Fabs Digital Blog

Ads watching you

2010-11-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

More behavioral advertising, more tracking of where you go, what you search, what you write, what you post on the web, is the internet becoming Big Brother?
Read 7 scary scenarios, all happening right now !
More @ Mashable

I like it on

2010-10-10T13:22:00.000-07:00

Simple but effective. How to have a successful presence on FB : 1. your brand is not an island, forget about getting people to your website 2. create a content plan 3. focus on the wall.
From smartblog

As they say: Cable is not dead

2010-05-17T03:39:00.000-07:00

A few interesting reports this week about the state of cable in the US. All confirming that cable is not dead and that the future of free videos on the internet is grim...
* @ the Economist: A special report on television
* @ BusinessWeek: The Revenge of the Cable Guys
* @ NYTimes: YouTube turns 5 and grows up with more and more professional content
* @ Betanews Roku adds UFC to its line-up

More on the iPad

2010-04-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

For the curious ones or the ones who have to wait:
* @ Techcrunch

Much has been said by now on the iPad. Liking it / disliking it / breaking it with a base ball bat (yes that was painful, I could not watch it.... But this is a good geeky review about how Apple is trying to double-dip on this one with a proprietary product and a proprietary ecosystem. Quite far from the open source free world...
* Read about the iParadox @ HBR

* Most popular iPad apps @ NYT

First look at the iPad potential

2010-03-23T12:09:00.000-07:00

Check out what a magazine using the potential of the iPad will look like - and how much it costs.... Kind of looks like TV!
- Read and watch the videos on VIV magazine at readwriteweb
- Read what Chris Anderson has to say about the WIRED iPad app. I wouldn't say it better than him: "we are entering a new era of media, where we finally have a digital platform that allows us to retain all the rich visual features of high-gloss print, from lavish design to glorious photography, while augmenting it with video, animations, additional content and full interactivity."
@ Wired

Location Based

2010-03-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

Just starting to unnlock the potential of Location Based Services and its marketing extensions...
- On Foursquare & Fashion @ mashable

Huggers on Future Media & technology

2010-03-18T08:07:00.000-07:00

at the Future of Media Conference. I particularly like the way his group is organized: Products, IT, R&D & Archive. Content & Technology coming together under one roof...
* Read on the BBC Blog

One more player in the Connected TV Game: Google

2010-03-18T05:05:00.000-07:00

It was already a crowded field but now it seems like Google, in partnership with Sony, Intel and perhaps Dish is working on a set-top-box platform. Other interesting fact I just learned: one day worth of TV content is uploaded every minute onto YouTube. Not sure quality is matching quantity ;-)

* More @ NYT

New York Valley?

2010-03-07T10:49:00.000-08:00

Interesting that with the recent hurdles and shift in business strategy of the fashion, media, financial, etc industries, seems like the Silicon Valley newest start-ups have relocated East. More than a geographical shift, a paradigm shift.... technology and media consumption changes are now indeed now affecting all businesses.
* Read more at NYTimes

The latest internet phenomenon:: CHATROULETTE

2010-02-21T09:31:00.000-08:00

Just discovering chatroulette as we speak. Whare have I been? For those of you who don't know either, here is some good info on what it is:

* Read more at CNN about this "log on to the chatroulette website, switch-on your webcam and click play to video chat with random people who did the same thing at the same time than you anywhere in the world" latest internet phenomenon. Also called "click.naked man. click. naked man. you get where I'm going, lots of men out there...

* interview of the 17 years old founder

* how some people hate it / love it @ Gigaom

* you're curious? check it out by yourself @ chatroulette

Women and online games

2010-02-17T09:19:00.000-08:00

Until the advent of Scrabulous and Farmville, gamers were mainly men. Now everyone seems to realize the mass female attraction for online casual games.
Interesting study on what women want from online games, how they don't consider themselves as 'Gamers' but playing online games is a guilty pleasure, how they don't want to pay, and how they get so addicted to online gaming, they don't want thier kids to play!
* More @ Netimperative

How Europe blew it in the mobile war

2010-02-15T04:22:00.001-08:00

For a bit of mobile history as the MWC is about to start, read a great article about smartphone's disruptive technology arrival and how the US has been able to ride the wave to European cell handset manufacturers and networks dismay
* Read @ The Guardian

What's left to say about the iPad

2010-02-02T06:10:00.000-08:00

Not much, except that we don't like that it doesn't have Flash, that it is disruptive innovation at its best (what other device does one need between a laptop and a cell phone?), and that it's a kindle killer. Also to my mind the iPad holds great potential with kids - I can predict it will become the dream toy / school must of all teens and tweens in the next 10 years.
But for these who have buried their head in the sand in the past week, here are a few good comments on the iPad:
- Why the iPad needs more content. And flash. @ NYtimes
- For an exhaustive list of reactions & opinions. @ WIRED
- and for some pad 'bad' jokes. @ jezebel

Why the iPhone has become the modern Swiss Army knife. And more...

2010-01-22T02:29:00.000-08:00

You may all have heard it already but I find the story of the guy who healed his wounds after being hit by Haiti earthquake, thanks to an iPhone app, terribly touching.
Besides, it does hammer in the fact that we now live in a different, always connected, world, and we are just starting to realize the implications of that change on our daily lives.

* Read @ WIRED

If you're not at CES

2010-01-07T03:18:00.000-08:00

- Learn about 3D TVs, tiny projectors and connected TVs: my favorites.
Read @ WIRED.

- See how companies really want your computer to talk to your TV
* Read about how Boxee works at WIRED

More Top Lists

2010-01-07T02:40:00.001-08:00

Bono Top 10 List for the next 10 years. Enlightening. @ NYT.

For FT.com, content revenues will overtake ad revenues this year for the first time

2010-01-06T03:51:00.001-08:00

Interesting POV from the Financial Times, whereby suscription revenues overtake ad revenues this year for the first time and online revenues have shown a 30% growth. Ode to the ever-shifting business model...
* Read more at netimperative

The evolution of cpm rates

2010-01-06T03:12:00.000-08:00

Interesting article on the evolution of online ad cpms.
@ Minonline

Top 7 Disruptive Innovations of 2009

2010-01-04T04:28:00.000-08:00

Here is a good Top list from Wired of last year's disruptions. Really can't believe it all happened in 2009: From Augmented reality to Mobile Apps, to the birth and boom of streaming music.
Read @ WIRED

10 Years in US Cable TV

2010-01-04T04:25:00.000-08:00

back to work... And reading lots of Top 10 + Top 10 Years lists.

@ USA Today: quick article going over the last 10 years in US TV with Mad Men heralding the recent success of cable TV dramas.

10 years in Online Video

2010-01-04T02:02:00.001-08:00

Travel back on memory lane and remember when the bubble bursted and when jibjab started making fun of US politics.
@ Newteevee.com

More Best Of

2009-12-22T08:16:00.001-08:00

Best Android apps @ WSJ

A Year in review through Google Wave.@ TechCrunch and worth checking out!

Who gets the highest ad rates online?

2009-12-21T11:08:00.001-08:00

Here is who gets the highest online ad rates and here is why....
@ Ad Age

About the music business

2009-12-16T11:22:00.000-08:00

Great article today in the NYT on How the music business is going subscription based: no need to own music tracks any more - or dare I say CDs - you just have to go online or on your mobile and use it as your infinite jukebox. I can really relate to that article as despite my >6,500 songs in my itunes library (and my hundreds of cds in jewel cases somewhere in a box in my apt), I seem to gravitate around spotify when in the UK, Pandora when in the US and deezer when I'm in France. I definitely see a trend for the industry there, and to the naysayers I would say like Bob at the end of this article: “If you ask anybody today, they’ll tell you, ‘I need to own it.’ But once you have these services, you get to the point of, ‘Why would I own it, because I have access to everything?’ ”

* More at NYT

To put this in perspective, check out this great visual rendering of the 'death of' the music industry from the 8-tracks to the ringtones. Scary huh?
@ informationisbeautiful

End of the year LISTS

2009-12-16T08:34:00.000-08:00

- Find out about 6 different Twitter types: From the Newbie to the Bitch...
- Mark Anderson's 2010 predictions: where the world becomes about real time and Google Goggles makes me think of an Orwellian world. More @ AdAge.