Koo’s Corner

I can’t think of a more amazing play. Clocking in at over a full minute, this 15 lateral game winning score were live be forever immortalized on Youtube and various sports countdown shows.

You don’t have to be a tech guru to know that the Apple Iphone has been one of most commercially successful products of 2007 while the Sony PS3 has struglled to perpetuate Sony’s strangle hold on the video game console market. As owners of both products I wanted to bring some perspective for why the discrepancy between two products that I both adore.

First off I wanted to say that I don’t think pricing is the key reason why the PS3 has stumbled, as 1.5 million people have purchased Iphones despite cheaper alternatives. To me its 100% marketing execution. Check out this video below which mocks Sony’s marketing efforts in a song called “How to kill a Brand”

The Iphone and PS3 are actually very similar. Both initially launched at $500 and play videos, music, photos, with ability to browse the internet. Both offer extensive functionality besides its key use as either a gaming console or cell phone, justifying their high price tag for the devices. However Apple took it upon itself to really show off the Iphone’s robust functionality and user friendly interface. Sadly Sony didn’t, thus it was up toconsumers to hit stores and the internet to learn more about the expensive gaming console. Interest never matriculated in the PS3, but it sure did in the Wii as typical non gamers were now taking a hard look at this fun new product.

Below are 2 examples of how Apple has taken it upon themselves to educate consumers on their product and 2 examples of Sony missing the mark with their initial ad campaigns.

Apple has since refreshed/reinforced these ads with a new round of advertisements with Iphone owners describing various success stories with their Iphones in front of a black screen.

Here are Sony’s first ads for the PS3. Notice that not only do you not learn jack about the product, but also how its creepy and more likely to make you change the channel.

Essentially Sony was unsuccessful in creating any consumer buzz. Although PS3 shortages were documented all over the country, it became apparent that the PS3 hype lacked longevity mainly due to a marketing campaign that failed to differentiate their product as was as educate the main stream market of the value and benefits of the PS3. Its really a shame too as countless friends of man have marveled at how cool of a product it is.

Below is a link to my weekly column on Bucknuts. If your not a Buckeye fan just scroll half way down as the second half of the article is not OSU focused and is a good read about what is going on the national scene.

http://www.bucknuts.com/news/story.php?article=2060

There is a great slate of games this weekend in addition to the Thursday night thriller that just wrapped up.

The Buckeyes have a tough game on the road at night. Update- Buckeyes smashed. See video below

10/25 Update… Price dropped from $400-250 for only 1 day I am told.

It was a about 6 months ago I read David Pogue’s New York Times article about the soon to be released Vudu Box. For months I eagerly awaited the release of the Vudu, a small box that allows you to watch over 5000 movies with just a click of a button.

This past month Vudu officially started shipping their small box (about the size of a dictionary) with the first wave of pre-orders reaching their destinations over the past couple weeks. It’s my belief that this great product could revolutionize the movie rental industry as consumers will now have the option to watch “the right movie, right now”, only requiring a fast internet connection. Convenience doesn’t come cheap though as a box will set you back $400, with movies running $1-5 with an option to buy movies for what seemed like lesser than DVD prices.

$400 seemed a little steep, especially for never have seen one of the Vudu Boxes. Luckily for me, Vudu is a Silicon Valley company who is happy enough to give you a demo if you stop by. With HD content right around the corner (currently their titles are better than DVD quality because Vudu scales up the resolution ) and the ability to use a wireless bridge, I took up the Vudu demo offer that was extended my way.

After speaking with some members from the Customer Care team, I was in the official Vudu demo room which consists of a flat screen a couple of comfy chairs and the smallish box that I had read so much about. The demo mainly consisted of me playing with the remote while trying not to drool on it as I basked in all the glory that was Vudu. Below are some of my initial impressions.

- Remote A+
Its a freaking 4 button remote that includes a Blackberry like wheel that also can be clicked. In a nutshell this thing is so easy to use that I am confident that both of my parents could easily utilize Vudu without needing to consult me for tech support. Took me less than a minute to be confident and proficient with the remote. Simple is better and they nailed it.

- User Interface A
There is a button similar to the Iphone home button, that allows you to go to the Vudu home screen if you wander too far. Movies can be searched by title, genre, actor, director and be sorted by alphabetical order, imdb ranking (huge plus), as well as release date.

The UI is sharp, simple, elegant, and clean. Movie posters and images are on almost every screen with information on each movie within Vudu’s library. When you select a certain title the screen consists of a short description, some movie artwork, pricing information on the title, as well as pictures of the director and main actors. You are then able to browse the directors and actors other titles in addition to selecting movies that are deemed very close to your selected title.

The bottom line is that its easy to find titles that you want to watch. Its just as easy to browse through the library to select a title that fits your taste and mood.

Picture quality and download B+
Vudu movies use a hybrid system of ensuring your movie can play from start to finish without any interruption or buffering. Depending on your connection speed, movies play within 5 seconds of being selected and usually are fully downloaded in 10-20 minutes. Of course this will change once Vudu releases HD titles which is believed to be right around the corner but I am confident the Vudu guys have the speed and technology to overcome the fat media file size that comes from HD Content.

Although there is no HD content at this point, all movies are DVD quality and in fact better. Vudu upscales movies if you utilize the HDMI output to your HD TV. With HD content right around the corner in addition to the likely addition of External storage to build your Vudu collection, I signed on the dotted line and ordered Vudu shortly after seeing this great product.

My take on Vudu
The product is awesome but how are Vudu’s prospects as a company? I did a case study on Tivo’s initial launch and see some of the same hurdles Tivo had to overcome in Vudu’s way. Vudu is an unknown entity at this point and has limited distribution (only Magnolia is signed on as a retail distributor) and will have to earn the business of consumer electronic early adopters before making deep inroads in the massive market of movie watchers who have high speed internet connections.

However I think Vudu is on the right track to overcome these hurdles. First off if anyone benefits from the Blu-Ray vs DVD-HD format war, its got to be Vudu. This Christmas consumers can choose between

a) a HD Blu Ray player that costs $400 and up that has a 60% chance of becoming the HD format of the future

b) a HD DVD player that costs $300 and up that has a 40% chacnce of becoming the HD format of the future.

C) a Vudu box that costs $400 that can deliever 5000 movies with just one click (deals with all major studios with more movies being added every week)

Of course I opted for option C as I am confident the Vudu team will get the word out to the masses. They are confident they got a winner and let the product win me over rather than giving me a sales pitch during the demo.

From a marketing perspective I think it would be interesting to see Vudu in high end hotels like the W or Hotel Nikko as this is light years ahead of anything that one would find as a hotel pay per view system. More mainstream distribution is also a must but I am sure its in the works as the concept of Slingbox was sold to retailers, and I think Vudu has a superior product that will be in higher demand. I would also stress product marketing similar to the Iphone where product functionality and ease of use is articulated as people need to know exactly what Vudu does and how easy it is to use. It would also be funny to see marketing campaigns aimed to show the social situations where Vudu can be a life saver. For instance ads showing

a) the age old ploy to get a girl to come over to watch a movie after a night of partying. “What movie?” “I got Vudu”…. and they lived happily ever after at least for that night.

b) A boyfriend on the verge of getting killed for renting Robocop for their anniversary.”Got Vudu”

C) a sudden urge to watch a movie, but wait….. the rental store is closed because it’s too late.

You could even show off these type of videos in the advertisements in theaters right before the previews.

So with all that I am anxiously waiting my own Vudu box and will be back to report my initial reaction to the small box that will likely transition my bar tab to my Vudu tab, so in that regard this might even be considered a healthy purchase.

Its been awhile since their was a World Series worth watching. Regardless of the fact that the Red Sox 2004 world series win was indeed historic, the past 3 Fall classics have seen two 4 game sweeps and a pretty lackluster 5 game series between the Cards and Tigers.

Even if your not a sports fan you have to take notice of one the most historic and unprecedented underdog stories that has led the Colorado Rockies to the World Series. Long story short, the Rockies chances of making the playoffs were on life support with just two weeks to go in the season. Actually scratch that, the Colorado Rockies were on their regular season death bed with talk of funeral arrangements, organ transplants, with a hand about to jerk out the plug.

Miraculously the mediocre Rockies played perfect baseball the final two weeks of the season only losing one game down the stretch. But would it be enough? The Padres did their part by losing 4 game in a row with a week left in the season but rallied to get within one game of clinching the last spot into the playoffs. They never got it. Shockingly the games best closer, Trevor Hoffman, was unable to notch a save in the second to last game of the year to secure the playoff spot.

3 days later in a Wild Card tie breaker, Hoffman had the chance to redeem himself with a two run lead in the the 13th inning against the pesky Rockies. The Rockies had defied incredible odds by winning 13 of its last 14 games and were able to overcome two of the best pitchers in all of baseball (Jake Peavy and Hoffman) to cap an amazing run into the playoffs.

I wanted to write about them after that historic win, one that may go down as one of the greatest games of the decade, but chose to wait it out. 7 games later and 7 wins later the Rockies are now in the World Series. They have now won 20 of their last 21 games and find themselves 4 wins away from the most remarkable and unlikely championships in the history of modern sports. Essentially a month ago I would have said that the new television Cavemen would have been more likely to receive an Emmy than the Rockies were to win the world series.

The Rockies now find themselves in a familiar position as underdogs as Vegas has them as a pretty big underdog to the Red Sox with many weary of how the Rockies will handle the new challenges of reacting to a full week off of a scheduled games in addition to weather conditions affecting their ability to practice.

My head tells me that this fairy tale story will most likely end with disappointment. Regardless I will tune in and so will Millions who weren’t planning on it as they will find themselves rooting for potentially one of the greatest sports stories of my life. The clock may strike midnight at any second for the Rockies, but I think many sports fans will tune into to see if the Rockies can add on to an already miraculous past month.

I have always been intrigued with Larry David since my initial viewing of Curb Your Enthusiasm over 4 years ago. To me Curb Your Enthusiasm lends the opportunity to investigate the idiosyncrasies  of the real life George Costanza, one of the most infamous television characters ever.

Although a television show centered around one of the most neurotic and enigmatic minds of our time can be somewhat painful to watch, Curb is an entertaining and pessimistic perspective of all the trivial social, cultural, and physocological perplexities that complicate everyday life. Bottom line, there is a small Larry David in all of us and Curb thrives as we enjoy watching a forever agitated, empowered, and enraged version of ourselves battle the mundane drawbacks of everyday life combined with Larry’s unique social life as a prominent Hollywood figure.

I found it interesting that Larry David’s wife in the show seemingly was a very accurate portrayal his now X wife Laurie David who filed for divorce in June. For those of you who don’t know , Laurie David was the former Booking Manager for the David Letterman show and is a very prominent fund raiser for the NRDC.  The most interesting item about the former couple is that they have two daughters that have never been mirrored in Curb.

I would have loved to see Larry David the father in Curb but am thrilled that Curb has included his real life divorce into this year’s storyline. Filming wrapped this past April according to published reports yet the divorce filing occurred in late June. Its my contention that Larry David must have seen the divorce likely on the horizon and chose to incorporate it into a half finished season of Curb that really wasn’t going anywhere fast in a season full of misses sprinkled in with a few hits.

Video of final straw

This article gives a great breakdown of how Larry David in just under 25 minutes forever altered the direction of Curb and even showcased several entertaining scenes of post divorce life for Larry (dating, friend alienating, jealous situations).

Since I heard of the David divorce, I was curious to see if this storyline would peak into next year’s Curb or even affect Larry’s willingness base an entire show on his real life. Sunday’s episode answered both questions and am just dying to see how the now single Larry David will survive his now found status as a rich, bald, old, freshly divorced bachelor. Should be awesome.

This week’s winner was a Fedex Kinkos commercial that I have seen before but has been reappearing a lot of late. Witty, simple, and memorable.

With the recent release of his new book, “I am America, and So Can You”, Stephen Colbert has decided to make a run or a mock run at the 2008 presidency. Google it or just read the AP article found here .

I watched as Colbert made his announcement and then brought in a political analyst to discuss his entry. Obviously people’s first reaction will be, seriously? While although its not 100% clear, Colbert did say he would only run in the South Carolina primary which will take place on January 26th, 2008. Iowa, Michiga, and Nevada will all have their primaries before then so its unlikely that this is nothing more than an experiment, marketing campaign, and a crafty ploy to bring an entertaining perspective to the democratic process.

Colbert has a little more than three months to build his television personality into a presidential candidate. I think its going to be interesting to see… (scroll below this sweet picture i made)

a) How far Colbert, his writers, Comedy Central intend to take this.

b) Will Colbert actually have a legitimate campaign (take political donations, make commercials, release youtube vidoes, go on talk shows, attend debates)

c) If this will affect the other candidates (my guess is yes). Colbert plans on running in both the republican and democratic (Didn’t even know this was possible)

d) Will this bring more attention to the election and how could added interest from typically politically apathetic citizens affect the election going forward?

All good things to ponder. Should be fun.

This commercial of the week goes to BMW’s new 3 Series ad. This advertisement really strikes a chord with BMW enthusiasts while also being memorable and catchy to the the average viewer. Simple yet affective.

Ever since picking up my part time writing position for bucknuts.com, I have constantly wondered if I had the skill, knowledge, and ability to be a full time college football writer. After reading Jon Wilner’s top 25, its pretty apparent it doesn’t take much and that this career path is indeed very possible.

This morning I looked at the AP top 25 rankings and noticed that a) 1 idiot voted for Arizona State as the best team in the country and b) an even bigger idiot voted LSU (who just lost) as the number one team in the country. This evening I found out the identity of the bigger idiot. No other than San Jose Mercury News’ (my local paper) writer Jon Wilner

Check out his blog where he discusses his rankings and the rationale behind them. Here are some of the most glaring anomalies from this college football “expert”.

IQ < 75

1) LSU is number one…. Seriously?

2) South Carolina somehow jumps the likes of Ohio State and Oklahoma for #2

3) Wilner’s hard on for the SEC is blatant with a whopping 5 SEC teams ranked in the top 12

4) 2 loss Florida and Auburn teams are ahead of USC

5) Ohio State destroys Kent State and is the clear number one, yet Wilner drops them from number 6 to number 7. Somehow LSU stays at the top?

6) Virginia Tech omitted from the top 15 despite their only loss being to the his heartthrob LSU.

7) Missouri in the top ten?

8 ) Wilner gets an AP vote and a paycheck