Love The New Yorker cartoons, but just don’t have time to read the weekly publication or better yet, you just read it for the cartoons? Well, you are in luck! RingTales, iTunes, and The New Yorker have teamed up to provide free weekly podcasts of the famous cartoons.
“It’s been an absolute pleasure to see our 20th century tradition come to life in 21st century technology. It’s an opportunity to expand our audience–and have fun in the process.” -Robert Mankoff, The New Yorker cartoon editor
Came across this little ditty on MTV News about how a High School in Pennsylvania called Hatboro-Horsham is doing their part in the fight against global warming by cutting down on paper usages. Classrooms are switching to the paperless medium of PC’s and Pocket PC’s for the purpose of note-taking and “beaming homework.”
Like Mr Sponder I to noticed the new advertisements for New York City Transit’s TransitTrax Podcasts. The podcasts cover everything from staying safe, service advisories, transit news, MetroCard Deals information and even interviews with special guests and subway passengers.
Pretty cool for a service notorious for its lack of ingenuity and communication.
But I have always wondered about podcasts that have the words “update to date” information on them. Update information for mass transit usual means by the minute and its hard to find out via podcast various service interruptions when you have not been a computer that can link up with your Pod in a while.
But I guess its good in terms of what the MTA has to work with. The days of streaming Metro Transit News via SMS far away I guess. But here is an idea for the future.
Proximity SMS alerts for the subway you are waiting for. This will be made possible in the future as the carriers start setting up networks on the platform’s in subway stations. So say the 6 train is delayed at 42′nd street because of an “ongoing investigation.” The Transit SMS alert system could then send an SMS blast to the 6 train platforms and thus any poor soul waiting for the 6 train would receive the SMS. You would have to make this an opt in system of course but I bet most people would not mind. A general opt in system for transit SMS alerts would not work because, well, if I sign up SMS alerts for the 6 train I really don;t care if delayed when I am already up in my office. I way has to be made so that the information only gets to me when I need it and the wiring of NYC platforms is perfect for that kind of proximity service. As the technology and usage rates increase, they could then turn to systems like MMS to deliver the same type of info with pictures, video and voice as well.
The NYC transit authority should take advantage of bluetooth technology offering some of the podcasts and other information via a bluetooth poster and or advertisement. Advertisers will eventually do it so they might as well to. This is also another great way to send out alerts.
Honestly, the more I think about it… the subway, tube…whatever you call it is one of the most fantastic places to play with, test and implement mobile marketing and other mobile tools and systems. It is an amazing ubiquitous with huge potential for mobile… just like the line at the post office.
Anyways, thats my two sense. Here are some more relevant Subway meets Mobile stories for your friday reading pleasure.
Interesting article in TechNewsWorld about the transition of podcasting to mobile audio players to cell phones. Just consider it. There are tens of millions of iPods and about 700 million PCs already capable of playing podcasts. This is nothing compared to the 2 billion mobile phones now in use around the world. And as more and more of these phones come with more computer like features and memory, more and more people will be listening to podcasts on their already “always on” device.
Plus, two companies that have been around for a while now, UpSnap and Pod2Mod are making “Cellcasts” even more possible buy allowing users with “basic phone models” the ability to listen to Podcasts.
UpSnap, which currently delivers 100 free podcasts, allows users to listen to the podcast of their choice by simply dialing a number. UpSnap’s major competitor Pod2Mob allows for the same features but also allows users to get podcasts to their phones wirelessly by sending a text message (UpSnap will be releasing a text messaging service in a couple of weeks).
Pod2Mob already claims to have built a database of users well into the 100 thousands.
UpSnap and Pod2Mob also solve the problem of getting podcasts onto the phone. I mean, if people are not downloading ringtones from data enabled SMS links or wap browsers then its very difficult, for most, to just get the ringtone put on your phone , let alone podcasts.
With so many more cell phone users then pod users the article is enthusiastic that “within six months, more people will listen to podcasts via wireless phones than via iPods” and will thus increase the amount of cellcasting enthusiasts from the thousands to the millions.
This is especially the case as more and more of the cell phone technology out there gets better smarter and more capable of handling music download and playing.
And of course all of this has only added to all the Apple iPhone related hype
The article points out that mobile podcast may or may not have to develop new formats to deal with the mobile medium. by, of course, becoming shorter.
Perhaps a longer broadcast would be sliced into 30-second “chapters,” so that if users are interrupted by a call, they don’t have to listen to the program from the beginning again. “The mobile phone is a new publishing medium that’s every bit as different from the Web as the Web is from print,” says Bill Valenti, executive vice-president at Melodeo and former CEO of Tegic, a developer of software for mobile phones that was acquired by Time Warner’s AOL.
Or perhaps a person can just utilize the pause button that either automatically or manually triggers when a call is taken. Either way, as the mobile phone begins to mesh with things like music players and video players I do not really see this being a problem.
What the article is big on, and what scares me a bit, is advertising: While it’s still in its infancy, mobile podcast advertising and sponsorship is revving up quickly and could eventually surpass the traditional podcast ad market in size.
and
In many ways, advertising on mobile podcasts makes more sense than plain podcast ads. As with a video iPod, a cell phone ad can feature audio, graphics, or video. With a phone, though, a user can immediately respond by calling a marketer’s call center or by wirelessly surfing the advertiser’s Web site.
No. No it doesn’t. As fellow mobilists Oliver Starr and myself have warned time and time again there is a great annoyance factor that must be taken into account when it comes to unsolicited advertisements (especially in a device that you carry around in your pocket) and it is important to point out that the eventual download or listening to podcasts on a mobile device from or on a network data plan means that phone users themselves will be paying for the ads (in data costs). This would not be fair.
So, while podcasts are still files that have to be manually installed into a phone the advertisement scheme might work. But once you start asking users to download advertisements at their costs things get trickier. Even advertisements with the UpSnap and Pod2Mod model are not fair since you are asking users to use up minutes listening to ads on a podcast.
But the question really is, when podcasting comes to a networked enabled mobile phone… is it really podcasting anymore or just another media that can be downloaded onto your phone, the same way Verizon allows you to download shows or music over its Vcast services.
The whole point of a Podcast, in a sense, was in the mediums limitation. A podcast was something that you had to download from your PC internet and either listen to their on your PC or dump it into your portable mp3 music player to listen to on the go. Of course, people that have started or will start to listen to podcats on their phone will be doing so by these same means. However, it is not to hard to imagine a near future when faster mobile data speeds and better phone equipment will allow people to download a podcast directly from the wap enabled browser on their cell phone or (duh duh duh) from some j2me or brew enabled client that some company will invent that links up to an updated database of podcasts and enable downloading directly to ones phone.
Are these still podcasts or just down loaded radio or video shows?
Yep, its that time again. Here are some interesting links from around the web that you should definitely pocket
TODAY MOpocket is 1 Month Old!
SMS / MMS
Group Orgy by SMS/MMS? Happy Shagging! A teenage phenomena.
And, on that note, is it that surprising to find out that 3G Users Text More?
MOBILE MARKETING
The Pondering Primate has an excellent post on what exactly the The Physical World Connection is and the future difficulties that surround its inevitable adoption.
MobiTv teams up with IPWireless to co-develop solutions that enable operators to migrate subscribers in high-usage areas to IPWireless’ new TDtv technology.
Apple may take a bite out of palm? As both a palm and Mac user I don’t know how I should feel about this. I guess my gut reaction should make me kind of happy
… from Oliver Starr on the difference between Mobile web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0
Whereas Mobile Web 2.0 is all about the advanced capabilities associated with a specific subset of systems within a mobile device and particularly centered around some kind of web enabled interface Mobile 2.0 is more about the entirety of the device and its myriad and highly differentiated possibilities for interaction with the end user. In a nutshell, Mobile 2.0 is the superset of life altering functionality conveyed by a functioning mobile phone to that phone’s owner.
Mobile 2.0 is not device dependent. There is no measuring stick of functionality that is a determinant as to whether or not a mobile phone is or is not a Mobile 2.0 device. All functioning phones today are Mobile 2.0. It isn’t what the phone does, so much as what is being done with the phone that has lead us to Mobile 2.0.[read more]
Not sure if I am going yet, but this years South By South West Festival (SXSW) will be incorporating mobile technology into the event on many levels. For those of you unfamiliar with the festival, SXSW is probably the coolest festival of its kind incorporating music, interactive technology and film all into one 2 week long orgy of fun fun and more fun.
The conference has set up what they are calling the SXSW ToolBox which will allow attendees to view schedules and cast votes from your cell phone, watch trailers and clips from the festival on your iPod® or PSP ®, or use the SXSW clickguide® to help navigate vast number of opportunities that SXSW has to offer.
SFXW even has a sample video they want you to watch and or download to your iPod or PSP in order to “get used to the way we will deliver a wide variety of media for this year’s festival.”
The conference will also allow attendees to navigate the festivals complicated scheduling easier with a number of easy to use tools and applications such as SXSW SMS, the SXSW 2006 Clickguide by CitizenPod as well as a SXSW 2006 Schedule for Palm OS Devices.
The festival’s SMS service will allow those registered for the festival to receive special notices and alerts via their Online Registrants Directory. SXSW will send you alerts and updates specific to your badge type from last minute schedule changes, Special Events, to Flash happy hours and more.
Those sad souls who cannot make the event can still stay in the SMS action by sending the the text message “sx add” to the short code 56658.
SFXW will also sport some neat features like getting the band schedule to your mobile phone by just sending a text message with the band or clubname. SFXW will then text-message your mobile with band and showcase information.
The service will also sport an American Idol text message like voting system for your favorite band. It costs $1.99 a vote and your mobile number will be entered in a drawing to win 2 FREE Platinum Badges for SXSW 2007! Simply TXT MSG: “sx vote.band ‘band-name’” to 56658.
Those also attending the SXSW Film Conference and Festival will also be able to vote for their favorite film to win the SXSW 2006 Film Audience Award. Simply TXT MSG: sx vote.film filmname to 56658 by 5.pm March 14th.
The SMS technology was created through technology provided by Wiredset and StarTXT.
Tomorrow a lot of you will probably be huddled around the water cooler talking about the high lights and your favorite commercials that took place during todays Super Bowl game. Well, embrace the tech geek savvyness you know you have and don’t just talk about them, show them (those of us who don’t watch football will appreciate it).
The computers in the office don’t let us download or view that kind of stuff, you say? How is this possible you ask?
Well, it appears that some of the big whig advertisers Anheuser-Busch, Sprint Nextel, and Degree Deodorant will be making their TV commercials available for download onto cellphones, iPods (and of course laptops).
The wireless communication service Sprint Nextel Corp. will make its ads available for postgame replays to many subscribers with multimedia cell phones.
Downloading television shows and other types of viral videos to video ipods and portable devices has become a recent cultural phenomenon and it may seem a bit of a stretch to think that people will actually take the time to download a commercial onto their mobile device, but some think that if a particular ad gets attention because of it’s humor or production value, that folks will actually download it. I think it will work being that Super Bowl commercials have a long history of viral marketing success.
And it probably would have happened anyways. Nowadays, it is so easy to record a live feed from your television onto your computer and then distribute it over something like BitTorent… anyone can do it. So the companies doing the advertising are smart for just doing it themselves… and either way its a success.
But Super Bowl commercials are probably the only types of commercials that will get such a special treatment.
“The 30-second TV commercial is on its last IV,” said chief executive Larry Weber of W2 Group of Waltham, Mass., which bills itself as a marketing services firm for the 21st century.
So when advertisers plunk down $2.5 million — the estimated average cost for a 30-second ad on Super Bowl XL — they’re open to using new technologies to get more viewings.
Weber doesn’t believe many consumers would want to download most TV ads, especially if they are more informational than funny.
The Super Bowl is one time when viewers focus on ads, noted chief executive Eliot Tatelman of Jordan’s Furniture. “Everybody talks about them.”
The first is from CNET news where apparently “as thousands of Sundance Film Festival-goers lined up Saturday to see independent films on the big screen, a couple hundred piled into a room to talk about the little screen.”
CINEMA ON THE MOVE
The “Cinema on the Move” panel discussion, moderated by Wall Street Journal personal technology columnist Walt Mossberg, bet to discuss the impact that video capable ipods and phones are having on the demand for byte sized content, especially as it relates to film (and in the case of the Sundance Festival, Indy film).
The panel discussion seemed very positive about the future possibilities of mobile film content but “seemed to agree that the viewing of mobile content won’t take the place of regular TV watching or movie-going. Rather, it’s something consumers will use while riding a train or waiting in line at the DMV.”
The discussion, therefore, delved more into what the medium mobile video content might look like as well as how it would be priced and distributed.
Panelist Brian Levin, founder of Mobliss mobile media services, said in most cases, for mobile content to work, it has to be “attention deficit media.” Rather than a half-hour episode of a TV show, he’s betting on the success of his company’s 40-second montage of Bay Watch’s Best Beach Moments, for example.
Sprint’s John Burris also has a term for short TV segments for mobile devices: “Snack TV.”
John Jacobs, whose company Media Squirrel hosts video content specifically for the iPod, added that he sees mobile devices spawning whole new forms of content, such as the serial shorts, sort of like the old silent movie days.
Looking into the future Mossberg predicta tha the issue of creating content specifically for a small screen might become less relevant in the future with the advent of some sort of a larger foldable screen that will be built into mobile devices. He said he knows such a contraption is already in the works.
And of course the panelists predicted advertising for mobile devices that will be increasingly location aware and catered to the interests of individual consumers, something we have talked about here on MOpocket.
One thing that wasn’t talked about, of which I have heard a great deal of, is the advent of what mobile media industry leaders are calling the “Passback.” SImply put, its content that mommy can quickly put on her mobile phone and then “pass back” to her screaming 5 year old child in order to sedate him or her with a quick cartoon or perhaps a song from the Wiggles.
SPRINT AT SUNDANCE
And of course in similar news, Sprint is offering video segments for mobile phones “showcasing Sundance Film Festival highlights available on the official Sundance website”. [via Hollywood Reporter]
In a festival first, Sprint is underwriting the production of Live@Sundance, a series of video segments showcasing festival highlights available on the official Sundance Web site and on Sprint data-capable phones. “The idea is to allow film fans who can’t make it to Park City to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of festival events,” Sprint spokeswoman Suzanne Lammers said. The content, which is created by Sundance and will gradually roll out during the festival, includes an interview with festival director Geoffrey Gilmore, a short diary of opening-day preparations and interviews with director Lauren Greenfield discussing her HBO documentary and Gus Van Sant reminiscing over the re-premiere of his first film, “Mala Noche,” as it becomes part of the Sundance Collection.
Ever since word came out that Apple applied for a trademark on the phrase “Mobile Me,” their has been a lot of speculation as to what that means. Some speculate that it is just a term going to be used for their new Intel based laptops. But others, who seem to think that that they are in the know, seem to think Apple is planning a Mobile Revolution of their own by either launching their own mobile phone service via a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MNVO) or building a music phone of their own or both. Cahoots with Motorola, of whose chips they used to use in their old computers as well as built the ROKR together with) is also speculated.
According to the filings, Mobile Me relates to a number of goods and services, including “telecommunication services for the dissemination of information by mobile telephone, namely the transmission of data to mobile telephones” along with “music players,” “digital video players,” “MP3 players,” and “software related thereto.”The name appears to be under a number of descriptive categories including “telecommunication services”, “portable digital electronic devices and software related thereto”, “providing digital music from local or global communications networks” and “computer services”. So what Apple is really up to will remain a mystery for now… but that is part of the fun for Apple enthusiasts.
Love The New Yorker cartoons, but just don’t have time to read the weekly publication or better yet, you just read it for the cartoons? Well, you are in luck! RingTales, iTunes, and The New Yorker have teamed up to provide free weekly podcasts of the famous cartoons. 
