Now I have been saying recently that I want to see a Hip-Hop artist do a Trent Reznor and give away their music for free or do a $5 extra music content paid in. I think 50 Cent is the only one smart enough to really do it and make it work. But looks like UniversalIndie.com is going to experiment and see if it can work. So indie Hip-hop Producer Cartel is going to release his next album through Hoodgrown Records/Universal Indie Records on May 5th, 2008. It’s going to be more of a mixtape and feature some of the best up and coming MC’s holding it down right now. The album, titled “Tha Throwback” will be offered as a free down with 11 tracks. Then for $5 you can get an upgraded version with 5 extra tracks, acapells, instrumentals and maybe a video.
The news broke up last night that Photoshop Express was open for business. So I quickly went to the url and got my account. It was super easy to sign up and get started. Took me less then a minute. Then I was about to go just grab a few photos I have in my account, upload them, and edit them. It was a painless experience and I really liked it. Sure it doesn’t have all the fancy bells and lil’ extras that Picnik has but I think if this is just the start it will only get better and better then the other brands won’t be able to compete. Photoshop is the best image editor ever created and the Express version will only benefit from the years of experience that they have in the market space.
The GlobalGrind.com has moved into the world of Facebook apps. I got an invite this morning to add the Facebook app so here I installed it into by Facebook account. The Facebook apps works much like the homepage of Digg.com. You see popular photos, popular videos, and popular stories across 10 different verticals. You can also see new users who have joined GlobalGrind.com recently and add a link to a piece of content you want to share with you. Upon logging into my account you can see your Globalgrind.com stats. Yawn!
But once you do that the level of engagements falls of. Facebook apps that are successful allow for more interaction, more engagement, creativity, and a fun factor. While the app looks nice I didn’t find it very fun at all. And for those of us who have been on Facebook for a long time and are sick of apps adding another one that doesn’t do to much or doesn’t leverage your Facebook social graph in a new way isn’t going to be that interesting. A good Facebook app should be about showing the world who you are and what you do. It should allow for some level of customization, interactivity, and a high level of user engagement and maybe even an overall usefulness. Vampire apps are not useful but they are fun/annoying enough to spark over a million uses.
Take a look at the top ranked Facebook apps, Top Friends, Movies, SuperPoke, SuperWall, Linkeness, Quizess, and iLike they all have a high level of engagement, interactivity, usefulness, and fun. So Globalgrind needs to take a closer look at its Facebook strategy and figure out how it can create an app that is fun and useful. Cause the one they have now aint it.
50 and the bastards that brought you that stupid ass game back in ‘04 have decided to give it a new go again. 50 Cent will have new developers, and a whole new concept. And if you hated 50 Cent “Bulletproof” the developers are listening and promise not to bring you that game again. The working title for the game is “Blood on the Sand” and I’m wondering if it’s going to have something to do with Fat Joe. Click here for more info on 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand
And I was just saying via Twitter last week that if someone could build a social network on top of G-mail that’s all I would ever use. And looks like Xobni is attempting to do just that. Xobni will plug-in to Outlook and help you save time by finding the conversations that matter to you the most. When you get a new e-mail the program will generate an analysis and give you details of the user and their importance. You will see details of your past conversations and will also improve the search functionality of your Outlook inbox. I know i have about 5000 e-mails in my Outlook and about 60,000 e-mails in my G-mail.
Check out this video to learn more about the service and sign up for Xobni by clicking on this button
More and more brands are experimenting with the power of the people. Recently Jim Beam used their community to get over 100,000 signatures to get Robby Gordon’s points penalization decision reversed. Jim Beam put up a site and the response has huge enough to get the decision reversed. Now Dr. Pepper is experimenting with crowd sourcing by asking fans of Guns -n- Rose front man, Axl Rose, to encourage the singer to release his solo album “Chinese Democracy.” Dr. Pepper has stated that if Axl Rose puts out the album in 2008 they will give everyone in the US a free soda. They have set up a blog at http://www.chinesedemocracywhen.blogspot.com/
Now we are all not fooled. We know this is a very covert marketing campaign by Ketchum PR to create some buzz around a forth coming Axl Rose album.
But if this works we want a brand to get all of their support being Dr. Dre and make him FINALLY release the Detox album! Which is suppose to be released in June of 2008 but we all heard that one before.
Ok so Georgetown which totally fucked up my NCAA bracket. But never fear the peeps over at Complex mag. have a sneaker battle going on called “Clash of the Kicks.” 32 pairs of basketballs shoes are going head to head to crown the greatest shoe of them all. Voting determines which kicks make it on in the bracket.
And the more you vote the more chances you will have of winning a $500 gift certificate to Karmaloop.com. Click here to play.
Angel Melaku a.k.a. Lola Luv is the IT African girl of the moment. Check out the trailer for her movie “Crazy Likfe A Fox” which will be out this Summer.
The Wii Fit will soon be making it’s way to homes across America soon. But will you really pay $90 for the device? One thing I want to know is just how fun will the Wii Fit software be? Is it going to be as fun as playing Wii Sports. I know I’ve had many a Wii Tennis battle at work and it’s just down right fun.Judging from this trailer I’m going to need the Wi Fit to do a lot more or at least have better in game music.
