October 24, 2008
Fun with domain sellers
Occasionally, it's good to take a break from talking about streaming media recording solutions. Here's a story of something we encounter more often than you think.
Every once in a while, we get people with marginally valuable domain names to sell contacting us and asking for an excessive amount of money. Here's one guy with a somewhat relevant three letter domain we had some fun with. (The domain name and author's name have been changed).
"Bob" wrote:
Hi Bill,We own site XYZ.com and were looking to sell it.
We would much rather sell it - previously we were entertaining offers in the high 5 figures - let me know your highest bid and maybe we can work something out.
Thanks
Bob
My reply:
Hi Bob - Your site and domain will require a lot of work. Google says you have 1 outside link, and a 2 page rank for the home page, and your Alexa rank is 600,000+, which means you have very little traffic. If you were me, how would you justify a 5 figure price were I to present this to my partners? Thanks, Bill
Bob writes back:
Hi Bill,It all comes down to supply and demand - we are only interested in getting the current market value.
eg. a similar 3 letter domain sold for $195,000 last week => MCC.com
See the link below:
http://www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm
In my opinion, XYZ.com is a much higher quality domain with much more potential...
Try searching XYZ vs MCC on google.com it generate results for 62,100,000
"Results 1 - 10 of about 62,100,000 for xyz. (0.05 seconds) "The XYZ.com domain is clearly more valuable than other simple 3 Letter dot com domains e.g. MCC.com
With the right promotion & development this domain can easily be turned into an 8 figure/year operation.
Due to the current economic situation, I would be willing to let it go for under $195,000 - but it must be a competitive offer...
Thanks
Bob
And my response:
BOB -IMO, WTF? LOL
- BSD (CEO)
Posted by Bill Dettering at 12:00 PM| Permalink | Technorati Tags: domain name sellers | Comments (1)
October 02, 2008
Download Videos from Sling.com
Sling has announced their new media portal to compete with Hulu, YouTube and other sites today. And of course when we read news like this, we ask - how will people be able to download or record these video streams?
At-Large Recorder is already working with SlingPlayer 2.0, so that's one option, but I suspect they will use a different technology (Flash?) for their media service. Once we get our beta invite and try it out, we'll let you know what we discover.
As far as the service goes, here's our take. The Clip-and-Sling idea is moronic - I sincerely doubt people will take the time to make clips of TV shows, and also people will be less than likely to watch them. Of course, people DO this already in YouTube, but the effort involved in this acts as a natural filter for presenting interesting things to viewers. if it's too easy to make clips of TV shows, there will be a lot of noise. Also - being tied to the content owners may limit the flexibility of end-users to make compelling clips. We'll have to see how the service evolves.
However - if they can provide LiveTV over the web, I can see that as being a game changer. And with the new SlingCatcher boxes coming out which let your TV become the viewing hardware for any Sling stream, we may finally get true IPTV. This will open the floodgates for other similar services, as nobody wants to be left behind.
Posted by Bill Dettering at 10:43 AM| Permalink | Technorati Tags: sling tivo video slingbox download capture record | Comments (1)
September 30, 2008
iPhone Media Downloads - is Apple Stupid, Evil, or Weak?
As a new owner of an iPhone, I am very happy with the whole experience. The device is great.
As a media geek, I'm finding it difficult to something basic. And Apple seems to be working against me. Here's what's frustrating:
I want to be able to update the media on my iPhone over-the-air. I want my Podcasts to be updated automatically, without having to sync with my PC. I also want to be able to email radio shows automatically recorded as MP3 files (using Replay A/V) to my iPhone, and then play them. (Think TiVo for the radio - on your phone!) For me, this would be the coolest. But no luck :(
On the Podcast side, an app called Podcaster promised to do just that sort of thing, but was rejected from the Apple store for no apparent reason.
On the Radio show side, Replay A/V is able to send me emails with links to download radio shows automatically recorded by my home PC. I was hoping to be able to send myself radio shows to listen to on my iPhone. But alas, Safari is "unable to download" files from these links. (The links are generated by YouSendIt, which is integrated into Replay A/V).
So, here are my theories:
Stupidity: Is Apple so dumb as to disallow significant over-the-air media transfers for no good reason?
Evil: Is Apple disabling this capability in order to enable their own service?
Weak: Is Apple being bullied by AT&T to disallow too much 3G data traffic? (Another app that let you use your iPhone as a laptop modem was also killed by Apple.)
This is also puzzling given the Pandora player, which is also a media downloader, and works great on the iPhone. There's no way Apple could kill the Pandora app though, as it would create a huge outrage.
These uncertainties should be troubling to anyone seriously considering developing media enabled apps for the iPhone. And the authoritarian, opaque, random policies behind the app store really need to end, otherwise all the development talent will go to Android or some other truly open platform, the coolness of the iPhone notwithstanding.
Posted by Bill Dettering at 09:56 PM| Permalink | Technorati Tags: apple iPhone tivo radio podcaster podcast mp3 | Comments (2)
