Here in Austin we have a social media guy who published a book in 2008 that is full of practical advice. His name is Dave Evans; his book is “Social Media, An Hour a Day”. Fifty-five practical, hands-on exercises walk you through a step-by-step process to an effective social media plan built by you, for your organization.

If you’re just getting started in social media, consider getting yourself a copy of this book. You’ll find yourself on firm ground as you focus on social media-based projects for yourself and others.

Another book, this one an e-book, is a must have for understanding how Facebook works, especially from the perspective of marketing. “Facebook Marketing Bible” comes in PDF format. As Facebook is continually evolving, I recommend getting the version that comes with updates. I refer to this little gem often.

Reading is learning and my next tip is more reading, this time a blog. Are you following the accelerated trends in use of smart phones? Better do that. Social media and social networking systems that do not incorporate user engagement with smart phones are going to miss the real boom coming soon. I know a mobile apps company with a blog about trends in the mobile industry (versus talking about themselves). You’ll want to follow these guys because they are backend systems agnostic – meaning they don’t focus on just Microsoft or just Linux systems. They create mobile applications that work on all phones. Endeavour Software Technology is a very smart group of people. Add their blog to your RSS reader and you’ll stay current on mobile trends. Keep reading.  Keep learning.

Tom

Always be learning, if you’re here reading this next post, you must be open to that. One way is by being a student of life. Learn from what’s in front of you, but balance your energies in a way that gives you room to relax and be yourself. There is More to Life.

Another and very important way to always be learning is to always be teaching. Have some tools at hand that you can quickly use to show someone else how your social media site or social networking system works. It’s called screencasting and below there are three fun and fast tools that are worth some attention. These tools are invaluable for helping people visualize how things actually work, especially when you’re going for funding.

www.JingProject.com – works on PC and Mac. Simply amazing and completely worth paying for the Pro version. I use it weekly and also assist my clients in its use. This is a good tool to show employees and/or others how to use new features in a system or how to explain/show a new idea to the inside group. One example is demonstrating how to use a new tool to save time.

iShowU – Mac platform. Fast and easy. I haven’t used it but it looks promising.

ScreenCast – My favorite, but this one has a ’slightly’ higher learning curve then the other two. But that’s ok right? You’re open to learning. What I remind myself –compared to what it would take to create this screencast using tools like Final Cut Pro, Screencast.com is a snap.  It produces an extremely polished look and sound in the final results.

Ok, so have you looked into SXSW2009 to figure out what panels you’re attending? I’m starting that process myself for Film and Interactive. Think about it. Check it out. Help others learn how to be successful.

Tom

Starting each day out right is a true challenge in this age with all the constant changes. So each day between now and Friday, March 13, I will share a short thought to inspire or a piece of experience to teach. These articles stem from my strategy work with social media and social networking systems and SEO work over the last 8 years and IT management over the last 20  years and most importantly the amazing experiences I had working with an AI spin-off from MIT called Symbolics throughout the 80’s. I learned the importance of learning and embracing tools that help you be more creative.

Let’s start with right attitude of ABC and ABL. Always be creating and always always be learning.

The number of existing  web-based social media tools and new ones being brought out each month can feel overwhelming. Ever visit www.Mashable.com? Subscribe to that feed! And read www.ReadWriteWeb.com or www.TechCrunch.com? Monitor them for tools that help you become more aware of what’s possible with the systems you’re using. Tools like Sharepoint, WordPress, Facebook, Google and others can make life easier after surviving the learning curve! No you don’t have to learn them all. Pick the ones that are worth exploring. Test them. Use them. Throw out the ones that are of no value but remember to cycle back.

Watch how you dig in and justify that you know enough already.  Are you saying – ‘no more’ I don’t need this social networking stuff? I don’t have the time. I’m too busy. I can’t keep up anyway. Take notice when you get into that line of thinking and just let it go. You’re not in a Catch 22 situation. You CAN both learn and ‘be’ who you want to be and have control over your time and what you share with others. I remember when I worked for a major US corporation for 12 years all through the 90’s and early 2000’s. I felt trapped. Middle management was like being stuck. Can’t leave, paid too well. Can’t advance; not in the inner circle.  Don’t have time; always too busy just trying to stay even. Then… I got laid off.

Last night I watched Catch-22, the movie by Mike Nichols.  Take some time and watch it again. Watch carefully for who gets out of the catch 22 and most importantly ‘why and how’ he did it.

Always be creating. Always be learning. These are your unalienable rights.

Tom

I purchased my AppleTV in February of 2007 and I use it regularly for listening to music, watching movies and video podcasts. I love the simplicity of Apple products so I’ll admit some bias here. Setting that aside, Apple has made a lot or progress with the giants in the movie and TV industry to support the idea of renting movies online and the online movie industry has come a long way in 12 months with more content and of course more competition.

I would like to start by providing some perspective regarding our home setup and viewing habits. No cable TV, no satellite TV – cable is only used for Internet access. I found cable TV to be an expensive option that provided shows we did not want to watch with limited HD (though that’s been changing) and way too many commercials. I do not want to spend the few hours I have for TV and movie watching waiting and hoping one of those 200 channels might play what I want. So we use a TV antenna for local channels and it works out perfectly for what we want. TivoHD is used to record for when we want to record and view later. Local broadcasters now have everything in HD and the image quality (to my eyes) appears as sharp as a Blu-Ray.

Unfortunately, the idea of ala carte access to cable TV (or satellite TV) channels continue to fall on deaf ears, so I’ve given up that wish. And in walks Apple who provided my first entry into watching what I wanted whenever I wanted without paying monthly fees for the privileges that I rarely used.  For me the big win with AppleTV was  that personal satisfaction of finding a movie I hadn’t seen before (or in a long time) and watching it ‘right’ when I’m ready to do so with no commercials and no on-going fees and most of all, no hassle in returning the movie.

With AppleTV (as with Netflix streaming and VUDU) you don’t have figure out what you want to watch in advance. You don’t have to haul yourself to a local Blockbuster only to find out the DVD movie you want is out or they don’t carry it.  And if you’re like me, you always manage to get home from BlockBuster (or get mailed from Netflix) that one DVD that someone else has dragged across the kitchen counter or some other fate that leaves it unreadable. What a big buzz kill for a Friday night movie session at home!

There is one major drawback to only seeing movies online right now – NO special features. Sigh … i so miss them.

Ok, now for more on AppleTV. Remember these are my impressions. I’m not promising this is the most comprehensive list of capabilities (or wishes for new capabilities). If you’ve got something to say just add it into the comments. I’m game and I’ll update these posts where appropriate.

How You Order One:

You have to purchase from Apple directly or an authorized Apple dealer. There are two models, different only by size of disk drive – 40GB and 160GB. Visit Apple for more details, but keep in mind that you can shop around for a discounted price. Basically you can walk into BestBuy or any other Apple dealer to get one. Don’t forget to pick up the necessary cables which are not packaged with the AppleTV.  The best buy for HDMI cables is NOT BestBuy, my favorite place is www.showmecables.com.

Of the three boxes, AppleTV is the only one you can readily experience before you buy.  Recommend you drop by an Apple store and get a salesperson to give you the remote and play with their setup. Netflix does not currently authorize any retail outlets to carry the Roku box. You ‘could’ see the Netflix movie watching ability on some of the newer LG DVD players that include the capability (very recent) or if you know someone that has a TivoHD, you can see Netflix in action there. Currently, the Vudu store locator finds no stores near me in Austin, so you will probably have to order online.  More on all this in the following reviews.

Purchase Price:

Retail – $229 (40GB) and $329 (160GB). No rental fees. So far, no upgrade fees over the last year of occasional upgrades.

I own the 40GB version. One of the benefits of using iTunes on Mac or PC is you can keep more movies and music on a desktop PC (or even a laptop) and share your movies and music over your local network with the AppleTV. So it’s not absolutely critical you have the larger drive as long as you have a desktop or laptop on your network and it’s up and running.

What you Get:

The AppleTV box has a microprocessor, memory and hard drive but no display. You can get all the technical specifications here for the box. You have to connect it to your TV via an HDMI cable or RGB cables. And you will want to hook the unit up to the Internet via your home wifi (or wired network connection is my preference) to access movie rentals to download from the Internet. The box runs pretty darn hot so you’ll want to give it a bit of breathing room when setting up. I suggest turning it off when not in use.

First Impressions:

From the moment you open the AppleTV box to when you plug in and boot up, the AppleTV is first class all the way. And that’s exactly what you’d expect.  Admittedly, I was enamored with the box last year because it did so much of what I’d been wanting for a long time – quality movie rentals at a reasonable price along with the added bonus of the ability to play my music collection and view my family picture collection. And now, more and more, AppleTV offers movies and TV shows in HD.

The first time you hook the AppleTV up to your iTunes (PC or Apple) you have to enter a code in so both devices are aware of each other. It’s not hard; it’s just a new step for most folks. The instructions are very clear as to how it’s done so I’m not going to go through all that. I just remember having to help folks do that over the phone over the last year. It’s not critical you hook the AppleTV to your iTunes but it sure is worth the effort.

If you have iTunes on a PC or Apple computer you can synchronize all the pictures you want to see on your TV: music and playlists, audio and video podcasts, movies and TV shows. The Apple iTunes library for music is huge as we all know and the selection of movies is expanding rapidly. You can also convert existing movies to AppleTV, but you’ll need additional software if you’re into that. A weekly updated list of Apple downloads (for purchase or rental) is available.

The most unexpected excitement from the AppleTV box was the instant access to movie trailers that are about to be released.  In our house, we’ve been known to sit in the theater room about once a month and comb through all the new movie trailers and just make an evening of it. What a HUGE missed opportunity on Apple’s part, by not offering some way to select movies to be notified about when released for purchase and/or rental. I’d be delighted.

The unit is small and easy to transport. I’ve taken it over to my girlfriend’s apartment to use with her Sony LCD TV. I only needed an HDMI cable and a network cable. I could have even gone wireless without the network cable, but I did not want to mess with typing in the security code.

All in all, the box covers a lot of ground for what I want to do at home and it leverages what I have in place for home entertainment. Viewing and storing family pictures, watching and listening to podcasts from the iTunes library and listening to my extensive music collection: all make the AppleTV a wonderful addition to my theater room. I can listen to music in the background during parties, while cooking and so forth. I really enjoy watching the family photos float by in the screen saver mood. Or I can just turn the LCD projector off and let my playlists work its way through music that is a good match for the mood of the evening. Now if you’re new to podcast then you owe it to yourself to explore that area in iTunes. Most of the audio and video podcasts are free and there is a rich selection of topics.

Renting and Buying Movies and TV Shows:

The process of renting a movie is simple. You scroll around the movie artwork and find one you’re interested in. Watch a preview and then select your rental option – SD (standard definition) is called RENT. Currently charges range from $0.99 ( specials) to $3.99. Though I find SD rentals look quite good, my eyes have grown accustomed to the higher resolution of HD. Most of the newer movies released are HD and the price usually varies from $3.99 to $4.99. You will notice many of the older movies in their library are not available in HD ( also issue for Netflix and VUDU).

If you have a fast Internet connection  (say 2MB/sec or more preferably) then movies will start playing within a minute or two. AppleTV lets you know when it’s time to start playing the movie. You can watch while it downloads the remaining part of the movie in the background. It’s all quite seamless. Frankly, it’s remarkable to have an HD movie start playing just 1-2 minutes after you start it up.

What you get for the price you pay – renting means you have 30 days to watch the movie. But once you hit play, the movie activates with Apple servers and the clock starts ticking. When that happens, you have 24 hours to complete your viewing of the movie.   There is no option of extending the move rental (VUDU does btw) which at times would be nice but not a show stopper.

Purchasing is just as simple as renting and basically the same process except you get to download it and keep it forever (storage space needed, of course). Movies are typically priced at $14.99. AppleTV also has quite a rich selection of TV shows you can purchase. No renting available here. Wish you could. TV shows are generally $.99 and discounts are available if you buy an entire set of episodes for a given year. We’ve done this at home, but it’s just not very price effective. We watch them once and that’s it. I did the math and it was cheaper to rent from BlockBuster, especially if we are just trying to get totally caught up on a TV show with multiple years of episodes. However, for an occasional gotta see now, AppleTV provides instant gratification and many of the TV shows are in HD. They look beautiful.

A small aside about HD. HD is high definition meaing 1280x 720 (horizontal and vertical vertical resolution for each frame of the movie).  However AppleTV is not true native HD. It would need to be  1920×1080 which is only available from VUDU online (or Blu-Ray DVDs). Keep in mind that true HD (1920×1080) is just not practical to stream and the file size for downloading is huge – taking hours. We’ll get more into this when we talk about the VUDU system that provides an answer here (along with their tradeoffs). The question is can you live without that extra resolution? You’ll find in my next review of the Netflix Roku box that their movie choice very week when it comes to finding HD selections and their SD and HD movies still lack a little something to me in the image quality and depth or feel of the movie.  I can’t quite put my finger on it. However Netflix does have the widest selection of movies from all genres online. So, like all things in life, there are tradeoffs. I’ll discuss this more with Netflix and VUDU. Each has their own approach that is different than what you get with AppleTV.

One final note on the selection of movies, most new movies are showing up on all three platforms these days. Note I said ‘most’.  And when you start getting the hankering to see older movies you’ve missed, this is where it gets dicey trying to find which vendor has it (or doesn’t have it).  I’ll close with my impression that Apple’s HD (and frankly most of the SD ) movies ‘look’ awesome.  Eventually your first choice becomes HD (not always offered) over time as your eyes get accustomed to the fine smooth grain nature of HD resolution. Apple’s 720 HD is perfectly acceptable in my theater room and obviously looks great on a 40″ LCD TV. Generally Apple HD movies also have 5.1 audio and adds one more enjoyable dimension to the experience of watching a movie.

What I like About AppleTV:

In short I like the the ability to add in my own music, my own movies and download podcasts. But most of all there is just something about the way AppleTV displays movies with such clarity.  Even if I rent a standard definition movie (given it’s fairly recent (say in the last 10 years), that SD movie will still be beautiful to watch on my 92″ theater screen. It’s not HD but somehow these movies are easy on the eyes even with upscaling to fill the screen. The Sony LCD projector upscales it and it almost look like HD and of course on a 40″ LCD or Plasma TV it will look  remarkable.  AppleTV does a remarkable job of making media look and sound good. And using the AppleTV with that little remote is smooth and easy.  You can’t  go wrong owning one and you can likely pick one up on Criagslist now. I’m not saying it’s for everyone but there is a lot to like about it especially if you’re into seeing your own images, movies and music on your TV or in your theater room.

Other things you can do on AppleTV is view YouTube videos. It’s not something I spend  time doing but the kids like it.  You can also interface your collection of images on FLICKR and MobileME but that’s not something I do either.

One particular note is AppleTV provides a preview of everything for sale or rent, no exceptions. The Netflix interface allows this if you drag a laptop into the living room (or theater room) and bring up their website. VUDU provides previews of their movies and TV shows for rent or purchase, BUT for some reason I find an annoying number of things do not show the preview button. It never occurred to me you would NOT be able to preview what you’re about to rent or buy online so it’s a mystery to my why VUDU is not as complete as AppleTV. Maybe I’ll have more answers on that with the VUDU review in few days.

What I Wish was Different:

I’d like to see a wider movie selection. Seems like they are putting more online but to me many of the AppleTV choices seem to be ‘politically correct’ versus Netflix where you can find just about anything you want with regards to movies and TV shows.  But when it bcomes to viewing a movie (especially one released in the last 5 years), it  is in HD and 5.1 audio and I’m going to pay for the movie on AppleTV before the other two options of Netflix and Vudu.  Yes, VUDU provides similar quality (even better in some cases) but they are also about a $5 more. We’ll get to VUDU in a few days.

The point is none of the boxes provide the answer to all my wishes or likely yours. Sometimes I just want to watch something off the beaten path like a Tony Bennett documentary that is only available on Netflix but where the quality is only acceptable and not nearly as pristine and sharp as it would be on AppleTV (or Vudu). But that is what I wanted to watch so I was willing to be less picky about image quality and just let myself be entertained. But I digress…

My biggest gripe is the same one I have with all three vendors. I want the option to see special features that comes with most DVD rentals. You don’t get that with movie streaming (nothing, nada, never). And you can’t even get anyone to tell you why or when or why not.  Doesn’t seem like a programming issue. I’m guessing it’s all part of the complexities that come with licensing movies for online view.

The other wish/gripe is to see movies immediately when they are released to the movie houses. I’m guessing it would mean paying a higher price for the first month or two and then it would drop back. But so what. Have you been the movies in a while? For two people it can be nearly $30 by the time you pay for a drink and popcorn. I’d gladly pay a higher rental fee to see a first run movie say a week after it’s released. But again, I’m sure there are very difficult licensing arrangements for the existing infrastructure of movie houses. And of course the ongoing  fear of making movies to easy for folks to pirate. Sigh … all of this in time will change I assume. It’s only been a year since AppleTV was released and we could so easily rent movies.

As the competition heats up in 2009 for online movie (and TV) watching, I hope AppleTV keeps up with the crowd by providing more content from different sources.  There is a company called BOXEE that is doing some amazing things with AppleTV, if you’re interested in loading their code on your box. It doesn’t hurt to do that but it’s a bit of a hassle to sort out exactly how to install it. I have multiple friends that gave it a try and gave up.  If you’re in the Austin area and you have BOXEE running let me know. I’ll offer up a free meal for helping me to get it going as part of this test.

Finally, my biggest gripe with AppleTV has to do with quality of service. For some reason, ever since the November 2008 time frame (it’s now early February 2009), myself and others in Austin have been experiencing problems with movie trailers and movie downloads being slow VERY slow; often having to stop and restart. It can be a huge buzz kill on a Friday night when all you want to do is start watching a movie. This has happened multiple times to me, to my girl friend at her place and to others located around town.  I know it’s not a network issue, because when those interruptions of service occur I try streaming a movie from Netflix or VUDU and they ‘always’ work with no problems. So, Apple – get on this issue!

My biggest wish is the ability to tag movie trailers on AppleTV so I’m notified when they hit the theaters or better yet when Apple gets them for rental. This would definitely encourage greater use of my AppleTV (or any of the boxes really).   User interface with vendors is sadly lacking.  Netflix does offer the ability to tag movies long before they are released, but you are not notified when they become available for viewing.

Ending:

I love my AppleTV. I’m hoping and feeling a bit worried AppleTV isn’t a front a center product for Apple so upgrades and improvements might not be forthcoming. But they are continuing to add a lot of new movies each week, so for now I’ll continue using it provided the networking/quality of service issue is resolved. More and more I find myself using Netflix and Vudu for instant watching gratification due to AppleTV’s speed of download issues.

Next up – Netflix

Tom

Almost a year ago Apple released an update for AppleTV that allowed users to rent movies from home. I was quite excited about this along with the other developments that were occurring already in the area of streaming movies for viewing at home. I recall not renting a movie from Blockbuster until late May because I was so smitten with AppleTV at the time and very proud of their continued boldness in convincing audio and now the movie makers to change their licensing arrangements to allow streaming.

But a lot has changed in that this last year. I’ve always been a bit of audiophile and serious home theater hobbyist. I’m going to give you the set up I have for testing (and of course my viewing pleasure) and pass along what I’m seeing and experiencing with these three companies offering streaming movies. I purchased all the gear myself, I have no affiliation with any of them, and I’m not a paid reviewer (not opposed to that but for these articles, I’m just telling you what’s important to me to express). So my bias will be of course ‘ my bias’ meaning the way I tend to look at things as a geek and avid movie watcher.

I have two rooms. One is your typical living room with a couch and a 40″ Toshiba LCD TV that support 1080i (not P). I have the TivoHD in there which was recently upgraded automatically on December to provide Netflix Streamings. You gotta love devices that update over the Internet with such ease. I have an AppleTV box in there too which I hope to load BOXEE on after I’m done with these reviews.

I have taken each box over to my girlfriend’s home to see how well they perform there. For example the AppleTV has (late 2008 early 2009) terrible delays in downloading movies and even movie trailers, even with a 6MB/sec download speed. There is just nothing like trying to watch a movie on Friday night only to have it stutter and stop and take hours to finish the download. This has happened repeatedly in multiple locations in Austin. That’s the kind of thing you just do not want to have go wrong with services like streaming movies.

The theater room is a converted formal dining room. On one end is a 92″ screen with black curtains all around. I’m using a Sony VPL-VW50 which is a full 1080p LCD projector and is extremely quiet. This room has Yamaha Receciver RX-V2600 with Sony Bluray DVD, Netflix Roku box, AppleTV and the Vudu box all hooked up via HDMI. I’m using a 5.1 Paradigm speaker set up in the theater room.

I’m saving the Vudu box for last because I’ve had it the least amount of time. Once you start playing around with the different boxes you see where they shine and where they fall short of my expectations (or my personal wishes).  It’s important to remember that 3 months from now some of the points in this review could change.

My biggest complaint with all three services is the lack of special features that are almost always on a DVD. I miss getting to know more about the director and the actors or the sreenwriter(s). Often films have a rich history around the creation of the story and the filming process. I guess I’m in the minority on this as I don’t hear others complaining. I’m also wishing/hoping someday the licensing Gods of the movie theaters will let us download first run movies right to our own home theater. I’m willing to pay a premium to see them that way because, let’s face it, we’re already paying a premium to see it at the theater. But of course, it’s all more complicated then I suspect the public really knows. All we can do is keep up the banter about wanting more and sooner or later, we’ll get it (I hope).

Feel free to chime in here on these issues and more as I roll out the various reviews.

Next up, AppleTV.

Tom