the page.

* Tra.kz - this “URL shortener for all things music” was cooked up by MixMatchMusic and does exactly what you suspect it would do and therefore competes with the above mentioned TinySong and alternatives like Song.ly.

* TwittyTunes - Firefox extension that comes with another Firefox extension, Yahoo’s FoxyTunes, and allows you to instantly post your currently playing songs to Twitter with just a click.

* LastTweet - enables you to embed a widget with your latest tweets into your Last.fm profile

Also worth checking out, even if not directly related to Twitter: Nabbit (”connects your cellphone to your radio”), MuseBin (music news and reviews in 140 characters, like Blippr but music only) and Twones (the “social music feed”).

Did I miss any other apps, tools and websites worth noting?

Share them in the comments and I’ll be happy to update the post.

Update: it’s not Twitter-specific, but you can use Favtape to put together your own playlists / online mixtapes and share them on Twitter.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Alan H Gerson *)

Good summary from Alan on the elements that an advertising campaign needs in digital today.

Alan says...

The importance of sound creative executions and integrated strategies cannot be overemphasized in today's online ad market. Follow these steps to get on the right track.

1. Capture interest and attention
Advertising is, of course, a specific communication strategy designed to shape consumer action towards, or opinions about, particular products or services. Advertising, like every other communication strategy, will not and cannot work unless it finds an audience and actually delivers its message. We live in an increasingly crowded media environment. The average consumer is exposed to thousands of different advertising messages every week. Many of those messages are repeated with a frequency that deadens the senses. Even finding the right potential customer and placing the advertising message in front of him or her does not guarantee interest or focus on what the ad message is trying to communicate. 

The new media consumers have been taught that they are in charge of what, where, when, and why they will pay attention to an ad message. Nevertheless, capturing interest and focusing attention remains the prerequisite for a successful advertisement.  More

2. Extend engagement
Engagement is a new hot metric. In the battle for the attention of the consumer, "time spent" is a valuable indication of whether the advertising communication has been successful, and delivering an ad impression does not necessarily equate to consumer attention and interest. There are all levels of impressions, but do they communicate in a world where consumers have the ability to scan, fast forward, jump, and abandon content with the touch of a button on myriad of different devices?

Therefore, truly engaging and focusing a consumer on the advertising message is increasingly valuable and effective. Engagement for a significant period of time, especially if that engagement is interactive, clearly indicates that the message has been delivered to a consumer who has -- by the investment of their time and actions -- demonstrated interest and attentiveness.  More

3. Activate toward client goals
Today, even if branding is the main objective, some sort of measurable action by the consumer that can be translated into a concrete return on the advertising investment is almost always a parallel goal.

Every marketer of every brand, product, or service has a hierarchy of real-world results they would like to see from their advertising. This goes beyond metrics and measurement. Ultimately, they want to see sales increase, or product sampling, or store visits, or a consumer database developed from information requests, or promotional registrations. 

Advertising, even brand advertising, needs to be able to multi-task and create real-world results in terms of sales or the establishment of a relationship with/or communication path to a potential consumer. Digital media, messages, and promotions are increasingly being bundled into an integrated marketing, advertising, and promotional strategy that activates a consumer toward specific goals or creates a communication path to a potential consumer for just that reason. 

4. Branding and brand building
All advertising can and should reinforce brand values or brand positioning, even if its primary goal is more directly sales oriented. 

In the digital age, the ability to use websites, microsites, and online promotions -- not only to create sales but to convey information about the company behind the product or service -- makes this a required part of any advertising strategy.

Never before in history have marketers had the tools that can so readily facilitate the ability to provide information in various levels of detail to consumers about their products and services, what they stand for and what they mean for their customers. More

5. Reinforce recall and retention
The multiplicity of channels, messages, and media can make it harder to make advertising messages stand out enough to be remembered or acted upon. Nevertheless, fostering message recall and retention remains a central goal of any advertising campaign.

Digital media and certain technologies provide new and powerful ways to accomplish this goal through their ability to reach consumers where they are, on a variety of platforms, and with messages of different lengths and complexities. Flexibility of approach, use of integrated strategies -- which include traditional media as well as digital platforms -- and creation of different messages that may communicate different pieces of information can all enhance recall and retention. Whether the message is price, value, brand or feature-based, nothing is more important today than the power of communities and the impact of promotions. Today's consumer wants validation and reinforcement from other consumers, and the opinions and testimonials of their peers are more important and impactful than the same words from a company spokesperson or message. More

6. Promote intention to purchase
The marketing chain for most products and services today is complex and multi-channel. Products are offered for sale through retail stores, through networks of distributors, through online stores, and in a variety of both online and offline direct messaging to former or potential customers. Advertising messages, wherever and however they are made or delivered, need to support the communication of product benefits, features, advantages, and uses. Especially in today's economy, they need to support the communication of specific price and value messages and incentive offers. More

7. Build an opt-in and viral database
One key difference between traditional media and digital media is the ability of digital media to readily identify its audience members and establish a two-way communication with willing individuals in that audience. Building a customer database that has fully opted in creates a valuable resource for all companies that can and should be used to inform, reward, thank and re-sell customers, increasing the lifetime value of that customer. Permission-based marketing was one of the first breakthrough concepts in digital marketing, and it remains a very valuable goal of advertising today.

Not only can advertising be used to drive potential customers to registration pages connected to sweepstakes or contest entries or purchase opportunities, but it can also be used to incentivize those customers to "refer a friend," thus building and extending the potential list to persons who might not otherwise have seen or responded to the advertisement. More

8. Create differentiation in the marketplace
Ultimately, the last goal of advertising I want to discuss is differentiation in the marketplace, which is an umbrella principle closely related to No. 1: Capturing interest and attention. 

The importance of sound creative executions, different media channels, and integrated strategies that allow an advertising message or campaign to reach its target audience and capture interest and attention cannot be overemphasized. These elements should be coupled with integrated advertising and marketing approaches that include strong promotional elements and that powerfully position the features, advantages, benefits, and uses of the product or service being advertised.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: ThreeBillion *)

Paul says...

User generated content has been an amazing phenomenon and has changed the way people use and consume the internet. The shift towards the consumer being the publisher has had profound effects on the way we market to young people. Whether that be the platform, the idea or execution.

BUT has UGC really changed the Internet? Moreover, has it REALLY changed the way we connect to young people in our marketing? The answer is not really, but there could be much bigger things to come. Here is a little presentation from 180360720.no and it's worth 5 minutes of your time. 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Valera Maltoni *) 

Valera says... 

Posted by brian tiong at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Palin Ningthoujam *)

Palin says...

Sometimes viewing pictures in rows and columns can be dull. Luckily, there are a number of services dedicated to making the photo search and viewing experience more interesting. Here are 8 resources that provide a new approach to searching and looking at pictures online.

Which are your favorites? Let us know in the comments.

PicLens

PicLens is a neat Firefox addon that lets you search through thousands of images and videos on a stunning 3D wall or on full screen mode from sites like YouTube YouTube , Google, Yahoo, Picassa, Facebook, Photobucket Photobucket , Flickr Flickr , DeviantART, and more.

Once you launch the PicLens application on your browser, you can search for images and videos by keywords and by selecting the site you want to search. You can also simple click the ‘Discover’ button to let PicLens bring you the latest images, news, and videos from around the Web. You can zoom into pictures by clicking on an image or by using the scroll button of your mouse. There is also a new beta version of PicLens, rechristened Cooliris Beta, that lets you share pictures and videos from its 3D wall to your friends through email. For Wordpress bloggers, there is a plugin for creating picture and video slide shows on a blog.

Imagery

Imagery is an image search engine that displays search results in a whole new way. Whenever you search for something using a particular keyword, you will see the resulting thumbnail images in an online Web album gallery style and text free. Mouse over each picture and you get the option of going to the source page of that particular image or of opening the image in a new window. If you simply click on an image, it will open below the thumbnail gallery (see screenshot above).

You can set the number of image results Imagery will show you per page, or define the type of files like small, medium, large, black & white, grayscale, color, or on file extensions such as jpg, png, etc.

Zleek

Zleek allows you to create photo albums called Zleek Books, in amazing layouts and share them with your friends and family for them to comment on your pictures. What makes Zleek special and different from other online photo albums is that it allows you to go beyond the rows and columns positioning of your pictures and create collages in a manner that you choose. You can resize and rotate your pictures on the Zleek Book page, choose from multiple backgrounds, and set the album sharing permissions settings.

Interestingness

Interestingness, as the name suggests, creates stunning collages of up to 500 pictures from Flickr that you can feast your eyes on every day. Just keep the site as your homepage and rest assured you’ll be greeted with pleasant images every time you open your browser.

WebMynd

WebMynd is a Firefox addon that tracks the sites you visit and displays them in an attractive visual playback, whenever you want, online or off. WebMynd stores the screenshots of websites you visit on your computer hard drive and the text is sent and stored in its server. You can choose which websites WebMynd stores on your computer and which ones to ignore.

WebMynd provides a reel view in which you can see the screenshots of your visited sites one by one or the grid view wherein you can see the thumbnails of the various sites you visited. WebMynd also integrates into the Google search results page whenever you run a search and displays its results alongside the Google search results on the same page.

Compfight

Compfight is a Flickr search tool that displays images from Flickr without any frills. So if you are just looking for pictures without descriptions, Flickr user names, comments, and other details, you might just want to use this tool. You can search by tags or ‘all text’. The tool also has some features like filtering by Creative Commons or commercial use pictures, safe search, and displaying picture dimensions on mouse hover.

Blackr

Blackr is a neat bookmarklet that you can use to view a Flickr picture on a black or white background, without any of the text, comments, and other details that come with it on the Flickr site. You can choose to have a white or black border on the picture as well.

When you are viewing a picture on Flickr, just click the Blackr button on your browser bookmarks toolbar and viola, you will see just the picture minus everything else. If you want a search engine that displays pictures on a black background, try Flickriver.

Photoree

Photoree is to pictures what StumbleUpon is to websites. You can set your preferences about what type of pictures you want Photoree to show you. You can also rate the pictures and those that have been up-rated by you will automatically get included in your personal gallery.

More here:-

• Zoomr Adds Social Stream for Stalking Photo Friends
• Photobucket and Picasa on your TV with TiVo
• MeeVee Launches Free TV Episodes Hub
• Mostrips is a Mobile Photo Gallery Site
• PXN8 - Online Image Editing
• Picnik Leaves Beta, Now Officially Open
• Nielsen Launches Improved Video Tracking Tools

Posted by brian tiong at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Pandora’s internet radio has always been one of those sites that was really cool in concept, but too inconvenient to ever go mainstream. The service was long tied to computers only, and while it eventually expanded to special internet radios and some mobile phones, it still has yet to become a household name. But with the launch of Pandora’s new iPhone app last Friday, it looks like the service is about to hit critical mass. It’s a free, mobile, digital radio station that only plays music you like and lets you skip the stuff you don’t. And it rocks.

The personalized music service employs a small army of 50 musicians to create a “Music Genome” that describes each song according to 600 attributes. Listeners input a few of their favorite artists, and the site analyzes the Genome to serve up an endless stream of recommended music.

We introduced the app last Friday, when we called it our “flat out favorite application so far”, and since then it hasn’t failed to impress. Streamed music plays flawlessly over Edge and 3G networks - during a 40 mile drive I didn’t once run into any kind of skipping or static. Even better, the app currently has no advertisements playing, though we can probably expect that to change.

Unsurprisingly, Pandora’s usage stats are overwhelmingly positive. Pandora is currently the fourth most popular free app on iTunes (behind Apple’s Remote, AIM, and WeatherBug), and has reportedly been seeing a new listener every 2 seconds. Usage over the weekend hit an all-time high for the service, with 3.3 million tracks streamed to iPhone listeners alone. Perhaps more impressive is the retention rate of listeners, who are averaging over an hour of listening per day.

If there’s one thing that could kill the service, it’s ads. Pandora is going to need to monetize the app somehow - let’s hope it allows us to pay an upfront fee (say, $10) to avoid the annoying interruptions that have made listening to traditional radio a painful experience.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by brian tiong at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by brian tiong at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by brian tiong at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Wired *)

Jenna Wortham says :

Posted by brian tiong at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Virtual World News *)

Posted by brian tiong at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Walstreet Journal *)

A feel-good film about a girl from the Chinese countryside who moves to the big city to discover love, blogging and Starbucks will premier this month in an unusual venue: Shanghai's subway.

"A Sunny Day," is scheduled to play exclusively on thousands of high-tech flat screen monitors on Shanghai's subway cars and station platforms.

Girl meets boy and Starbucks in 'A Sunny Day,' to be shown in installments

Tailored for an audience of 2.2 million who cram onto China's biggest underground railway each day, the full-length feature film will be shown in daily segments of a few minutes each over 40 weekdays, soap-opera style. Subtitles in Chinese will help commuters follow the dialogue over the subway noise, and multiple daily rebroadcasts and tie-ins on the Internet are designed to ensure no one misses any of the cliffhangers.

Instead of an ordinary film, the so-called "subopera" is a blend of drama and advertising. A venture between Starbucks Coffee Co. and PepsiCo Inc. financed and helped produce the drama as part of a campaign that kicks off today in Shanghai to introduce bottled frappuccino drinks to the Chinese market.

"It's quite unique and demonstrates a departure from conventional marketing," says Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman. The coffee company hasn't traditionally advertised, Mr. Schultz says, adding that a soap opera can be effective since it creates "real entertainment for our customers and along the way there is a complementary message." PepsiCo, which will bottle and distribute the Starbucks-branded drinks, referred questions to Starbucks

The film has a clear commercial bent. In some shots, the mermaid from the Starbucks logo gets as much face-time as the movie's big turnstile draw, Huang Xiao Ming, a 29-year-old pop star who is so well known he is sometimes called China's Justin Timberlake.

Still, "A Sunny Day" is no infomercial. Mr. Huang's character "CC" is a struggling musician who strums his guitar for coins in the subway, and falls for big-hearted Sunny, who is trying to get over the death of a boyfriend and fit into a new job.

During the shooting on a recent Sunday, as a gaggle of teenage women sneaked onto the set, Mr. Huang described the subway a "fashionable, very modern" venue that will appeal to a trendy audience.

Subways around the world have long featured visual distractions. A century ago, platforms were showcases for art, like the swank metro stations in Paris. In the 1970s, spray paint enlivened the dank and dangerous New York subway, and in the 1980s, the late Keith Haring helped make graffiti a respected art form with projects like "Studio in the Subway."

This year, the Berlin subway's 1.5 million daily passengers were the judges in a weeklong festival of 90-second, silent films called "Going Underground."

Advertisers are also pressing beneath the streets. Sidetrack Technologies Inc. of Winnipeg and New York-based Submedia LLC place light-board advertising in subway tunnels in several cities around the world, giving riders the motion-picture like effect of seeing a flipbook.

China's $20 billion advertising industry is increasingly adopting the global trend toward marketing disguised as entertainment. In addition to Hollywood-style product placements in TV shows and movies, a rapidly expanding segment is directed at an emerging middle class during the workday hours with slickly crafted TV-style ads in taxis, airplanes and even elevators.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 04:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : NextGreatThing *)

Allison says :

Artists and labels have been exploring different ways to market and monetize their music beyond MySpace. We just heard that Sony BMG is going to be selling J Lo’s latest album, Brave, on a fancy wooden flash drive (for $70!!) Meanwhile, artists are dropping their labels like bad habits. AmieStreet, MOG, Pure Volume, Indistr, Sellaband, Navio, Roadsound, iFanz, RCRDLBL, iMeem, Popfolio… These are just a few sites out of hundreds they can use to do promotion, distribution, and sales. In addition to the bands we mentioned last week, even the Oldies are going new media; the Eagles, Joni Mitchell and now Aretha Franklin have all dropped their labels to try the digital model.

The next frontier is the handset. Mozes has taken a step there by enabling bands to text fans updates and messages. The real application, though, will be mobile social networking sites, like the newly launched KylieKonnect for Australian singer Kylie Minogue. The dot mobi site (www.kyliekonnect.com redirects to ourtribe.mobi) lets fans blog, communicate with other users and upload images and video all via mobile phone. There is a Kylie’s own blog, a newsfeed and place to buy Monogued-up wallpapers and ringtones. The site, set up by New Visions Mobile, will allow Kylie’s fans to establish a closer connection with her (or the illusion of one), and she will likely profit off it through site sales. Unfortunately for fans, Mashable reports that you seem to need a European-based mobile number to register, just going to show that this sort of technology not as widely embraced (and developed) in the U.S. as it is in Europe, Australia, and Asia.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Virtual World News *)

Posted by brian tiong at 04:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Webware.com *)

Jessica Dolcourt says :

Back in early September, I wrote about the five finalists to win a combined $250,000 in development funding from MTV and Cisco, sponsors of the Digital Incubator contest for university-grown Web apps.

Today they announced a prize even grander the first--$100,000 in addition to the $30,000 finalist grant already applied to RapHappy.com's development. The social network for recording, editing, distributing, and commenting on user-generated raps won Digital Incubator's judges with a business plan detailing the nascent company's next level of growth.

Ben Leduc-Mills and Matt Fargo, both graduate students in New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program, the brains behind RapHappy, are nothing short of jubilant. "We want to give a great big hug to all of you who helped us get this far," reads the message on their Web site, "But I guess you'll just have to settle for a big shout out on the website instead. Thanks though, really. It's your amazing raps that won it for us."

In addition to the Web site, RapHappy rappers can also lay down vocals via hotline (for inspired cell phone rapping) and through a Facebook app.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Timesonline *)

Nigel Kendall says :

The video games industry was told yesterday: “Television used to be accused of corrupting the youth of today. Now you are.”

David Mitchell, the TV comedian, was talking to 750 representatives of the industry at the 25th Golden Joystick Awards, which are decided by public vote. In that quarter of a century, Mitchell observed, video games have gone from “being a few dots dancing around a TV screen to a full-on film that you are in”.

Generations of creative Britons who once dreamt of making films and cracking Hollywood are now just as likely to seek fame and fortune in the video games industry.

Tom Dowding, 25, is a graduate in computer science from Bristol University. He has been playing games since he was 10 and last year set up Mobile Pie, a developer of games for mobile phones. His efforts were rewarded at the Golden Joysticks with a prize of £2,500 and a work placement with Electronic Arts, one of the world’s biggest video game developers. Mr Dowding’s winning game is called Let It Grow.

“You install it on your mobile phone, then, using your phone camera, you nurture it and make it grow,” he said. “Then you post your growing flower on Facebook.” He has licensed the game to a distributor.

For many would-be developers, mobile phones offer a way of making games and minimising expense on programming. A leading game, such as the recent Halo 3, can cost $70 million (£34 million) to develop and a mobile game a fraction of that. The possible rewards are vast. Halo 3 outstripped many blockbuster films in the week that it went on the market, generating sales of $300 million.

Video games have quietly overtaken older entertainment forms such as films and popular music. According to the latest figures from Elspa, the industry body, game software sales in Britain for the first half of 2007 were £519 million, 17 per cent more than in the corresponding period of 2006.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

PanRaven has teamed up with Universal Mowtown Records to create a promotional story for Nelly, who’s getting ready to release his first album in 3 years, “Brass Knuckles.” You may remember that PanRaven is an online tool for creating stories, similar to scrap-booking services like ScrapBlog.

With this particular partnership, a story of Nelly’s filming of the video for his most recent Single “Wadsyaname” is being published on PanRaven’s website, as well as Nelly’s website and MySpace profile. PanRaven is also promoting the story through its Facebook application. The story contains exclusive, behind the scenes footage from the filming of a music video.

And in an effort to encourage users to virally spread this promotion, PanRaven and Universal are holding a contest. The person that spreads the promotion the furthest and widest across the web will win a trip to a future filming session of a Nelly video. The runner-up gets some autograhped merchandise. Not too shabby, as far as prizes go. Kanye West, 50 Cent and Bruce Springsteen have all held similar promotions on MySpace in recent weeks.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Brian Hiatt *)

The two biggest music releases of the year aren't albums: They're video games. Inside the fight for number one.

Guitar Hero may well be this decade's biggest rock & roll phenomenon. Guitar Hero I and II have grossed $360 million since the first game came out in 2005 -- vastly more than any album released in the same period. And the games -- in which players re-create songs' guitar parts by pushing buttons that correspond to notes and chords while hitting a "strum bar" in rhythm -- have inspired kids by the millions to memorize the intricacies of "Free Bird" and "War Pigs." One measure of the games' clout: MTV purchased Harmonix for $175 million last year, and video-game giant Activision paid $99.9 million to acquire RedOctane, the company that owns the Guitar Hero name and manufactured the game's guitar- shaped controllers.

With MTV and Activision unwilling or unable to collaborate, the franchise's future has split in two: Activision's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock -- a straightforward sequel with a few twists, including a new "battle mode" -- hits stores October 28th, while Harmonix's Rock Band -- which adds drums and vocals to the formula -- comes out November 23rd. Analysts say that the market is big enough for both games to succeed (music games represent about eight percent of the U.S. video-game market, according to the research group NPD) -- so their near-simultaneous releases could become the music event of the year.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 02:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : David Radd

Hang out and rock out online

Harmonix and MTV Games today revealed the details for Rockband.com. The site will launch on November 20 simultaneously with the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game and will feature band pages, classifieds, leaderboards, blogs, forums and more. San Francisco-based Mekanism was tapped to build the social networking site.

"Rockband .com blurs the lines between fantasy and reality," said Melissa Macaulay, Producer of Rockband.com, Harmonix. "The site allows you to hype your in-game band's accomplishments, while providing a forum to meet other real-life people and potential band mates who share your musical tastes."

"We see Rockband.com as a true extension of the Rock Band world. It will be an awesome way to meet new people who have similar musical tastes," said Josh Randall, Creative Director for Harmonix. "With Rockband.com players will be able to come together and express themselves in a collaborative manner, which is what playing music is all about."

"We are designing Rockband.com as an online home for your band, and as a creative platform for living out your rock and roll fantasy," said Pete Caban, partner at SF-based digital studio Mekanism. "The b ands and rockers that you can create in Rock Band are insanely unique, and it's going to be fascinating to watch this community come to life."

Posted by brian tiong at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : David Fischman *)

 Years after the Napster revolution liberated music, industry labels are still hot on fighting the war on piracy. Earlier this month, the association representing big players like Capitol Records and Sony BMG hailed their first victory ever on the legal front, a $222,000 penalty against a Minnesota woman found guilty of illegally sharing music online. But few, if any, believe this isolated win will alter the decisively linear trend of those swapping tunes on the web. At this point, people see the content issue as settled: free music is their right. If the establishment standing in their way has any knowledge of history, they’d work to find new ways to engage “the people” in order to stay relevant—or perhaps more importantly, employed.

This past week at CMJ, musicians, managers (and those aspiring to be) filled rooms at NYU’s Kimmel Center to hear industry advice on how new bands can “make it” in these changing times. One panel, “Music Business Primer: Marketing and Promotion”, had a message for the music industry—you’re not going to win this one, recognize that free music is the future and just work to control it. The panelists suggested that bands should consider releasing free downloads as a way to build community around their music. The MuseBox’s George Davis described the new revenue model well: “It’s all about tickets and t-shirts.”

Prince has been working this model with much success. The artist, who escaped his contract with Warner Music in 1994, had the music industry in a huff when he gave his most recent album away with a British newspaper. A digital music pioneer, Prince also lent early support to P2P and was one of the first to sell music directly from his website. Now Madonna is following suit by leaving Warner Music and signing with Live Nation for a $120 million 10-year deal. As she explained, “The paradigm in the music business has shifted.” While the deal will require Madonna to produce three more albums, the real focus is clearly on expanded touring and merchandise that Madonna, as her own brand, can sell to fans. The Live Nation deal includes all-things-Madonna, including everything from her website to DVDs, music-related TV and film projects, and corporate sponsorships. For someone who is a walking commodity, perhaps this is the best way to go.

But free music can actually make money again. Bands and labels should stop working outside the trend and, instead, ride the digital wave by directly engaging fans.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Sean P. Aune *)

A new application for Facebook is merging the social network with that other king of time killing, Second Life.

Called Second Life Link, the new app allows you to display your avatar on your profile, and also indicate when you’re on and off line in the virtual world. If your friends also have the app installed, you’ll be able to see each other’s avatars. The new application also allows you to share your favorite locations in the popular virtual world. This will allow them to teleport to your location easily when you’re online, or allow them to see your home, even when you’re not there.

With the popular CBS show, CSI:New York, having an episode revolve around a murder in Second Life this week, and encouraging viewers to check out the virtual murder, there are sure to be lots of new players this week. Seems like a perfect time for a Facebook app to me with so many new people getting introduced to the online world through mainstream media.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Minic Rivera *)

AudioStreet.net recorded approximately 300,000 song plays for the month of September and approximately 3,000,000 song plays year to date. MixStreet.net recorded approximately 230,000 song plays for the month of September and approximately 3,600,000 year to date. A song play occurs when a user of either AudioStreet or MixStreet listens to one of the thousands of songs artists have placed on the sites.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Riley Bane *)

When Video Games Live first premiered at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in ’05 to an eager audience of 11,000 people, that’s when the music, video gaming, and entertainment industries took notice that this could be a lucrative trend. The brainchild of composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, at the time the concept was to create an amazing show using the soundtracks of popular videogames played by the LA Philharmonic Orchestra.

Video Games Live has clearly grown in the last couple of years. This month, they’ve announced a tour of so many sold-out shows around the country, that they’re adding an additional 25 stops, including the UK.

“Our goal of building Video Games Live as a worldwide brand is becoming a reality,” said Marc Geiger, Senior Executive Vice-President of Touring for the William-Morris Agency. “Tommy & Jack have created a very special and unique event experience that is not only a hit with gamers but also speaks to a general mainstream global audience as well.”

The shows include top orchestras, solo performers, special fx, exclusive video game footage, synchronized light shows, electronic percussionists, and interactive segments from various games. This tour features music from Mario, Zelda, Warcraft, Halo, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Metal Gear Solid, Myst, Sonic, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, among others.

While the tour is of course unique, what’s important to note is that video gaming has crossed-over into other aspects of entertainment. As noted in our North American and European Youth Culture Studies, just as brands are discovering the importance of product-placement in video games, and fashion designers are discovering inspiration from subcultures such as Cosplay, so too are musicians and the industry of music seeing the power of music in video games to attract a large consumer marketplace outside of gamers themselves.

Next week, as the new version of E3 trade show featuring new releases, platforms, and ideas from the world’s top video gaming brands infiltrate Los Angeles, you can bet that Video Games Live will be a popular example of just how the industry can attract new sources of revenue within the complicated industry of entertainment.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Reuters *)

Yinka Agedoke says :

 
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Napster Inc, the digital music service, said on Tuesday it plans to attract more customers by moving to a Web-based platform allowing users to play their music from any computer without having to download any additional software.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Jordan Chark *)

Avatar creator Meez is back in the news this week, but there are dozens more avatar creation tools gunning for this market. Today we attempt an overview of that market: please add more suggestions in the comment section.

Weblin- Create an avatar and use it as your virtual self within web pages in real-time, interacting with other Weblin users who share the same interests.

Meez.com- Create a 3D animated avatar for export directly to most web profiles, blogs, etc.

Second Life- Use this extremely popular virtual world to do just about anything, but first, you have to create your avatar. Here, avatars can be customized almost entirely, with plenty of room to create a most accurate likeness of yourself.

Mypictr- Use any image and resize, crop, customize, and export it to many other web 2.0 social networking sites and profiles, like Facebook, and Digg.

Gizmoz- Create, animate, and share photorealistic, great looking avatars, and even video clips featuring them. The animation and overall look of the avatar is sourced from a real picture, actually ending up almost like a personal CGI generator.

Mii Editor- Create your own “Mii”, the avatars characteristic of the Nintendo Wii.

Simpsons Avatar Maker- “Simpsonize yourself” by creating an avatar in the classic style of the Simpsons.

Gickr- Instantaneously create an animate gif file by either uploading your own pictures, or sourcing from Flickr.

Gravatar- Create an 80×80 pixel avatar by uploading an image which is then associated with your email address, appearing on Gravatar enabled websites and blogs without additional effort.

IMVU- Create and dress up your personal avatar which can then be used in their virtual chat-rooms or with their visual messenger client.

fix8- Create, animate, and dress up your avatar primarily through interfacing with your webcam in order to capture real movement and look.

Zwinky- Customize your personal cartoon avatar and share it across the web.

Digibody’s Caricature Maker- Use the components of a caricature to create your unique caricature avatar.

Faketown- A pixel-art, avatar based, MMORPG, similar to second life, but much less realistically.

DoppelMe- Simply assemble an apparently “hand drawn” avatar image for use anywhere.

SitePal- A pay-based 3D, animated avatar creation service aimed towards business looking to create a personal presence on their website.

Gaia- Another avatar-based MMORPG, this one, anime-styled.

imbee- The social network for young people includes an avatar creator featuring images of animals from the National Geographic Kids library.

Myrl- A social network based on avatars in the “metaverse”, supposedly using avatars to connect with the web by virtue of collaboration. Close to it’s beta launch, this definitely looks like something to keep an eye out for.

Kaneva- Yet another avatar-based virtual world, Kaneva looks like a valid Second Life alternative.

Blogscoped- Chat with others in this virtual, visual, chatroom, which makes efficient use of user avatars. While it may not appear to be that “web 2.0″ it uses PHP, MySQL, Ajax, and the Google API, which effectively categorize it as so.

MojiKan- A somewhat odd MMORPG for customizable 3D pet avatars.

Frenzoo- Customize and use one of their well-designed avatars in chats as well as a variety of other environments.

Clickbeurs (Dutch)- Create an avatar and apply for a job through virtually chatting with potential employers, a somewhat odd idea.

Mr. Picassohead- Create stunning, Picasso-like paintings which are easily transformed into avatars.

Whyrobbierocks- Create a “stereotypical” avatar for use on various social networking sites, IMs, etc.

Weeworld- Interact with some quite uniquely designed avatars in a virtual world primarily based on chats and mini-games.

Voki- Create an avatar, record your voice, and share. A possible alternative to something like Sitepal, but geared more towards a less-business-oriented audience.

Honorable Mention

While all of the sites (except for a couple, added for their significantly customizable avatars and creation engines) above are primarily based upon the principle of avatar creation and customization, I’d like to quickly mention the importance of your “avatar”, or probably more aptly named character in many popular MMORPGs. The likes of which are probably most easily recognized in games like World of Warcraft.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

Webcam avatar community fix8 has raised $3 million in a series a round of funding from Vickers Venture Group, which is a Singapore-based private equity firm. We first covered fix8 here.

You may remember that fix8 lets you create animated avatars with your webcam by reading your expressions and gestures. There are loads of tools that you can play around with, including fix8’s wide selection of avatars, and other accessories like voice manipulation, graphics and editing tools. These clips can then be embedded in your website or social networking profile, or use it for your instant messaging client like AOL, MSN, Skype or Yahoo Messenger.

fix8 has recently teamed up with Pringo for distribution purposes, Stickam , also Shanghai Media Group to create AuditionsTV, which makes interactive tv audiences able to participate during live or taped programs. Coming up, fix8 will be offering a mobile solution, which will surely extend the ways in which its avatar creation tool can be used for communicative purposes. See here for more avatar creation sites.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Worldsinmotion.com *)

Posted by Leigh Alexander :

Looking at market penetration, Mitham opined, "I think it’s pretty fair to say that virtual growth to date has been heavily based on word of mouth and viral marketing.” Moreover, Mitham expects the trend to continue, calling on the example of companies like BMW opening Second Life islands to widespread media coverage as a driver of Second Life population growth.

Finding New Markets, Developing Existing Ones

One can't rely purely on PR for advertising, Mitham added, stating that he hopes to see traditional marketing to start happening. "We’re seeing children actively adopting Club Penguin, Whyville, Habbo... as they eventually grow out of it, they will be looking for new worlds to grow into. There’s a huge market already there, waiting to happen."

The market is developing globally, too, Mitham said, noting that European countries are also actively embracing virtual worlds. Though typically Russia and South America are slower to adapt, Mitham noted, these are large growth areas that will begin adopting virtual worlds more in the future.

"We don't see much for 'silver surfers,'" Mitham added, noting that older users are also a prime growth area. Similarly, he expects corporate adoption to broaden, as companies like IBM encourage their employees to move into virtual worlds for corporate uses, and educational institutes are using virtual worlds in the classroom for the set aged 8 to 15.

Engaging New Users

It's a matter of product development, he said -- developing new products for marketplaces that already exist. Mitham also noted that better user interfaces and new user orientation will assist in driving more widespread adoption, as will other avenues of access like web-based remote viewers.

Diversification is the other key avenue, Mitham noted -- bringing new products into untapped markets, as with category-centric "vertical worlds". One example Mitham raised is Football Superstars, a virtual world currently in development for people who play football and soccer. Half the world is for playing football, the other half is for living the life of a footballer.

Beyond this, there are platform-centric virtual worlds, such as Sony's upcoming PlayStation Home, which will be used as a convergence tool for gamers. "The reason for going in isn’t the new technology; people are going in for a specific reason,," Mitham said.

Additionally, Mitham said that avatars that can cross worlds -- the interoperability work IBM is currently involved in -- will be "a really good driving factor for getting more people engaged in virtual worlds."

Mitham offered some projections on growth in virtual worlds he believes will take place between the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2008. He anticipates growth of registered accounts in Second Life to increase from 10 million to 20 million, 1 million to 7 million for There, .6 to 3 million for Kaneva, from zero to 10 million for the Chinese virtual world HiPiHi, an increase from 3 million to 10 million for Whyville, and from 15 million to 30 million for Club Penguin.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Worldsinmotion *)

Posted by brian tiong at 02:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Adam Ostrow *)

Google Earth has integrated YouTube, allowing you to view videos from specified locations around the world. A new “YouTube” button in Google Earth places icons on a map to show you where the videos are located. Upon zooming in, you will see more videos for the location of interest. The YouTube videos are plotted according to geotags that YouTube users have placed on their content.

This is a really clever integration between Google products. Versus the Street View feature of Google Maps where the company is sending camera crews around the globe, all of the content here is user-generated. In other Google Maps developments, the company has also added community maps to find things like places to eat, events, and activities, also submitted by users.

Could Google Maps be turning into one of the major social initiatives at Google? Between integrating YouTube videos, user-generated local maps, and potential presence features from the recently acquired Jaiku, it seems like there might be something brewing here.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

Music Gifts is a pretty cool Facebook app launched by MediaMouth. It lets you find music, listen to it, create custom lists and mixes and share all of this with Facebook friends.

But it also is a gifting application, too. And not a fluff gift that’s really just a graphic that sits on your profile. While those are cool (and very addictive), Music Gifts takes gifting a step further and lets you purchase music for your friends. They can get the music in digital or physical format, which will be sent to their home address.

MediaMouth has distribution and retail deals with EMI, Universal, and several indie labels as well, and digital copies of music are sold DRM-free. As with all other music applications currently residing on Facebook, many are wondering if the social network’s rumored mp3 store will have any affect on their existience or success.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

There.com has partnered with CosmoGIRL to bring its brand into the virtual world. This will be a “physical” virtual location where users can come to a dance party, fashion shows, spa makeovers, play in photo booths, shop for clothing and accessories, and visit live events held by CosmoGIRL. The extension of branding in this way is a good format for the publication to use, considering the growing popularity of web-based virtual worlds and the niche audience of teen girls that are found on There.com.

This could prove to be a better alternative for branding than Second Life, which has a broader user base. It could also prove to be a good distribution channel for other brands looking to market to teen girls in a virtual manner, as they can offer digital goods to be doled out via CosmoGIRL without the necessity of launching a full-fledged virtual marketing effort on their own. It will be interesting to see if a virtual venue of this nature could do better than an online network like Flip, which hasn’t met company expectations for growth. CosmoGIRL’s virtual playland opens up at There.com on November 20, 2007.

In other virtual world news, SceneCaster has recently signed on Turbo Squid for the provision of 3D objects to be used in its graphic creations, and Multiverse has signed a similar deal with Google 3D Warehouse.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Scott Hillis *)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - IBM (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Linden Labs, the operator of the Second Life virtual world, said on Tuesday they will work on ways to eventually let people use the a single online persona in different online services.

Interoperability is emerging as a key goal of the nascent virtual world industry, which attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in investment on the hopes that video-game graphics and rich 3-D environments will supplant flat Web pages.

(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

Bands Jamiroquai and Oasis may be following Radiohead’s lead to let fans download new music from the band’s latest album for free, if they visit the site for the radio station XFM. With no contracts to labels, Jamiroquai and Oasis could be considering this move, which often gains a good amount of traction from the fans and spurs the viral growth of their content.

The success of Radiohead’s promotion is cited as the cause for people to pre-order the band’s box set, which costs about $80 and includes vinyl records, a CD and artwork. The hope is to make money on the peripherals, which still come at a premium. That means Radiohead is looking to make money from concert ticket sales, and other merchandise. We’ve already seen Throwdown’s opinion on the matter. And while the concept of giving away something for free isn’t new, it does look to be gaining steam.

[via the telegraph]

Posted by brian tiong at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Techcrunch *)

 Mark Hendrickson says :

Posted by brian tiong at 01:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Virtual World News *)

Posted by brian tiong at 01:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Daniel Terdiman *)

Get ready for online games set in your favorite Google Earth locations.

Virtual-worlds platform developer Multiverse Network is set to announce a partnership Tuesday that will allow anyone to create a new online interactive 3D environment with just about any model from Google's online repository of 3D models, its 3D Warehouse, as well as terrain from Google Earth.

The idea is simple: Multiverse's technology--which gives game developers tools to design custom virtual worlds--will let those designers pick and choose from most of the millions of 3D models created using Google's 3D software tool SketchUp, and to import pieces of terrain, as defined by entering specific longitude and latitude data, from Google Earth.

If you want to build a virtual world centered on, say, downtown San Francisco, you could use the new technology to create the area itself and populate it with the digital versions of real-world buildings that have been created and uploaded to the 3D Warehouse.

"The goal is to grab things from the 3D Warehouse when looking at things in Google Earth and then make an instant multiverse world," said Multiverse co-founder Corey Bridges. "What we've done is provide a more streamlined interface for using (Google's technology) as a virtual-world production tool."

Until now, incorporating this kind of information from Google has mostly been the province of fantasy. For some time, Multiverse has made it possible to upload some SketchUp models into a virtual world created using its platform. But the technology the company plans to announce Tuesday, informally called "Architectural Wonders," brings the concept to much more well-rounded fruition, and answers what some people have been crying out for as obvious and necessary technology integration.

"Google's mission statement is to make all the world's information universally available and useful," said Jerry Paffendorf, co-author of the Metaverse Roadmap and co-founder of a stealth start-up called Wello Horld. "So I would say this (is about) making all the world universally available and useful, and that's why this is so fascinating."

For Paffendorf, one of the most vocal proponents of a 3D massively multiplayer environment based on Google Earth and SketchUp information, Multiverse's innovation is nothing short of groundbreaking.

He said he's particularly excited and hopeful that the Architectural Wonders project will allow virtual-world designers to incorporate not just models and terrain from Google Earth, but also much of the metadata that makes it so powerful: the personal notations and photographs that millions of users have added to it.

Of course, Multiverse's project is not the only one that has sprung up to make use of this data. Google is rumored to be working on a prototype virtual world, a beta test of which may or may not be under way at Arizona State University.

Another project is SceneCaster, a new technology unveiled at last week's Demo conference that allows anyone to make 3D "scenes" incorporating models from the 3D Warehouse that can then be attached to blogs or Facebook pages or even to Flickr.

Both SceneCaster and Multiverse's Architectural Wonders projects will be shown at the Virtual Worlds conference, which starts Wednesday in San Jose, Calif.

But because not much is known about Google's stealth project and since SceneCaster does not appear to be a massively multiplayer experience, Multiverse's Architectural Wonders efforts may well prove to be the first publicly available attempt to bring vast amounts of data and models Google is making freely accessible into a working virtual world.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

( Press Release via Virtual World News *)

TORONTO , ON – October 7, 2007 – SceneCaster today announced the release of the first immersive 3D Web application for Facebook - where anyone can create, transform and explore interactive 3D scenes and share them with their friends – all within Facebook. The application is available at: http://apps.facebook.com/scenecaster.

SceneCaster extends the rich visual experience of 3D on the Web to all Facebook users including consumers, creative professionals, and social media enthusiasts. Bridging the gap between the virtual and real worlds, SceneCaster also connects the Facebook 3D experience to eCommerce sites such as eBay and Amazon, product catalogs from leading manufacturers and retailers and to other rich media social networks such as Flickr.

SceneCaster is breaking new ground in 3D Web applications as the first 3D immersive experience that is built to leverage the "social graph" of Facebook. The Facebook economy is growing every day that could see it achieve 200 million users next year up from over 40 million today. SceneCaster delivers new conversation opportunities to all Facebook users while also providing an innovative revenue model simultaneously with each Facebook profile.

"Facebook facilitates better communication and an easier way to share & discover meaningful content," said Rodney Rumford, Editor of FaceReviews.com, a leading Facebook application review, rating and consulting service based in Solana Beach, CA. "SceneCaster in Facebook makes communications with my real world friends much richer and efficient. SceneCaster's great 3D immersive experience is revolutionary in concept and execution to sharing and discovering the 3D Web." Rodney's review of the SceneCaster Facebook app can be found at http://facereviews.com/2007/10 /04/facebook-3d-rooms-with-scenecaster

SceneCaster was first beta launched on September 25 th at DEMOfall '07, the technology industry's leading conference for innovative and disruptive technologies. Industry media and pundits have praised SceneCaster's debut with over 250,000 pages of reviews and comments residing on the Web today.

"SceneCaster's mission is to mainstream the 3D Web by lowering the barriers to adoption for the largest possible audience," said Mark Zohar, SceneCaster founder. "We've built it from the ground up by combining the very best the Web has to offer today – search, eCommerce and Facebook – with a rich, immersive 3D experience that is accessible within a standard Web browser."

About SceneCaster

SceneCaster is a 3D Web community where anyone can visualize their ideas, share them, and make them real. SceneCaster bridges the gap between the virtual and real worlds by connecting the 3D Web experience to online storefronts, product catalogs from leading brands and retailers, social networks, and consumers' dreams. SceneCaster is a brand initiative of View22 Technology Inc., a leading provider of 3D Web commerce and media solutions used by Global 2000 companies. For more information please visit www.scenecaster.com.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Rafat Ali *)

Facebook is working on an artist platform to be launched later this year, which in essence is supposed to be better than what MySpace allows with its platform, according to multiple sources I have spoken to since this morning after a slightly off-the-mark rumor came out earlier. The platform will allows bands and labels to create artists pages, and allow various widgets to be embedded for music promotion, organizing events, etc. Among those widgets would be iLike, the most popular app inside Facebook, but will also include iTunes widgets for sampling (to being with), and eventually buying music through Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - News). The service will still have the utilitarian sensibilities of the Facebook platform, the sources stress, rather than the more chaotic and flashy platform that MySpace has.

For now, this squarely takes on MySpace, not iTunes as the rumors said this morning. Facebook will have an actual deal with Apple, though it is conceivable down the line it could start selling music through the artists' platform.

Whether users will gravitate towards Facebook from an already thriving and deep music community on MySpace is what remains to be seen.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : PSFK *)

Alisson  Mooney says :

Kids are consumers (virtually)! That was the message on the “New School” panel at the YPulse Tween Mashup on Friday. Speakers from Stardoll, WhyVille, and Cartoon Doll Emporium all recounted that young users of their virtual worlds wanted brands brought into their online environments.

Mattias Mikshe, CEO of Stardoll, said that users were begging for real world brands (“everything from Gap to Gucci.”) This is what led them to create “StarPlaza,” an in-world mall stocked with virtual brands (they now have 9). LVMH-owned Sephora and DKNY just became the first real world brand to set up shop there (featuring the same items as the stores). Cartoon Doll Emporium, a similar “paper doll” site, is also working with offline brands.

The virtual world meets social network WhyVille has 3,000 different lines of clothing—by 3,000 different girls. CEO Jim Bower says they want to have a Whyville store with the designs from 12 year olds. But kids in WhyVille aren’t immune to brand fever: one group of kids actually created M&Ms costumes for their avatars. Over in WeeWorld, users “consistently asking for brands to better express themselves,” says Marketing and Editorial Director, Maura Welch. “By choosing to wear the assets,” she says “the users are endorsing the brands to their friends.” According to the site’s latest food and drink survey, users’ WeeMees (avatars) were jonesing for some Sprite, Gatorade and Cheerios. As it is, they can already pimp themselves out in Armani sunglasses while they pop Skittles.

According to Mikshe, the kids can “distinguish between being marketed to and adding value.” Or maybe the marketing has just done its job. The demand is there for the brand names, creating a pull rather than a push scenario. And now that these brands can provide utility online, they are becoming more and more integrated into the lives of young consumers.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : MediaPost.com *)

Laurie Petersen says :

TURNER BROADCASTING SYSTEM, INC.'S NEW Products Group has signed a one-year deal with Kaneva to build and test virtual world extensions of its entertainment properties.

Each Turner Web community and corresponding virtual space inside Kaneva will contain video players for video streaming of select Turner network content.

"Our exploration with Kaneva of virtual worlds is yet another example of Turner staying at the forefront of consumer technology trends," said Blake Lewin, vice president for TBS Inc.'s New Products Group. "Through this opportunity, we hope to leverage the Kaneva platform to explore how users interact with our brands in a virtual world."

The agreement will grant Turner access to Kaneva's technology and tools to create and use Web communities and Virtual Spaces on the Kaneva Web site and in the virtual world of Kaneva.

"Turner is an ideal flagship media partner for Kaneva," said Christopher Klaus, founder and CEO of Kaneva. "Turner's high-quality programming and credibility is synergistic with our unique focus on delivering entertainment to the masses inside a virtual world. As a result of this partnership, we will provide entirely new ways for audiences to watch, participate and interact around their favorite TV programming."

Kaneva, which is Latin for "canvas," is a virtual entertainment world that unifies the 2D Web with a 3D experience. It integrates social networking, shared media and collaborative online communities into a modern-day, immersive 3D virtual world. Kaneva enables its members to hang out with their friends online and in 3D, share entertainment, express creativity and passions, and establish meaningful connections with others.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Release *)

Jemima Kiss says :

Them again: Last.fm's latest project to support new music is a site called nowformaband.last.fm, which shows unsigned bands how to use free web tools to produce and distribute their music.

Inspired by the 1976 punk-zine Sideburns, the initiative is part-inspired by Last.fm's hype chart, which picks out bands and trends from users' listening habits before they hit the mainstream.

The site introduces users to Luna Free, which offers a free digital audio workshop tool, the distributon service Tunecore and - of course - Last.fm, as a promotional tool.

Co-founder Martin Stiksel said the company wants to help new music find a wider audience (as well as encouraging take-up of its own site, of course): "There's a lot of talk about all these things in the media but not much action in the real world - so we're going to show new bands how".

Posted by brian tiong at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(*Source : Emarketer *)

Paul Verna says :

Since the beginning of the digital music revolution, artists have taken the lead on innovative ways to deliver music directly to their fans.

Some, like Prince, have given away front-line product free. Others, like Tori Amos and Alanis Morissette, have offered up Web-only exclusives, also free.

Then there have been the famous holdouts: Metallica, which joined the fight to shut down Napster, and the Beatles, who, despite years of rumors to the contrary, are still conspicuously absent from iTunes and the rest of the legal Web.

Now comes Radiohead with potentially the most ground-breaking move of all: putting its new album, "In Rainbows," out there for fans to pay what they want.

This museum model of a "suggested donation" is entirely untested, and the industry will be watching closely to see how the experiment plays out.

That said, it is important to keep in mind that this is a niche play from a band that already has a huge, loyal audience, not to mention ownership of its own masters. Whether fans pay for this album will have little bearing on the decisions of rank-and-file artists who don't have Radiohead's clout.

Nor is this move likely to affect the labels' digital strategies. Even if the gambit is wildly successful, it will not change the fact that the industry is staring down the barrel of free-falling CD sales and insufficient digital volume to make up the slack.

Still, it will be interesting to see what happens with "In Rainbows." Some of Radiohead's legions may actually pony up some serious dough, if nothing else to reward the band for not treating its fans as if they were criminals.

While most fans will probably help themselves to the album gratis, inevitably there will be a few crackpots who will pay obscene sums for it, maybe for the attention, or maybe just because they have money to burn and can't help themselves.

It will take only a few of those to give Radiohead a much bigger and more immediate payday than it would have ever gotten from Capitol, its former label.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Billboard.com *)

Michael Paoletta says : 

Missy Elliott

Missy Elliott is adding flair to a new ad campaign for Doritos Collisions, Billboard has learned. In a TV spot that debuts Sept. 17, Elliott is seen working on a new track and then pausing to snack on Doritos Collisions chips. Inspired by the two different-tasting chips in the same bag, Elliott has an epiphany: her song needs two different musical styles. So, she immediately injects her hip-hop track with a little bit of country twang.

The multi-platform campaign was created by the Goodby, Silverstein & Partners agency. According to Rudy Wilson, brand manager of Doritos, the campaign's multi-million dollar media buy is the brand's biggest advertising spend of the year, outside of its Super Bowl ad buy.

Elliott's manager, Mona Scott of Violator Management, says the campaign offered her client the perfect creative outlet. "The whole idea of the mash-up is so prevalent and popular in music today," Scott says. "It's so Missy. And the fact that the campaign takes place in a studio means that Missy remains in her element, which makes the whole thing authentic."

But Scott acknowledges there was another important element that helped cinch the deal: "The TV portion is fine," she explains, "but the Internet element provides us with a great back-end." A link takes fans to Elliott's Web site, where they learn more about the artist and her forthcoming, new album (tentatively titled "The Countdown"), due in December from The Gold Mind/Atlantic Records. "We see this as a great way to further maximize Missy the artist and the new album," Scott adds.

Wilson calls the online experience "a bold, intensive experience for our consumers." Visitors logging on to snackstrongproductions.com will be encouraged to create their own mash-ups (or "collisions"), using Elliott's track as the foundation. Completed mixes can be posted and shared in a "gallery" on the site. Five winners -- with prizes still to be determined -- will be selected.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 05:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : New York Times *)

David Itzkoff says :

Visitors to the Sundance Channel area of the Web site Second Life can watch full-length feature films in a virtual screening room

IF you can find him, Vincent Tibbett is precisely the sort of well-connected cultural liaison any emerging filmmaker should want to know. An employee of the Sundance Channel, he is as easily recognizable for his shaggy haircut and assertively casual attire as he is for the crowds of aspiring artists who follow him around, hoping to chat him up about cinematic trends, get him to evaluate their movies or simply score his e-mail address.

But if Mr. Tibbett seems a bit harder to pin down for a lunch date than the average in-demand tastemaker, that’s because he doesn’t exist on our plane of reality. He is an electronic avatar found only in Second Life, the popular online virtual community.

Just six months old, Mr. Tibbett is one experiment in the Sundance Channel’s larger exploration of Internet-based virtual reality, a sort of canary down the mine shaft of a new technology that may or may not take hold among mainstream audiences.

And he is not alone. In the last year broadcast networks, cable channels and television content providers have all set up camp in virtual communities, where they hope that viewers who have forsaken television for computer screens might rediscover their programming online. Some outlets, like Showtime and Sundance, are establishing themselves in existing worlds; others, like MTV, are creating their own. Either way, if the wildest dreams of some very excited technology developers come true, virtual reality might finally be the medium that unites the passive experience of watching television with the interactive potential of the Web.

If that happens, the television industry — which has not been particularly speedy in adapting to the Internet revolution — sees an opportunity not only to recover lost ground from online competitors but also to take a lead, and in so doing create an entirely new environment in which to influence and sell to its audience.

“You want to be in this because you know, as a content provider, that this is where the future is going,” said Quincy Smith, the president of CBS Interactive. “I don’t look at it as science fiction. I look at it as the future of communication.”

For decades ambitious programmers and designers have sought to establish virtual worlds like the one put forth in Neal Stephenson’s influential 1992 novel, “Snow Crash,” which imagines computer users interacting in a simulated three-dimensional world called the Metaverse. But only in recent years, as graphics-accelerator cards and broadband Internet connections have grown more affordable and ubiquitous, has it become possible even to approximate such an experience.

IN Second Life (secondlife.com), visitors to the Sundance Channel area can watch full-length feature films in a three-dimensional screening room or take part in an environmental forum; fans of Showtime’s drama “The L Word” can meet the avatars of the show’s stars and design their own floats for a virtual gay pride parade. In MTV’s Virtual Laguna Beach (at vmtv.com) inhabitants can shop at digital versions of Emporio Optic and Laguna Surf and Sport or, at the click of a mouse, arrive in a virtual version of “The Hills,” where they can then join the party at an electronic replica of the Los Angeles nightclub Area.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : THe Guardian *)

Owen Gibson says :

• Band bypass record labels to get release out quickly

• Internet experiment lets fans put a price on art

Their music has long been praised for blurring boundaries and breaking moulds. Now Radiohead are hoping to establish a new model for the struggling record industry by inviting music buyers to decide how much they want to pay for their new album.

To their biggest fans, eagerly awaiting their first studio album for four years, it is near priceless. Those who believe Radiohead long ago descended into self-indulgence may only risk pennies. But thanks to this ground-breaking experiment, the band will bypass record labels altogether and will be able to put a fiscal value on the public's appreciation of their art.

 The release was announced with a short message from guitarist Jonny Greenwood on the band's website, revealing that the new album, In Rainbows, would be available to download from October 10. Orders started rolling in yesterday, with customers able decide how much to pay - from nothing (plus a 45p administration charge) upwards.

Radiohead's "honesty box" experiment will be closely watched by other artists, their record labels and management companies.

In Rainbows is the most high-profile attempt yet to restructure the economics of a music industry struggling with the effects of digital piracy. Despite a booming live scene, CD sales are less profitable than ever thanks to increased competition and piracy.

With the role of the internet in helping new acts from Arctic Monkeys to Enter Shikari rise to prominence already well documented, more established artists are attempting to revolutionise the way music is sold.

Prince caused uproar among music retailers by giving his latest album away with the Mail on Sunday and yesterday the Charlatans said they would give their new single and album away for nothing through the radio station Xfm.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : AP *)

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Orderly, pornography-free and safe for children, "meet-me," an online interactive virtual Tokyo, is Japan's answer to "Second Life." Or so its creators hope.

Japanese are so well-behaved and conformist, he says, they would prefer a more predictable and secure virtual environment over the free-spirited anything-goes of "Second Life," created by San Francisco-based Linden Lab.

In "meet-me," players' avatars, or computer-generated alter-egos, are rounder and softer, more like the cuddly characters of "Pokemon" than the angular and relatively realistic avatars of "Second Life."

The sun rises and sets in "meet-me" on Tokyo time. And avatars must ride trains or other vehicles or walk or run to get around a city whose streets and buildings look much like real Tokyo's; they can't jump from place to place as they can in "Second Life."

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Virtual World News.com *)

CVSherman says :

Xivio, a Flash-based virtual world with a Web-based social network,  announced that it had introduced a content rating system based on user votes on the TV-MA rating system. When photos, music, videos and journals are uploaded, they are immediately rated TV-MA until the staff or community votes them into a lower rating. "We've tested it out in house, and it works very well," said President/CEO David Wisotzky. "After hearing a lot of the stuff going on with Myspace, you know protecting the kids and how other programs don't allow kids to upload content, we figured that it's the digital age and someone should make that safe to do. It seemed like nobody had been stepping up."

Posted by brian tiong at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by brian tiong at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Kris Graft *)

A new study from Yankee Group finds that the hype surrounding Second Life is considerably bigger than the virtual world's real-life relevance.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : David Fishman *)

Posted by brian tiong at 04:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Caleb Booker *)

We started off in Skype voice chat, but then he met me in Second Life at the same time. Using tools his company haven't even named yet, he was able to broadcast video of our avatars meeting through Skype. (Click the picture for full-size.) They still consider it technology in the pre-alpha stage, and won't feel like it's ready for consumers until they have it running in much higher detail. Even at the low resolution, being "in" Second Life through Skype and, in addition, seeing myself through multiple camera angles at once was a pretty impressive experience.

This was, of course, just the beginning. He switched from Second Life to a custom environment they had built with the Unreal 2 engine and again, streamed it right through Skype. The great part about using an engine like this one was that they were able to import high-detail AutoCAD files and make them look extremely realistic. Soon I was watching a high-quality alien avatar from Mars Attacks! exploring the environment in real-time. Below is a video of the world he had walked me through that they apparently built over the course of a few days.

Recently Rigby showcased the technology at the Copper/Cobre Conference. All of the other presenters went up and showed PowerPoint presentations. Rather than show a series of AutoCAD sketches, he plugged his laptop into the projector and walked the crowd through a 3D rendering. A copper smelter in the U.S. retained him to create a "virtual furnace" that not only showed the schematics in high resolution, but had walls lined with photographs of how everything is supposed to look as you assemble the machine. Not only that, but you can actually enter the furnace itself and (through color coding) see how everything is supposed to fit together.

Even though his company has already been retained by a few engineering firms for more work, Rigby sees more applications for high-resolution custom worlds. He's currently in touch with several galleries in London to create scale models of the buildings with high resolution art renderings inside. People could download them for a token fee (maybe five dollars) and collect them over time as the gallery updates itself with new exhibits. Also, since "Unreal 2" is a server-based platform, you could walk around these little worlds with your friends.

MellaniuM has only been experimenting with the possibilities since September of last year and has already shown some great innovations. If they keep up this pace they'll be the ones to watch in the future.

 See Video

Posted by brian tiong at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Leigh Alexander *)

Launches The Sims on Stage Beta

Posted by brian tiong at 05:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Worlds in Motion *)

Posted by brian tiong at 03:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Techcrunch*)

Roi Carthy says :

Zlango

For those of you unfamiliar with Zlango, the company created a new language based on slightly over 200 icons in categories such as People, Actions, Places and Feelings. The Zlango offering was originally aimed at injecting life and excitement into the ever popular but boring SMS, however, the company’s jump into the Web space indicates an understanding that engaging users requires Zlango to extend itself beyond a pure mobile play.

Today’s launch kicks off Zlango’s roll out of a number of social-oriented features. Two of the most notable features available today are:

• Zlango Composer – A Flash driven composer featuring an on-the-fly “Text to Zlango” translator (see screenshot), making it a snap to create fun messages. Messages can be shared, emailed or embedded across a number of social sites (thanks to integration with Gigya).
• zMess – Zlango’s version of a micro-blog. This is an area for users to view public messages, or private ones with groups of friends. Unfortunately, support for threaded comments is not included.

On the business front, the most notable achievement of the year is a partnership with Nokia to preload the Zlango into handsets. Zlango is now also deployed at all three Israeli operators, and has inked deals with operators in the Philippines, Ukraine, Malaysia, Finland, and Indonesia.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Michael Arrington *)

Social network Piczo has released a new feature into private beta: Piczo Zone. It’s being tested by a small group of users now and will be released generally in a few weeks.

What is it? Product Evangelist Keith Crowell says its a way for users to decorate their profile pages in much the same way as teenagers decorate their rooms - with posters, music, etc. Users take (or create) images, videos, style sheets or just about anything else and then add it to their profile. Each content item also includes descriptive data and tags. When someone creates something (say an image showing a band or artist name), any other user can add it to their profile as well. All of the “stuff” created in the Piczo Zone will then spread virally as the more popular items gets added by more and more users.

Users like this stuff - they can see what the popular kids (however defined) put on their profiles and then add the same things to their own. For now users can’t add stuff that they see directly from their friends’ profiles, but software engineer Devon Boyle says they’ll add that functionality shortly.

Users Love This Stuff. But So Do Advertisers

But there’s another reason this is important: user profiling for advertising. As users add artists/bands, popular movies and well known brands (nike, whatever) to their profiles they build an extremely detailed demographic and psychographic profile of themselves that can be used for far more targeted advertising. As an example, a music label could focus advertising around a new album release to users who’s added certain similar bands and artists to their profile. It’s highly likely that the advertising will be aimed at people who are likely to buy, and ad rates increase dramatically.

The content can also be used to predict new trends far before traditional methods. Users will create their own images for a popular local indie band, for example. As more and more users add the image, someone with access to aggregate data will be able to see what’s going to become mainstream well before it actually does. Since Piczo’s users, mostly teenagers, are the trendsetters, it’s a particularly powerful tool.

Piczo isn’t the first social network to experiment with something like this. In July we wrote about a similar product called HotLists released by HotOrNot. HotLists are made up only of images, but like Piczo users create them themselves and they spread virally as users add them from the profiles of people they view. Users immediately took to the idea, adding brands, movies, artists and other things that they identified with to build out their profile. And HotNorNot now has much deeper user information to aim advertisement at. Everyone wins.

Posted by brian tiong at 03:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : BBC News *)

Jonathan Fieldes says :

The tool could be embedded in blogs as well as used in gaming Metaplace demo

Users of Metaplace, as it is known, can build 3D online worlds for PCs or even a mobile phone without any knowledge of complex computer languages.

The web-based program is the brainchild of Raph Koster, one of the developers of massively multiplayer online games such as Ultima Online.

Users make the virtual spaces from simple building blocks.

The results, which could be used for gaming, socialising or e-commerce, can be embedded in a webpage, facebook profile or blog.

"We are out to democratise virtual worlds and bring them to absolutely anybody," said Mr Koster, founder of Areae, the company behind Metaplace.

"You can come to the site, press a button and have a functioning virtual world that supports multiple users in about 30 seconds."

Web puzzle

Second Life is one of the most popular virtual worlds

There are already a number of popular virtual worlds such as Second Life, There and Entropia Universe. In addition there are games worlds such as World of Warcraft (WOW).

Most of these require a person to download specialist software or buy a game and there are no links between the different universes.

"They're all walled gardens," said Mr Koster.

In contrast, Metaplace is entirely web based and connections can be made between all of the different worlds.

"We modelled this on the web," said Mr Koster. "You can think about each world being a webpage and every object within in it is a link."

Users can create the worlds using different methods.

People with no programming background can use the graphical interface and choose worlds from a number of templates, such as a shop or a puzzle game.

They can also clone worlds developed by other Metaplace users.

More competent visitors to the site can build a world from scratch using the tool's own programming language known as metamarkup.

The language is "platform agnostic", according to Mr Koster, which means that it can be used to create worlds which can run on anything from a powerful PC to a mobile handset.

User control

We want to see 10,000 virtual worlds so that lots of wild and crazy stuff gets made because that is the only way it will advance as a medium Raph Koster, founder, Areae

"Others may want to make a book club that is integrated with Amazon where people can get together and chat every Thursday night about a book but they can actually see the pictures of the books on the wall, click on them and buy them," said Mr Koster.

"The applications are pretty open."

When complete, each world is given its own page on the Metaplace website.

 More here

Posted by brian tiong at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Nextgreatthing.com*)

Sherrie Hui says : 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Mashable *)

ReverbNation has launched another new widget for bands and artists to promote themselves. Named TuneWidget, his widget nearly acts as a mini website in itself, offering all the necessary information for the band, including upcoming shows, song and video previews, and marked locations on a Yahoo map. The widget also displays band and information, like the band’s genre, location, label, and how many times the widget’s been played.

One unique and helpful feature the ReverbNation widget has is a “recommended band” display at the bottom of the widget. This lets artists cross-promote each other. Visitors can sign up for the mailing list from the widget, an grab the embed code to place it on their blogs or social networking profiles. Choose your network from the grab-it options the widget has for sites including Xanga, MySpace, and many more.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: AFP *)

MAKUHARI, Japan (AFP) - Sony said Thursday it was delaying until next year the launch of an online virtual universe for the PlayStation 3 where users will be able to socialise, shop and even go to the movies.

Sony had planned to launch "Home" this year but PS3 owners will now have to wait until early 2008, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, Kazuo Hirai, revealed at the Tokyo Game Show.

The delay is another setback to Sony, which has much riding on the success of the PS3 but faces fierce competition from Microsoft's XBox 360 and Nintendo's Wii.

Sony said in March the free service would allow PS3 users to set up an apartment for life-like virtual characters, or avatars, which can invite friends over, share pictures and videos, and play online games.

Users can personalise their virtual home with furniture, art and other items and chat through audio or video links.

The service is seen as a cross between social community website MySpace and Linden Lab's Second Life, which allows "residents" to build homes, create vehicles, nightclubs and stores, and to communicate with instant messaging.

Posted by brian tiong at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Adam Ostrow *)

Donnerwood Media, the parent company of the Meez virtual avatar service, has raised $500,000 from Battery Ventures. Meez allows users to create custom avatars that can then be shared in IM and on most social networks.

Earlier this week the company announced a partnership with Vringo to create avatar ringtones. Meez previously raised $4.3 million, and we profiled the company last August.

[via]

Posted by brian tiong at 02:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Mashable *)

Sean P. Aune says :

Is your music collection getting a bit stale? Have you run out of places where you can get fresh info about new artists, releases and concert dates? If so, you’re in luck, because we’ve assembled a list of 50 sites which will keep you up to speed with what’s happening in the world of music.

Music Discovery Sites

Audiobaba.com - Enter a song or artist and get recommendations based on acoustic similarity.

AudioLunchbox.com - Over 2 million licensed and DRM free song downloads, featuring a large selection of smaller and local acts.

Babulous.com - A community of underground, independent musicians for you to explore and discover all kinds of unsigned music.

bandBUZZ.com - A site for bands to upload their music and be discovered by thousands. Users can vote and comment on the music and share it with their friends.

ChartU.com - Another site for bands to upload their music and let people listen. Tracks play right in the browser and continue to play even as you navigate the pages.

Contrastream.com - A way to find new independent artists quickly using a Digg-like system of voting.

Epitonic.com - Explore cutting-edge music, create playlists, and download some full tracks.

Finetune.com - Start with just a couple of artists and the system will build you a playlist of similar artists; alternatively, you can start with a list built by another user.

Haystack.com - Create, share, and explore playlists from your friends and others.

Hypster.com - Allows you to upload your music, create a playlist and share it with others, even on social networking sites. Let people see & hear the bands they may be missing out on.

iJigg.com - You can discover new music, vote on it, and new artists can upload their music to reach a new audience.

iLike.com - Share your iTunes playlists and get suggestions for new music for you to try.

Last.fm - One of the best known sites for searching and finding new music.

Magnatune.com - Listen to over 500 complete albums from independent acts; if you like them, download them for as little as $5.00.

Musiclovr.com - Get suggestions based on what you’re listening to and what similar users play related to that. Also get all the latest news on the artists you love.

Musicmesh.net - Start with one CD, see six similar selections, click on one of them to see six more related and so on. While playing a CD, a track list of YouTube videos come up for you to sample.

Musicmobs.com - Trade and browse playlists to see what other people are listening to.

MusicNation.com - A site specializing in independent and unsigned artists, check out new bands, even participate in contests.

Musicovery.com - Tell the site what your mood is and get music that fits you.

OneLlama.com - Start with just one song, or a whole playlist, and see what other “llamas” suggest you might like.

Owlmusicsearch.com - Have the site open an MP3 file, it compares it to other songs and then gives you a recommendation for other tunes you might enjoy.

Pandora.com - Type in the name of an artist you like, Pandora will create a “radio station” for you featuring that artist and similar acts.

ProjectOpus.com - A site focusing on spreading the word of local acts from countries all over the world.

Purevolume.com - Explore genres of music for bands you’ve never heard of and listen to full length tracks for free.

SessionSound.com - A site focused mostly on indie music. A great place for artists to promote themselves.

Soundflavor.com - Find songs and artists you like and use that as a jumping off point to discover music you may be unaware of.

Stage.FM - Enter a major name act you enjoy and receive a list of independent acts with a similar sound.

SoundPedia.com - Upload your existing playlists or create new ones to help you find like minded lists that aid you in discovering new music.

Twones.com - Share your playlists and match them to users with similar tastes so you can locate artists you didn’t know about.

UpTo11.net - Their search engine allows you to enter up to four bands at once and get a recommendation of a group that sounds like that combination.

ZuKool.com - Choose individual songs, or create a playlist from their library of 600,000+ songs, and receive recommendations of others. Rate those to get even more suggestions.

Music News

AOL Music - The latest headlines and what’s being discussed music wise around the blogosphere.

ArtistDirect.com - The latest music headlines from album releases to tour news.

BBC Music News - Music news from the mainstay of the news world, the BBC.

Billboard.com - The online counterpart to one of the premiere music industry publications.

CMT News - A news site dedicated to the country music genre.

DigitalMusicNews.com - Not only music news, but also showcases information on the technology you use it with.

Mi2N.com - A news site focusing more on the business side of the music industry.

MTV News - No list of music news sites without the MTV news site.

Music-News.com - Based in th UK music scene, see the latest big stories, album reviews, see what the editors are listening to.

MusicNewsNashville.com - Music news from around Nashville, TN, the heart of the country music scene.

MusicPortl.com - Aggregates music news from multiple sites around the web.

Noisetap.com - A Digg-style site for music news, complete with voting options.

Pitchforkmedia.com - News, reviews, features and just about everything you could ever want to know about the state of music today.

Rolling Stone Rock & Roll Daily - The daily blog of the venerable old school music magazine, covering the day’s latest story.

Shoutmouth.com - Publishes over 500 posts a week about bands from all genres to make a one-stop-shop for all of your music related news.

SoundsLikeNow.org - Type in a band name and receive results of bands that sound like them.

Starpulse Music News - Bringing you music news from all around the music industry.

The Phoenix - From the Boston Phoenix, it’s music category focuses on the greater New England area and what’s happening in and around it’s music scene.

Topix Music News - A news aggregator of music news from all over the net.

Village Voice Music News - A site that focuses on the New York City independent music scene.

Yahoo Music News - Yahoo’s news service for music news from all over the world.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Duncan Riley *)

FlowPlay

FlowPlay is a virtual world community built around browser-based casual games. Users play casual games as their own created anime-like avatar, earning virtual goods for their character including clothing, refrigerators and other virtual store items. The site wants to provide the option to play casual games or interact with people in the virtual world (or both).

Animation virtual world product, anime style 2.5D visuals

strong privacy features to protect the kiddies

similar to Hobbo Hotel, Cyworld, Club Penguin, but with casual games emphasis.

Pitched a girls…well it appears to be, you can win dresses and stuff.

Unfortunately the time was used to show a demo video, not the best use of their time on stage. Will appeal to kids.

Metaplace

Areae’s Metaplace platform aims to revolutionize the virtual worlds space with a platform that will provide an open, easy-to-use interface which will allow users to create virtual worlds that can run anywhere. Metaplace-created virtual worlds will allow user to play games, socialize, create content and conduct commerce. Metaplace-created virtual worlds can be embedded into external sites, including Facebook, MySpace or a blog. Virtual worlds in the Metaplace network can be easily linked together.

Virtual world product, market still growing.

Virtual worlds are like AOL in 94, walled gardens etc, not a good thing according to them.

Has Facebook, MySpace widget, blog widgets, 30k embed.

Generic virtual world platform, can have Sim’s style games, shooters, even an Amazon store front.

Virtual world can also import XML: content, services etc can be imported.

Users can set up their own world from scratch, each world communicates with each other.

“virtual worlds for everyone”

Woome

WooMe brings speed dating online and extends it to let users meet new people live in speed sessions that are “fast, fun and free.” WooMe doesn’t require long forms or lengthy profile descriptions, users simply find a session that interests them and meet five people in five minutes. Users can also create their own session based on their interests and can invite people they want to get a know or friends.

Speed dating product.

Good presentation, talk to people quickly via webcam, both parties must agree to hookup

Zivity

Zivity offers a social networking platform focused on “sexy models and beautiful photography.” With a $10 subscription, members receive five votes that they can cast for models and photography they find appealing, with 80c out of every $1 vote cast being distributed to the model and photographer. There is no limit on the amount of money that a photographer or model can make; as long as a photo remains popular, models and photographers will share in ongoing royalties whilst retaining full ownership of the pictures.

Lots of warnings prior to this demo about it including porn…so far all we have is clothed model…false advertising perhaps?

User gen content makers aren’t making money, Zivity wants to change this…well at least for “sexy pics.”

Demo has PG rating…seriously, complete with the PG on the screen.

Ahhh…breasts. PG obviously different in the US to Australia

Kaltura

Kaltura is a collaborative Media startup that allows groups of users to do with video, audio, and animation what wiki platforms enable them to do with text. Think of it as YouTube meets Wikipedia. See our full post here.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Duncan Riley *)

XRT3D

XTR3D develops software that lets users interact with computers and gaming consoles using 3D human motions. Their real-time software analyzes 3D human motions using only one simple web cam. It will allow users to play games and interact in virtual worlds using natural human motions instead of keyboards, mouses and joysticks. They refer to their technology as a “3D Human Machine Interface”

mouse movements in the air via a web cam…pretty damn cool.

Demo includes moving around Google Earth by hand movements.

As can be used for virtual worlds, games.

Demo includes boxing, works well. Definitely one of the best product/ presentations of the conference.

More at CrunchGear here.

BroadClipBroadClip’sMediaCatcher for Facebook offers a way to search and listen to DRM-free music that is optimized to deliver music to portable media players such as iPods and cell phones. All users have to do is “clip” streaming music and they can transfer the recording to their portable media player in a legal way similar to other “time-shifting” technologies like TiVo, VCRs and tape recorders.Bizarre Star Wars demo…WTF? one line was this is very bad…he’s right, a shame thoough, I like the idea, even if the copyright side is a big question mark…they claim it’s legal yet the RIAA was demanding that webcasters put stream rip blocking software into place as part of the royalty negotiations…Broadclip is a easy to use stream ripping service.No one on stage…some sort of streamed presentation, not sure if they are even in the building. Sorry to be negative, but it’s not a good effect.

mEgomEgo lets users create personalized avatars that carry their online network aggregation profiles and can be integrated into users’ blogs, social networks, websites, and IM clients. The online profiles display user-picked content like profile details, videos, photos, feeds, and widgets.

A couple of giggling chicks…Jason Calacanis notes that it’s great to have someone on the stage presenting.

Tag team with the presentation which works well.

Interactive widget, sample is shown in Facebook.

Lots of features, provides social aggregation including pulling in RSS, Twitter etc.. can be any size as is vector based.

Wixi

Wixi is a media focused social network where users interact with each other by privately watching, posting, and sharing content of all media types, including photos, audio, and video. The site offers a unique interface whereby media can be managed in the same way files are organized on a computer desktop, creating a true “drag and drop” and “click and play” experience.

Looks like a Web OS, smells like a Web OS…but it’s a “media sharing platform”

visit main.wixi.com use code tech40access for free unlimited storage.

Zat waz ok..I think.

BeFunky

BeFunky provides users with online tools for creating digital online representations of themselves for use on their blogs, websites, and social networks like MySpace. Their online tools Uvatar and Cartoonizer enable users to turn themselves into an avatar, cartoon, digital painting or comic.

I hate the name, but political correctness means I can say what I think about it.

It’s a pic to cartoon/ avatar tool. Not bad, demo worked well.

Can also manipulate pics, they demoed it on a picture of Michael Arrington and took “20 pounds off him”

Also does video, demonstrated on a scene from Matrix. Impressive…very impressive.

Avator package creates cartoon like avatars, free at first, $5 a pop later.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(*Source: Adam Ostrow *)

Starting today, US consumers will be able to listen to all the tracks on James Blunt’s new CD on the artist’s MySpace profile for free. They can then opt to purchase the entire album for $9.99, which will allow them to play the album on an iPod and also send the user the CD through snail mail.

The new Blunt album, “All the Lost Souls,” will be sold through a widget on Blunt’s page that is powered by LaLa.com. With nearly 250,000 “friends,” Blunt is a fairly significant artist with whom to try the new sales approach. Currently, the artist has a SNOCAP widget on his page featuring a la carte songs from his previous album.

While Warner has previously tried selling music through MySpace, the copyright protection on it made it incompatible with the iPod, making it a tough sell with most consumers.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(*Source : Kristen Nicole *)

Mixaloo is a site that lets you create a digital “mix tape.” Currently in private beta, I got to try it out for myself.

With this tool, you not only create mix tapes, but promote and sell them via widgets, earning you extra cash. With a library of about 3 million songs to choose from, Mixaloo is starting out with a hefty amount of music. And it’s not all indie. You’ll find most of your favorite artists, and depending on the record label, it looks like more artists have more songs available for resale through your widget.

Once you find an artist you’re looking for, you can then select the album, and then the songs. Searching for artists is easy enough: once you type in the first few letters of an artist’s name, Mixaloo will show a list of artists that match your query as you type. You’ll need at least 10 songs in order to create a mix for resale, and 15 will max out your mix tape. For each song you come across, you can listen to a sample of songs, see the album cover art, and see the runtime for each song. You can also name your mix tape, add cover art, choose from one of three widget designs, and edit things like text font, color and size for your cover art, and the widget color.

The widget itself is rather interactive, giving options to hear sample tracks, buy the entire mix, send it to a friend, or gift it to a friend. In order to buy or gift the mix tape, the buyer will need to create a Mixaloo account. Mixaloo keeps track of all the mixes you’ve created to sell, and those you’ve purchased. For promotional purposes, others can also grab the widget to place on their blogs or social networking profiles. As it’s powered by ClearSpring, there are easy, one-click options for the widget to be added to the various networks including LiveJournal, Blogger, MySpace, Facebook and more.

In some senses, Mixaloo can be used as a way to discover new music, especially as an artist you can submit your content to be sold through Mixaloo. In other ways, it’s limited, as you don’t really interact with songs on an individual basis, and there’s no social networking involved for deeper sharing options.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Techcrunch *)

Nick Gonzales says :

IAC’s Zwinky has been carefully growing their pre-teen social networking service. It started out as an online avatar creation tool. They later created a virtual world where those avatars could socialize. Usage of the service has been growing, under heavy advertising, as well. They currently have over 9.5 million registered users with 4.6 million active users per month that spend an average of 64 minutes a day in their virtual world, Zwinktopia.

Zwinky is now expanding the service to their users pocketbooks, or rather those of their parents. The site is now letting users purchase batches of “Zbucks”, their virtual curency, instead of having to earn them. They join a growing group of other tween sites with paid virtual economies as well (Club Penguin, Habbo Hotel, Gaia). Users can purchase them using PayPal or credit card at a rate of about $10 for 2,000 Zbucks. With the Zbucks, users will be able to purchase their own avatar accessories or furnish their virtual rooms in Zwinktopia. Zwinky is not only making money from the Zbucks, but also through sponsorships and sales made through the virtual goods.

So far users have spent over 500 million free “Zbucks” on the site since launch on April. There’s no telling how strong the uptake of the new paid currency will be, but other services have shown a clear market for virtual goods. The passion around World of Warcraft drove a black market for virtual gold. Secondlife has had a similar success. While virtual goods seem hokey for outsiders, startups that create a meaningful environment find their customers willing to pay to save time earning currency or get at exclusive items.

Posted by brian tiong at 05:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(*Source : Chris Kohler *)

Night has fallen in West Hollywood, and it's the rocking hour at the Troubadour, the legendary club that helped launch the careers of Pearl Jam and Guns N' Roses. A band on the tiny stage is crunching out a surprisingly faithful rendition of the Hives' "Main Offender." The drummer, a skinny hipster with fuzzy sideburns, is as steady as a metronome. The lead singer, a blonde in a low-cut, lacy black top, caterwauls into the mic, a red bandanna wrapped around her wrist.

It's the first night of E3, the yearly trade show for the videogame industry, and this concert is crawling with game developers, executives, journalists, and retailers. They were lured here by the promise of hearing metal bands Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal, but the audience loves this amateur opening act.

The guy on bass, overdressed in dark slacks and a button-down, is Peter Moore, a Microsoft vice president and the public face of the Xbox 360 console. On drums, lead guitar, and vocals are staffers from a Boston-area game developer called Harmonix. They all play and sing with abandon. But they aren't playing music, exactly. They're playing a videogame.

The instruments are plastic facsimiles festooned with brightly colored buttons. These faux instruments, as well as the microphone, are all plugged into an Xbox 360. The more accurately the players follow the rhythm, the more points they score and the better the music from the game console sounds.

This concert is a coming-out party for Harmonix and its new game, the aptly named Rock Band, which will be released for Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 console by the end of the year. The company had a surprise success with its previous franchise, Guitar Hero, and was recently bought by Viacom, the latest in a string of acquisitions that the media conglomerate hopes will rejuvenate its MTV brand. MTV has partnered with industry juggernaut Electronic Arts to help distribute Rock Band, which along with its four peripherals will retail for $200, four times as much as a typical game. EA and MTV are betting that it will be a multiplatinum hit that attracts consumers who never even thought of themselves as gamers.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 03:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Ronald Groover *)

The social networking Web site will distribute videos from big-time producers in an effort to counter rival Facebook .

Herskovitz directs a scene from quarterlife, a show that will debut on MySpace

Tired of watching skateboarding dogs and exploding diet cola bottles? MySpace.com, in a race to keep users from sampling such consumer-generated videos on YouTube (GOOG) and other sites, is going Hollywood. The online social network owned by News Corp. (NWS) has been taking meetings, holding power lunches, and returning calls from well-placed agents to lengthen a growing lineup of professionally produced videos for its large (and increasingly over-30) audience.

The most recent case in point comes Sept. 13, when MySpace will announce it has signed with Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, producers of the Leonardo DiCaprio film Blood Diamond and the 1980s TV show thirtysomething, to distribute via MySpace a series of 8-minute videos called quarterlife.

The series, which tells the story of twentysomething writers, actresses, and dancers trying to break into show business, is being trumpeted as the first "network quality" show to be produced specifically for the Web. By that, the producers mean it won't be cheap to make—far more than the estimated $5,000 a pop it cost to produce Michael Eisner's Prom Queen, itself considered higher in quality than much online fare (BusinessWeek, 4/9/07).

High Production Values

How much more? The production tab will probably run higher than $80,000 an installment, based on Herskovitz' estimate that each 48-minute episode will cost somewhere north of $500,000. Each episode will then be divided into six installments to be distributed online.

The quarterlife deal comes two days after MySpace's agreement to team up with newly launched independent Web producer My Damn Channel, which has signed on well-known talent like sitcom writer and comedian Harry Shearer and Rolling Stones music producer Don Was to create their own videos.

MySpace has also inked other high-end content deals lately, including getting short "minisode" versions of classic TV shows such as The Jeffersons from Sony (SNE) and programming from sports leagues like the National Basketball Association. In July, the social network also signed Dark Horse Comics to create its own channel of online comic books.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: online.wsj.com *)

Peter Sanders says :

For the first time, Bugs Bunny and dozens of his animated companions at Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. unit will be housed together on a single interactive Internet portal.

The new Web site, dubbed T-Works, for "Toon Works," is scheduled to go live in April. Warner Bros.' stable of animation divisions includes Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera and DC Comics. It will feature all the studio's key animated characters -- from the famous bunny, Sylvester the Cat, Scooby Doo and the Flintstones to comic-book heroes, such as Batman, from the DC Comics division.

It is the latest effort by a major Hollywood studio to control distribution of its content while simultaneously playing catch-up to established social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook and virtual worlds like Second Life.

"T-Works fits perfectly with our overall digital strategy of creating original content online, as well as developing compelling consumer destinations," Bruce Rosenblum, president of Warner Bros.' Television Group, said in a statement.

The ad-supported site will be free to consumers. Users will be able to watch classic cartoons and original animated programming designed specifically for distribution on the site; create virtual worlds using cartoon characters as their online identities, or avatars; and customize their online identities on their own computers and on social-networking sites. They can also digitally alter cartoon characters to their liking and play online games based on the animated characters.

The site is Warner Bros.' latest effort to put elements of its vast catalog of content onto the Web. Officials of the Burbank, Calif., studio say T-Works will compete directly with Walt Disney Co. and Club Penguin, a social-networking site aimed at children that Disney bought last month.

Last year, in partnership with sister Time Warner unit AOL, Warner Bros. provided classic TV shows on the new In2TV site. That site has since largely been eclipsed by the major television networks, which now offer newer programming through various online sites. Rival studio Sony Pictures Entertainment, a unit of Sony Corp., earlier this summer revamped Crackle, its video-sharing Web site.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Mashable *)

Kristen Nicole says:

Habbo, the online virtual world, is holding its first worldwide Habbowood Digital Movie Awards. Using the MovieMaker tool, filmmakers are encouraged to create animated movies. The top film in Habbo.com will be entered into the “worldwide” competition where it will go up against the top films from 18 other Habbo communities. The winner gets a trip for two to Hollywood.

With the MovieMaker tool, you can edit your film and use a provided set of sets, props, special effects, music, etc. to create sets for virtual avatars to act out your movie. This editing tool supports up to ten different scenes to create a film that’s 5 minutes in length. The Habbo community will choose the ten finalists, based on page views and ratings. Editors will choose a winner from the top ten, and there will be awards handed out for Best Director, Best Writer, Best Actor and Best Actress as well. These awards will be presented live at a virtual gala in Habbowood.

Clearly the virtual “movie” world is heating up. Origin Digital now offers on-demand streaming media to be used in virtual worlds, while the rights for a documentary filmed in Second Life have been acquired by HBO.

 Check Youtubevideo

Posted by brian tiong at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)