For Sale: The "Firedog" Brand

Imagine my surprise when I saw the following graphic in the middle of my evening update from TWICE, the consumer electronics industry publication:

It's not a terrible ad for industry insiders, but still, a bit of a surprise. Check out where it leads:

streambankllc.com/engagements/firedog.html

As the site explains:

• Brand Strength
• Number 2 market position
• Multi-service offering under one brand
• National footprint with coverage of over 80% of the US population
• Market-leading customer satisfaction scores
• Generated over $272 million of sales in F2008
• Achieved 28% revenue growth and more than doubled EBT in F2008 vs. F2007


• Current Offerings
• PC Services - PC repair services, new computer set-up, remote service plans, and networking support
• Repair In Home/Depot - In-home TV repair, warranty/OEM repair services, and service depot
• Home Theater & Audio Services - Flat Panel installation, surround sound/ home audio, TV Projector mounting, custom A/V solutions


• Future Potential
• Significant opportunity for growth within the $26 billion consumer electronics services market
• Unlimited brand potential to go beyond consumer electronics

Really, rather interesting. If they're doing so well, though, with $272 million in sales in 2008, why are they in bankruptcy in the first place?

You interested in the company? It's not too late to bid! You can learn more about the auction here: Firedog Intangible Asset Sale.

Mainstream media wasn't asleep during the Iranian election!

I know that it's a popular pastime among the social media cogniscenti to talk about how real-time information sources like Twitter are constantly trumping the so-called mainstream news media's ability to cover stories, but I have to say that the current drumbeat of Twitter vs. CNN on the Iranian elections is a bit too much to bear without some sort of reality check.

As you should be aware, the last few days have seen a surprisingly controversial election for the role of President of Iran, with moderate candidate Mirhossein Mousavi believing that he had a substantial lead over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The poll results were dramatic: Ahmadinejad got 62% of the popular vote, while Mousavi only got 33%.

If the election wasn't rigged.

Meanwhile, flash to the social media types who are crowing about how CNN apparently wasn't aggressively covering the growing story and how that just demonstrates yet again how mainstream news sources just don't get it. (For a few examples, see Robert Scoble's piece on how "Twitter kicked CNN's butt", or Daniel Terdiman's piece about the "#cnnfail" Twitter hashtag, or Marshall Kirkpatrick saying "CNN should check Twitter for news about Iran").

The problem is that all of these self-appointed pundits are missing that CNN isn't the entirety of the mainstream media and that all the other sources were right on top of the story. This was a CNN failure, if it was anything, not a failure of mainstream media.

To demonstrate this point, check out this graph from Google News on who had this story, when:

In this graph, A = ABC News, B = Wall Street Journal, C = New York Times, D = The Washington Post, E = Dar Al Hyat, an Arabic-language news outlet, F= Reuters, G = BBC News, H = PRESS TV, and so on. More importantly, though, notice how many outlets were following this growing story as it transpired: On June 12, almost 2000 stories were filed in various news media.

This is "missing the story"?

I'm a bit of a social media snob too, so I get the zeal to show those old-school journalists how they're missing the boat, but in this case, it just isn't true.

The micro-land rush of Facebook Custom URLs

I succumbed, as you can see with this sequence of images:

Finally, the seconds count down and ...

Whoo hoo! Imagine a digital version of settlers in their wagons rushing across the plains to stake down their prime real estate. Um, kind of. A click on the "Continue" button and:

What the hell? Seven seconds have elapsed and someone's already nailed "DaveTaylor" (and "dave" and "taylor" and "dave.taylor") custom URLs? I surmise someone had a name reserved for them, somehow.

Ah well, I have another one that I commonly use, "d1taylor", so that's what I try instead:

Success!

Done. Now you can click on facebook.com/d1taylor to find me.

Now, does anyone care?

Car navigation system with TV tuner, from Mio. WTH??

I read the following press release this morning with increasing disbelief:

(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -06/03/2009) - When your passengers sleep as you drive, do you feel lonely? Mio, one of the leading makers of PNDs (Portable Navigation Devices), has insightfully launched its first comprehensive range of PNDs with built-in TV tuners - Mio Moov V500 and V700 range at Computex Taipei 2009 today. Featuring 4.7" and 7" widescreens respectively, the two devices are expected to bring a new vision to the world of navigation.

You can see what they're thinking by this product shot:

Um, please, Federal Trade Commission, do not let this product be sold in the United States any time soon. It's bad enough when people are screwing around on their cellphones while driving at night, do we really want to encourage them to watch TV while driving so that they're not "lonely because their passengers are asleep?"

The mind boggles.

Jeez.