I just uploaded a video clip I captured at Tuesday night's Eddie Izzard show here in Houston. He's off on a tangent of a tangent, discussing his never writing down material due to dyslexia, when he says "I wonder who DID name it dyslexia. Hang on." And pulls his iPhone from his back pocket. He proceeds to search Wikipedia and read from it and make jokes regarding the information on the Wikipedia site for several minutes. Then jokes about Germany, then jokes about Scrabble, then... you get the picture.

This a few minutes after a sketch about cavemen and the stone age where he made several jokes about a caveman named Steve adding GPS to rocks, making them move faster, and cutting the price in half.

[Thanks Daniel]

It was about a month after I had finished writing for Human Giant and Tom Gianas (the showrunner) called me up to tell me about a couple of my sketches that they had shot, and some changes that had been made to them during shooting.

Getting that call was very weird timing, because the night before, I had a dream about pitching a sketch, and the subsequent filming of said sketch. I told this to Tom and he asked me what the sketch was about. This is what I told him...

"basically, Huebel is this karate instructor filming a local commercial for his studio, and he kicks the camera off the tripod. He apologizes and says that his foot is a weapon. Everyone is really pissed at him and they begrudgingly set up another camera. BOOM! He does it again. After that, it's just a montage of him breaking camera after camera, no matter how far away they set it up. He'll literally run across the room to break a camera. Everyone keeps getting more and more pissed off, but he just can't help himself."

Tom cracks up and says, "dude, we have to shoot this." I tell him that I'll email him the idea so he has it on file, and as I'm typing it out later that afternoon, all I can think is, "this is so stupid. I can't believe I'm transcribing a fucking dream I had."

Jesús Díaz: WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS SACRED AND GOOD IS THIS?
Peter Furia: The BigDog Beta itself is Beau and me in black tights and turtlenecks.

JD: Why?
PF: This video was just for fun, as was our popular music video "Mac or PC" but Seedwell is our newly created viral marketing company. It was co-founded by David Fine, Beau Lewis and myself. We produce content both for fun and for hire. We are also currently working on viral video campaigns for several other companies, and look forward to working with more and more companies as the demand for creative, viral content increases.

I don't know about their other videos, but if they are this good, these guys are gold. Let's see how viral this one gets.

If you want to contact Peter to hire Seedwell, contact him via email

"Heck yeah!" Apple CEO shouted at a reporter. "We can't wait to see what our great clients and fantastic developers can do with that. Hahahahaha. Ha. OK, maybe we don't actually want to see it, but you know what I mean." Jobs said before leaving the room with a sightly pale green face, mumbling something that sounded remarkably similar to "no more cocktails made by Phil in the morning."

According to sources, testing of the new system just finished a few days ago directed by Peter "Pit" Pinkerton (pictured above). He was the head of the test team in the London Apple Store at Regent Street.

Asked about how the system worked by a Daily Mirror reporter at his home in Islington, the octogenarian porn expert declined to comment under a non disclosure agreement with the Californian company. He only muttered "hehehehe. That Steve," before closing the door of his beige one bedroom flat. It's rumored that Mr. Pinkerton was also a contributor to Gizmodo's The Most Disgusting and Gross Tech Gear Gallery Ever and a personal friend of Jason Chen.

Jason Chen declined to comment for this article, citing the same NDA with Apple. [Flickr via iPhone Savior]

Notice: for the slower kids, yes, this is a sillypants post.

Apple Announces Hit Television Programming Now Available on the iTunes Store in Canada

Programs from Canada's Top Networks, US Favorites & NHL Now Available on iTunes

CUPERTINO, California—December 12, 2007—Apple® today announced that hit television programming from Canada's top networks, US broadcasters and the National Hockey League (NHL) is now available for CAN$1.99 per episode from the iTunes® Store in Canada (www.itunes.ca). iTunes customers can choose from Canadian-produced favorites such as the top-rated, award-winning "Corner Gas" from CTV, smash hit comedy "Little Mosque on the Prairie" from CBC, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning "South Park" from Comedy Central and the NHL Games of the Year.

"We're thrilled to bring television programming to the iTunes Store in Canada in time for the holiday season," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "We're off to a great start with hit shows from CBC, CTV, Comedy Central and MTV Networks, along with the best of classic and current NHL action."

Television shows purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Store can be viewed on a PC or Mac®, iPod® nano with video, fifth generation iPod, iPod classic or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV™. Television programming on the iTunes Store in Canada includes:

• CBC's comedy programs "Little Mosque on the Prairie" and "The Rick Mercer Report," reality programming "No Opportunity Wasted" and "Dragon's Den;" • CTV's smash hit comedy "Corner Gas," dramas "Instant Star," "Degrassi: The Next Generation" and "Robson Arms;" • Comedy Central's "Drawn Together," "The Sarah Silverman Program" and Emmy and Peabody Award-winning "South Park;" • MTV Networks programs "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "The Hills;" and • NHL Games of the Year, including top NHL games in their entirety for the 2007-2008 season, as well as Stanley Cup Classics, a five-game bundle of great Stanley Cup Final games.

With Apple's legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, seamless integration with iPod and the ability to turn previously purchased songs into completed albums at a reduced price, the iTunes Store is the best way for PC and Mac users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.

Pricing & Availability
iTunes 7 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download from (www.itunes.ca). Purchase and download of songs and videos from the iTunes Store requires a valid credit card from a financial institution in the country of purchase. Television shows are available in the US, UK and Canada only, and video availability varies by country. Television shows are CAN$1.99 per episode in Canada. TV shows from the iTunes Store are downloaded in near-DVD quality at a resolution of 640x480 (up to 480, depending on the aspect ratio) and can be viewed on a PC or Mac, iPod nano with video, fifth generation iPod, iPod classic or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV.

It's brilliant, really. Cutting shows into individual clips, Viacom probably feeds users more ads per content minute online than on television. [nytimes]

NBC used their fists of fury to bully Youtube into taking down the video hosted there of the Intel visit. That is strange because NBC has a Youtube account that the other two Conan clips are uploaded from. Hopefully NBC will be uploading shortly.

–Travis Hudson

Travels with Conan [NBC]

A new sketch show from the BBC, Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul, takes off Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. It rather makes Apple's current Mac vs PC ads look like outtakes from a Frasier episode. Given their pedigrees, Paul Whitehouse (he did The Fast Show and Harry Enfield (er, he didn't), the comics behind the skit, could have done better. Nice sweaters, though. – Ad Dugdale

Apparently Sony and its cohorts are certain that they will own the market in just three years. At least, this is what Frank Simonis, the Blu-ray Disc Association's European chairman, has said today at CeBIT:

"Within three years it will just be Blu-ray"

Frank is not only talking about beating HD DVD, but also replacing DVD entirely. In three years. Thanks to "a plan", which includes the amazing success of the PS3. Apparently, they are doing stand-up comedy mornings in Hanover and we are, like, totally missing them. – Jesus Diaz

CeBIT 2007: Blu-ray Association has three-year plan to replace DVDs [IT Pro]

Never mind that this video is in Dutch—be amazed at what the Sumsing Turbo 3000 Xi Multitask cellphone can do. It slices, it dices, it's a dessert topping and furniture polish. Not really. But we are especially fond of its self-destruct mode. – Charlie White

Thanks, Tim!

Porn Star's Voice on Comedy Central Mobile Video [picturephoning]

Virtually Yours

ESPN is synonymous with sports in America. And while the cable net has made some slight forays into the wireless space with a mobile version of its website and some games and applications, its Mobile ESPN service is looking to translate the SportsCenter experience onto a phone. Mobile ESPN is launching on a Sanyo handset that features a custom UI built around the data services that will deliver pretty much anything a sports junkie needs—live scores, news, video highlights and more.

But ESPN and other big brands don't want to take a backseat to mobile operators, and they certainly don't want to get into the business of buying spectrum and building out their own wireless networks. Their strengths are in content and marketing, not setting up and maintaining a cellular network. So they become a virtual operator—they buy airtime wholesale from a traditional carrier, then package it, market it and sell it however they want.

The idea of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) isn't anything new, with companies like Virgin Mobile or Tracfone having operated in the US for a few years. Typically MVNOs sell service with features and add-ons than you might get from your normal carriers, albeit at a lower price. But a new breed of MVNOs looks to change that, using incumbent carriers' new high-speed networks as the launching pad for an array of content and technology quite unlike anything previously available in the US.

ESPN's approach reflects that of many MVNOs: pick a niche and doggedly attack it. While this can be useful for general demographic groups, focusing on something like sports can be problematic, because while there are plenty of people that would love to have sports content on their phone, how many want just sports content and nothing else?

Another new-model MVNO launching soon is Amp'd, which is headed by the guy that started Nextel's youth-centric Boost brand. Amp'd is going after the 18- to 35-year-old market, leaning heavily on video content from partners like Comedy Central and Adult Swim, as well as viral-style videos and adult content. It's also developed a huge catalog of games as well as a music download service.

Amp'd, which plans to launch in November, is following an interesting strategy: look at what the traditional wireless operators are doing, then do the exact opposite. So things that people hate about their existing wireless carrier—devices with features removed, restrictive and expensive data plans, clunky user interfaces and so on—are gone. Statements like "We don't want to ask people to change the way they do things," reveal how diametrically opposed Amp'd and other MVNOs are to traditional carriers. "We don't have that telco mentality," says Amp'd chief marketing officer, Don McGuire. "We're an entertainment company."

Then there's SK-Earthlink, a joint venture between South Korea's leading wireless carrier, SK Telecom, and ISP upstart Earthlink. The basic idea here is to take SK's bleeding-edge technology from Korea and meld it with Earthlink's knowledge of the US market and its customer-service operations. SK-Earthlink, which should launch in the spring under a new brand name, is still remaining quiet about exactly what services it will have and handsets it will sell, but judging by the CDMA EV-DO handsets SK sells in Korea, it could make the gadget writer's often-used tagline—"you'll never see that here"—an endangered species. "We're going to offer access to technology that people may have been disappointed they couldn't get before," says SK-Earthlink's director of corporate communications, Julie Cordua. "We will deliver something this market has never seen before."

SK Earthlink, like the others, is also targeting a narrow niche: 18- to 30-year-olds that are willing to pay a premium for advanced handsets and data services. A traditional carrier simply couldn't take that narrow of a focus and remain a viable business. "It's hard for carriers to shift their brand," Cordua says. "Since we're starting from scratch, we can start something different."

The real potential impact of these latest MVNOs, though, isn't just their content and services as an end in themselves, but rather as disruptive forces to the wireless service business as a whole. While a lot can change between now and the time they launch, the MVNOs are saying all the right things in terms of the services and experiences they'll provide, reflecting the dissatisfaction many of us have with our wireless provider. Mobile ESPN, for example, put out a press release saying how great its customer service will be.

Most of these lessons aren't specific to the narrow target markets they've defined—while everybody might not be interested in baseball highlights videos, most people are interested in getting good service at a fair price, something traditional carriers still struggle to deliver. The content offering can always be reconfigured to address another niche, or even, perhaps, the mass market. But while it might be that flashy content that gets all the initial interest, it could be the way these companies treat their customers in delivering all these cool services that keeps them going, and causes the most problems for their physical-network rivals.

Carlo Longino is a writer and analyst that follows the mobile industry. He's co-editor of MobHappy, and also an analyst for Techdirt. He can be reached at carlo@mobhappy.com.

Read more Airtime. The column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.