Dell product placement on USA network?

February 25th, 2007 Arash

The episode of Monk that aired last Friday (”Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy“) brought Monk into the digital age with his first experience on a computer. I’m assuming the producers thought this was a golden opportunity for product placement, and they got Dell to fork over the gold. As much as I don’t like product placements, I thought it wasn’t that bad… until Natalie’s daughter said “It’s a Dell! It’s got everything!.” I didn’t think much of it afterwards until I watched that night’s episode of Psych (”Poker? I Barely Know Her“).

Lo and behold there was a shiny new Alienware laptop getting a lot of spotlight in the episode. Alienware used to be a boutique computer company specializing in high end machines for gaming, until Dell bought them. The product placement was much better on this one, but just as obvious. The laptop had a glowing Apple-like alien head on the back of the screen, and a pleasing (artificial) clickity-click sound from the keys.

My assumption is that Dell has a product placement deal with USA Network. I don’t watch any other shows on their channel so I can’t confirm any others, but they wouldn’t surprise me. Have any of you seen other Dell spots on their shows?

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What I want in a cell phone (but probably won’t get)…

February 15th, 2007 Arash

There’s been tons of iPhone hype in the air lately, and until it’s actually released, I’m not sure how much of it is justified. Once you get past all the fancy features, you can start to digest the drawbacks of it:

• 2 year contract with Cingular
• $500-$600 price tag
• voice service + data service
• closed framework
• no buttons

The 2-year contract with Cingular is something most cell phone customers are used to by now, but I still avoid them like the plague. I don’t like this sneaky system of cell phone providers overcharging their customers every month in order to subsidize the free cell phone they receive. I’d like an option where if I bring my own phone, I pay what it actually costs for service, not the typical fee that you pay when locked into a contract and given some piece of junk phone.

The last thing I’ll mention is the artificial differentiation between voice and data plans. Voice is a type of data and the cell phone providers know it also. The only reason they’re marketed as two separate services is because there’s an opportunity to nickel and dime a public that generally doesn’t know the difference. There’s a lot of money to be made for a cellular provider if they simply provided an unrestricted and unlimited data service to its customers. Customers could simply use VoIP for their voice calls and use their phones as portable internet access devices. Genius.

So here’s what I want in a phone:

• Open framework - So I can load my own apps and download other ones too
• Logically layed out menus - Motorola, I mean you
• Responsive user interface - Samsung actually has this working
• Doesn’t crash
• High resolution screen
• Not bulky

I’m not holding my breath for all this, but until then I’ll stick with my T509.

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