DigitalSpritz

Angela’s First Facebook 500

Angela has recently passed the 500 mark in listing friends on Facebook – and she was, as always, an early adapter slipping onto the servers of her alma mater when Facebook was still a universities-only preserve.  So tiresome, her always wanting to be the “been there, done that” digital diva.  What provokes a person to maintain so many online “friends” – and how many of them would really come over to walk the dog if she’s held over a day in Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show?  Inquiring minds want to know.  So here are ten questions for Angela to commemorate her Facebook milestone.   

 

 

Who did you friend first when you opened your Facebook account?

 

I have no idea.  I do know that I got my account when it was still restricted to universities — using my handy lifetime Duke alumn address — so it was probably someone from my beloved alma mater.  Duke, BTW, was the first university to hand out iPods to freshmen and to put class lectures on iTunes, so I guess you’d have to say that digital literacy is in my DNA.   

 

 

Do your Facebook friends fall into easy lists and categories – Family, Business, Schoolmates, etc.?  Or do you just let them all hang free and interact?

 

They seem to sort themselves into categories, although I certainly don’t restrict them from talking to one another.  It’s just that only particular folks are interested in how I was dressed at LipSync my senior year.  :)    I do relish the fact that, now that our friends and neighbors have joined, I can actually show them what it means to be a “social media expert.”  Prior to that, I had a great deal of difficulty trying to explain what I do to the folks next door.  I think they thought I was some new kind of slacker.   

 

 

Have you ever dumped any Facebook friends – and can you dish the actual atrocities that sent them down to digital Siberia?

 

Yes, one.   The matter remains private, but rest assured that it involved nothing more serious than a broken heart.  Pretty mundane, in the scheme of things.  Apparently Match.com exists to fix those kinds of problems.   

 

 

Being out there and exposed to so many netizens, you must get some unsolicited offers of friendships by digital dumpster divers raiding their friends’ cool lists?  Any that were really, really strange – and did you accept and regret?   

 

Yes, there are some strange ones.  Fortunately, I’m pretty good at sniffing those out, and they get the digital cold shoulder.   I find Twitter to be a more pressing problem, actually — I don’t really want skimpily-dressed girls Tweeting nude photos to me (although I might not reject the skimpily-dressed guys).  I’m sure there’s a business model for Twitter in that one somewhere ...  

 

 

Do we need to actually to meet people in their retro fleshware realities anymore now that we have Facebook, Linked-In, and Twitter – meeting in the real world seems so, I don’t know, un-hygienic.   

 

There is still a vast difference between real personas and digital personas.  I’m a firm believer that, at the end of the day, you need to have personal contact.   Of course, I reserve the right to observe that swine flu may yet change all that.   

 

 

Oh, sorceress, what will Facebook 2020 look like eleven years from now – will it be a biochip implant that projects a 3D avatar companion?  Fast forward, please.   

 

I think it’s far more likely to be like the nightmare advertising scenario from “Minority Report” – everywhere you go, you’re identified and served an ad.  Facebook already does that quite beautifully, and doesn’t even need to scan your retinas.   

 

 

 Has your lovely daughter ever forced you to delete an embarrassing posting, saying, “Mom, you are humiliating me with that stuff!”   

 

She tries, but she’s not generally successful.  She can’t get around the fact that all her friends think I rock.  (That being said, I try to be somewhat sensitive to her social scene.  Geek mom, yes; retrograde-still-living-my-teenage-years mom, no.)  

 

 

 If Barack Obama “friended” you on Facebook or wrote on your Wall, would you tell Michele right away or use the  Block People function so she couldn’t ever listen in?  

 

Michelle is my homegirl, so I’d probably give it up to her.  OTOH, I can’t say that I wouldn’t be sorely tempted to behave a little badly because the current POTUS is da hotness.  

 

 

 What percentage of your so-called 500 friends on Facebook would you actually recognize if you saw them eating lemon herb blinis and gnocchi at Spago’s?

  

Actually, about 95%.  I pretty much personally know everyone I’ve friended.  Profile pix and Flickr help with that other 5%.  However, the one guy who actually comes over to walk the dog when I’m otherwise detained is not on Facebook — old-fashioned SMS works for that one.   

 

 

Are any of the friends on your Facebook lists actually not human at all … or at least belonging to a different branch of the animal kingdom removed from our own?   

 

I believe there are a few Cylons in the mix, but generally, they tend to be human.  (There is some debate regarding our next governor Gavin Newsom, but having seen him once or twice with disheveled hair, I’m keeping him in the “human” category.)  

  

  

 

Freedom of information … on digital hyperdrive

The U.S. Freedom of Information Act was passed in the low-tech mid-1960s when electro-mechanical devices mostly ruled our universe and even photocopiers were rare and fickle beasts.

 

Slow forward to now, and a look-alike law in Great Britain, enacted in 2005, is bringing down the Labor – whoops “Labour” – Party in Britain.  Behind it all is an enterprising American freelancer in London with dual citizenship in the U.S. and UK, Heather Brooke, who has been campaigning for years for expense record disclosures from sitting members of Parliament and government cabinet ministers.  Her dogged efforts have finally brought some new bite into the much weaker, same-name FIA law in Britain.

 

It’s mostly a digital world now, but getting at government records efficiently still remains kludgy on both sides of the Atlantic.  In fact, some of the juiciest and most sought-after “secrets” in either country still aren’t even scanned – and the fusty bureaucrats charged with responding to requests aren’t exactly energized to overcome the backlog.  Things are getting better on-line here, at least, and the U.S. Government now sports some  24,000, mostly searchable websites – but good luck finding what you are looking for in that electronic thicket.

 

Heather Brooke’s initial request for MP expense records was actually filed in London five long years ago ... before the British statutes were passed into law.  Even her explicit victory before Britain’s special court set aside for records cases wasn’t enough to stop Parliamentary administrators from meandering and dragging their feet for additonal years – until Daily Telegraph reporters, inspired by Brooke’s dogged efforts and her constant website advocacy at Your Right to Know, finally broke the secrets dam with a mixture of official disclosures and old-fashioned leaks.

 

Now get ready for FIA on speed: Our first-ever Vulcan president, Barack Obama, has hired the U.S. government’s first-ever chief information officer, Vivek Kundra (Spock, Barak, Vivek … is anybody doing an ear tip check at the White House?) and the new guy hopes to push the creaky information bureaucracy into warp drive. 

 

Go visit Kundra’s new website, www.data.gov, for a taste of what’s to come.  His simple but ambitious goal, says Nicholas Thompson in a profile of Vivek in the July issue of Wired is this:  “…to create a place where all the information [from the federal government] is easy to find, sort, download, and manipulate.” 

 

Even James Tiberious Kirk would find that a challenging mission.  Live long and prosper, Vivek.

 

- Tom Goff

Ten Questions with Gary Carter, COO, FremantleMedia

  First of all, apologies for the hiatus.  I've been spending a lot of time in the third dimension; Tom's been spending time in the middle -- Middle East, that is.  But we thought we'd bring it back with a bang, so here it is:  Ten Questions with the newly-minted COO of FremantleMedia (and one of my personal digital media heroes), Gary Carter.   Mr. Carter has been serving as President, Fremantle Creative Networks, and as Chief Creative Officer of FMX, Fremantle's new media platforms group.  I was lucky to catch up with him just as he assumed his new title -- which I regard as just desserts for his track record as a true media visionary. 

Angela:  Congratulations on your well-deserved promotion.  You’re taking on a big job, but I believe you have a big vision for it.  So I’m asking the big question first:  Obviously, the economy is on everyone’s minds.  What becomes imperative for a media company in a tough economic environment?

Gary: Good content and a secure basis for its funding.   On the other hand, if you ask me what a company which is historically a television production and distribution company needs, I might give you a different answer.

Angela:  Fremantle has excelled in creating what you have dubbed “participatory media experiences” with television as the primary delivery device.  Where do you see these experiences going next?

Gary:  Oy.   I see reality television (competitive reality, I think Americans would call it) and the activities of individuals and groups in the broadband internet space as being part of a continuous line of progression based around personal and societal performance.   I use the word 'performance' as defined within the discipline of Performance Studies.   I believe, therefore, that many of the manifestations of participatory and personalised media currently in vogue (this blog, for example) are performances.   This tendency will continue to develop as the basis for content ideas.   I think the big endgame, or at least one of the historic turning points, is going to be the marshalling of many platforms of performance into structures which enable gameplay.

Angela:  I am in love with my iPhone – it’s with me 24 hours a day, actually.  More than my family.  I know that’s rather sad, but it leads me to my next question: what’s your favorite portable media device?

Gary:  My mouth.

Angela:   I find your theories about the personalization (excuse me, “personalisation”) of media experiences to be quite prescient.  Is there a device or a format that is ripe for personaliz – uh, personalisation – that hasn’t been tackled yet?

Gary:  All devices tend towards personalisation.   This - along with miniaturias, um, miniaturization, will continue to be primary drivers in media technology.

Angela: You’ve spoken a bit about the value of “niche audiences” online, and a good deal of Fremantles’s  recent work has been directed that way.  What makes this a big opportunity for media companies?

Gary:  Anything that breaks the historic mediation of the producer-audience relationship by distributors, and allows closer collaboration between producer and audience in creating content.

Angela:  Fremantle has launched a series of original online properties in recent years. Which ones do you regard as being most successful, and why?

Gary:  Depends on the measure.   Personally speaking, I like creative achievements - so, Fremantle France's NON-STOP JOE.

Angela: Obviously Fremantle is an extremely successful business.  Are there other media companies that you find impressive, and what do you seek to learn from them?

Gary:  I tend to find individuals more impressive than companies.   I admire Nancy Tellem of CBS, for example, because I find it inspiring to see individuals of quality and integrity who are collaborative and decent (in the best senses of the word) succeed in environments which tend to praise ruthless, egocentric individuals with little sense of personal roundedness.    

Angela:  On that vein, are there any visionaries in other businesses that you find particularly inspiring?

Gary:  Visionaries?  The ones I admire aren't necessarily in business, or at least not obviously.   Try Lloyd Newson of DV8 Physical Theatre.

Angela:  Of course, we need to know:  What’s your favorite television show?

Gary:  Big Brother.

Angela:  You’re known for your “distinctive eyewear.”  Who’s your current favorite eyewear designer?

Gary:  Currently I am wearing Persol.   Thank you for asking.

Thank you, Gary!  Now I'm on the hunt for back episodes of Non-Stop Joe, to pair with my American Idol fixation. 

Super 3D for the Super Bowl

Yes, this is a bit of blatant self-promotion, but I have to get it out of the way so I can get back to blogging about other interesting things in digital media and technology.  Besides, it involves monsters, aliens, lizards and football players -- a pretty intoxicating combination.

So, here it is:  our little company, 3ality Digital, has shot footage for two big events this weekend -- the groundbreaking SoBe LifeWater/DreamWorks/Intel commercial that will air at halftime during the Super Bowl (which is one of the first commercials ever to be broadcast in 3D), and an all-3D episode of Chuck, which will air the following night (February 2nd) on NBC. 

So walk, don't run, to your local grocery store to pick up your 3D glasses to watch these watershed entertainment happenings.  The glasses are free -- no purchase required -- and the red/blue glasses you have left over from Spy Kids 3D won't work:  you need the new amber/blue glasses from Color Code.  Pick up a couple of bottles of SoBe for the game while you're at it, will you? 

Angela In Three Dimensions

  

Angela and I live about a block away from each other in L.A.’s Larchmont Village area.  We think of our neighborhood as kind of Baja Hollywood and she and I frequent the same cool coffee shop on Larchmont Boulevard – Peet’s.  Larchmont is not really the poshest of movieland neighborhoods like nearby mansion-rich Hancock Park where moguls live.  Nor is it Brentwood where the stars and starlets hang out.  But Larchmont is hip enough from the lunch-and-dinner trade that comes from Paramount Studios right down the street and from the vast digital post production industry which begins close by along Vine and Cahuenga before sprawling over the hills into Burbank.  When Lady A recently went missing from Peet’s and the boulevard for a few weeks after Halloween, I knew she must be off riding some new digital entertainment wave of some sort and not telling, so it was time for some creative and coercive interrogation.   (Disclaimer: None of her civil rights were violated during the making of this Q&A.)  -- TOM GOFF

 

           

OK, so you weren’t kidnapped by aliens after all, but you are living in and working for … what … some sort of new 3-dimensional digital universe?

 

Yes, we jokingly call it “The New 3ality,” because the name of the company is “3ality Digital.”   We exist to power 3D entertainment — specifically, pixel-perfect live 3D entertainment, from image capture to broadcast.  What does that mean?  Well, it means that you’ll soon be enjoying more 3D movies, as well as live broadcasts and scripted television, in cinemas and at home on your 3D-enabled television.  My friend Sandy Climan is CEO of the company, and he asked me join as head of sales and marketing, given my background in digital media, consumer brands, and technology startups.    Our goal — to be the “Dolby” of 3D. 

  

Angela, everyone my age knows that 3-D went out with the Bwana Devil in 1952.  Robert Stack was wonderful in that movie, by the way, but the technology made me seasick.

 

Tom, I think you’re the only person in Hollywood who will cop to being old enough to have seen Bwana Devil. I think I heard my grandmother talk about that one, once.  But, you’re right, those old movies could make you seasick, because they were shot on film and required two projectors to be seen in a cinema — and no matter how hard you try, you can’t get film to line up well enough for good 3D.  Digital filmmaking is what makes this possible now.  3D requires separate images for the left and right eye, and with digital media you can make those images line up perfectly.  Plus 3D has proven to have an economic payoff: that slew of recent films you probably didn’t go see (Journey to the Center of the Earth, Bolt) have proven that 3D films make 3 times per screen than their 2D versions.  And, as you know given your LONG experience in Hollywood, folks here don’t do anything unless there’s money in it for ‘em.

   

Ageism is a crime in some states, little sister.  I forgive the slurs, but we do have a time warp between us … … you’re saying the 3-D past is the new digital future … and you have proof in the present?

  

Yes, I have proof — three proofs, actually.  The first was the ground-breaking, live 3D broadcast we did of the Raiders/Chargers game on Dec. 4th.  We broadcast the game to invited guests in three 3D-enabled cinemas in NYC, LA and Boston.  It was the first live 3D broadcast of an NFL game — EVER.  The response?  NBC Sports called it “a transformative moment in our culture.”   The second proof will be our live 3D broadcast of the FedEx BCS Championship Game on Jan. 8th, which will be available in at least 80 theaters nationwide.  It’s the first live 3D broadcast open to consumers, and if it’s a sellout, well, there’s your business case ... And a great launching pad for what may become a series of 3D alternative entertainment events in theaters.  The third proof?  Those money-making 3D movies I mentioned above.

   

I thought only the Metropolitan Opera and maybe a few pious Christian evangelists were doing narrow-casts in digital theater auditoriums.  I wouldn’t mind seeing Carmen or Salome sung in 3-D.  I mean, it would, uh, make the music so much more interesting.

  

Well, the Met has certainly been successful with their theater broadcasts, although they haven’t yet ventured into 3D or disrobing divas as yet.  I do think most of their fans actually stay awake for the theater projections, so 3D may not be necessary (although Roberto Alagna (link:  http://bit.ly/FSHw) in 3D would be a magnificent thing).   But there are all sorts of alternative entertainment applications for this, ranging beyond the eye-popping double-takes produced by 3D cheerleaders during the NFL game broadcasts:  Rock concerts, Cirque du Soleil-style shows, UFC and boxing, perhaps even the 2009 Presidential inauguration ....  Any time there’s a major event where people would really like to be there, but can’t, there’s an opportunity.

   

I get the theater applications – the Met’s revenue from some of its theater-casts exceeds by a bunch the ticket money it gets from the tux and Rolex snobs in the real audience in Manhattan.  But can I check out the 3-D cheerleaders or the those nearly naked contortionists from the Cirque du Las Vegas work on my home television set anytime soon?  I’m just asking.

  

You know, it’s funny, but during the NFL broadcast, we set up 3D-enabled HD TV’s in the lobbies of the theaters, and we couldn’t tear folks away from them.  Many of them actually liked the 3D better on TV’s, and we had to stop a couple of the larger security guards from sneaking the TV’s out to their homes.  (I’m kidding, obviously, but they really wanted them.)  Consumer electronics manufacturers are already shipping a few models of 3D-enabled TV’s — Samsung in particular has an installed base of about 2M sets in homes already, but consumers don’t really know they’re there, because there’s been a dearth of available content.  

  

How about those goofy glasses I wore to see Bwana Devil?  There is a picture of me in those specs somewhere.  Gosh, I was cute back then.

  

You still do need glasses to watch these TV’s in 3D even today, but that’s definitely not an issue for the Wii-loving, Xbox-gaming set — they’re used to a diet of peripherals with their entertainment.  You’re going to hear a lot more about 3D in the home at CES this year, starting with our consumer electronics partner for the BCS:  Sony.  

  

What is the production challenge here – did you have ex-linemen with humongous two-eyed cameras running up and down the sidelines at that NFL game?  That must have seemed entertaining in its own right.

  

Well, yes, you do need two “eyes,” in the form of two cameras mounted in a specialized rig that move in perfect alignment, driven by our mechanics and our software.  But we’ve brought these rigs down to handheld size, so they’re very mobile.  And I know you wanted to hear something about getting resistance to our setup, but there wasn’t any.  We’ve made the technology so digestible that we were actually able to use regular NFL camera people on the shoot, taking a few days beforehand to train them on the equipment, with fantastic results.

  

I see that you have also have a studio in Germany.  Was ist los mit dir, mädchen?  Do we need to turn you into Homeland Security for fraternizing with Deutschland’s Angela Merkel and giving her our digital secrets?  Why is everyone named Angela these days?

   

Actually, the Germans brought the technology to us.  They were developing amazing space-age 3D image processing software for industrial use, and, like the good Americans we are, we repurposed them into supporting pop culture instead.  Guess Hollywood has that effect on things, yes?

  

Are you a software play … or hardware … or vaporware?

  

We’re most definitely software that drives some hardware, which includes cameras and broadcast equipment.  We’re not vaporware, my friend:  just ask anyone who saw that NFL broadcast, or just ask the stars of our first movie — U2 3D. 

    

I see that polymath Sandy Climan is your President and CEO.  I thought he was a movie producer and an agent.

  

Sandy has had a number of careers, certainly, including his long stint as a managing partner at that tiny agency CAA, and significant operations roles at several studios.  But what he does best is bring new ideas to life, and we’re delighted that he’s leading the charge at 3ality Digital — bringing along his blue-chip business contacts, which are helping to give our tiny company international reach.  Thanks to Sandy, they know about us in Europe, Asia, and Australia — and we’re very big in Dubai at the moment, where we just debuted U2 3D at the Dubai Film Festival.  (Ask me a bit later about the Dubai Cup, the world’s most fantastic horse race.)

   

I hope those raucous Modell brothers of NFL fame aren’t going to restrict this technology just to football.  I think we need to see more of those twisty sisters at Cirque du Soleil in 3D.

  

One of my favorite things about John Modell is that he’ll let anyone who asks try on his SuperBowl ring. It’s hella cool.  And David Modell, our chairman and former president of the Baltimore Ravens, has had a long history as an out-of-the-box marketer and visionary.  Who better to back this company than the family who first put the NFL on television?  As much as they love football, they love breaking boundaries even more.

  

BTW, Sandy says he saw your pitch for that remake of Bwana Devil with Keanu Reeves, and he’ll get back to you on that.

 

 

Standards Coming for Buying Digital Media Ads?

 

Buying advertising has always been a bit of a shot in the dark. 

 

Digital media ads haven’t improved things much.  But a new initiative announced last week by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a cooperative non-profit comprised of more than 375 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States, may improve things.

 

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has engaged Media Bank, a leading think tank determined to quick march all media buyers towards a cross-platform efficiency, to see if we can set some common advertising standards for E-business.  As might be expected, there aren’t even uniform standards on what the elements in interactive advertising are called. 

 

You’ve certainly heard the old cliché in the advertising industry that half of all advertising money is simply wasted – and nobody can ever reliably figure out which half is wasted.  That dilemma lives on in trying to calculate the exact impact of an online banner or a video roll – whether it appears on the CNN homepage or the MySpace page of a 13-year-old obsessing on the latest download from Pink.  And just try putting a reliable marketing value on a product placement in a straight-to-DVD movie.

 

Exasperated corporate communicators often compile a rough and dirty cross-media traffic report to appease their bosses.  But a sales campaign’s impressive report of multi-million “impressions,” for example, may be nothing but a sloppy and unreliable tally totaling up the alleged and inflated circulation of print publications ... plus the dubious audience numbers that broadcasters brag for a program on which a televised commercial might have appeared ... plus the so-called “eyeball” projections that web publishers claim when their hidden meters and snares detect a webpage visitor.

 

In the end, measuring techniques for advertising in digital media are still as flimsy as those in other, more traditional media – although what numbers there are come more instantaneously online. 

 

At its most fundamental, however, no one knows exactly what really has happened whether a reader has opened a print edition of Forbes to a Lexis ad or “viewed” a MySpace website pushing a Wal-Mart holiday guide – let alone whether the consumer has even truly paid attention to the ad.  We humans have such a facility for tuning out the most outlandish distractions.

 

Of course, you can certainly and reliably log things like how many people actually opened a digital online “page” on which a banner is running – whether it is a corporate website, the CNN website, or a YouTube page featuring a cat watching squirrels.  And you can set real digital tripwires so that the folks that click through the banner to dedicated websites are reliably counted. But in the end, client comfort will come the old fashion way – when sales go up and revenue flow swells.

 

So keep an eye on both MediaBank and IAB’s E-business subcommittee to see how this all turns out.  That old challenge about wasting half of the ad dollar comes from the late, great Philadelphian John Wanamaker who founded one of the first and greatest department stores – long since absorbed by Macy Inc. which also now principally does business as either Macy’s or wholly owned Bloomingdale’s. 

 

By the way, Macy’s online business at www.macy.com is quickly becoming its strongest sector, according to its February financial reports.  But if old John Wanamaker, the father of modern advertising, were still alive, he would still be pounding the desk and demanding to know which half of his money is being wasted by the damned on-line ad department.

  

-- TOM GOFF

 

 

The Next Debates Will Be in 3D ... Guaranteed.

So, it's been a few weeks (again!), but here's part two of our discussion on 3D media.  The big news today is that Digital Cinema Implementation Partners (DCIP), a consortium of the three leading motion picture exhibition companies in the U.S., has inked a deal with five big Hollywood studios.   The deal?  Well, it's a little complicated, but it basically amounts to having the studios help fund part of the per-location cost of converting movie theaters to digital cinema systems.  It's fair to have the studios help fund the conversion costs because they save a bundle in the move to digital cinema, as it allows them to distribute films electronically, rather than having to make a physical copy -- called a "print"-- for each location.  You can now basically upload a film to a theater when you're ready to distribute it, just like posting videos on YouTube. 

But, why, you ask, does this make Presidential debates in 3D a certainty?  For three reasons:  1) Digital cinema is necessary for 3D -- and it costs nothing extra to install 3D capabilities if you're already doing a digital upgrade;  2) the parameters of the deal mean that the number of 3D-enabled theaters in the US and Canada will jump from about 900 today to 14,000 by 2012, representing 30% of the screens in those markets; and 3) studios have a heck of a lot of 3D films coming out over the next year. 

Studios are making more films and pushing for more screens because 3D and large-format films take in more box office:  Journey to the Center of the Earth, a recent 3D release, brought in 65% of its gross ticket revenue from 3D screens -- which represented only 25% of its distribution.   

And then there's the DVD market.  The Blu-ray format already supports 3D.   But there aren't that many 3D-enabled TV's out there.  How long do you expect that situation to last, given that theatrical ticket sales represent only 14% of a successful film's revenue?  (DVD sales represent 60%, television broadcast rights represent another huge chunk). 

So, studios are pushing for more theaters, and more available content -- including all that fancy sports content with Michael Phelps that we talked about earlier -- will put more pressure on consumer electronics manufacturers to make devices available.  And with companies like 3ality Digital making 3D broadcast possible over 2D pipes, it's guaranteed that the 2012 versions of John McCain and Barack Obama -- or Joe Biden and Sarah Palin -- will be arguing in 3D, for your political pleasure.   It's up to you to decide which candidates would fare better in living, 3-dimensional, color.  Leave your bets in the comments section, please. 

Michael Phelps in 3D: Sooner than you think.

So, I've seen the future, and it is Michael Phelps -- in 3 dimensions. 

I was lucky enough to visit the offices of 3ality Digital a week or so ago.  These are the folks who brought you U23D.  I caught that movie on an IMAX screen here in LA, and when Bono reached for me, I got a little breathless, but that experience was nothing like seeing it in 3ality's digital screening room.  After The Dark Knight's raging success, coupled with IMAX's pending transition to digital projectors, there's no doubt that large-format screens and 3D will soon become commonplace at the multiplex. 

But on your television set?  Well, turns out that's just around the corner, as well.  3ality showed me their broadcast set-up.   The camera details are way too complicated for me to explain -- except for the fact that that the device was much more compact than I expected, able to be moved around fairly quickly and flexibly.   The 3ality folks put me and another guest in front of the camera, facing a flatscreen 3-D television from Hyundai.  They handed us each a pair of polarized glasses and hey, presto! we appeared in 3D.  I jumped a little, actually.  (Note:  people look better in 3D.  You lose that flattening and fattening effect that 2D television gives you.)    No fancy pipes, no special broadcast tunnel.  Just the regular stuff, paired with the camera and the television.

Lest you think I'm a lone voice in the wilderness, read my geek crush Mark Cuban's Blog Maverick entry, taken from an address he delivered to the FCC a few weeks ago.  And given his other passion -- owning sports teams -- Mark should know this:  sports is the "killer app" for 3D television, the thing that's going to drive it into mainstream use.   Hence, the need for a portable camera -- how else are you going to get up under Kobe when he dunks? 

Hyundai is already shipping the televisions in Japan, where they are broadcasting an hour of 3D programming a week.  Not much, maybe, but it's a start.  But the big breakthrough will happen here when ESPN Zone sets them up in their sports bars.  Once the fanboys -- on in this case, the fangirls -- get a gander of Michael Phelps in 3D, there's no going back. 

Why Steve Jobs' Health Matters

First of all, dear readers, apologies for the long break.  Both Tom and I have been making major changes in our day jobs, which has resulted in a bit of disruption in our writing schedules.  But we're back, in full force, with many things to say.  Be warned. 

I have to start this post by saying that, in case you haven't noticed, I am an Apple junkie.  This blog is written on my beloved 12" Powerbook, one of five Macintoshes in various states of use/repair in my home.  I am the proud owner of a second-generation iPod (at last count, there were also five iPods in my home), as well as a newly-minted 3G iPhone which, well, sleeps with me at night. I set up my first home Airport network in 2000, when it was stilll a novelty that I could access the Internet in my backyard:  the neighbors came to gawk.  I've been a devotee since I hauled my first Mac -- a Classic-- home by the handle in the top of its case, to work on my SimCity metropolis, which is still preserved on a 3-1/2" floppy disk somewhere.  Yeah, I drank the Koolaid.

And whether or not Steve Jobs is healthy is very important to me.  Because Apple is not a technology brand, it's a fashion brand.  And the heads of fashion brands are always crucial to their success in the market. 

Now, Mr. Jobs and the Apple Board may disagree, taking the point of view that Apple is a technology company -- perhaps the world's premier consumer technology company, as a matter of fact.   But a great deal of Apple's current leadership is based not on true technological innovation, but on vertical market integration, and on style. 

Case in point:  the iPod.  There were certainly digital music listening devices before the iPod arrived.  But they weren't as sexy, and filling them with music required a certain facility with "ripping" software.   Apple's genius lay in making the music easy to access, assuaging the music industry's fears of piracy with long-extant DRM technology.  Once it had a lock on this vertically-integrated market, Apple continued to rev the devices, so that having the latest and hottest became a mark of well ... style. 

Now, I have to admit that there is some true technological innovation going on in the iPhone:  that fancy Minority Report touchscreen is a wonder to behold.    But there are limitations as well - email that doesn't leverage the capabilities of an Exchange server, voicemail that doesn't work with my Bluetooth headset (a true problem in now hands-free California).  RIM's long-existing Blackberry doesn't have these issues.  But it's not as sexy, not worth a four-hour wait in line just to be one of the first (and for a while, the only) people to get their hands on the device.   And I haven't even talked about my beloved Macs, which can cost as much as 50% more than equivalent Windows machines. 

So, who exactly is the source of all this style?  The candy-colored original iMacs, the flat-as-an-envelope MacBook Air, the iPod that clips to your lapel?  As far as the market is concerned, it's Mr. Jobs. 

Remember Gianni Versace?  He of the Medusa-head buttons and British-Empire-worthy shoulder pads?  His murder sent shockwaves through the fashion world, and damaged his company virtually beyond repair.  Granted, Versace at that point was a much smaller, private and probably less-distributed company than Apple.  But it was iconic enough to inform popular culture and to define status in the way that Apple does. (Don't believe me?  Watch Showgirls.) 

The market worries about Mr. Jobs the same way.  Like it or not, he's an icon of style, a symbol for the fashion trend called Apple.  (No "Computer" in the name now, fittingingly.)  Even his trademark black turtlenecks and jeans have mythic status. 

Perhaps my nephew showed it best when I asked him what kind of computer he had.  "A PC," he said.  "I hate Macs."    But he wouldn't be caught dead without his iPod.  It's just not cool. 

No, He Didn't ...

So, it's not all punditry and pedantics here on DigitalSpritz -- sometimes we have to entertain you a little.  And today's offering is a true geek horror-fest, as Tom blends his 3G iPhone. Shudder and enjoy: