Gizmodo: american idol

AT&T Accused of Swinging the Least Important Election In the World

John Herrman — Wed, 27 May 2009 06:15:01 EDT

Unrest is brewing among fans of "American Idol" after reports of possible election tampering. Here's how it went down, allegedly: a few AT&T employees supplied phones and vote-bombing guidance at texting parties organized in support of eventual winner Kris Allen.

This is ~~totally uncorrelated~~ a huge deal, according to the NYT, who managed to report nearly 400 words on this story without making a single joke. They even pestered Fox and AT&T for statements on the issue, getting the cold shoulder from the network and this response from the carrier:

In Arkansas, we were invited to attend the local watch parties organized by the community. A few local employees brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested.

Oh god. This goes all the way to the top, people. [NYT]

TiVo Tries To Predict The Future, Fails

Mark Wilson — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:05:00 EDT

TiVo probably has enough data on users' pause, rewind and fast forward habits to automate the entire process for them completely (FF commercial, RW for potential nip slip, Pause 2 minutes, FF just wonky pixel). So they took this data and began reporting American Idol fast forwarding practices to see which contestant's songs were least listened to. And for 4 weeks in a row, they used the data to call the loser early.

But last night, TiVo's streak broke as their statistics pointed to Syesha Mercado getting voted off the show and instead, some dude in a leather jacket named Michael Johns was voted off in her place (sorry, we don't watch, we're sure his jacket is quite talented).

So either TiVo's system is generally fallible, TiVo's fast forward prediction does not take into account the margin of error, our fast forwarding habits say little about our hopes, dreams and aspirations, or Fox stacked the vote for some reason.

Conspiracy! [TMZ via machinist]

Cingular Auctions American Idol -Themed Samsung D807s Signed By Bon Jovi and Ryan Seacrest

Jason Chen — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 20:02:03 EDT

Let's see, open up our filing cabinet...search for the L's...ah, there it is, "lame". We're filing this under lame.

The concept definitely isn't lame though. Cingular's auctioning off 10 phones to benefit Bon Jovi's charities through Samsung's "Four Season of Hope" program. Their phones, however, could use some work. They took perfectly nice Samsung D807s, let an autistic 4th grader Elmer's Glue sequins all over the back, and then had Ryan "I made out with Teri Hatcher" Seacrest sign it.

Do you think the people who fall into the Bon Jovi + American Idol + Ryan Seacrest fanbase has thousands to plop down for a charity phone? Probably not. Here's hoping the kids get something nice out of this. – Jason Chen

Auction Page [eBay via Press Release]

American Idol Shower Radio Microphone

Jason Chen — Tue, 23 May 2006 15:34:45 EDT

We may be the only people on the planet that don't like American Idol—us and the middlebrow snobs who say they "don't even own a television"—but this thing seems pretty cool. Combining a shower radio with a microphone so you can sing along just like Reuben, there's only one question left to ask: When will you have time to wash yourself?

The $11.99 price makes this a winner. ♫ My endless, loooooooooooove! ♫

American Idol Shower Radio [Target via i4u]