GenDigital

Taking Babysteps Skype Will Sell Ringtones

At some point I'd imagine eBay would like to start making some money off their multibillion acquisition of Skype, the VoIP service used by nearly 100 million people worldwide. This sounds like a pretty good first step. As reported in Business Week the company, beginning today, will sell a handful of ringtones for $1.50 and soon greatly expand their ringtone offerings by working with the leading music publishers including Sony and EMI. The writer as well as financial analysts quoted in the piece infer some sort of competition down the road with music category leader iTunes assuming the ringtone section on Skype gains some traction. With nearly 100 million members worldwide, how could it not?

British University Students Create Super Low Emission Vehicle

In a time of high gas prices we can always turn to our football loving friends across the pond. Students at the University of Bath in western England have just unveiled the CLEVER car (short for Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport). The prototype has two seats and three wheels and gets, get ready for this...108 miles per gallon. Not bad for a couple of university students. The students did get some help from engineers and other institutions as well as funding from the European Union, which is nice since the vehicle so far has cost about $3.0 million dollars to create. When the vehicle is ready to hit the market, the expected cost at retail will be around $8,500, but I am not sure if that is dollars or pounds, either way, it will be in that relatively new "micro-car" vehicle category.

Pepsi Signs Mariah For Ringtones

Mariah Carey has signed a new deal with Pepsi, the number two soft drink company and number one snack food company among college students, to write and record downloadable ringtones as part of an upcoming summer promotion. The deal with Mariah will be a part of a broader music effort Pepsi will unveil on its Pepsismash.com web site which will offer several more ringtones from popular recording artists.

Get Details On What Jessica Had For Lunch on BlogStar

Just when you thought Jessica Simpson could not get anymore exposure...Users of Sprint's wireless service can now cough up an extra 5 bucks a month to hear what the woman formerly known as Mrs. Lachey had for lunch. That's right, the service called BlogStar, gives users alerts on their cell phones whenever Jessica or other celeb bloggers like Wesley Snipes publishes a post. It also allows users to respond to the post via their mobile device. I'd imagine this service might have a fighting chance with the Gen Y audience if Sprint partnered with a more relevant celeb like may be Ashton or Jessica Alba. I wouldn't bet the farm on this one taking off.

Viacom Continues Acquisition Spree Buying Xfire

Looking to expand its online ventures, Viacom has announced the acquisition of Xfire, a company that created an online instant message system used by online gamers. Xfire has attracted four million users since it was introduced in 2004. Of those, one million are active and spend 91 hours each month using the service. The company sells advertising on its IM software and Web site, both to video game makers and to leading Gen Y marketers including Pepsi and Unilever. The acqusition makes a lot of sense for company looking to expand its relationship with young adults (especially young men) online.

Another Myspace First: Small Texas College Blocks Access To Site

I am sure this is one trend Myspace isn't thrilled about. Del Mar college, a small college in Corpus Christi, Texas is the first school I know of that has banned or blocked student access to the Myspace site in response to complaints of slow Internet connection speeds on campus computers. The school's president said the blockage of the site was more about facilitating better web-based instruction to students, and the Myspace traffic was essentially slowing the whole school network down. Granted, this is Del Mar college not Ohio State, so I don't think the loss of traffic will cause Myspace to sniffle, but I have an idea...May be as a show of good faith, the Myspace crew could purchase some additional bandwidth for the students of Del Mar?

Yikes, Fewer Teens Realize Dangers of Huffing

According to a new study released by the Partnership for a Drug Free America, about one in five teens admit to getting high by inhaling common household products such as glue or gasoline, a practice known as huffing. Not surprisingly, since educational efforts touting the dangers of hugging dropped off in the late 90s, usage is up and awareness of the dangers of huffing, or those teens who actually understand and comprehend the dangers of huffing is down. The CEO of the Partnership said the not for profit is re-starting the campaign warning against inhalant abuse since today's class of middle-schoolers were not exposed to the previous campaign.

A Taste of Martha For Recent Grads and Twentysomethings

In an effort to reach a younger demographic and potentially open up a new market for advertisers, Martha Stewart is unveiling Blueprint today. Blueprint will combine home and design stories with fashion and beauty coverage while attempting to target young women in the 25 to 34 year old age bracket--a market so far that has been largely ignored by the leading shelter titles. Clearly, the new Martha mag is hitting the market at a very tough time for the magazine industry in general, however, the fact that Martha is hot once again in the media coupled with the notion that there really isn't a whole lot of competition for Blueprint, presents the distinct possibility that this will be one of the few successful launches of 2006, or, at least, that's what I think.

Scion Launches Experiential Media Event

Never one to color in between the lines, Toyota's youth-focused Scion brand is opting for a series of non-traditional events and promotions instead of traditional executions. Called the "Scion Dashboard," the event intends to be an unobtrusive way for "hip and cool 18-24 year old men in San Francisco (are there any by the way?) to connect with the Scion brand." Further, a Scion exec is quoted as saying "We just want them to come in and say, 'Wow, this stuff is cool.' We want to be known as the cool brand," says the insider, adding that the effort will not be benchmarked against traditional media metrics, such as post-buys, audience impressions, or even a CPM." The event will run in San Francisco for 30 days and then will set up shop in a new market.

Should Be a Good Summer for Interning

On the heels of Monster's release about the robust hiring market for recent college grads, the NY Times cites a similar scenario this summer for college interns at investment banks, consulting firms and hedge funds. In fact, the article points out that there is even some competition out there for the best and brightest at schools like Stanford and Harvard among the hedge funds and investment banks. Interns on Wall Street are typically paid the weekly salary of a first-year analyst who make between $50,000 and $60,000 a year. In addition to salary, interms are likely to receive a living stipend as well as some transportation services. Not unlike the dot com days of the late 90s when the brightest college students were in great demand by leading the Internet companies, some of the intern-related perks will probably be heightened now that several hedge funds have jumped in the summer intern game as well. The competition among the banks, consulting firms and hedge funds means one thing for college students seeking an internship: more opportunity to actually land one, which should be welcome news.