iTunes Ping

Quick post: my iTunes Ping link.

YouTube and Profit Models

There is speculation that YouTube may post a profit for the first time this year. I think I know how they are doing it, without having to resort to any sort of analytics or research: they do it by showing a 30 second commercial in front of a 10 second video. Now, I don’t mind the idea of YouTube showing ads. What irks me is the length of the ad is frequently longer then the video I’m about to watch. Just show ads that are shorter then the video being requested – and I’d guess since most videos are longer than 30 seconds, this wouldn’t be a problem.

Apple TV

I have to disagree with John Sircusa on the new AppleTV – I think it is a device that fits my needs perfectly right now, apart from one small flaw. It probably fits a lot of other people’s media needs as well. Right now, I have a laptop hooked up to our television. We use a web browser to get to Netflix, we use iTunes to listen to music and podcasts, and we use VLC or XBMC (depending on our mood) to watch movies and TV shows we’ve ripped from our DVD collection, and finally we use DVD player to watch the Netflix discs that come in the mail.

The AppleTV solves all those use cases, other than the DVDs that come in the mail, and puts a simple remote in our hands. I’m honestly not sure what we’ll do with the physical disks once I get an AppleTV (which, at some point, I will), but everything else gets easy. And it’s not a laptop or a Mac Mini or a linux box to patch, update or mess with. It’s really a device. And it’s small, and it’s quiet. So it gets the wife’s nod of approval.

I think Apple could have a real winner on their hands.

Labor Day Weekend

It’s nice to have a long weekend coming up – and it’s almost as nice to have a half empty office tomorrow. Lots of my coworkers will be on vacation early, which hopefully means that I can get more done with less distractions. We’ll see.

Its also nice to think that there will be more hours in the day this weekend to take pictures, play with the boy and see friends. Of course, assuming that Earl doesn’t rain us out.

Wait, what?