A quick note to PR pros and publicists out there. If you work with a very high profile client, and your client is announcing a new product at a trade show – don’t schedule the hour-long autograph session before the event announcement, unless you want a lot of pissed-off reporters at the end of the event. I was at CES for a couple of days this week, and a friend and co-worker of mine got stuck in the cluster around a Justin Bieber “technology” announcement, and all I can say is the Biebs’ PR team really needs to learn some actual PR and basic event planing principles.
Category Archives: Technology
Will the smartphone finally replace the Flip camera?
(Update: Engadget is reporting that iPhone 4 will include Facebook Integration, and that includes direct video uploads to your Facebook account from your iPhone.)
This post started off as a Twitter conversation between me and my friend Ashley Gephart, the day that Apple announced their new iPhone 4. I had sent out a tweet asking what the impact of the iPhone would be on products like the Flip camera for PR types and non-profit communicators and she responded that most non-profits wouldn’t pay for something like this, and that a lot of non-profits still don’t get social media. While true, I think we were talking past each other, I was looking at how it would impact the Flip camera, while she was looking at the impact from non-profits, although I think more non-profits will get behind this when they hear about the benefits. (so point all of your non-profit peeps here for info and consulting 
)
The Flip camera has been the darling of many a PR person creating content for social media (especially if you read Ragan.com), and it’s a nice little basic video camera (which has, IMHO, been replaced by the Kodak Zi8 for better audio and the Sony Bloggie CM5’s superior optical zoom).
But with the introduction of the newest iPhone, Steve Jobs announced that the camera will be able to record 720p high definition video, in addition to taking pictures with the 5MP lens on the camera that you can upload to your company’s Web site, or Flickr account. In addition to this, the iPhone’s app store will finally carry an iPhone friendly version of iMovie – Apple’s grandma-ware version of video editing software.
Apple, Heal Thyself
Well it has been quite the week for corporations in my little part of the online sphere. Earlier this week my good friend Will has his car towed by an Albuquerque towing company of meth addicts because he accidentally parked on the wrong side of a McDonalds and “McDonalds Parking Enforcement” officers had his car towed away. Parking enforcement officers… yeah really.
(BTW, this is the same lot I’ve parked in many times to eat at a different restaurant – come tow me, bitches.)
But more importantly, this has been one of the weeks where Apple has crossed over the line of corporate paranoia and let their cyberpunkish “Corporate Overlord” mentality show through. And from a PR standpoint Apple’s not looking too great.
Jesus Buddha Christ, Apple. Really? Let’s break this down:
- A tech blog gets a hold of your super secret next generation iPhone that was lost at a bar,
- And then returns it to you after reviewing it
- (Which happened after you denied the prototype’s existence),
- Then you send your super secret “Apple Force” to the journalist’s house demanding to look around
- (Which he says “hell no” to. Makes sense.)
- And then you have the reporter’s house busted into by the cops and multiple computers, et al “taken for examination.”
Let’s see, did I miss anything? Nope, didn’t think so. I’m just surprised that Apple didn’t hire a private group of mercenaries to bust this poor guy’s door down.
Wow Apple, you have really opened yourself up to ridicule at the least, and a potential lawsuit on the more serious end. (and if the EFF and other technology or media non-profits don’t sign on to object to this kind of treatment of a journalist, then y’all just need to pass your 501c3 cards forward because y’all are dismissed.)
But in true Apple form, Steve Jobs has penned a letter about… Apple’s problem with Adobe’s Flash?? It’s like Steve-O really thinks that by ignoring the problem, or dictating the terms of engagement, he can control all of the coverage he gets. And right on cue, noted tech journalist (and Steve Jobs apologist) Walt Mossberg will pen a column decrying Flash (and asking why the hell Team “Apple Force” didn’t tase the entire Gizmodo staff over and over).
So this is a PR and tech blog. What advice would I give Apple if they asked?
Well, this being Apple, they never would because in their minds “The Jobs” can’t do anything wrong. That said, I’d tell them to cut this crap out.
- Drop any charges,
- Get the police to turn over all equipment taken from Jason Chen’s house,
- Replace any broken or damaged equipment on Apple’s dime,
- Pray that Apple doesn’t get sued,
- And one more thing, stop acting like jerks.
I guess Steve-O really hasn’t learned anything about tact (or new media) from the Think Secret lawsuit. Jon Stewart is right, chill the hell out Apple.
(And before Apple Evangelists start typing a response about how I’m some Apple hater, this post, much like this video in years past, was completely created on a Mac.)
Snoochie Boochies.
Praising, and not Burying, Foursquare
This isn’t a post designed to slavishly worship at the altar of Foursquare – the app that allows you to broadcast your location to everyone following you on Twitter, Facebook, and… oh yeah, your Foursquare account. And the jokes about telling people when they can break into your empty home have already been made, so I won’t make them here.
(And I’m sure this post has been written many times before by other smarter people than I, but bear with me, please. )
In fact, and this may surprise you (and to bastardize Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar), “I have come here today to praise Foursquare, not to bury it.” Foursquare could be one of the great saviors for many small businesses that always appear to be under threat.
By keeping an eye on who checks in at a business via Foursquare, savvy businesses are already able to offer special discounts, or menu items (in the case of a restaurant), etc. to people following their business. But what about those people who are walking by a business? Since most of these smartphones are (or will be) equipped with GPS (how else can you run Google Maps and Directions?) it should only be a short jump until these phones can signal that they are in the proximity of your business. Then you do the same thing, offer discounts, freebies, etc to swing by.
How will the person behind the counter know if the discount is legit? You might be able to send a picture of a QR Code or Bar Code for the specific item in question, in order to try and minimize people gaming the systems with bogus tweets/etc. At the end of the day though, let them work the system a little bit, the end result will still be sales.
The most important aspect to this will be creating a system where people can opt-in, instead of pushing your message to any phone capable of receiving a text message. Because at that point your message becomes nothing more than spam and will drive people away.
Monitoring Foursquare for check-ins, and Twitter for tweets, and responding appropriately will help you to attract more customers, and to handle customer service issues. Look no further than ComcastBonnie (@comcastbonnie on Twitter) for an example of those tech savvy peeps doing it right.
RSS-Fu: Why RSS “Isn’t Quite Dead”
I was surfing on Twitter this evening while walking the dog when I came across a few tweets from Robert Scoble touching on the idea of Twitter replacing RSS as a way to get information. Twitter is a lot of fun, especially when checking out what your peeps are saying, but the problem is, even with lists and blocking spam-tards, you’re still getting a lot more info from the firehose than you might need. But Twitter is the hot thing going on right now, at least until FourSquare takes over (as is usual in the tech sector).
But Twitter replacing RSS feeds totally?
Not to say that I disagree with some of tech’s heavy hitters, but are y’all kidding me?
While not as important as it once was (or was considered to be), RSS still plays a part in attracting people to your blog or social media hub, or providing that content to a selected audience. A big part of social media, especially for businesses, is creating kick ass content and getting people to come to your site to check out your latest creations. RSS delivers that info to people who have requested it, and why would you want to discount that? Plus RSS feeds from blogs and Google searches (yep, Google searches can be used as RSS feeds and delivered to your favorite feed reader) are one of the pillars of what Chris Brogan has referred to as your social media listening hub.
And RSS is important if you’re a business or PR firm looking to create a media hub for yourself or your clients. It’s an easy way for you to direct content to your target stakeholder audiences (media, shareholders, clients, etc). Give them the RSS feed to their FeedDemon or Google Reader and let them take care of the rest.
I do agree with the view that RSS isn’t as important as it used to be, or is considered to have been, but still plays a part in your overall social media strategy. Ask yourself one question, if RSS didn’t matter then why do all of these social media peeps still have RSS feeds to their blogs?
Getting in the Game?
Greeting again from sunny (during the day, it’s 1 a.m. as I write this) Disney World. It’ll be a few days later when y’all read this, but I’m getting the thought down now before I forget them and will have them up and running back when I get to ABQ and have reliable wireless again.
(Can you believe that after paying a bucket of cash, Disney still charges for Internet access? They have a good thing going here and know not to kill it.)
While the above paragraph sounded like some random ramblings, it makes the point I wanted to make in today’s piece. This idea of putting a message up when you want to, and allowing people to see it in their own time frame. And the medium I want to talk about today is the idea of advertising in video games.
Video game advertising? Really? Are people going to want to see this?
“Want?” Probably not. But advertising is already more and more prevalent in the video game world. It probably started with the Madden NFL franchise (as many things in the video game world do) promoting various products with the “announcers” in the game (all real NFL Network and NBC talent). The “Old Spice Red Zone Report” when either team is within the 20-yard line (known in football as the “Red Zone,” which is also an Old Spice brand of deodorant I believe), or “this game is brought to you by EA Sports” mentioned at various times throughout the game, or the recreation of advertising actually located in each team’s stadium.
If football’s not your thing, the new “Need For Speed” allows for billboard advertising by companies or organizations that you can target to selected times and places. One organization that took advantage of this to a great benefit was Barack Obama for President. They were able to target ads for gamers in selected battleground states. Even if they did not notice the ads right away, or at all, they were still in the background adding to the subliminal message to vote for (or have more positive feelings for) President Obama.
As games and platforms continue to advance, you can expect to see game companies allow for advertising in their games. Think about it, you could place an ad for your organization on a bulletin board read by players in the upcoming Fable 3 game, or on a TV screen in the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. And of course in any game which XBOX Live players can download (or even on the online games page itself). Some platforms might even work out deals for players on their platform to get cheaper games if there is advertising allowed in the game, or might charge more to allow players to get “premium games” free of advertising.
It’s all up to you or your organization to think of new and creative ways to tap into this growing market. How would you like to present a consistent message to your audience in this medium? Would you even try to present more than a few seconds of a message? Would this be a great way to target a message to a potential audience in a selected location? – Probably, because you can selected which parts of the country these messages would go to, and they would be available to an audience that might TIVO ads away, if they even watch TV on a TV set, but can later get the message from their video game, still reading the message, only in their own time frame. (I would think that this would be a great way for a university to reach potential students.)
Then of course there are some opportunities for video game makers to offer games for a little higher price if they come with a “No Advertising” guarantee.
It’s called “You”Tube for a reason
I was thinking about this post while giving a presentation in class this evening. We had an open ended assignment where each person presented on a topic related to the mass media. Being interested in online communications, I focused on Web communications by mass media outlets. That got me thinking about bloggers (which I wrapped up the presentation with) and how people in my profession should look at content creation vs. pitching to bloggers.
A lot of PR peeps are looking at how to pitch bloggers and other A-list social media mavens instead of working towards creating their own content.This is fine, but it’s as if the mindset of PR people around the globe continues to be:
“I’m in PR. I’m used to pitching people, sending stuff out. I must pitch the “media.” I’m not going to create my own content. I don’t shoot video, and sound like I gargled with rusty razor blades.”
Trust me I know where you’re coming from. I don’t have that creamy radio voice either and am more “Body by Buddha” than “Body by Jake.” Ya know what, that doesn’t matter. It’s all about authenticity. It’s about your company becoming the media outlet, instead of waiting for reporting from the media which may never come. It’s about PR person as civic journalist (or corporate journalist) than traditional “pitch man.”
(This also matters to you and your personal brand. You are your own Hollywood director. But wunder-dude Chris Brogan has a lot of great articles on this. I may give my own humble take later (but read Chris first))
Your company should become part of the conversation, not just treat bloggers/podcasters/et al as one more media outlet to just pitch to. Remember, it’s called “YOU”Tube for a reason. Use it to create your online brand, then your company will piggyback on the “you” brand (if you identify yourself as working for that company). Then other bloggers might get interested in your product/organization.
And your first efforts don’t have to be Hollywood-esque. Just get some practice time in with your camera and some software. Here’s a little footage of me practicing around with my Flip Video Camera and the Sony Imagination Studio software. There’s also more relevant footage (PR wise) that I shot for work located here.
Good on Ya, Apple, Inc.
Just to reinforce my love of technology, and that i’m not averse to Apple, Inc. I bumped into this story while on Twitter. A high school kid had emailed Steve Jobs (and just how in the heck did he get THAT email address, I’ve gotta ask) and asked if he could get the college educational discount for the latest copy of Final Cut Studio. MInd you, not a free copy, just for the $600 or so discount (still willing to pay $700 for it).
Well, this email got forwarded to Richard Townhill, the director of Pro Video Product Marketing for Apple, who emailed the kid back and asked for his address to send him a free copy of the software. How cool is that! Apple, Inc gave this kid an early Christmas, and created another evangelist to boot. Not too bad!
HT: aGEEKspot
iLife for PC Review: Sony Imagination Studio
(Update: Sony announced the release of Imagination Studio Suite 2 this week. I’ll be looking it over in the coming weeks and posting an updated review here as soon as it’s done. – Benson)
The Christmas season is quickly closing in on us. While the current economic conditions might be forcing you to take a second look at what you might include on your present list, if you or someone who’s been nice this year are interested in creating your own podcasts or video pieces then you might want to check out something softer on the pocketbook – the Sony Imagination Studio.
A little while back I talked about Sony’s new Imagination Studio Suite, offered exclusively through Dell’s Web site. (Now available at Sony Creative Software’s site, among other places) Dell seems to be moving to the fore on providing PC consumers with a version of Apple’s iLife. First they offered something from Adobe that could be installed on certain XPS systems. Now they are offering Sony’s answer to Apple’s popular suite.
Since writing that post, it has become the most viewed piece on this site, once again hinting to me that there are a lot of people out there interested in finding an answer to Mac fans love of iLife. Also, a lot of people have clicked through to check out the software on Dell’s site. I don’t know if anyone purchased it, maybe Dell would have that info (probably not).
So I decided to give this suite of programs a brief run through.
I had my first run in with the program suite at the 2008 New Media Expo, while hanging out around the Sony Creative Software booth. Voxana and DJ Papi Love from the AcidPlanet Web site were handing out demo copies of the the Imagination Studio Suite to the attendees.
(Me with Voxana and DJ Papi Love from AcidPlanet at the 2008 New Media Expo)
I brought some of the CDs back to ABQ and handed them out to my co-workers and family members. While I don’t think any of my co-workers have picked up the programs yet, I’ve been able to give them a bit of a shakedown, as part of my ongoing search for a PC equivalent to Apple’s iLife package. Sony’s Imagination Studio Suite offers many of the same PC programs as iLife, except for iWeb – but as I’ll point out here, between free blogging sites (such as WordPress or Blogger) and Facebook/MySpace, there is no need for iWeb.
And away we goooooooo…..
Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum
Vegas Movie Studio is the video editing software included in the Imagination Studio Suite. The layout of the editing suite is different from Apple’s iMovie – Vegas Movie Studio has a more traditional, linear video editing layout than iMovie does. Vegas Movie Studio has also proven to be a more powerful video editing program than the built in Windows Movie Maker.
In Vegas Movie Studio, the user has separate tracks for multiple video and audio tracks. You can have individual tracks dedicated to dialogue, background music, special effects in addition to multiple video files.
Importing the audio and video elements to a project were easier to import into Vegas than iMovie. With iMovie I found that if I didn’t import just the right file, in just the right way, while hopping on one foot under a waxing moon and preparing a chicken blood sacrifice, the video file wouldn’t import correctly. While with Vegas, a simple click on Project > Import Media opens up a menu showing the importable files. For digital video capture, a quick click on the Capture Video button calls up Vegas’ capture menu.
I found Vegas to be very easy to edit with, I used it to trim and edit video footage of both Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s visit to campus. After editing the video, I was able to export the final video directly to either YouTube, or Sony’s own AcidPlanet.com podcast/video cast/music site. A pop-up screen asked for all of the necessary information to log into either service and input all of the necessary information for the video submission (login and PW, name, description, tags, etc.)
One of the things I had a problem with in Sony Vegas was locating the trimmer, so I could slice video files as necessary without bringing in multiple copies of the same file when adding cuts to the project. This could be user error in part, but I notice in Premiere Pro it’s part of the lower right hand menu, which makes it very easy and quick to make the necessary slices. Update: This was user error. All you need to do to trim down your video in Sony Vegas Studio is place your marker where you want the video to be cut, and hit the “S” key. That’s it! How freakin’ easy is that?!?
Cinescore Studio Plug-In
Vegas Movie Studio, in the Platinum Pack, Platinum Pro Pack and Imagination Studio Suite, comes loaded with the Cinescore Studio plug-in. Cinescore is Sony Creative Software’s soundtrack creation software, and Cinescore Studio is a stripped down version of the program. It’s not an actual program in Imagination Studio, it’s a plug in with Vegas Movie Studio. All you need to do is right click on one of the audio tracks and click “Insert Generated Music” to activate the plug in.
From this menu you can select the type of music you wish and a number of variations of the music you want to include in your project. In the next screen you can select the length of your music file, the composition style and more. Cinescore Studio will then insert it into your movie project. This is a great way to get some quick background music for a podcast or movie scene.
When you are working with the audio section of your project, you can right click on any of these tracks and the “Edit Selection in Sound Forge Studio” appears. Clicking on this allows you to edit the dialogue in Sony’s Sound Forge Studio.
DVD Architect Studio
Sony’s DVD Architect Studio is the company’s DVD Menu creation software. Since most people will be uploading videos to Web sites such as your blog, YouTube or AcidPlanet, unless you are creating DVDs for a film project, DVD present, etc. there is a minimal need to use this software.
Should you need DVDs for any reason (family gatherings, etc), DVD Architect Studio is a good choice to create your DVDs. There are many different DVD menu themes for you to pick from, and more are available from the Sony Creative Software Web site.
Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio
One of the programs in iLife that I find to be very beneficial is Garageband, Apple’s audio editing, looping and podcast creation program. Trying to put so many things together in one program can lead to a bit of clutter on the screen, and trying to edit interviews in Garageband leaves these weird bubbles of text in the file that you have to remember to pull back together for a coherent podcast or audio file.
However, Garageband does have a specific setting when you want to record a podcast, with tracks set up for voices, jingles, additional recording, and a window for you to drop and drag artwork for your podcast. And the Garageband browsers are great when it comes to locating files not only by name, but type of file as well. This probably comes from providing so many loops for your specific software package (such as Apple does).
Sony’s got two programs that fill this need for PC users. The first of these programs is Sony’s Sound Forge Audio Studio.
I’ve primarily been using Sound Forge Audio Studio to edit podcasts at the university, and clean up audio in some of the video pieces I’ve been working on. Editing files in this program are as easy as highlighting a bit of text and deleting it, or cutting and pasting the file, or adding various effects to your heart’s content. The best way to figure out which effects you want to use with this powerful program would be to play around with a test audio file and the included effects.
As with Vegas Movie Studio, you can publish your files to the Web, using Sony’s AcidPlanet Web site.
The other half of this tandem of programs is…
Sony ACID Music Studio
ACID Music Studio is the stripped down version of Sony ACID, Sony’s industry-standard music looping software. Loops are just short music files that sound like one continuous piece of music if they are repeated. When you start combining multiple loops, such as a drum beat, a couple of guitar loops, you can create your own music.
Some of these loops are available on CDs or download from various locations, from many musician stores to Amazon.com (where you will find some pretty good deals) to Apple (if you have Garageband) and Sony Creative Software (which, as expected, work well with ACID). ACID Music Studio comes with a large library of loops at your fingertips after you install it. If you are interested in music loops, a Google search for “Music Loops” will give you many more answers than I can give you right now.
I haven’t spent as much time working with ACID as I have been with Vegas and Sound Forge studios. But I like what I have tried so far with the program. Adding loops is as simple as drag and drop and then using a “brush”-like tool to repeat the loops in each track. I’ll add another update once I have more practice with ACID, and possibly a couple of completed songs on the site.
Photo Go
Photo Go is a cool little program that allows you to keep track of your digital images and do some basic editing to them.
(Awwwww, I always told her she’d be in pictures)
You can color correct images, crop, rotate, remove red-eye, and correct brightness and contrast among the editing features. You can’t sharpen your images, but this is something that can be taken care of using Windows Live Photo Gallery or Picasa 3.
One thing that would be nice would be a way to export your pictures to Flickr or Google’s Picasa. There are simple ways to work around this. Flickr Uploadr allows you to drag and drop pictures to upload to your Flickr account. Or, should you prefer using Windows Live Photo Gallery, you can upload your pictures to Flickr as well.
And then there’s iWeb
I’ve checked out iWeb on the Mac. It’s a cute program that gives you quite a few pre-built templates for various needs for beginners or those not interested in Web site creation. Honestly, it’s easier if you go to WordPress.com (where this blog is hosted) or Blogger.com and create a blog for your basic web needs. You can use your blog as your web page, kind of a “Grand Central You” for your content creation and social media needs.
From your blog page you can link to your Flickr account, YouTube account, upload your podcasts, etc. This serves as a better replacement for your probable web content needs than iWeb. And should you need a Web page presence, you can always check out the templates at Open Source Web Design.
What about help?
One of the things I like about Sony’s content creation software is that at startup you can allow the “Show Me How” menu of tutorials to pop up, in case you have any questions or want to learn more about what you can do with the software.
These tutorials will take you step-by-step through how to do each of the tasks, with a window going from one part of the screen to the next, highlighting each task and showing you exactly where to click and what to do next. The lessons are quick to follow, not taking more than a few minutes each. I’ve found them invaluable when working with the software.
All in All?
For the price, anywhere from $150-$200 depending on the current discount available at Dell.com, the Imagination Studio Suite fares very favorably when compared to Apple’s iLife suite. Having used both (I have a Mac laptop at work) I find that I actually prefer using Sony’s software. That might be because I’m more used to a Windows set up. This suite of programs give you all but one of the options of iLife, and as I’ve pointed out here, you don’t really need iWeb.
For years PC users have heard Mac users talk about iLife and how there’s nothing on the PC side that can compare with it and how beautifully integrated the programs are, and how iLife is one major reason for people to switch to Mac from PC. There’s a little bit of arrogance behind those statements, but for a while it was hard to locate a simple suite of programs that worked together in an integrated fashion for the PC side. These programs were available separately from Sony Creative Software, but individually they would have cost more than the suite.
If you’re a fledgling podcaster, or YouTuber, or movie maker – or even not so fledgling – you’ll find these programs useful to your endeavors, for the price. It’s the first step before you move on to either the Adobe Production Premium Creative Suite (another set of programs I really recommend when you want to take the next step to more professional tools) or Sony’s professional level tools – Vegas, Sound Forge and ACID Pro (which I haven’t tried).
Rating: 5 rugby balls out of 5.
You think you've got me figured out?
Well, now it’s time for something completely different.
The active and play-ful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.
The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.
Feh. Take that Slayn.
HT: Andrew Sullivan
