$5 A Month To Watch Ads Before You Unlock Your Mobile Device. Interested?
Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 5 to 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly to SoundCloud, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I’m really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.
This week we discussed:
Is YouTube ruining the video experience by having pre-rolls and banners on the videos? Maybe YouTube should roll out YouTube Red to all countries?
A new company, Unlockd, has a deal for you. The Australian company (backed by News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch‘s son) can serve ads via Android users’ lock screens. Now, Boost Mobile (owned by Sprint in the US) is going to try it out. Here’s the deal: Unlockd serves an ad to people once every three times they wake up their phones and enter their password. In exchange, Boost will take $5 off of your monthly bill. So, which brands are in? Levi’s, Starbucks, Hulu, EA Sports and more. Personally, this sounds brutal… what do you think? Also, think about how well brands can work in digital? Have you seen the way that Acura integrates into Jerry Seinfeld‘s Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee?
SwiftKey is a very cool keyboard replacement for Android and iPhone. You can swipe through the keyboard and it’s technology makes it super-quick to type (especially with one hand). Microsoft liked it so much, that they acquired the company (and the 150 employees) this past week for $250 million. Does SwiftKey have something more to it than what we’re not seeing?