Tonight I took a test drive on the Brammo Enertia electric motorcycle in Tribeca, but it didn't smell, feel, or sound much like a motorcycle: There were no exhaust fumes, the bike was light (though it weighs 285 pounds), and there was barely any engine noise--only a slight whirrr--even at a top speed of 50 miles per hour. "It's almost silent," says John Farris, Director-Marketing, Brammo.
Built in Ashland, Oregon, the Enertia will be available in Best Buy's Portland store starting July 5, and later rolling out in 1,200 other U.S. Best Buy locations, as well as 1,800 Best Buy locations in Europe via The Carphone Warehouse Group. "We do R&D, manufacturing, and design all in Ashland and can get up to 1,000s of production vehicles at a time depending on the demand at Best Buy," says Farris. Best Buy Capital was an early investor in the Enertia.
With the Enertia, Brammo is aiming at the urban consumer, as it combines reduced operating costs, environmental consciousness and the fun of a motorcycle. The plug-in Enertia has no clutch, no gears and no shifting, so it's simple to ride, reaches speeds up to 55 miles per hour, travels 45 miles on a charge and takes just over three hours to re-charge. "We want to make it as accessible and as approachable as possible," says Farris.
Selling at Best Buy instead of a motorcycle outlet was founder Craig Bramscher's idea. Looking at the Enertia without it's wheels and torque, it looked just like consumer electronics to him, so Best Buy seemed like a perfect match. The Enertia Standard motorcycle will feature an aluminum chassis, injection molded plastic body panels and fenders, plus a durable vinyl seat for $11,995, with a 12 months warranty and 10% tax credit for electric plug-in vehicles. Bramscher says they're also working on getting an additional 10% in some states, like New Jersey.
After my ride, some camera guys from CNET approached me to do an interview asking me to compare the Enertia to a regular motorcycle. I talked about the ride around Tribeca and my trying to top out on the West Side Highway. To sum it up, here's what I told them: Besides it not smelling, feeling, or sounding much like your everyday motorcycle, I also found it to be very easy. In fact, it was one of the easiest rides I've ever had in my life--it was just like riding a bike, well, almost.
"I wanted to do a series of photographs that was 100% pure form. When you look at things in the world everything is comprised of form and texture. Form is everything that takes up 3 dimensional space and texture is on the surface of it. The photography takes place virtually inside of the computer. You move the camera around in 3D space. Instead of standing there with camera you're doing it all inside of the camera.
It starts with a facial scan, a super hi-res scan of the face. Then a laser scan of the entire body. It takes a long time to render. It looks like clay because the lighting is super realistic. Some may think it's a statue, but it's a uniformed texture. In any CG model you see this is one of the layers of that model.
I'm always interested in using new technology and doing something no one has done before. But it's for the greater good of the concept, not just to show off."
Brains! That must be the secret to Hulu rocketing up to being the fourth largest video site in the U.S. in February, right? That's what Alec Baldwin told us in this creative Super Bowl ad, which may also have had something to do with the video site's healthy traffic bump last month. Of course, it could have been the high-quality content--from Fox and NBC, as well as TV shows and movies from more than 120 sources, from the Food Network to Paramount Pictures.
The site's viewership increased by 55% to 7.8 million during February with 332.5 million streams, according to comScore Media Metrix. YouTube still dominates though, with 5.3 billion streams compared to #2 Fox Interactive (MySpace) with 462.6 million streams and #3 Yahoo, with 353.5 streams for that same period. But Hulu shot right ahead of Microsoft and Viacom to become #4. Hulu first launched March 12, 2008, and in just a year has become a major onliine video player.
"Hulu's success is its freedom to operate essentially as a stand-alone company, largely safe from the turf battles that plague most joint ventures," said CEO Jason Kilar when we interviewed him for The Fast Company 50, where Hulu landed in our #3 spot for most innovative companies in the world. "Hulu is about the shows, not the networks. The shows are the brands that users care about," he said
Looks like the site's obsession with focusing on what its users want is paying off in a major way. But if you don't mind, we're sticking with the brains diet.
They came out in droves--all 1000-plus of them. They were men, women, boys, and girls. They came from all five boroughs, and some from afar, from the stretches of Westchester, Long Island, and even New Jersey. They formed a queue, one so long that it wrapped around like a Python from the front door of The Times Square Arts Center on Eighth Avenue curving through 42nd Street. And as this was Sunday in New York, not even an impending Nor'easter could stop them.
Collectively, they all wanted the same thing--to find a pair of rare, exclusive sneakers. And though they may already own several pairs, they all wanted more. But it wasn't even brand new sneakers they were after. Some would buy vintage--already worn--sneakers from vendors, and others would barter from their own collections, if they found a pair another attendee had that was of equal value. And the place where it all happened: Sneaker Con 2009.
Sneaker collectors like West Wing, who has attended events like this before, started his day at 12 noon. By 3:00 p.m., he sold four of the eight pairs of sneakers he brought out with him. And, he had even purchased two pair, both Nike: one the Nike SB Dunk Ferris Bueller and the other the Nike SB Mork and Mindy Dunk. While he admitted spending a pretty penny for those choice pairs, it wasn't as bad as the time he paid half of his rent for pair. "I ended up reselling them on ebay for $1500, so it was good," he said.
In its first year, Sneaker Con was founded by brothers Alan Vinogradov, 21, Barris Vinogradov, 28, and their partner Yu-Ming Wu, 30. The Vinogradov brothers are also founders of Gradient Magazine, a cultural and fashion publication distributed in New York City. They are also the founders of Osneaker.com, one of the few high-end sneaker resale sites on the Internet. Wu runs a network of sneaker blog/sites full time--freshnessmag.com, freshnessguide.com, kicksfinder.com and sneakernews.com. Like them, many of the 20 vendors, who all paid $100 for a table, were enterprising young men.
"Alan, Barris, and I have been talking about a sneaker convention for a few months, something that does not yet exist for sneaker heads. To jump start our vision we decided to do a buy/sell/trade event to test the market and see how effective our marketing is. Though there have been buy/sell/trade events in the past, nothing generated this much participation and buzz on the blogs," said Wu.
Because it's a buy/sell/trade event, it's not only the vendors who make money. Anyone who paid $10 to get in, and got a NYC Token stamped on the back of their hand, was a merchant. On the trade floor--boxes and shoes displayed in hand like a window front, sneakers dangling from necks like baby shoes tied around a rearview mirror--deals were made, hand-to-hand. The founders estimate that about $40,000 to $50,000 worth of goods exchanged hands at the event.
This underground sneaker culture may have found its home on Sunday, but Sneaker Con simply serves as an open market conduit to an industry that's been practiced for some years now. "There are also resell and consignment shops throughout the country where sellers bring their sneakers and let the store sell them, Flight Club is one of them here in New York," said Wu. But there's also ebay, that Wu estimates generates $100,000 to $200,000 worth of sneaker sales a day, with prices ranging from $30 to $1,500, and even up to $22,000 for the Nate Robinson All Star Game Slam Dunk Contest sneakers. Rare and classic shoes, especially those no longer available at retail, often bring in the highest prices. Besides ebay and events like Sneaker Con, there's also trades/sales on message boards, as well as resell sites on the Web. For real sneaker enthusiasts, an event like this is the ultimate, they get to see and feel the merchandise upfront and make a deal--often haggling--for the best price. It's a world where the shoes aren't made for walking, but instead for profiling, recycling, reupping, and then profiling some more.
If you visit YouTube often enough, you might end up watching Superman or Simba from the Lion King singing, "Crank That," a song made popular on YouTube by the rapper Soulja Boy for its accompanying dance and various user-generated videos that reinterpreted the artist's original. Or you may catch a view of one of the many remixes and spoofs of Beyonce's, "SIngle Ladies," that in and of itself is a remix of Gwen Verdon's "Mexican Breakfast," choreographed by Bob Fosse.
l. to. r. Lawrence Lessig, Steven Johnson, and Shepard Fairey. Photo by Peter Foley
These were just some of the examples of "Remix" that Lawrence Lessig, author of Remix, Making Art And Commerce Thrive In The Hybrid Economy, and founder of Law at Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society, showed during a discussion at the New York Public Library last week.
"The one thing we should recognize is that we can not kill this form of expression, we can only criminilize it. We can't stop our kids from being active in ways that you or i were not growing up. We can only drive them underground. We can't make them passive. We can only make them pirates. Is that any good?" said Lessig.
The discussion, which begged the question, "What is the future for art and ideas in an age when practically anything can be copied, pasted, downloaded or sampled, and re-imagined?" included Lessig, along with artist Shepard Fairey, and was moderated by Steven Johnson, author of The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America.
Fairey's own art, in the form of the Hope poster he created for the Obama campaign, recently came under fire for its remix properties. The poster illustrates a photo of the President credited to the AP and photographer Mannie Garcia. The AP accused Fairey of copyright infringement, to which the artist responded by pre-emptively suing the AP claiming his use of the image was fair use. His case is being handled by the center that Lessig founded at Stanford.
"I wanted to make an image that I felt represented Barack Obama as someone who was not outside the mainstream like the right wing was trying to potray him. Someone who had the characteristic of leadership. He could bring change and hope, and progress, and that he was a patriot. So the colors were very important. And the idea of the blue and the red blue states and the red states converging right there in the middle was very important to this image," said Fairey
"After i made that image and it got some traction on the Internet, i sent some out on my own dime, and the obama campaign said they really liked the style of that image and they had some images I could work from," he added. "So i did change, and then later Time magazine asked me to do something similar for their cover. The Obama photo was originally from a 2006 Darfur panel with George Clooney that acutally wasn't even relevant in terms of news anymore. It was an unspectacular, unexceptional photo, but after it became a poster the original gained more value.
Here are some highlights from the evening's talk:
The terrorists in this war [the copyright war] are our children. This wave of terrorism is threatening artists like Shephard Fairey. It's threatening kids. The RIAA is suing more than 28,000 kids for using material on the 'net illegally, according to the RIAA, but to no effect because the one thing we know about P2P filesharers is that they don't read supreme court decisions. - Lawrence Lessig
Remix had been a very impoartant part of my body of work. Drawing from references that a lot of people understand is a great way to establish where you are coming from in a piece of communication. As an artist I'm very much a populist and i believe that connecting with as many people as possible through acceptable metaphors is crucial to what i do. It's a really big part of my work. - Shephard Fairey
My view is it's clear we should be deregulating this form of expression. Remix should be free of regulation to facilitate it to flourish in the way that it already is. - Lawrence Lessig
i want to allow people to frequently use my images as long as it's something that's transformative and even if it isn't, if it's such small scale that i see something of myself when i was a kid in my mother's office running off copies of album covers to make stencils from to make my own T-shirts. The instance I will go after someone is if the work isn't transformative and it's made purely for exploitative profit. i actually went after some of the people that bootlegged the Obama image because I had given all the money over to the ACLU and the movement for Prop. 8 in California. One guy we knew bragged about buying a Mercedes with the profits from bootleg posters. If it's used as tool of communication and not for profit i'm never gonna have a problem with it. The things that inspired me to make art were about frequently being irreverent toward protected mark,s so it's all in the spirit of what I do. - Shephard Fairey
Our kids live in a time of constant prohibitions, constantly living life against the law. Normal behavior is deemed to be criminal behavior. That title is extraodinarily corrosive. It is extraordinarily corrupting. It is corrupting of the rule of law and the very ideals of a democracy. We have to do better if not for the RIAA or the MPAA, then at least for them. - Lawrence Lessig
My favorite Warhol quote : It's the duty of intelligent men (and I'd add women) to continuously restate the obvious. The idea there being that we're all so daft that the obvious isn't as obvious as it should be. In these kinds of communications we say the same thing over and over in subtly new ways. I don't think I ever had an original thought in my life. There may be some people aware of that on the Internet. However, i'm using that very tool to come up with art that I've charged gazillions of dollars for. There can be creativity even within elements of recycling. It has democratized this process that is incredibly powerful for people who were powerless before and I couldn't be happier. - Shephard Fairey
Here are some highlights from my tweetstream related to the evening's talk:
lynneluvah: @bigced sorry won't be able to. going to see lawrence lessig, shepard fairey, and steven johnson tomorrow night http://is.gd/kQfa
lynneluvah: @blogdiva aye paul wasn't there, he wrote in a question on a blog and it was the first they read. nypl event called remix http://is.gd/kQfa
This month's New York Android Meetup, held at the Fast Company office, and hosted in conjunction with Medialets, featured guest speaker Jamie Wells, lead mobile director for Omnicom Media Digital. Along with the usual 30 or so developer attendees, the month special guest, Bradley Horowitz, VP Products, Google also showed up.
(l to r: Rana Sobhany, VP, Marketing, Medialets; Jamie Wells; Lynne d Johnson, Senior Editor and Community Director, Fast Company; Irene Au, Director, User Exeperience, Google; and Bradley Horowitz.)
A highlight of Wells's talk was that developers--of either apps for iPhone or Android--build with advertising in mind. "Think about where ads might live," he said.
And while Horowitz's team doesn't deal with Android directly, he talked about their work on Latitude, as well as offline Gmail in mobile devices. "We're being aggressive about getting data wherever people want it to be," he said.
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Now that the Android Market has officially openend up to accept paid apps from both U.S. and U.K. developers, the race is on to see which developer can finally knock The Weather Channel out of its #1 spot. Since its launch on October 22, The Weather Channel, an app that offers hourly, 36-hour, and 10-day forecasts, as well as video forecast updates for your location, has dominated the Android Market. (See Most Popular Android Applications For November 2008 and Popular Android Apps and Games For December 2008.)
Given the gold that's been found in the iPhone App store, the rush to find gold in Android's Market shouldn't be far behind. For instance, consider Ethan Nicholas, the developer of iShoot, who quit his job when his app became #1 in the App Store. It was reported that he earned $600,000 in just one month. Or even consider nine-year-old Lim Deng Wen, whose Doodle Kids, an app that lets kids use the iPhone like Etch-A-Sketch, tracing their fingers across the screen to draw and then shaking the phone to erase. His app was downloaded 4,000 times in just two weeks and he's already working on his second, Invader Wars.
That the Android Market hasn't been as robust as the App store or grown as quickly, is perhaps merely a condition of developers having been unable to charge for their work. In fact, many members of the New York Android Developers Meetup cited this as a factor their slowness to launch their own apps. And now that they'll be able to charge for applications, the race has only really just begun.
Following is a letter recently sent to Android developers from the Market, announcing the acceptance of paid apps:
Hello,
I'm writing to let you know about a couple of updates to Android Market.
I'm pleased to announce that Android Market is now accepting priced applications from US and UK developers. Developers from these countries can go to the publisher website at http://market.android.com/publish to upload their application(s) along with end user pricing for the apps. Initially, priced applications will be available to end users in the US starting mid next week. We will add end user support for additional countries in the coming months.
We will also enable developers in Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France, and Spain to offer priced applications later this quarter. By the end of Q1 2009, we will announce support for developers in additional countries. You can find more information about priced applications in Android Market at http://market.android.com/support/
Google Checkout will serve as the payment and billing mechanism for Android Market. Developers who do not already have a Google Checkout merchant account can easily sign up for one via the publisher website.
Furthermore, I would like to let you know that Android Market for free applications will become available to users in Australia starting February 15th Pacific Time and in Singapore in the coming weeks. You can now make your applications available in these countries via the publisher website at http://market.android.com/publish.
Finally, if you would like to receive development and marketing information, please go to your profile page at http://market.android.com/publish/editProfile and select the "Contact me occasionally about development and Market opportunities" checkbox.
We look forward to seeing your applications on Android Market.
Eric Chu, Android Market
Google, Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043
Tuesday, February 3, 2009, was one of those really cold, icy rain New York Nights. The streets of Soho were dark, gloomy, and practically empty. But over on Prince St. there was a glimmer of light and a flurry of activity. There was even a crowd, a line even, waiting to get up the stairs. But all the people there weren't going to the genius bar, they were there for something else.
It was the day of the sophomore release from The Fray on iTunes, but it was also a day that fans were invited to the Apple Soho store for a sampling of free songs from the band's older and newer offerings.
Lead singer Isaac Slade, bantered the crowd:
"You got a good city here. It's cold, and we walked around the park. It was a Meg Ryan kind of day. I love the city. And I love Meg Ryan. I really wish this could be one of those inspiration women's talk shows where everybody could get a laptop. Is that possible? No, you can and iPhod brochure, thanks for coming."
It didn't matter to the crowd whether Slade was joking or not. They hadn't come out for MacBooks that night, they came out to be a part of a live recording--and to see their band.
Set list:
Absolute
Syndicate
Over My Head
Never Say Never
How to Save a Life
Enough For Now
You Found Me
Happiness
With only two months into its existence, the Android market, having just opened October 22, has grown slowly but surely. Down the line, a rumored G2 on the horizon could prove a significant boost in terms of what's being developed as well as what ends up getting downloaded. But for now, classics like Namco's Pac-Man and utilities like The Weather Channel's app and ShopSavvy continue to lead the pack of what's hot in the Android market.
In fact, the top lineup of Debcember 2008's most popular Android applications hasn't changed much since we reported November's numbers. Here are the 10 most popular Android apps and 10 most popular Android games for December 2008, based on number of downloads, number of comments, and average rating, according to a report by Medialets, a mobile analytics and advertising company.
The Weather Channel
While Video may only be available through the pre-installed YouTube app (or other applications offered through Market), The Weather Channel has done a nice job of including video weather updates of your local weather featuring a meteorologist. You also get hourly, 36-hour, and 10-day forecasts.
ShopSavvy
Launched exclusively for Android on the G1, ShopSavvy by Big In Japan, Inc., uses the camera in your phone to scan the barcode of products and assists you with finding the best prices on the Internet and at local stores.
MySpace Mobile
Upload photos to your profile, check out band tour schedules, view and comment on photos and profiles, search and add news friends, send and read messages, and update and view mood and status with this app. It's also integrated with Shazam, the mobile music discovery service that helps you to identify songs by holding your phone towards an unknown song and connecting to the artist's MySpace page.
U.S. Yellow Pages Search
Android was the first OS that this application was built for, while both the iPhone and BlackBerry have to access the Yellow Pages on the mobile Web. With this application you can search local business listings and get addresses, phone numbers, and maps and directions.
Free Dictionary Org
As its name suggests, Free Dictionary is an app that allows you to search for definitions, synonyms, pronunciation, and spelling.
DailyHoroscope
Just click on the icon for your Zodiac and read your horoscope for the day. But that's all you get. Don't expect to view yesterday's horoscope or your horoscope from a year ago. The makers say that features like these will be coming soon though.
Ringdroid
This app lets you create your own ringtone by editing an MP3 track from your music library, or recording one directly from your phone. It's like Garageband for your Android phone.
Backgrounds & Wallpapers
By Stylem Media, this application lets you choose from over 50,000 Flickr images and unique designs of 40 categories, including sunsets, beaches, cars, sports, animals, games, people, flowers, city, movies, music, models, and love. Easily search wallpapers and wallpaper slideshows and then add them to your phone.
Compare Everywhere
Like ShopSavvy, Compare Everywhere allows use of your Android-enabled phone as a barcode scanner to instantly search online and local stores for the best prices. It also offers product reviews, music clips, and movie trailers. Create shopping and wish lists, and share them with friends.
Movies and Showtimes
Also by Stylem Media, Movies offers showtimes and IMDb ratings for films currently playing in theaters that you can search for by location. It includes maps and video trailers are coming soon.
Pac-Man by Namco
Pac-Man was one of the first apps available for the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1. This version features three unique control schemes: Swipe Mode allows players to direct PAC-MAN's path by simply swiping in the direction you want to travel, Track Mode lets players zip through mazes using the phone's trackball, and Accelerometer Mode allows players to control PAC-MAN by tilting the phone in the direction they want to move. It's not a lot different from the arcade game, except for the price: players get full access to the game for free.
Solitaire
The Solitaire app by Ken Magic, though wonky upon official release, has gotten a lot better over time. It now also offers a timer and the ability to save games mid-session. Play options include Klondike, Spider, and Freecell.
Smart Tac-Toe
It's not the only Tic-Tac-Toe available on the Android Market, but Mobile Dynamix made its version just simple to play as it is on paper. Just touch where you want your X or O to go and voila, it appears. No fancy features making the game more than what it is. The board is structured with blocks in an 8 x 10 format, so you need to land five of your symbols in a row to win.
Slide Puzzle
This sliding tile game features a touch screen interface for sliding, a timer, multiple tile sizes, customizable images, image loading from both internal memory and the SD card, and a high scorers list. With most of its major bugs worked out, Slide Puzzle is already in its final release.
Texas Hold'Em
One of the first Android apps available as a paid app through Snake
Released as the first publicly-available application for Android, Snake was featured on the SDK as a sample. Like the classic that its named after, Snake takes your serpent in search of apples that when eaten make you grow longer and faster, making it more difficult to chase after more.
Brain Genius Deluxe
From Bonsai Blast developers glu mobile comes this collection of 24 intuitive touch-controlled games and bonus puzzles including Sudoku and Jigsaws. You'll quickly test your genius level, as you compare your score with that of other users.
Bonsai Blast
This action-puzzle game challenges players to shoot and match colored balls to clear them before they reach the Yin-Yang at the end of the level. The rich, detailed environments of earth, wind, and fire are controlled by using the touch-screen and accelerometer.
Tic-Tac-Toe
With a dozen popular iPhone and iTouch applications under its belt, Tic-Tac-Toe is PosiMotion's first Android release. Vying for Smart Tac-Toe's spot on the popular Android Games list, this version quickly earned 5-star ratings from users immediately following its availability. It features three difficulty levels, the ability to play against the computer or another player, and high-resolution graphics.
Chess for Android
Play in landscape or portrait orientation, making moves with the touch screen, trackball, or through the keyboard. Once a piece has been selected, all valid destination squares will become highlighted. A pawn promotion prompts the user to define the desired destination piece. And the GUI supports an "undo" feature, where up to eight plies (half-moves) can be taken back to correct mistakes. When using the free play option, the phone can be used as a "magnetic chessboard" to study games or play a game up to a position for further play with the chess engine.
Check back next month to see how the stats measure up for January.
