-
Sezmi Will Aim Ads at Individual Viewers
Tweet Share on Facebook May 8, 2008 Comment (10)There's a sly, two-way genius to the upcoming Sezmi box. Among the device's ambitious advances on organizing modern TV is "personalization."
Sezmi will customize the menus and playlists of shows for individual members of the household. Each of several users—perhaps Mom, Dad, Son, and Daughter—gets his or her own button on the remote.
Sounds great. But there's nothing for nothing. For letting Sezmi know who you are, the service can deliver ads targeted directly at you. It's a big advance over broadcast, which can tailor ads only to a geographic region, or even TiVo, which might customize ads for a household.
Targeted ads better serve the viewers, say the Sezmi folks. Somebody who has watched a lot of golf tournaments might like to see ads for new clubs and balls. And because the Sezmi system incorporates a broadband connection, clicking on the ad can take users to more detailed information and maybe even a dialogue with the seller.
That clearly serves the interests of sellers, who are likely to pay a pretty premium for that sort of link to potential buyers.
Some people find the idea creepy—that an advertising service is monitoring their behavior to shape ads. There is a periodic backlash when TiVo users realize the service knows what they're watching.
But it's no different from what Google and a multitude of other Web services do every day. There seems to be nothing wrong with tracking users, as long as Sezmi and other providers honor their commitment to keep personal data—names, addresses—separate from the data used to generate advertising.
And as long, of course, as they convert some of the ad income into cheaper rates for subscription TV.
-
Parents Are More Web-Wary Than Teachers
Tweet Share on Facebook May 8, 2008 CommentTeachers are more upbeat than parents about the Internet's value in helping kids learn social skills, according to a survey released today.
About two thirds of parents said they don't think the Internet helps kids' communication skills, according to a nationally representative poll of 700 parents. Most parents said they actively discourage their kids, for example, from visiting and posting on social networking sites.
The issue was part of a broader survey on how parents view digital media by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group that promotes responsible use of electronic content. Its board includes educators, parents, and business leaders, some of whom help produce media.
Teachers, meanwhile, are twice as likely as parents to think the Web aids in developing social skills. About 60 percent of teachers, in fact, think parents underestimate the educational value of electronic media. And while viewing video games skeptically, teachers are a bit more likely than parents to think even they can help teach social skills. Maybe that's because educators aren't dealing as much with kids' obsessive behavior at home.
Parents and teachers largely agree, however, that "educational" media largely oversell their usefulness as teaching aids.
-
WiMax Is Brought Back From the Dead
Tweet Share on Facebook May 7, 2008 CommentCall it FrankenMax. A new effort to get WiMax up and running looks like a monster assembled in somebody's basement—probably the basement of Sprint Nextel as it was flooding with red ink.
Sprint said it would join forces with Clearwire, the other big player in WiMax. The new technology for years has promised to deliver broadband speeds over a wireless network, and it was feared dead as problems mounted at Sprint.
The combined WiMax venture will also get $3 billion from new partners Google and Intel, along with a number of cable companies.
That seems like a lot of different partners with as many different agendas. We should soon see how well the consortium might hold together. Sprint hoped to have some of the network in place later this year.
WiMax will compete with a different wireless broadband technology being deployed by Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Those companies have the money to go it alone with a single purpose and a single message and without having to revive a beast from the grave.
-
Bountii Alerts Buyers to New Prices on Electronics
Tweet Share on Facebook May 7, 2008 Comment (1)Finding the best price on electronics is daunting. Any number of sites let you compare prices, but Bountii will automatically alert you of a newer and lower price.
Bountii will relay price quotes on any product you want as an RSS feed, making it easy to see the cheapest price the site finds. It's just one of Bountii's unusual features as it tries to distinguish itself among dozens of online shopping sites.
Another is the bounty (hence the name) paid on certain products if you can find a less expensive quote at a reputable store. You won't get rich quick—Bountii today is offering payments of $6 or less on about 15 products.
Bountii searches only about 100 stores, meaning you won't necessarily find the cheapest price out there. "We intentionally keep this number small," writes cofounder John Puskarich in an E-mail, "to ensure that our shoppers have a great buying experience."
In turn, Bountii unearths some better prices at those stores than do other search engines. Its search will uncover hidden prices, such as those that first require you to put an item in your shopping cart.
Bountii isn't the end-all in shopping sites. But it's a good tech tool in the search for good tech.
-
Get Your Digital TV Coupons While They're Hot
Tweet Share on Facebook May 7, 2008 Comment (14)It might be risky to wait much longer to prepare for digital TV. The federal government reports that U.S. households have ordered about 13 million of the free coupons for converter boxes. That's more than a third of all the coupons the government will dispense.
The coupons each cover $40 of the cost of one of the converters, which start at about $50. The converter boxes will enable old TVs and VCRs to receive broadcast signals after the government turns off stations in February. Each household qualifies for two coupons.
Some have suggested waiting to order the coupons because they expire after 90 days. And niftier converters, with features such as cable-TV-like programming guides, are scheduled to arrive at retailers later this year. That would be too late for the earliest coupons.
But there is no guarantee coupons will still be available months from now. They probably will be, particularly as unspent coupons expire and become available again to new applicants. But applications could accelerate as the February deadline approaches. It's a risk I'd rather not take.
-
Free Zimbra Software Survives Microsoft Scare
Tweet Share on Facebook May 6, 2008 Comment (2)There are lots of Yahoo employees breathing a sigh of relief after Microsoft backed away from its takeover bid. But perhaps none more than those at Zimbra, a suite of applications that Yahoo bought last year. Unlike most of Yahoo, Zimbra takes dead aim at some of Microsoft's core software.
Zimbra offers E-mail, calendar, contacts, and more. Sounds like Outlook. And Zimbra is free in its basic form to consumers and small businesses, much as Outlook is to Windows users.
But Zimbra is also sold in more ambitious versions meant as sophisticated software to help employees work together. That sounds like higher-end versions of Outlook and its back-office partner, Microsoft Exchange. Those products are crucial to Microsoft's efforts to keep itself at the heart of corporate computing.
Little else at Yahoo seemed as direct a challenge to Microsoft as Zimbra. The consensus was that Microsoft would shutter Zimbra soon after getting Yahoo.
Dodging the takeover doesn't mean Zimbra can beat Microsoft. But as long as Zimbra stays alive, consumers and even businesses can get free access to pretty cool software.
-
Nine Inch Nails' '100 Percent Free' Album
Tweet Share on Facebook May 6, 2008 Comment (19)Pushing the edges of the new world of music marketing, Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails is offering a free download of its latest album, The Slip.
The move seems an even purer play than what Radiohead did with its most recent album, In Rainbows. The British group offered that record at any price fans were willing to pay, including nothing at all.
There's no guilt trip from NIN architect Reznor, who had already shown a willingness to toy with new marketing approaches. Giving away some tracks on the last NIN album apparently helped sell it in a variety of shapes and sizes.
And not to worry for disk fans, NIN says on its site. The new album will also be available this summer on CD and vinyl, and we're betting at a variety of prices again.
-
NBC's iCue Brings TV News to a New Generation
Tweet Share on Facebook May 2, 2008 Comment (7)NBC News is launching an education site Sunday that features video from its archives. Aimed at kids 13 years and older, the free iCue lets students stockpile video clips, annotate them, and share them with friends.
The site works on the premise that "video will replace the textbook," says Adam Jones, an NBC News executive who's overseeing the network's efforts to leverage its archives and technology.
-
ZeeVee Offers Another Media Player With a Twist
Tweet Share on Facebook May 2, 2008 Comment (3)ZeeVee offers yet another box to link a PC to your TV, à la AppleTV, but with an interesting twist: Its ZvBox ties the computer to the existing co-ax cable that already carries cable TV around your house. Whatever is playing on your computer becomes just another channel on your cable lineup.
So, in theory, it offers the reliability and high-def bandwidth of a wired connection without having to tear open walls and run new cable.
ZeeVee is calling it "localcasting." Software on the box finds an unused channel on your cable system and adds the output from the PC. The ZvBox also comes with a radio remote that can control the PC from as far away as 150 feet.
The $500 box is scheduled to ship at the end of June and can be preordered through Amazon.
-
Sezmi to Compete With Cable and Satellite TV
Tweet Share on Facebook May 2, 2008 Comment (7)A new service aims to simplify modern television, combining Internet TV, local broadcasts, and cable networks in one box and one menu. Called Sezmi, the service is an ambitious effort to tap multiple technologies to pull off its effort, with unused TV spectrum at the center of its plan.
The company would broadcast the most popular cable programming over the air, using extra capacity that was given to TV stations as part of the transition to digital broadcasts. Some stations, including PBS, are using the new capacity to broadcast their own added programming, such as offering extra channels of how-to or kids shows.
But most of the added broadcasting capacity is sitting unused. Sezmi would lease time from local stations to broadcast offerings from cable networks like ESPN and HGTV for instant watching. Other programming could be downloaded from the Internet, along with more Webby fare such as YouTube.
A software interface would organize the programs for easy watching and hide the whiz-bang tech that's pulling programming from different sources. "It's invisible to the user where the content is coming from," says cofounder and CEO Buno Pati.
Adding the Internet, and a hard drive for storing programs, is an interesting twist on another failed effort to use extra capacity at TV stations. USDTV went bankrupt leasing time on local broadcast channels to cheaply deliver cable networks to homes for a monthly fee.
Sezmi has hired several former USDTV execs to help put together its technology. But Sezmi will take a different approach in selling its service. USDTV relied on consumers buying their box from the local Wal-Mart. Sezmi will sell its service through Internet service providers—such as telephone companies—that are anxious to offer video programming.
Sezmi isn't talking price, other than to say it expects customers to pay a monthly fee that's about half what they now pay for digital cable or satellite service. Sezmi is starting tests of its service in hopes to launch in a few markets by year's end.
