AllThingsD » mash-up

One Final Freaky Holiday Video: T-Mobile Mashes Up "Glee" and "Pretty in Pink"

Kara Swisher — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 22:17:19 +0000

I really can’t say if I like this video or I am completely freaked out by it.

T-Mobile, which didn’t get sold to AT&T, hired Hollywood director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and “surprised” shoppers at the Chicago area’s Woodfield Mall with a flash-mob performance of “(There’s No Place Like) Home For The Holidays.”

It’s like the gals from television’s “Glee” cloned themselves and went wild, while stealing a 1980s look from the classic teen movie “Pretty in Pink.”

Except even stranger and up to more than four million views on YouTube.

Now, who knows what the mobile carrier will do next with all those billions from the scotched takeover deal? An unholy combo of HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” with the even more grating kid’s film I barely endured, “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked”?

Until we find out, enjoy, and then please get back to work tomorrow, everyone:

Viral Video: "Hell No, You Can't" (Except He Did)

Kara Swisher — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:30:02 +0000

It’s hard to explain this riveting mashup video, so you should just watch it.

In a nutshell: A mashup of Will.i.am’s “Yes We Can” online video from the primaries, and Republican Rep. John Boehner screaming on the floor of the House, referring to the Obama administration’s health-care bill, “Hell no, you can’t!”

As it turned out: Yes, he did.

Here’s the video, which pretty much explains the state of political bipartisanship in the United States right now:

YouFace: "30 Rock" Smacks Social Networking Perfectly

Kara Swisher — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:34:10 +0000

Tina Fey’s “30 Rock” did a takedown of social networking sites in its latest episode, “Secret Santa,” delivering a smack-attack that is nearly perfect.

The broadcast network Liz Lemon works for has bought a social network called YouFace–a mashup of MySpace and Facebook. Her boss, Jack Donaghy, finds an old flame online, of course.

On YouFace, terms such as “finger-tagged,” “face-fall,” “weirdsie,” “bing-bangs” and “pho-lo” (for photo and hello) abound.

None of which are any more weirdsie than being “friended” and “poked.”

Here are some video clips from the NBC television show, as well as the full episode below:

Author Ken Auletta Talks About Google and Its "Lack of Emotional Intelligence"

Kara Swisher — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:50:35 +0000

Guess what? Google has too many Spocks and not enough Captain Kirks.

This is one of the many interesting insights BoomTown gleaned from a video interview last night–which you can see below–with well-known New Yorker scribe Ken Auletta, who has just written a new book, “Googled: The End of the World as We Know It.”

This “lack of emotional intelligence” at the search giant, said Auletta, reminded him a lot of the subject of one of his previous books: Microsoft (MSFT).

Oh, the delicious irony!

Auletta was feted at a lovely party last night at the San Francisco house of Common Sense Media’s Jim Steyer, where a range of Google (GOOG) execs, Internet folks and fans gathered to talk about the book.

It’s all about Google, its history and, most important, its impact on the world. And how you look at the powerful search giant depends entirely on whether you are the changer or the changed, as Auletta stresses in multiple anecdotes in the book.

Traditional media, for example, have certainly been mucho irked of late about the impact of digital technologies on their businesses and have not been shy about casting blame most heapingly on Google’s Silicon Valley plate.

And government regulators are also giving the company the hairy eyeball, much as they had previously done to Microsoft.

Auletta and I talked about all of this and more in the video interview below, in which he notes that he told Googlers at a talk at their adorkable Googleplex HQ in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday that they need to focus less on being engineering brainiacs and more on trying to understand how to deal with fears of their growing power.

Here’s my interview with Auletta about this, as well as what old media needs to do to deal with all the change Google has wrought. (And you can see interviews I did with guests at the party, too).

And below that is one of the disturbing number of mash-up music videos about “Star Trek” buddies, the highly illogical Kirk and the Vulcanish Spock, the geek bromance of all time.

[ See post to watch video ]

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

The Agony and Ecstasy of Paula & Simon (Plus: When Abdul Did D6)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:44:05 +0000

BoomTown is wearing all-black today, in profound mourning for the prospect of no Paula Abdul judging on “American Idol” next season.

“With sadness in my heart, I’ve decided not to return,” tweeted Abdul yesterday, bidding goodbye, natch, on Twitter.

Of course, her departure was over money–the boy talent, co-judge Simon Cowell and MC Ryan Seacrest, got a ton of it and Abdul got much less (although $2 million a year is a lot, it paled in comparison).

She is worth the scratch, though–especially considering how much the television singing juggernaut makes on Coke advertising placement alone–whether she was falling asleep in Carrie Underwood’s first audition or sleeping with contestants (allegedly!) or just doing that goofy seal clap and blathering out incomprehensible compliments to contestants.

Memo to News Corp. (NWS) TV unit Fox, which produces the TV show in the U.S.: Hand over more dough and pronto!

Sigh, as it is probably not to be–even though her bio is still on the “Idol” Web site.

So, here is a very funny video mashup done about her odd relationship with the acerbic Cowell.

Plus, here is a video from when Adbul also actually appeared–stranger than fiction–at the sixth D: All Things Digital conference.

She was there to help Activision Blizzard (ATVI) CEO Bobby Kotick publicly demo “Guitar Hero IV” for the first time, with the help of skateboarding star Tony Hawk.

I’ll be honest–I was sure she’d do something crazy, like goose Bill Gates of Microsoft (MSFT) or maybe fall off the stage–but she turned out to be a pro and forever my girl (oh, I had to).

Check it out, since I am off draping crepe at the All Things Digital HQ:

Paula & Simon:

Paula at D6:

[ See post to watch video ]

Jai Ho! An Unfortunate Oscar-Winning Song (and Dance)

Kara Swisher — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:00:23 +0000

Despite the little-movie-that-could, “Slumdog Millionaire,” sweeping the Oscars on Sunday night, it was well-nigh impossible to find a really good online video of the amazing Bollywood-style dance routine done during the closing credits to the also award-winning song, “Jai Ho!”

(Even the Pussycat Dolls have covered the song, which loosely translates to “Victory.”)

Unfortunately, the A.R. Rahman tune (two well-deserved Oscars for him!) in the catchy song-and-dance number seemed to be subject to takedowns all over the Web just when it probably was a good time to put it out and generate even more box office buzz for “Slumdog.”

Why? Well, as you can see below from the video mashup on Dailymotion that I finally found, it perfectly communicates the infectious mood of the movie:

Jai Ho – Slumdog Millionaire (English Subs)
Uploaded by aka71691

Love Client Number 9: Eliot Spitzer Gets Mashed-Up!

Kara Swisher — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:02:49 +0000

You knew it was only a matter of seconds before there would be video mash-ups on the Web related to the prostitution troubles of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Some are pretty racy, of course, because the story is, well, pretty racy, generating the most excellent headline from the New York Post: “Ho No!”

But here are two I liked a lot. The first is from Barry Mitchell on the accordion in a song parody using the Searchers’ ditty, “Love Potion Number 9.” And the second does a very funny take-off of “The Odd Couple,” pairing Spitzer with another Luv Guv–New Jersey’s Jim McGreevey.

TechCrunch40: Rich Media and Mash-Ups

John Paczkowski — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 23:18:25 +0000

MC Hammer in da house yo, and sitting on the afternoon judges panel as well. Please Hammer, don’t hurt ‘em…

Another round of presentations by start-ups at this session of TechCrunch40, this time a group of mainstream (and not-so-mainstream) media-manipulation companies. In addition to Hammer, the panel of judges (new for this session) includes Caterina Fake of Flickr, Yahoo’s Brad “Peanut Butter Manifesto” Garlinghouse, journalist Sarah Lacy and French entrepreneur Loïc Le Meur.

Extreme Reality (XTR3D): A software-only 3D human/machine interface. Now this is impressive. Presenter is navigating Google Earth with body movements recorded by Webcam. Wait ’til the gaming industry gets hold of this … Aha, next demo is of a boxing game. Rudimentary, but you can clearly see the applications.
BroadClip: The company is launching MediaCatcher, an application for Facebook users that amounts to a simple means of recording and storing streaming audio. Pitch seems to be TiVo for Internet radio. For example, if you like the Pixies, it will scan the Net for streaming audio that includes the Pixies, intercept it and save it as an MP3 file. Neat idea, but good luck getting it past the recording industry.
mEgo: Interactive portable profiles. An avatar with substance and utility. Basically, a universal profile widget that you can insert into Facebook, LinkedIn and whatnot. Update your mEgo and the changes proliferate across all the sites you’ve installed it on. Also features a customizable avatar. MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” plays over the sound system as they conclude. (Wonder how many times we’ll hear it played this afternoon?)
Wixi: Answer to preceding question: at least twice. Presenting their media social network, Wixi’s founders also play “U Can’t Touch This.” (What a long afternoon this is going to be.) Wixi offers users the ability to share content of all types, including photos, audio and video.
BeFunky: Suite of avatar, photo and video customization tools that seems to be built on the old MacPaint code base. Helps users build (sigh) “YouAtars.” Tagline: “Funky ways to represent yourself.” Pretty much says it all.

Judges Panel:

Hammer enjoyed mEgo and BeFunky.

Surprisingly, Garlinghouse agrees with Hammer. (Wonder if he’s got a pair of Hammer pants in his closet.)

Fake likes Extreme Reality (XTR3D), but hates the name (“extreme” is overused, too ’80s). She pokes holes in everyone else. Doesn’t buy into avatars.

Lacy seems to agree with Fake.

Chatterboxes next to me make it impossible to hear Le Meur’s thoughts. In any event, they’re brief. Perhaps he agreed with Fake as well. (Where are Kawasaki and Dyson when you need them?)

Hammer butting heads with BroadClip over copyright and licensing issues. BroadClip claims it’s going to generate revenue for the recording industry, which will then embrace it. Don Dodge, who spent six years at Napster, stands up in the audience to side with Hammer and tells BroadClip guy he’s essentially full of it.

Correction: An earlier version of this post had erroneously switched the descriptions of the offerings of BroadClip and Wixi, and had incorrectly assigned Hammer’s and Dodge’s criticism to Wixi instead of BroadClip. (See comment below.)

Oh, Everybody Loves Google, Alright …

John Paczkowski — Fri, 25 May 2007 18:01:39 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Mash Me Up and I Shall Become More Powerful Than You Could Possibly Imagine.

John Paczkowski — Fri, 25 May 2007 12:01:55 +0000

If there’s one thing you can say about Lucasfilm, it’s that it’s not afraid to keep milking the “Star Wars” cash cow, er, bantha. And so, in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the film–whose franchise has earned more than $22 billion since it first debuted–Lucasfilm is making 250 clips from all six “Star Wars” movies available on its Starwars.com site, inviting fans to remix and mash them up to their hearts’ content.

“We see what’s going on at YouTube,” Jeffrey Ulin, senior director for distribution and business affairs at Lucasfilm, told The Wall Street Journal. “We see what’s going on out there on the Web generally. And we wanted fans to come to Starwars.com as the center of fan activity … [this is all] part of keeping the love of ‘Star Wars’ and the franchise alive.”

And revenue as well, of course. Ultimately, these mash-ups will feature advertisements that, given the size and fanaticism of the “Star Wars” fan base, will almost certainly rope in some high-profile sponsors. That said, sitting through a vapid preroll advertisement would certainly be worth the price of admission to an episode of Chad Vader, Day Shift Manager populated with some of Star Wars’ original cast members….