von Roland Hachmann | Aug. 26, 2005 | Blog, Digital News
Jon Aquino has written a software that will probably cause a big uproar in the digital community. I have not read about something like this before, which is surprising because it seems like such an obvious application:
Instead of downloading podcasts using RSS, have a piece of software that downloads your usuall RSS feeds and reads them out to you.
The big advantage here:
-
you don’t have to rely on only those sites, that have podcasts (which aren’t the majority sofar, because )
- people might not like podcasting themselves, they rather write. And if they do podcast, it might be a terrible listening experience
Like many others, I have been disappointed with the quality of the content of today’s podcasts (to be fair, podcasting is still in its early days), especially with so much good textual content on the web. For example, I wished that there was a podcast of biographies of great lives — after all, there are numerous websites on the subject. Then it struck me: What if I used text-to-speech to convert these textual webpages to podcasts that I could listen to during my daily commute? Thus Audiolicious was born.
This little piece of software converts your usual RSS feeds into an audio file you can listen to on your iPod (but also on anything else, of course).
I have tried a sample from Jon’s website, and admittingly, it sounds terrible. But keep in mind: these kind of things usually improve rapidly (and unfortunately for Jon, they might also be picked up quickly by the big players, like Google or Apple).
Secondly, I got used to it rather quickly. It’s like looking at a monochrome screen in the 80s. Back then we were also happy with it, even though we new from the television, what coloured pictures could be like.
It’s a fantastic application and just a matter of time until this becomes a regular in the blogging/RSS community, I am sure of that.
Darren Barefoot writes some more about the fact, why podcasting, as trendy as it might seem, might also never take off big scale. Same goes with vlogs, but for this, it will be much harder to write a substitute like Jon did. How do you make a video out of a text-blog?
(thanks)
von Roland Hachmann | Aug. 26, 2005 | Blog, Digital Marketing, Mobile Marketing
Adage writes, that Kraft offers recipes for iPods to download. Somehow I have heard similar stuff before. Can’t find it now, but there was a company in Japan, that sends recipes to mobile devices especially during the evening rush hours, so that commuters could read them while they’re on their way home.
What I could find just now, is a service for restaurants. Not quite the same, but similar idea…
Should try to find that other article, but unfortunately, that’s more than a year ago…
von Roland Hachmann | Aug. 25, 2005 | Blog, Digital Marketing
Business Week mentiones a new form of interactive billboards (thanks).
Mirage’s „interactive motion panels“ play „video“ clips — albeit without the use of any electronics or moving parts — on seemingly standard advertising light boxes. Walk by, and the picture moves. Stop, and it stops with you.
This should bring outdoor advertising to a whole new level! Interactive billboards is certainly something that many advertisers dream about. Digital interactivity where you don’t expect it – that should get everybodys attention. As the examples in the article of business week demonstrate.
von Roland Hachmann | Aug. 25, 2005 | Blog, SEO / SEA
The New York Times has an article about the recent developments of Google, how it leaves puberty, appears to be more like one of those establishment companies (and not much longer like a rebellious Silicon Valley company) and turns rather arrogant and hungry for control, power and money. Sort of like what Microsoft used to go through and now is…
Some nice quotes:
It was not that long ago that Google reigned here as the upstart computer company that could do no wrong. Now some working in the technology field are starting to draw comparisons between Google and Microsoft, the company in Redmond, Wash., that Silicon Valley loves most to hate.
Google is at that inflection point where it’s starting to act like an establishment company, and Silicon Valley is a rebel culture
Google is the new evil empire, because they’re in such a powerful position in terms of control. They have potential monopolistic control over access to information.
I have already raised some doubts about Google here and here .
It’s going to be interesting over the next 2-5 years how Google will shape and embrace the world of information…
von Roland Hachmann | Aug. 25, 2005 | Blog
Within the internet, I already wrote about the fact that content and advertising merges slowly. Also in some newspapers this is the case, I found. But now, in Adage
I found an article that states how ads are now part of the movies – or movie/show trailers, rather. So there are no 30″ clips any longer. There is no story wrapped around a product, but a story containing a product. Which would be old news if it was regular films, think of product placements. But in this case, the include the brands in trailers for upcoming shows…
We’re trying to create an environment between shows and movies that’s so useful it’s TiVo-proof
TiVo-proof is probably one of the most commonly used expressions amongst TV-advertisers in the US these days, I guess.
‚When IFC’s creating these mini movies, these interstitials, we want them to be reflective of their channel but with Heineken integrated into it,‘ she said. ‚You don’t want to be overt. The people who are watching don�t want anything in their face.‘
Good bye to interruption advertising.
von Roland Hachmann | Aug. 24, 2005 | Blog
This just went live: Google Talk.
I already tried it with someone in NY (who made me aware of this, thanks, Ace).
Quite a few have written about this, too.
Looks like any other instant messenger, and I guess at the moment it is. It offers the regular features, including phone-like talk services. And, being real american, it has a typical clause at the bottom of the page:
Google Talk is not a telephony service and cannot be used for emergency dialing.
(Though I think the one from Yahoo! is even better: )
Emergency 911 calling services not available on Yahoo! Messenger. Please inform others who use your Yahoo! Messenger they must dial 911 through traditional phone lines or cell carriers.
So why download this? I already have 4 different messengers, that I combine in Trillian. This is already stupid, but I have no choice – but unfortunately, most of the people I know are on the known messengers, of which O’Reilly says
It’s an open standard–the big boys (Yahoo!, MSN, AOL) are notorious for pissing matches over interop that make MMS messaging on cellphone look like a W3C hot-tub party
The Google tool imports all my contacts from Gmail. That’s great, however I don’t have any contacts there, for the same reasons as above. I also didn’t need another Email provider…
They might achieve market dominance with this. But only, if the whole Jabber movement goes „AOL“ and covers wider segments of the online community.
However, this article says it’s rather about Google wanting to buy Skype.
Wo ich sonst so bin...