BoomTown » Louie Swisher

Bobbing for Apple, PC Hide-and-Seek and More: Swisher Boys Throw a Windows 7 Launch Party!

Kara Swisher — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:17:01 +0000

To be totally honest, BoomTown was a little late getting a request in to Microsoft to host a Windows 7 Launch Party.

Thus, no “special Signature Edition of Windows® 7 Ultimate and your very own Windows® 7 Party Pack to share with your guests” for a shindig at my house!

As you might imagine: Massive, massive bummer.

While Microsoft (MSFT) PR head Frank Shaw begrudgingly invited me to his party, flying to Seattle for it seemed like too much fun to have in one lifetime.

So, because we admire the very gumption of Microsoft marketing types for trying to make a software launch festive, which many have mocked mercilessly, the Swisher boys and I pressed on and created our own party to mark the launch of the much anticipated new operating system software.

With Windows 7 officially in stores on Oct. 22, the software giant hopes its new offering will erase all memories of Vista. And so far, reviews, such as Walt Mossberg’s here, are pretty good.

After a rocky start, including disinviting all the All Things Digital staff from the proceedings for reasons you will see in the video, Louie, Alex and I proceeded to party down.

The festivities included Pin-the-Moustache-on-Steve-Ballmer, Bobbing for Apple (AAPL) and, of course, a very exhausting game of “Search”–also know as Hide-and-Seek–for the Google (GOOG) PC.

All in all, a memorable evening at the Swisher household, as you can see in the video below:

[ See post to watch video ]

(All joking aside, ATD staff do regularly use both Windows and Apple computers, as well as all the various browsers, to make sure our site works well on all platforms. That said, no Apples were harmed in the making of this video.)

Louie Swisher Hearts Redbox–But Hollywood Not So Much

Kara Swisher — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:10:02 +0000

If you want to get Hollywood movie studio types irked, mention Google (GOOG). And if you want them steamed, bringing up Netflix (NFLX) will usually work.

But if you want to see the tops of their heads blow off, Redbox is just the ticket.

Except not to their movies, it seems, if the major movie studio execs have their way in an ever-growing legal battle with the DVD-rental kiosk company.

Three of them have become embroiled in lawsuits with Redbox, even as the DVD market contracts.

Well, not for Redbox–which is located in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., and is wholly owned by Bellevue, Wash.-based Coinstar (CSTR).

It is seeing strong rental growth due to its $1-a-night price for first-run movies, which the company distributes via its 15,000 freestanding machines in supermarkets and convenience stores, as well as in big chains like McDonald’s (MCD), Wal-Mart (WMT) and Walgreens (WAG).

Redbox is arguing that once it buys DVDs from the studios through wholesalers, it can charge any price it wants.

Studios beg to differ, claiming that bargain-basement pricing is hurting the market and that Redbox should not get the goods until after the first month of release of movies into the DVD market.

“These guys are simply grossly undervaluing our content,” said one studio source, in what is a typical sentiment. “We get the windowing model is changing, but we can’t just give these guys our stuff at a low, low price to essentially enable them to give it away…and that’s exactly what they wanted us to do.”

Thus, it’s a perfect set-up for legal high jinks about the issues of steep discounting, windowing and the price for premium content.

Redbox recently sued Warner Home Video, owned by Time Warner (TWX), for denying it the opportunity to buy DVDs without being required to wait a month or more to rent them out.

It has previously gone after NBC Universal’s Universal Studios Home Entertainment, owned by GE (GE) and 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp. (NWS), for similar release restrictions.

And while some studios are holding fast to fighting price declines represented by consumer-friendly, idiot-proof tech solutions like Redbox, others are not.

Redbox has inked deals with Sony (SNE), Lions Gate (LGF), Paramount, a unit of Viacom (VIA), and also gets movies from Disney (DIS).

It’s a fascinating case to watch–yet another wrinkle in the what-is-content-really-worth question that has been plaguing all traditional media.

Unfortunately for those companies, the kids seem to love it, as you will see from this video I did while renting movies at our local Safeway (SWY) with my seven-year-old son, Louie, at a small competitor to Redbox with about 1,400 outlets called DVDPlay.

We use both, but Louie–like a lot of consumers–is most definitely a fan of the Redbox method.

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

[Full disclosure: News Corp. owns Dow Jones, which owns this site.]

The Outage Aftermath: Louie Swisher Hearts Facebook, but Twitter Not So Much

Kara Swisher — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:37:44 +0000

Like grandmother, like grandson.

Yesterday, I told my No. 1 son, Louie, that Twitter was down, after a denial-of-service attack.

He was–shall we say–not very sympathetic, as you can see in the video below.

Interestingly, Louie’s response was similar to my mother’s, Lucretia Carney, who mocked the San Francisco-based microblogging service at a gas station on the way to my interview with its founders at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference (see her video below too, as I continue to use my poor family as props in interviews).

It’s just anecdotal, of course, but it turns out their opinions actually track on several recent reports, the latest coming from Nielsen.

It showed that the 25-and-under crowd is definitely not the group adding to the site’s tremendous growth.

Using a panel of 250,000 U.S. Internet users, the data (which you can see above–click on the image to make it larger) said that there are fewer young people on Twitter than on the Web itself–16 percent versus 25 percent.

Older people, like my mother, are also a smaller group, at 20 percent of Twitter. The biggest and fastest-growing group on Twitter is 25 to 54, just like me, an obvious fan of the service.

An earlier anecdotal report from Morgan Stanley (MS) posited similar findings.

Facebook, of course, is hugely popular with young people. And, with Louie, who–even at the tender age of seven years old–wants me to set up an account now on the Silicon Valley-based social networking site, to be able to upload video, photos and more.

Check out his and my mother’s thoughts on the subject:

[ See post to watch video ]

Kara Visits Sundance and Interviews Hurley, Hastings and Kilar

Kara Swisher — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:29:06 +0000

Here’s a longish video BoomTown did over the weekend at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, the famous annual independent film gathering now taking place in Park City, Utah.

I was there to moderate a panel on Saturday titled, “Where Do We Go From Here? Icons of the Digital Age.”

It was a great session, with a lot of insights as to where things are headed in the online video space and how that would impact the movie industry. Main conclusion: Significantly.

The trio of panelists were: Chad Hurley, the co-founder and CEO of the Google (GOOG) video service, YouTube; Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu, the premium online video service that is a joint venture of News Corp. (NWS) and GE (GE) unit NBC Universal; and Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix (NFLX), the largest online DVD rental service, which has been moving into an ever wider range of distribution of movies on the Web. (News Corp. is the owner of Dow Jones and this Web site.)

I did interviews with each of them, as well as a chat with my only indie celebrity friend, Jane Lynch, some scenes from the festival and an intro and outro from my own little stars, Louie and Alex Swisher.

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

MicroHoo: Some Web 2.0 Advice!

Kara Swisher — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:26:38 +0000

Last night, BoomTown loaded the kids into the car–you try finding a sitter on a Tuesday night!–and went early to a pair of dot-com parties being thrown at some trendy spots in San Francisco related to the Web 2.0 Expo taking place this week.

Our quest was to find out what some savvy Web 2.0 types thought would–or should–happen next in the Microsoft (MSFT)-Yahoo (YHOO) takeover battle, following Yahoo’s earnings report yesterday.

Thus, we made the scene–at widgetmaker RockYou’s “Rockin’ Spring Mixer” at Bong Su and news site Digg’s get-together at Mighty–to get some advice on what’s going to happen next.

Frankly, BoomTown is running low on ideas and we got a good range of predictions to bolster our bare cupboard.

So here’s a good mix of interviews on the topic, with folks such as RockYou CEO Lance Tokuda, Broadband Mechanics’ Marc Canter, Digg Founder Kevin Rose (in the very, very dark and noisy club–sorry!–but you can hear him at least), Digg CEO Jay Adelson and others.

And, at the end of the video, using a dinosaur toy as a metaphor, Louie and Alex Swisher, who pretty much have the situation down cold.

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

Kara Visits Hulu (With Louie)!

Kara Swisher — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 07:43:37 +0000

While in Los Angeles, BoomTown visited the offices of Hulu, the online video service that has been an unexpected bright spot for two Hollywood behemoths–NBC Universal (GE) and News Corp. (NWS) (owner of this site)–who launched the premium online video service as a joint venture last year.

Helmed by former Amazon exec Jason Kilar, not much was expected of Hulu, given that traditional entertainment companies have been slower than slow in embracing the digitization of their businesses.

But, armed with the clout of its partners, along with $100 million in private equity from Providence Equity Partners, as I wrote back in late October, Hulu has been a pretty decent effort and has gained surprising traction, both in its distributed content and also on its site.

Yet despite its clean look, easy-to-use tools, relative openness and also addition of more and more premium content, it will still be a long slog for Hulu, as it tries to make a big business out of all of it and battle the increasing power of bigger sites like Google’s YouTube.

Nonetheless, so far, so good. And, so we visited its HQ in Santa Monica, Calif., with our No. 1 son, Louie Swisher (Hulu’s true audience) in tow to see how the service is put together and meet some of its employees.

Thus, this fine video, in which Louie does a very good dance interpretation of the service at the start–although what else would a mother say?

(Also, here is a longer interview with Kilar about Hulu and its future.)

[ See post to watch video ]

Hulu's Jason Kilar Speaks!

Kara Swisher — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 07:06:38 +0000

Here’s BoomTown’s longer interview with the deceptively sharp Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, which I did while I was visiting the start-up recently.

In it, we discuss a wide range of topics about the premium online video service, which is a joint venture of NBC Universal (GE) and News Corp. (NWS) (owner of this site).

In it, he talks about everything from the reasons for the early success of Hulu to the state of content online in Hollywood to where it is all going to the sticky question of monetization (or lack thereof).

Also, when the heck is “Law & Order” going to be on Hulu? And “Seinfeld,” please.

(In addition, here is a video and post of my tour of Hulu HQ in Santa Monica, Calif., with Louie Swisher, who gives a very fine dance interpretation of the service at the start, I think you will agree.)

[ See post to watch video ]