This week: Do you think suing charities is a good PR move? If so, thanks for listening, Charles Carreon! Microsoft announces a new tablet that looks uncharacteristically promising. Characteristically, it shares a name with a previous Microsoft product that is now changing its name. And we sit down with the team behind Movies.io, which may be the web’s prettiest index of films.
Head to Movies.io. Search for any film. See a summary of it, instantly, along with links to various ways to get the film: Netflix or Torrent. It’s a remarkably simple website in a world filled with clutter. The background is a single picture from the movie you’re looking at, and there are links to IMDB and TMDB if you want more information. There are no advertisements, and little navigation outside the search bar.
This week we talked with Amos Wenger and Frederic Jacobs, the dynamic duo behind this beautiful site. Amos built movies.io for his girlfriend as a way to find movies to watch. It went online barely a month ago, but mentions from prominent blogs like Lifehacker have propelled it.
Amos and Frederick talk about their plans for future of the site, which involves partnerships with independent movie producers and links to other online streaming services. Torrents probably won’t be available on the site forever, they say. The team has no intention of putting ads on the site, ever, preferring instead to monetize with partnerships. Listen to the episode to find out more.
And, as always, the headlines.
- Microsoft announced Surface tablet. Seems decent, overall, but is it a slap in the face for Microsoft’s longtime OEM partners?
- NEC, Hitachi and 68 other Japanese companies form an “iOS consortium” to provide business software and training in order to speed adoption of Apple products in the enterprise environment. Apple stock jumped $11 at the news, which makes James happy.
- Microsoft won’t be attending GamesCon or TokyoGameShow. Dave insists this is interesting; Justin isn’t sure.
- Skype is adding a cool new feature: ads. The Microsoft-owned company said this week that the ads would be a brilliant way to start conversations. Right.
- Charles Carreon is suing everyone. We discuss whether he’s crazy or just a troll.
- Readability shuts down its reader fees service. Amos and Justin discuss alternative monetization strategies to advertising. James forgets to pitch his monetization manual. Spoiler: he’s a fan of ads.
- And, finally, Dave’s gaming news. He tries to tell us about the latest Diablo 3 patch, but everyone makes fun of him so he stops. Journalism.
