Here’s a summary of the 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.
Top digital lifestyle news
We kicked off the week with news of “Go!Messenger”, the video, voice and IM chat service coming to PlayStation Portable. Developed in partnership with telco BT, “Go!Messenger” will first launch in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy this January, “before extending its reach to more than 100 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.” No mention of North America, so as with Sony’s recently announced DVR solution for the PS3, U.S. customers look set to miss out.
However, the biggest news this week was Nokia’s transformation into a mobile web services company, with the launch of its “Ovi” brand. “Ovi”, which means ‘door’ in Finnish, will encompass the highly anticipated Nokia Music Store, a revamped N-Gage, as well as Nokia Maps, a navigation service that offers maps and city guides. The first version of Ovi.com, which can be accessed either directly from a compatible Nokia device or from a PC, is scheduled to go live in English during the fourth quarter of 2007, with additional features and languages added during the first half of 2008. By launching its own music download store, Nokia will not only have to compete with Apple’s iTunes, but the company has also put itself on a collision course with the very same mobile carriers with which it’s forced to partner.
In a post titled ‘NBC Universal plays hardball with iTunes‘ we also reported on NBC’s decision to give ninety days notice on end its partnership with Apple (see update). NBC — whose content accounts for 40% of TV downloads on iTunes — wants greater flexibility over pricing, as well as stricter copy protection, and the option to bundle content.
More digital lifestyle news:
- Sony ditches ATRAC, will close Sony Connect
- iTunes UK TV downloads disappoint
- News Corp. and NBC Universal name joint venture
- FoxHiLites is latest site/service dedicated to high school athletics
- NFL to stream games online — DirectTV customers only
- Cerf: Expect the Internet to radically change television
Feature
Our big feature this week was titled ‘The Gphone is coming; how Google could rewrite the rules‘, in which Dan Langendorf took a speculative look at what a future Google mobile phone might look like; noting that if the so-called Gphone was done right, it will be Google who will change the face of the wireless industry, not Apple with its iPhone.
That’s a wrap for the week. Enjoy the weekend!
