Weekly wrapup: iTunes pricing, Yahoo TV widgets, Android Netbook, Skype on iPhone, Palm Pre's Mojo, and more

Here’s a summary of the last two week’s digital lifestyle action on last100. Note that you can subscribe to the weekly wrapups, either via the special weekly wrapup RSS feed or by email.

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Internet TV

Yahoo’s Widget Channel debuts on new Samsung Internet-connected TVs

Unveiled at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Yahoo’s “Widget Channel” for Internet-connected televisions has debuted on high end sets from Samsung.

Watch live BBC television on latest Nokia phones

Live BBC TV and radio streaming (UK-only) is now available on Nokia’s flagship N96 and the all touch screen XpressMusic 5800 aka The Tube.

Digital Music

iTunes variable pricing has nothing to do with “supply and demand”, just record label greed and stupidity

Hoping to turn ’supply and demand’ economics on its head, at the request of the major record labels Apple has introduced ‘variable pricing’ to the iTunes Store.

See also: Amazon MP3, Wal-Mart and Rhapsody just made buying music more confusing following iTunes’ lead

7digtal powers MP3 downloads on AOL’s Winamp, following similar Spotify and Songbird partnerships

7digital has announced a partnership with AOL to integrate its music download store with AOL’s popular Windows-based music player Winamp, following similar deals with Spotify and Songbird.

Mobile

Android’s biggest Netbook challenge (Hint: Windows)

I’ve written before about Android’s potential to power a range of consumer electronics, such as set-top boxes, media players and Mobile Internet Devices (see Google’s big bet: Android beyond the cellphone). However, one product category where I think the mobile OS will have a tough time competing is the ‘traditional’ Netbook.

It’s alive! TechCrunch’s Internet tablet still has a pulse

TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington’s Internet tablet project is alive and well it seems, after photographs of the latest “CrunchPad” prototype were “leaked” online.

iPhone app is no big deal but Skype’s ubiquity is

The tech blogosphere is buzzing with the news that an official Skype application for Apple’s iPhone will be made available. But is it such a big deal?

BlackBerry App World launches as RIM’s consumer push continues

The launch of ‘BlackBerry App World‘, the company’s answer to the iPhone’s App Store, provides even greater evidence of a consumer push, with apps for Facebook, MySpace and Instant Messaging, currently dominating the “featured apps” list.

Fandango and Pandora apps show off Palm Pre’s Mojo

In Las Vegas at CTIA 2009, Palm was busy demoing a number of third-party apps from developers who’ve been given extra early access to the webOS Software Development Kit. The Fandango and Pandora apps are particularly impressive and are a good example of how Palm hopes to compete with the likes of iPhone, BlackBerry, Nokia and Android.

Nokia’s DLNA goodness – N85 to PS3 streaming

A much overlooked feature of Nokia’s Nseries smartphones is their ability to share media with other DLNA-certified devices. This afternoon I decided to put the N85’s DLNA support to the test by attempting to stream music, photos and videos stored on the phone to a PlayStation 3. And, perhaps surprisingly, it was all pretty straight forward.

See also: Media sharing on the Nokia N85: FM transmitter

Gravity, a really nice Twitter app lands on Symbian S60 phones

At last, smartphones running the Nokia-led Symbian S60 OS have a native Twitter application. And a very slick one at that.

That’s a wrap! Thanks for reading,

– Steve

last100 is edited by Steve O'Hear. Aside from founding last100, Steve is co-founder and CEO of Beepl and a freelance journalist who has written for numerous publications, including TechCrunch, The Guardian, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb and Macworld, and also wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary, In Search of the Valley. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

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