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Tuesday, Apple revealed an evolved slate of thin, light, eco-friendly MacBook notebooks to waiting audiences.  Greener, leaner and more powerful than ever, the laptops remain high on style and function but despite prelaunch speculation to the contrary they’re still mostly premium priced, premium products.

Entry priced from $1299 to $1999 (with more expensive configurations also available)  the revised MacBook’s feature aluminum cases, more powerful NVIDIA graphics cards (a dual card structure on the 15 inch MacBook Pro), LED backlit displays and wear-resistant glass multi-touch track pads with near 40% larger usable area than some prior models.

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When conditions are stable and sentiment calm, it’s relatively simple to look backward on recent performance to make educated guesses on near term trends.   But when things start to change suddenly and systematically? Then the prediction game is altogether different.  What advertisers were spending three or six months ago, for example, offers little insight into what they’ll spend three months from now.   

In July, thirteen of the top twenty five Internet advisers by media value were classified as financial services companies (via TNS Media Intelligence).  Where we are today is a different place.  The old rules don’t apply.  Many of the big financial companies that were buying up internet ad real estate are gone; bought out, sold out or shut down.  Those that remain may or may not pick up spending to fill the void. One theory says they will – a rush to reassure the market and address consumer fears.  Another theory says they’ll hoard cash, control non-critical spending and remain cautious.

Around the entire advertising world, online and off, nobody is certain how much of a pullback there might be. Click to Read More

In February of 2007, Google paid $27m to acquire small in-game advertising company Adscape.  The expectation was the acquired technology would quickly ramp into a Google platform to rival Microsoft’s Massive unit, IGA Worldwide and others chasing the expected boom in video game ads.   That never happened.  While EA linked with Massive, as did Activision, the Adscape platform remained locked away somewhere on Google’s campus.

In July, Venture Beat reported daylight might soon be let in.  The was no certainty but AdSense for Games, the report speculated, was quietly being tested for use with console games, web games and mobile offerings.  The platform was “something to watch for.”

This week, the doors were finally opened.  Click to Read More

When Apple hinted at a new product release by September in July’s earnings call, many followed the trail of bread crumbs to the conclusion new Macbooks were coming.  The notebook computers were overdue for a makeover, they reasoned.  It was time. So as the launch day grew closer, the Applevine grew louder with more rumors, theories and predictions.  Some speculated new internals, new chips, maybe even from PA Semi Conductor.  Other’s predicted a redesigned aluminum case and a sleeker profile to match the design of the Macbook Air.   As it turned out, it was all false positives.   None of the rumors were right.  Apple’s September product announcements were musical: new iPods and iTunes.    Now, a month later, the Macbooks are finally poised to get their update too.

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In the movies, “if you build it they will come.” In reality, customer acquisition isn’t so easy. You’ve got to build your theater (or stadium) before you can fill the seats with customers.  Then you have to let your customers know there’s a show to see.  Once they’re aware, you need to make sure you give them something good enough to get them to come and keep coming back.  Slowly but surely, Netflix is working through this process with digital delivery.

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On September 5th reports circulated the IPTV startup Joost was preparing to abandon their application-based delivery mechanism in favor a new, more accessible browser based solution.  The new launch was promised shortly.  Today, it arrived.

At the Joost website, the company began serving a browser based solution to stream its collected library of licensed video content.  The launch was characterized as “soft” meaning the company is not promoting it and is using it as a live beta test to work out bugs.

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If at first you don’t succeed, reinvent and try again.   That’s a mantra known at many an Internet startup.  And according to a new report, it looks like it applies to IPTV startup, Joost.

A couple of years ago, peer to peer IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) was all the rage.  There were content partnerships and huge eight figure financing’s.  High profile execs and even talent agents were hired.  “It’s the next new thing.”  “The TV of the Future” the headlines seemed to read.  Unfortunately there were cracks in an otherwise pretty facade and they’re now starting to show.  

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