Captivating Connections.

bring on the tablets!!

The magazine industry is preparing for war when it comes to tablets.

"After letting the Internet slip away from them and watching electronic readers like the Kindle from Amazon develop without their input, publishers are trying again with Apple iPhones and, especially, tablet computers.

Although publishers have not exactly been on the cutting edge of technology, two magazines — Esquire and GQ — have developed iPhone versions, while Wired and Sports Illustrated have made mockups of tablet versions of their print editions, months before any such tablets come to market. Publishers are using the opportunity to fix their business model, too.

'It may help them reassert some, not just control, but reassert themselves and not be in the death spiral that some were in in the last years,' said Ned May, director and lead analyst for the research firm Outsell."

what's topping your holiday list this year?

According to AdAge, this year's hot products may be the result of a lack of innovation, not just consumer funds...

"It might not just be the economy that's holding back sales this holiday season -- it's also the lack of breakout products. Industry analysts and even retailers are hard-pressed to identify any must-have items beyond an $8 toy hamster.

'There's no killer item this year. There is no XBox or item that's out of stock that everyone has to have, and typically we benefit when that happens,' John Donahoe, eBay's CEO, said at an investors' conference this week. 'There just simply ... isn't one this year. [There's] no breakout consumer electronic other than the Zhu Zhu.'

While manufacturers can shoulder some of the blame for cutting back on innovation, retailers are choosing to play it safe with items that have a proven sales track record. That means a decided lack of new fashions, electronics and toys to stir up consumer interest.

'A lot of [retailers] are more interested in living another day than knocking it out of the park,' said Patricia Edwards, a retail analyst and founder of Storehouse Partners. "'This year is about survival. Some risk-taking is OK. ... But there just isn't room for error this year.'"

introducing: vevo.

"In the beleaguered music industry’s latest bid to generate more money from its content, two top music labels on Tuesday will introduce Vevo, a Web site for music videos.

Vevo is co-owned by the Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and the Abu Dhabi Media Company. Vevo said Monday that it had signed up a third major music label, EMI Music, as a video provider, leaving only one holdout among the big four labels, Warner Music. Vevo said conversations with Warner were continuing.

Videos on Vevo will be hosted and streamed by YouTube, the video site owned by Google.

The site will come online in the United States and Canada on Tuesday evening.

'It will be a higher-quality experience around music and videos than anything else that’s currently out there,' Rio Caraeff, Vevo’s chief executive, said in an interview. Mr. Caraeff said the site would host 30,000 music videos by the end of the year. To underscore the exclusive nature of the Web site, Vevo will also carry original programs by artists for their fans."

could this be web tv's year?

Is this the year web tv makes its breakthrough?

"Big TV manufacturers including Sony, Samsung, LG, Panasonic and Vizio say that they're poised to revolutionize television this Christmas shopping season: They're about to launch the first major marketing push for a new generation of sets that can easily integrate Web content with traditional TV news and entertainment — without the fuss of connecting the TV to a set-top box.

'When we all open up the newspapers on Jan. 1, and they talk about the hot items from the holiday selling season, Internet-connected TVs are going to be at the top of the list,' says Randy Waynick, senior vice president at Sony's Consumer Group.

The campaign could be risky. Consumers may balk if TV sets become too computerlike and complicated. Manufacturers are in a race with cable companies and gadget providers — including makers of DVRs, Blu-ray players and game machines — who offer alternative ways to blend the Internet with TV.

But the new versions of Web TVs will soon become the norm in consumer electronics stores. In 2014, consumers in North America will buy 45 million of these sets, representing 69% of all TV sales, ABI Research says. That's up from 6 million and 14% of sales in 2009.

As they catch on, television will become 'a completely new ballgame,' says Matthew McRae, general manager of advanced technology products at Vizio. Software developers will flock to the new platform, making Web TVs 'the next area of innovation' following computers and cellphones, he says."

top 50 inventions of 2009.

Time has published their list of 'The Best 50 Inventions Of 2009, including tweeting by thinking, the tank-bred tuna and controller-free gaming.

This they missed any?

what does the future hold for a post-dvd world?

"While DVD and Blu-ray will remain a huge profit center for years to come, studio executives are finally confronting an uncomfortable reality: little silver discs — for reasons of convenience, price and consumer burnout — may never recover their sales power. To grow, studios need to figure out digital distribution."

So, what are some companies doing?

"Disney announced last week that it had developed a system to track digital ownership, so people won’t have to buy the same movie or television show multiple times for different devices. But that’s just the latest, most likely not the last, approach.

'I expect these guys to try many different ways to figure out an endgame to digital entertainment,' said Doug Creutz, a media analyst at Cowen and Company. 'In the meantime, you will find a lot of false starts.'"

The problem is, "everyone is trying to solve one problem: consumers, the industry believes, will be reluctant to open their wallets for digital movies and TV shows until they get more portability and can watch the same content on several devices. Studios want to make consumers collect digital entertainment the way they would DVDs or books."

However, "standing in the way are technology hurdles — how to let consumers play a video on various devices without letting them share it with 10,000 close friends on a pirate site — and the reluctance of studios to cooperate too closely with rivals for reasons of antitrust scrutiny and sheer competitiveness."

It'll be interesting to see where the market goes over the next few years (or even few months!)

B&N joins the e-reader fray.

"Barnes & Noble which has long left open the possibility of introducing its own electronic reader, is expected to unveil on Tuesday at a news conference in Manhattan what it is calling the Nook.

The device features color touch-screen controls and a gray-and-white reading display. It will cost $259, matching Amazon.com's most recent price cut for its latest edition of the Kindle.

According to an advertisement that Barnes & Noble placed in the Oct. 25 issue of The New York Times Book Review and which was distributed to publishers on Monday, the Nook will permit readers to lend their digital books to friends and download books wirelessly.

know your purpose.

Some wise words for marketers from P&G:

"Procter & Gamble's mantra, 'The consumer is boss,' has become a part of the fabric of marketing. But there's another related concept that is also critical to the company's successful record of innovation, according to P&G group president, North America Melanie L. Healey.

'You need to be purpose-driven. You need to know what it is that you really want to do for the consumer,' she told attendees at last week's Magazine Innovation Summit in New York, the Magazine Publishers Association's new format for its annual conference.

'Having a purpose for the brand and going after it in several different ways is really important' because it inspires passion in the team, she said, 'and that, in turn, brings in creativity.'

In P&G's feminine care division, for instance, one key purpose defined is to 'create life-improving experiences that women live every day, everywhere,' Healey said.

The mission provides discipline, as well as creative momentum. 'It inspires everything we do. If something doesn't serve that purpose, we don't do it,' she summed up."

feel motivated (or like a total slacker).

Looking for some inspiration?

Check out TechCrunch's list of 'Ten Teen Entrepreneurs To Watch', including Ashley Qualls (WhateverLife) and Patrick DeVivo (Youth Bloggers Network).

Thanks, Kimberly, for sending this!

index your happiness.

How cool is this??

Facebook has used research and status updates to create a Global Happiness Index...

"The index is an attempt to say something profound based on the reports of daily life that Facebook users impose on — um, share with — their friends.

The idea, one that is generally accepted in social psychology, is that word choice can reveal a person’s mood. This is true in ordinary writing, these experts say, and even more so in writing like Facebook updates or the tweets of Twitter users, which ostensibly are attempts to describe what you are doing right now and how you feel. (While tweets limn the psyche in 140-character installments, Facebook updates are downright Augustinian, with some running as long as 420 characters.)

'When people in their status updates use more positive words — or fewer negative words — then that day as a whole is counted as happier than usual,' the creator of the index, Adam D. I. Kramer, explained in a Facebook blog post unveiling the project, where he also said that he was 72 percent happier than the average Facebook user."