Dat Piff Mix Tapes

This is where I get mix tapes. It might not be your genre of music, but I  think the way this site is organized is ingenious. It allows DJs upload their mix tapes on a day to day basis. I am just guessing, but I think the DJs offer their tapes for free in exchange of the opportunity for fans to buy a hard copy of the tape through the web site. As a regular visitor, you can listen to mix tapes, download them, comment, watch videos, etc. Those who are really into the site can pay for a monthly subscription that offers additional features. Open the web site, and you will see a smattering of web ads (around 4 per page). Some how, they don't really appear that intrusive. All the ads are closely related to the content of the site: music, clothes, hip-hop etc. 

Download Mixtape | Provided by DatPiff.com

In any event, Datpiff.com must be making a killing on ads because, people who regularly use this site check often for updated material and stay on the site for a while listening or downloading music. In essence, this is a web community that allows fans, artists, DJs, clothing designers, etc. a place to gather, communicate on web boards, and keep up with trends. If was Google, I would buy this site and make ten more like it for different genres.

Gum Survey

Not exactly New Media (but kind of). Below is a link to a survey about gum that I made for my ADPR 3130 class. If you are actually reading my blog, you might be willing to fill out this survey too. We need 100 responses by this coming Friday. One thing I learned in making this survey is how to incorporate html commands such a line breaks within text being posted online. Knowing a few basic html commands helped me clean up the look of this survey without being fluent in html. Any way, check it out.


Gum Survey

Satellite Radio Will Survive and Thrive

Not only will satellite radio survive, it will thrive. Many people in the media have recently expressed doubts about the potential success of the pending Sirius-XM merger. Dropping stock prices of both Sirius and XM reflect those doubts as well. All this skepticism most likely stems from the fact that, even with each other out of the way, there is a lot of competition in the marketplace. Consumers have so many free options for music, news, and sports. Why would they pay $10/month for satellite radio?  The answer is content and ease.

As receivers begin to go portable, consumers are finding it easier and more convenient to fit satellite radio into their lives. It's not longer just for the car or office. Now Sirius and XM can go anywhere with you. Portable handsets can record and store hundreds of hours of music, including mp3s from your own library. Satellite radio is now a legitimate alternative to the ipod. Sometimes, you just don't want to bother with a play list. Satellite radio affords the consumer a world of choices along with the simplicity of regular radio.

Once the merger is complete, satellite radio will have complete coverage of every major sporting event. That alone is reason enough for many to get a subscription. If you are not into sports, that's ok. There is enough content between the two providers to satisfy the tastes of everyone. Think about it: for the cost of ten cents on iTunes you can have a months worth of satellite radio. I am getting subscription as soon as the merger is complete. I suggest you do the same.

That's Not True. I saw it on YouTube.

CBS EXPOSES HILLARY BOSNIA TRIP

This week, Hillary Clinton got called out on the details of her 1996 trip to Bosnia. In a recent speech, she claims to have arrived under sniper fire in a war zone, and have to be hurried away from the cancelled greeting ceremony. In actuality, the greeting ceremony did take place and Hilary ended up singing songs with Sheryl Crow and Sinbad on a nearby USO stage. How did the public find out the real story? CBS was there with their cameras and the clip from 12 years ago ended up on YouTube.

What is the moral of the story? The camera never lies and these days, the camera is everywhere. The next generation of politicians in America will essentially have their whole lives recorded. From the time they are kids playing around with their webcams, to the drunken college Facebook years, and far beyond. Every statement the make can be crossed-referenced and scrutinized and judged. Will we simply have to accept all the flaws, mistakes, and  roughspots of our future leader's past or will we breed super qualified squeaky-clean politicians? I think it might be good for Americans to loose the idealistic expectations of our political leaders. They are human beings too. But I also, think it will foster an atmosphere of honesty and disclosure that will take some of the rhetoric out of campaigning. 

Voice to Text with Jott

Before yesterday, I had never clicked on a Google sponsored ad. Low and behold I was through checking my gmail in class (after I was through checking my NCAA brackets, ESPN.com, Craigslist, eBay, my bank account, E*Trade, and drudgereport: my usual routine) when I still had some time on my hands. I saw a banner ad for Jott, a free voice to text service, above one of my emails. I have been interested in voice to text technology for some time now but I have always been skeptical about how well those kinds of services work. I am a pretty pathetic typer so I have always dreamed of being able to speak my papers instead of type them. Anyway, I clicked on the link and signed up for the service. It took only a minute or two.

Basically, Jott.com lets you call their toll free number and leave up to a 30 second message that will be recorded and translated to text which can be viewed on your Jott page. You can listen to the audio there as well. You can also set up groups on the site so you can dictate messages to other people who have Jott. There is also a message feature that allows you to send yourself little reminders via text or email. I usually carry a pen a pad to take down all my notes and messages to myself, but this week I am going to try doing some jotting.

   

The text translations are not perfect. But so far, I have sent myself a handful of message and have been pretty surprised with their accuracy. Since you also have the ability to listen to the audio, 100% accuracy is not absolutely crucial to me. Once you call in your message, the audio version appears on your Jott page almost instantly and the text translation appears in a few minutes.

Supposedly this service is free to use. It seems almost too good to be true, but the reviews I have read say Jott is legit. We will see next time I get my phone bill. Try it. Let me know what you think.

The Kindle Converted Me

  Amazon Kindle

  

   For years we have been hearing about e-reading technology that will take the paper out of pleasure reading. Companies like Sony, eREAD, and Jinke have tried their hand at developing tablets that store and display electronic reading material. But honestly, all their products are pretty bootlegged. (too bulky, too heavy, lack of memory, lack of battery, lack of material, lack of connectivity etc.) What sets Amazon's Kindle apart is the Whispernet technology it uses to download an entire book in a minute, just about anywhere in the US. Amazon pays for the wireless connectivity for Kindle so there are no monthly wireless bills, data plans, or service commitments; just the one time price of $399. You can even get magazine, newspaper, and blog subscriptions updated automatically. The Kindle also provides access to wikipedia. It really is an excellent product for people who are on the go and read frequently.

So will I buy one? No. I like to write in my books and although the Kindle has annotation options, I like the freedom of pen and paper. I would, however, buy a Kindle if I could get all my textbooks for school on it. It would be so convenient to substitute 20lbs or more of books for a 10.8 ounce tablet. The books would undoubtedly be cheaper as well. In fact, I think that once text books are available on the Kindle, The University of Georgia should issue one to every incoming freshman. 

Once the Kindle (Kindle 2.0?) has full internet access I will place my order. I am imagining a type of itouch/Kindle hybrid. I would even be wiling pay for service. Certainly technology is moving in the direction. 

700 Mhz, Sold!

   We've been hearing about it for months (especially in NMIX) and it's finally over. The FCC announced today that the 700 Mhz spectrum auction is closed.  After over 200 rounds of bids, $19,592,420,00 is the total. Nineteen billion dollars is almost twice the amount the FCC anticipated it would earn from this auction. The winning bidders have not been announced though most expect that AT&T and Verizon have captured the largest chunks of the air waves.

   I am very interested to hear wether any wild cards such as Apple won any of the spectrum. That would certainly shake things up in the mobile media sector. I think a division of power is key force in driving technology development. If only the usual suspects have control, I think much less money and effort will go into developing cutting edge technology and content. I praying for a dark horse or two.

Edelman Digital Boot Camp @ Grady College @ UGA

   This past Saturday (yesterday), Grady and the PR firm Edelman hosted the first annual digital bootcamp at UGA. The purpose of the conference was to provide a crash course in interactive media for both educators and students in the PR field. My word-of-mouth communications class (ADPR 5990, Dr. karen Russell) had a hand in the madness. From 8:00am to 5:30pm, groups from our class covered the conference via live blog, twitter, fliker, audio podcast, and video podcast. I spent most of my time doing the live blog. The conference was broken up into about nine sections. Within these sections were large lectures, small breakouts, and Q & A sessions. Topics included Client Research, Key Findings, Campaign Planning: Tactics, Implementing Tactics, Student Prep for best practices, and more. The technology discussed included social networking sites, interactive games, corporate blogs, search engine optimization, etc. The cost of the event per person was around $60 I believe.

   

   If you go to edlemandigitalbootcamp.com you can see our coverage of the day. If you look in the Flickr section, you can find a picture of me. The conference was pretty good for an initial run. All the participants seemed interested, even late in the afternoon after a full day of digital media. I am glad UGA decided to host this conference and that I got to be a part of it. it certainly has the potential to draw large crowds in the future as digital media continues to evolve and UGA gains a reputation for being a leader in the field.