Apparently, John Mayer didn’t have time to write or call or text, offering up the “I’ve been so busy with work” excuse when Aniston called him up. Unfortunately for the tech-obsessed Mayer, he had time to post Twitter updates.

Maybe the fact that he’s now single will give him more time to provide tech support to his dad, play with his Sony Vaio, make two phone calls at once, punch out Tweets on his BlackBerry and get Apple products earlier than anyone else. That’s why we love you, John. [Telegraph via Twitter]

John Mayer may not have shown up at the Apple iPhone keynote yesterday, but that doesn’t mean we’re not the best place to keep up on John Mayer news. And this one, my friends, is one juicy piece of John Mayer news. [John Mayer's Twitter]

Even so, it was June when the first movie capable of BD-Live was released in Australia. The movie was Men In Black, and the bonus, digital content was in the form of “a BD-Live multi-player Interactive Trivia Game, as well as exclusive downloadable theatrical and home entertainment previews and a FAQ about BD-Live functionality”. In other words, nothing very exciting. In fact, plugging in the movie today, there’s no BD-Live trivia game, the exclusive trailers are for movies like Monster House and Open Season and the previews all seem old and out of date as well.

But in the scheme of things, Men In Black was small fry. A testing of the waters, if you will. The first major new release Blu-ray release featuring BD-Live was Iron Man, and it proved so popular that it crashed Paramount’s servers. On offer: An Iron Man quiz. Or more precisely, a selection of quizzes testing your knowledge of various aspects of the film. But the catch for this seemingly interesting approach to live online content is in the menu – alongside the option for knowledge quizzes are the unselectable options of creating your own quizzes, selecting the highest rated quizzes and other user-generated content themes. And that’s disappointing, especially considering that there’s been no update to the bonus content since the film was released last year.

Of course, here in Australia, we’re lucky if we even get the BD-Live content at all. Warner Bros, in particular have shunned BD-Live in Australia so far. Even their crowning glory of 2008, The Dark Knight, lacked any BD-Live content for the Australian release. Of course, the US release featured an online discussion with Christopher Nolan, which ultimately proved how much the technology is struggling to find its feet.

Perhaps the problems stem from the fact that unlike the Blu-ray format itself, BD-Live has no standard, no rules on what it can or cannot be. That leaves each studio to come up with their version of how BD-Live should be implemented, and that creates problems. Disney, for example, has jumped on the BD-Live bandwagon, announcing that all their classic releases will feature the online component. The first release to feature it was Sleeping Beauty, and it was in the form of online chat while watching the film, online trivia and the ability to embed a short video from a webcam into the film.

Sony, on the other hand, have tried a few different tacts. Starship Troopers 3 lets you insert a still photo of yourself into certain scenes of the film, which are poorly animated and distracting. 21, on the other hand, lets you play interactive Blackjack with other viewers around the world.

Universal pictures sees BD-Live as a jack of all trades. Cindy McCulloch, marketing director at NBC Universal believes that BD-Live content could be anything, including “deleted scenes, movie trailers or on-set interviews; Interactive features such as polls and games will be available to play or save on your player for later; setting up a buddy list and share your favourite clips and content with your friends; or create your own video, audio and text commentary and chat live while you watch the film.”

But not everyone looks at BD-Live as a worthwhile feature. Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of Dreamworks doesn’t believe BD-Live is something can enhance their films, considering their target audience is generally too young: “It’s not our audience – if you think about our movies, they’re mostly films for the family. In particular they’re films that parents purchase for children.”

Perhaps the best implementation of BD-Live so far comes not from a movie, but from John Mayer’s Where The Light Is Blu-ray concert release. Instead of a gimmicky implementation like live chat with John Mayer, or a game, or being able to put your photo on stage with the singer himself, the BD-Live content is a backstage recording of one of his songs. Of course, once you’ve downloaded the song, there’s little incentive to use BD-Live again, but expanding on that idea (exclusive video blogs from the tour, more backstage clips) could be the shot in the arm BD-Live needs.

Still, the majority of studios are committed to providing discs with BD-Live content. And while its current implementation may not be all that desirable, well-maintained or even entertaining, it’s important to remember that the technology is still in its infancy. The real question is whether or not one we’ll see the studios create a truly engaging way of offering bonus content online for the Blu-ray format at all. Obviously we’re hoping that they do – as the default high-definition medium now, Blu-ray’s success hinges on the extra value it can offer consumers.

[BD-Live on Gizmodo]

You can get your favourite application for $US29, or the whole dock for $US149. I’m getting two. [Throwboy--Thanks Mona]

You see, today Dell and Gizmo announced that they were going to get intimate, with Gizmo services like setting up your Dell PC or setting up a wireless network available as an optional extra when purchasing a new Dell machine.

While it’s highly unlikely that anybody reading this would need tech support to set up their own computer, this could be the kind of thing that you purchase for your own mum or dad when buying them a PC, so you can save yourself the 1,742 phone calls about how to get the computer working or, in John Mayer’s case, finding an application.

Pricing is a bit on the expensive side, but look at it this way: they have to put up with all of those inane questions from old people so you don’t have to. Isn’t that worth something?

Pricing is below:

Stand alone services include:

Set Me Up – providing assistance with setting-up new Dell computers, transferring files or installing hardware and software for AUD$149.
Network Me – providing assistance with setting-up wireless networks and the devices connected to them, such as Dell laptops and Dell wireless printers, for AUD$169.

Combined services include:
Set Me Up and Network Me – providing assistance setting-up Dell computers and creating a new home network for the special price of AUD$243.50.
Set Me Up and Show Me – providing assistance setting-up Dell computers and training for an hour on how to use them for the special price of AUD$223.50.

As I hinted: Not so expensive if you consider the frustration you’ll be avoiding.

[Dell]

You all know we are not fans of John–one of Steve Jobs’ favourite pop heads–but having experienced similar situations with family and friends, we absolutely sympathise with his frustration.

…

OK, you are right. We don’t. [Tumblr -- Video no longer available -- Thanks Benny and Richard]

Each song idea gets its own note in the notepad. And you can make my voice, singing a song that I wrote, your ringtone. I carry a spare SIM card with a brand new number in my wallet, in case one of the two supermodels I banged the night before tries to call me the next day. I hope that helps, I’ll see you on tour. [John Mayer BlackBerry Summer Tour]

John’s close to Cupertino, gets things like the Macbook Air early and has played the closing music at a keynote. So I wonder what they think about his latest blog post and I wonder if this is a good sign for the Bold. (Blackberry has more or less banned all blogs from their media plans, so I still haven’t had enough exposure to tell you what I think, but maybe John will write a song or something in his next album.) God, I can’t believe I just wrote this post. [Honeyee]