Technically Speaking

Well that is a new one on me. Eisner seems to think that striking writers should be barking up Cupertino Lane, or rather the home of Steve Jobs and Apple.

Eisner, a well-known critic of Apple (whose CEO, Steve Jobs, is a powerful member of Disney’s board of directors), suggested that the profits may be getting sucked up elsewhere. The studios “make deals with Steve Jobs, who takes them to the cleaners. They make all these kinds of things, and who’s making money? Apple! They should get a piece of Apple. If I was a union, I’d be striking up wherever he is.”

Kind of funny how Eisner is also the head of the experimental online show Prom Queen, a show that I referred to in a post the other day. He states that it’s a “fun project” and that it’s a money loser; not a money maker.

Cavuto, naturally, played devil’s advocate and asked Eisner why he’s sticking with it. “First of all, I’m doing it because I think it’s fun, I think it’s the future, and I think it’s interesting,” Eisner replied, “(but) I’m begging advertisers to give me enough money to break even.”

Begging advertisers to give Eisner enough money. I don’t quite think it is to that level, and I really can’t see Mr. Eisner on his hands and knees begging for cash. Everyone knows the truth.

The truth is that online entertainment, be it audio or video is all headed online. Whether the video realm is making any money now, or in three years (where he pulled that number from, I’d really like to know), it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that television with this strike has only hurried the inevitable. That is the death of television as we know it.

With content online improving every day, there is not a need for people to spend their money on cable or dish. There will be the day when everyone will be streaming shows to that flat screen. You may think that there are shows that are not online. Think again, as even the local news has started to put a majority of their stories if not their entire nightly newscast online.

I wish the writers well in their strike, but either they need to come to agreement quickly, or they will be looking for work. Where? Online for some new media company that does nothing but put content out on the internet. No television station licenses, no FCC, no regulation.

Technically Speaking, shows will (as they are now) be a bit sketchy to start, but once the writing begins to improve, you will see that online video is the way to go. If you really think about it, the shows of the 1950’s weren’t that great, and improved over time.

While I’m at it, here is the LC afternoon post - a great look iPhones and Ron Paul even!

* This didn’t make Episode 26, but wanted to thank Allen for covering the Lending Club $5,000 Video Contest *

Episode 26 notes:

Virtualmin

Virtualmin is making it easier for web hosting companies to set up and maintain web sites, a process that can be mind-numbingly mundane and tedious.

PartnerUp

PartnerUp wants to help entrepreneurs find the people they need to get their concepts off the ground.

Loopt

Loopt, a Silicon Valley company that lets people interact on their cell-phones as they move around on a map, will now be available on Sprint.

PowerGeeks

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Steve Jobs, the father of the iPod, was on Tuesday crowned the undisputed king of the online music revolution by U.S. music magazine Blender, topping a list of the 25 most influential people in Web music.

iPod Home

A patent issued to Apple Inc. this week may breath new life into the firm’s once touted “Home on iPod” feature, which prior to being tabled several years ago promised Mac OS X users the ability to tote their home directories and account information around on their iPods.

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It is appearing like a very strong fact over a rumor now. The video iPod, which I now have two thanks to winning two Jambaz games, will be upgraded to be touch screen like the iPhone.

Apple is preparing to launch a next-generation video iPod in August that features a touch-screen panel similar to the iPhone, according to DigiTimes.

The DigiTimes article goes into further details.

“The Taiwan-based panel maker will begin shipping capacitive touch screen panels in the second half of 2007,” DigiTimes said. “The company noted that its touch screen panels will be used with customers’ own software and ICs.”

Technically Speaking, I wonder if current owners of a video iPod will be given any sort of incentive to upgrade?

* In the right hand corner after you hit start - you will see “1/14″ - click the right arrow to get to Episode 14!

Episode 14 notes:

Universal Music and Apple in a negotiation breakdown

MUSIC DIVIDE The Universal Music Group of Vivendi told Apple that it would not renew its annual contract to sell music through iTunes, executives briefed on the matter said. Universal told Apple that it would provide music to Apple at will, giving itself the option to pull out of the service at any time.

The two companies have reached a standoff in negotiations. The music industry has been complaining for years about Apple’s influence on the online-music business, its power to set prices on music downloaded through iTunes and iTunes’ lack of compatibility with music players other than the iPod.

twitter and why Allen Stern hates it

Here is another good example of lack of conversation followthru. Here user “RexDixon” notes to user “marshallk” something about Gmail chat. In this example, I can click “in reply to marshallk” to view the initial status. But there is no threading so if another user was to reply, I would not be able to view it.

Pay For Pownce? Nah… get a CN autographed postcard instead…

I finally realized the possibilities of using eBay to promote your product so I am very excited to announce that this morning I placed a “Limited Edition Hand Signed Genuine Authentic” CenterNetworks PostCard auction on eBay. Close your eyes and imagine all of the possibilities that are possible when you own your own signed PostCard. Don’t be the dork at the next Facebook launch party without one of these PostCards.

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See - Lending Club on MBL
Load - Criteo Autoroll on your blog

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My Company - Nuclear Inbox, LLC
My UStream.tv - RexTV URL and on Nuclear Inbox, LLC site
Feed yourself - This blogs Feed URL.
Read - Link Blog

I’m also located on social networks such as - Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ojeez, Vertagio, and the new Mashable one.

Apple and Universal Music have appeared to have ended their relationship. That really bites, since I just won this iPod recently. Now I wonder if anything can be salvaged or will someone else come in and scoop up the deal?

What really is interesting is how Apple has relied on these contracts in order for their iTunes / iPod packages to succeed. It makes you wonder if there is actually something on the horizon that is more compelling for Universal Music. Music sites are a dime a dozen.

If some new site grabs the contract, you can be rest assured this will be quite a blow to the Apple franchise. Hopefully the negotiations will restart, and a deal can be done. If not, this could spell a down period for Apple. Ok, maybe I’m being a bit melodramatic, maybe overly so.

The fact remains there are other sites that could do this deal, and once the contract is signed it will be good-bye Universal Music for quite some time. I honestly didn’t believe the rumors when I saw them, so let’s hope that Engadget maybe jumped the gun.

Technically Speaking, this is a whole new age of music we are living in. Just like p2p lending by Lending Club is giving you more options for school loan consolidation, there are more options available for you as far as music online.