Aiming to attract more big-brand ad dollars, Twitter and the Weather Company have a new deal to create custom content around weather-related Twitter activity.

Twitter users will be able to see video clips of local forecasts, severe-weather coverage or user-generated content. But instead of requiring a link out to other websites, users can view the video within the Twitter stream, using the company’s “Cards” technology.

It’s similar to Twitter’s partnership with ESPN last year, where Twitter users were able to watch instant replays of college football, tweeted out from the official ESPN account. In that case, Twitter sold ad space to Ford, who played a short promo clip for the Ford Fusion automobile before each sports replay.

This time, however, it’s Twitter’s first foray into having non-sports branded-content partnerships, aiming to appeal to a larger audience of Twitter users and advertisers.

“There’s nothing more real-time than weather, and there’s no better real-time communication platform than Twitter,” said Joel Lunenfeld, Twitter VP of global brand strategy.

The idea is that if everyone is talking about a big weather event — like, say, Hurricane Sandy — Twitter can hone in on that flurry of activity and use it to serve up relevant promoted content to users who want to see it.

The trick for Twitter and TWC, of course, is to convince big brands to open those ad budgets up to the type of marketing that Twitter is offering. Twitter’s claim here is that it will boost engagement and reach and increase audience size. But as with any relatively new ad medium, it’ll take some convincing to get the brands to come around.

The Weather Channel, for one, is obviously bullish on Twitter’s ability to sell. “You can only go in and talk about price and ratings so much,” said Curt Hecht, chief global revenue officer for The Weather Company. “The media buying community will see this as a different kind of innovating, leveraging another platform.”

I take it that we’ll see if that’s the case. For now, I’ll be watching for storm clouds.

But auto apps are still far from high-tech perfection, and concerns about driver distraction still play a big part in how these apps work in cars.

BMW, for one, showed how location-notification app Glympse will soon work with BMWs and Mini Coopers, provided that the car has a $250 connective tether (an opt-in feature when you buy the car). Glympse, a Seattle-based app that launched in 2009, lets you pre-set a message about your whereabouts and put it on a timer.

Hop into your BMW, plug your smartphone into the connective wire and fire up Glympse. You can then tell the app that in a few minutes you want it to automatically send information on your exact location to your co-worker, or spouse or whoever it is you’re heading out to meet. Glympse has also partnered with Mercedes-Benz and Ford for this feature.

Cadillac’s just-unveiled CTS Sedan — General Motors’ luxury competitor to BMW and Mercedes-Benz — includes the most recent version of Cue, the company’s in-car communication and app system. It looks a little bit like an iPad installed in the dashboard. The updated Cue includes shortcuts for drivers, such as the ability to enter, manually or with voice, a full address to the built-in nav system instead of painstakingly entering city name, street name and so on.

And Ford today launched a competition for app developers to create a new fuel-efficiency app, citing an increasing focus on fuel economy. This comes just a few months after the auto maker announced it was opening up its in-car platforms to developers, as my colleague Liz Gannes reported. (General Motors has done the same.) Ford has also participated in a hackathon with Facebook, which led to the creation of a concept app that would prompt a “check in” for Ford vehicle owners once they arrive at a destination.

One reason for the increasing appearance of apps in vehicles is a shift in consumer mindset that has forced car makers to rethink their strategies.

Since the recession, more consumers are looking for cars with “luxury” features at less exorbitant prices. As Ford pointed out during a keynote event today, a recent Luxury Institute survey found 60 percent of respondents expect a luxury vehicle to cost less than $60,000 — much less than the former $100,000 price tag standard on fancy cars.

Adding mobile app integration is a relatively inexpensive way for auto makers to punch up the vehicles and offer more to discerning buyers.

Plus, the new demographics of car buyers, according to Jim Farley, executive vice president of global marketing at Ford, include more women, Hispanics — and millennials. “Millennials are entitled … with incredibly high expectations,” he said.

And millennials, as we well know, love their apps.

Still, there’s plenty of room for improvement. Brendon Kraham, manager of global mobile solutions at Google, identified a “disconnect” in the current car experience. “If I do a search on Google Maps on my desktop right now, I still have to duplicate that when I get in the car,” he said. (Naturally, he took the time to explain how Google Now, the company’s smart personal assistant application for Android phones, could provide a more seamless experience in and out of cars — but demurred when asked about self-driving cars or using Google Glass on the road.)

Facebook’s head of automotive and vertical marketing Doug Frisbie, who like Kraham spoke during the Ford keynote event, agreed. “Auto makers are acting like cellphone makers did in the early days: They’re all trying to make their own proprietary system. But consumers want something that works across all platforms.”

And there’s still the issue of driver distraction and whether all of the smartphones, touchscreens, automated voices, binging and buzzing while we’re driving actually amounts to a good thing. Some auto makers are proceeding with caution when it comes to this area.

Despite the many apps Ford’s SYNC system offers, for example, drivers still can’t create new status updates for social networks while driving. And while some car makers are loathe to give up control and precious dashboard space to third-party apps, BMW has allowed parts of Glympse’s interface — minus the mapping feature — to appear on the dashboard screen to mitigate driver distraction.

“Our philosophy is that mobile devices are just a part of our lives — and that’s going to happen,” Ford’s Farley said, when asked about driver distraction. “With new tech like voice recognition and a five-position switch on the steering wheel, well, we hope consumers will make the right decisions when it comes to controlling the vehicle.”

But here’s a really good one: Lincoln spent a ton of money so that Beck could re-record “Sound + Vision,” a pretty obscure David Bowie track, with a cast of dozens.

If you’re a certain kind of person of a certain age, you’ll still have some cognitive dissonance about the “Loser” dude shilling for a luxury automaker. But you’ll get over it, and you’ll enjoy it (also note: Zero mention of Lincoln and zero branding, period, during the video’s 9 minutes and 22 seconds):

Lots of backstory here, which is where Lincoln would really prefer that you watch the ad (they don’t make it easy to find the YouTube video itself).

Bear in mind that since this isn’t a dude parachuting out of a spaceship, Lincoln is spending piles of money promoting the promotion: I’ve seen ads in the New Yorker and on the Web and on the home page of YouTube. And you’ll see them on TV if you watch the Grammys tonight.

But 2013 looks to be the year automakers move beyond a few pre-approved partnership-driven test apps and into the great unknown.

Today, Ford is announcing its developer program, which will allow app developers to connect their Android and iPhone apps to Ford’s SYNC voice-activated interface.

But don’t expect to be playing Angry Birds on your dashboard as you’re driving down the freeway. The so-called “open platform” for an auto interface will have a high bar for approval of new apps.

“It’s as open as we feel comfortable to make it. Developers can be as creative as they want, but we do reserve the right to be selective under safety concerns,” said John Ellis, Ford’s global technologist for connected services and solutions.

As of today, developers can register to download Ford’s AppLink SDK. Then they can submit a Ford-compatible app for review “to ensure it works properly and is suitable for use in the vehicle.”

There already seems to be significant latent interest in developing for the Ford platform. In the lead-up to this launch, Ford collected 4,000 developer sign-ups on its website.

But Ford isn’t the only automaker trying to attract developer interest for its increasingly open platform. General Motors, which is also gearing up for a big launch at CES later this week, held a hackathon this weekend where about 20 projects were developed for the GM platform.

While the details of GM’s full announcement aren’t out yet, the hackathon projects included an app that allows users to remotely update in-car navigation with new destinations — the idea is to extend a “honey-do” list while your partner is already out doing errands — and another called “meet me in the middle” that suggests restaurants and cafes halfway between two GM drivers’ locations.

Ford was the first major auto company to jump on the connected-car bandwagon; the AppLink program dates back to 2010. At first it only included a few apps — Pandora (of course!), Stitcher and a couple more.

That small library has grown over time, and today at CES, Ford partners are launching quite a few more apps: In social media, Sina; in news, Wall Street Journal radio (where, full disclosure, AllThingsD reporters are sometimes featured), USA Today and Kaliki; in music and entertainment, Amazon, Aha Radio, Rhapsody and Greater Media; and in navigation and location, Glympse and BeCouply (a bit of an oddball, in that it provides date ideas on the go). Some of these apps will soon be live in Europe and Asia as well.

The next big step is for carmakers to provide app developers with vehicle data. That will allow for apps to be built around interesting and car-specific topics like fuel efficiency and ride sharing.

Vehicle data is “very near on our roadmap,” according to Julius Marchwicki, Ford’s SYNC AppLink program manager. GM seems to be further along on that front, with vehicle data mentioned in a developer website that’s already live.

The other big question is how integrated automakers want to be with existing platforms, and how much they require developers to build on top of car systems — which unfortunately often seem to be a takeoff of the interfaces we get on our smartphones and tablets, only with more pixelation and awkward hierarchical menus.

There are a range of perspectives on that issue — for instance, Kia and Hyundai said last week they will add Google Maps into their navigation systems.

Ford’s strategy is to have developers incorporate its voice-activation and vehicle interfaces into their apps for Android and iPhone apps, so they are distributed through familiar marketplaces to drivers’ existing cellphones.

But there are some hiccups with that strategy — for example, on the iPhone, Ford cannot open a new application; the app must already be open for the car system to engage with it.

The GM developer portal, meanwhile, indicates that the company is choosing more of an HTML5 open Web app strategy, though we’ll hear more about that soon.

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But do companies with super-smart, digitally-savvy CMOs really outperform their market peers?

Take a look at the share-price growth over the past year of three public companies with cutting-edge CMOs — Volkswagen, UPS and Comcast — and then compare this growth to the industry benchmark in their respective categories.

In the last six months, Volkswagen consistently outperformed Ford, GM, Fiat, Volvo, and other competitors. Although it’s impossible to pinpoint just how much CMO Tim Mahoney has contributed to that market success since he joined as CMO one year ago, it’s clear he’s doing something right. Volkswagen recently reported a 35 percent increase in March 2012 sales, the auto maker’s best first quarter since 1973. Likewise, UPS has also recently outperformed its fiercest competitor, FedEx; similarly, Comcast has outperformed its nearest competitors, Time Warner and Cablevision.

(I’d be remiss if I didn’t tip my hat to Red Bull’s amazing digital marketing efforts, but, alas, they’re not a publicly traded company).

So what are these companies doing right? Here are three strategies to consider that can help boost shareholder value:

Pair memorable creative with effective targeting
Volkswagen, UPS, and Comcast have all turned to creative and targeting to gain consumer attention. In a world of constant distraction, getting a consumer’s attention has become increasing difficult. Consumers are overwhelmed by hundreds of ads thrown their way on a daily basis. By staying on the cutting-edge of creative as well as targeting the right audiences, companies can break through all the clutter and build brand loyalty.

For example, Volkswagen’s “Star Wars”-themed “The Force” 2011 Super Bowl ad wasn’t just hyper-cute and creative; it became the most-shared Super Bowl video of all time. And though its 2012 follow-up video, “The Bark Side,” didn’t reach the same sharing heights, it still has a place in the viral video hall of fame. Not surprisingly, Volkswagen also has 1.2 million “Likes” on Facebook, compared to 540,000 for Subaru, another car brand consumers love to love. This is a prime example of great creative and targeting the right audience to drive viral distribution.

UPS tapped into the hype around this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament. They ran an ad entitled “The Pass,” that replayed the 1992 Duke and Kentucky winning shot. In tandem, the company relayed their “Logistics” messaging, highlighting the company’s ability to get something precisely where it needs to be at precisely the right time. Though controversial to some (mainly Kentucky fans), and beautiful to others (me, as a Duke grad, and just about all other basketball lovers), this ad was certainly memorable. Again, well-conceived creative with the right targeting online to drive distribution.

With a similar approach, Comcast pokes fun at consumers’ increasing appetite to consume content. To the tune of the Everly Brothers’ “All I Have To Do Is Dream,” Comcast launched their new streaming service with a creative ad entitled, “Stream, Stream, Stream.”

Engage consumers where they already are
Today’s CMOs must strive to be everywhere their prospective clients are consuming media, in order to stay top of mind. The average U.S. consumer is spending 32 hours a month online, with much of that time — 22 percent — spent on social networking sites. Companies need to connect with consumers on their turf.

At UPS, one of the reasons for the company’s success stems from CMO Alan Gershenhorn’s commitment to use social media for customer service. The company set up a special Twitter feed @UPSHelp to answer customers’ delivery and other questions in real time. Since UPS launched the Twitter program, the company has accumulated more than a million positive impressions from customers who give grateful replies.

Comcast has also jumped on the social customer service bandwagon. The company’s manager of customer service strategy and operations, Bill Gerth, connects with customers in real time via the Twitter feed @comcastbill and @comcastcares.

Additionally, the company’s official customer-focused blog, Comcast Voices, invites customers to comment on any aspect of Comcast’s service or company strategy. Comcast has opened itself up to any type of feedback, including criticism, and shown that it really cares what its customers think — so much so that it has incorporated customers’ ideas into new products and services.

Think multichannel
Standout companies are also breaking ground through the adoption of multichannel campaigns. Crain’s BtoB Magazine, in conjunction with Bizo, recently conducted a study that highlights the importance of expanding the marketing mix. However, according to the study, 63 percent of respondents stated that their current mix of programs does not meet sales demand.

UPS, on the other hand, has recently figured out how to successfully implement a multichannel campaign, and their “We ♥ Logistics” initiative takes it to a whole new level. According to the company, the campaign included TV, print, out-of-home, digital, display, direct mail and email — and it was the first time in U.S. history that UPS had a unified global communications and ad strategy. They are still rocking this campaign today, too.

For the UPS campaign, consumers are driven to the campaign’s microsite, www.thenewlogistics.com, with the goal of bringing the benefits of logistics to life. Likewise, Volkswagen, in keeping with the “Star Wars” theme, created a microsite for their “The Force” campaign, where people could create digital invites to their Super Bowl Party, which included a customized version of the movie’s famous opening crawl.

All of these public companies are innovators — with CMOs who embrace digital technologies to deliver what customers want, and who understand that social media is the glue of their entire digital marketing strategy. This relentless focus on the customer, innovative creative and multichannel strategies have helped contributed to above-average stock market performance.

Russell Glass is a serial technology entrepreneur, having founded or held senior positions at four venture-backed technology companies. Before founding Bizo, Russ led the marketing and product management teams at ZoomInfo, a business information search engine, where he sharpened his B2B marketing skill set and developed his love for business data.

But there’s one thing that even the most ardent Facebook fan can’t argue with: Facebook advertising is very much a work in progress.

Don’t take my word for it. Listen to Facebook itself: “We believe that most advertisers are still learning and experimenting with the best ways to leverage Facebook to create more social and valuable ads,” the company says in its IPO filing.

If you’re a Facebook bull, those words sound reassuring. Facebook sold $3 billion worth of ads last year, and it’s just getting started. Imagine what happens when things really kick in.

But if you’re a skeptic, and there are lots of them, that uncertainity is a real problem. When Google went public in 2004, it had already built AdWords, the search ad engine that still generates the majority of its revenue today. Facebook doesn’t have an AdWords, so it doesn’t have a tried-and-true plan it can present to advertisers: Put dollars in here, see results over there.

Instead, Facebook marketers try different things over time. A few years back, they were all building Facebook apps. Then they started concentrating on amassing fans/followers. Now, digital marketing people tell me with confidence that all of that thinking is outmoded, and that the real Facebook pros are the ones who create “engaging content” on the site, then buy ads to “amplify” that message.

Facebook’s challenge gets even tougher because instead of search ads, whose success and failure are easy for advertisers to evaluate — Did someone click on my search ad? If they did, did they buy something or fill out a form once they got to my site? — Facebook aspires to the big branding dollars that advertisers spend on TV. And those are much harder to score. So convincing GM or anyone else to move big money from traditional ads, which marketers are at least comfortable with, to the wild world of social, requires a lot of work.

The good news for Facebook is that it’s so big that it might succeed even if it never cracks the social ad code. Any Web site with 900 million users and counting, who spend a ton of time there, is going to pull in a lot of ad dollars through sheer force of gravity. If Facebook can keep its users happy, it may get away with muddling through on the ad part.

But being a big, lumbering giant that attracts ad dollars without knowing what it’s doing isn’t the message Facebook wants to sell to advertisers. Or to investors.

OK, on to the “this isn’t that big of a deal” arguments. I’ve heard a bunch, all of which come from (different) people who don’t want to be quoted.

• Obviously there’s a backstory here. If GM didn’t want to keep advertising on Facebook, it didn’t have to announce that three days before an IPO.
• Big Fuel, GM’s social media ad agency, didn’t do a good job. That’s why GM fired them in December. For the record, here’s a quote from a Big Fuel rep: “GM never seemed persuaded of the value of social media in general and Facebook likes in particular. In a sales-driven culture, it is very hard to wrap your head around putting money in places where you don’t see immediate results in an uptick in sales.”
• Starcom, GM’s media buying agency, didn’t do a good job. That’s why GM fired them in January.
• How the heck did GM spend $3 on Facebook “content management” for every $1 it spent on Facebook ads, as the WSJ reports? That’s a sure sign that someone was doing something wrong.
• Ford loves Facebook.
• GM is pulling $10 million out of Facebook. Facebook did more than $3 billion in ads last year.

Again, all of those may be valid points.* But if Facebook really wants to allay outsiders’ fears, it needs to be able to prove conclusively that its ads work, in a scalable way, for a wide variety of advertisers. It can’t do that yet.

*I’m totally amazed by the $3-to-$1 ratio, and am wondering if it’s not to late to pivot myself into a “Facebook content creation consultant.” Those numbers also remind me very much of the late 90s, when companies like Organic went public based on the fact that they knew how to build Web sites and their clients didn’t, and they could charge accordingly. That didn’t last long.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer are holding a joint press conference at 1 pm PT today, and Mobilized hears that the new deal is a fairly broad pact covering a couple of different areas of Microsoft’s business.

There are certainly plenty of areas of potential collaboration. Microsoft’s Windows Auto software is used to power entertainment and navigation in a number of cars from Ford, Kia and others.

Reports also suggest there will be joint work on energy efficiency, and Microsoft has been signing up lots of big companies for its various cloud computing efforts.

Update: The two companies have issued a press release outlining the deal.

Toyota will use Windows Azure to power a new generation of in-car systems, known in the industry as telematics.

The two sides are also playing up the energy efficiency piece of the news, noting that the electronic systems can be used to monitor energy use, in addition to traditional tasks like navigation and entertainment. As part of the deal, the companies are making a $12 million investment in a Toyota subsidiary that offers digital information systems to its car owners.

Azure-based systems are due to start showing up in Toyota electric and hybrid cars next year, with an aim to have a global system up and running by 2015.

1:03 p.m. PT: The companies have started their press conference. Toyoda kicks things off by noting that he debated going to Redmond for the event in the wake of the massive earthquake. However, he said that after visiting some of the hardest-hit areas, he concluded the best thing he could do is to “provide hope and steady economic progress.”

“So, I am here,” Toyoda said.

As for the joint efforts, Toyoda spoke about an opportunity to improve in-car electronics as well provide “smart grid” services that can help ease the load of electric vehicles.

1:06 p.m.: Ballmer also takes a moment to acknowledge the quake and note Microsoft’s contributions to the recovery effort before diving into the specifics of the deal.

The first incarnation of the service will show up starting next year on hybrids and plug-in electrics. Examples of the possibilities, Ballmer said, are that car owners will be able to use their PC to turn on heat or air-conditioning while the car is charging or use a smartphone to remotely check maintenance information.

Ballmer talks about it as the ultimate in mobile computing and noted the need for information, given that many people spend a significant amount of their time in their car.

1:17 p.m.: Asked why the companies are starting with hybrids and electric vehicles, Ballmer said the companies are trying to “shoot ahead” of where the business is today, adding that technology will be needed to help manage power consumption, in addition to traditional navigation and entertainment products.

It’s still a little vague how much of what the companies are doing initially is for in-car electronics as compared to cloud-based services that are accessed via a PC or phone. I’ve asked about this, so hopefully we will get some clarity.

1:29 p.m.: Ballmer notes that the deal is, to some degree, about information accessed in the car, but adds it is also about information getting to and from the car to the cloud and other devices.

Text messaging applications, which offer the ability to send messages to a group of people via a single phone number, were in the spotlight at SXSW. Companies such as Gogii, KIK, Beluga, GroupMe and Fast Society were the talk of the town since they provided easy ways for large groups of people to socialize and get in touch quickly.

Following the event, GroupMe provided its first hint at what its business model would be when it opened up its mobile group chat to brands, which would be highlighted in a “Featured Groups” section.

Now, Gogii is beefing up its monetizing efforts.

Hill, who will have the title of VP of monetization and publishing, was most recently VP of mobile monetization at Myspace.

She will oversee all company revenue, which includes in-app purchases, advertising and a new publishing unit, said Gogii CEO Scott Lahman. “I can’t think of anyone better who can hit the ground running. She’s been doing this for years at Fox and at Myspace. This is almost the exact same role.”

Gogii’s textPlus application has 7.7 million monthly active users and recently set a record for sending 35 million messages in one day.

While Hill is just joining the Los Angeles-based startup, the company has been monetizing with advertising from the beginning.  ”We hit seven-figure revenue-quarters last year, and that’s continued to grow. We are well past the testing stage. Advertising campaigns were up 300 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period last year.”

Mostly, the app relies on splash ads–which are like a homepage takeover–which the user sees immediately after opening the application. Lahman said users on average open the application 10 to 15 times a day, and that the ads have a click-through rate in the high single digits. There are also banner ads from within the applications, which are seen by its nearly eight million monthly active users.

Lahman said they made the decision to monetize with advertising because it allowed them to grow the business much faster than if they charged for it. A paid version of the application, which has no advertising, allows the user to pick the area code for the phone number they use. He said six to 10 percent of its users choose to upgrade. The app costs $4.99 and is available on iPhone and Android.

“The advertisers love it. We are the text client for a lot of our customers–that’s why they use it so much to send so many messages.”

Gogii uses a mix of its own direct sales force in addition to farming out some inventory to mobile ad networks, like Google’s AdMob, Jumptap and Greystripe. Returning advertisers include Disney, Fox, Target, Ford, Paramount, CBS, Unilever, JCPenney, MTV, Coca-Cola and Zynga.

The new publishing business, which Hill will oversee, will experiment with a sort of white-label service, which will allow a brand to completely take over the application for a specific brand or event.

Lahman said in March, 25 percent of the company’s revenues were coming from paid features inside the application. It’s his goal to hit 50 percent by the end of the year. “That will come against a growing advertising business–that’s not cannibalizing it,” he said.

Its 2010 lobbying spend was about $1.6 million. (Microsoft’s was $6.9 million.) But while it might seem that any lobbying Apple might need to do in Washington could be easily accomplished by a phone call from one of its directors–one in particular–evidently that’s not the case. Because the company has hired a new lobbying firm to help deal with its D.C. concerns: Fierce, Isakowitz and Blalock.

It’s not clear why Apple hired the firm; lobbying disclosures say only that it will handle “innovation” issues for the company, and sources I’ve spoken with seem unaware of any big legislative pushes the company might be mulling. That said, Fierce, Isakowitz and Blalock is a formidable lobbying firm with a number of executives who did stints in the Bush administration and the Republican National Committee, and a client list that includes some very big names: Coca-Cola, CTIA, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, Ford, Time Warner and Oracle.

Think Larry Ellison got a referral fee?

Stay tuned!

Plans are underway for a Hulu-only mini-show slated to run on the video site daily, offering up zippy commentary about TV and pop culture.

Some limited details: The show, which is casting now, will run five minutes an episode Monday through Friday. It’s supposed to offer “a quick and humorous survey of the past 24 hours of Media and pop culture.”

In other words, think of all of the TV shows that do something like this already–pretty much everything that runs on E! and half of what runs on VH-1–and shrink it down to a bite-size Web creation. They’re not reinventing the wheel here.

You can glean a tiny bit more about the show, via a casting call ad, at the bottom of this post. An actress who auditioned last week tells us the sessions were “mobbed.”

(Of course! But note that anyone who does get the gig won’t be hitting the jackpot–$1,000 a week, leave your SAG card at home.)

I’m assuming that “HD Films,” the show’s producer, is the same studio that is already producing “The Jace Hall Show,” a Web show about videogames, which runs on Hulu and other sites. Jace Hall is listed as a producer on this one, too.

Hulu rep Elisa Schreiber declined to discuss the show, telling me via email that “we’re not sharing any details because it’s still in the early stages.”

So why do we care? Because Hulu’s primary purpose in life, for now, is to provide a place for people to watch bona fide TV shows on the Web–and primarily shows from its three broadcast TV owners: News Corp.’s Fox, GE’s NBC and Disney’s ABC. (News Corp. also owns this Web site.)

But it has also been dabbling in Web originals over the past year or so: See “The LXD,” and “If I Can Dream.”

Hulu now has an original show in the works starring Whitney Port (who was on “The Hills,” Google tells me), designed to promote Mattel’s Ken doll (really). And there’s something coming from Ford and the producing team behind “The Amazing Race.”

The through-line behind all of this stuff: Webby takes on reality shows, which are cheap to produce for conventional TV and  even more so on the Web (again, note the union-free note on the casting info below).

Nothing revolutionary, but it does point to an interesting question: At what point does the line between the best Web video and mediocre TV disappear?

No one thinks the Web is going to replace TV at its best–expensive original fare like “Lost” or “Glee,” or big-time events like the Super Bowl and the Oscars. But there’s not that much high-end, original stuff on TV.

And lots and lots of your programming grid is filled with repeats, which the Web can do just fine. And then lots of less exciting, and less expensive, fare like “The Biggest Loser” and the like, which the Web hasn’t done. Yet.

But there’s no reason that it couldn’t. And when and if that starts happening with some frequency, there will be even less reason to keep paying for expensive TV packages….

Here’s the text from the casting notice (click to enlarge):

I know T-Mobile and Sprint already have 4G networks. Do you know when 4G on Verizon is coming out? And have you heard anything about 4G on AT&T?

A:

Sprint has a 4G network in scores of cities, and T-Mobile has a souped-up 3G network in many cities that it says can achieve 4G speeds. Verizon has pledged to introduce 4G service in several dozen cities by year-end. AT&T is planning to start rolling out 4G next year.

Two important caveats apply here. First, the term “4G” is a slippery one. While all of these networks offer faster data speeds than traditional 3G, they don’t actually meet the technical definition of 4G speeds set by the international standards body that defines such things. Second, to get the full speeds offered by these new networks, most people will need a new phone. Currently, there are only a handful of phones that can do so.

Q:

My daughter is graduating from high school and has been accepted to several Ivy League universities. She going in to the medical field. Her friend is urging her to get a Mac instead of a PC. What would you suggest?

A:

As I noted in my buyer’s guide last week, Windows PCs come in more varieties and are usually less expensive up front, which could help offset college costs. Macs have extremely high customer satisfaction, according to most major surveys, better built-in software and, perhaps most important, they aren’t susceptible to the vast majority of malicious software, a particular problem on college campuses that can cost money and time and risk losing work.

I’d suggest that once she selects a college, she should check to see which type of computer the college suggests and supports, what the academic prices are, and whether there is any special software required for pre-med courses that would favor one type of machine over another.

Q:

Thanks for your recent article on Ford’s latest automotive digital system. My biggest concern with these various electronic applications is how fast they can become obsolete. I can imagine keeping a $36,000 car for eight to 10 years. I can’t imagine many of the electronic systems will still work with the phones and who knows what else by then. Will Ford provide software upgrades to keep the vehicle relevant?

A:

Yes. Ford has developed a system that allows you to download updates to its SYNC digital system from the Web to a USB flash drive, using your computer. You then insert the portable drive into a USB port in the car to upgrade its software. More information is at http://bit.ly/cK33kD.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox and my other columns online at http://walt.allthingsd.com.