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Your next TV set may show you advertising spots you actually like

Janko Roettgers — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 19:01:00 +0000

For years, cable companies have been dreaming about personalizing TV advertising. If ad spots weren’t just geared towards broad demographics but fine-tuned to the things you watch and other data available about you, then you’d be less bored and brands would be willing to pay more. Or so goes the logic. Unfortunately, efforts to get this off the ground based on cable set-top boxes have largely failed. Now, the focus may be shifting to TV set makers.

At the coming CES in Las Vegas, media data provider Gracenote is going to demonstrate a proof-of-concept of technology that puts ad-swapping power right into the TV set. Gracenote is using video recognition technology to identify ad breaks, and will be able to insert ads based on the demographic of a viewer, as well as knowledge about what kind of shows he or she has watched in the past.

Take a look at Gracenote President Stephen White demonstrating the technology in the video below:

Watch this video for free on GigaOM

Gracenote started to get into the video recognition game when it acquired video recognition specialist Bulldog United earlier this year. The company has been working on expanding its role in the content recognition space in recent months, venturing into the space of TV second-screen applications and powering audio recognition in apps like Path and the just-released Rhapsody SongMatch app.

With ad personalization, Gracenote would be taking on a problem that has been a tough nut to crack for the industry in the past. More than four years ago, major U.S. cable companies came together to personalize advertising with an initiative called Project Canoe. Those efforts went nowhere, and Canoe all but abandoned its efforts (and laid off 120 employees) earlier this year.

White is the first one to admit that it won’t be easy to change advertising. Not only are there technical challenges, but handing the key to the ad kingdom over to TV makers could also upset broadcasters and service providers, which is why Gracenote hopes to find solutions that benefit everyone. The company wants to do some trials in 2013, and hopes that TV sets with ad swapping capabilities will reach the market in 2013. White didn’t want to tell me who is lined up to try out this technology – but given the fact that Gracenote is owned by Sony, I wouldn’t be too surprised to see some of it find its way into Sony TV sets.

If anything, this new effort demonstrates a new role for CE manufacturers. TV makers used to provide a more or less dumb screen that was dependent on content from service providers. With a shift towards smart TVs and over-the-top services, they’re feeling momentum move towards them. Some have even tried to broker their own content deals. It’s only logical that advertising would be the next step.

Image courtesy of Flickr user gildas_f.

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Shazam exec: The second screen is where it’s at

Janko Roettgers — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 07:01:20 +0000

Content recognition specialist Shazam continues to bet on the second screen, and the company’s chief revenue officer Doug Garland told me last week that he doesn’t expect connected TVs or set-top boxes to catch up with the mobile space any time soon.

“If you look at interactive TV… it has been the roadkill of the information superhighway,” he said, adding: “Advanced set-top boxes never achieved scale.”

The same can’t be said for mobile, and that’s why companies like Shazam are putting their apps on iPads and phones, as opposed to TVs and set-top boxes. “We are operating at scale,” said Garland, pointing to some impressive numbers: Shazam now sees 10 million new tags a day, or a total of ~~one~~ three billion tags a year. Two million new users sign up for Shazam every single week.

Up until now, Shazam has mostly been known as a music recognition app: Users can have the app listen in on a song they hear anywhere, and they’ll almost immediately get the name of the artist, the song title, and additional information. Shazam recently began to expand into the TV space, and is now able to identify almost any show on over 160 U.S. TV channels.

This obviously opens up a whole new range of ad revenue possibilities, and Garland said that Shazam has already partnered with over 160 brands to do things like deliver additional information about a product that’s advertised on TV to the second screen.

And, as Shazam is doubling down on TV show recognition, these ad experiences will play an even bigger role. However, you won’t see a Coke ad on your mobile while a Pepsi ad is playing on TV any time soon – at least not within your Shazam app. “Right now, that’s certainly not how we are working,” said Garland.

For more about the importance of second-screen apps, check out my conversation with YouTube Director of Product Management Shiva Rajaraman at this week’s Mobilize conference.

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Certified Refurbished Macs One Way to Help Weather the Economic Storm

Charles Moore — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:48:57 +0000

Apple is taking a lot of stick (even more than usual) about hanging tough with premium pricing despite the global financial meltdown, and it almost never offers discounts or sales. So how can budget-constrained Macheads economize on system upgrades? One solution is to buy a less-expensive model than the one you would have perhaps preferred. Another is get an Apple Certified Refurbished machine instead of going new.

If you’re not familiar with Apple Certified Refurbished (ACR) products, here are the broad strokes: ACR units are pre-owned (or in some instances, such as store demos, never-sold) Apple products that undergo Apple’s stringent refurbishment process prior to being offered for sale. Most of these units have been returned under Apple’s Return and Refund Policies, but according to Apple, only some of them are returned due to technical issues. In any event, all ACR units undergo Apple’s quality refurbishment process.

Full functionality testing (including burn-in testing).
Refurbishing with replacement parts and components for any defective modules identified in testing.
Thoroughly cleaned and inspected.
Complete repackaging by Apple, including appropriate manuals, cables, etc. (albeit in a brown cardboard carton rather than one with full color lithographs on the box)
Operating software that originally shipped with the unit and any custom software offered with that system.
A new refurbished part number and serial number.
A final QA inspection.
Quality testing follows the same basic technical guidelines as Apple’s Finished Goods testing procedures.

A really cool thing is that Apple Certified Refurbished Products are covered by the same One-Year Limited Warranty as Apple’s new systems. Apple ACR product purchasers are also eligible for the option of purchasing the AppleCare Protection Plan that extends the basic warranty coverage on your Apple Certified Refurbished Product to up to three years.

My own experiences with purchasing Apple Certified Refurbished products, including a 17″ PowerBook, and iPods for my daughter and wife, have all been very positive. While it’s a small sampling, all three of these units arrived flawless both functionally and cosmetically, a track record that convinced me to go with the ACR unibody MacBook 2.0 I ordered last week (which I’m awaiting arrival of at this writing).

My current workhorse, the ACR 1.33 GHz 17-inch PowerBook, was issued its new refurbished serial number on July 17, 2005, and appeared to have been a hardly used if at all, with no cosmetic damage or evidence of wear on the keys, trackpad, or palm-rests. It came packaged in a brown Apple carton, with all the the cables, peripherals, manuals, and software CDs packaged as new.

Buying any computer — new or refurbished — is always a bit of a dice-roll, but it seems plausible to me that a lightly-used refurbished machine could actually be a statistically better prospect for avoiding new-machine problems, since it has presumably been double-checked out and given a clean bill of health by Apple technicians. That said, a friend of mine did get a DOA Apple Certified Refurbished iBook a couple of years back. He received a prompt refund, but opted to replace it with a new iBook rather than another ACR machine.

Your mileage may vary, but my deduction is that with an Apple Certified Refurbished unit increased risk of problems, if any, would be minimal and the savings realized can be substantial.

The ACR MacBook I just ordered will cost me CAN $1199, or CAN $200 (14%) off the list price for that model, a difference nicely covering the cost of a USB modem and a third-party upgrade to 4GB RAM with change left over. It was also only CAN $50 more than the new price of the recently upgraded white MacBook.

ACR model availability is constantly in flux, sometimes from hour to hour, on the Apple Store’s refurbished pages, but when in stock, unibody 15″ MacBook Pro 2.4GHz units are currently going for $1,699.00 ($300.00 or 15% off list) at the U.S. store. On older models the saving off original list prices are commensurately greater. For example, a 17″ MacBook Pro 2.5GHz at $1,899.00 ($600.00 or 24% off original list).

Also, if your fancy is a fairly recent discontinued model (for example, a black MacBook), they crop up frequently on the ACR site. The trick is to keep checking. (Hint: I’ve unscientifically observed that mid to late in the week seems to turn up the best selection.)

What do you think? Better to play it safe and buy new or be a bit adventurous and save money with a Certified Refurbished unit?

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