iPad Magic
As Blackberry struggles and the iPad surges, here’s a magician with some apps you won’t find in the (trademark-protected?) app store. HT @dberkowitz
Slate, Galaxy, PlayBook…
Can other mobile-minded manufacturers catch up to the iPad’s first-mover lead in the booming tablet market? Samsung gave a buddy who attended SxSW a new Samsung Galaxy…to keep. The folks at Blackberry seeded its PlayBook at South By as well, while Microsoft launched an ad campaign for its tablet entry, Slate. Here’s the spot (via Mashable):
First Movie in the Outernet
Alternate universe, augmented reality, mixed media, integrated marketing… Whatever you want to call it, I love how NBCUni has combined the physical and virtual worlds for this film. (13th Street Universal)
Social Foodies
NY foodie Soraya Darabi gets the TechCrunch founder treatment in the wake of the prominent showing of Foodspotting at this year’s SxSW conference. Ms. Darabi was recently the subject of a New York Magazine profile that she din’t much care for. I actually thought it was a net positive for her socially driven culinary enterprise.
Gillmor Gang Recounts SxSW and Looks at The New York Times
The big news this week from the media ecosystem had to do with The New York Times paywall that’s poised to go up this Monday. Having played a role in the introduction of TimesSelect, at a time when monthly uniques and the monetization of eyeballs had yet to be fully appreciated, I thought the announcement went pretty well, though it did expectedly attract a decent share of naysayers. I sense that people and pundits are coming around to accepting the idea that quality content costs money and those producing it should be compensated. Also, The Times decision to announce the paywall a year ago likely helped grease the skids for when the service actually would arrive. Here are the smarties from The Gillmor Gang (via TechCrunch) weighing in on a variety of subjects, including The Times paywall (at about 11:30 of the 90-minute clip).
Times Square’s Jumbotron Hijacked
I;m often asked about holding media events in Times Square or utilizing the Jumbotron to advance a client’s communications goals. ore often than not, I advise against such a tactic — mostly because the Jumbotron is seen by such a randoid group of tourists and passers-by, one cannot measure its impact, let alone know who you’re reaching. Separately, virtually every new tech start-up has embraced video as a medium to showcase their techhnologies and apps. Here’s a clip that cleverly uses (hijacks) the Jumbotron for a start-up called Tube Mote. Via Gawker HTs Guy Kawasaki and Gizmodo
Sorgatz & Spurgat
During my visit to SxSW, I had a chance to meet the team behind the New York-based start-up vYou, which cleverly uses video (and a cool algorithms) to allow users to engage one another. I was sufficiently enamored to join myself. Here’s Rex Sorgatz‘s SxSW sit-down with founder Steve Spurgat.
Twitter @Five
Here’s the clip Twitter produced to mark its 5th birthday. Separately, rumors have co-founder Jack Dorsey, fresh off his Square exploits, returning to the original (but perhaps not only?) micro-blogging channel.
Conan’s Take on Biz
And what better way to celebrate a 5th biorthday than to make an appearance on national TV. In this case, one of Twitter’s three co-founders Biz Stone swung by Carrot Top’s L.A. studios for some light banter.