Monday, February 28, 2005
When RealNetworks founder and chief executive, Rob Glaser, pitched his stock yesterday at the Goldman Sachs Technology Symposium, the room was half empty and only a handful of investors stayed around to ask questions.
Digital media is hot, but RealNetworks apparently is not, at least in comparison with Apple. Apple boss Steve Jobs didn't make it to Goldman's conference, but the company's chief financial officer came and drew a standing-room-only crowd of more than 100 institutional investors.
Ouch.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
The considerable and constant morphing of portable media players and mobile phones into swiss-army-knife devices is taking its toll on PDAs. Sony already had pulled back on the elegant but high-priced Clie in its overseas markets but now is halting development in Japan. Sony is trying to spin the move away from getting out of the PDA business; a spokesperson told IDG: It's a chance for us to recharge our batteries, to sit down and consider the business." But it's hard not to see it as a big step back. Will Sony put PDA operations in its portable media players? Its already moving into MP3 phones.
Meanwhile, Apple acknowledges the competition by expanding iPod options and lowering some prices. For instance, the 4GB $249 iPod mini that didn't compare so favorably price-wise to the 5GB $225-ish Creative Zen Micro is now a better deal at $199. Ditto for the new 6GB iPod for $249. The iPod Photo has better price points and more functionality. Apple isn't going to be able to own the market forever but moves like this should help it rule a lot longer.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Welcome to podcasting, the medium that promises a future where anyone can make radio, instead of just listen to it. The biggest podcast audiences now number in the mere tens of thousands. Yet real radio, the kind with bona fide mass audiences, is starting to use the technology to make its shows available for download.More.
(pdf link)
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
"Print is dead," Sports Illustrated President John Squires told a room full of newspaper and magazine circulation executives at a conference in Toronto in November. His advice? "Get over it," meaning publishers should stop trying to save their ink-on-paper product and focus on electronic delivery of their journalism.
Rare is the paper these days that is not embracing the Web. In addition to their own sites, papers such as the New York Times, the Miami Herald and the Houston Chronicle e-mail free headlines and news summaries to people who don't have time for the newspaper but carry BlackBerrys and other electronic gizmos.
Friday, February 18, 2005
Not anymore. The infusion factor is over-sold. A good stoli-doli is basically Stoli (infused or not) with Cointreau and Dole pineapple juice. In other words (hush hush) a Cosmopolitan with Dole instead of cranberry juice....
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Thursday, February 10, 2005
More from the Times story.