This week was all about Apple, who announced the newest updates to their products at a music-themed event on Wednesday. Updates to iPods (touchscreens! buttons (again)! they’re still tiny!) abounded, as well as the announcement of their own social network, Ping. Apple’s trademark “One More Thing” turned out to be the newly-refreshed refreshed AppleTV. A $99 cloud-based media streaming center, the AppleTV will let you rent TV shows and Movies via iTunes, as well as pull off nifty party tricks by zipping video content from your iPhone/iPad to your TV at the push of a button. Pretty great stuff, but we’re still more interested in the upcoming Boxee Box, as well as SageTV’s newly-revealed HD Theater 300, which does (pretty much) all of the above and some even cooler stuff, too. Now if we could just find the free time to actually watch all of this content on our awesome AV setups, we’d be golden.
Apex staffer Gabo’s band Kordan were just added to Filter’s Culture Collide festival in LA, and while we can’t make it out there, we’re bugging our LA friends to check out the show. Deli Mag said their “fuzz-drenched guitars and the droney melodies are reminiscent of late 80s/early 90s shoegazer” and we’ve gotta agree. RIYL My Bloody Valentine, A Place to Bury Strangers, Jesus and Mary Chain, and other bands you already should be into.
Sorry to cut this week’s post so short, but in case you weren’t aware, there’s a hurricane coming, and we’re trying to make it out of here while it’s still mostly dry outside. We’ve prepared, have you? We’ll leave you with our favorite video that’s made the rounds this week so you can at least have some entertainment in your storm shelter. (Quasi-NSFW for those of you offended by hilariousness.)
Social news powerhouse Digg unveiled their much-hyped ver.4 update last Wednesday to a tepid response to long-time fans of the site. Today, the backlash hit full-force, as users quickly submitted and dugg links from rival site Reddit throughout the day, flooding the “Top News” section of the site with Reddit links and anti-Digg posts in what is being termed the “Digg Revolt.”
Digg CEO Kevin Rose responded to the mayhem earlier today that “this too shall pass, it’s revolt #5 for us, we have to fix some features, but we’ll get back to normal soon.” It seems that the mutiny may have had its desired effect as Rose’s last tweet reports that they’re “adding back v3 tools” with more news coming soon. In the meantime though, it’s at least entertaining to watch how the site’s users are voicing their concerns.
Above is Reddit’s new header image, as they’re currently “digging around for new logos this week.”
This week the weather in NYC did its best to remind us to enjoy summer, with a Monday and Tuesday straight out of mid-October. Best hit the beach and make it to a few cookouts in the next week; summer’s over, kids.
Regardless, we had more interesting stuff going on this week than just dreary weather. For starters, Barracuda-rockers Heart answered MOG.com readers’ love and music questions. Need to charm that special someone? Lost that special songwriting spark? They’ll help you out.
For you fashionistas out there, the second annual Fashion’s Night Out was announced this week with an enthusiastic PSA that was released this week featuring all of fashions top models. This year’s event takes place on September 10th. Not in New York? This year the event is going to be taking place in 16 different countries all to support the shops and fashion in their market. You can follow FNO over on Twitter.
Next week marks the release of the 40th anniversary reissue of Miles Davis’ landmark album Bitches Brew, and Josh, our resident jazz fanatic, is stoked.Huge Miles fans themselves, Dogfishhead Brewery are commemorating the album by releasing their own Bitches Brew Ale, which Slashfood and NY Press named as the “Beer of the Week.” We’re anxious to give it a taste while listening to “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down.”
This weekend, we’re looking forward to checking out Make Out with Violence, an indie film from Nashville that’s opening up down the street at the reRun Gastropub. As one of Apex’s resident former Tennesseans, I’m all about supporting Music City where possible. NY Times‘s review summed up the plot to the coming-of-age/zombie flick (common pairing, right?) pretty perfectly, and check out the trailer below.
Filled with clear, bright images and moments of skewed genius, this delicate debut effortlessly evokes those languid summer doldrums, when even a rotting girlfriend is better than no girlfriend at all.
Update: Um… oh yeah, that Star Wars Uncut thing that I was in that got nominated for an Emmy for Creative Achievement in Interactive Media – Fiction? It kindasortawon. Massive crazy-huge congrats to the SW Uncut team: Casey Pugh, Annelise Pruitt, Jamie Wilkinson, Chad Pugh, Aaron Valdez, Bryan Pugh, and Justin Hanney. I’ve never been prouder to serve as a mustachioed Princess Leia.
Surely this week you’ve seen the new video for Cee-Lo Green’s new track, “F*ck You.” If you haven’t yet, you probably will, as it’s quickly making the rounds. If you’re at work, make sure to reach for your headphones considering the NSFW-ness of the… well, pretty much the whole thing.
And yet, for a track with an unbroadcast-able chorus uploaded only 5 days ago, it’s literally exploded online with almost 2 million YouTube views and countless tweets, posts and further re-posts. The Dallas Observer has even taken to using it as a re-dubbed soundtrack to some iconic movie scenes (including the “opera scene” from Shawshank Redemption that had me chuckling). To not only have a single blow up online a full month before the album comes out is one thing, but for it to become arguably meme-worthy is huge.
What went so right here? Obviously, it’s a great song, but it really plays into what BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti considers the key concept behind his 5 Rules for Viral Videos – the Bored at Work Network. Cee-Lo Green already has a considerable number of fans, but it was his ridiculously catchy track that lead to that innate, knee-jerk “did you see this?!” mentality will cause thousands of links to bounce around offices everywhere. Check out the rest of the article, as it’s a great jumping-off point to understand what works and why online.
Wired‘sSeptember issue cover story has been making waves online this week, and for good reason: Wired editor Chris Anderson’s lengthy feature story entitled “The Web is Dead” makes the argument that although we’re using online services more and more, the idea of the standard “internet” (y’know: that thing you’re using right now. Yes. Right now.) is over, while online services such as apps are thriving.
Several outlets have taken umbrage with the article, specifically regarding the graph used as the backbone of the article’s argument: that web usage accounts for less than a quarter of data moved online, and we’re using online service that use the internet as a means of transporting data outside of the web. Obviously online-based services such as iTunes, Xbox Live, YouTube, Netflix, Skype, etc. are accounting for bigger percentages of data. For the most part, they weren’t around 10 years ago, and if they were it was in greatly reduced forms. Boing Boing succinctly points out that while the amount those services are used is increasing, the web as a whole is far from dead.
Dubious graphs aside, the thing about Anderson’s article is it feels like he’s simply splitting hairs. In essence, his argument comes down to the definition of “the web” vs. “the internet,” two words that are synonymous to the everyday user, and he seems to focus almost entirely on the way users interact with content, rather than the content itself:
We want TweetDeck to organize our Twitter feeds because it’s more convenient than the Twitter Web page. The Google Maps mobile app on our phone works better in the car than the Google Maps Web site on our laptop.
But does this really matter? If we’re using Google products, Facebook, Twitter, RSS, etc. through various tools other than a web browser, we’re still using the same content. Essentially, it just tells us that we’re interacting with the web on a greater scale and across new mediums, which is exciting news for what we do here at Apex, as it broadens the tools we can use to reach users in a way that makes sense to how they’re using the internet. If anything, we should be hopeful looking forward to the future of the web (and the online community as a whole), not discouraged.
It seemed like this week was all about people quitting their jobs, with workingman’s hero Steven Slater giving some Jetblue passengers an honest slice of his mind before jumping out of a plane, double-fisted beers in-hand (or maybe not). JetBlue responded with quite possibly the best PR response ever, managing to reference Office Space and well… the entire internet.
TheChive.com was able to briefly one-up Slater with their own “I QUIT” story and in the process pulled a fast one on basically everybody. Regardless, HOPA has now entered the cultural lexicon forever.
Continuing with the theme of people exiting jobs this week, our very own Christina Marcus set sail for other waters, but not before writing up a pretty fantastic post on Wednesday. While she didn’t leave with two beers in hand or with a Farmville revelation, Christina will be missed. You can keep up with her over on Twitter and Tumblr.
As for this upcoming weekend, I’ve got an unintentionally nerd-tastic few days ahead of me, with Scott Pilgrim tonight, 8-bit rockers Anamanaguchi playing tomorrow, and the Mega Man-inspired power-metal rock-opera of The Protomen on Sunday. Josh will be Easy Riding his way down to DC on PorkChop, his 1985 Honda Magna, while Gabo will be playing it low-key before playing a show on Sunday.
That was the week, and it was awesome. We’ll leave you with this terrifying flight in a glass-bottomed hot air balloon. Don’t let the peaceful piano music fool you: you’d be hugging the sides and crying for mommy if you could see the ground a couple hundred feet directly below you.
Last week, rumors circulated that Google and Verizon were working to announce a joint partnership, signalling what Gizmodo prophesized as the death of net neutrality. While net neutrality can still plan to live another day, both companies just announced a “Joint Policy Proposal for an Open Internet,” effectively confirming what everyone was expecting – in the future, we’re going to see a tiered internet system.
Granted, the internet we use on a primary basis will remain as-is. Think of your current landline connections you’re used to – cable/DSL/wifi/etc. - as the “open” internet, while mobile connections – EDGE/3G/4G/whatever-else-comes-out-next-G – as the “private” internet.
Verizon’s Ivan Seidenberg offered a few examples of what kind of content we could expect to see on the private web, such as the Metropolitan Opera airing their archives in 3-D over Verizon’s FiOS service, or perhaps Verizon could develop a high-speed health care database service.
Currently, the best analog to what you could eventually see in the future is on ESPN’s website. Here at Apex we went a little world cup crazy, if you weren’t aware. ESPN3.com‘s streaming of the games was a fantastic way for us to keep up to date with the scores – until we switched ISPs in the middle of the series (ironically, we were using Verizon for our internet). ESPN currently has streaming deals in place with specific ISPs, and our new provider wasn’t on that list. We were out of luck.
Now, broaden that to a whole range of sites that will pay Verizon (or whichever mobile provider in question) for service, and there’s a chance you might not be able to access some of your favorite services via mobile devices.
This is all speculation, of course - the wording on Google’s proposal still leaves a lot of room for debate, and seeing a huge player such as Verizon agree to remain neutral on broadband internet is a massive coup for Google and the entire net neutrality community. However, as usage of newer mobile-enabled devices such as the Kindle, iPad, and smartphones increases, we’re left wondering if the “open internet” could quickly become the “abandoned internet.”
In addition to reading Google’s proposal, check out what some of the top tech blogs are saying:
NY Times, as well as their live-blog of Google and Verizon’s conference call earlier today.
Hey, remember when your only options for purchasing music online were overpriced monthly subscriptions or DRM-laden files? Y’know, way back in the dark ages of 2003? Apparently Brilliant Digital Entertainment does, because that’s exactly the model they’re following with the newly re-launched Kazaa. $15 gets you a month’s worth of browser-only streaming and DRM’ed MP3s for purchase, a move that feels about half a decade too late to gain any kind of a following.
Ironically, the original founders of Kazaa, Janus Friis with Niklas Zennström, are also the founders of new service Rdio.com, which opened to the public earlier this week. They offer unlimited streaming (mobile and browser – even when you’re offline via some kind of witchery) and a solid set of social features, such as musical suggestions, friend-created and sharable playlists. I was able to play with Rdio while it was still in beta, and after just a few hours of use I’m considering ponying up the $5 per month subscription fee.
While it’s certainly no secret Google is working on their own social network (no, not that one or that other thing), what’s still up in the air is how they’re going to differentiate their upcoming “Google Me” from a market that’s so thoroughly saturated – and almost entirely by one competitor, at that.
A recent presentation by one of Google’s lead user-experience researchers, Paul Adams, keys in on a few essential differences between our off- and on-line selves. While it’s a lengthy read, the gist of Paul’s presentation is that while we may have a couple hundred or so people we call “friends,” there’s a huge amount of segmentation of those people into separate groups, with varying strong and weak ties within those groups. This makes sense, as on any given network you’re bound to find your high school buddies, your college friends, your co-workers, your family, your (insert random hobby here) friends, etc.
Check out Paul’s presentation and our thoughts after the break.
Temple St. Clair, one of our favorite jewelers, just premiered pieces from her upcoming fall line entitled the Odyssey Collection. She drew her inspiration for the pieces from the Persian Empire and the Mediterranean - think something you might find “in a modern Helen of Troy’s jewel box,” as Temple so succinctly puts it.
Based on her signature materials of 18k gold and royal blue moonstones, the collection also includes pieces with rock crystal, aquamarine, peridot, emeralds and rubies. Check out JustLuxe.com‘s preview of the fall line, and head to Temple’s Facebook page for more images of this gorgeous collection.
