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AOL goes for Premium Mail

While I get the need / desire to be in the premium mail space I don’t get their choice off brand for this venture… Everything AOL has been doing as of late has bee to parse out the pieces and this would have be a great way to offer a core piece of service at a competitive price. I can’t recall any other times the ICQ brand has been anything but free…Regardless this sounds like a good offer if you happen to be the market.

Looking to nudge its way into the mail storage market dominated by the likes of Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., and Google Inc., AOL said its ICQ (I Seek You) subsidiary is rolling out a $19.99-a-year e-mail service offering 2GB of storage.

The premium ICQmail, which is powered by Los Angeles-based Mail2World Inc., will also offer bells and whistles like personal calendaring, WAP access to Web-based mail, mail-forwarding to wireless devices, and support for POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP.

Paying ICQmail users will also get access to compression technology to handle large attachments and the ability to schedule delivery of outgoing mail, create distribution groups and set up auto-responses, according to an AOL spokeswoman. [eWeek]

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Voom adding 30 MORE HDTV channels

Voom had a rough start when they launched losing about 20% of their customers through churn as they were ramping up. It seems that while the path is far from clear the picture sure will be… adding an additional 30 HD channels is very exciting news and something that should attract people looking for HD content once they get their sets. I have roughly half their current crop of HD channels through Time Warner cable, but this move will push Voom way ahead.

As I’ve stated numerous times, Voom doesn’t appear to be the “about to fold” company many have made them out to be, and this bit of news wouldn’t lead me to believe otherwise. On or around March of 2005 Voom will add an additional 30 plus HDTV channels, as well as nearly 200 standard definition channels, according to Tom Dolan, CEO of Rainbow Media Enterprises. [Home Theater Blog]

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Sirius Radio Gets Serious

First the big drive for new subscribers via Howard Stern today and now the news breaks on the new CEO. It’s still a tough call between XM and Sirius in my mind if I had to pick. I like Howard but don’t listen to enough radio at the moment (no drive time for me) to consider spending money on a radio service just yet. I actually tried to get a radio today having heard there would be many more physical devices being handed out… a coupon is not enough to push me over just yet.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Mel Karmazin is joining Sirius Satellite Radio as CEO, according to executives familiar with the matter.

Mr. Karmazin, the former Viacom chief operating officer and president of Viacom, exited the company in May and said last week at a radio conference in Portugal that his future involved either linking with an investment company or joining a high-growth company or remain doing nothing. Mr. Karmazin did not respond to an e-mail request for comment.

Mr. Karmazin’s name has been floated in connection with Sirius ever since the company signed radio personality Howard Stern to a five-year, $500 million deal. Mssers. Stern and Karmazin have long worked closely together. Mr. Stern is currently tied to his contract to Viacom’s Infinity Radio. [Ad Age]

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Ad Pros See Bigger DVR Effect

Interesting though not surprising info coming from AAF survey on DVRs and the impact on TV advertising…especially given the new push by cable companies to install DVRs.

The AAF surveyed 121 advertising leaders regarding the effect they feel DVRs will have on the 30-second spot. A majority of respondents (55%) felt that non-traditional ad formats (such as advertainment, content sponsorship or product placement,) will grow, but that the 30-second ad spot will continue to be the standard for TV advertising. Just over 20% of respondents felt that the growing use of DVRs will lead to a “dramatic” transformation of TV advertising, including the end of the 30-second spot as the basic unit of TV advertising. In all, 76% felt DVRs will lead to some change in the TV advertising market.

Interestingly, the DVR is being viewed as a more serious factor for change in 2004 than one year ago. In 2003, many AAF survey respondents felt that the DVR would be a threat to TV advertising %u2014 22% felt that the DVR penetration would not reach levels necessary for it to have an effect on TV ads, while 13% of respondents said that the DVR threat is over-hyped. But from 2003 to 2004, the percentage of advertising professionals citing these opinions dropped off greatly, comprising only 12% of respondents in the 2004 survey. [eMarketer]

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VOIP Going Mass

Andy at VoIP Watch states VOIP is going Mass Market, a position I totally agree with based on my experience and understanding of what’s been going on. AT&T is never a small player in any of the markets they play within and CallVantage is clearly replacing all previous marketing efforts in Local, Long Distance and even Wireless for them.

Vonage and others have their work cut out for them as they try and keep up with smaller marketing budgets as well as smaller Brands. The games have already begun – glad to have been early on the ticket line!

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24 Mobisodes coming to cell phones

As a fan of the show, it’s too bad we won’t be getting this in the US… Have to just wait to hear about how it all works once things launch.

In what appeared to be the first arrangement of its kind, Twentieth Century Fox said Wednesday it would create a unique series of one-minute dramas based on its hit show “24” exclusively for a new high-speed wireless service being offered by Vodafone PLC, the world’s biggest cell phone company.

Vodafone will begin offering the one-minute epidosdes in January in the United Kingdom, coinciding with the start of the fourth season of the show on a satellite TV service. [MSNBC]

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Media Adapter market just wrong?

According to the Park Associates study eHomeupgrade points to, the Media Adapter market is slow to grow based on just a sheer lack of understanding of things. You have to have a network of some kind (or be willing to create one) if you want to use a Media Adapter and apparently the people who claim they might be interested just have yet to develop a clue. I’m not sure if this is cart before horse, or just a response to some product marketing that seemed interesting, but was misinterpreted. Pretty painful if these number are accurate…

Parks Associates, in its latest “Digital Media Adapters and Receivers: Analysis and Forecasts” report, has found that 71% of households willing to purchase a DMA do not have a home network. Huh? In addition, most DMA products are designed with wireless home networks in mind, but only 14% of likely buyers have a wireless setup in their home. [eHomeUpgrade]

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TiVo is listening

PVRBlog drew my attention to a letter to TiVo from George Hotelling asking that they enable web links ala ITMS so you could remotely program your device…

A day later… TiVo has added this as a feature! Congratulations TiVo! Apparently they were already working on this when George wrote the letter, but regardless the timing makes you look great! I hope you can take the advice of other advocates for your product to continue to improve things — especially now that we know some changes will be downloaded and most likely will cause a pretty negative stir when they arrive.

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Good riddance… officially.

I never got into this guy …I just found him to be incredibly annoying.

Facing declining sales and robust competition, and widespread criticism over the campaign featuring the hapless burger evangelist, Wendy’s today said the chain would end its Mr. Wendy campaign at the end of the month. [AdAge]

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Is EDGE an edge?

Does the fact that ATT/Cingular already has an active EDGE network give it a true edge for hungry Treo user itching to get their hands on the latest?

As a T-Mobile customer I know I am certainly weighing my options… I’ll have to wait and see what kind of data plans are available once the unit gets closer to its predicted December 1 launch but knowing that TMO was last to get the Treo 600 and that they do not have any formal EDGE announcements for the US just yet does not make me that comfortable.

My Treo 600 works great on TMO’s GPRS. They have a great unlimited data plan and no issues with how you use your phone and computer together… but the future is here now and like all good gadget geeks I want to be riding the crest of that first wave. I can’t be the only one thinking about ATT right now… thank goodness portability kicked in last year so we can easily make decisions based on the best place for your changing needs.

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Sprint Treo 650 will soon be capable via Bluetooth

According to this note on Mobilewhack, Sprint will eventually release the locked bluetooth profiles to allow the Treo 650 to be used as as modem. Score one for consumer protest.

Due to some development deadlines, the phone has been launched as described, without the DUN [dial-up networking] capability. However, as part of a scheduled maintenance release of software (timing pending some testing), the DUN capabilities will be supported. … In no way is Sprint suppressing the functionality as you describe or with the motivations you assert. [MobileWhack]

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TiVo thoughts

Just ran across this statement on TiVo… certainly hits the nail on the head — especially now that DVR penetration is pushing ahead right from the Cable and Satellite guys…

How do you convince consumers that paying a premium for first class is a good idea when the folks sitting in coach either don’t know first class exists or worse, THINK they already are sitting in first class? [Michael Gartenberg]

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HAVAS Scores Vonage

Havas certainly needed this win…

Should be interesting to see how this money gets spent as it’s going to be very tough to keep up with the market setting spend of ATT CallVantage.

Internet phone service pioneer Vonage, in a tough battle to maintain market share in the emerging market, said it has awarded its estimated $50 million to $75 million advertising account to Havas-owned agencies, including MPG and Arnold One.

Arnold Worldwide, including its interactive unit, Arnold One, will handle creative, while MPG picks up the media buying and planning portion. [Ad Age]

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David Pogue to Blog

I’ll be adding this to my aggregator for sure. I’ve always enjoyed David Pogue’s writing and and think this will be a great way for a broader audience to start to get blogs since it will be part of the NYT.

New York Times technology columnist David Pogue wrote today that he will soon launch a daily weblog for the re-launched tech section of the newspaper’s web site.

In addition to my two weekly columns…I’ll also be writing a daily blog entry, starting soon. I will point out cool links, focus on emerging tech trends, answer reader mail, share funny tech experiences, and so on.

More info in David’s letter to readers here. [Micro Persuasion]

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Where are you HDTV?

With all the hoopla about HDTV and the push by carriers to get appropriate tools in consumer hands I expect more from our networks… On Time Warner in NYC, we have a variety of channel options about 10 I think that are within the HD range… yet many do not broadcast 16×9 all the time and in fact seem to favor 4:3 (though cleaner looking 4:3) broadcasts than the regular channels. You have to pick the HD version of the two offered so you do a quick compare…

Bigger, new episodes, like CSI and Raymond get shown in HD and if I had to pick a leader in the main network category it would be CBS. There are still plenty of shows, sports and even the presidential debates that are limited to the standard method. I know you need different equipment to broadcast it and sure there are additional costs, but if you drive us to the water, it better be good to drink!

I’ve had an HDTV for 4 years … long before there was available (cable) programming in my area. I got the first available converter box and saw there were a few channels initially… now though I have the next generation box with included DVR (Scientific Atlanta 8000HD) and see there are more even channels (Discovery and TNT), but not enough regularly scheduled HD programming from the majors. What continues to amaze me is how Discovery and PBS can go all HD all the the time, yet the guys allegedly making all the money and with all the high priced shows don’t go for it.

It was nice to see the Olympics in HD, but the programming on the HD channel was not the same as the featured event in standard. Same with Discovery… they broadcast a separate lineup and use the HD channel as another place in the Discovery network. I’ll have to ask my buddy who works in programming there, what’s up with that… plenty of their regular shows appear in HD, but at different times than the standard broadcast. You can resolve and avoid program time-slots with a DVR and even record both at the the same time if so inclined…

UPDATE — Not an official response from Discovery, but good thoughts on the matter from an insider:

  1. Shooting HD adds a good amount to the budget of a show so more of the programming than not would be analog
  2. Setting-up a place on the dial where we offer programming exclusively in HD not only brings premium revenue in because it’s part of a premium tier, it gives us shelf space in an area where many networks have set-up HD exclusive feeds like ESPN etc.
  3. Sometimes the shows that look the prettiest in HD are not the most highly rated, a separate outlet means that those shows can air without negatively impacting our bottom line.
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VeriSign nears new Net phone deals

This seems like a big deal in VOIP-land…

The service providers, seven in the United States and three in Europe, are “very close” to using VeriSign’s behemoth signaling network to ensure that subscribers’ calls reach those using traditional home, office or cell phones, VeriSign Vice President Tom Kershaw said Monday.

There are only a handful of network operators, including Level 3 Communications, AT&T and others, with the infrastructure to offer such a service. Seeing an opportunity for its own network, VeriSign began wooing Internet phone operators four months ago.

“Now (Net phone service providers) can use and abuse us,” a VeriSign spokeswoman adds. [News.com]

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AOL planning a new browser

It does not get any more ridiculous than this… AOL has communicator which is made from the Mozilla code but they opt to go with IE which has not been updated in years when they release a stand-alone browser product.

It appears that AOL will be releasing its own branded browser for its subscribers. Surprisingly, “AOL Browser” (its real name) will be based on Internet Explorer instead of the Mozilla derivative Netscape, which AOL owns. [Ars Technica]

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Google SMS search

This is totally cool… makes doing a reverse lookup on your mobile quite possible if you filter unknown numbers, not too mention all sorts of other interesting queries…

Google today announced Google SMS beta, a service that allows mobile phone users to search Google via text messages. Just send your query to 46645 (GOOGL on most phones) and you’ll get back results in another text message. Currently the service is US only.

With the combination of phone look up (or even reverse lookup), local results, Froogle, the built in calculator and more, this is a powerful service. See this page for some search query ideas. [MobileTracker]

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EarthLink to Offer Free Calling Between Computers Over the Web

Earthlink goes VOIP…

For now, Earthlink’s phone service will only allow its customers to call one another via their computers instead of through their regular phones. That means they need a headset, or a microphone and speaker, and will have to dial an Internet address instead of a normal phone number. As a result, avid technology users are likely to be the only ones to take advantage of EarthLink’s offer. (EarthLink also offers Internet phone service through Vonage.)

But in the next 12 months, the company expects to offer its own expanded service that allows people to use their regular phones and call anywhere, though that service won’t be free. Earthlink’s service is similar to one offered by Skype Technologies SA, a Luxembourg-based Internet phone company that offers free computer-to-computer calling and recently began allowing its customers to make calls to regular phones for a low fee. [WSJ.com]