Maybe I am a bit too steeped in mobile media to appreciate the gee-whiz factor that newbies experience. But do most of you still consider it some kind of treat or magic to see a video clip on your cell phone? Some mobile marketers continue to treat video as an end in itself rather than as a medium, and it seems to me that the shelf life on that idea expired a while ago. For instance, a number of magazines in recent months have experimented with 2D mobile codes. But more often than not lately, mobile video is the payoff …

Remember when business-to-business marketing was all white papers and spec-filled product sheets? You advertised new server technology in magazines like InfoWorld by purchasing some outrageously priced multi-page spread. You filled it with copy the marketer probably didn't understand. And you wrapped it around images of huge hunks of iron that some IT administrator somewhere may have found sexy.

Ridley Scott imagined video billboards plastered up the sides of skyscrapers in "Blade Runner" decades ago. Check, we got 'em now. Harry Potter films visualized TV-like news clips in the daily newspaper. Okay, embedded video on the iPad is a nod in the direction of video-enabled e-paper. Video clips playing on the sides of plastic Slurpee cups? I don't think any of us saw that one coming.

A mildly disturbing theme emerged in last week's Visible Measures Top 5 list of viral video ad campaigns. Apparently, testosterone (an overabundance of testosterone, in fact) is driving viral video. Hip Hop and unfaithful male babies, a Dad-humbled Tiger Woods (arguably a blend of Lothario and man-baby) and male odors topped the list

Gee, was it something we said? We started this week upbraiding the Second Annual Streamy Awards for gross inadequacy on a number of levels. As much of the online video community knows by now, the show was so bad that even some sponsors apologized and voiced frustration with the affair. As I argued earlier, my gripe with the show had as much to do with the content as with the awful technical glitches. The bad comedy bits so overwhelmed the talents and effort of the people getting the awards that the Streamys missed an opportunity to advance the very form …

I have been pretty much undecided about the iPad as a real force in media. It has before it the hardest job any new device can face -- carving a new niche in people's media consumption habits. Where exactly the iPad fits among the current collection of smartphone, TV, desktop and laptop screens is a poser. Is there really enough of a gap among these platforms for a fifth screen? So I was skeptical ... until I brought the thing to bed with me.

It wasn't so long ago that movie studios were terrified by the prospect of their precious full length theatrical releases showing up on someone's hard drive. Now at least one studio is installing some of their highest profile properties on the mass storage device for you. In a novel distribution agreement, Paramount Digital Entertainment is pre-loading last summer's blockbuster (and inexcusable passover for an Oscar nom) "Star Trek" onto 500GB FreeAgent Go hard drives from Seagate.

Viral video marketing has a special penchant for silliness. In fact part of the fun of covering this field is watching formerly buttoned down brands push the boundaries of their own typical messaging and brand comfort zones. Well, at least it is for me, but I am churlish that way. Now if you are trying to go viral with media that promotes advanced DNA testing devices or "electrical impedance-based cell monitoring systems" (don't ask me -- I haven't a clue) then you're going to want to go way off the reservation.

It seems appropriate and well-timed that we launch a new e-newsletter and blog on digital video the morning after the Second Annual Streamy Awards. After all, this LA event is designed to advance the art and business of online video -- all of those low-budget, high-enthusiasm Webisodic series that too few audiences even know exist. In the opening, emcee Paul Scheer said that up to 750,000 people were watching the Streamys live. Oh, Lord, let's hope not.