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Archive for April 29th, 2008
Disney and WowWee team up on cute, killer bots for the ironic uprising
Posted in April 29th, 2008
Filed under: Robots
Need some irony with your angst-battered diet this morning? Swell, try some of this. Disney and Pixar are set to release their latest animated blockbuster, WALL-E, this summer. The premise of the film finds WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth-Class) cleaning up the Earth’s trash after rampant, unchecked consumerism made the planet uninhabitable. So how do they promote the film? You got it, they launch a new line of plastic WALL-E robots developed in partnership with WowWee and Thinkway Toys which no child could possibly live without. Ultimate WALL-E will list for $190 when launched sometime this summer and feature 10 motors, a remote control, and plenty of sensors to avoid obstacles, respond to touch, and feel the mocking satire of its own existence. The bot will be joined by a $25 iDance WALL-E (think i-Species) and a $40 FlyTech Tinker Bell when they make their May 29th debut in San Mateo at the Maker Faire.
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Tongfang PMC-M880 MP4 player kicks out the PAL jams
Posted in April 29th, 2008
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
Tsinghua Tongfang has managed to produce at least one mildly interesting MP4 PMP in the past, so we’re not too surprised at the company’s new PMC-M880, which features semi-high-def nice-looking PAL video out at 720 X 576 resolution in addition to the usual array of MP4 features. On the go, you’ll be looking at a 400 X 240 3-inch screen, which is decent, and we’re sort of digging on that funky red / black industrial design. Too bad we’ll never see this one leave China, eh? A shot of the video output after the break.
[Via MP4 Nation, thanks Yuipsj]
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Sharp’s X-Series LCD HDTVs offered with WHDI wireless link
Posted in April 29th, 2008
Remember those “world’s thinnest” X-Series LCD HDTVs we spotted earlier this year? On their way over from Japan to the US, Sharp has whipped up a partnership with AMIMON in order to offer a wireless HDTV link based on the latter company’s WHDI technology. Apparently the 37-, 42- and 46-inch displays will be sold in both nations with an optional wireless video transmitter (read: each set is “wireless ready”), giving users the ability to send uncompressed HD to their HDTV from up to 100-feet away. As for US pricing and availability, Sharp’s not quite ready to dish out those points, and while we’re not exactly sure if this is the launch that finally gets wireless HD headed in right direction, it certainly can’t hurt matters. Full release posted after the jump.
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Recession? Not in the Advertising Business
Posted in April 29th, 2008
News from Portfolio.com
You don’t need to be all doom and gloom about it.
Sure, the U.S. could be in a recession. Consumer confidence is declining. Food and gas are so expensive it’s more cost-effective to stay home and diet.
But the advertising business (of all things!) is actually benefiting from the painful spectacle of the traditional media landscape fragmenting into shards. The internet is continuing to oust broadcast TV, print and radio from their once-secure position as the automatic repository for ad dollars, and the complex environment that’s been rattling the advertising and media industries could actually function as an economic buoy during these hard times.
Here’s how it works. Advertisers and the companies that service them now need a multitude of ways to drill their messages into the public consciousness. That desperation plays right into the hands of the giant holding companies that now own everything from traditional ad agencies to media planning and buying businesses to PR firms to promotions specialists to digital advertising agencies with expertise in hot, new areas like search-engine optimization.
Clearly there’s pain; but it’s not being evenly distributed right now.
Just compare Google’s results and those of The New York Times Co. Google recently reported a 42 percent jump in revenues in the first quarter of 2008 over the same period in 2007. Nearly half of the revenue came from the U.S. and the figures aren’t inflated by the acquisition of DoubleClick. Meanwhile, the Times saw revenue slip 4.9 percent and advertising revenues drop 9.2 percent.
Now looking ahead, Google and the rest of the digital-advertising world are expected to grow just a little slower this year than they would have otherwise. But for Google, a bodacious 42 percent rise in revenue appears lackluster compared with the 63 percent year-over-year pop it saw in 2006 and 2007.
A market-research company, eMarketer lowered its 2008 growth forecast for online ad spending from whopping 29 percent in October 2007 to measly 23 percent in March 2008. You get the gist.
Marketers are still spending online and will continue to, whether it’s through paid search, banner ads, video, viral ads, email, or even coupons. Spending on online promotions, which includes tactics like contests, coupons and rebates, will triple over the next five years to $22.8 billion from $8 billion in 2007, reports a new study from research firm and consultancy Borrell Associates.
Online marketing and advertising also has a leg up in a stressed economic environment, because the return on investment is significantly easier to track and explain to the boss.
Meanwhile for the newspaper industry, the weakened economy and the rise of the internet is a perfect storm. A report from Deutsche Bank on Gannett said, “The ad trends remain weak, and there are no positive catalysts in sight.”
U.S. newspaper circulation has been on a downward slide for the last 20 years and it drops more significantly in areas of higher broadband penetration, according to global ratings agency Fitch Ratings. Just Monday, a Reuters analysis of a new release from The Audit Bureau of Circulations shows that U.S. newspaper circulation fell 3.6 percent during the six months ending in March 2008 compared with the same period a year earlier.
Circling back to the ad industry: Those holding companies who have reported their first-quarter results all have shown good organic revenue growth in the United States, in part because of the diversity of their services, says Alexia Quadrani analyst at Bear Stearns.
Omnicom, the largest marketing-services holding company by annual revenue, just announced organic growth in the U.S. at 6.7 percent in 2007, just 1 percent lower than in 2006. Randall Weisenburger, Omnicom Group’s executive vice president and C.F.O., characterized Omnicom’s outlook for the year as “cautiously optimistic,” in his February conference call announcing annual results to analysts. “We’ve been to this movie, and we’ll weather it very well, I think,” he said.
Last Friday, WPP Group, Omnicom’s closest competitor, announced 5.1 percent like-for-like revenue growth for North America, as opposed to 3.9 percent in 2007. “North America remained relatively strong and better than last year, and global revenues were in line with budget,” materials for its first-quarter trading update stated.
Most recently, holding company Publicis Groupe announced organic growth in North America to be 5.3 percent after registering just 3.1 percent last year.
Havas, another holding company, saw 6 percent organic growth in the U.S. compared with -0.8 percent in 2007 over 2006. “North America saw a significant increase in growth across all our businesses,” the company announced.
Underlying the health of these companies is that the advertising market may be slow to grow, but it’s not declining. And if there has been a flash freeze, it started closer to the beginning of 2007, says Jon Swallen, senior vice president of research at TNS Media Intelligence.
Both Nielsen Media Research and TNS have reported U.S. ad spending grew under 1 percent in 2007. Meanwhile, marketers are known to believe that cutting back advertising in a time of economic unrest only exacerbates their inability to sell product. When you throw in this year’s Olympic Games and presidential election, the advertising market is likely to grow faster than it did in 2007.
In the media space, however, these special events are likely to benefit the few: NBC, which is airing the Olympics; specific local broadcast stations located in areas of the country where candidates need to fight for votes; and 24-hour news networks. Unlike advertising companies, who can easily diversify their services by acquisition to meet the newest demands of their clients, TV networks are still TV networks.
IOGEAR intros Dual-Link DVI KVMP switch alongside two others
Posted in April 29th, 2008
Filed under: Peripherals
Eager to get busy with multiple workstations on a single monitor, are you? If so, IOGEAR’s providing three more ways to get you there, starting with the 2-port GCS1802 and 4-port GCS1804. The $199.95 / $299.95 KVMP (Keyboard, Video, Mouse, Peripheral) switches each enable USB 2.0 peripherals to be shared, and you’ll also find support for 2.1 audio. The real winner, however, is the 4-port GCS1204, which handles dual-link DVI with nary a grumble. Granted, that one will set you back a stiff $449.95, but at least it — along with those other two — is available right now.
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