Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Ahead of the Curve...


Well, I finally got my iPhone, thanks to my lovely wife who surprised me last week.

And I saw "The Dark Night" yesterday at an Imax theater.

I think I'm all caught-up with the rest of the world for a brief moment.

"The Dark Knight" is an awesome film and Imax is the way to go.

It's not without its flaws and it stops short of transcending the genre but it's easily a best of breed winner.

Forget Jack, Heath is the Joker.

But let's not get carried away - as good as Heath is, he's not Jack in "The Shining."

The iPhone has made me forget why I was bitching about Apple - it's really a work of art.

Of course my wife's first generation iPhone is having problems since the software update but that's another story.

Apple scrubbing the bowl today...

APPL - 152.88

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Apple - why?


Got a letter of apology today from Apple for the rocky start to the MobileMe launch.

They should apologize for the logo.

I don't like it.

Not one bit.

Just look at it.

So un-Apple.

So un-cool.

I'm honestly a little embarrassed.

AAPL - 172.81

Hleb - Bye Bye Baby...


I never cared much for him despite the fact that he was brilliant at times last season - at times.

He's too lightweight, reluctant to pull the trigger in front of the goal & I was never comfortable speaking his name.

Now he gets to hook up with the great Henry - just like old times.
I hope so - they never played well together at Arsenal.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Center for Communication Compliance Website...


...Or CCC as we've come to know them, launched the first training and certification portal for healthcare communicators last week.

Ilyssa Levins, CCC's founder and president, looks like she's onto something here - she's aiming to set a standard for regulatory training for an industry that is increasingly under the gun.

Based on our CMEpilot platform, this phase of development includes the public-facing website portal, testing and certification for public relations professionals, and custom back-end analytics that will enable industry benchmark reporting down the road.

Phase two will see the launch of training and tests for advertising and medical education pros.

Read all about it here.


Friday, July 11, 2008

iPhone - From the Trenches


By now, you've probably heard the news - the iPhone 3G international launch today is a huge success and a giant mess.

I started my day early for a business meeting in NY so I decided to take a walk down 5th Ave to the ATT&T store to see if I could pick one up real quick.

I took one look at the line snaking around the block and decided I could wait.

I checked in with Danny to see if he was having any better luck up the road...
I only talked to him for a minute but it sounded like he was also high and dry - the store he was waiting at had run out of stock.

Fast forward eight hours and I just got a full report from Danny - a blow-by-blow account of one man's unwavering determination in the face of tremendous odds:

On Jul 11, 2008, at 4:04 PM, Dan D'Agostino wrote:

Glenda and I arrived at the AT&T store at 7:00 AM. We were told by store staff that based on our position on line that we would at least walk away with the 8gig versions. There was about 60- people in front of us. At 8:00 the doors opened and we moved closer to the doors. By 9:00 we were almost there and then the line just stopped moving. Glendalee left for work after an AT&T guy said he would allow me to get 2 without her being there. By 10:00 AM I hadn’t moved more than five feet. At 10:30 they came out and said they sold out. There were still 30 people in front of me?????? So that means they only had 30 phones? Why tell me and another 60 people behind me that they would be ok? So I decided to take the subway to the Apple store on 59th and 5th and when I got there the line was around the corner—about 1000 people easily...Funny thing. An entrepreneur had a bunch of strippers (seriously) walking up and down the line buying first generation iPhones from people. Not so bad. I hung out 20 minutes spent $100 on lap dances (kidding) and noticed the line wasn’t moving. Something was up. I decided to go to work and on my way I passed another AT&T store. The staff person at the door said they only had a few phones left and not to bother but there was about 100 people on line. Why not tell them?

I got to work at about 11:15 and at 12:00 I asked a coworker if they wanted to go grab lunch—by the AT&T store. We stopped at the store and a worker there said no more iPhones today but he would have them tomorrow morning at 8:30 and gave me his card to call him in the AM. I called Nanda to say hi and I told her that news. After lunch we walked by the store again and there was a f’ing line again????? I walked up to the dude and said what the !@#$. He told me they just got a shipment in and made me cut to the front of the line. I picked up 2—one for me and one for G love..... Apparently, they never sold out of the phone. They said that because the system crashed and they didn’t know what to do or how long it would take. They finally got word that Apple gave the ok to sell the phones without activating them in-store. I need to activate it by hooking it up to iTunes, which, we don’t have the latest version of here. So I have to wait till I get home. Wow. I can’t believe I wrote all that.

And there you have it.

I'm still waiting...

APPL - 172.58

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Digging in the crates...


We had a chance to revisit bruceweber.com recently to make some updates.

Created over four years ago, it's a really good example of a website that truly stands the test of time.

We added a new "commercials" section to the "filmography" videos so you can check out Bruce Weber's work for Calvin Klein and J.C. Penny.

Stay tuned for more additions...

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Chris Tarry Digital Downloads


Just added another cool feature to the Chris Tarry site -

We created a system to generate unique codes for his digital downloads that he can then print on artwork, postcards, whatever to sell at his gigs.

This way, he doesn't have to lug a bunch of CD's around as he travels the globe.

It also takes advantage of that "in the moment" impulse purchase.

Customers simply click the "Redeem Voucher" button on the site and enter the code on the next page to get their music.

We actually talked about this a while back with David Binney, so credit to Dave - we're planning to take care of him in the next Binney site upgrade coming soon...

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Jen Chapin Store is Open


Remember I said we weren't messing with the look of the site?

Well, we messed with it, kinda - Jen wanted to update the photo and we've also added some new press features but most importantly, the store is open for business.

Check it out and buy some stuff...