Build a Platform or an Experience

Some interesting thoughts from Scott Karp at Pubishing 2.0

Platforms Vs. Experiences » Publishing 2.0

Apple TV or Mac Mini

(Brady Forrest, O’Reilly radar) “Last week Apple didn’t just release the iPhone. They also released Apple TV, a single use appliance that allows you to play music, watch movies and view your pictures from your home PCs or Macs. When I saw it my first thought was how this would stack up compared to the Mac Mini as a multimedia device. Both are small, both have iTunes — what are the exact trade-offs? Luckily, the Apple Blog has written up a great side-by-side comparison of the Mac Mini and the Apple TV…”

O’Reilly Radar > Apple Tv or Mac Mini

Deloitte’s Technology Predictions for 2007

(www.Deloitte.com) “What’s going to happen in the Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) sector in 2007? What will be the impact of convergence? Will media make good on the opportunities in the Chinese market? How will the net neutrality debate be resolved? All of these issues are discussed in Predictions 2007—three reports outlining the critical trends that will influence the global TMT market in 2007…”

TMT Trends: Predictions 2007 – Technology, Media & Telecommunications – Article – Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

Widgets… All the Buzz

(Scott Kirshner, New York Times) “On his Web log, Pastor Hyatt, the leader of the Evergreen Community in Portland, Ore., has woven in widgets, or mini-applications, that show a selection of book covers from his personal library, present the most recent posts from some of his favorite blogs, and serve up random quotes from the television show “Arrested Development.”“You start small, and it’s kind of like an addiction,” said Pastor Hyatt (his blog is at bobhyatt.typepad.com). “TypePad has a whole section of widgets, and they’re adding more all the time,” he continued, referring to a popular blog-hosting service…”

Some Bling for Your Blog – New York Times

Google Ads in Video Games

(centernetworks) “Nick and Kevin at the Wall Street Journal (sub required) have a lengthy article today about the possibility of Google acquiring Adscape, a company which places ads inside video games. Google noted that a deal could be reached as early as next week…”

Google’s Next Ad Frontier May Be Inside Videogames, Google looking to acquire Adscape – CenterNetworks – News, Reviews, Insights and Interviews

Flash Based Zune for Xmas This Year

(Ryan Block, engadget) “It looks like the same discussion with Chris Stephenson that yielded that 2007 European Zune launch figure also gave up a few more details about the Zune line: apparently we can expect a flash-based Zune for the holiday season later this year (damn they’re taking their dear sweet time on that) and apparently Stephenson also hinted at “a truly WiFi-enabled device” at some point in the future, according to Digital Music News…”

Flash-based Zune due in Q407, better WiFi soon – Engadget

Is MySpace banning Widgets?

(Michael Arrington, TechCrunch) “There was a mysterious outage on MySpace this morning. It lasted just 2.5 hours, and the site itself performed mostly as it should. All that happened was this: Anyone trying to add a Flash widget to the site, or show an image via an inserted link, or otherwise embed any sort of code, couldn’t do it. Existing widgets worked fine, but none could be added. And if a MySpace user edited their page, any existing embedded code produced an error…”

MySpace is Getting a Little Testy

Yet More Social Networking – Shycast

(Michael Arrington, TechCrunch) “New Jersey based Shycast will be launching later this month and will put a new spin on brand promotion and paid contests. Like Bix, which was aquired by Yahoo in November 2006, Shycast will sponsor video-based contests with fairly large cash prizes…”

Shycast: Social Network for People & Brands

NBC Choking? Are you sure?

(Michael Arrington, TechCrunch) “I’ve been paying a lot of attention to the signals NBC is giving to the market around their IPTV and social networking plans. Most of the other players have fallen into place – Fox with MySpace, CBS is in bed with YouTube, Viacom looks to be partnering with Tagworld, etc. Everyone except NBC is at least experimenting with online TV in other ways, too.

NBC seems to be choking, frozen like a deer in headlights. They were close to acquiring Tribe but backed out. A VP wrote a blog post about their strategy, admitting they were late to the game, and then deleted it. I imagine execs at NBC meeting regularly and screaming a lot for someone to just figure this out and do something…”

The Entrenched Player Dilemma/Opportunity

Say Hello to iJigg

(Michael Arrington, TechCrunch) “Think Digg for music, plus lots of Flash functionality. Songs are presented on the home page and can be “jigged” by members. Songs can also be embedded into web pages (I’ve done so with one of the popular songs below), commented on, etc. Songs are tagged for easy browsing, and there are most popular and recently posted areas as well…”

Jigg That Music