The Thicket

RedBox DVD Rental Makes You Almost Like Late Fees

I shop at the Harris Teeter grocery store chain and noticed two new post-checkout services they're offering on your way out the door.  The first one isn't actually post-checkout but it's located there -- dry ice.  I've purchased the dry ice twice for two road trips and it's not cheap but way cool.

The second thing I tried was redbox, a DVD rental kiosk that's 1.5 times larger than the snack machine in your office kitchen.  A good portion of the size is due to the illuminated DVD cover images (I guess of what new releases are available).  The process was fairly quick and easy to select movies.  Granted, the selection was neither deep nor broad but it did have some things I haven't seen yet and there was a decent selection of kids movies.  I got three movies right off the bat for a total of less than $3 excluding tax. If I don't get them back to the kiosk by 7pm the next day, it's another $0.99.  I'm typically a two day user since something always comes up (like I get caught up watching Idiocracy for the 27th time, wife gives up on the movie and heads to bed) the first night, but I am more than willing to throw caution to the wind with such a low fee. 

You get your movies in a very thin semi-transparent case and return to the same slot you got it from.  It will send you a reminder email and receipt (love that), but I also noticed the kiosk beckons me back to it today when I got an email telling me what's in inventory at my Harris Teeter location.  Since I'm much better at having a fulfilling relationship with a machine than the disgruntled Blockbuster staff, I find myself almost happy to pay a $0.99 late fee rather than the more than $3 for one movie across the street. 

Most Wii Demos and Trailers Only Capture Half the Fun

Maybe I just haven't seen them yet but whenever I view a demo of a Wii game or a trailer, it shows me what's on the screen.  That's well and good when I'm considering a PC or XBox 360 game, but with Wii you might want to know what the controller (or Wii-mote) experience is going to be.  Maybe it would look a little hokey, but I'd like to see an insert window on these demos that shows what the player is doing to make what you're seeing on the screen happen. 

For example, check this demo of the new Metroid Prime, released for Wii.  Gameplay looks similar to past versions but I'm sure it's the controller experience that brings the real newness to it.  Something I couldn't possibly grasp from this demo. 

Google's 411 and Real Estate in Maps Provides Perils and Opportunity

As Google contemplates participation in the FCC auction for wireless spectrum and I'm enjoying my GrandCentral account, I am reminded that the company can be in pretty much any business it wants to.  For example, my wife is a realtor and I recently noticed Google simply added real estate listings to things you can see at Google Maps in a given area.  The MLS is one of the largest perceived advantages the professional real estate market has, even though I know they have a lot more to offer (how's that, honey?).  Smart realtors will figure out how to be easily noticed by Google's real estate efforts as it looks like they're scraping info from various sites rather than some big database or MLS.  You know they'll only get better at the algorithms for getting home listing info. 

A quick look at Google's Labs page might provide a little insight for where this giant is headed next.  Now you can avoid those pesky 411 charges by calling their new Labs product, Google Voice Local Search.  So I tried it, looking up Joe's Pizza and Pasta down the street from me.  Not only did it return the correct number but also gave me the option to text it to my cell phone I was calling them on.  I suppose that was my natural search result that got me what I was looking for, but one can certainly assume AdWords could weave their way into that service.  A result such as "I can give you the information for Joe's Pizza and Pasta, but wouldn't you rather have a Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza delivered right to your door from Dominos?" isn't too far out of considered possibilities.