China

Forget MP3, here comes MP6

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

The lowly MP3 music format was quietly replaced by MP4. But this week, there’s news that a Chinese company has introduced the world’s first MP6.

The company is AIGO. We haven’t heard much of it here in the US. but we soon will. The device that plays the new format is the eMusicPlayer, using a wireless “reading-point pen.”

What’s interesting is how it blends the technology with a publishing concept. Aigo will publish a ‘music magazine’ periodically,  with about 200 to 300 songs. The pen is then used like a mouse, to point and select the music from the magazine.

I could see audio book publishers, and podcast aggregators putting this to great use. Of course any music player that can download a file wirelessly has a big advantage.

Analog to digital highlighted at Olympics opening ceremony

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

Thousands of years ago, our ancestors communicated across vast distances by beating out messages on drums. Today we relay messages across the world on Twitter, using our thumbs.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics combines both these communication impulses in a country that is seeing this dramatic shift from the analog and digital. The balance and alternation of signals is a powerful metaphor for much of what we do, no matter where we live.

The visually lavish opening ceremony with its human tableau set on a digitally created scroll was just the start. Bamboo scrolls gave way to print; and in a striking opposite effect, 2008 drummers played out a digital spectacle with their choreographed beats made to look like a LED screen which spelled out the count down. That too in Roman and Chinese numerals. How much richer could we get?

One Daily Mail journalist summed it up this way: “This was a feast for the eyes cooked not from the books of ancient culture so much as the latest Microsoft manuals.” I don’t think this is accurate. It was a feast for all our senses, cooked from a user manual that’s a mashup of the Little Red Book and Microsoft manual.

A few millenia after the drum and the torch, here’s how we send and receive information:

  • There’s a Twitter tag 080808 set up by three Chinese to connect everyone’s tweets.
  • Watch cell-phones streaming live video on Qik, a service also used by the Sacramento Bee to cover the torch protests.
  • Newspaper and TV journalists are blogging to give us expanded, less time-delayed coverage.
  • Text alerts (and video) on your phone is available at NBC at NBColympics.com
  • Several Facebook groups in support of, and as a protest to the Olympics.
  • NBC has a widget you could add to your blog or social network.
  • The Voices of the Olympic Games, courtesy Lenovo provides great back stories from the athletes themselves.

Quotes for the week ending 9 August, 2008

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

”He went from being this renegade making films that were banned and an eyesore for the Chinese government, to kind of being the pet of the government.”

Michael Berry, of University of California, Santa Barbara, on Zhang Yimou, who directed the spectacular Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing.

In addition I have offered to send the MAD Magazine Editor a $20.00 Circuit City Gift Card, toward the purchase of a Nintendo Wii….if he can find one!

Jim Babb, of Circuit City’s corporate Communications, apologizing to MAD magazine for pulling copies off the shelves in response to a parody of a Circuit City newspaper ad about “Sucker City.”

“Wait until Bob Garfield sees these new ads.”

AdRants, talking of an ad for Snickers, featuring ‘animals digitally tortured and forced to take on human qualities’ by agency NoS/BBDO Poland. The reference to Advertising Age critic Bob Garfield is because of his recent ‘open letter‘ to the president of another ad agency.

“More Americans died from pandemic flu in the 20th Century than died in World War I. It will happen again. Prepare now.”

PSA for the state of Ohio on its pandemic flu preparedness plan and publicizing of its website, OhioPandemicflu.gov

“At the moment the channel for reporters to use the internet is fully open.”

Beijing Olympic spokesperson Sun Weide, on the move by China to lift the blocks on several long-barred websites, that were only accessible by the media at their hotels.

“Never before in an election cycle has so much attention turned to the youth vote…”

Steve Capus, president of NBC News, on hiring the late Tim Russert’s son, Luke, to cover the Democratic National Convention this month.

“But what the clueless HR team doesn’t realize is that the manager community will find a way to shorten it for them – simply by hitting the “delete” button when they receive it.

Blog on MyRagan.com on why “HR is Clueless”

“The new Delicious is just like the old del.icio.us, only faster …”

From a blog post on Del.icio.us about the new, improved tagging and search features launched this week.

“Beard was supposed to shed her clothes and denounce the wearing of fur, but why anyone would wear fur in the summertime in Beijing is beyond me.”

John Crumpacker, in SFGate on U.S. Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard’s failed attempt at a stunt in Beijing, on behalf of PETA.

“Where is the protest against surgeon who remove big part of your brain?”

Someone going by the name of PeterH2 on the discussion page of the Wikipedia entry for the 2008 Summer Olympics, reacting to a question about the use of American English in the entry.