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Last Minute Web 2.0 Solution to Christmas Card Failure

December 24, 2008

Christmas is all but here, but its eve brings a problem. We speak not of the endless doom and gloom in all newspapers (for this is the season to be jolly, and we’re jolly well going to be jolly, thank you), but of the dread realisation that one has not sent all the cards that one should have done.

Here at Swordplay, we’re sure you know the feeling. You think you’ve sent cards to everyone, then on Christmas Eve the postman turns up with a sackful from people you’ve forgotten. It is a cruel blow, for you as much as them, but help is at hand. Thanks to the good folk at Elf Yourself, you can upload a photograph of yourself, add some music, email it and Bob’s your uncle. No need for recriminations, and everyone’s happy. Meanwhile, from everyone at Swordplay, have an excellent Christmas and a successful 2009.

Time to give up TV?

December 23, 2008

There’s an interesting piece in the Independent today hypothesizing that this Thursday might just be “the last Christmas Day on which everyone in Britain watches the same programmes at the same time.” The reason is not, sadly, because next year the country is set to awaken from its decades-long mass hyponosis to realize just how bad Christmas TV is, but because of that new-fangled thing, television-on-demand.

Television-on-demand will, says the Indy, herald the end of the linear channel as broadcasters engage their viewers in a plethora of ways. The internet is, of course, key to the televisual revolution, one which is already seeing the move to create “an industry standard” and which will see parents watching television in the living room while their offspring commune with media via applications such as iPhones and laptops. Even sitting down to eat the turkey won’t make much difference to this multi-media onslaught.

The Indy might be right, but Blade confesses to a degree of unseasonal cyncisim. Television-on-demand, “Catch-up TV” and the end of the TV experience as we know it have been heralded, promised and predicted for the last 15 years. No doubt things will change one of these days, but Blade fears that we’re more likely to see the demise of a national newspaper than the end of our love affair with television. Let’s hope it’s not the Independent.

US Music Industry Says ‘No’ To Litigation Against Dead People

December 22, 2008

Across the pond the music industry is poised to abandon its policy of suing everyone without limitation (several single mothers, a dead person and a 13-year-old girl, to name but a few) for the alleged illegal downloading of music. We learn this thanks to a report in the Wall Street Journal – and we hope that UK rights holders similarly look for better ways of dealing with this issue.

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