Me, Myself & Media.

At the keynote speech yesterday, Apple unveiled one of their newest additions to the iProduct category - iAd. As Steve Jobs continues his global domination strategy, he moves into one space he had yet to pioneer until recently, advertising. During the presentation, Jobs described the new advertising network, which will help app developers create higher quality, engaging advertisements that allow users to click on the ad without having to leave the app, since it is played on the OS itself. Jobs also mentioned that the average iPhone user spends 30 minutes a day on their iPhone applications -- which is an incredible amount of time for an average. Although I love to play Words with Friends, I definitely do not spend 30 minutes a day doing so. I would love to see how long the average consumer spends making dinner, because it is probably more like 3 minutes in the microwave -- just sayin'.


The new iAd platform will have the capability to serve over 1 billion ad impressions per day, which like Steve Jobs said, is "an incredible demographic." Apple's foray into advertising will allow developers to get 60% of the revenue from the ads within their applications. This figure seems reasonable enough, but I guess I feel that they should get more like 75% of the money, but I am sure that there is a "reasonable" explanation for the cut.


The iAd was announced in conjunction with the revealing of the iPhone OS 4, which is being positioned as the PSN or Xbox Live of the iPhone community. This operating system will allow gamers to tap into a centralized network where gamers can play against each other -- very interactive, which makes sense, given that the top downloaded apps are games, and that the most successful games had been those which you can play with other iPhone users. It looks like my iPhone Original 1.0 will need to be updated soon, not only because I will now be 3 models behind, but also because of the number of people that send me picture messages that I never get due to the lack of that functionality. Why the iPhone did not always have this feature from the get-go, I will never understand.


MacBooks, iPads, iMacs, iPhones, iTunes, iPods, and now iAd. My prediction for the future? Say hello to Steve Jobs and goodbye to Obama - Apple is going to take over the world. 

During my workout this morning, I watched the most recent episode of "Modern Family" and was pretty surprised when the opening scene revolved around Phil Dunphy, one of the show's main characters, requesting none other than an iPad for his birthday. The rest of the show developed into a big plot to get Phil this coveted new gadget for his birthday, starting with his wife's sleeping in and getting to the Apple store too late to catch one of the first shipments. Normally there are a few different, evenly weighed plot lines going on; however, this week the focus really on the quest for the iPad. The show climaxed when Phil finally gets the iPad into his hands, and all of the characters are standing around "ooh"ing and "ahh"ing at the majestic nature of Apple's newest device. All riled up, Phil declares, "Touch it! But don't touch it!!"


The iPad wasn't just "placed" into this episode of "Modern Family" -- it was truly an iPad commercial. Phil even went so far as to say, "It's like Steve Jobs and God got together to say, 'We love you, Phil.'"


Wow. I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing. Half of me wants to say "Touché Apple" and the other half is a little repulsed by how desperate the entire show seemed. If I found out that Apple had NOTHING to do with the show, then maybe I would think it was more humorous. After all, most "modern families" probably have THAT person who is dying to get their hands on the iPad.


All in all, I still love "Modern Family" and I still want an iPad, so no harm done. But maybe a little more subtlety next time, please?

Magazine industry execs met today to discuss the future of this dying segment of print publication, given the advent of the iPad and other e-readers. While only a small handful of magazines latched onto Amazon's Kindle, the biggest electronic reader to date, the new color feature of Apple's iPad has magazine corporations signing up to deliver their content on the newest gadget.


One of the biggest concerns with charging users to receive a magazine subscription to their eReader is that the content that is currently available on the magazine's website for free is too similar to the information in the print issue. If consumers who are already using the website as their dominant means of accessing information, it is unlikely that they will pay a subscription fee to receive the issue to their eReader if they do not think that there is a substantial difference in the free and paid versions.


Given that it is my spring break, I have finally gotten around to reading for pleasure again, not just for my Finance or Ethics class. I just recently started to follow my favorite author, Karen Kingsbury, on Twitter, and two nights ago she sent out a tweet that said her book "Take One", which I've been dying to read for ages, was available for free on the Kindle. Both of my parents have Kindles, so I instantly went to the Kindle store and downloaded the book. It was incredible -- so fast and so easy (and SO free!). I have nearly finished the entire book, and I have absolutely loved reading on the Kindle. I've played around with it before, but never read a book. I will be the first to admit that I was a naysayer when eReaders were first introduced to the market, but now I'm sold. I am pretty excited about getting to hold an iPad in my hands, and I really think that I would be easily persuaded into buying magazines on this new, colorful reading device. I'm not sure how proud I should be to admit this, but People Magazine is my absolute favorite magazine of all time, and I currently read the print version, use the iPhone app, and scour the website if I have a free moment. Since I am about to graduate, and with a job in consulting will be traveling quite a bit, I plan on buying a Kindle or an iPad to keep with me in my journeys. I think that reading magazines on one of these eReaders will be very enjoyable. This is one of the future pieces of technology and changes in the industry that I am openly embracing.

After Apple’s reveal of the newest piece gadget -- dubbed the iPad -- many tech savvy bloggers have been blasting off messages of excitement, anticipation and feeling of awe at Apple’s ability to continually produce products that further the boundaries of modern gadgetry. However, there has been a large amount of criticism and disappointment from the tech community about features that are missing from the iPad, one of which being Flash software.

At first, I felt like people were overreacting about their dismay at the lack of Flash, but after thinking about it, I do find it strange that a product which Apple is touting as the ultimate personal entertainment device would be missing a software which enables most advertisements, websites and online TV shows to run. In an article on MediaWeek.com, Mike Shields points out that without Flash, the increasingly popular alternative TV venue Hulu.com will be unavailable. According to Shields, “Hulu, which reached 43.7 million unique users in November, streamed a record 924 million videos”. These numbers are staggering -- and I must admit, I am one of those unique users. Do not get me wrong, I am an avid iTunes downloader, mainly thanks to my parents generosity in giving me a monthly iTunes allowance.

However, as my hard drive filled up and my laptop began to move slower, I decided to try Hulu.com, so that I would not have to buy Ugly Betty and House episodes and have them take up so much space. Before using this site, I was morally against it -- thinking that it was furthering the death of commercials. However, after watching an episode of Ugly Betty and being interrupted four times throughout the show to watch ads (which you are unable to forward through), I realized that Hulu was even better than TiVoing for advertisers. After a couple of episodes of the show, I could recite to you the NyQuil spot in my dreams -- and this is an advertisers greatest wish.

So while I am still very excited to get to play with an iPad when it finally arrives at Apple stores, I may perhaps hold off from buying one until iPad numero dos comes to the market, hopefully with the addition of Flash software. Still an owner of the original iPhone, I am reminded that patience is a virtue with Apple’s techie gadgets every time that my little sister quips out her iPhone 3GS and whizs about Safari at a speed unknown to my seemingly decrepit cellular device.