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April 30, 2007
Sony is the goat
Sony has landed themselves in hot water with a stunt is a little too raw for likes of some. Poor Sony seems to have a hard time doing much right these days.
This story via the The Daily Mail in the UK.
Electronics giant Sony has sparked a major row over animal cruelty and the ethics of the computer industry by using a freshly slaughtered goat to promote a violent video game.The corpse of the decapitated animal was the centrepiece of a party to celebrate the launch of the God Of War II game for the company’s PlayStation 2 console.
Okay, having a freshly killed goat carcass laying around isn't usual event fare, but I do find it ironic that most of the people decrying the use of a dead animal for a publicity stunt are going to hit a drive-through and grab a burger on the way home.
Do they think that burger patties grow in shrink wrapped packages on trees? I would wager that this animal very likely led a better life than most of the cattle on a factory farm.
(Note: I eat an almost exclusively vegan diet myself so I'm not all into consuming animal products, in fact, quite the opposite).
I'll say this though, unless you're vegan and are walking the talk of not consuming any animal products, save the righteous indignation for another time.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 6:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What happens when the lawyers get involved in brand management
It's too bad when these kinds of voices get silenced. Rather than shutting down these kinds of activity, figured out how to work with it. It's the difference between creating online brand ambassadors vs. killing brand goodwill.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 12:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 3, 2007
No DRM from iTunes accomplishes what?
So, after Apple's announcement, I'll now be able to buy songs from iTunes without DRM.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/04/02itunes.html
To the folks that care about DRM - here you go. BUT!!! Here's why a good law-abiding citizen like myself doesn't really care:
They are available in 256 kbps instead of 128. (Great, now I can fit half as many songs on my iPod as I used to since the data rate doubled).
The improved bit rates will resulting "audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording". They said that about 128 kbps AAC files and they were right. Guess what? I can't remember the last complaint I heard about 128 kbps AAC files. And if it does make that much of a different, I'm not going to be able to hear it in the cheap earbuds that come with any iPod and certainly not over a crappy FM transmitter. If you want to appease the audiophiles, sell the files in Apple Lossless.
Now I can listen to my music on another player besides an iPod. (Ya...I'll get my iPod on Ebay later on today so I can buy a Zune. Right.)
And no more DRM even.(I'm legit. I'm buying from the store. I don't have more than 5 computers. I can do what I want with the music now.)
Bottom line is, I don't really care. DRM wasn't an inconvenience to me anyway.
But I agree it's a good PR move for Apple. But I don't expect it will make a bit of difference to the music industry. The same problems remain.
And the people that like buying from iTunes are going to keep buying the 99 cent version. And the people that steal music are going to keep stealing music.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 5:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 2, 2007
RIP Saint Back Button
On thing I'll say about this whole Web 2.0 business. The back button just doesn't do what it used to.
It's not the saviour it used to be in rescuing us from bad navigation and the occassional brief digression. But, in fairness, our dear back-button was built for a different time. A simpler time.
So, here's to you Saint Back Button, you served us well.
We'll miss you as we go boldy forward into a more asynchronous beyond.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 11:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack