Jason Unger

WallStats Goes After Overpriced HDMI Cables

Posted by junger - 04/02/10 at 04:04:56 pm

As a personal finance junkie and lover of all things tech, it's not often when these two hobbies/passions connect (except when I tweet that it's a good thing I don't have $500 to spend on a new iPad.)

WallStats, which makes some great infographs on finance and the economy, is going after one of the most controversially priced technology products: HDMI cables.

In this infograph, WallStats is singling out Monster Cable for their pricing, but while they may have created the high-end cable market, Monster is hardly the only company to charge higher prices for their cables.

Check this out.

Ben Folds Plays Chat Roulette in Charlotte Concert

Posted by junger - 03/21/10 at 07:03:18 pm

Here's Ben's ode to Merton, the piano improv chat roulette guy that I still don't think is Ben Folds.

(via Geekosystem)

Is Piano Chat Roulete Guy Really Ben Folds?

Posted by junger - 03/16/10 at 06:03:36 pm

Is this guy Ben Folds in disguise?

Debbie said it was from the start, but I'm not so sure. What do you think?

This Week in This Week in Tech: Genius

Posted by junger - 12/24/09 at 07:12:00 am

I've always had a ton of ideas, you know that.

Mentioned previously, I had the idea for a podcast about the best podcast in the world — Leo Laporte's this WEEK in TECH. It'd be pretty meta, chatting about the actual podcast, the panelists and their takes on the tech news of the week.

Coincidentally, this was right around the time that my friend Noah Wolfe was looking to launch a D.C.-based tech podcast, which eventually became Tech Blab, featuring myself, Dave Weinberg and Noah.

So in addition to Tech Blab, Noah and I launched TWiTWiT — aka this WEEK in this WEEK in TECH.

It's a short (5-9 minute) podcast, where we go back and forth with thoughts on this week's episode and talk about our favorite panelists. (His is Leo, mine is obviously John C. Dvorak).

We've done 10 episodes so far, but the real pickup is just beginning.

Last week, Jason Calacanis — Internet entrepreneur known for Engadget, Mahalo, TechCrunch50 and often a panelist on TWiT — sent out this tweet to his 80,000+ followers:

GENIUS: This Week in This Week in Tech. The show about the show This Week in Tech! http://www.thisweekinthisweekintech.com/ #twit

That gave us a nice pickup, both in downloads and subscriber numbers. But Calacanis wasn't done, sending out this tweet a week later:

Listening to "this WEEK in this WEEK in TECH" brilliant! @leolaporte http://bit.ly/6zgTjG #twit #twist #oaf #facebook #wow

He's timed both of these tweets perfectly, driving people to subscribe the day that we record the show, just in time to deliver the new episode the next day.

While we're still waiting for Leo to directly say something on the air about us (hopefully the next time Calacanis is on he'll bring it up), it's always nice to hear that your idea (and of course the execution — Noah does all the hard work editing and posting) is both genius and brilliant.

Have you subscribed to TWiTWiT yet?

If Redbox is This Bad, It's Got to Be Good

Posted by junger - 12/09/09 at 07:12:04 am

I love Redbox.

It's the most convenient way to watch a movie, on a whim, without getting into any long-term contracts or recurring fees and at a great price. They even have an iPhone app for reserving movies before you go to pick them up.

Unfortunately, the movie studios hate Redbox. It's too cheap. We don't make any money off of it. It makes DVDs worth less.

Just how bad is Redbox for the movie studios? It's going to destroy the entertainment industry, says a new report (via NewTeeVee).

This loss in revenue will lead to a slowdown in movie production, crops will wilt, the earth will turn to salt, etc. The study says that Redbox is disrupting the home video industry in four ways:

• DVD sales are cannibalized
• Customers will want lower rental prices from other outlets
• The perceived value of movies will be harmed
• Redbox’s sale of discs into the aftermarket conflicts with other retail channels

Redbox’s kiosks also will send shock waves throughout the industry and could lead to the loss of 9,280 jobs, $35.4 million in contributions to health and welfare funds being cut, and a reduction of $30 million in tax revenue.

What a load of bullshit. I'm not even going to explain why these accusations are totally off-base. The real story here is that, time and time again, the entertainment industry is too busy fighting the last fight and looking for a scapegoat for its problems.

There's a reason why Redbox is so popular — it's cheap and convenient. But it's a business model that will only last for so long. Look at Netflix; they know that DVDs will become the minority and Internet streaming will become the norm.

Netflix is looking to the future. Redbox, I'm sure, is too. So why are the movie studios always stuck in the past?