If anyone tells you we are not going through another .com era, tell them about Twitter getting a valuation of $100 million without a business plan (or any way to really monetize their service) and Veoh now getting another $30 million in funding, bringing it’s total funding to a whopping $70 million.

JPL is using Twitter to to relay information about the Mars Phoenix Lander to us earthlinks.

I was reading a very interesting article on TechCrunch about Facebook becoming the next Microsoft (as in OS).

Ok, so I don’t like to boast (often), but I have to now.  I was doing my typical Google search for The Digital Media Dude to see who’s talking about me, and came up on this post by the TrainingZone.co.uk. 

I’m not saying not to purchase a Mac. I love my Mac (can’t wait for Leopard and the new iMac….oh man…I’ll be in heaven…drinking too much Apple Kool-Aid).

Anyhow, back on track, I found this page on MacRumors.com that lists of all Apple’s hardware products and tells you if you should or should not purchase them. They tell you, based on rumors, if new versions of current products will be out.

For example, as of today, Thursday June 14, they don’t recommend you purchase the following products due to “new releases out soon”:

• iPod
• iPod Mini/Nano
• Mac Mini
• iMac
• XServe

This is going to be a short blog. Regardless of what platform you like, you should watch these videos:

http://video.allthingsd.com/d5

This is classic and I think only once in our lifetime.

If you have been around computers for a long time (they talk about the Commodore PET and Radio Shack TRS 80….ah memories), then you will definitely enjoy these videos.

It makes you remember the good old days.

Enjoy!

- Marcelo
The Digital Media Dude
http://www.thedigitalmediadude.com/

Since this Memorial weekend was a bit warm where we live, I took the family (wife and kids) to Santa Monica Beach to spend the day there. After a gorgeous day at the beach, we decided to go to dinner at the Third Street Promenade. It’s a gorgeous place. We ate at El Gaucho Grill. After that I told my wife that I wanted to stop by the Apple Store in on Third Street Promonade to check out the iMac 24” vs. the MacBook Pro 17”. She said ok.

We went in there and after I sat the kids down by the 17” iMacs (which, by the way, you can say goodbye to them since their days are numbered) so they can play games, I went to check out the computers (my wife stayed with the kids, so don’t call the authorities on me ok?)

I approached one “Apple Genius” helper and asked him about the new Color app and the iMac. What transpired afterwards completely amazed me and at the same time disappointed me about Apple and it’s salespeople:

I can’t believe this. I heard this morning that Apple is already shipping Final Cut Studio 2.0 ONLY if you purchase a new copy. If you purchased an upgrade, those are delayed 2 weeks and won’t ship until the end of the month.

What’s the deal with that Apple? So you penalize your loyal following that keeps purchasing your products?

I know that it’s only a 2 week delay, no big deal, but the point is that I have been purchasing Final Cut Pro since 4 and have been a loyal customer and I would expect to be one of the first ones to be able to get it, not the last ones.

Ok, so I think Apple makes some pretty cool computers. But here is my one great beef I have with Apple; they never tell me when they are coming out with a new machine.

I know what you are thinking. “Well, if Apple would tell you that they are coming out with a new machine, then you would never purchase their old inventory.” I understand that argument. But still, I hate Apple for screwing me all the time like that.

Last time, I purchased my iMac G5 and the salesmen told me that it was the latest version of the iMac and that I was going to love it.

Ok, so I did love it, but 3 weeks later my “new iMac” became “my old iMac” due to the new Intel Dual Core versions and a 24″ on top of that (I have the 20″).

So I was thinking of getting the MacBook Pro last month and spoke with a sales person and he told me that he didn’t know about any new laptop coming out pretty soon. I didn’t trust him and decided to wait and see.

PC:
Hi…I’m PC…I do spreadsheets and I do accounting.

MAC:
Hi…I’m Mac…I’m hip. I do Videos and music and keep you connected to your family.

PC:
But wait…I can do video, photography and websites and if you hook up a camera, I can let your connect with your family too.

MAC:
Yeah, well, I can do accounting too with Quicken and Excel. I can even do MS Word.

PC:
So why do you say you are better then me?

MAC:
Ah…I look better then you. My outer shell is nicer.

PC:
Did you see the Dell XPS machines? They look nice too, especially with the 30” screens.

MAC:
Oh yeah! But I cost more then you do. Oh wait. That’s not good. I mean, I don’t get the “blue screen of death” like you do. When I crash, I show my user a beautiful black see-through screen that says in a friendly manner “Please restart your system”. I even say that in 7 other languages.

I just upgraded (well, about 3 months ago) to IE 7 and I was just getting comfortable with it when I read a blog entry at http://internetexplorer8.net/ that Microsoft will release version 8 by the end of the year and will start doing upgrades to its browser every 12 to 18 months.

Adobe CS3 and transparency? What am I talking about? Ok, so you might think I’m sitting here, just typing away and drinking way too much wine (well, in my case it would be a nice beer, like Oregon Honey or something similar), but no, I’m not since I’m at work on my lunch break just writing this blog (instead of going out too lunch…I’m way too dedicated).

What I’m talking about is the announcement that Adobe made (last night at the MGLA meeting I attended in Hollywood) that they will be releasing a “preview release” of After Effects CS3, Encore CS3 and Premiere Pro CS3 for everyone that owns any version of any of those applications to download, start playing with and provide feedback.

Add to these apps the other applications in the CS3 series which are already available in the Adobe Labs (http://labs.adobe.com) like Photoshop CS3 and Soundbooth CS3 and they are letting us “geeks” play with all their software before it’s out.

Wow! DRM, or Digital Rights Management is dead as we know it. On April 1, 2007 (It was not an April Fools joke, seriously), EMI announced that they will release their entire music catalog and video catalog without DRM. Apple also announced that they will be distributing the entire EMI library of music and videos DRM free through their iTunes music store.

They will continue to sell their regular DRM encoded library for 99 cents, but the new DRM free library will be $1.29 and will be encoded at 256KBPS (the DRM encoded ones are encoded at 128KBPS).

Hi and welcome to my blog! My name is Marcelo Lewin and I manage an interactive media department for a major home builder. We build websites, create videos, podcasts and lots of training on demand videos. I love interactive media and where the market is headed (the complete merging of web and video)!

Through this blog (and in the very near future, also podcast), I plan on sharing my knowledge of interactive media as I work day to day creating and managing different media projects.

I don’t claim to know it all, in fact, I know I don’t, however, I want to share my successes and failures with you so that you don’t repeat the same mistakes I make (and maybe learn something along the way).