Javamancy » media

Microsoft Strikes Again: Xbox 360 Elite Price Cuts

Steve — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:14:38 +0000

Remember when I just had to get an Xbox 360 Elite Edition to replace my first Xbox 360 that unfortunately suffered a RROD event?

Well, Microsoft [MSFT] has definitely come a long way since then, offering to correct their RROD warranty policies to reflect the wider impact of various hardware failure conditions.

Now, to really get more gamers onto the platform, as well as to allow hardcore gamers to replenish their gaming stacks once again, Microsoft has announced that, starting tomorrow (August 28, 2009), there will be price reductions in their more popular editions:

The Xbox 360 Elite Edition will be $299 USD, down a whopping $100 in price;
The Xbox 360 Pro Edition will be $249 USD, down $50 in price;
The Xbox 360 Arcade Edition remains at $199 USD.

This is just in time for a very large group of blockbuster games headed to the Xbox 360 platform in the weeks to come, and it prepares the way for the upcoming winter holiday season, which presents a fantastic sales opportunity for Microsoft and the software studios and publishers and other content providers– not just through the standard retail channels, but also through online sales and subscriptions and ad-based retention mechanisms.

Starting 2009′s Starbucks Picks List

Steve — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:00:26 +0000

Here’s the start of the 2009 Starbucks-iTunes Picks of the Week list of cards that I’ve accumulated thus far.

As many of you already know, I’ve been tracking and collecting the iTunes freebies that are offered periodically at Starbucks [SBUX] outlets. Without further ado, here’s my new list for 2009 list… presented in order of chronological release (hopefully in the correct order):

01/06/2009 – Blind Pilot, “One Red Thread”
01/13/2009 – Joshua Radin, “One of Those Days”
01/20/2009 – Jennifer O’Connor, “Always In Your Mind”
01/27/2009 – Emiliana Torrini, “Big Jumps”
02/03/2009 – Lisa Hannigan, “I Don’t Know”
02/10/2009 – Travis, “Last Words”
02/17/2009 – Greg Laswell, “How the Day Sounds”
02/24/2009 – Brett Dennen, “San Francisco”
03/03/2009 – Neko Case, “People Got A Lotta Nerve”
03/10/2009 – Dido, “Quiet Times” (but not really…) (UPDATE: but maybe for real…)

As more continue to appear each week, I’ll continue to snag ‘em. And even keep ya posted…

N.B.

For those of you just joining us here and are unfamiliar with this topic, or if you’d like to see all of the activity from last year, you can “catch up” quickly with these (which are presented in reverse chronological order, to further shake you up):

There were also earlier posts this year about related Starbucks items (also presented in reverse chronological order):

Wrapping Up 2008′s Starbucks Picks List

Steve — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 06:00:10 +0000

Here’s a wrap-up of the 2008 Starbucks Picks of the Week cards that I’ve accumulated thus far. As many of you already know, I’ve been tracking and collecting the iTunes freebies that are offered periodically at Starbucks [SBUX] outlets.

However, for those of you just joining us here and are unfamiliar with this topic, you can “catch up” quickly with these (which are presented in reverse chronological order, to further shake you up):

Without further ado, here’s my current list… presented in order of chronological release (hopefully in the correct order):

MISSING – Counting Crows, “Washington Square”
MISSING – Hilary McRae, “Every Day” [music video]
MISSING – Carly Simon, “So Many People to Love”
MISSING – Adele, “Chasing Pavements”
05/13/2008 – Duffy, “Mercy” [music video]
05/20/2008 – Jakob Dylan, “Something Good This Way Comes”
05/27/2008 – Bitter:Sweet, “Waking Up”
06/03/2008 – Sia, “Day Too Soon” [music video]
06/10/2008 – Priscilla Ahn, “Dream”
06/17/2008 – Sergio Mendes, “Funky Bahia”
06/24/2008 – Pacifika, “Me Cai”
07/01/2008 – James Hunter, “Jacqueline”
07/08/2008 – Tristan Prettyman, “Madly”
07/15/2008 – Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis, “Rainy Day Blues”
07/22/2008 – Sonya Kitchell, “Here to There”
07/29/2008 – My Morning Jacket, “I’m Amazed”
08/05/2008 – Ledisi, “Alright”
MISSING – Chris Bathgate, “Yes, I’m Cold”
08/19/2008 – Ersi Arvizu, “El Arbol”
08/26/2008 – Jessie Baylin, “Was I On Your Mind”
09/02/2008 – Johnny Flynn, “The Box”
09/09/2008 – Orchestra Baobab, “Pape Ndiaye”
09/16/2008 – Raphael Saadiq, “100 Yard Dash”
09/23/2008 – Thievery Corporation, “Hare Krisna”
09/30/2008 – Noah and the Whale, “Shape of My Heart”
10/07/2008 – Whitley, “A Shot to the Stars” [music video and song]
10/14/2008 – Amy MacDonald, “Run”
10/21/2008 – Cory Chisel, “Home in the Woods”
10/28/2008 – John Legend & Andre 3000, “Green Light”
11/4/2008 – Yo-Yo Ma with Alison Krauss, “The Wexford Carol” [music video]
11/11/2008 – Bajofondo, “Pa Bailar” [music video]
11/18/2008 – Ray LaMontagne, “You Are The Best Thing”
11/25/2008 – Calexico, “Slowness”
12/2/2008 – Department of Eagles, “No One Does It Like You”
12/9/2008 – Paul Weller, “Have You Made Up Your Mind”
12/16/2008 – Jem, “Keep On Walking”
12/23/2008 – Nikka Costa, “Stuck To You” [music video]
12/30/2008 – Daniel Martin Moore, “That’ll Be The Plan”

As more continue to appear each week, I’ll continue to snag ‘em. And even keep ya posted… In fact, I’ll probably just start a new list for 2009, and touch base with the 2008 list if there are new additions.

Steve’s Starbucks Picks List: Redux

Steve — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 06:00:35 +0000

As many of you already know, I’ve been tracking and collecting the iTunes freebies that are offered periodically at Starbucks [SBUX] outlets.

This month’s update shows that I continue to make progress on some of the latter ones that I didn’t have before. Unfortunately, if you read the back of some of these cards, you’ll notice that there are expiration dates imposed on them, so the first four I’m missing would merely be collectible items unto themselves (assuming I can even find them).

Without further ado, here’s my current list… presented in order of chronological release (hopefully in the correct order):

MISSING – Counting Crows, “Washington Square”
MISSING – Hilary McRae, “Every Day” [music video]
MISSING – Carly Simon, “So Many People to Love”
MISSING – Adele, “Chasing Pavements”
05/13/2008 – Duffy, “Mercy” [music video]
05/20/2008 – Jakob Dylan, “Something Good This Way Comes”
05/27/2008 – Bitter:Sweet, “Waking Up”
06/03/2008 – Sia, “Day Too Soon” [music video]
06/10/2008 – Priscilla Ahn, “Dream”
06/17/2008 – Sergio Mendes, “Funky Bahia”
06/24/2008 – Pacifika, “Me Cai”
07/01/2008 – James Hunter, “Jacqueline”
07/08/2008 – Tristan Prettyman, “Madly”
07/15/2008 – Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis, “Rainy Day Blues”
07/22/2008 – Sonya Kitchell, “Here to There”
07/29/2008 – My Morning Jacket, “I’m Amazed”
08/05/2008 – Ledisi, “Alright”
MISSING – Chris Bathgate, “Yes, I’m Cold”
08/19/2008 – Ersi Arvizu, “El Arbol”
08/26/2008 – Jessie Baylin, “Was I On Your Mind”
09/02/2008 - Johnny Flynn, “The Box”
09/09/2008 – Orchestra Baobab, “Pape Ndiaye”
09/16/2008 – Raphael Saadiq, “100 Yard Dash”
09/23/2008 – Thievery Corporation, “Hare Krisna”
09/30/2008 – Noah and the Whale, “Shape of My Heart”
10/07/2008 – Whitley, “A Shot to the Stars” [music video and song]
10/14/2008 – Amy MacDonald, “Run”
10/21/2008 – Cory Chisel, “Home in the Woods”

As more continue to appear each week, I’ll continue to snag ‘em. And even keep ya posted…

Steve’s Starbucks Picks List

Steve — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:00:03 +0000

As you know, I’ve been tracking and collecting the iTunes freebies that are offered periodically at Starbucks [SBUX] outlets.

For those of you just joining us here and are unfamiliar with this topic, you can “catch up” quickly with these (which are presented in reverse chronological order, to further shake you up):

But you may have been wondering if I’ve gotten all of the Picks of the Week. Alas, no, but I do have quite a few of them. Here’s my current list… presented in order of chronological release (hopefully in the correct order):

MISSING – Counting Crows, “Washington Square”
MISSING – Hilary McRae, “Every Day” [music video]
MISSING – Carly Simon, “So Many People to Love”
MISSING – Adele, “Chasing Pavements”
05/13/2008 – Duffy, “Mercy” [music video]
05/20/2008 – Jakob Dylan, “Something Good This Way Comes”
05/27/2008 – Bitter:Sweet, “Waking Up”
06/03/2008 – Sia, “Day Too Soon” [music video]
06/10/2008 – Priscilla Ahn, “Dream”
06/17/2008 – Sergio Mendes, “Funky Bahia”
MISSING – Pacifika, “Me Cai”
07/01/2008 – James Hunter, “Jacqueline”
07/08/2008 – Tristan Prettyman, “Madly”
07/15/2008 – Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis, “Rainy Day Blues”
07/22/2008 – Sonya Kitchell, “Here to There”
07/29/2008 – My Morning Jacket, “I’m Amazed”
08/05/2008 – Ledisi, “Alright”
MISSING – Chris Bathgate, “Yes, I’m Cold”
08/19/2008 – Ersi Arvizu, “El Arbol”
08/26/2008 – Jessie Baylin, “Was I On Your Mind”
MISSING – Johnny Flynn, “The Box”
09/09/2008 – Orchestra Baobab, “Pape Ndiaye”
09/16/2008 – Raphael Saadiq, “100 Yard Dash”

But a funny thing happened as I was researching these ‘tunes coming in… some of them have already been offered up as freebies, either as an official iTunes Free Tune on Tuesday, or from the previous Starbucks iTunes Song of the Day promotion.

Well, I’ll keep ya posted…

Big Mac Chant-off

Steve — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:30:09 +0000

Although this seems like a follow-up article to my last meandering about McDonald’s, it’s just extremely fortuitous. I promise!

A lot of you have probably missed this promo, and the deadline is coming up FAST (7/6/2008), so here goes:

McDonald’s [MCD] is running a music mixup promotion to be played for a 30-second spot using some of their samples. They’ve even set up a MySpace page to try to attract contestants. Unfortunately, the market saturation for the TV commercials advertising this promo seems to be fairly low, and the Internet targeting for the MySpace page and the promo is also somewhat low.

Before embarking on your musical extravaganza, it’s very helpful to review the rules first (if the link on the MySpace page isn’t work for you, try this link instead).

When you’re ready to submit your entry, go ahead and use the link here to complete your entry form and upload your MP3, or try the MySpace link. (Yes, I know, I know… a lot of people are having trouble with MySpace popups and such-like…) There’s even an option to upload a video (this link uses the MySpace storage to accept your video upload).

Note: The submission period begins on June 16, 2008and ends on July 6, 2008 at 11:59 AM Pacific Time (PT). Obviously, this doesn’t give you much time, so you need to definitely get started quickly.

Mr. Heringer, I Presume

Steve — Tue, 20 May 2008 05:30:33 +0000

Last year, there was a fun blog I’d check in at once a day (or so), while I was collecting the Starbucks iTunes Song of the Day songs: Mark Heringer’s ongoing updated list.

So, when I discovered somewhat belatedly that Starbucks [SBUX] is back with a new iTunes partnered free promo, I remembered Mark’s list and thought, “Hey, let’s see if Mark is up to it again…” And, lo and behold: YEP!

Like the previous list, it appears that Mr. Heringer (or maybe his proxy?) is proceeding with a list of the weekly products. Unlike the previous promo, though, this one is supposedly open-ended, so this is certainly something that may need a bit more blog-erific setups to maintain the list updating… but that’s something we can leave up to Mark to decide.

N.B.

Other title candidates:

Courtesy of Mr. Heringer
Mark Heringer, I Presume
Heringer’s Lists of iTunes Fun-ness

One of the fun things about Google Search is the simple way of using it to verify some states of truth… not so much the existential truths of the multiverse (although perhaps googling may ultimately prove to the contrary someday), but simpler truths involving full name lookups of various individuals. In this case, I was wandering about the other day, trying to confirm that Mark’s first name is in fact “Mark”… I recall looking it up waaay back and stumbled upon his Songs of the Day list, but I hadn’t been back for awhile, so… why not be (somewhat) certain?

Follow-Up to Starbucks iTunes Song of the Day

Steve — Tue, 20 May 2008 05:00:52 +0000

As I mentioned earlier, I’d stumbled upon the Starbucks iTunes Pick of the Week program.

A quick search unearthed the official Starbucks press announcement about this new program, the Starbucks iTunes Pick of the Week.

An interesting point is the statement that this new program is an ongoing endeavor and the “next phase” of the Starbucks-Apple partnership for iTunes content and promotions.

Context in the Bigger Picture

While, in isolation, this new promotion is certainly good news for iTunes fans, a recent WSJ article provides a bit of interesting background about the transformation currently underway at Starbucks with Howard’s return.

Uncertainty? Yes. Endless possibilities? Perhaps. Dull and boring? Nope.

Starbucks iTunes Pick of the Week

Steve — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:16:36 +0000

The Setup

This morning, as I was standing and waiting impatiently at the Starbucks-en-route-to-the-Greenway for the woman in front of me to pick out the specific pastry/muffin/pastry/muffin/pastry/bagel that she wanted to eat and for the cashier to figure out how to punch in the codes, I noticed that somebody had repositioned the Starbucks CD music stand closer and toward the left of the front counter. And in a couple of stack shelves toward the front of the stand, so that they were at eye level, were new paper cards very reminiscent of the Starbucks iTunes Song of the Day promo… but, of course, that promo ended several months ago.

So what, perchance, is it now…?

The Premise

Apparently, I missed this new promotion, which according first to one of the baristas at the Starbucks-en-route-to-the-Greenway (not the hapless cashier) may have started about a month ago. As I dropped by my favorite Alexandria Starbucks, I asked Sheri (the manager) about when the promo started, and she recalled starting it for about four weeks, since she remembers setting out four rotations of the product.

This, then, puts the promo’s incept date fairly close to the incept date of the new Starbucks Card program.

While this is not as frequent as the previous Starbucks iTunes Song of the Day program, it certainly acts as a new draw for folks who aren’t into using the Starbucks Card, but just to show up every so often and check out the ‘tunes. This certainly may re-engage the iTunes crowd, particularly the ones who previously made the Starbucks iTunes Song of the Day promo such fun, without the hang-up of not being able to collect every single daily product.

The Action

So, every Tuesday, there’s supposed to be a new card release.

While I’ll be collecting the offerings as I meander about the Starbucks in my stomping grounds, locating a list of the weekly products is the additional objective.

N.B.

Notice that the terminology they used for this promo isn’t “Song of the Week”, but “Pick of the Week”. That is quite interesting, and that’s reinforced by the card I got today: a music video from Duffy.