Apple TV is here. What's next? The ichannel?

State of the Art: New York Times
Apple TV Has Landed
By DAVID POGUE
March 22, 2007

In the technology world, conventional wisdom says that we’ll soon be saying R.I.P. for the DVD. Internet downloads are the future, baby. No driving, no postpaid envelopes. Any movie, any TV show, any time.

Only one problem: once you’ve downloaded the shows to your computer, how do you play them on the TV?

Now, there are people — at least 12, for sure — who actually watch movies right on their computers, or who wire their PCs directly to their TV sets.

The rest of us, however, are overwhelmed by cultural inertia. Computers are for work, TVs are for vegging out, and that’s final.

No wonder, then, that when Apple announced Apple TV, a box that can connect computers and TVs without wires, the hype meter redlined with millions of search-engine citations, a run-up in the Apple stock price and drooling analysts.

After many delays, Apple TV finally went on sale yesterday for $300, but there are plenty of companies trying to solve what you might call the “last 50 feet” problem. A couple of prominent examples: In addition to its game-playing features, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 ($400) performs a similar PC-to-TV bridging function; in fact, it even has its own online movie store. Netgear’s week-old EVA8000 ($350) also joins PC and TV, but adds an Internet connection for viewing YouTube videos and listening to Internet radio.

And so Apple TV has landed. How does it stack up?


Above: Apple's TV comes with an ipod-like remote

In looks, it sits at the top of the heap. Apple TV is a gorgeous, one-inch-tall, round-cornered square slab, 7.7 inches on a side. It slips silently and almost invisibly into your entertainment setup. (You can’t say that for the Xbox, which in comparison is huge and too noisy for a bedroom.)

The heartbreaker for millions, however, is that Apple TV requires a widescreen TV — preferably an HDTV. It doesn’t work with the squarish, traditional TVs that many people still have.

Apple defends its audience-limiting decision by saying that the future is HDTV; Apple is just “skating to where the puck is going to be,” as a product manager put it.

Apple TV doesn’t come with any cables. You’re supposed to supply the one your TV requires (HDMI, component video or HDMI-to-DVI adapter). They cost $20 at Apple’s online store.

So what is Apple TV? Basically, it’s an iPod for your TV. That is, it copies the iTunes library (music, podcasts, TV shows, movies) from one Mac or Windows PC on your wired or wireless home network to its 40-gigabyte hard drive and keeps the copy updated.



The drive holds about 50 hours’ worth of video or 9,000 songs; if your iTunes library is bigger than that, you can specify what subset you want copied — only unwatched TV episodes, for example.

At this point, you can play back videos, music and photos even if the original computer is turned off or (if it’s a laptop) carried away. (Photo playback requires iPhoto on the Mac, or Photoshop Album or Photoshop Elements on Windows.)

A tiny white remote control operates Apple TV’s stunning high-definition white-on-black menus, which are enlivened by high-resolution album covers and photos. You can see the effect at apple.com/appletv.

The integration of iPod, iTunes and Apple TV offers frequent payoffs. For example, if you paused your iPod partway through a movie, TV show or song, Apple TV remembers your place when you resume playing it on your TV. Cool.

Although only one computer’s files are actually copied to Apple TV, you can still play back the iTunes libraries of five other computers by streaming — playing them through Apple TV without copying them. Starting playback, rewinding and fast-forwarding isn’t as smooth this way, and photo playback isn’t available. But it’s a handy option when, say, you want to watch a movie on your TV from a visitor’s laptop.

All of this works elegantly and effortlessly. But there are lots of unanswered questions that make onlookers wonder if Apple has bigger plans for the humble Apple TV.

For example, it has an Internet connection and a hard drive; why can’t it record TV shows like a TiVo?

Furthermore, it’s a little weird that menus and photos appear in spectacular high-definition, but not TV shows and movies. All iTunes videos are in standard definition, and don’t look so hot on an HDTV.

And then there’s the mysterious unused U.S.B. port.

Still, if you stay within the Apple ecosystem — use its online store, its jukebox software and so on — you get a seamless, trouble-free experience, with a greater selection of TV shows and movies than you can find from any other online store.

But in Netgear’s opinion, that approach is dictatorial and limiting. Its new EVA8000 box plays back many more video formats, including high-def video; can play the contents of any folders on your Mac or PC, not just what’s in iTunes; offers Internet radio and YouTube videos; and works with any kind of TV. It can even play copy-protected music — remarkably, even songs from the iTunes store (Windows only).


Netgear's TV

Unfortunately, this machine (2 by 17 by 10 inches) is as ugly as Apple’s is pretty. Its menus look as if they were typed in 12-point Helvetica. The software is geeky and unpolished; for example, during the setup process, it says “Failed to detect network” if no Ethernet cable is plugged in, rather than automatically looking for a wireless network.

The Netgear model is also filled with Version 1.0 bugs, including overprinted, blotchy menu screens and incompatibility with Windows Vista. Netgear promises to fix the glitches, but concedes that it timed the EVA8000’s release to ride the wave of Apple TV hype.

The two-year-old Xbox 360 is far more polished. Like Apple TV, it can either stream photos, music and videos (Windows PCs or, with a $20 shareware program, even Macs) or play them off its hard drive.


Above: Microsoft's Xbox


What’s different, though, is that you can’t copy files to this hard drive over the network; you can download shows and movies only straight to the Xbox from Microsoft’s own fledgling online store. You can buy TV shows for $2 each ($3 in high definition), or rent movies for $4 ($6 for high def). Microsoft movies self-destruct 24 hours after you start watching them. (Apple movies cost full DVD price, but at least you can keep them forever.)

Note, too, that the Xbox’s primary mission — playing games — doesn’t always suit music and movie playback. It can’t get onto a wireless network without an add-on transmitter ($100 — yikes). You can’t control the speed of a slide show or fast-forward through a song.

And in general, the included game controller makes a lousy remote control. There are no dedicated buttons for controlling playback; instead, you have to walk through the buttons on an on-screen control bar to reach, say, the pause function.

And alas, these products can require a journey through the hell of home networking. The Xbox couldn’t get online at first, thanks to an “MTU failure.” A Microsoft techie in India named “Mike” claimed that my cable-modem company would have to make a change in my service. (He was wrong; a router setting had to be changed instead.)

When the Netgear EVA8000 couldn’t get on the network, I waited 30 minutes to speak to a technician, who announced that I’d shortly get a call back from a senior tech. Five days later, I’m still waiting. (The solution was to uninstall — not just turn off — Microsoft’s OneCare security suite.)

In the end, these early attempts to bridge the gulf between computer and TV perfectly reinforce the conventional wisdom about Apple: Apple TV offers a gracious, delightful experience — but requires fidelity to Apple’s walled garden.

Its rivals, meanwhile, offer many more features, but they’re piled into bulkier boxes with much less concern for refinement, logic or simplicity.

Put another way, these machines aren’t direct competitors at all; they’re aimed at different kinds of people. Microsoft’s young male gamers probably couldn’t care less that they can’t change the slide-show speed, and Netgear’s box “is for people who are more experienced,” according to a representative. “This is not for the random person.”

Apple, on the other hand, is going for everybody else, random people included (at least those with HDTV sets). And that, perhaps, is Apple TV’s real significance. To paraphrase the old Macintosh advertisement, it’s a computer-to-TV bridge for the rest of us.

Desktopography's Nature Desktop Exhibition

Desktopography has posted their third annual natural wallpaper exibition. This 2007 collection of 40 beautifully designed nature-themed desktop wallpapers by selected designers are all available as free downloads for your Mac or PC in the appropriate resolutions.

Desktopography has been doing this since 2005 and the selections continue to grow. The 2005 and 2006 selections are also still available for download. They are a non-profit, fun project site to share with friends and family.

Here are a few examples of their lovely new desktop wallpapers:







So? what are you waiting for, go get 'em! Right here.

Mattel + MAC = Moola. Barbie and MAC Cosmetics Collaborate.

Cosmetics Business, MARKETING
Colour cosmetics - "Sorry Ken, Barbie loves MAC" by Sally Morgan

Barbie, Mattel's best-loved, famously controversial doll and Estée Lauder's MAC cosmetics have collaborated to create a new make-up line targeting adults. So how does this fit with the luxury goods market?



North Americans will be the first to buy MAC's new Barbie collection of bright sugary pinks, buttercup yellows and warm green cosmetics from 13 February this year. Europe and the rest of the world will see them in stores in March. With prices ranging from $10 for a nail polish to $20 for beauty powder, the prices would be affordable for teenage girls reliant on pocket money. Along with the packaging - the pink Barbie emblem added to MAC's trademark black - it would be easy to assume that this was precisely the market for which the line is designed. But these products are, insists MAC, most definitely aimed at 20-30 year old women.



For three years, Estée Lauder and Mattel have been negotiating the association of MAC and Barbie. As any half of a brand extension deal will attest, it's vital to get all details right. In order to entice and combine two disparate markets, the balance, focus and compatibility of the brands involved are crucial. Do it right and you effectively double your ideal customer base, in turn raising the profile and marketability of the brand. Get it wrong and you risk a humiliation such as that experienced by Burberry when it's famous plaid was adopted by chav culture, resulting in a temporary wilting of their luxury market influence. However, three years is a long time for such negotiations and these, industry sources have revealed, have been particularly tricky to finalise, with MAC being reluctant to sign off.

Image Conscious

Despite the market strength and longevity of Barbie, the brand has been the center of repeated controversy regarding negative female image. The doll has been pilloried by feminists as having a grossly disproportioned body. This in turn led to watchdog bodies vilifying her as a damaging role model for impressionable young girls. MAC's reluctance to court such negative sexist attention is understandable; to risk offending its customer base of, “professional make-up artists and fashion forward consumers… All races, All sexes, All ages”.

It's also impossible not to at least nod towards a slight unease at a seductive adult cosmetic product being based on a child's doll and the dubious messages this association could convey. As the cosmetics side of the association, MAC could be interpreted as exploiting the already fragile innocence of today's female youth.


Above: Original 1959 Barbie® Doll

There is obvious financial potential to the partnership of course and the combining of these two brands should wield serious clout in the marketplace. MAC was credited in Estée Lauder's last annual report for being significant in the $6.3bn parent company's 13% net make-up sales increase ($274.8m). MAC's Small Eye Shadow, Studio Fix, Lustreglass and Pro Longwear Lipcolour products alone generated $70m in revenue. The vast Barbie empire, meanwhile, generates more than $3.5bn in sales globally. And Mattel has already seen great success with its first lines aimed at adults with as much as $100m coming from sales of adult targeted clothing, mainly in the Far East.

Adult Audience

Both companies insist that their new line is aimed purely at adults, and are going all out to project this view. The line, named Barbie loves MAC, will also form MAC's spring range and is to be accompanied by a limited edition MAC themed Barbie doll. But this too, manufacturers insist, is aimed at their grown-up customers.

“This is intended to be a very sophisticated make-up collection, designed for adults - not children,” said Peter Lichtenhal, general manager of MAC Cosmetics“. He stressed that their target audience is definitely not teenage, but also that it was light-hearted. “It's a collection that's fun,” he continued. “One of the things that we do is bring fashion and glamour to the make-up market.”



Former marketing manager of girls' brands at Mattel, Annabelle Kuhn, thinks the new collaboration is perfectly natural. “Barbie has always been more of a lifestyle brand for girls, way beyond being just a toy,” she said. “Barbie's core positioning and equity revolves heavily around fun, fashion, glamour and aspiration. I would say that is also the core to the cosmetics industry and the luxury goods market as a whole.”

Various Barbie products for young girls are now well established including apparel, publishing, room décor and a fragrance. And there is a whole range of collectible dolls aimed at adult consumers. Kuhn was part of the 2003 campaign that first linked top-flight fashion designers with the brand when she launched the limited edition Armani Barbie. Since then, Diane von Furstenberg, Anna Sui and Zac Posen have all dressed Barbie. These designer dolls retail for around $100 so are clearly aimed toward a grown-up market, but at the rather niche area of adult Barbie fans who want to own a special grown-up version of their childhood favourite.


Above: Designer Zac Posen's Ken and Barbie® Dolls


Above: Designer Diane Von Furstenberg's Barbie® Doll

The Barbie loves MAC collection is the first time Barbie has been aimed directly towards the open adult marketplace. It's also the first time Barbie has been linked to make-up in a 'Barbie comes of age' way, and by partnering MAC Barbie then appeals to perhaps the broadest cosmetic market there is.

“The Barbie loves MAC collection is the first time Barbie has been aimed directly towards the open adult marketplace”


Above: The Limited Edition Gold Label MAC Barbie® sold out upon release here in the US and abroad in a matter of days. Now, they're selling for upwards of $200 on ebay. If you can find one.

MAC as Maverick

Above: Viva Glam Spokeswomen for 2007

MAC has a reputation as something of a maverick, revolutionary brand. It heralded RuPaul as an icon, redefining traditional notions of feminine beauty. And with the Viva Glam range, it has created an effective means of raising funds with which to award grants to HIV organisations. Possibly MAC is the only adult cosmetic brand capable of successfully approaching a collaboration with Barbie. While all other leading make-up houses associate their products with real Hollywood or fashion faces - Elizabeth Arden with Catherine Zeta Jones, Rimmel with Kate Moss - MAC dares to be different. Caroline Geerlings, senior vice president of global marketing for MAC said: “we pride ourselves on doing the unexpected.”



Above: MAC ads featuring Rupaul

On a corporate level, the links between MAC and Barbie are strong. Richard Dickson, senior vp of marketing, media and entertainment at Mattel, has a background in cosmetics himself. He was involved, as vp of brand management and merchandising, for Estée Lauder when they acquired Gloss.com. This is an e-commerce site Dickson helped create and launch and he's helped smooth the concept of the collaboration with MAC.

Dickson, like Kuhn, is convinced that adult make-up and perhaps other adult products too are a natural direction for Barbie to take. “The core Barbie brand is distributed in many different ways,” he said. “It's the largest lifestyle brand for women. If you grew up with Barbie, the girl in 1959 is now 60-odd years old. This is a brand that's crossed generations, that has a legacy.” Executives of both companies have also expressed their surprise at the similarities in the artistic process used in the design of both Barbie and MAC products. Barbie loves MAC is all about evoking nostalgia in women; it wants to tap into memories of their innocence when dreaming of adult glamour as a child. According to Lichtenhal, “this collection is about the fun of applying make-up, and about fashion and style”.

Both sides are going all out to promote the positive elements of the Barbie brand and the fun aspect she will bring to complement the professional quality of MAC cosmetics. James Gager, senior vp and creative director of MAC worldwide steered his definition of Barbie kitsch by saying: “There's a classicism to Barbie that will never go away.” And when compared to such girly yet sophisticated brands as Pout, Stila and Benefit, the Barbie loves MAC collection appears well on trend.

Barbie's popularity is without question and, Kuhn believes, will eclipse any perceived controversy. She hails the partnership with MAC as “original and innovative”, one she compares to the collaboration of sport and music through Apple Ipod and Nike or Lambourghini cars with Versace-designed seat covers. Indeed, in the modern marketplace, brand association is steadily gaining on new product development as the ultimate goldmine of opportunity. Kuhn, who is currently brand controller of carbonates at Britvic and helped link, among others, the Pepsi brand with David Beckham, predicts that increasing numbers of big name brands will enter into associations.


Above: Barbie Loves MAC t-shirts sold out at most all MAC stores

She speculates that Estée Lauder's ultimate aim with Barbie might be more long-term and far reaching than just MAC. “It's brands with strong, succinct points of actual or perceived differentiation that will continue to enjoy growth,” she says. “I think the marriage of MAC and Barbie is a good example of this. MAC has a strong potential long-term concept layer while Barbie has many facets and associations. I can see a multitude of potential themes and product forms coming from this line.”

Barbie loves MAC is planned at this stage as a limited edition offer only. Head executives will not be drawn on whether they would consider an extension to the range, saying only that they expect the limited stocks to last eight to 12 weeks. But industry sources are estimating sales of between $8m and $9m in North America alone, with the majority coming from the cosmetics line.


Above: The Barbie Loves MAC Cosmetics collection now available at all MAC stores.

With grown-up make-up being the one area as yet unexplored in terms of Barbie's appeal, and 'mini Barbie's boudoir' areas being installed in selected outlets, the campaign is certainly not a small one. Gager commented that this cosmetics range will be a chance for women to “revisit fantasies [from when they were young girls] when they wanted to wear make-up and never could”.

After such a long planning stage, the limited availability time of just two to three months seems very short. Of course, this could be to inspire initial interest before a longer run is given the go-ahead. And if it's cult status that is sought, then this range, even prior to launch, is already well on the way to becoming iconic. One of the limited edition MAC Barbie dolls recently sold on Ebay for $105. The retail price is just $35.

Despite announcements that a Barbie loves MAC microsite would be available now through the US MAC site, at the time of writing this was still not accessible. However, cosmetic blog sites are already debating the new collection - a month before it's even available in the states. Despite MAC's cautious approach, the new collection is now the primary focus of anticipation for everyone involved or interested in the cosmetics industry. If the market takes to the new range as enthusiastically as the online community seems to have, the end result could be more a case of MAC loves Barbie than Barbie loves MAC.

Funky Find Of The Week: The Percushion Bluetooth Phone Pillow

A Pillow With A Built-in Bluetooth phone

By Urban Tool, the perCushion

For those of you who like talking on the phone while falling asleep, here's the perfect product for you...the Per Cushion!

description from their site:
Touching future communication!

Remember the times before our mobile digital lifestyle, when communication with a close friend stood for something emotional and touching. It can again with the soft and relaxing perCushion. Your cell phone notifies the digital cushion wirelessly, via Bluetooth and enables you to pick up the call while relaxing on your sofa.

dimensions
length 66 cm
height 30 cm
depth 13 cm
Details

material: cotton velvet with foam core.
The cushion is connected with your mobile wirelessly via Bluetooth.
integrated fabric interface: an activating/standby button, a Bluetooth pairing button, a button for answering calls and indicating LEDs furthermore a microphone and loudspeakers.
The lithium ionic battery can be charged with the enclosed charger.

Wanna buy one? You can right here.