Hardware Widow Advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi has put down in black and white what plenty of women around here have been thinking for ages: we want technology but we don’t want it coloured pink or encrusted with fake gemstones.
[…] Only nine per cent of the women S&S talked to think it’s important that their gadgets look feminine. Rather a lot of ladies are completely turned off by the abundance of pink products. [The Register]
I’m not a lady, so I honestly cannot give an insight on this claim. I do think that the mindset is taboo, and that consumers are a lot smarter than this. What do the lady geeks think?
Swinging from his role as Peter Parker, Tobey Maguire is set to play one of the main characters in the upcoming live action version of Robotech. Now hold it right there. Tobey Maguire as Rick Hunter (Ichijyo Hikaru in the Japanese Macross version)? I make this assumption as Maguire can’t possibly portray Roy Fokker or Admiral Gloval.
I don’t know. The movie reeks too much of Hollywood to me. The fact that they’re using Robotech as the title and not The Super Dimensional Fortress: Macross (the original Japanese title from 1983) is already … err … never mind.
Here is the Philippine media delegation composed of bloggers and print media folk after two days of events and workshops at Nokia Go Play, Singapore. In the picture are Alma Buelva from Philippine Star, Edgard Hilario from Manila Bulletin, Lawrence Agcaoili from Manila Standard Today, John Nieves from Gadgets Magazine, Maria Cristina Tulipat from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Abraham Olandres from Yugatech.com and yours truly. Our chaperone for the sojourn was Nikka Abes from Nokia Philippines.
It was also great to meet Catherine Yong from PC.com in Malaysia, Hazel, Gerard, Dinesh, and the rest of the Nokia Singapore / Malaysia team. I knew the vacation started when corporate shoes were kicked off the dance floor. 🙂
The Nokia N81 … not to be confused with the “Nokia iPhone” … at least not yet 🙂
Very interesting points were raised during the talk on Nokia digital music forum today. A lot of DRM issues were shed to light as well as new developments in the music industry. Most of these insights come from Sandy Monteiro who is the SVP for Digital Music, Universal Music.
Apple did a good job of marketing their “DRM free” music when in reality this isn’t truly the case. Having an artist’s name and title is DRM. The fact that Apple only made the download available in AAC format isn’t truly “DRM free” either. Making it available only in the iTunes Store is also a sign that this is not also truly “DRM free.”
A new technology is being explored to allow music sharing via Bluetooth or through other means. It involves having the fourth or fifth person paying only a fraction of the cost via wireless sharing (IrDA or Bluetooth) of what the original person had to pay when he or she downloaded the music. This is sort of like a “human Bit torrent” effect. Or the new pyramid scheme for DRM 🙂
In the future, music tracks can be remixed by anyone. Let’s say you have a Frank Sinatra song – you can rearrange the instruments (instead of wind instruments you can use strings) and then upload your version of the song to the Internet. The user community can then download the song and you get a royalty fee. The music tracks that participate in this program have the prior approval of the artists and the record label. Interesting?
These were some of the more interesting points raised for the future of digital music. What do you think?
In the past five years, the telco industry in the Philippines has become a “retail hub” for over the air downloads of mobile content including games, ring tones and other services. But what happens when companies release their own proprietary distribution hub?
Nokia, the most important brand in South East Asia launched Ovi at the Go Play event yesterday in Singapore. In the same way that Apple has their .Mac and iTunes Online Store, Microsoft has their own music store for th Zune. Nintendo has their shopping channel for th virtual console, Nokia unveils their plans for a portal by which consumers can avail of direct downloads of songs and games over their own proprietary portal.
This is a consumer boon — but what happens to the telcos (Globe and SMART in particular back here in the Philippines)? According to Vishal Gondal, founder and CEO of Indiagames, the telcos have become so-so when it comes to the promotion of mobile games. Usually, top tier games are the ones downloaded (those appearing on the top links of download portals). But what happens to the rest of the inventory of titles?
Ofcourse, telcos still provide the actual streaming service for downloads and earn from the data costs. But OTA downloads is the least popular choice in countries like the Philippines because most of the Philippine population uses a prepaid service OR are not really that educated about DRM-enabled music (piracy here is a big thing).
Ovi allows for downloads via PC or WiFi. Also, remeber that the new music downloads will be available at a higher bitrate of 192kbps, which is a much larger file compared to the smaller “optimized for mobile” 64kbps files.
Ovi promises to offer more value not just with downloads, but by merging the whole digital mobile experience with your desktop PC and your friends via online community support. Can the telcos challenge this business model?
