Cat Food Company Feeds Your Cat's App Envy

Cats have been a staple of cheesy Internet fame for years and years. Cat food on the other hand flies much lower on the radar.

Obviously people want to talk more about their furry felines than what they're feeding them. This poses quite the dilemma for the cat food companies looking to get noticed in a social media space that isn't too interested in them so much as the animals they cater to.

Friskies has carved (or clawed in this case) a niche with their out-of-the-box thinking. It started back in 2009 when they launched the Scratchington Post, a mock site that featured a collection of cat-related articles and pictures.

This time around, the cat food company has released a new app...for your cat.

That's right. Friskies released an app featuring three games that are meant to played by your fuzzy friends. To be honest, all three games are essentially the same and feature something floating around the screen that react to the touch of a hand (or paw). You can check out a video of the app here.

While the app isn't for everyone, it's good to see companies that are usually forced to keep a low profile branch out and try to snag their share of the attention.

Breaking Down the New Nook Predictions

On the heels of a very well-reviewed software update to their popular Nook Color e-reader/tablet late last month, Barnes and Noble raised some eyebrows with an announcement that they will be holding a special event on May 24th.

There haven't been many details released about what exactly will be unveiled at this event, but the blogosphere has been buzzing about the possibilities. Some of the predictions make sense, others just make me shake my head. Here are the 5 predominate opinions out there with my take on each, and I've also rated each scenario's chance of happening on a scale of 0 (absolutely no chance) to 10 (guaranteed to happen):

• Nook Color 2: The gut reaction by many was the idea of a new device to capitalize on the recent Nook Color popularity. Is it an exciting possibility? Sure, but it is not going to happen any time soon. Yes the Nook Color has its hardware flaws, but not nearly enough to warrant abandoning the current Nook Color model.
• Possibility of happening? 1 out of 10

• Honeycomb update: Some speculated that the Nook Color might benefit the growing trend of Honeycomb tablets with an upgrade to Android 3.0 of its own. Sorry, I just don't see this happening either. Piggybacking off of the previous prediction, Barnes & Noble just spent a lot of time and money upgrading their current model to Android Froyo making another update this soon both unlikely and unwise. The tablet-optimized Honeycomb is still getting its sea legs and would be far too buggy for the Nook Color this early.
• Possibility of happening? 2 out of 10

• From Wi-Fi to 3G: Others have thrown out the idea that the May 24th announcement will be a 3G model of the Nook Color. I really don't like the idea because 3G means carrier charges, and one of my favorite parts about the Nook Color has been the lack of carrier involvement. However, given the prevalence of Internet-needy apps on the Nook Color (and the need for an Internet connection to download new apps), this move wouldn't surprise me too much.
• Possibility of happening? 6 out of 10

• Upgrading the Nook: More and more people are leaning towards next Tuesday's announcement centering on the original Nook e-reader, speculating that the device will get a competitive boost to compete with the Kindle. Considering the general consensus is that the Kindle the better pure e-reader, I agree that this has the strongest chance of happening.
• Possibility of happening? 8 out of 10

• Downgrading the Nook: Another interesting prediction is a new lower-end model of the original Nook that could compete with Amazon's dirt cheap ad-supported Kindle. I don't hate the idea, but I'd rather see Barnes & Noble focus more on putting the Nook on par with the Kindle instead of purely going after sales and market share.
• Possibility of happening? 7 out of 10

Obviously this is all speculation, but it's the only thing the tech world has at this point as we all wait anxiously for May 24th to roll around.

The State of Local TV News

We seem to have one of the local news shows on during or just before dinner at our house; mostly just to catch the weather...even though as we all know there are about 10,000 other ways to get your local forecast.

Anyway, while I was waiting for the weather to come on, I caught a segment about 'push mowers.' The nut of the story was that with the rise in gas prices, homeowners are looking for an environmentally friendly alternative. Now that premise is a bit hard to swallow. I mean, how much do you think you're going to save by not putting gas in a lawn mower?

But what really got me going was the term 'push mower.' To this reporter, that simply meant a push reel mower like the ones our grandfathers might have used. The reporter completely forgot or simply didn't know that there are push gas mowers, and more importantly, corded and cordless electric push mowers that are green and are a lot more practical on any lawn larger than a postage stamp, especially if you have some weeds instead of fine fescue.

The inherent laziness of just going to a local hardware store and being led around by the owner is not what I'd call good journalism. Now, we're not talking about hard news here, but all I ask for is a bit of research before you turn the camera on.

Full disclosure: Axiom represents The Toro Company, makers of both gas and cordless mowers.

Video Post: Is Beta Better for Google?

Yesterday I briefly mentioned Google announcing their Google Music Beta streaming music player at the Google I/O developer conference. And although I wasn't able to give it much attention, Ashley dives into more of the details and speculates on its impact in today's Daily Axioms video post.

Google's I/O Announcements Dominate Headlines

Google held their annual Google I/O developer conference on Tuesday, opening the floodgates for a wave of Google and Android news and announcements.

Considering I could easily fill at least a week if I did a full post on each announcement, here's a quick rundown of what all went down on Tuesday for Google:

• Google made a point out that 100 million Android devices around the world have been activated, with that number increasing by 400,000 devices each day. Obviously, the Android platform is still going strong.
• While Honeycomb is getting upgraded to version 3.1, the major O/S news was the unveiling of the next version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich. Expected to be released towards the end of this year, Ice Cream Sandwich will be a combination of Froyo's smartphone and Honeycomb's tablet capabilities.
• The Google TV haven't faired extremely well since their launch, but Google's hoping to give the device a boost with Android Market access and app support. Google TV's have already supported onboard apps like Pandora and Netflix, but more apps should provide a different experience that might give Google TV a leg up on competing devices like the Roku and Boxee Box.
• Speaking of Netflix, Google updated Monday's story of YouTube offering move rentals by announcing partnerships with Sony Pictures, NBC Universal and Warner Brothers. They also elaborated that the movie rentals will be start at $1.99 each and will be supported on Android devices.
• Keeping with the multimedia theme, Google also gave everyone a first look at the new Google Music Beta for storing and streaming your music. It's nothing groundbreaking, and runs through your browser as opposed to a desktop client.
• Since this was a developer conference, Google of course had a special announcement for the tech-minded crowd, and an interesting one at that. Basically, it's an "ADK" developer tool allowing people to modify custom accessories to work with Android devices.

So there you have it. Google offered a slew of possible stories, so hopefully this will be a good starting point to catch up on a big day at the Google I/O conference.