Crave

The availability of instant digital downloads from services like iTunes, Amazon, or Netflix has made it convenient for me watch TV shows on my time, without the commercials. Isn't it obvious? I choose when to watch a show and I save about 15 minutes worth of useless advertising.

(Credit: TV.com)

Similarly, one might use a DVR to record shows and watch them at a later time, with the liberty of fast-forwarding through ads. Although there are those who don't mind commercials, most would probably skip them. So it's not surprising that TiVo reported "nearly all of the television shows that won 2009 Emmys showed higher levels of ad-skipping than the averages for their respective genres." The one exception: "30 Rock."

NBC broadcasts commercials during "30 Rock" that have tactfully cast its very own Tina Fey, resulting in a fluid show-to-commercial transition. I've seen Bravo use a similar strategy, placing a micro clip of the show in between commercials, forcing me to sit through ads while I wait to see NeNe and Kim in another wig-pulling, stiletto chucking cat fight ("The Real Housewives" is my guilty pleasure).

This report seems silly--would anyone sit through commercials if they didn't have to? Some ads are just nonsense (one more Ped-Egg commercial and I might throw up). Even when I watch live TV, I switch to mute, or load Facebook and Twitter to kill time. Nielsen has confirmed that others share my habit, as it found that a fair amount of people are watching TV and surfing the Net simultaneously.

TiVo's report isn't a shock to me, and perhaps networks and advertisers will take it as a hint: it's time to consider new marketing techniques. Better yet, get rid of commercials altogether!

Until then, those of you who watch live television and would like to skip through commercials might want to check out GeekSugar's "How to: Skip ads with a standard remote control."

Remember how Sony Ericsson was going to make it so "the way you listen to music changes forever"? Well, apparently it's doing so with a fancy headset. Really, guys?

The rumor, via DailyMobile, is that it'll be a headset that automatically starts the music when you put it on. Interesting, we guess, but not mind-blowing. We'll reserve judgment until the official announcement on September 21 (which will be Webcast), but it seems like SE should cut down on the hyperbole a little bit.

This story originally appeared on Gizmodo.

(Credit: DisplaySearchBlog)

When Samsung's first edge-lit LED-backlit LCD displays hit stores last spring, we were careful to point out that despite the company's use of the term "LED TV" to describe the sets, they were just LCD displays with a fancier backlight. That didn't stop Samsung from using the term in its worldwide advertising, however, some of which has appeared on CNET.

In the U.K., though, the company will have to stop using "LED TV" to describe these sets. The Advertising Standards Authority, a self-governing body set up to police advertising standards, has ruled that the term violates two of the country's advertising codes for being misleading. According to the ruling, "the ads must not appear again in their current form."

(Update 9/2/2009, 2:04 p.m.: The ASA determined that the term "LED TV" can be used in the U.K., provided there is additional description to clarify that the TVs in question are using LED backlighting technology.)

Of course the ruling has no bearing outside the U.K. The Federal Trade Commission enforces truth-in-advertising standards in the United States, but has not yet taken similar action.

Among makers of LED-backlit LCD displays, currently Samsung's U.S. Web site, as well as those of LG and Toshiba, use the phrase "LED TV," while Sony's and Sharp's do not. We're hoping Vizio avoids the misleading lure of "LED TV" as well.

(Source: DisplaySearchBlog via EngadgetHD)

Hewlett-Packard's new back-to-school campaign, dubbed Declare Yourself with HP, isn't your typical laptop sales promotion. It probably could be used instead as a case study of how members of Generation Y tend to gravitate toward products that inflate their egos.

The online campaign, which rolled out this week in partnership with Viacom's MTV Networks, enables users to "declare" their goals with one-line summaries. HP is "hoping that this promotion will help (students) set obtainable goals that will help further personal growth."

Obtainable goals, eh? Let's check out some of the goals my generation has declared: "I will meet the Jonas Brothers," "I will eat more cheese," and "I will be on the red carpet."

Uh-huh. Keep telling yourself that.

(Credit: Screenshot by Sharon Vaknin/CNET)

With its large presence on the Internet, Generation Y has changed the way consumer companies like HP market their products. Even domain names have seen a change: YouTube, MySpace. Apple, too, has caught on to Gen Y's "me, me, me" trait, naming its digital-music player the iPod and rebranding its .Mac service MobileMe.

But back to the HP campaign. After users publish their goal, they can browse through the declarations of others and give them a thumbs-up approval rating.

Sound familiar? The concept of posting one's thoughts and receiving positive feedback isn't anything new. The Facebook feed works in a very similar way, giving users the option to show that they "like" their friends' status updates.

To be fair, let's cut the Gen Ys some slack--there are many declarations on the HP site that relate to volunteering, caring for others, and being a better person. However, it's the declarations like "I will destroy the competition" and "I will become famous before 2012" that leave me feeling pessimistic about the millennials' future.

(Credit: Omax)

Personally, I'm not a big fan of wide-angle optics, though I have to admit this glass comes in pretty handy when snapping landscape shots. However, camera accessories maker Omax thinks its lenses can be put to even better use.

The company engaged Publicis India to create a series of advertisements that depict men seemingly taking pictures of innocent subjects. Somewhere in the frame are women (mostly scantily clad).

From a creative standpoint, I think this idea is brilliant. It is a humorous take on gender stereotyping while offering an alternative use for wide-angle optics. But from a technical point of view, the voyeur in the ad will probably have to use a fish-eye lens if he wants those women in his camera sight.

(Source: Crave Asia via Gizmodo)

An ad by Moon Publicity selling ad space on the moon.

(Credit: Moon Publicity)

Speaking of the eclipse, an inventor named David Kent Jones wants to use robots to turn the Earth's only natural satellite into a giant ad.

Jones' scheme is to use lunar robots to plow moon dust into "logos, domains [sic] names, memorials or even portraits...You can even carve your initials in a heart to impress your sweetheart."

Imagine looking up and seeing a Nike swoosh among the stars.

A Salt Lake City company called Moon Publicity says its Shadow Shaping Technology would involve robots pushing the dust into furrows to create shadows that form images when viewed from far away.

The firm may be having a lark, but it says it's accepting bids for ad space on 44 lunar regions starting at $46,000.

Jones isn't the first to dream of selling lunar ad space, as CNET reported in 2006. Others have tried selling real estate on the moon, or laid claim to Martian properties.

But at least Jones has a conceptual video.

Nonetheless, the engineering challenge of getting robots to the moon, deploying them properly, and then getting them to successfully comb over 500 miles of dust (akin to the size of Mare Imbrium) into something recognizable from Earth is, to say the least, staggering.

And it will remain staggering for some time.

This ignores the question of whether it's right to make a mere shill out of what Percy Bysshe Shelley once described as an "orbèd maiden."

Moon Publicity's justification for the branding? The campaign would spur space travel, which is needed due to "the inevitable extinction of the human species."

The company admits people won't like it.

As one You Tube commentator said, "You are not writing on the freaking moon and that's final."

(Credit: Leonard Goh/CNET Asia)

Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*Star) has developed a gender recognition system that could change the way advertising works in the future.

The technology uses sophisticated algorithms to differentiate facial features of males and females. However, unlike Face Detection 3.0, which is employed in point-and-shoots such as the Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR, the gender recognition system can only detect faces that are facing the camera.

The A*Star-developed system is bring displayed at CommunicAsia 2009 held at the Singapore Expo. A representative at the agency's booth told us the technology is focused on advertising, so future digital billboards can detect the gender of the person looking at it and display the appropriate advertisement. The system can also track statistics such as the duration the viewer spends in front of the display.

A*Star also has an age recognition system in the works, and its application is similar to the gender-based counterpart. However, Sony already has a similar technology for its Cyber-shot compact shooters that can detect whether the subject in the frame is an adult or child.

Right now, the gender recognition system is still in beta testing. The agency hopes to roll out a beefier version by the end of the year.

(Source: Crave Asia)

(Credit: KitchAnn Style)

Going "green" is a huge movement, with companies around the world releasing products that have less and less of an environmental impact--or, at least, that's what they want us to believe. As consumers' interest in eco-friendly products gets higher, so does the temptation to embellish a product's green credentials.

According to The Mainichi Daily News, Hitachi Appliances, a subsidiary of Hitachi and currently Japan's biggest refrigerator maker, seems to be the first company to have fallen for the temptation to claim a product is green when it isn't.

Of nine refrigerator models the company released between September and November of last year, including the "Eiyo Ikiiki Shinku Chirudo V" and the "Big & Slim 60", six are not eco-friendly at all and the other three are far from the level of eco-friendliness the company advertised them to be.