Steven Savage

A big media merger is done, Michigan tries to lure tech, and "How To Train Your Dragon" goes multimedia!

Career:
Need a mentor? Here's how you get one. Nice simple bits of advice.

Regional:
Michigan launches a $120 million Venture Capital pool to help invest in their tech startups. Something to keep in mind to see how it works out, and if there's a job shift to Michigan.

Comics:
Celebreties from Justin Beiber to Lady Gaga to get comic books. Bluewater, the company behind it seems to specialize in biography and often music titles. Wal-Mart will be carrying the Beiber title. I wonder if this is a "reality show" element coming into comics . . .

Reorgs at Image and Top Cow. Also sounds like Image has an issue finding the right PR focus. Any opportunity perhaps?

Media:
'How To Train Your Dragon' looks to launch films and a TV series. This also sounds like there will be an emphasis on worldbuilding. This was a well-recieved film, and further efforts to built it into a multimedia franchise have a promising foundation.

DC goes further multimedia with A 'Fables' novel as an eBook.

Publishing:
Lulu and Smashwords get a lot of attention, but Scribd just landed $13 million in venture capital. That just stirred the publishing pot a bit, let's see how they do – oh, and with that money and the location, consider a resume.

There will be new Sherlock Holmes and James Bond novels. I want to see how these go over, especially Holmes – whose author is known for doing YA books.

Social Media:
Looks like Facebook is not sharing phone numbers and addresses.

Technology:
Cheezburger haz $30 million in venture capital. Remember this is a company that leveraged LOLCats. What they're going to do with $30 million is intriguing, especially as word is they run pretty barebones. Sounds like the focus now is to "get bigger."

A look at HP's new tablets. OK they may be running the Palm OS, but they do have a slick iPad look to them.

Of course everyone is reporting on Steve Job's health.  I'm pretty sure Apple will go on.

Video:
Comcast/NBC merger approved. Not surprising, but this is going to change issues of net neutrality, carriers, and ownerships. Comcast and NBC are a powerful package and people might not like that.

Video Games:
Hmmm. A promotion at Marvel's game division with new VP TQ Jefferson. Sounds like the right guy to have in a high position. Also note Marvel is looking to go very Multiplatform.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What does the Comcast/NBC merger mean for Netflix?

–Steven Savage

The Goldman/Facebook deal takes an odd turn, a film funded partially by crowdsourcing goes to Sundance, and plenty of other news for you!

Economics/Geekonomics:
Sounds like investors are expecting a market correction. With all the things that could go wrong, I'm not surprised.

Film:
A film partially funded with Kickstart is headed to Sundance. Pretty historical, and could catapult Kickstarter to further awareness. I know people using Kickstarter directly.

Mobile:
OK try to follow this story. Disney is releasing a smartphone. This is being released in Japan. It's running Android, though Steve Jobs is on the board. How many different things here can we wonder about including why?

Consumer Reports is against the Verizon iPhone. Worth reading here.

Social Media:
That Goldman-Sachs/Facebook deal? Goldman won't be selling shares in the US due to media scrutiny. It's fairly obvious they're worried about US regulations, and this action . . . will probably only increase scrutiny. It's weird all around. Side note – I'm betting sovereign wealth funds want to get their hands on Facebook shares.

Well it looks like the Golden Globe awards for 'The Social Network' are making Zuckerberg even more of a rock star. The film didn't sound too flattering, so this is telling.

Technology:
Ritholz in the Tech Today? You got it! He asks if Apple's pricing model is a negative, which I do agree with to an extent. The system seems rather restrictive and I can see it backfiring despite the advantages. I expect (or hope) for Apple to lighten up in time.

RIM's PlayBook looks well defined and designed to evolve past dependence on BlackBerry. No I still don't know what to think about RIM, and this doesn't help.

Video:
Is 2011 the do-or-die-year for television? I think the article goes a bit overboard, but it makes the point that a lot of change is putting consumers in charge, and that if they wished they could manipulate the market further. Also notes how TV execs really don't seem to get what's going on. Worth reading, though I figure that 2011-2012 is the decision point, not this year alone.

Video Games:
Don't launch your game on February 1st – that's when the black ops pack comes out for Call of Duty. Thought for professionals – tracking these important releases is probably A) vital to do for marketing, and B) a pain in the backside with shifting release schedules.

Not a good time for Sony: Infinity Ward blames them for Modern Warfare 2 hacks. I'm not sure people listen to Infinity Ward, and this sounds like bandwagon-jumping. Presented incase it becomes something more.

Microsoft may be releasing Kinect development tools. Not a surprise at all, and I bet this is for real.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What legitimate, family-friendly tool would you build with a Kinect SDK?

– Steven Savage