Google TV ousting Comcast? Not quite yet..

Hill Holliday performed an experiment in the Boston area where five random households were given a digital TV device in replacement of their normal cable for one week. They were interviewed before and after the experiment and given a flipcam to record their experience throughout the week. Here’s a video of the experiment:

While none of the households involved would trade in their cable television for a Google TV, Apple TV or the like, I think it’s important to remember that this stage in television is still extremely new. Still in its innovation phase, I don’t even see early adopters catching on until later this year, or even next year at the earliest. With that said, the general public probably won’t pick up on this for at least another year or two. After all, this whole 3D TV fad has to fade away first (and it definitely will…but that’s a whole ‘nother topic).

Ultimately, there simply isn’t the demand for the product nor the programming to satisfy the consumer as of yet. But I think if they looked at a totally different demographic, the results may have been different. I’m talking about young adults, college students; ie. people that can’t afford paying over $100 a month for cable and people that don’t have time to sit down and watch hundreds of channels.

Personally, as a college grad in my mid 20s, I live in an apt with no cable and to be honest, it’s not that bad. Most of the shows I watch are posted online on the networks websites for viewing the next day. After thinking about it, when I did have cable, 90% of what I watched were news and Sportscenter, both of which I can find online.

AT&T Blasts Its Own Network

Just saw this ad for AT&T, where the odd man out gets a memo late because he doesn’t have AT&T. But I noticed the phone he uses (which receives the memo much later than everyone else) at :19 is actually an iPhone 3G with a sticker over the home button. As we all know, iPhones are currently exclusive to AT&T, thus making the message of this ad that those with iPhones will be “left behind”

 

Good job AT&T, this is a fail in so many different ways.

Google: 2010.

Google recently released its Zeitgeist report for 2010, which highlights the most popular search queries on Google for this past year. Mashable shares some great insite into what we found most intriging in the world in 2010 and what we looked up on Google throughout the year:

“The search giant analyzed billions of searches performed in 2010 and compared them with searches from 2009 to surface emerging trends. Chatroulette, the iPad and Justin Bieber were the three fastest-rising search terms in 2010; Twitterand Facebook also made the list, at numbers eight and 10, respectively.

Among the items of interest that lost the world’s attention in 2010 were swine flu, Stephanie Meyer’s novel (and the accompanying movie) Twilight: New Moon, Susan Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire, “MySpace layouts” and Michael Jackson.

The iPad was the emergent search winner in the consumer electronics category, followed by the iPhone 4,Nokia 5530, HTC EVO 4G and Nokia N900.

In terms of news searches, Haiti proved the most popular, followed by Turkish sports club Besiktas, Chile, “earthquake,” Lady Gaga and the iPhone 4. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill ranked 10th.”

 

 

Here’s the video that Google released, recapping our favorite search topics for 2010:

 

 

So Much For Grooglpon. Groupon say’s No Thanks to Google!

The big story this week in social media was Google’s attempt to buy group discount company Groupon for 6 BILLION dollars. To which Groupon said “No Thanks” yesterday. Many might think this was a crazy decision on Groupon’s part (6 billion dollars is A LOTTTTT of money) but it might make a little sense. Groupon is the fastest growing company of its kind, leaping light years ahead of it’s nearest competitor, LivingSocial. They’ve absolutely exploded onto the scene and pretty much took the discount market by storm in a very, very quick fashion. To be honest I don’t think Groupon is going to slow their growth much at all in the near future.

I think the main reason that Google wanted to buy Groupon was because Groupon offered something very specific that Google was never able to accomplish. We all know Google to be this huge mega company that does everything on a huge scale. what Google lacks is local advertising distribution. Groupon (and any other group discount company) will have a much superior grasp on local advertising. The 6 billion dollar acquisition of Groupon would have made Google billions on top of what they already make. But Groupon knows that they can make it themselves, at least for the time being.

Regardless this is a pretty new area of social media that definitely isn’t fully saturated yet. But with only a few companies in the ring and with Groupon dominating the competition, it makes me wonder just how big this business can be.

If you don’t know what Groupon is, or how it works, here’s a couple videos:

Fareast Movement Performs in Macau

This morning at 5am (8pm local time in Macau) the MNET Asian Music Awards 2010 got kicked off by a great performance by Drunken Tiger. Being the insomniac I am, I managed to catch the whole thing and pass out for 3 hours at 9am. Anyways, Fareast Movement was scheduled to open for the show but ended up performing towards the end. They also received the International Artists of the Year award. I believe this is the first award FM has ever won and their performance was great, performing Girls On The Dance Floor and Like a G6.

This is definitely a testament to the hard work these guys have put in. I don’t think they’ve ever performed on such an international scale before in from of viewers from all over the world.

Tetris: Grand Master.

Just came across this Youtube clip of the world’s best Tetris player. it is indeed the most ridiculous Tetris player I’ve ever seen. The speed increases at 3:00 and the game goes invisible at 5:00 as the credits roll.

Behind the Scenes with Fareast Movement

Here’s a clip from Fareast Movement, behind the scenes of their video shoot for 2gether with Roger Sanchez.

A.S.S. – Agents of Secret Stuff

Wong Fu Productions and Ryan Higa premiered their new Youtube movie last night in LA. Today it has been released on Youtube for the rest of the world to see. Check it out (just a heads up, it is 35 minutes long)

Popular Youtube ASSes Make Youtube Feature Movie

Ryan Higa and Wong Fu Productions come together with a slew of kind of famous people that have made a name for themselves on Youtube to create a 40 minute movie on Youtube. The video won’t be like normal 5 minute Youtube videos as an incredible amount of editing and manhours have gone into the production of this video.

This is significant because Youtube is generally used for how to videos, vlogs, reposts of clips from other sources, etc. Rarely do people come together to produce a movie for youtube, without the backing from a studio. All production is done by Wong Fu Productions, which is just three normal guys in their mid 20s that happen to be really good at this stuff. It will be interesting to see how this affects the future the film industry as more people create films and stories without the help from major studios as well as give small time actors a chance to showcase their skills when a shot in Hollywood may not be available.

Stars Ryan Higa aka NigaHiga, the #1 most subscribed user on Youtube with 2.8million subscribers. Along with Arden Cho, who happens to be a real actoress who acts in real movies and TV shows and DTrix, member of Quest Crew, America’s Best Dance Crew Season 3 winner.

The Movie is called ASS – Agents of Secret Stuff and tells the story of a secret assassin who is sent as an undercover agent to a local high school where he must protect its students from the SINS – Society Involving Not-so-good Stuff. During his mission I guess he learns what it’s like to become a normal high school kid through his interactions in school and with Cho’s character, Taylor. Here’s the trailer.

FM performs on Leno, releases first MV off Free Wired

I just came back from Vegas the other day and while I was on my little mini-vacation Fareast Movement decides to release their first music video off Free Wired, Rocketeer ft. Ryan Tedder. In case you didn’t know, Ryan Tedder is the front man of One Republic (and if you still don’t, go google them or something).

Pretty cool video where this guy on a skateboard collects random parts around Los Angeles to build a jetpack when his girlfriend decides she needs to move for work.

Also last night, Fareast Movement performed for the first time on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.