BRANDING UNBOUND

New York Times Wants You To 'ShifD' Your Content With New Mobile App

The Grey Lady's got a thing for mobile.

The New York Times company has announced it has launched ShifD, an unfortunately named application with some really cool functionality.

With ShifD, users can seamlessly shift content between their computers to mobile devices. The app, in beta now, simultaneously saves content to a user's ShifD account and makes it available on multiple devices.

As Michael Zimbalist, vice president, research and development operations puts it: "ShifD is an experiment in giving users the power to bring their content with them by easily shifting it among all of their Web-enabled devices. We see a future for device-independent media, with convergence around the user experience and not any particular delivery platform. Developing services that allow users to access content wherever they are and on whichever device they choose is an important part of our strategy."

In BRANDING UNBOUND the book, I talk to Martin Nisenholtz, the chief executive officer of New York Times Digital, about the Times Company's designs on mobile.

Needless to say, the New York Times wants to be a multi-platform play v. a print-only play.

ShifD certainly won't hurt the effort - as long as New York Times content is among the sort that gets seriously ShifD'd.

Read more about BRANDING UNBOUND the book, here.

Get into ShifD, here.

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ABC-TV and Oscar.com Go Mobile, Too

I was just posting about the VoteOscarsAds.com mobile effort the other day, and wondered why they didn't do something along the "Vote Oscar Winners" vein, too.

Now I know why.

Turns out Oscar.com, the official site for the 80th Annual Academy Awards have that particular red carpet covered.

As part of a "Predict the Winners" game that offers fans a chance to test their skills at Oscar predictions, the site is launching an embeddable Oscar widget that fans can add to blogs, iGoogle, MyYahoo, Facebook, MySpace and other top social network sites, containing video from Oscar.com, a full list of nominees, the latest Oscar news and a trivia game; an enhanced Oscar mobile site that will provide all the content on Oscar.com along with alerts and additional trivia games; and the "Thank You Cam," where fans can see the first exclusive comments from the winners as they leave the stage with their Oscar statuette.

Now that's (interactive) entertainment.

Old Oscar would be proud.

Read all about it, here.

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Interview: MTV's Ian Rowe on 'Choose or Lose' Citizen Journalists Reporting Super Tuesday - Via Mobile Video Phones

MTV’s mobilizing young voters in a whole new way.

In BRANDING UNBOUND the book, I take an in-depth look at how MTV’s Choose or Lose has long used the mobile medium to encourage young people to get involved and vote.

For tomorrow's big Super Tuesday contest, the youth-oriented network is taking it all to a whole new level with Street Team ’08 – a group of 51 “citizen journalists” selected by MTV to cover the youth vote via the first-ever live mobile-to-web broadcasts from polling stations, caucuses, candidate rallies and more.

This is seriously cutting edge.

The citizen journalists will be using Nokia N95 devices that feature a 5 megapixel camera and DVD-like quality video camera capabilities that allow them to create, edit and upload on-the-street reports instantly to the Internet using Flixwagon mobile broadcasting technology.

Their reports will be shown at MTVNews.com and ChooseOrLose.com and, throughout the day, selected reports will even be shown on MTV’s cable television channel.

This morning, I spoke with Ian Rowe, VP of public affairs and strategic partnerships at MTV, about the initiative, how the mobile medium is transforming not only news reporting, but news distribution – and whether MTV’s youth audience is as gung-ho about Barack Obama as media hype would have us believe.

The answers just may surprise you.

(Approx. 15:38)

 

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Facebook-Based Mobile Fitness App Flexes Muscles

Can your mobile get you moving?

Health & Fitness Mobile hopes so, with what's billed as the world's first free mobile fitness portal available on WAP-enabled phones.

Programs range from functional strength to weight loss to sport-specific conditioning. Available in image and video formats, each program features models demonstrating exercises with proper form, along with trainer tips. And users can record their workout progress.

Here's where it gets more interesting. HFM's mobile fitness portal is launching concurrently with the new HFM Facebook application – billed as the first application of its kind to be fully integrated with Facebook Mobile.

So what's the big deal?

Results logged on users' phones are updated in real time on users' HFM Friends Leader Boards on Facebook. And HFM premium users get daily stats via Facebook SMS coupled with SMS 'friend alerts' about anyone who starts to fall behind in their progress.

The idea is that peer pressure will be a powerful motivational tool.

I can easily see Men's Health or Men's Fitness or Shape or any of the mainstream U.S. magazine titles roll out solutions like this. Men's Health's "Belly Off" feature, for instance, offers some of these same features in a PC experience. There's really no reason they couldn't be extended to the mobile medium.

Though I hope they make it for the iPhone first. The thought of juggling the iPod and the mobile phone at the gym could be a serious obstacle.

Read more about HFM's new system, here.

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MTV Meets Mobile, Web 2.0: Incubator Rewards College Students With Cool Concepts

Time to get RapHappy.

Ad Age is reporting that RapHappy.com, the brain child of U.C. Berkeley student Matthew Fargo and his fun-loving friends has earned the team $100,000 in this year's "Digital Incubator" contest - a project run by MTVU and Cisco to launch innovative Web 2.0 concepts. The idea: Leave the ideating to college students.

RapHappy.com is a site where users can create audio rap songs and others can add to the rap, compete against each other, or vote on favorites.

"What's amazing about the product is that it's very viral; you can add to other people's raps, upload raps on a mobile phone, and if they hit the right vein, you can hit critical mass," Mika Salmi, MTV's president, global digital medial, tells the pub. "It'll just take off."

Other entries in the "Incubators" contest includes "How Do I Say This" - an advice wiki that got a short run MTV show this month and "Hit! or Shit!" - a "Hot or Not"-style video ranking platform.

Everyone wins with these sorts of contest. MTV shines its aura of hipness for a fraction of the money it'd take to come up with one of these 2.0 projects on their own. And young people get the chance to become the next big 2.0 thing. Word.

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CBS: All Those Who Love Great Comedy, Shout 'EyeLab'

That's Charlie Sheen on your cell phone. Ready to take the call?

CBS has announced plans to launch EyeLab, which is billed as a digital production studio that will take full length CBS shows - think "Three & A Half Men," "David Letterman," "How I Met Your Mother" - and edit them into the bite size "nuggets" that consumers can share via Web and mobile. Consumers will even be able to edit them and mash them up for great fun.

Apparently CBS believes mashed up clips can be powerful promotional tools for its shows. And show creators seem to agree.

As CSI executive producer and creator Anthony E. Zuiker tells Mediaweek: “Using the Web as a direct engagement platform with those who care the most about the show is a perfect way to bring the TV experience online and in turn, to learn from fans."

Maybe they'll feel a little differently once they see what people do with the clips.

Read more, here.

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NBA Launches Its Own Official Chinese Mobile Website

Yao Ming is going mobile - along with the rest of the NBA.

The National Basketball Association has launched its own official Chinese mobile website to deliver the latest NBA news to Chinese fans.

Working with KongZhong, the NBA site, at cn.nba.com, will broadcast live selected NBA games in their entirety and provide video clips of NBA highlights, the latest scores, game and player updates, player interviews, blogs, TV schedules, wallpapers, ringtones, and more.

Basketball, of course, is very popular in China, with more than 300 million fans.

As Ming puts it himself:  ''This first-ever official NBA site on mobile phones will give fans in China access to the NBA anywhere, anytime.''

For more, click here.

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Fight Club: 'Fight Text' The Latest In Participation TV

Boxing fans are taking the fight to the airwaves - literally.

CW Multimedia and Vibes Media are launching "Fight Text," a new mobile service that will give fans the ability to interact with televised matches on a real-time basis. Indeed, while sanctioned judges will decide the official outcome of each bout, fans at home can send in their opinions by texting to a designated short code. The results are tabulated in real time for the broadcast team to report as part of the viewing experience.

The service will launch during ESPN's August 8 "Rough Rugged and Raw" show on ESPN2.

“This will be good for boxing because, for the first time ever, this will truly give televised fight fans a voice. And, while the voter scoring will not impact the official outcome, it will certainly be a great way for viewers to see how their scores rate against those of the judges,” says Chris Webb, founder and president, CW Multimedia, in a statement.

Put another way, fans will get their own one-two punch - via their keypad.

In BRANDING UNBOUND the book, I take a look at a number of "participation television" events, including many from Discovery Channel, History Channel, and several game shows.

Let's just say the revolution will be broadcast, via participation TV.

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Mobile 'MizPee' Shows You Where To, Er, Go

Mobio's got an app that shows you where to get cheap gas.

MizPee has one that shows you were to take a pit stop of another kind.

MizPee is a San Francisco-based mobile phone service that locates nearby public restrooms - which can be handy in a city like SF. That's right. The cleanest loo near you, based on the address or street intersection you enter. There's even a ratings system: Five toilet paper icons mean very clean, one means don't even think about it.

Apparently it also tells you which ones have diaper changing stations, handicap access, and and more. It's all from a startup called Yojo Mobile. While still in beta, the service seems to offer promos on nearby bars, restaurants, cafés and more. I'm assuming there will be ad support, too.

Though I'm not sure I want to think about that one.

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Clippz Puts Mobile Video (And Advertising) In Motion

Apple's been making a big to-do the last few weeks about how YouTube will be available on Apple's iPhone, which is set to launch on Friday. But a startup called Clippz.com may be doing it one better.

The new service uses proprietary, patent-pending technology to deliver high-quality video to mobile devices without intermediation from a mobile operator, video conversion or software installation.

Apparently the technology is based on an "intelligent video encoder" that converts input video into multiple formats. You still have to go through the hassle of selecting your device form 150 compatible models, but video fans currently put up with worse scenarios.

Clippz is stand alone - meaning people can post their own videos to the site directly.

But Clippz's capabilities also means all those goodies - including all those viral advertisements - from YouTube, MySpace and Metacafe can be downloaded from Clippz.com to a computer, and then sideloaded to a mobile device without even having to use your mobile service at all.

Back to those advertisements. Today, the Clippz.com home page features a viral video ad from DHL.

In a away, advertising via mobile channel may never have been easier.

Check out Clippz.com here. 

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