Neil Clavin Studio: Notes

Talent borrows, genius steals

The Knockoff Project is a great collection of homages, tributes and plain rip-offs of album cover art. Its yet another one of those 'I wish I had done that' projects I'm trying to stop wishing I had done and try do something about it.

I submitted a few covers I have come across over the years not already included in the project:

Ladytron Witchin Hour vs. Heart – Dreamboat Annie

Pulp- Different Class vs. Serge Gainsbourg L'homme a tete de chou

Kid Loco Presents Jesus Life for Children Under 12 Inches  vs Electric Ladyland

Picture this: every colour iPod a video iPod from October 12

Ever since the BBC leak that points to an iPod Video release with BBC content downloadable to it I"ve been thinking about how the rest of the iTunes / iPod ecosystem is going to fit into this.

I do believe October 12 will release "hero" video iPod device with a large screen.

But perhaps more radically I predict that EVERY iPod with a colour screen will become a video iPod. October 12 will see the release of a new version of iTunes and an iPod updater which will unlock that functionality in all colour screen iPods.

Thnik about it - why bother releasing the Nano with that pin sharp screen just for the PhotoIPod functionality that no one really uses. Why did the photo Ipod seem like such a half-baked product that could almost have served as a video device?

If Apple updates the music store on October 12 to allow download of free BBC content and purchased content like music videos and TV programmes it makes sense for the public to already have devices through which the content can be played back. Why limit your market to only the early adopters who can fork out £400 for a new product with a 2 week waiting list? If you've made this much investment then why not get the money coming in immediately!

By enabling video in devices Apple will already have a critical mass of devices which can make use of the content. This mirrors the original Music Store - it only made sense to sell music once a certain number of people had iPods. So why wait for a critical mass of people to buy video iPods. Why not make them all video iPods overnight?

The only reason the functionality has not been unlocked so far is that the rights agreements haven't been in place with the content providers.

The video iPod will be the hero hardware device with a large screen for ease of watching but every colour iPod will have the functionality.

This follows the pattern of podcast software availability across the whole screen based iPod family.

So to summarise:
October 12:
Hero Video Ipod with large screen
Apple Music Store offers free and paid video downloads including material from the BBC archive and IMP project
iPod updater software enables EVERY colour screen iPod video playback

Good ideas about the business model for an iTunes video store here

iTunes - meet Audioscrobbler

I've been getting really attached to Audioscrobbler and especially interested in what people in my network are listening to. An emergent behaviour is evolving where I look at what my musical neighbours are listening to, see the tracks that I have, realise I've hardly listened to them and discover parts of my music collection or experience parts I've overlooked.

To me this suggests a feed coming into iTunes off Audioscrobbler which automatically generates playlists based on songs my musical neighbours are listening to that I share. Hell, if they want to sell me new stuff in the Music Store they could link directly to previews for stuff I don't have.

Another emergent behaviour I have been noticing is how I will be reading a music magazine, see a mention of an artist that sounds interesting and start scrolling my iPod to see if I have something by them. This kind of cross-over is going to take networked electronic ink I think though...

iPlogging: a Lazyweb Request

I have very busy days and not much time to sit and sift through a blog aggregator when I'm at work. What I'd really like to do is sync my blog aggregator with my iPod and takeaway my blogs to read while travelling and listen to my music simultaneously!

While iPodder touches on this idea for radio-like content, I'd be happy with plain old plain text, I *like* reading. I can see such a client being useful for mobile phones too.... one for the Lazyweb

iPodVideo

As some of you know, I have an iPod photo which i bought primarily for the 60GB capacity. The photo feature is a novelty but not particularly interesting to me. However scrolling through photos in slideshow mode is fast. Very fast - about 30 pictures per second fast. With the option of adding a synchronised soundtrack. I've been convinced that the iPodPhoto has the capability of playing video and it is only a matter of time until Apple release a software upgrade to the Pod OS to allow this (probably due to delays in deal-making with movie studios for an MTV style iTunes client). In the meantime Engadget have done my work for me with a (admittedtly laborious) proof of concept of how to play 'movies' on the iPodPhoto: http://www.engadget.com/entry/3756421320807387 . Most compelling of all is the video demonstration http://www.engadget.com/common/videos/pt/sw.wmv

picture00027.jpg

Hello iMoto

Announcement that Apple is working with Motorola to enable trnasfer of songs from iTunes to Motorola 3G handsets via USB/Bluetooth suggests interesting segmentation of handset market:

Digital Media Europe: Features & Editorials - 'i-Mobiles' and the 'Swiss Army Knife' approach to smart-phones

Much of the trouble is that currently handset manufacturers have taken a Swiss Army Knife approach to smart-phones, packing in as many different features to the devices as possible: e-mail and other applications, cameras, games, etc. Apart from boy scouts, few people carry a Swiss Army Knife around with them on a daily basis. Have you ever tried to write with the dinky little pen-ette that comes with these things? Exactly. If you think you're going to need a pen, you take a pen in your pocket or purse. And who uses nail scissors to cut their nails in public?

The principle is the same with mobiles. There are those who want mobile telephony and games, but can wait till they get home or to the office to check their e-mail. Others, professionals, may want to be e-mail contactable 24/7, but haven't played a video game since they were twelve and so have no need for games to be taking up space on their mobile. Ultimately the market will split and there will be special games mobiles, music mobiles, location services mobiles, applications mobiles, etc., tailoring the device to the individual, rather than offering the individual everything in one package.

Concivinity

I'm currently reading Bill Hollin's book Over The Horizon which covers planning new products and services for the near and far future. He mentions the re-emergence of the term 'concivinity' a word from the 1350s(!) which is the quality that makes 'information easier to process through symmetry, harmony and elegance'

Concivinity. This is my new favourite word.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.