Russell Beattie

I stopped by Toys 'R' Us today to get a little kite for Alex and me to play with down at the Marina Green, but did you know that kites are a "seasonal" item? Urgh. I know it's supposedly "Autumn" but here in San Francisco, it's just getting nice. I may just go down to the store and get some string and make a little one myself... (Or maybe I'll just call around instead).

Anyways, I wandered through the electronics section (because I can't help myself) and found a game cartridge for the GBA that starred my little boy's favorite cartoon character ever: Dora La Exploradora! It's not a game though, it's video. Damn expensive video at that: 20 bucks for two 30 minutes shows! I really hesitated to buy it, but really thought it'd be great for long car trips, etc. Alex has played with my GBA lots of times, but he's only little, so he can't get very far with the games and eventually the characters he's watching die, etc. The video cartridge is great for this - the characters keep moving and don't die. He's playing with it now and completely entranced.

Now, I know that he's just a two year old and I know that the GBA has a decent sized screen (though mine is the older one and therefore impossible to see in bad light) but this really does validate my thoughts on mobile video. Especially video-on-demand. First, that there's suckers out there that are willing to pay $20 for an hour of video because it's portable and two, that there's lots of different markets out there for mobile video, not just guys sitting on a bus.

Imagine a day soon when Nickelodeon.com isn't just a kid's portal for Flash Games and cartoon-branded merchandise, but a pay-as-you-go repository of downloadable videos for your kid's mobile phone. Think about how much revenue this will generate for them... Maybe your toddler shouldn't have a mobile phone, well, then a device like a GBA but with Bluetooth connected to my phone so I can send it video I buy would be the ticket.

For another $25 I should buy this GBA Movie Player (memory not included). Then I can look out on Bittorrent and see if there's any cartoons available... or maybe I could learn how to get recordings off my TiVo. I mean, I've got what? At least 20 episodes of Dora sitting on there right now and it's got a WiFi and an IP already, a little hacking and some reduction in size and it'd be perfect for viewing on a GBA (or an extra S60 phone lying around...)

:-)

-Russ