iOS vs. Android Installed Base fragmentation.
Apple Television, AirPlay and Why the iPad is the new TV Apps Platform - Jeremy Allaire - Voices - AllThingsD
Yup.
AirPlay changes everything.
Check out this great list of AirPlay-enabled apps here.
(Source: macdailynews.com)
A comment I made in response to this post regarding digital magazines a while back:
From the Letters section of Outside Magazine:
“Foreign Aid:
I’ve purchase many Outside issues throughout my travels, but the drawback has been that those issues in Sweden, where I live, cost around $12. Earlier this year, the perfect solution presented itself: an iPad.”
RE: An iPad/iTunes Newsstand + reasonable per-issue pricing —
Big opportunity to expand distribution to a global audience.
Sleeper benefit to the iPad Newsstand.
“Print” may not be dead, after all.
Ed Burns, “Nice Guy Johnny” and a New Way of Distributing Films
Burns -– an indie filmmaker to the core -– decided to forgo the traditional theatrical release. Instead, the film will be released on October 26th in [a plethora of] formats simultaneously: iTunes, video-on-demand Netflix, PlayStation 3, Amazon Video and DVD.
Burns has his reasons for giving this method a shot. The playing field for true indie films has shifted considerably in the last decade. Backing money from hedge-funders has dried up. Indie studios like Picturehouse and Warner Independent have shut down. Marketing costs have risen considerably. (Burns can make a film for $1 million, then spend five times that amount trying to get the word out for a theatrical release. It’s tough going when an indie has to compete with the latest Robert Pattinson movie with a $40 million marketing budget.)
“Nice Guy Johnny” is a romantic comedy about a young man who believes he can please his demanding fiancée only by giving up his dream job as a sports radio talk show host for a more serious vocation. The film, like most of Burns’, is all Eddie: He wrote it, directed it, acted in it and produced it.
And it’s a remarkable film, especially given its circumstances. Burns did the entire film on a budget of $25,000. He used virtually unknown actors (the one notable exception being Burns himself, of course), who did their own hair and makeup. It was filmed in just ten days, shot by three people with a digital camera. Burns used his parents’ house in Long Island for part of the set.
More from Forbes here.
I heard an interview* with Burns the other day. He’s wisely deducted that, if you do get distribution in the first place, getting people to come out to the art houses is an uphill battle these days. And more to the point, the film’s central character is 24 years old. How are a lot of twenty-somethings consuming content these days? “They’re laying in bed watching on their laptops. They’re pulling it down on their Apple TV. They’re firing up the Netflix app on their iPhone or iPad. I’m just going where the audience is.”
Smart.
The future.
Let’s see how it goes.
“Nice Guy Johnny” trailer below or here:
(The trailer makes it seem a little sappy. It’s actually a romantic comedy. See the Forbes article for more background).
Order Nice Guy Johnny on iTunes here.
* - Burns also said that looking over Steven Spielberg’s shoulder for a few weeks while filming ‘Saving Private Ryan’ was like going to film school.
Previously:
Hulu launches ‘Hulu Plus’ app for Apple iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch; ‘Hulu Plus’ subscriptions
Hulu today launched a preview of Hulu Plus, the first ad-supported subscription service to offer full current season runs of hit TV programs from ABC, FOX and NBC across multiple Web-connected devices, in HD, for US$9.99 a month. Now, TV lovers can watch full current seasons of shows such as Glee, Family Guy, Grey’s Anatomy, Modern Family, and The Office and full series runs or multiple back seasons of shows like The X-Files, Arrested Development, Desperate Housewives and Law and Order: SVU on Macs and PCs as well as on Apple’s iPad and iPhone, and select 2010 Samsung Blu-ray players, Blu-ray Home Theater systems, and TVs through Samsung Apps, in up to 720p high-definition resolution. Hulu Plus will also be coming soon to the PlayStation3 computer entertainment system.
“We’re thrilled to begin sharing this revolutionary new service with subscribers” said Jason Kilar, Hulu CEO, in the press release. “Hulu Plus is the first subscription service that offers consumers a wide array of today’s top current TV series on all four screens, in HD. With Hulu Plus, now your favorite TV shows love you back.”
Hulu Plus builds on the extensive content offering of the ad-supported, free Hulu service and brings together one of the deepest offerings of TV shows, both current and classic, to subscribers in the U.S. Every episode of more than 45 current hit programs from ABC, FOX and NBC will be available all season long, from Modern Family and Grey’s Anatomy to Glee and Family Guy to The Office. In addition, TV lovers will be able to enjoy full series runs and numerous back seasons of dozens of classic shows like The X-Files, Law and Order: SVU, Arrested Development, Saturday Night Live, Miami Vice, Ugly Betty, Quantum Leap, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Roswell and Ally McBeal.
The Hulu Plus library aggregates content from more than 100 providers across broadcast networks, major studios and independent content creators. For content owners, Hulu Plus offers a compelling new way to distribute and monetize their programs across multiple screens.
For a full list of content providers and shows available, view the Hulu Plus Content page.
…
More info and download link for Hulu Plus app for Apple iOS devices here.
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Pricing & Availability
Hulu Plus is available to U.S. consumers for $9.99 per month. Hulu Plus is currently available as a preview during which subscriptions are offered by invitation only to enable Hulu to ensure the highest quality experience for each user and to responsibly scale the service over time. To request an invite, visit http://www.hulu.com/plus
Even without an invite, during this preview period consumers are welcome to download a free Hulu Plus application to the iPad, iPhone 3GS and 4, and third-generation iPod touch, and other supported devices to test the experience with a limited selection of free episodes and clips. Hulu Plus is expected to be made widely available to the public in the coming months.
Source: Hulu
Read the full release here. (via MacDailyNews)
iPad = Wacky Magic Screen
Like Steve Jobs, Pee-Wee is quite the visionary, as well.
Both just have that innate desire and knack for bringing childlike wonder to the lives of others.
Say hello to the ‘Apple Broadcast Network?’
“In 1959 5,749,000 television sets were sold in the US, bringing the cumulative total of sets sold since 1950 to 63,542,128 units. This number supported, through advertising, three national television networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS (a fourth, Dumont, folded in 1956) and numerous local independent stations. Television was big business by the start of the 1960’s,” Menta writes. “Now here are another set of numbers. As of April this year Apple sold 75 million iPhone and iPod touch units, devices capable of delivering video via Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. Add to that figure 2 million iPads and counting. By the end of the year Apple should have about 90 million smart mobile devices in the wild.”
Menta continues, “That makes a proprietary amalgam greater than what the TV networks had in 1959 and one that easily serves as a foundation for a pending broadcast network that will be delivered not through tall radio towers, but through small wireless hubs and the Internet. Call it the Apple Broadcast Network. iAd is how Apple plans to pay for it.”
Read the rest here. [via MacDailyNews]
“With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations...information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation.”
iPhone: A Giant Waste of Time™
