Courtesy: Engadget

Steve Jobs might be as adept at captivating a live audience as he is at innovating game-changing media products.  For nearly the first hour of Apple’s “September event” in San Francisco, Jobs made nary a mention of Apple TV.  And then, just as the invite-only crowd suspected that the festivities may be ending, Jobs pulled his latest, famed “one more thing” trick, quipping that the final “hobby” (his notorious description of the company’s philosophy towards TV)  was on the agenda – a $99, rental-centric upgrade of  Apple TV that streams movies and TV shows in HD and is compatible with portable devices. 

ABC and FOX are already on board as partners, and Netflix and YouTube streaming are also available.  Jobs announced that commerical-free TV shows are 99 cents for a 48-hour rental, while first-run movies cost $4.99.  The 99-cent price point in in-step with the iTunes song pricing model that has radically disrupted the music industry. 

Also, because all premium content is rented and streamed (rather than downloaded), there are none of the storgage capacity or management concerns that have weighed down iTunes video files in the past.   

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Online scheduling vendor Agendize has bolstered its fleet of local media partners through a deal with weblocal.ca, a leading Canadian local search site.  Weblocal.ca will utilize Agendize’s Online Scheduling as an implementable feature for clients that are using its business search platform. The ultimate goal: to “bring users and businesses together” through the search portal in order to convert traffic into transactions.

Businesses listed on weblocal.ca can simply integrate a “book an appointment” button. Customers can access the scheduling function anytime to book directly, and subsequently receive confirmations and notifications. Agendize outfits participating advertisers with a dashboard that manages all customer conversations and appointments and provides a history of these interactions.

BIA/Kelsey’s Peter Krasilovsky has extensively researched the amplified role that online scheduling is beginning to play in SMB marketing. Companies such as Agendize are ideally suited to service businesses that rely heavily on appointment booking, and many local business categories – medical, health and beauty, recreation, repair - fall into relevant scheduling verticals.

With online scheduling as an assumed “next step” for many SMBs, competition for local merchants and the requisite partners to deliver them is ramping up. Maxipage, Full Slate, and BookFresh are among a host of general scheduling sites that compete directly with Agendize. Additionally, several specialists have emerged in specific verticals.

The online scheduling category faces a number of key hurdles. One in motivating new customer adoption, which means clearly articulating a need for these services.  Further, technology platforms must integrate quickly and seamlessly with existing SMB systems to be effective.

Two freshly released viewer surveys underscore the fragmentation of the TV marketplace, the surging demand for online video and time shifting, and the changing consumer attitudes toward traditional, live television. 

The most recent Morpace Omnibus study reveals that while 52 percent of viewing is live (linear broadcasting, whether prerecorded such as a TV series or movies, or actual live programming like sports and news), more than a third (36 percent) of viewing is now on-demand. In addition to VOD services, 41 percent of consumers use in-home or network DVRs for additional “on-demand,” non-linear viewing.

Meanwhile, the migration online continues, with results from an Altman Vilandria & Co. survey declaring that broadcast TV consumption on the Internet doubled over the past year.

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MerchantCircle is joining the ranks of companies creating local and vertical content, including Demand Media, Associated Content, Examiner.com, AOL’s Seed and Patch, Perfect Market, Helium, Brafton Media and others. MerchantCircle’s new Local Content Studio is being led by Andy Halliday, who many of us remember as former head of e-commerce at Excite@Home and who has since been engaged in several entrepreneurial efforts.

The basic idea for MerchantCircle’s Local Content Studio, and the others, is to create optimized content that can be used to economically and efficiently spur local traffic to its directories and profiles, while driving ad impressions. Presumably, MerchantCircle will have an edge over rivals via 1.3 million SMBs that have claimed profiles on the service, covering 95 percent of U.S. communities.

The SMBs may be seeking to build attention for themselves (i.e., real estate agents), and/or earn awards or make a little cash — $1 or $2 per article. The cash can eventually add up: Some SMBs, in early testing, are already being sent checks for $300 and up.

The Studio, in fact, may be seen as an extension of MerchantCircle’s Answers division, launched last September, in which members are encouraged to provide their expertise on a wide range of subjects (where to fix, how to fix, etc.). Both efforts are part of a broader effort to broaden MerchantCircle’s identity and engagement with consumers and businesses beyond the core directory.

At the heart of the Studio is an online authoring and publishing system which can support thousands of simultaneous content development projects. The projects can be claimed by local merchant members or other writers remotely, submitted, reviewed for approval or corrections, and published to local and topical “Expert Pages.”

MerchantCircle VP Darren Waddell says the creation of the Studio does not alter the company’s extensive and successful relationship with Demand Media, which includes syndication of MC’s Answers, domain registration for MC members, and expert articles and other content to MC profiles for $9.95 per month, among other activities.

MerchantCircle’s efforts to launch more local content is not occurring in a vacuum. We have watched with interest as Yahoo has been developing local news and information via the hiring of writers in New York and San Francisco, and recruitment of writer/editors in San Jose, Chicago and Denver, per reporting in paidContent. Their written and edited material will likely be paired with material from Associated Content, which Yahoo purchased this spring. It represents a very different take from Patch.com, which is hiring journalists for hyperlocal reporting in up to 500 communities.

Earlier this month, mobile video platform MobiTV released findings from its delivery of the 2010 FIFA World Cup suggesting that the larger the screen, the longer the time spent viewing.  No surprise there, as total average minutes viewed for 5-inch screens (118) nearly doubled those of 2-inch screens (61). 

While MobiTV and its counterparts — FloTV, Verizon VCast and Sprint TV, among others — see consumer adoption and usage rates surging, their media offerings are singularly national. All the essential TV food groups are on the menu — sports (ESPN), drama (USA), news (most prominent brands) and lifestyle programming (Oxygen, TLC).

Unaddressed is local programming, which raises the question, “Where is the mobile opportunity for local broadcasters?”

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Followers of this blog (and of the mobile space)  are well aware of the ongoing apps vs. mobile Web debate. In one corner sits Apple and an app-centric mobile universe. In the other is Google — motivated by its core search business — pushing for a mobile world where the browser is the front door.

In the middle sit scores of developers, publishers and media companies that are trying to figure out which platform accomplishes their technical objectives and ultimate reach. Apps’ advantages include better native device capability and (sometimes) discovery, while mobile Web sites are cheaper and oftentimes more scalable.

Mobile Web site developer DudaMobile joins the fray, waving a flag that represents the ease and affordability parts of this argument. Its platform is offered to publishers to build mobile versions of their Web sites, using an easy “wysiwyg” dashboard. This includes “pro” and “Web platforms” editions with varied features.

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You probably heard today that Google launched a voice dialing feature within Gmail. This isn’t necessarily Google Voice (which is basically a call connection service), but rather a voice over IP client, akin to Skype, right within Gmail.

The thing that sets it apart besides integration with browser-based Gmail, is free domestic and long distance calls. The closest comparison is Skype, which is about $35 per year to call from a computer out to a normal landline or cellphone (Skype to Skype calls have always been free).

But what I like about this launch (besides that it is free) is what it could do for VoIP calling in the U.S. and its integration with search. Skype has already reached mainstream status with half a billion global users. But it’s not used as much by U.S. users to call each other or to launch calls as part of online experiences.

This was one of the caveats we mentioned in Skype’s forward thinking integration to local search results; there isn’t yet the mainstream inclination for U.S. users to launch Skype calls mid- local search. Skype subsidizing these calls (lifting the aforementioned charge) was hoped to push this adoption forward and it has.

But Google’s entrance to the space, like all things Google, could serve to further mainstream making calls directly within the browser. In this case, it’s within the context of e-mail … probably a good fit for peer-to-peer communication. But it could also drive VoIP adoption generally, by making it free and easy.

It’s also a driver get a headset — a traditional hardware barrier to VoIP — and have it hooked up to dial friends when in e-mail … or Skype numbers when ordering a pizza. Closing the gap between search and phone call has long been a holy grail of local search, but necessary hardware and software haven’t really been married (except maybe mobile).

As Facebook could potentially do for “checking in” after its Places launch last week, Google’s move today could be another early sign of the great mainstreaming effect it can have on consumer technologies. And its stylish 1950s promotional phone booths probably won’t hurt.

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Update: Aaaand just like that … it reached a million calls in 24 hours.

Appointments are seen as the next frontier of e-commerce and advertising, as online and mobile-centric consumers increasingly look for the immediacy of booking electronically.

The appointment space is a competitive one, however, as several companies jump on the opportunity — although some are working special niches, such as medical and auto dealers. We’ve previously written about such appointment-centric vendors as Full Slate, BookFresh and Appointment City. Maxipage, another contender, is one we’ve also watched with interest — in part because its CMO is Jean-Pascal Lion, the former YPG executive.

Lion says his interest in appointments stems from his role as a spinning coach and his work with Studio Cycle, which covers 18 gyms in Quebec. After a year, Maxipage is now powering spinning schedules for 1,500 customers. Almost all of them use the online interface, although 5 percent reserve the old fashioned way — by phone.

Customers book their appointment, get calendar updates for multiple platforms (Outlook, iCal, BlackBerry) and receive a confirmation and an alert reminder. “Users really love that,” says Lion. In addition to Studio Cycle, Maxipage is handling appointments on a white-label basis for a wide range of verticals in Canada and the U.S.

But Maxipage, which has 10 people and operates from angel funding, can go further than basic appointment related info, which generally costs about $50 per location. It offers both “lite” versions and full versions that include a wide range of local business functionality, such as request for quotes, offer/coupon publishing and reservations. It also connects via Facebook Connect, and is available in French, English and Spanish.

Such functionality makes it ideal for partners such as Yellow Pages publishers that have strong sales channels for local verticals, says Lion, who considers sales a critical key to success.