The Next Web

PR Fiasco in the making: Gizmodo at CES

Written on January 11, 2008 – 7:57 am
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,

The Gizmodo team is known for its humor, different look at things and pranks. But it seems they have gone too far this time. At CES they walked around with a little home made device called a TV-B-Gone which allows you to remotely switch of LCD screens. Then they walked around the expo floors and randomly switched of LCD monitors. In a post titled “Confessions: The Meanest Thing Gizmodo Did at CES” they show a video of LCD screens switching off and sales people, sometimes with a large audience, panicking to get their equipment working again.

The first 10 seconds are funny but then you start wondering about those poor guys with their failing equipment. Apparently most people are more annoyed than amused and it seems this thing is turning into a PR nightmare fast. The post has received over 600 comments and most are negative. Bloggers are publicly voicing their anger and disagreement too.

They say that there is no such thing as bad press and the post has been viewed more than 150.000 times. But annoying your loyal followers is never a good idea. It is going to be interesting to see how they talk themselves out of this. And if they get another invitation for next years expo…

I hope you like that post!

The Next Web Blog covers start-up news from all over the world (not just the Valley), exciting new technologies and inspiring entrepreneurs. If you're new here, you may want to read our 'About' page and subscribe to our RSS feed.

Do you have a start-up that we should write about? Contact us! Thanks for visiting and hope you come back again!

gizmodo, lcd screens, Video embed

10 Comments »

The 3D web: try it now…

Written on January 8, 2008 – 5:58 pm
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,

I remember downloading the first VRML browser in 1999. It promised to show me the web in 3D fashion. Unfortunately it never went anywhere. Until now, maybe.

Check this video of a 3D browser built by SpaceTime and demonstrated during CES yesterday. It shows an Apple CoverFlow like interface to many popular websites. In this example eBay is used. The first 10 seconds are boring but don’t look away:

Can you imagine browsing the web like this? What would your site or this blog look like in 3D? What would be the advantage of browsing like this? One thing is for sure; don’t try this on dial-up.

Want to try it yourself? Download SpaceTime 1.0 (Windows only, for now) and let us know how it worked for you.

By the way, have you checked out this 3D post as well? It allows you to search through the web cover flow style.

3d, browser, Inspiration, Video embed

18 Comments »

Live video from your bedroom

Written on December 17, 2007 – 9:55 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

The next revolution in mobile video is here! Qik makes it possible to broadcast live from your Nokia phone. Robert Scoble discovered this new way of video sharing and is raving about it on his blog: “Holy s**t. I can stream live video to you now from anywhere at anytime.” This is how he drives his car.

Besides filming during driving, Qik makes a lot of other interesting activities possible. Just imagine the influence this will have on citizen journalism. Instead of endlessly uploading the video, the new reporters can broadcast their news right-a-way.

And what will this mean for YouTube? If the larger audience will pick up this service, chances are high that almost all video content from camera phones will be published on Qik instead of YouTube.

Since I don’t own the right phone I haven’t been able to test it yet. I hereby challenge you, the Next Web visitor, to come up with an interesting live stream in the comments.

mobile, qik, scoble, streaming, Video embed

19 Comments »