Allen Weiner

I met a few folks on my recent European travel who scoffed at the pervasive power of e-books as a replacement for the touchy-feely experience of holding a print book in their hands. “You can’t read an e-book in the bath,” one naysayer told me a few weeks back. To that romantic reader, I say, [...]

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After walking halfway down the aisle with Google in 2008 in a proposed (and then scrapped) search-advertising pact, Yahoo! has inked a 10 year deal in which Microsoft will power Yahoo! search and sell self-service keywords through AdCenter while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. The [...]

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The cognoscente’s meme of the day is whether or not harsh words on Twitter cut off Sasha Baron Cohen’s “Bruno’s” U.S. box office hopes at the knees. Time’s noted film critic Richard Corliss believes that a decline in opening day revenue to the following day was due in part to bad cyberword of mouth. That [...]

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A few weeks into my ownership of a Kindle 2, I must report that the Amazon e-reader holds great promise as it delivers a very intuitive experience for those who want portability and a virtual library at their fingertips. Adding books (from both Amazon and other sources) to the Kindle 2 is straightforward with the [...]

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In this podcast, I talk briefly about a concept that I have been pondering (and talking about) regarding the notion of a mobile content creation device to facilitate content and audience immediacy. What should it be? What sort of functionality should it have? How much would it cost? Who are the buyers for such a [...]

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Mike Kaply of Brand Thunder talks about his company’s solution to help recording artists (and soon sports teams) create personalized, branded browsers to promote themselves and their products.

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Tyler Barth, director of marketing for Blue Microphones, demos the new Mikey, a cool gadget that attaches to your iPod, iPhone, etc.. and facilitates amazing .wav recording.

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After a delayed screening of “The Yes Men Fix the World” at SXSW, I was able to catch up with Mike Bonnano, one of the Yes Men, and ask him some questions about what’s next for the corporate pranksters as well as film funding issues.
While not a prank, one of the memorable scenes in the [...]

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Last year, I wrote about the concept of turning the mobile phone into the ultimate device for mobile reporting (a concept which applies to any content creator). Publishers, in keeping with the Web 2.0 notion of timely information in a variety of formats, would arm journalists with a tricked-phone phone from which they could write, [...]

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After two-plus days of panels, meeting and briefings (as well as just bathing in the spirit and energy at SXSW), the interactive (web/internet) portion of the show ends and the music takes center stage. Film continues throughout the week with a mix of indie films, short films and some world feature film premieres. Spike Lee’s [...]

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