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Author Archives: Jeremy Toeman

MLB Gets All Silly Over Placeshifting

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Disclosure: I am a former employee of Sling Media.

I thought it made sense to get that out of the way up front.  Was just reading an article at Ars regarding MLB’s latest feelings about that Slingbox company (nothing reflects better on someone who can’t even deign to get a company name right when quoted):

“Of course, what they are doing is not legal,” MLB general counsel Michael Mellis told The Hollywood Reporter Esq. “We and other leagues have formed a group to study the issue and plan our response. A lot depends on ongoing discussions. Plus, there’s no guarantee that Slingbox will be around next year. It’s a startup.”

I must say I enjoy picking apart quotes when given the opportunity.  And that opportunity is now.

“Of course, what they are doing is not legal” – if it were “of course” why would they need to …

“We and other leagues have formed a group to study the issue and plan our response” – shouldn’t it be obvious?  Maybe it’s not so “not legal” as he said up front?  Maybe??  Probably.

Additional Disclosure: I am not a lawyer.

“A lot depends on ongoing discussions” – good, that’s always good.  I wonder who’s in those discussions?

“Plus, there’s no guarantee that Slingbox will be around next year” – actually, unless the boxes are going to spontaneously combust in 2008, there is every guarantee they will be around next year.  Unless he meant the company, I guess, in which case it’s just as fair to say there’s no guarantee that MLB will be around next year, they might just go on strike, again.  Okay, I must admit I’m particularly bitter because I am a Montrealer, and lost my Expos to the insane greed propagated by MLB and the owners, particularly G.S. of N.Y. Washington.

“It’s a startup” – well, if it’s just a startup, and not even guaranteed to be around next year, then why get all fussy about it anyway?

Still more disclosure: I get all bent out of shape when I read such inanity.  So much so that I use words like inanity without even verifying if they are real words.

Also from the article:

At last year’s Digital Media Summit, MLB VP George Kliavkoff said that a San Francisco Giants fan visiting Chicago and watching a Giants game via his Slingbox is “stealing” from whatever Chicago cable operator has the rights to carry the game in the Windy City.

This is a very interesting point, one in which MLB has fairly, well, dead-wrong.  See, when I’m visiting Chicago, the local cable operator doesn’t really give much thought to me.  Hotel room TVs aren’t counted for local advertising.  So the provider there really ignores me.  On the other hand, my local SF affiliate loves counting my eyeballs every time they can (not mine specifically per se, although almost mine). 

I guess the part I most don’t understand is why they get quite so ridiculous about it.  It reminds me of Hollywood starting out all anti-VCR, which turned out to be one of the most profitable avenues the studios ever saw.  MLB’s response to placeshifting shouldn’t be to call in the lawyers and cry foul.  I’d like to see them, as they say, “man up” about this.  They should either:

  • COMPETE with Sling – Provide an alternative solution that is more compelling than a Slingbox
  • PARTNER with Sling – Find a way to leverage the Slingbox to generate additional revenue or business opportunities

MLB is a multi-billion dollar organization. Yup, that was with a “B”.  Sling’s raised a total of about $57 million.  Calling in lawyers to deal with this is like me calling Terminix to kill a spider in my house. 

Final disclosure: I do not work for Terminix.

Inanity!

Exclusive Pix+Vid: New NETGEAR Skype Wifi Phone

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As I’ve written before, (guest) blogging has its privileges.  While at NETGEAR’s HQ last week interviewing employees for the blog, the company’s CEO, Patrick Lo, walked in and pulled from his pocket the still-in-development 2nd-generation WiFi Skype Phone!

IMG_4031 patrick lo holding new netgear skype phoneIMG_4030 new netgear skype phoneIMG_4027 netgear skype phonesIMG_4028 netgear skype phonesIMG_4029 netgear skype phones

This was quite unexpected, at the time I was getting a tour of the recently “remodeled” NETGEAR Digital Lifestyle Room from David Henry. Watch what happens at the end:

As I was scheduled to meet with Patrick after the tour, I did get him to spend a few minutes talking about the phone. As you’ll hear, there are no announced details at the time. He did spend another couple of minutes on the topic, but I’ll save that for the full interview with him, which you’ll find on the NETGEAR blog in the next few weeks. But here’s an excerpt to whet the appetite:

Whilst on the topic (yep, I said whilst), I also received confirmation from the company that the existing first-generation phone now supports T-Mobile service, which means you can use it in a Starbucks! As long as it doesn’t make it onto the planes, looks like mobile Skype is getting better and better.

Thanks for the scoop, Patrick!

HP helping to increase HDTV FUD

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History has shown that when it comes to technology, the fastest method to hamper consumer adoption is to have FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt).  In my limited lifespan, this dates back to the VHS-Betamax duel back in the 80s, and continues today in the BluRay-HD battles.  Nobody wants to buy the wrong thing, and consumers will often sit around and wait for a victor to emerge.

HP, a company I’ve liked over the years (and one where I have a lot of friends), decided that they wanted to get involved and, for lack of a more perfect phrase, screw with the HDTV industry by using the term “HDTV 2.0”. Shame on you, HP, for such an ill-timed, inappropriate, and unnecessary move.

Consumers today have enough trouble differentiating between 720p, 1080i, and 1080p when they try to buy a set (answer: the first two are effectively the same, 1080p is the ‘better one’ that you should be looking for if you are spending more than about $1500 on a set). 

They have enough issues trying to figure out if they should buy an upscaling DVD player or an actual high-definition player (answer: unless you have a very good set, you probably won’t really notice the difference, plus I wouldn’t buy until the format is settled). 

They have to figure out if they should buy DVI or HDMI or component cables (answer: it’s gotta be HDMI, no debate here), and once they’ve picked, have to then assess how much to spend on those cables (answer: now that I’ve learned a bit more about the cabling and the future of HD, if you are looking at a long-term investment in your HD setup, buy the expensive cables, there will be a difference).

Shame on you, HP. It’s not like a debate on what Web 2.0 (or 3.0) really is, where end-users can happily ignore the topic and just enjoy trying out cool new Web sites/services as they launch.  For a marketing organization to intentionally go out and cause additional FUD in an already confusing space is pure and simple a bad move.  Your job is to answer questions, not create them, and your job is to grow the overall pie, not try to cut out some small piece with such short-term thinking.  

Shame on you, HP!

The Internet in 2007: just as bad as in 1997!

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Let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we?  There was a time when you’d send off an email, and not have complete confidence it would reach it’s destination properly intact.  Web site developers/managers used to have to build multiple versions of their sites just to make sure the presentation was as desired.  Also, you may recall hearing about some new cool Internet company, but by the time you got home, can’t recall it’s somewhat goofy name.  Quick check, is it 10 years ago, or yesterday?

I really can’t believe how bad the state of email is.  There’s so much anti-spam safeguards in place that it’s now “the norm” to see an email from a very trusted source sitting in the junk box, or worse yet, killed by the ISP.  This problem is exacerbated for people like myself who have independent domain names, which inevitably get taken over by automatic spam “bots”.  I use the mass-BCC trick for sending my geek dinner emails, and each month one or two people send me a note telling me it got stuck in the trash.  It is absolutely pathetic that there is no way to guarantee emails between trusted relationships.  Shame on everyone from Barracuda to Microsoft to Google for not having a solution in place, or even on the horizon.  I especially don’t understand the 28 percent of users who say “spam is not a problem” in their worlds!

Next up: Web browsers.  There’s no doubt that Internet Explorer versions 4, 5, and 6’s near-complete dominance of the browser market had its down side.  But other than lackluster performance and a weak, outdated feature set, I’m not sure what it was.  The Web, for lack of a better phrase, just worked!  Now we have IE6 and 7 on the market, we have Safari (terrible), and Firefox, all with a distributed share of users.  Sure this sounds good – Democracy In Action, yay! – but all I know is I see more and more Web sites broken for one or more browsers, all the time.  I don’t know exactly whose fault it is, but at least when Microsoft ran the show building Web sites was straightforward and reliable.

Okay, that’s enough ranting for the day, but seriously – why are we (we being the technology industry as a whole) allowing the basics to drop into such a deplorable state?  Maybe we need a little less attention on the AJAX and Wikis, and a little more on the things that impact core productivity.  It’s analogous to the cell phone industry, building really pretty-looking phones that can capture and stream TV-quality video, but still drop calls and have terrible battery life. 

But I do have hope that by 2017 it’ll be a little better.  Not much, mind you, but a little.

The Next 8 Companies Microsoft Should Buy

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After last week’s $6 billion offer to buy aQuantive, I’ve been thinking a lot about Microsoft and its future.  See, the company has about $25 buh-illion in cash (after this acquisition!), and they seem to be, well, sitting on it.  And that’s not exactly the best return to shareholders by a company that’s supposed to be the visionaries of computing.  So it’s either time to issue a whole bunch of dividends, or else they need to really look to the future, spend some of that money, and help reinvent themselves as a competitive player for years to come.

I really enjoyed reading Thomas Hawk’s piece on turning MS around, and I agree with John Furrier that the company needs new blood.  I think the best move they can make is a sweeping series of acquisitions (one of the few times I disagree with my friend Michael Gartenberg).  Some big players that can bolster the company’s lineup, and some small players to bring a new generation of innovation into an increasingly stale-minded shop.  Frankly, with the exception of Windows Mobile, Xbox, and some (and not all) of the Vista folks, it seems like all the really creative folks have jumped ship.  So, here’s the list of companies (8, not 10, because I’m bored of top-10 lists) I think would help bring the right balance of creativity, ingenuinity, technology, talent, and in some cases – straight revenue:

  1. WordPress/Akismet/Automattic – This is the biggest no-brainer acquisition in my list.  With over a million blogs served, the company is the hands-down leader in enabling blogging.  Whereas MSN Spaces Live is the hands-down leader in… well, I have no idea.  WordPress as a software package is the most powerful and yet easiest-to-use.  WordPress as a hosted service is simple and elegant and professional.  Akismet is one of the best spam filters I’ve seen (I’ll bet it could even help make Exchange server work better!).  This acquisition would be one of those ‘intangibles’ the company should make – I don’t know if Automattic makes money or not, but this is a strategic bet, and in my eyes, it’s an easy one.
  2. Netflix (market cap: 1.5B) – While not an obvious choice, Netflix is a nice strategic bet for Microsoft. We all know that shipping discs around the country from distribution centers is not the game that MS wants to be in, but I’m not sure it’s the game that Reed and the Netflix crew want to be in either. Long term, with Netflix, what you’re buying is the customer information, the hollywood relationships and the interface. The company should have 7.5 million subscribers this year, all of whom are helping feed the machine information about their preferences. It’s one of the greatest collaborative filtering engines and quite accurately predicts what movies you would like to watch with great functionality linking friends. They also have the relationships with Hollywood to deliver platters of bits to your house as you select them from their interface which becomes its own mini-portal to content. As they move away from physical to digital distribution they are a great fit for Microsoft’s online properties and XBOX platform. Just imagine combining the Netflix queue with Xbox Live Marketplace, where the right movies are presented to you based on your Netflix account and are automatically delivered to the Xbox hard drive, or taken portable on your Zune (okay, the Zune part is a maybe, but I had to throw it in there).  Also a good preemptive move against Google doing the same thing (as Google is still terrible at working with Hollywood and would love the collaborative filtering stuff for more ads).
  3. HTC – Unless you are an Engadget junkie, you might not have ever heard of HTC.  Well, they are the not-so-little Taiwanese manufacturer that not only could, but does.  They make all the hottest Windows Mobile phones, and typically contribute technology to some of the ones they don’t make.  Their devices are setting the standard in innovative mobile platforms (yes, more so than the iPhone in my opinion).  My reasoning for the acquisition here is for Microsoft to take some control over their destiny.  It’s time the company acted a little more Apple-like in more of their hardware, just like they do with Xbox and Zune.  Also, HTC has quietly attracted some of the top talent in the mobile space, so the company gains a cache of clever folks instantly.  Now there’s a bit of a twist here, as I think MS should also spin out Microsoft Hardware (aka Microhard?), a division focused on taking their own software platforms “to the extreme”. 
  4. Asus – The second hardware company on my list is here for the exact same reason as HTC.  I’d love to see MS Hardware building stylish laptops that truly leverage all of the new technologies the company builds.  Sure, there’s the potential this would lead to ‘evil’ since Asus’ motherboards are used in numerous manufacturers’ computers today.  But think about it, that’s already a case of customer/competitor it would just be upping the ante a little. 
  5. 37signals – I put this on the list with reservations (maybe it needs an asterisk or something).  I use BaseCamp to manage some client work, and it’s really not the most impressive software I’ve seen (despite the ridiculous lauding I continue to read).  But they are onto something, and when I compare it to the unbelievable bloatware that is MS Project, I can’t help but think there’s something to be done here.  Marry these two teams together, and let’s see the offspring in a year or so – I have a hunch it’d be good.  Also, rumor has it they’re profitable, which is a nice touch in 2.0-land.  If nothing else comes of it, they have a pretty popular blog too…
  6. Salesforce.com (market cap: $5.4B) – Microsoft is a software company. While Salesforce’s pitch is “No Software” in essence any patent describing them would use the definition software; it’s just that the software is hosted. As Microsoft is going to adapt to a world of subscribers and services as Ray Ozzie puts it in his memo “The Internet Services Disruption“, Salesforce is a great fit. Microsoft never truly nailed the ERP space and can use the combined entity against their mutual rival, Oracle. Microsoft could integrate CRM applications into their hosted versions of Office. Web Outlook, Mail and/or Messaging and Salesforce are a solid fit, and Microsoft’s Live functionality could be weaved in to Salesforce’s app’s. This is also a block against Google who is planning on doing exactly this…
  7. Ingenio – Again, a move to cut off Google, buying Ingenio slots in really well with their recent TellMe acquisition.  I don’t know how much bigger the online ad space is growing, but I do believe it’s pretty obvious that the opportunities in both Mobile and Voice are huge.  Ebay wants to use Skype to sell advice, but they spent too much money on the company and are finding quickly how much work there is to efficiently offer such a service (hint: it’s a lot).  Ingenio is one of those Bay Area startups that doesn’t come up in conversation all that often, but they are already providing services to MSN, AOL, AT&T, and a host of others, and guess what – they’re profitable.  I don’t know how much this one would go for, but if MSFT is serious about getting into advertising (I did mention the $6B for aQuantive, right?), they should look to expand the concept horizontally while they still have the chance to get out in front of the pack on it.  As an added bonus, the company is even built on top of MS technologies.
  8. Facebook (estimated valuation: $1-2B and up) – Well Microsoft is already giving Facebook $900 million (over 3 years), what’s a few $100 million amongst friends? I’m not sure that Mark Z. would sell to Redmond because he may not “feel like it” (plus they’re so old over there), but I think Microsoft needs to make itself relevant to the next generation (i.e., make him an offer he can’t refuse). If your online identity is with Facebook, then the services you use may naturally follow. Integrated IM. Mail. Video Posts. Blogs. All are natural extensions of your identity (all are things being done oh-so-poorly by the MSN group). Facebook isn’t just an advertising play, it also can help “sell” software by weaving Microsoft’s services into the Facebook platform. Oh, and by the way, it’s a pretty good advertising play. Rumor is that Facebook is signing up 1,000,000 members a week. Yeah, week. Yikes. Comscore and Hitwise have it outpacing their much more mature (57 million members) predecessor, MySpace.

Sure some of these might sound a bit controversial, and some might not make sense to everyone.  But Microsoft needs to start thinking a little different, so to speak, and some radical acquisitions are one way to start that process.  Fundamentally, I feel Microsoft is still waiting to enter the 21st century.  All I have to say is: come on in guys, the water’s fine!

Disclosure: I do not work for any of these companies, nor Microsoft.  I do own about $500 worth of MSFT stock as the last vestige of an E*trade account I set up back in 1999 and haven’t touched since.  Oh, and I have a few friends at MS and some of these startups, and I guess if they ever make it rich and it was my fault they owe me a big fat steak dinner.

LD now ad-free, are there more to come?

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I started this blog back in the Fall of ’04, and it was splattered with different kinds of ads from Google, Amazon, Commission Junction, and other services.  What can I say, I was young, I needed the money.  In all seriousness, back then, sites like Engadget were in their infancy, and there were few, if any, established models around blogging.

When I wrote in February about the lack of revenue in blogging (for the masses), I still looked at the few dollars I was making via Google and Amazon as covering hosting costs.  I’ve come to the decision that I think my site would look a heck of a lot better not sponsored by Gooooooogle.  So as of today, the ads are gone.  And there was much rejoicing (yay).

It also has me wondering: how many others are coming to this realization, and more importantly, how many of them will make this decision as well?  While I’m fairly ahead of the curve when it comes to technology and gadgetry, I wouldn’t really call myself a trendsetter (although I did predict the resurgence of both ABBA and Queen back in the 90’s – but then again I also thought we’d see a third Breakin’ movie by now).  But what if this is a bit of a trend?  What happens to the Googleopoly should independent content generators balk from the dribblings of revenue that AdSense provides?  And does this bode even worse for Microsoft’s recent $6 billion move?

Can't Make it to Makers Faire :(

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Not sure if the emoticon-in-title is really the way to go, but I can’t express it any other clearer than that.  If CEBIT represents the worst in trade shows, the Maker’s Faire represents the best in them.  No other event that I know of combines the openness, creativity and resourcefulness (well, maybe Burning Man) like Maker’s Faire does.  Unfortunately, I have a personal conflict this year and won’t be able to be there.  So to those in the Bay Area who can go, please do so, and I’d like to encourage everyone to find a way to represent that creative energy independently.  Some ideas:

  • Upload all your photos to Flickr – not exactly original, but the more the merrier!
  • Write a blog post chronicling your favorite inventions
  • Do your own video show, put it on YouTube (heck, you can be justin.tv for a day if you want)

Buy tix online here, check out photos and artwork over at Laughing Squid.

Personal Update

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This past Saturday, my beautiful wife gave birth to a little boy, a.k.a. BabyToe.  At present, I really haven’t decided what my comfort level is with putting pictures and videos online of him.  I think back to personal issues that confronted Russell Beattie several years ago as well as Kathy Sierra earlier this year.  I’m very aware of how much of my life is exposed via my blog, various social networking sites, twitter, flickr, youtube, etc, and while I’m comfortable with that personally, I don’t necessarily need to extend that level of exposure to my family.

As a “on-topic” item, here’s a list of all the gadgets I took to the hospital

  • Digital camera (Canon SD700is) – usage: approximately 600 photos in 48 hours
  • RCA Small Wonder – usage: lots of video, easy download to PC, easy edits, worked great, no silly videotape needed 
  • Laptop + EVDO card – usage: sent photos to family at night, made Muvee mix of especially cute photos
  • iRiver clix – usage: made awesome relaxation playlist for labor, never used it
  • QuikPod – usage: tripod for extra video recording, still love my quikpod!
  • Cell phones – usage: mostly ignored

Anyhow, I am thrilled to be a father of a healthy little boy.  I’ll certainly share the details of me getting obsessed with my stroller purchase, which was fun – hey, it really is the ultimate gadget if you think about it.  The blogging is probably going to remain somewhat sporadic (yes, even more than usual) for the next few weeks, but it won’t go away.

If anyone would care to share their thoughts on the balance between privacy/security and sharing, I’d love to hear them!

Viral Marketing – it really works!

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Just read this article at the WOMMA blog, it seems that 4 out of 5 dentists marketers like Crest viral marketing’s impact on brand awareness:

More than half of marketers say they are planning to launch multiple viral efforts in 2007, and more than 80% of “very experienced” marketers say that viral marketing builds awareness.

Here’s a link to the original article with the source data, if you are at all interested in learning about the effects of non-traditional marketing, give it a read. 

As a consultant in this space, I am getting a little frustrated with the saturation of the term “viral marketing”.  I’ve heard from marketers who place a “digg it” button on their home page and say “hey, now we’re viral!”  Another not-so-favorite is “we have a myspace page, yay!” 

In my eyes, viral marketing is a concerted effort to get people to talk, share, or otherwise inform others about your product, company, service, offering, etc.  More than that, it’s about a campaign, not a link.  Sure, your campaign might involve digg or myspace, but that’s not the campaign itself.

Expect to see a lot more on this topic from me in the future.

Video: Netgear's Digital Lifestyle Room

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Still no RSS over at the official NETGEAR blog, but I really liked the videos I shot while I was at their HQ a few weeks ago, so I am cross-posting them here. Big thanks to David Henry for spending the time with me. I’ve distilled the video into 5 chunks, each only a few minutes long. I like to think some editing is better than none!

The Home Office

Clip shows the Powerline HD kit as well as a wireless print server/router.

The Kids Room

Clip shows a wireless game adapter and discusses next-generation wireless security technologies.

The Kitchen Nook

Now I may not have a nook in my kitchen in my SF apartment, but I do remember what one looks like! This clip shows the Wifi Skype phone.

Showing the Skype DECT Phone

The Living Room

Features a walkthough of the EVA8000

Want to get your own tour of the room? Sign up for the Lunch 2.0 event at the end of May! Hope to see you there.

Now Hiring Marketing Associates/Interns!

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In between blog posts, I pay my bills as a consumer technology marketing consultant (the company is still unnamed, as there are simply no domains left other than consultr or mectooo.com).  The clients I have are all great – great people, great products/services.  Things are going well so far (knock on wood), and based on current prospects, I’m going to need a little more help pretty soon (read: immediately).  Honestly, work is a true pleasure, and I consider myself extremely lucky to be in this position.

We’re looking for a one or two interns and/or junior level reps with account management experience to help with the growing list of clients. This is the perfect opportunity for you (or someone you forward this to) to interact with new and exciting consumer technology, immerse yourself into the product development process, and learn more about traditional and new media marketing techniques. Additionally, we will introduce you to industry influencers and help you grow your network.

Bottom line – this is a fun industry, and this is a chance to get involved with a lot of very exciting projects!

Qualifications

  • Extremely strong communications skills, especially written
  • Good understanding of consumer technology (gadgets, mobile, etc) with a genuine enthusiasm and interest in new trends in tech, media, and culture
  • Good understanding of new media, including blogging and social networking
  • Confident and effective networker
  • Fast learner and self-starting with impeccable organizational skills
  • Brilliantly creative, yet shrewdly analytical

Responsibilities

  • Competitive studies and industry surveys, with heavy emphasis on both quantitative and qualitative research. This includes field questionnaires and street-level buzz/WOM tracking.
  • Execution and oversight of outreach campaigns, including online community management and content development/acquisition.
  • Pitching new products and services to bloggers and traditional media outlets.
  • Participating in development of creative strategy, including branding and messaging.
  • Maintaining and adding to the internal contact and event database

Our office is in North Beach, some telecommuting is fine, hours are flexible, and compensation is based on experience and fit.

If you are interested, please email me (jeremy @ …) a resume along with a brief overview of your capabilities, why this is a perfect fit for you, and tell me what is bound to be the hottest gadget in your eyes in 2007.  This is one of those rare opportunities in life where you can turn your hobby into a career.  Looking forward to hearing from you!