Paul's Blog

So a good PR friend of mine pointed out something amazing to me; Macrovision acquired Mediabolic! I was in total shock. Now, I usually get the skinny on Mediabolic with Press Releases delivered to my "door" by their wonderful PR/marketing guy, but I got left off of the list, and maybe others did too. Which, to me, is just wrong, but I digress... I'm guessing that the folks at Macrovision didn't find me special enough. Oh how wrong they are...

The press release describes the buy-out as an "Acquisition to Drive Consumer Access to Digital Content on Entertainment Devices throughout the Home."

Personally, I think Mediabolic was doing just fine in this area, making great strides in the industry, and pushing some envelopes in many other places. As I've said before, I really like what they have to offer and thought that their success was more than wonderful.

But then, there's this:

SANTA CLARA, Calif. January 3, 2007 Macrovision Corporation (MVSN) today announced that, effective January 1, 2007, it acquired Mediabolic, Inc., a leading provider of software solutions for connected consumer electronics devices, such as televisions, set-top boxes and digital video recorders. Founded in 1999, Mediabolic was a privately-held company based in San Mateo, California.

The acquisition of Mediabolic extends Macrovision's capabilities in the delivery and enhancement of digital content to a wide variety of connected consumer electronics devices, a strategic priority for Macrovision and its customers. Mediabolic's open and intuitive entertainment networking software platform is an ideal complement to Macrovision's industry leading content protection, enhancement and delivery technology, which is used by Hollywood studios and other owners of high-value content around the world.

"Consumers want to interact with media and digital content whenever and wherever they want. Mediabolic is a key enabler of that experience and we believe in its innovative technology," said Fred Amoroso, CEO of Macrovision Corporation. "Mediabolic's software is a strong fit with our roadmap to help content owners transition from the world of physical media to the digital world on the strength of our technology and partner ecosystem."

Today, Waterfall Mobile, is debuting its MSGME mobile marketing service. It is a mobile messaging platform that gives content owners the ability to add mobile interactivity to their current marketing - online, print, broadcast, or in-venue. It utilizes an easy-to-use web interface to help make publishing effortless, and gives content owners the power to create flexible mobile campaigns, customize their content delivery and send broadcast messages.

Their service is built on LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) architecture and they also offer a Developer Toolkit which allows for dynamic publishing, integration of external applications to mobilize any business, and exporting analytics.

The company is privately owned, founded by some former E*Trade guys – the CEO, Matthew Sechrest, also helped found E* Trade’s venture arm, ArrowPath Venture Capital. Their VP of Engineering is Madhavan Rangarao, formerly of Enigmatic, BEA, and TIBCO. Current clients include the SF Film Society, Youth Noise, and E*Trade among others.

So, just for fun (or if you're bored), you can send a message to MY paulsblog keyword from your phone and you'll get a response back. I'll try to keep it updated so you guys can play with it.

Here's what you do, you break out your shiney mobile phone, and send a text message to MSGME (that's 67463), with the message text: paulsblog That'll get you a response. If you send a message with this text: paulsblog latest That'll get you one of my latest news articles. Eventually, I'll have it send you a whole bunch of RSS stuff, but for right now, I'll manually update it. I'm also currently working on a poll for you to answer though this method. This may add quite a good bit of new interactivity to Pauls Blog! Comments are certainly welcome!

[Via: ANW Networks for Waterfall Mobile - Thanks Lish!]

The genius Cory Doctorow, from Boing Boing, reported about an interview with bloggers concerning Bill Gates' thoughts on DRM. Apparently, it was received a little strangely, considering his position on the whole thing. Understandably, though. I mean, if Bill Gates is against the way DRM is being handled, and Microsoft JUST opened up the "gates" allowing people to purchase music for their latest foray into the online music sales business, what does this actually mean for the consumer?

Mr. Gates admitted that putting anti-copying technology into media makes it worse. He concluded by advising everyone to just forget about the DRM, by buying CDs and ripping them. Gates also included the statement that no one is satisfied with the current state of DRM, which "causes too much pain for legitmate buyers" while trying to explain the difference between legal and illegal uses. He claims that no-one has done it correctly at this time. He also asserts that there are "huge problems" with DRM. and "we need more flexible models," such as the ability to "buy an artist out for life."

Gates also had criticism for DRM schemes which try to install intelligence in each copy so that it is device specific. His advice for now was: "People should just buy a cd and rip it. You are legal then."

For more on this story, check out the details at Techcrunch

[Via: BoingBoing]

If you're sick of your current phone company, or maybe even your current Broadband VoIP telephone company, it's time to give ViaTalk Broadband Phone Service a look-see!

ViaTalk is a newer debt-free company from New York (that's in the USA, by the way), that is currently offering VoIP service in over 2200 metro markets in all of these United States.

They have a full featured telephone service including all of the goodies that we've come to know and love. For just $16 a month, you can get their VT_UNLIMITED plan, which includes e911, voicemail, Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, Call Return (*69), and free "in-network" calling.

They're currently running a special for 6 free months, with no initial equipment fees, and fast and easy installation. ...and if you're a little skeptical, they're BBBonline certified - for your protection.

They are a USA based company focused on delivering broadband telephone service to those of us in the US, but who knows, maybe they'll expand to the Eurpoean market, soon.

Their website is easy to navigate and get things started, so you should take a look. I, myself, love VoIP, so I'm interested in their offering to see what might be for me. Since my wife and I both work at home, the more solutions the better!


ViaTalk


[Sponsored Post - Disclaimer]

Some time last night, the story broke that Microsoft will add downloadable movies and TV shows to the Xbox Live marketplace. Mr. Xbox 360 himself, Peter Moore, delivered the news that will make XBOX360ers all happy.

From Microsoft:

Movies and TV on your Xbox

Microsoft Corp. November 6 announced agreements with CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. (TBS Inc.), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment to bring an initial lineup of over 1,000 hours of hit TV shows and movies to Xbox 360™ gamers in the U.S. by the end of the year. Furthermore, Xbox 360 will be the first gaming console to bring standard and high-definition TV shows and movies via digital distribution over the Internet directly to the consumer.

Beginning Nov. 22, on its first anniversary, Xbox 360 will be the first gaming console in history to provide high-definition TV shows and movies directly to gamers in their living rooms. Xbox 360 gamers will have access to the full-length TV shows as downloads to own and movies to rent via download from the Xbox Live® network, the worldwide leader in online distribution of high-definition gaming and entertainment content. This announcement also brings with it several additional "firsts":

* For the first time, consumers will get an integrated gaming and entertainment experience on a gaming console that includes downloadable high-definition TV shows and movies. This new full-length content adds to the ever-expanding number of choices gamers have on their Xbox 360, whether they want to play games or play a movie on a disc or as a download in high definition or standard definition.
* For the first time CBS will deliver high-definition download-to-own TV shows including "CSI," "Jericho," "Numb3rs" and remastered "Star Trek" episodes; gamers can buy them and watch them repeatedly.
* For the first time on any platform, NASCAR.COM will deliver download-to-own condensed versions of select NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series races from "Race Rewind."
* For the first time, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will make 50 of its most intense fights available for download as well as select episodes from the original season of "The Ultimate Fighter" reality series.


The curiousity I have is how much content will their partners be delivering from the start? I'll assume that many companies will want to tap both markets of iTunes and Xbox Live to make sure people can buy their wares for iPods as well as Xboxes and the upcoming Zune. It will be an interesting business model, going forward. I'm sure I can find some stats and create a humble view of the world, here. Hmmm... I wonder who might find this interesting, other than me?

So, I'm reading one of my favorite blogs (Gizmodo), and there's a really cheeky article about this Firebox turntable. Some friends of mine, and I, were talking about these things a long time ago. In fact, I pointed this thing out when I saw it on the Target Website in EARLY Spring! So, I figured I'd rant about the blog post, because it was a little annoying to someone my age.

See, the device is actually pretty cool. You can rip your old Vinyl via this USB connected belt-drive turntable and free "open source" Audacity software.

It was bound to happen, wasn't it? Once Google (who I thought was cool) got a hold of YouTube, suddenly a whole bunch of content disappears. 30,000 clips, to be close-enough to exact.

The BBC reported that YouTube cut 30,000 illegal clips from its online inventory on or around October 20th. To take a short quote: "YouTube cuts 30,000 illegal clips (Fri, 20 Oct 2006 11:43:25 GMT) Web service YouTube removes nearly 30,000 files after Japanese complaints of copyright infringement."

The Japanese? Isn't most of Asia where all of the illegal copies of software, movies, music, and applications? I'm willing to be a big man and actually take my lumps for the comment, when I have some stats (other than the general media) to prove me wrong. So, if I'm wrong, let me know. I'll be happy to retract my comment.

Oh, well... so much for having fun on the web with YouTube! I guess I'll have to find some way to get my hands on that "Weird Al" video that doesn't exist in digital form that's purchasable!

Just released from Mediabolic is Mediabolic's Software Update Services program. It lets their customers (companies that produce devices which can install Mediabolic's code) "push" updated firmware out to their products, either with or without end-user intervention. With Software Update Services, a manufacturer can fix problems before the consumer experiences them. They can also do remote diagnostics, update DRM keys, and add new, revenue- generating applications to their installed base. In addition, Mediabolic also announced Buffalo, Inc. as the first customer to sign up for their new service. They're using it today to keep their deployed LinkTheater PC-P4 network media players up-to-date.

It's obvious that Buffalo and Mediabolic have a very close relationship, and it can be seen by the quick adaptation of Mediabolic's software updates into Buffalo's products.

Now, if I could just get my Roku Soundbridge to update and work with iTunes 7! ... I guess Roku isn't using Mediabolic's new updater... ;)

Fōnpods transforms the mobile phone into a mobile entertainment system, untethering consumers from the PC.

In a press release from LOS ANGELES, Calif., and SAN DIEGO, Calif. on September 25, 2006, via Trier and Company – Fōnpods, Inc., an industry leader in providing content for mobile devices, today unveiled at DEMOfall, the global leading technology product launch conference, the capabilities of its podcast by phone service. Fōnpods’ proprietary platform is designed to provide convenient, cost-free mobile access to digital audio content – podcasts in particular - through the mobile phone.

"Fōnpods has developed a unique way to access relevant Internet content on demand while on the go," said Chris Shipley, executive producer of the DEMO conferences. "I expect to see some more exciting developments in the mobile content arena this coming year and Fōnpods is unequivocally among the next-generation of technology companies to be pioneering new platforms for mobile communications."

Fōnpods created a technology platform that was created to allow consumers to access digital content (such as podcasts) directly by phone. The service provides users with PC and Internet content optimized for an on-the-go mobile experience – creating a fusion of interactive content and portable media – and allowing users to access their audio content from a landline, mobile or VoIP phone.

This experience is supported by Fōnpods’ back-end services featuring a rapidly growing and searchable catalog of available podcasts. A Web-based interface allows users to customize and create their own listening “channels,” as well as produce their own content, share content, or collaborate with friends and colleagues. Additional functionality allows users to organize, tag, or rate podcasts - from any web-access device - with all major browsers being supported.

Fōnpods significantly increases portability of podcasts without the need for additional expensive consumer devices, such as your standard iPod, or the coming Microsoft Zune, and eliminates the complexity of managing those podcasts. So easy, it's just click, pick, and dial.

Fōnpods’ service offerings include:
• Easy Set-up
• Large Searchable Library of Content (podcasts, etc.)
• Free Access to Fōnpods
• Customizable Services and Content
• Simple Sharing and Collaboration Tools (rating mechanisms and group tagging)


I think if they would partner with the major carriers (and that's probably their plan)... they'd do great. I'm sure Verizon would get in on "the details" and make some money via their "Get It Now" service. But the "cost-free" thing seems like something they're trying to not transfer to the comsumer. Maybe the content providers are the ones paying? It would be good to have a "pay-to-be-heard" model with podcasts. These days so many people pump out such junk (points to self). It would definitely narrow the "poor quality" scope. Of course, it would also push out the openness of the "technology" and purpose behind it. So maybe that isn't the perfect scenario, but hey, we're breaking some relatively new ground, here.

[Via: Press Release FONPod] Thanks Lish!