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I stopped by NBC's Studio 8h, historic home of Saturday Night Live, for Kodak's Press Event announcing their new line of EasyShare Printers. To get the formalities out of the way, Kodak will debut three EasyShare printers—available exclusively at Best Buy for three months beginning in March--starting at $149.99. The printers themselves are pretty ably equipped with one touch synchronization, Bluetooth, built-in scanning and faxing and host of other features, but the real draw will likely be the cost of ink. In addition to the printers, Kodak will offer inexpensive ink packages capable of producing hundreds of lab quality or better photos starting at $9.99.

To deliver all this news Kodak, showing at least some measure of Internet savvy, developed a viral ad campaign called inkisit where two sycophantic boobs gush over Kodak CEO and Chairman Antonio Perez. The viral ad itself was shot in the wrapper of a Saturday Night Live broadcast, undoubtedly to replicate the viral success of Lazy Sunday. Joining in the festivities were SNL Alumnus Molly Shannon and musical guest The Nerds, a Weezer/Buddy Holly-esque cover band.

On it's face, the Kodak event was an over-elaborate power-point presentation meant to generate buzz over the fortune spent on production. More significantly, however, the event represented the lustful eye that corporations have cast on the viral phenomenon. The idea of millions of eyes focused on a silly two-minute clip is enough to make marketers cream themselves. Thankfully, no one marketing team has figured out how to duplicate the phenomenon and hopefully no one ever will. The public consciousness is far too fickle to track and pinpoint and so we likely will never see multiple viral videos from the same source. Then again people still watch the Real World, so what the fuck do I know.

Anyways, the main thrust of the skit--illustrated by posters with taglines like "revolutionary," "inexpensive" and "empower the consumer"— was that printing companies have been gouging customers with costly ink cartridges for years despite inexpensive printers. As Mrs. Shannon so eloquently put it, "The printers are often stacked in a pile while the ink is locked up tight." And she's right, ink has been ridiculously expensive since time immemorial. What's changed, said Perez, is that the computer chip typically found on each ink cartridge has been integrated into the new EasyShare printers, effectively allowing Kodak to offer ink that is cheaper by half. Wow, and it only took them twenty years. The mind reels.


Now following this example, if consumers have been getting hosed by ink costs for years is half-off really the best Kodak can do? Even more dubious is Kodak's exclusivity deal with Best Buy. Despite claims of Empowering the Consumer™, Kodak and Best Buy have effectively diminished the consumer's buying power by disallowing competition. I brought up this point to Best Buy's Senior Vice President (and Molly Shannon's costar for the morning) Dave Morrish who offered a lukewarm response: since Best Buy has made a tremendous mark in retail electronics the product will achieve greater visibility through their exclusive deal. Sounds to me like they're empowering themselves, not the consumer.

As good as the printer was, and it really was impressive, and as cheap as the ink seems, after years of being hosed by inflated ink prices half price just seems like a gimmick designed sell new printers. Personally, I'm going to hold out for a rebate for all those ink cartridges I went through in college and a personalized letter of apology from Antonio Perez.

Naturally, I won' be holding my breath.

The aforementioned sycophantic boobs:


Musical Guest The Nerds who probably make way too much money doing corporate gigs:
NEEEEERDS!

BURN IN HELL

I got the AverMedia AverTV Express MCE with the express purpose of skirting pay services like TiVO using a quick makeshift DVR. Didn't turn out that way, as you can imagine. Not because the idea wasn't sound but the card just wasn't up to the task. Of the few DVR software suites I tried, Yahoo! Go-TV, GB-TV, BeyondTV and SageTV, only BeyondTV—which costs about $100 after the 21-day trial-- recognized the card.

The MCE is your basic notebook TV tuner card without the zazz. Piping in your analog coaxial cable, composite RCA inputs or S-video is easy and reliable; I noticed very few screen artifacts and installation was a snap. The unit comes with a remote to control volume, switch channels, toggle full screen display as well as pause, fast-forward and rewind live television. There's even a built in FM tuner, albeit you have to attach a ridiculously antiquated antenna (included). Picture-in-picture and picture-out-of- picture functions work satisfactorily. Recording live TV is also possible although the pack-in suite doesn't retrieve channel or programming information.

No Linux or Mac support is a drag since I've heard nothing but great things about MythTV. Gaming is impossible due to input buffering (it causes a screen delay) so the only way around this is third-party apps like Dscaler, which seem more hassle than they are worth.

If you're looking for a quick and dirty way to watch analog cable on your laptop then the AverMedia AverTV Express MCE is a solid choice, but a DVR it does not make.

With a little help from OhGizmo.com, I spotted these Nike HatPhones which look pretty neat considering I lost a pinkie toe to frostbite this morning. These badboys sport headphones within the fabric and a fully-functional nano-click wheel for your iPod.

Honestly, good on these guys for making fun of the Orwellian state we live in. How about people do a little research before yelling, "it's a bomb!"

In case you didn't know, The Mooninites have invaded Boston. You honestly have to wonder at the intent of the [adult swim] guerilla marketers--Despite claims that they "didn't think it would cause a stir," in less than eighteen hours every news outlet in the country is talking about "The Aqua Teen Hunger Force." I'm personally a little bummed out that I didn't spot one of the light bright like devices myself, to snag for my apartment. The lone alien that did manage to get out of boston unscathed has turned up on ebay fetching more than five thousand dollars.

Not only has this stunt generated an incredible buzz around the upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie but there's now an incredible demand for the marketing tools themselves. [adult swim] would be mad not to license the design for retail. I know I'll be picking one up as soon as the otherworldly rascals beam into my local Target. Hell, I'd bet serious amounts of money that there's a small asian child working his little fingers to the bone to this end, right at this very moment.

I'll definitely be keeping an eye out on Shop Wiki and I'll let you know if and when they go on sale.

Google's pet project Google Books aims to scan, catalogue and make searchable millions of books from universities, libraries and publishers, despite hitting a bit of a snag. You would assume that all this talk of electronic books would stimulate interest in E-readers if for no other reason than to carry the complete Shakespeare in your bag sans hernia. E-readers have never caught on because of price, which puts most readers at $250 or more; obsolescence, most Smartphones, PDAs and laptops can do everything an E-reader can do, only better; and culture itself: Reading, in the traditional sense, seems to be dying out. No one has time to devour an eight-hundred pager these days, unless, of course, they're being graded on it, and even then there are single serving packets of information like Cliff's notes available on the web.

So what about the meatier works that deserve more than a train ride or a lunch break to take in; ones meant to be read at a fireplace, in a log cabin nestled in a secluded wood, with a storm raging outside?—sorry, that's the writer in me talking, but you get the idea.

Would we see a surge in interest for classic literature if suddenly Google Books' legal slate were wiped clean and electronic ink were a reality? I think so. If I could flip open a smallish notepad and treat myself to Hemingway's complete oeuvre then why the hell wouldn't I? I'd be all over that shit. Right now there are few Electronic Ink Readers, The Sony PRS-500 comes to mind, but the technology still has a ways to go in terms of affordability and market penetration.

For now short of shelling out big bucks for the Sony Reader we'll just have to endure the eyesore of LCD screens. There are, however, plenty of content resources and retailers like Google Books, ibooks and other ebook retailers. I'll definately be keeping a lazy-eye out, though.

Also, If you're really down with electronic books then help us out with our ebook reader wiki.

vis·ta
n.
1.
a. A distant view or prospect, especially one seen through an opening, as between rows of buildings or trees.
b. An avenue or other passage affording such a view.
2. An awareness of a range of time, events, or subjects; a broad mental view:



Microsoft launches their long awaited (five years) Vista operating system, today. In a move that ostensibly tries to subvert the recent Mac vs. PC ads with that kid from Dodgeball and a Bill Gates doppleganger, Microsoft's Chairman talked with John Stewart on the Daily Show, last night. I watched the appearance and honestly I haven't been this perplexed since spotting a Windows 95 tutorial video starring Jennifer Aniston a few years ago in Blockbuster. The show amounted to a non-appearance because--granted I've been rather indifferent to the upgrade since I'm hesitant to build a new rig which may not see much of an improvement anyway--to this day I have no idea what Vista has to offer besides connection to other media devices –which I can already do by various means—and more DRM. As a twenty-something and a techie (two coveted demographics in one!) Microsoft just hasn't reached me and the Daily Show appearance reinforces that.



During the interview, Gates looked sort of giddy, like when the cool kids ask the nerdy guy to sit with them at lunch (and subsequently pelt him with lunchmeat), which actually makes perfect sense when you think about it: in a movie based largely on his life, Pirates of Silicon Valley, the casting director basically told Bill Gates that he is such a hapless nerd that the only thespian equipped to pull off the role is Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club veteran and perennial geek archetype, Anthony Michael Hall. Anthony Fucking Michael Hall. I mean, Christ, it would have been less insulting if they casted Gates as himself and wrote in a scene where he gets punched in the stomach by Ted McGuinley.



And I know I'm really digging deep here with my 'Bill Gates is a Dork' material, but under the locus of the Vista launch the issue has become very relevant. For all his faults, Steve jobs seems to have much more of a monopoly (!) than Gates on cool. I mean the dude did prank Starbucks at his Macworld keynote, which while smacking of irony—"Hey, let's prank Starbucks, the epitome of virulent corporate ubiquity, it'll totally up my street cred with cynical iPod slinging, coffee-house slackers!"—it did elicit a genuine chuckle. So what we are really seeing here is a battle of images with Microsoft playing the nerdy, by the book, corporate giant and Apple the Too Cool for School rebel that was completely indifferent to mass-appeal until chicks started noticing his iPod.



The problem is that neither of these images is real. For all their stability problems, PCs are far more versatile and offer more freedom than Macs, mainly because you can actually upgrade their components. And while Macs are stable, idiot friendly and aesthetically pleasing they are hardly the tools of the layman due to their restrictive price points ($500 for an iPhone?)



So alright, Bill Gates is a nerd that desperately craves acceptance; to be pulled out from the locker he's been stuffed in all his life, which, coincidently, not even the fortune of Microsoft can liberate him; And Steve Jobs doesn't play by the rules: We get it, Steve, you're not corporate. In fact, except for your millions of dollars, colossal ego and penchant for driving employees insane, you and I are really not that dissimilar, at all. Right.


Screw it. It's time to install Linux.