Creative Speak

Sony’s been getting a bum rap from people lately, including most recently Gizmodo and SFGate’s own Jeff Yang, who write about the electronics giant losing its way.

But the company is reportedly preparing to up its game in the important mobile space, where it will try to match some of the advances of rival Apple.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sony is working on a portable device that combines a netbook, an e-reader and a PlayStation Portable. Sony is also working on a new smart phone that will be able to download older PlayStation games, potentially bringing to life a long rumored PlayStation phone.

The devices are expected to be out this year, though pricing and availability are unknown.

Sony has a long history of developing portable products going back to its Walkman. But its latest devices have been regularly outperformed by rivals.

The iPhone is much more popular than phones from Sony Ericsson. The Nintendo DS has outsold the PlayStation Portable 2-1 while the iPod Touch and iPhone are also creating a lot of competition in portable gaming. The Kindle has outsold the Sony’s Reader and the iPad threatens to do so as well.

Mobile is shaping up to be a huge battlefield. Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs recently boasted about Apple being the biggest manufacturer of mobile devices. This is where the heat is at these days and Sony knows it.

So what do you think? Does Sony have the chops to compete in mobile?

-Ryan Kim

Brennon Slattery

Now that the mania of Apple’s iPad (such a bad name) announcement has begun to calm and people are checking bank accounts instead of RSS feeds for more information, big-name critics are pulling out their swords and taking swings at Apple’s latest creation. The overall reaction has been, in a word, underwhelming. What was hotly anticipated has mostly turned into cold soup. So what happened and what is being said?

There is, without a doubt, much disappointment surrounding the iPad. Bloggers curb-stomped it for its shortcomings:

No multitasking
No Adobe Flash (yet)
No camera or iChat capabilities
No HDMI port
4:3 aspect ratio
Still dependent on AT&T’s 3G service
Dependence on adapters
… and the list goes on.

What I found interesting is that the “big-name” critics took a more compassionate view of the iPad. David Pogue from the New York Times outlined three phases of “the standard Apple new-category roll-out,” starting with feverish speculation and hype, then hands-off negativity, then release-date positivity. Pogue urged caution from the knee-jerk types: “it’s too early to draw any conclusions.” Furthermore, he writes, “as we enter Phase 2, remember how silly you all looked when you all predicted the iPhone’s demise in that period before it went on sale.”

Om Malik had a positive take on the iPad over at Gigaom. He loved the single button, landscape and portrait modes, Web browsing experience, Maps, and the ability to “plow through” e-mails. Still, a hint of wariness came at the end of Malik’s brief first impression when he said, “If I didn’t own a Kindle or an iPod touch, the decision to buy an iPad would be an easy one. But I own both, and even if I only owned one of them, it would be a tough decision.”

Who better to weigh in on the iPad than Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak? In this video, Wozniak commented on the possible future of the iPad but lamented its productivity capabilities — specifically its inability to edit movies or fiddle with music.

Tech guru Walter Mossberg approached his first impressions of the iPad evenly without making overly harsh judgments. The keyboard and the tablet’s size, in his opinion, may be the iPad’s biggest downfall. “Finally, while it’s too early for me to say without lots of testing, the size of the iPad’s virtual keyboard may be a liability. I found it almost too wide for thumb typing, and a colleague who’s a whiz at touch typing and tried it briefly found it awkward to type on. Apple is offering an auxiliary physical keyboard that docks with, and charges, the iPad. But you won’t want to lug that around.”

You might be wondering where TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington fits into this hoopla. As of this writing, Arrington hadn’t given his two cents (or two thousand dollars) to the iPad, though he’s likely writing his tome now. I’m more interested than usual about Arrington’s take given that his own tablet, the CrunchPad, went down in flames.

Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times ran down the laundry list of oft-repeated iPad shortcomings, but hinted at its hopeful possibilities. “… depending on how it’s exploited, eventually it could be much more.”

The round-up of other influential tech blogs brought the same lukewarm response I believe we should expect from what looks to be a wishy-washy on-the-fence device. Gizmodo, quite simply, hated it. In a very long, multi-person take, Engadget was kinda “meh.” ZDNet, like many, urged caution. And the editors here at PC World teetered toward the negative in multiple editorial takes.

So that’s the general take on Apple’s latest product. What’s even more appealing to me is getting the audience’s reaction. So what do you think about the iPad?

Tony Bates, Cisco: Jon Fortt’s video notebook from Jon Fortt on Vimeo.

Learn more about Cisco Show and Share here.

(Via Fortune Magazine – SEE FULL ARTICLE)

Here are some fun photos from recent productions:

Chuck at the Cisco Big Phone

The new Canon 5D camera packs a whole lot of HD video into a tiny package

Richard shoots TelePresence

Mark (right) looks on during a TelePresence Shoot

Ryan Kim, Chronicle Staff Writer

A handful of companies are betting that with high-definition TVs and broadband proliferating, the time is right to bring video conferencing to the living room.

Cisco Systems, Panasonic, LG, Skype and other companies used the Consumer Electronics Show this week to show off their vision for video calls using an HD television. The companies are poised to take what was primarily a PC experience to a more comfortable environment for communication.

It also represents the further maturation of the TV beyond a passive display for broadcasting and video content. With Internet connectivity coming to the TV directly or through other devices, the living room display is taking on new Internet apps and giving consumers much more interactivity.

Cisco said it will be conducting a trial of a new home TelePresence product with Verizon this spring that will allow users to conduct HD video calls over a broadband connection. Cisco CEO John Chambers said the timing is ripe now for video conferencing in the living room. He said one-third of U.S. homes have the necessary broadband connections and half the homes have high-definition televisions.

Chambers demonstrated the service at CES in Las Vegas, calling his wife in the Bay Area and chatting with doctors for a check-up. He said the service could also allow people to work from home and provide services on demand to customers.

“This will change everything,” Chambers said. “It has huge impact on the environment, has huge impact in terms of our ability to get education and health care, to generate our own content and entertainment.”

LG and Panasonic said they will be teaming with Skype to put Skype’s free software on upcoming televisions this year. The two manufacturers also will sell cameras with microphones that will bring 720p high-definition video calls via a broadband connection.

Josh Silverman, CEO of Skype, said a third of Skype’s calls are already conducted over video. He said it’s proven very popular with uniting friends and family spread over long distances.

“But the most natural place to have this experience is the family room,” he said. “It becomes as easy to make a video call as a push of the button.”

IBM and Polycom also showed off a home teleconferencing set-up at CES as did LifeSize, a company that was recently purchased by Logitech. Prices on most of the systems have not been announced.

Van Baker, an analyst with Gartner, said home video conferencing brings a very rich and visual experience to the home. But it still faces challenges with Internet service providers, who may worry about video calls clogging their networks.

“It’s a very compelling experience but it takes a whole lot of bandwidth,” said Baker. “The question is how do you bring that down.”

Other questions surrounding video conferencing in the home is the price of the solutions and how much people want to conduct video calls for everyday communications.

Here’s a cool new ad for Google Chrome created by BBH in New York City. (via Gizmodo)

(Full Production Credits)

By ASHLEE VANCE
Published: December 3, 2009
SAN JOSE, Calif.

One of the films on YouTube for the Flip video recorder is of four friends singing about burgers.

The singer Lenny Kravitz brushing his teeth in a film on YouTube for the Flip video recorder.

A child trying to eat spaghetti in a YouTube film for the Flip video recorder.

A question at the end of a YouTube film for the Flip recorder. TV ads for Flip close with the Cisco logo.
AS the company that makes the plumbing of the Internet, Cisco Systems rakes in the cash, but it is hardly a top technology brand among consumers, in the way of Apple or Microsoft.

While it specializes in corporate equipment, Cisco does, in fact, sell some consumer gear. The problem is that Cisco’s efforts to hawk such products have been lackluster. (Ever heard of Cisco’s home stereos? Exactly.)

But with its acquisition in March of Pure Digital, the tiny manufacturer of Flip video cameras, Cisco is finally getting serious about its consumer marketing efforts.

Read more…

By Adam Lashinsky, editor at large

(Fortune magazine) — How’s this for a gripping corporate story line: Youthful founder gets booted from his company in the 1980s, returns in the 1990s, and in the following decade survives two brushes with death, one securities-law scandal, an also-ran product lineup, and his own often unpleasant demeanor to become the dominant personality in four distinct industries, a billionaire many times over, and CEO of the most valuable company in Silicon Valley.

Sound too far-fetched to be true? Perhaps. Yet it happens to be the real-life story of Steve Jobs and his outsize impact on everything he touches.

The past decade in business belongs to Jobs. What makes that simple statement even more remarkable is that barely a year ago it seemed likely that any review of his accomplishments would be valedictory. But by deeds and accounts, Jobs is back.

It’s as if his signature “one more thing” line now applies to him as well. After a six-month leave of absence in the early part of this year, during which he received a liver transplant, he is once again commanding a 34,000-strong corporate army that is as powerful, awe-inspiring, creative, secretive, bullying, arrogant — and yes, profitable — as at any time since he and his chum Steve Wozniak founded Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) in 1976.

Superlatives have attached themselves to Jobs since he was a young man. Now that he’s 54, merely listing his achievements is sufficient explanation of why he’s Fortune’s CEO of the Decade (though the superlatives continue). In the past 10 years alone he has radically and lucratively reordered three markets — music, movies, and mobile telephones — and his impact on his original industry, computing, has only grown.

Remaking any one business is a career-defining achievement; four is unheard-of. Think about that for a moment. Henry Ford altered the course of the nascent auto industry. PanAm’s Juan Trippe invented the global airline. Conrad Hilton internationalized American hospitality.

In all instances, and many more like them, these entrepreneurs turned captains of industry defined a single market that had previously not been dominated by anyone. The industries that Jobs has turned topsy-turvy already existed when he focused on them.

He is the rare businessman with legitimate worldwide celebrity. (His quirks and predilections are such common knowledge that they were knowingly parodied on an episode of “The Simpsons.”) He pals around with U2’s Bono.
Read more…

Matt Hamblen, Computerworld

Cisco Systems Inc. massively expanded its portfolio of collaboration technologies today, announcing 61 products, including a corporate-grade hosted e-mail system called Cisco WebEx Mail as well as a social networking application and a video system to help groups securely share video content and search capabilities.

The range of products shows Cisco’s interest in integrating and expanding new video-related technologies with more traditional collaboration tools, such as instant messaging and presence, Cisco officials said. One new tool, called the Intercompany Media Engine, focuses on allowing companies to share business-to-business communications over any IP network.

The products are designed in part to make it easier for companies to incorporate content from video and other media produced on all kinds of devices, from expensive telepresence videoconferencing systems to handheld Flip video cameras , as well as photos and recordings taken from smartphones.

Allen Cohen, vice president of enterprise solutions, said in an interview that today’s new products, and Cisco’s recent agreement to buy videoconferencing vendor Tandberg for $3 billion demonstrate that “Cisco is doubling down [its investment] on collaboration.”

Cohen said he feels Cisco “intends on doing this,” referring to a completion of the massive Tandberg purchase, despite a blog by Cisco Chief Strategy Officer Ned Hooper on Nov. 2 that suggested fiscal prudence might prevent the deal from being completed.

Yankee Group Inc. analyst Zeus Kerravala said the Tandberg deal “has to go through just because video is too important to let it fall through.” Considering the broad range of products that Cisco announced, Kerravala called Cisco’s overall investment in collaboration “huge.”

Of the 61 products, Cisco’s new WebEx Mail product will have the biggest impact, Kerravala said, because of the industrywide move into cloud computing. The e-mail system will put Cisco in a better position to compete with Microsoft for e-mail customers as e-mail moves more fully to the cloud architecture in 2012, Kerravala said.

Also important, Kerravala said, is Cisco’s new Unified Communications version 8.0, which adds support for a wide range of endpoints, including more smartphones, video and Wi-Fi-ready Cisco Unified IP phones. That software will help connect the diverse array of devices that produce video. “The value of a network is proportional to the number of nodes, and there are a lot of nodes out there but they are just not connected now,” Kerravala added.

Cisco didn’t offer pricing or shipping information for the new products.

WebEx Mail will interoperate with Microsoft Outlook and support mobile devices. Built on technology acquired from PostPath, it will allow each user a 25GB mailbox, Cohen said. It will also support firewalls and other security services.

Another new product, Cisco Show and Share, allows organizations to create and manage video, allowing recording, editing and sharing of video with the ability to add tags and comments and uploading of speech-to-text transcripts for easy video searches.

The enterprise social software application, called Enterprise Collaboration Platform, will accommodate real-time voice, instant messaging and video communications, not just documents, Cohen said.

A new search platform called Cisco Pulse will allow dynamic tagging of content as it passes through a network, giving users the ability to locate and rapidly connect with information and experts, which is seen as especially useful within multinational corporations.

Two video transcoders, the Media Experience Engine 3500 and 5600, are designed to allow content to be shared across a network to any endpoint. The 5600 will allow Cisco Telepresence devices to interoperate with videoconferencing devices from other companies.

Posted by David Kiley from BusinessWeek.com

Internet films aren’t new as branded content. But new Levi’s ads, 90-second commercials really—themed, “Uncomplicate,” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GEdkz0rojA) shows that broadband could well be the savior of advertising as a truly creative medium.
One ad, titled “World Gone Pretty,” features a GI Joe type animated character returning from war to find an overly wussified culture full of Low-carb beer, tofu and metrosexualed men getting manicures and facials. To get back to realness, he turns to a pair of 501 jeans to make him feel whole again. It’s edgy and fun. And anything that ridicules low-carb beer is okay with me. The second spot, “Dog Anxiety,” shows a little dog tearing up an apartment apparently in response to what has become an overly affected world where “Sneaks became athletic shoes,” and “meat became soy.” It’s not as amusing as “World Gone Pretty,” but still good, and I like the overall theme, which is ripe for further executions. The last scene in “Dog,” shows the little critter lifting his leg on a men’s magazine that appears to have yet another cover line about how to achieve six-pack abs. To these mags I say…”Get over it, will you. There’s more to life than working for six-pack abs.” Good show Levi’s.

McCann-Erickson’s TAG young adult marketing unit, and Chelsea Films created the films.

Neither of these spots would ever be allowed to run on broadcast TV because they’d be too expensive. I have seen stories recently in the press about the end of the 30-second ad? These ads show that the age of broadband is opening up creative people to be truly creative, not hamstrung by the 30-second formats, FCC standards and practices or a bunch of people in the room all trying to get their voice heard about what the ad should look like before it goes on the air.