In a move that guarantees unexpected results, it was recently leaked by AT&T executives that AT&T is going to require iPhone owners to subscribe to an unlimited digital information plan. Whoa… With unlimited wireless access to the Internet, you don’t actually need a copy of a song, television program, or movie on your iPhone, you can just stream, or download it in your web browser. The “unlimited” concept opens up not only the idea of sharing your music over the Internet through streaming, but it inspires over-the-net playback. The iPhone, combined with unlimited Internet access, immediately becomes a Video iPod with storage the size and vastness of the Internet!
Digital Rights Management will effect all of us. Listen as the Fools break down what’s happening with one of the biggest controversaries in our lives regarding our music and videos, how we purchase them and the changing prices of it all. Dave and Marc will also touch upon the absence of the Concord and the new skinny behind the Spielberg/Lucas soon to go-into-production Indiana Jones 4.
Question: What does teflon, Tang and 3-D have in common? Answer: NASA.
A 3-D technology developed to help NASA astronauts practice making repairs in space is set to revolutionize the way people watch movies by 2009, when a wave of live-action 3-D movies hit theaters. Just 18 months ago, “Chicken Little,” the first modern 3-D movie, touched off a sensation among studio executives and theater chain owners who say the crisp, digital images of the new 3-D will drive profits in the next decade. The slate of 3-D films set for 2009 is led by “Titanic” director James Cameron’s “Avatar.” The technology has the backing of Walt Disney Co., which set up a 3-D studio with “Polar Express” director Robert Zemeckis this year, and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., which pledged to release all its films in 3-D in 2009. Nearly every large movie studio and many smaller ones have at least one or two 3-D titles in production, though most release dates have not been announced.
Digital 3-D, pioneered by a Beverly Hills company called Real D, still requires moviegoers to wear geeky glasses, but the left- and right-eye images are calibrated so finely that most viewers experience no headache or eyestrain.
Let’s go back to 2000, DVD is fairly new to the market, and it’s a locked down format. AH HA! DeCSS (descrambler code) comes out and defeats the protection on DVDs, and the legal war over the right to access and copy your own DVD ignites a free-speech and free-use blaze that still haunts studios and content creators today!
Flash-forward to 2007, these numbers: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 have become a new scandal! They can be used to read data from a HD-DVD and BluRay disc! Oh No! We MUST stop these numbers from escaping! They are going to destroy the world! By the way, they add up to 799 (if you know how to add in hexadecimal).
As an official beta tester for Joost, 2 Live Fools figured it was about time to actually let y’all in on what’s happening with this pretty damn cool concept, and company. So, in addition to kicking the tires on this eight-month-old upstart (with bugs still needing fixed), we made a few calls, and put together an introduction to this crazy company that we hope will be the beginning of a new way to think when it comes to watching your favorite TV programming (or even your soon-to-be-favorite TV programming). [But would it be ‘TV’ programming if it’s on the computer? I wonder. How about ‘TechVision’?]
First of all, what is Joost you may ask? Joost is a descendant from a long line of animals that have inherited the Earth. He comes from the species Google-opolis, and the ever popular Amazonian-Yahoo! Actually, its one of the first real Internet television service that is destined to be the next major competitor to cable TV, but with only one slight difference–it’s free. Well, sort of. Nothing is really free as we all know, but these guys at least are getting their advertisers to pay for everything and have just announced this week as having lined up several blue-chip ad-placers, including United Airlines, Coca Cola, Taco Bell, Microsoft, Sony Electronics, Intel, Hewlit Packard, Lions Gate Entertainment, General Motors and Unilever, as it prepares for its debut.
Is Joost the next best thing since the internet? (no, that’s digital paper) but it is a great beginning…
A 2 Live Fools Exclusive and Video Podcast Premiere! By popular demand, the Fools present an on-screen comparison of the American Idol duet with the old ‘68 footage of Elvis’ comeback performance of “If I Could Dream.” Here is a 16:9 widescreen version (download iPod version below) with the Fools’ commentary explaining how American Idol pulled this video trick off. You’ll learn all the secrets. And, by the way, it was NOT blue screen.
This week the Fools dive into the controversy and HOT topic of Digital Rights Management (DRM) and how it will effect your life. There’s LOTS to say about it, but NO ONE has given you the exclusive breakdown the way the Fools do! They will lay out a little history of DRM and if you’ve ever owned a VCR, you’ll relate! Also, the Fools will chop it up on the question–Does the media have the right to disclose personal information about us because some news writer thinks it’s news? And the Fools will look at love–Alec Baldwin style! Don’t miss this show.
Spider-Man 3 is on sale for $1 on the streets of Beijing. What’s worse? I bet it will be all over the world via internet by the end of the day.
Professionally I always get nervous and upset when I hear news like this. Chinese pirates beat Spider-Man to the punch. In todays world, the success of a film is in its opening weekend, and word of mouth can kill it as quickly as it opens.
That’s one of the biggest reasons that the number of reviews prior to release has decreased, and studios work to build anticipation while insuring that there is NO chance that you won’t be able to see the film opening weekend if you so desire. 1200 screen openings are not unique for a popular film.
While the Producers have claimed that it isn’t the final version, October’s release of ‘Highlander: The Source’ has already hit the internet in a widescreen stereo version.
In the near future, we’re going to do an entire Podcast devoted to this subject, and the importance of a carefully planned and executed motion picture marketing plan.
Until then, don’t watch an advance copy of an upcoming movie… wait and go see it the way it’s intended, in it’s uncut or director’s cut DVD… err… in the theater!
UPDATED: Sony says China pirated Spider-Man DVDs are fakes. While it is possible that all of the bootleg discs are actually Spider-Man 2, it wouldn’t be abnormal for Sony to make this claim to stop people for looking for their own copy. If we get confirmation that Spider-Man 3 has been leaked, we’ll let you know.
We, the Fools, caught up with our friends over at Marvel Comics and they gave us a glimpse at what $40 bucks can buy your kid when all imagination fails. “I Am the Amazing Spider-Man,” available for $39.95 through PixFusion’s Kideo brand Web site (www.kideo.com), joins other current titles Dora the Explorer, Care Bears, Baby Genius and Arthur. We’re not sure whatever happened to “let’s pretend to be…” adventures many of us, out of necessity, invented as a young child, but a nice spoon feeding may be just what it takes to spark some activity in the ‘ol right lobe.
PixFusion takes a child’s color photo sent by e-mail or via regular mail and transforms it into a 25-minute action-packed adventure based on “Spider-Man ” and starring the featured child as the “web-slinger” himself, battling many of the legendary Spider-Man™ villains such as Electro and Lizard. The customized DVD also contains exciting bonus features, including educational content and a music video set to the classic theme song from the 1960s animated cartoon with the child swinging into action “Spidey Style.”
“With all of the attention on Spider-Man, we will be able to provide children and fans the unique opportunity to watch themselves star as Spider-Man,” said Marc E. Jaffe, PixFusion CEO. “Every Spider-Man fan has dreamt of being the web-slinger, and our video allows that transformation to happen.
Well, God bless you Marc Jaffe, for being our very own radio-active spider! Who needs imagination? You’ve given us what we’ve been waiting for now for over 40 years. We owe you big.
Yesterday at NAB in Las Vegas, Apple announced its new video editing suite, Final Cut Studio 2. As always, the new package of software is a bundle of upgraded previous software that makes life even easier if you are a professional video editor… or amature video editor with extra cash. On one hand, Apple has been bringing great tools to the entertainment world for years, on the other hand, film festival submissions are up by thousands every year with the same number of submissions accepted (In 2007, Sundace received over 6,000 and accepted only 48 films). Outside of the professional world, this clearly indicates that Apple has instilled confidence in just about every Tom, Dick and Jane who at one point in their lives wanted to “get into movies.” Steve Jobs has enabled our creative souls, and yes, a whole lot of movies are being made that will never see the light of day and shouldn’t. This sparks a new conversation that us career content providers in Hollywood have been kibitzing about for years.
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