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Product Placement: LG and the Transformers sequel

The LG Dare will be playing the part of Optimus Prime in the next Transformers movie.  The move was made to allow for better product placement.  The idea is that kids would see the LG Dare version of Prime and want their own.

Alright, none of that is true, but LG has announced a deal with Paramount and Dreamworks where LG will “launch a multi-faceted marketing campaign to promote the LG Mobile Phones brand and the overall theme of technology in the film.”  The “overall theme of technology?”  Sure, the Transformers is about a race of warring alien robots, but cell phones?  Expect a tie-in version of the LG Versa so you, too, can feel like an Autobot if Autobots used cell phones.  [Source]

TiVo is watching you

You know those reports from TiVo telling you what was the most watched commercial in the Super Bowl?  Well, that’s because they are sending all kinds of information from your DVR to its servers where they calculate all kinds of things so they can make reports.  Anyway, TiVo announced that its Stop||Watch (yes, it has two parallel lines in its name.  Maybe it’s a pause button?) service will now collect data from 300,000 TiVo users this fall.  The service used to collect data from 100,000.  The TiVo rating service probably doesn’t have the same sway as the Neilsen ratings, but perhaps they can influence what stays on television and what doesn’t.  [Source]