And if you like seeing how the head of a giant media conglomerate fares when he shows up on a taped comedy bit, pay attention around the 4:50 mark. That’s when NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke shows up for a few seconds to mug with a couple of his employees.

He’s not a dynamic actor, but then again, the part doesn’t require much. He just has to stand there as Poehler insults his network: “The new NBC: Nowhere to go but up.”

He’s good at it, too. Or at least, he’s good in this one, where he’s paired with a great interview subject.

Some good stuff here very early on, as Fey explains some basic rules of improv comedy, all of which seem completely foreign to the engineer interviewing her, and the ones in the audience.

And, if you like getting outraged about location tracking and don’t have a sense of humor, here’s some red meat for you. Check in around the 25 minute-mark, where Fey starts talking about her kid and mimes using an iPhone (later on she admits to using many Apple products).

Schmidt tells her she should be using Android. “We want you to use a more powerful phone,” he says. Then this:

Schmidt: “As your daughter gets older, you can keep track of your daughter with your phone. Trust me. You’re going to want our phones.”

Fey: “Ah. Subdermal chip, that you guys…

Schmidt: “That’s been proposed, but we’re not quite there yet.”

At a very first glance, some of the new rules imposed by the feds might seem like they require the new company to offer up programming to any online player that wants to pay up.

And technically, they do. But the new rules have plenty of conditions and limits. So the bottom line is you’re not much more likely to get access to “30 Rock” via YouTube, or CNBC via iTunes, then you were before.

The new FCC and DOJ rules do give, say, Google the ability to buy access to some of NBC U shows or channels. But it would require Comcast’s competitors to do the same thing, first.

That is: Unless the people who are reluctant to put their stuff online because they don’t want to upset Comcast go ahead and put their stuff online, Comcast doesn’t have to, either. So it’s theoretically possible, but not probable.

And if it happens, it will happen haltingly. If Viacom sells someone online access to its MTV lineup of reality shows, that might require Comcast to offer up its reality show lineup on Bravo. But it wouldn’t entitle an online outlet to the police procedurals on USA.

The government also gives the option to, say, Netflix, to set up shop as another cable operator, and buy access to all of NBC Universal’s programming. But it would have to buy all of it–just like Time Warner Cable and Cablevision do when they make a carriage deal for NBC U’s shows.

And again, Comcast wouldn’t have to do that unless its peers did. Which means that if Netflix really wanted to set up shop as a direct competitor of the cable guys, it can do so. But it would have to operate exactly like the cable guys, just like the satellite guys did when they entered the market a couple of decades ago.

So if Netflix, or Apple or whoever really wants to offer a full suite of cable programming, at cable prices, it could. But that would be very, very expensive: Analyst Rich Greenfield estimates that the bill for NBC U’s programming alone would run a new entrant $1 billion a year.

Just as, or even more, important, is that those kind of bundled, take-it-or-leave-it deals are exactly the kind of thing that the cord-cutting crowd complains about.

They don’t want to have to pay for USA and Bravo and Syfy and MSNBC–they want to pick and choose channels, or shows. And pay a lot less.

“I don’t think cord-cutting was a major focus” of negotiations, Comcast EVP David Cohen said during a press conference this afternoon. And that may be true!

But the net result reads very much as if Comcast wanted to make sure the government didn’t force it to break its business model. And if that was the case, it got what it wanted.

Now please stand next to Apple, Google, Amazon and Netflix. But don’t crowd the cable guys over in the VIP section. And remember to keep your wallet handy!

Of course Microsoft wants to beam TV shows to your house, for a fee. Everyone else does!

And Redmond has been at it longer than most — Bill Gates, and then Steve Ballmer, have been headed toward your living room for more than a decade.

They could get there, too. If they’re willing to pay up.

But what Microsoft won’t be able to do is fundamentally reshape TV distribution. Same goes for every other would-be player who wants in.

That’s because the TV programmers, who make their money from advertising and cable subscription fees, are happy to sell their stuff to new buyers. But they’re not going to work with new outlets that undercut their existing ones.

Ask Apple, who tried rounding up programming for a $30-a-month subscription offering last year, and ended up settling for a handful of 99-cent-an-episode rentals 9 months later.

Or more to the point, ask DirectTV, or Echostar, or Verizon, or AT&T. All of those guys have elbowed their way into a market once owned completely by cable. But none of them have changed the business: They all sell, more or less, the same thing your local cable company does, at more or less the same price.

The cable guys weren’t happy about the competition, but there’s not a lot they could do about it. As long as the new guys paid the same rates, there’s no reason for the programmers not to sell their stuff to them. But they won’t work with distributors that threaten their old business.

And that old business isn’t going away. Even as the cord-cutting drumbeat gets louder, programmers are winning rate increases for their cable shows. And they’re extracting new fees for broadcast shows — the ones they used to give away. Ask Cablevision. Or Time Warner Cable, etc.

So if Microsoft — or anyone else — isn’t willing to pay the going rate for first-run TV programming, they can try getting into the more modestly priced market for second-run shows — the stuff you can see on Hulu and Netflix now.

And watching “30 Rock” the day after it airs on regular TV may be worth something, to some customers. But for most people, it won’t be enough to replace regular TV. Which is exactly what the industry wants.

(Remember Screech? Not entirely SFW)

If you’re in a select group, that is. One person familiar with the site, owned by a joint venture of broadcasters and Providence Equity Partners, says the initial test could be limited to 10,000 people.

The Hulu Plus pitch, as I’ve previously reported: $9.95 a month for access to a deeper catalog of shows than the free service currently offers, plus the ability to watch it on devices other than a laptop or PC, including Apple’s (AAPL) iPad. Other reports this month indicate that the service may also be available on Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox and Sony’s (SNE) PS3 game consoles.

I’m also told that Hulu’s network owners–GE’s (GE) NBC, Disney’s (DIS) ABC and News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox–are still hammering out rights deals for particular shows. So it’s possible that the launch could be pushed back or that the service will have weird gaps in its catalog when it does launch.

One example of a possible programming stumbling block: Viacom’s (VIA) “Comedy Central” has rights to older episodes of NBC’s “30 Rock.”

Hulu says it is already turning a profit from ad sales and is on track to generate more than $200 million in revenue this year. A successful subscription service would beef up those numbers.

It would also accomplish an equally important goal for CEO Jason Kilar: Mollifying his network owners, who worry that Hulu is cutting into their existing businesses, including licensing fees, DVD sales and conventional TV advertising. Hulu and its network partners would split the $10-per-head fee, I’m told, though I don’t know the formula the JV will use to split up the dollars.

No comment from Hulu. The Wall Street Journal is also reporting on Hulu’s plans.

Unlike the “30 Rock” stab at social networking, the “South Park” guys don’t mess around with pretend names like “YouFace”–Stan, Kyle and pals are most definitely on Facebook in this one. Though for whatever reason, they do replace CNBC’s Jim Cramer of “Mad Money” with Cartman in this clip.

But just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything, I asked the folks at Clicker, the online video guide, to tally up what kinds of video options the iPad offers for now. And I got the same answer: Plenty of full shows if you pay, very little if you don’t.

Paid:
Netflix app (requires subscription plan starting at $8.99 per month):
10,000 TV episodes
6,000 movies

iTunes (sold via individual downloads):
25,000 TV episodes
3,000 movies
3,000 music videos

Free:
ABC:
Approximately 200 full TV episodes via app. None via Safari browser.

CBS:
One full TV episode and clips

NBC:
No full TV episodes. Some broken up into low-quality clips on mobile site.

Fox:
No full TV episodes.

Cable networks (FX, AMC, USA, etc.):
No full TV episodes

Clicker would also like us to note to that it has access to another 175,000 clips that will work on the iPad, from sources ranging from ESPN to CNN to Next New Networks. Noted! But if you’re waiting to watch complete episodes of programs like “30 Rock” or “The Daily Show” for free on your iPad, you’re going to be disappointed for quite some time.

And to be clear: This is a business development issue for the networks, not a technical one. They certainly know how to convert their videos from Adobe’s (ADBE) Flash standard to the HTML5 standard Apple (AAPL) is championing–they’re just not sure they want to. We’ll get to the internal debates some of the networks are having on this topic down the line.

The network is the only one of the four broadcasters offering much programming on Apple’s device at launch Saturday. As previously reported, the Disney (DIS) unit is offering about 20 of its shows, including “Lost” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” for free via a new app.

But that’s about it. Come Saturday, CBS (CBS) will only be streaming full episodes of “Survivor” at its iPad-friendly site. And News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox and GE’s (GE) NBC aren’t streaming any full-length shows at all. If you want to watch “CSI,” “The Simpsons” or “30 Rock” on your Web browser this weekend, you’ll need to use something other than an iPad.

CBS says it will offer more shows over time, but NBC and Fox aren’t even promising that. When the Hulu app arrives, those two networks’ shows will be available there, but under current plans, they’ll be available only to paying subscribers.

The holdouts’ logic is that the iPad is a mobile device. And while the networks are basically okay with streaming their stuff for free on the Web, they think that mobile is a different ballgame, and one they can charge for (though even that’s confusing — NBC does stream full-length shows for free to the iPhone, but won’t do the same for the iPad).

But if that’s the reasoning, why is ABC, which joined up with Hulu a year ago, putting up its stuff for free on the iPad? The fact that Apple (AAPL) boss Steve Jobs is Disney’s largest single shareholder can’t be the only reason.

ABC may be able to thread the needle here because it is only making its shows available via Wi-Fi streaming, not over AT&T’s (T) network. But that kind of “windowing” is going to seem awfully arbitrary to most casual users, and those are the ones both Apple and the networks are supposed to be targeting here. So something’s going to have to give. Stay tuned.

Tracy Morgan joined Twitter Thursday afternoon in response to a brief campaign designed to encourage the “30 Rock” star to share his off-color updates with fans.

Using the name “RealTracyMorgan,” which has Twitter’s “verified account” icon, he posted his first tweet around 1 p.m. EST: “Welcome To Tracy Morgans World.”

Mr. Morgan followed that with a far less printable tweet, then “The wait is over! The black Svengali has arrived! I’m on the street turning good girls bad and getting them pregnant!!!” and “Im a good parent so ill induce the labor.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The site, OMGICU, encourages visitors to send their celebrity sightings, and Mr. Morgan is its most-seen subject. Its founder, Hugh Dornbush, on Tuesday created a second site, Twacy.org, to convince the comedian to get to tweeting.

Mr. Morgan “is someone who just really resonates with people, and his sense of humor and his sensibilities are so well-suited to the medium,” Mr. Dornbush said. “Once you put it on their radar, it’s been pretty easy to find people who say, ‘I would rather be living in a world where Tracy Morgan is sharing his day to day life with us.’”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Check out our WWDC 2009 Full-Coverage special feature for more WWDC news.

Check out our WWDC 2009 Full-Coverage special feature for more WWDC news.

Confused? Of course. So was I, when I checked out Hulu’s new “Desktop” app, launched today as part of the video service’s new “Labs” collection of experimental offerings.

Basically, it’s downloadable software that makes it easier than ever to watch Hulu’s shows and clips in the same way that you’d watch TV–on your sofa, remote in hand. But Hulu wants to make sure you don’t actually think it replaces TV.

Note how the company describes it: “A lean-back viewing experience for your personal computer” that will work on Macs and PCs with “standard Windows Media Center or Apple remote controls”–but not with Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Media Center machines or Apple’s (AAPL) AppleTV boxes. And it also isn’t designed to work with any other Web-to-TV software or boxes, like Vudu.

To spell this out: I’m writing this post from the “cave” that the All Things Digital team has set up for the D7 conference, and it’s full of gorgeous 22-inch and 30-inch Mac displays that are much nicer than anything that sits in my cramped Brooklyn apartment. Hulu is saying that they’d be A-OK with me watching Tina Fey and crew, via their service, on those monitors. But they don’t want me trying to get that show on an actual television.

Isn’t a screen a screen? Nope. Not to Hulu’s owners: GE’s (GE) NBC, News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox, and soon, Disney’s ABC (ABC). To them, it’s important to make the distinction between TV programming, which generates significant ad revenue and/or cable subscription fees, and online video, which generates very little at all. That’s why NBC CEO Jeff Zucker reiterated his opposition to Boxee, the software that makes it easy to move Web video like Hulu to TV sets.

Now all he has to do is convince tech-savvy entertainment consumers to play along. Good luck!

UPDATE: Several readers have suggested to me that Hulu and its owners aren’t as dumb as they seem, and that they do indeed intend to use Desktop eventually, as a Boxee-like product of their own–that is, they will use it to let people watch Hulu on TV. If so, that means that Jeff Zucker wasn’t being honest when he declared that “right now we’re committed to Hulu being an online experience, and that’s where our vision is today, and I think that will continue.”

But for what it’s worth, whenever I’ve talked to anyone at ABC, Fox, NBC or Hulu, all of them have been consistently mindful about not trying to disrupt the existing value chain that supports the cable and broadcast TV business–“the ecosystem” is the euphemism they prefer. So I don’t find Zucker’s comments so far-fetched.

Anyone want to weigh in? If you use your real name you can sound off in the comments below. Or you can drop me a line at  peter@allthingsd.com.

So says Nielsen, via its newest “Three Screen Report.” The tracking service says more Americans are watching TV than ever before–up 1.2 percent in the last quarter–and they’re spending more time watching TV, too–that’s up 1.9 percent, to a staggering 153-plus hours per month. Of course, the same holds true for Web video, which is growing much faster.

Here’s how the data break down. Total number of viewers (click to enlarge):

Time spent viewing (click to enlarge):

Don’t be fooled: As much as the blogosphere likes to describe the TV guys as clueless dummies, they’re well aware that they’re now competing with the likes of Hulu and Google’s (GOOG) YouTube for their viewers’ time. That’s why Hulu, the JV between GE’s (GE) NBC, News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox, and now, Disney’s (DIS) ABC, remains such a controversial site within the industry–one camp thinks it’s the best way for the networks to position themselves against the eventual move to the Web, and the other thinks they’re hastening their own demise by training viewers to expect free, on-demand access via the Web.

We may get a slightly better sense of what advertisers think about this soon. It’s “upfront” week in New York, which means that all the broadcast networks–CBS (CBS), NBC, Fox and ABC have begun selling their wares to advertisers for next year. Prognosticators are betting that upfront sales could be down by 15 percent or so this year, but they’re assuming that most of that decrease has to do with the miserable economy, not a full-blown move–or “secular shift,” as the smart guys like to say–away from TV and to the Web. If that decrease gets much bigger though, it could mean something else is afoot.

Enough with the serious! Here’s the excellent celebrity singalong from the finale of “30 Rock,” which aired last week. NBC only allows Hulu to keep episodes of the show on the site for a limited time (expect to see more of this restriction, not less), so this may only work for a few weeks. Enjoy:

But this time, Morgan has abandoned the Web for TV.

And Morgan’s Simulmedia, which just announced a $4 million funding round led by Union Square Ventures and Avalon Ventures, isn’t even going after the TV of the future.

Instead, it’s chasing an odd niche that exists today: television commercials for television shows–e.g., the ads NBC runs during “The Office” to try to get you to watch “30 Rock.”

Morgan says this is a $10 billion business, and argues that most of the money spent on it is wasted. He says his company can solve that with software that swaps

out different spots depending on factors like geography, timing, and even weather. Weather? Well, in advance of last Sunday’s snowstorm in New York, he says, his clients-to-be could have run ads letting parents know about all the kids’ programming available on their cable system.

This sounds similar to lots of other efforts to make TV advertising more Web-like by serving up different ads to different viewers based on who they are and what they watch. Basically, a variant of the behavioral targeting technology that made Tacoda worth $275 million to Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL, which bought the Morgan’s company in 2007.

But Morgan, who spent less than five months at AOL as an EVP before bolting, says his start-up is chasing a different market, using different techniques. He explains why in this interview:


[ See post to watch video ]
]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090306/a-web-ad-guys-third-act-better-tv-ads-for-tv-shows/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090301/what-do-online-ad-execs-find-funny-heres-yahoos-version/ http://allthingsd.com/20090301/what-do-online-ad-execs-find-funny-heres-yahoos-version/#comments Sun, 01 Mar 2009 14:45:39 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=4703 Do the names Joanne Bradford, Mike Walrath, Wenda Millard and Greg Coleman mean anything to you? Do you know what pork bellies have to do with online advertising?

Then you may get a chuckle, or at least a modest smile, out of this video, prepared by Yahoo (YHOO) and shown at last week’s Interactive Advertising Bureau meeting in Orlando.

But the rest of you don’t have to go away with nothing to show for your click. I’ve added a miniglossary below the Yahoo video, so you can catch up if you care to.

And if that doesn’t do anything for you, there’s a bonus clip after that–Jimmy Fallon and Jack McBrayer, from “30 Rock,” responding to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s response to President Barack Obama’s speech last week.

Yahoo!’s IAB Introduction Video @ Yahoo! Video

Glossary

Joanne Bradford: Former Microsoft (MSFT) ad exec now heading up sales for Yahoo after a brief stint at ad start-up SpotRunner.

Mike Walrath: Former CEO of Right Media, an online ad exchange snapped up by Yahoo for $720 million in 2007, when ad exchanges suddenly became must-have assets for online publishers. Now an SVP at Yahoo.

Wenda Harris Millard: Former high-profile ad exec at Yahoo, now CEO at Martha Stewart Living (MSO).

Greg Coleman: Millard’s former boss at Yahoo, now running ad sales at Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL.

Pork bellies: Shorthand for an online ad business debate, kicked off by Millard last year: She thinks that the industry’s increasing use of automated ad exchanges and networks has commodified and devalued Web marketing.

Still don’t care? OK. Here’s the Jimmy Fallon clip; his NBC show kicks off Monday night.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090301/what-do-online-ad-execs-find-funny-heres-yahoos-version/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20081203/weighing-devices-for-your-netflix-delivered-via-web/ http://allthingsd.com/20081203/weighing-devices-for-your-netflix-delivered-via-web/#comments Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:18:03 +0000 Nick Wingfield http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20081203/weighing-devices-for-your-netflix-delivered-via-web/ Netflix was a pioneer in the business of movie rentals — getting consumers to rent DVDs online and mailing them out in cheery red envelopes. Recently, it has put a lot of effort into a service that delivers movies digitally over the Internet to subscribers, preparing for a day when getting movies on a physical disc will become outmoded.

People today use the Netflix service on their computers, but Netflix (NFLX) has cut a series of deals with hardware partners to make the service available on TV sets through an array of devices.

Most of these devices were designed to do other things: a videogame console, high-definition Blu-ray disc players, a TiVo (TIVO) digital video recorder. So to see how well the service works on these devices, I’ve spent the past couple of weeks comparing the Netflix experience on Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox 360 game console, on LG Electronics’ BD300 Blu-ray disc player and on a set-top box from Roku called the Netflix Player. The last, as the name implies, is designed mainly for Netflix service.



The devices suffer from a relatively skimpy selection of videos on the Netflix Internet service. Netflix has more than 100,000 titles for rent on disc, but about 12,000 titles for viewing through its Internet service at the moment, and there’s often a months-long delay after a movie’s release before it shows up online. Television shows generally turn up more quickly, with a handful, like NBC’s “Heroes,” watchable the day after they air.

Still, I find the Netflix service very appealing, especially for catching up on episodes of TV series, such as “30 Rock,” that I missed when they aired. Unlike the iTunes Store and other sites that charge users $1.99 per TV episode and $3.99 to rent a movie online, the Netflix Internet service is free to subscribers to its DVD service on one of the company’s “unlimited” rental plans, which start at $8.99 a month.

Depending on how fast your Internet connection is, Netflix videos begin playing almost instantly, though you can’t keep permanent copies.

Connecting the devices to Netflix through my wired home network was easy in all three cases. I used a wireless home network — more common in homes than the wired variety — with the Roku device, the only one of three products that comes with built-in Wi-Fi (it worked well in this mode). People who want to use the Xbox 360 with a wireless network will have to spend $70 or so on an external Wi-Fi adapter. LG recommends people use only a wired home network to connect to Netflix from its player, including adapter kits that cost about $100 for transmitting data over home power lines.

All the devices require you to create a list of movies you want to watch from a computer, just like Netflix subscribers set up “queues” of DVDs to be delivered by mail. The Xbox 360 offered by far the most elegant-looking interface for browsing through videos in my Netflix queue, letting me glide through a long row of cover art representing the movies and TV shows I selected on my PC.

In contrast, the Netflix menu on the LG Blu-ray player and Roku device were more static, making it more awkward to navigate the expanse of titles. Netflix became available on the Xbox 360 in November as part of a more sweeping software upgrade, delivered over the Internet, that remade the graphical look of the system.

The quality of most of the videos on Netflix is, to my eyes, about DVD quality, though Netflix is adding some titles in high-definition to its Internet library. HD titles were available for viewing only through the Xbox 360 when I was testing the service. Roku and LG say they will make software updates available online this month that add HD support to their devices.

The Xbox 360 also has some annoying quirks when using it as a movie player — including a noisy fan I found distracting. The game controller that comes with the Xbox 360 is clunky for playing movies, so users will need to invest in an inexpensive additional remote-control design for media. The Roku and LG players, in contrast, were totally silent and had acceptable remote controls for watching Netflix videos.

I experienced the most serious glitches with the LG Blu-ray player, which occasionally dropped the video signal to my television set as I was watching a movie. LG says the loss of video signal could have been due to the connection I used to hook the player to my TV, though I’ve never had a problem with other devices using the same connection. The LG Blu-ray player also took the longest of all the devices to install software upgrades from the Internet.

While there are some differences in the Netflix experience on the Roku device, Xbox 360 and LG Blu-ray player, none of them is so great that they should trump other considerations — like a desire to play videogames or watch HD Blu-ray movies — in deciding which system is the best fit.

The LG Blu-ray player is available online for about $300. The cheapest Xbox 360 model is $199. (To get Netflix through the Xbox 360, users must be “gold” members to the $49.99-a-year Xbox Live game service.) But if what you’re after is primarily Netflix movies, and you’ve got room near your TV for another box, the $99.99 Roku product is the best value.

Walt Mossberg is on vacation.

Write to Nick Wingfield at nick.wingfield@wsj.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081203/weighing-devices-for-your-netflix-delivered-via-web/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20081104/blackberry-bold-is-big-bulky-and-beautiful/ http://allthingsd.com/20081104/blackberry-bold-is-big-bulky-and-beautiful/#comments Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:18:03 +0000 Katherine Boehret http://solution.allthingsd.com/20081104/blackberry-bold-is-big-bulky-and-beautiful/ Change is a familiar concept in the mobile-phone industry. Most recently, Apple and Google introduced mobile devices with two vital innovations: They run on fast 3G networks and use touch screens. Yesterday Research In Motion (RIMM), maker of the BlackBerry, brought out a device that goes halfway: the BlackBerry Bold, which runs on AT&T’s 3G network, but doesn’t have a touch screen.

The $300 (with two-year contract) Bold doesn’t pose as RIM’s real iPhone competitor; that distinction will fall to the touch-screen BlackBerry Storm due out later this month. Instead, the Bold serves as an upgraded version of the company’s BlackBerry 8800 series devices. These models are popular with corporations because they focus most on functionality over style. As a result, they tend to be a bit on the large side — especially compared with the BlackBerry Curve or BlackBerry Pearl.

I’ve been using the Bold for the past couple of weeks, both in New York City and in Washington, D.C., and had almost no trouble doing email and Web browsing with its 3G network connection and Wi-Fi capability. I admit that I didn’t use it much as a phone, mostly because its bulky size made it awkward to hold to my ear while chatting.

On the plus side, the BlackBerry Bold has a bright, beautiful screen and one of the most comfortable keyboards I’ve used on a mobile device. Behind the scenes, it has a speedy processor that handles email, Web browsing and video playback with ease. The Bold’s 2.66-inch screen is the largest yet on a BlackBerry.

But the Bold reminded me of my grandparents’ new Buick: handsomely polished and luxuriously comfortable, with plenty of extra bells and whistles. As much as I like the plush feel of this ride, it can feel as big as a boat when I need to park or navigate narrow city streets. Likewise, the Bold’s large size affords mobile extravagances like a keyboard I could use without looking down and a leatherette-covered back panel. But when tossed in a bag or even held in my hand, the BlackBerry Bold simply feels too heavy and too big.


Blackberry Bold

Short Memory

Furthermore, this device’s $300 price is steep considering it comes with only one gigabyte of memory, and a memory-card slot for expanding that should you choose to do so. By comparison, Apple’s (AAPL) smallest $199 iPhone comes with eight gigabytes of memory.

The Bold’s battery lasted for me just over a day after being fully charged. RIM says a full charge will last for four and a half hours of talk time and about 13.5 days of standby. The BlackBerry 8820, by comparison, lasts a bit longer: five hours of talk time and 22 days of standby.

But the Bold’s brighter screen and faster network allow it to do things that were slow and stuttering in previous models, such as quickly loading and watching YouTube clips on the device’s browser.

Icons on the Bold’s main menu look like pale white versions of the colorful, cartoon-like icons found on previous BlackBerrys; perhaps these more-staid icons were added to make the device look more sophisticated. The Bold’s edges are distinguished with silver chrome, and buttons abound on all sides: a volume rocker on the right edge, customizable convenience keys on the right and left sides, a microSD card slot on the left, a mute button on the top edge and a one-touch button on the bottom that releases the entire back panel.

The Bold’s leatherette-covered back panel gave the device a richer feel — a far cry from the flimsy plastic back on my BlackBerry Curve that falls off if I drop it. This black leatherette back can be swapped out for other colors like blue, red, slate and brown, which can be bought at ShopBlackBerry.com.

This BlackBerry’s Web browser uses an on-screen magnifying-glass icon to remind users that they can zoom in to more easily read Web pages. Google’s G1 device uses a similar magnifying glass. The Bold’s Menu button (to the left of the trackball) offers a helpful way to browse using the Go To command. This command opens a screen with a blank address bar; a search box that can be set to use Google (GOOG), Wikipedia or Dictionary.com; and a list of bookmarks and recent history.

Roomy Keyboard

Emailing on the BlackBerry Bold was a breeze. I grew so fond of its keyboard design — made with flat, roomy keys and silver “frets,” or dividing lines, that separate each row — that I found myself touch typing without looking down after only three days of use.

RIM says that each key has a subtle high point on it that makes typing more comfortable, and I agreed, rarely typing an incorrect keystroke. Attachments opened in a blink, and DataViz Inc.’s Word To Go, Sheet To Go and Slideshow To Go make it simple to open and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.

As the presidential election approached, friends often emailed links to videos or Web sites with information about the latest news. On my BlackBerry Curve, I rarely even bother trying to open these links because that device’s EDGE connection is so slow. But the Bold opened Web addresses and videos with no problem, whether I was on AT&T’s 3G network or Wi-Fi in my home or office.

A pre-installed AT&T (T) application called CV, which stands for Cellular Video, holds a selection of clips from sources like CNN, ESPN and ABC as well as full episodes of TV shows (I watched a good portion of “30 Rock”). Categories at the bottom of the CV menu screen combine videos into groups like Most Watched, Entertainment and HBO Mobile, which costs $5 a month extra.

Driving Directions

While you’re driving, AT&T Navigator, by TeleNav, makes use of the Bold’s big, bright screen by flashing clear turn-by-turn directions on the device as you go.

I found the BlackBerry Bold to be a huge asset for on-the-go productivity, and some users won’t mind this mobile device’s large build and higher price because of its luxuriously comfortable features.

If you’re thinking of upgrading your BlackBerry to get a faster experience, and don’t want to wait to try the BlackBerry Storm’s touch screen later this month, the Bold is definitely worth a look.



– Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

• Email us at mossbergsolution@wsj.com. Find this and other columns and videos online free at the All Things Digital Web site: http://walt.allthingsd.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081104/blackberry-bold-is-big-bulky-and-beautiful/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20081019/sarah-palin-plays-sarah-palin-on-snl-nails-it/ http://allthingsd.com/20081019/sarah-palin-plays-sarah-palin-on-snl-nails-it/#comments Sun, 19 Oct 2008 07:37:51 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=5304

Republican Vice Presidential candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin did a very smooth--if a tiny bit sweetly awkward--job in her appearance on "Saturday Night Live" last night.

It was a good decision to go low-key and also do a bit of stunt casting by bringing in Mark Wahlberg, who was mocked in an impersonation last week by SNL, and also Alec Baldwin.

The well-known liberal actor did a nice turn pretending to insult Palin, while thinking she was his "30 Rock" co-star Tina Fey, whose many turns at impersonating Palin have become a huge Internet hit.

Palin came on again later in the NBC television comedy show on its "Weekend Update," rocking out to a perfect rap by a very pregnant Amy Poehler.

These two from SNL will surely be the biggest Web video hits this week.

And, goodness gracious, do Palin and Fey really look alike, passing by each other at the end of the opening skit without speaking.

Sometimes politics can be really ugly and sometimes silly--and this time Palin managed to poke fun at herself without being either.

You betcha' she did.

Here's the two videos from last night and also the other three that already aired on SNL:

Opening:

Weekend Update Palin Rap:

VP Debate:

Interview with NBC's Katie Couric:

With Sen. Hillary Clinton:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081019/sarah-palin-plays-sarah-palin-on-snl-nails-it/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20080912/the-very-last-online-sarah-palin-spoof-well-post-until-the-tina-fey-one-of-course/ http://allthingsd.com/20080912/the-very-last-online-sarah-palin-spoof-well-post-until-the-tina-fey-one-of-course/#comments Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:21:33 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=3721

Last week, BoomTown posted just some of the many, many online video spoofs of Alaska Governor and Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Gov. Palin, one of the more colorful political figures to pop up in years, is like the gift that keeps on giving to the Web comedy world, which seems to be churning out video after video of impersonations of her.

Here’s the best I have seen so far, by well-known actress Gina Gershon–who actually looks like her–on the most excellent Funny or Die comedy Web site.

And there will doubtless be more to come–apparently, “30 Rock” star Tina Fey (who is Palin’s true doppelgänger) will be doing her own version of Palin at her old stomping grounds of “Saturday Night Live” this week.

Until then, here’s the Funny or Die video (warning–as you can see below, there is a rifle and a bikini, but it actually works):

See more Gina Gershon videos at Funny or Die

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