It’s the Mirror Neurons: Put your TV on your Ipod Part II

The mirror neurons are basically what happens in your brain where anything you've seen/experienced in real life -- let's say a 50" plasma screen TV -- where even if you see the commercial of a 50" plasma screen TV on a 20" television, your brain more or less processes it in your mind as if it is actually a 50" plasma screen. Mirror Neurons are also the thing where if you see someone eating chocolate your brain automatically (without you even thinking about it) begins processing the same chemicals as if you were actually eating it. And of course, porn. Porn works because of the mirror neurons. And for that matter, TV. TV fires the mirror neurons. Advertisers and programmers alike capitalize on this.

And this is the beauty of science and observation. People capitalized on mirror neurons for years without ever even knowing what they are. It was already a science. But increasingly, armed with more and more data about how the brain works, they will probably get it to an exact science. A lot of benefit will come from that, and not just on the advertising and entertaining fronts.

But right now – already, the mirror neurons are why even on your ipod's small screen it doesn't matter, and when the new generation of ipods with the bigger screen like the iPhone (I am thinking helplessly of some way to put a Pacific Catch reference in here, but I can't make it work) it will matter even less.

Today I walked over to Houstons on the Embarcadero to meet another out of work slacker for lunch (she's a married out of work slacker with 2 kids though, so she's nowhere near the slacker I am) and when I use my feet as a mode of transportation, I try to be early if I can so I will have10 minutes to cool off. So I sat at the bar guzzling diet Coke and tried out my new "kick-stand" case, a little accessory that makes it easy for you to stand the iPod upright.

I decided that for Season 5 of 24, I would watch it exclusively on the iPod. Let me rant on this one more time. I bought it off iTunes. The quality is really great. If it's not DVD quality running on the bigscreen, my eyes can't tell the difference. On a 2" screen it looks really good as well. But, I paid more for that on iTunes than I would have buying the DVDs at Best Buy. And those come with commentary.

Steve Jobs needs iTunes to be competitive with BestBuy, Target, Walmart, Amazon, etc. And not just on price. They need to figure out subtitles, cut scenes, commentary, all of the extras. A good first step would just be selling it for less than the superior, vastly more expensive to make and distribute physical product. If Apple wants iTunes/iStore/"Steve's Little Hobby™" Apple TV to be a player, the digital media must compete fully with the physical media or be noticeably less expensive than the physical media. Right now, neither is the case, I get less at a higher price. I imagine if I had Steve Jobs' real e-mail address and whined about it, he'd come back with something like, "Hey man, I already told you, it's just a hobby."

But it so isn't. Trust me on this one people.The iPod and the iPhone are the only reason he's even still at Apple. They ARE cool and fun and new. Mac and the software tools – they're the hobby, not to the company, but to Steve, ok since Steve is the company…. At least that is sure the look of things.

I'm fine with Steve focusing on Apple TV, that's where I think the focus should be. Huge growth market or slow growth market. Which hobby would you pick?

Sooooo…I'm waiting for my friend to show up and guzzling Diet Coke and watching 24. Because I am watching season 5 exclusively on the iPod, it's going slower than normal because I only watch when I'm out. I haven't made a huge habit of watching the 2" screen at home and have only ever watched the iPod and bed once. I decided I did not want to get into that habit (I haven't had a tv in my bedroom for going on 10 years).

I know this is all a long build up and sadly right now I'm in phase one of my "writing", which is just writing down what I think. I am practicing my thinking. Phase 2 will commence in the middle of July when I begin practicing my editing.

I'm watching 24 on the iPod on a 2" screen looking at the "command center" of the Counter Terrorist Unit where they have some huge 100" jumbotron screen – and on the 2" iPod, my brain still spatially processes the information as if I was looking at a huge 100" jumbotron. That is why I believe portable video will be a fairly well adopted technology in the long run . I consider right now to be the "very early adopter" phase I say that because theoretically I live in one of the top-ten gadget conscious zip codes, and I'm the only one I've ever seen watching portable video in public on a portable device (note, I have seen several people watching video on laptops – I'm talking about stuff you put in your pocket).

I'm sure that will all change the night of June 29, when the fools who just stood in line to buy the iPhone cross the street to stand in line at Pacific Catch. I hope Apple will just give the fools that can't wait a phone with Pirates of the Caribbean already on it so they'll have something to do while they wait in line for their calamari.

Satisying My Pacific Catch & iPhone Curiosity

it's not satisfied yet, but if you want the commercials go here. The whole thing just fascinates me. the most fascinating thing is this: why aren't Apple and Pacific Catch themselves very, high (say #1 and 2) on the list of results if you do a Google search on "pacific catch iphone"? I'm talking straight up Google search here, the big Kahuna, not Google "Blog Search".

I am now in the top 5 search results with these silly posts. But if it's giving people what they want (the commercials) I can understand why Goog would give me relevancy. Actually I DO understand why. There is a higher correlation than normal for people searching on "pacific catch iphone" to be more interested in my other content. On some of those searches people wound up looking at 4 or 5 pages on my site and stuck around a while. I'm all good with being #4 & 5 with my little anonymous blog, but Pacific Catch's OWN site (which certainly DOES mention the iPhone now) is on the THIRD PAGE of results. By then I was too tired to find out where Apple's site ranked.

But I am wondering why even Google, from both a relevancy and an editorial bias wouldn't rank Pacific Catch much higher. I'm a little upset here because you know how I feel about geniuses who have synergy and don't use it, but Pacific Catch DID leverage the synergy and still is on the 3rd page of results. I find it...odd.

More iPhone and Pacific Catch

if you're looking for the iPhone commercials go here. But, the synergy between the iPhone and Pacific Catch takes a turn towards future synergy. They're breaking ground on the future home of the Apple Store on Chestnut Street which will be about a block away from Pacific Catch.

I'm excited about the Apple Store. I anticipate its layout will be about 10% dedicated to Apple Computers and Software products and about 90% dedicated to iPods, iPhones and Apple TV.

Gaming the System: Pacific Catch and the iPhone

There are a lot of people searching on the following search: pacific catch iphone. Aside from my ad campaign experiment, which did generate a lot of traffic from the search engines, the #1 way my blog has been accessed via Google searches is: pacific catch iphone .

If you are reading this that’s probably why. I am trying to guess WHY so many people are doing this search. Perhaps it is just to see the commercial that ran for the iphone. If that is what you were looking for, you can see it here on Apple’s site in Quicktime, or here on Youtube.

If that’s NOT why you are doing the search would you please either leave a comment or e-mail me at robert.seidman at gmail dot com? I’m really curious!

There is a Cingular store (where the iPhone will be sold on 6/29) very close to Pacific Catch. I am also curious to see whether Pacific Catch does record business on June 29. But I’m curious about everything. I still like the chili encrusted calamari at Betelnut better if you happen to be in the neighborhood already.

Put Your TV on Your Ipod (My e-mail to Steve Jobs)

From: Robert Seidman
Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2007 4:28 PM
To: Steve Jobs
Subject: Put Your TV on Your iPod!

Dear Mr. Jobs,

I have watched with great interest just how smooth you’re being with your little “hobby”. I’m on to you though!

I think it’s prudent to say exactly what you’re saying for a lot of reasons. Primarily, this time around Apple showed up to the party much earlier than it did with MP3. In the space of “home media servers” or “get your media wherever you want it”, these are very early days. Things with “get your media wherever you want it” are effectively where MP3 was back in 1998 or 1999 (in the dark days before iPods). People are screwing around with home media and streaming, and putting video on their iPods and other devices. There are many products you can buy, but it isn’t sweeping the nation yet. For similar reasons as why MP3 was such a pain in the butt in the late ‘90s– it’s still too complex. There’s much more broadband these days, but on the other hand the file size of an episode of 24 downloaded from iTunes is more than ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY TIMES LARGER than the file size of your typical 4 minute song(mp3).

I’m the only person I know – and this in the San Francisco Marina district – home of Pacific Catch calamari on Chestnut St (and really, you need to try the chili encrusted calamari at Betelnut on Union St. – way, way better!) and future home of most iPhones/capita – with all that, I am the only guy I know who turned my iPod into an incredible video on demand product with more than a week’s worth of continuous programming. I’m also interested in getting my media wherever I want it and to this end have played with Orb, Slingbox, Location Free player, Tivo, Media Centers, media extenders, etc.

I get that all AppleTV, your little hobby, is today is just another media extender albeit one that was designed to work with iTunes. But I’m pretty sure you’re not being forthcoming at all about your true plans for AppleTV. I think it’s smart, and I don’t see the upside in you fully disclosing. But I’m on to you.

It’s smart for you to say it’s a hobby right now. It lowers expectations, puts the content producers and the Comcasts of the world at ease and allows you to fly under the radar. By the time version 2.0 comes out, the language from you will probably change to “It’s still a hobby, but one we’re very passionate about. Will we replace Comcast? Of course not! We just hope to be able to offer Comcast customers something that will make their Comcast experience even a little bit better! We’ll work with Comcast as much as possible.”

By version 3 of Apple TV (~ 5 years from now) though – it’s no hobby. it will have a DVR, you’ll be able to do pay-per-view on it, you’ll be able to order content directly via the AppleTV (instead of needing to go to iTunes first) and, you will be able to receive, over the internet some kind of television programming package that DIRECTLY competes with the Comcasts and DirectTVs). For LESS money than you pay Comcast or DirectTV. Adding massive bandwidth to support that is much cheaper than launching satellites or laying your own cable. Apple has no legacy infrastructure – a great position to be in.

Even by version 3, Comcast isn’t exactly going to be crapping its pants, but it will be out of the realm of hobby and it will be a real business.

Separately I believe something else will happen. The iPod that is in the forthcoming iPhone will ultimately be released as some sort of stand alone iPod that doesn’t have a phone. It will have the wider screen and wifi though. Probably a bigger hard drive will replace the phone components. I believe this product, to the degree there is a standard for “portable video”, will be the standard.

5 years from now there may well be 10 million of those yet-to-be-released iPods in the world. And one of the selling points of AppleTV by then will be: “Put your TV on your iPod…easily!”

Connecting all the dots, Apple is going to be a major player in the “home media” space and in the space that’s of particular interest to me “all your media, wherever you want it”. I don’t think there are that many people like me today, but in 5 years from now there will be at least a million people like me. A million people who are spending ~$2000 a year for video media between Cable, DVD, movies, etc . -- this does not include the ~$600/year for high speed internet or any of the hardware gadgets..

In 5 years, I imagine I’ll get some kind of e-mail from you saying, “Look, just give ME that $2000 and I’ll give you EVERYTHING you already have, plus – it will automatically be on your iPod either by synching or streaming over Wifi. I’m going to make it all very easy for you!

Where do I sign? That’s what I’ll be asking along with the 999,999 other people like me. And so what, even if I am wrong by one order of magnitude and 5 years…who cares? Not you, I imagine.

And unbelievably, hovering near $125, I want to go LONG AAPL. Word to your mom, that’s bad news at least in the short term for AAPL. If you want to trade, do exactly OPPOSITE of what I say. I shorted AAPL @ $52 last July and covered at $60. With my special brand of Seidman Math, seeing AAPL at $125 I still think I’m a genius for having he sense to cut my losses fast. Should’ve road it up though – duh. But I see the future – my version of it anyway, which can’t be that far off from yours really – and in that future I’d be long AAPL. Since YOU are the one with the special skills for “that vision thing”, I’m sure I’ll ultimately like YOUR version much, much better than my own.**

Hardware products like the iPhone, the iPod and personal computers are great. But monthly subscription revenue streams are very tantalizing. As is getting whatever media I want wherever I want it. Right now I’m the only one who cares. In the late 80s, I was one of the only people who cared that something like “email” existed. Ten years later the world caught up with me. It will catch up with me here too. It’s just a question of when.

I can’t wait.

Sincerely,

Robert Seidman
rseidman.blogspot.com
**anyone reading this who is not Steve Jobs: please don't make any investment or financial decisions on the basis of my commentary!! (remember I shorted AAPL @ $52 and it's @ $125!

Forget the Calamari at Pacific Catch!

i'm glad hardly anyone is reading this blog yet because if it ever generates any traffic I could get totally sucked into my love of analyzing data. The amount of data available for free to find out who is looking at your stuff and why is fascinating to me. That someone wound up on my blog by searching on “iphone calamari” or “iphone pacific catch” doesn’t surprise me much because it was probably my friend Bill G.

But “Lindsay lohan excess” landing on something I wrote, no way that was Bill G. and I’m almost aroused at the thought of someone finding my writing as a result of THAT search. In my own way I have been trying to understand the pop culture and I had a 20 month or so project with a B-Team Lindsay Lohan from my own neighborhood (she’s actually probably degenerated to the point of C-team at this point, but really hasn’t Lindsay too?). I do in fact consider myself one of the world’s leading experts on “Lindsay Lohan excess”.

I’d rather write much more about getting the Simpsons pre-loaded on iPods and Apple TVs, but I do have some bandwidth (and expertise) for the excess that is Lindsay and Paris.

But the fact of the matter is this: if you are already IN the neighborhood where Pacific Catch is, you don’t want THAT calamari. It’s a fine calamari, it is. But it just isn’t special. If you want special calamari and are already in the neighborhood go for the chili encrusted calamari at Betelnut, you won’t be sorry.

Rethinking the iPhone

Maybe I won't pass after all. This ad that ran tonight during 60 Minutes makes a very compelling case for this being the coolest gadget ever invented. And yeah, ok, so I know where Pacific Catch is already and don't need a whizbang GMaps application to find it since I live about 5 blocks away, but take a look at the ad and you'll probably want one too.