David Feldt Proud father. Entrepreneur. Builder. Catalyst. Accelerator. Guide.

Apple Movie Rentals – Innovation or Rerun?

I just finished watching Steve Jobs do his thing at MacWorld today and was really excited to see the new-and-improved Apple TV ("Take 2") which promises to revolutionize my home movie watching experience. It mirrors the incredibly successful iPod/iTunes music ecosystem for movies on the "Big Screen" in our living rooms. No need for a computer, no need for DVDs, no need for Blu-ray, no need for VoD via your cable box. Apple has signed up every major movie studio (huge inventory) and Take 2 will elegantly deliver DVD and HD quality movies to your favorite 56" LCD 1080p screen.

(If you don't want to watch it on your big screen HD-TV, you can simply transfer your movie to your PC, iPod or iPhone for remote, mobile viewing.)

When the original Apple TV launched last year I rushed to my local Apple store to check it out. I was disappointed by its poor video quality, poor movie selection and clunky interface. The overall experience was sub-par. Jobs admitted this today. He said that Apple had failed to inspire with rev 1.0 of Apple TV.

There is major competition in this space - competing with Apple is Amazon and Netflix plus every cable provider and satellite provider with their own VOD service.

David Card at Jupiter thinks that Take 2 will not be successful. His colleague Michael Gartenberg disagrees.

So, who's right? What do you think? Card or Gartenberg?

I'm siding with Gartenberg on this one - this is a winner in my eyes:

• Ease of use (Apple's elegant, exceptional experience)
• Breadth of content (every major studio is already signed up and their entire collective catalog will become available on this device)
• Lets me watch it on my HD-TV the way I like to watch my movies (No need for a computer hookup, no need for DVDs, no need for an expensive Blu-ray, no need for VoD via your cable box)
• Choice of viewing device (When I'm traveling I can take my movies on my iPod or laptop)

The Lost Art of Conversation

Hi, my name is David and I am an addict ...

I'm addicted to my Blackberry, I'm addicted to information in a digital format, I'm addicted to Twitter, I get nervous when I'm not "connected" ...

I'm an addict ...

I've made a commitment for 2008 that I will reduce (and hopefully totally eliminate) my CPA [continuous partial attention] behavior. I will concentrate on one task at a time and complete that one task before starting another. I will reduce my reliance on email communication. I will not interrupt my current thought process to check my Blackberry, my Gmail, my Facebook, my LinkedIn, post to my Tumblr ...

It's insane!

I will wean myself from the information overload dependency that I've developed over the past years. Reading email and sending email while driving is a stupid, stupid, stupid activity - life threatening and really stupid! Reading email and sending email while supposedly communicating with colleagues, family and friends is a big no-no. It's disrespectful, stupid and sad!

I realize that these behaviors have significantly impaired my ability to really LISTEN, to communicate effectively, to think deeply ...

Instead, I will engage in real conversation / real dialog with real, live people in real-time using our oldest and most powerful piece of technology - one's G-d given ability to speak with one's vocal chords, mouths and tongues and to listen with one's ears.

Today was Day 1 of my quest to rediscover the real, authentic, human David. I left home at 4am this morning to travel to Detroit where I spent the day engaging in real conversations with real people in real-time sans moi Blackberry, sans moi Laptop, sans moi cellphone ...

I returned home at 8pm to find I had over 300 emails in my collective inboxes - if you're one of the people who sent me an email today, I may not reply ... ever.

Instead, you may be surprised to receive a phone call from me where we can talk with each other about the real issues ...

Let's (re)engage in the lost art of conversation ...