Archive for August, 2009

Weekly wrapup: DivX wins Hollywood's blessing, Nokia's Linux phone and Windows Netbook, Spotify on iPhone, and more

Here’s a summary of the last two weeks’ 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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How DivX delivered DRM into the living room and finally won Hollywood’s blessing

Download-to-own movie site Film Fresh (U.S.-only), in partnership with DivX, has secured content from Hollywood studios Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Sony and Warner Bros. The deal marks the first time that major studio content has been offered for sale in the DivX format in the U.S., according to Film Fresh.

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Zatz Not Funny: Apple and AT&T’s anti-competitive ways, TiVo's patent trolling, Windows Media Center, and more

A periodic roundup of relevant news from our friends at Zatz Not Funny

Apple and AT&T’s colluding, anti-competitive ways

Dave Zatz: I’m calling BS on their FCC responses. I pay $30/month for data access. And it seems to me that Apple and AT&T are collaboratively and selectively blocking apps that could compete with their own service offerings.

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Spotify on iPhone approved by Apple

With Apple stuck between the FCC, Eurpean Union regulators and a hard place, I’m not that surprised to see the approval of music streaming service Spotify’s iPhone app. Apple today confirmed to paidContent that Spotify (currently Europe-only) has been given the green light and will be available in the App Store “very soon”.

While many had speculated that the app might be rejected by Cupertino on the grounds of ‘duplicating’ (read: competing with) the iPhone’s built in functionality — iTunes — I was confident that, especially in the current climate, Spotify would be approved.

I predict that Apple will in the end give Spotify the green light based on several factors. Avoiding monopoly accusations being one. Spotify’s pricing model being another (the iPhone app will only be available to premium subscribers so it’s far from a free-for-all). And then there’s Apple’s kludgy multitasking solution. The latter of which means that Spotify on iPhone will be unable to run in the background. Switch to a different app and the music stops.

One thing we don’t yet know, however, is if Apple has in anyway restricted any of the features of the Spotify iPhone app, in particular the ability to cache playlists for off-line playback. This feature alone means that Spotify competes more heavily with iTunes than other streaming music apps that already exist for the iPhone.

Overall though it looks like great news for Spotify and bodes well for the future of Rhapsody’s iPhone app, which is currently pending Apple’s approval.

Nokia can do UI design after all, Linux-based N900 unveiled

Nokia-N900-8It had already been leaked to death, but frankly, if the walk-through video that’s been published today is anything to go by, I don’t think any of the previous pics or screen shots do this thing justice.

I’m referring to Nokia’s new Linux-based smartphone come Internet tablet, the N900, which the handset maker officially unveiled today. The device is powered by the company’s Maemo 5 OS, of which previous versions were used for its non-phone Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), such as the N810 that I reviewed all the way back in February 2008.

And boy has Maemo come a long way. Best of all (shock, horror), it looks like Nokia can design User Interfaces after all.

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How DivX delivered DRM into the living room and finally won Hollywood's blessing

I’ve written before about DivX being the video format of choice for ‘grey’ (read: pirated) content, but now it seems that the near ubiquitous standard is finally on the road to legitimacy with relation to content owners.

Download-to-own movie site Film Fresh (U.S.-only), in partnership with DivX, has secured content from Hollywood studios Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Sony and Warner Bros. The deal marks the first time that major studio content has been offered for sale in the DivX format in the U.S., according to Film Fresh.

But what made this possible?

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Why is Nokia entering the crowded Netbook market? Answer: the mobile carrier subsidy merry-go-round

nokia-booklet-3gIn a move that might leave many a tech analyst scratching their head, Nokia have announced their own Windows Netbook, albeit a high-end one.

Why the world’s largest mobile phone maker would enter the crowded and low margin market of Netbooks, when it should be focusing on how to restore its lead in the much higher margin ‘smartphone’ category, is a very good question. The answer, however, is simple.

Carrier subsidy.

Here in the UK, we lead the way in the carrier-subsidy merry-go-round where Nokia does very well indeed out of the whole facade.

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Real's Rhapsody enters App Store submission hell, could bode well for Spotify?

Adopting a similar PR strategy to Spotify, U.S.-only music subscription service Rhapsody ($14.99-a-month) has published details of its iPhone app, mid submission process to Apple’s App Store. While submitting an app alone far from guarantees that it will ever see the light of day through Cupertino’s official channel, by showing off the app now, including a video demo (below), it does ensure that any dirty linen on Apple’s part is aired in public. It also helps to build consumer demand from existing Rhapsody subscribers who also own an iPhone in preparation for a backlash should the app be rejected.

And rejection is certainly a possibility.

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Weekly wrapup: Pirate Bay, Sony PS3, Roku, Blockbuster, Chumby, INQ, Palm, and more

Here’s a summary of the last two weeks’ 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.

Enter your email address: Delivered by FeedBurner

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Download the complete Pirate Bay torrent index, if you dare

I personally wouldn’t go anywhere near this. The occasional ‘ilegal’ torrent at a time, such as a missed episode of Mad Men, may carry a little risk, but try justifying the complete Pirate Bay torrent index sitting on your hard drive — all 21 GB of it — and well I wish you good luck.

VidZone, Sony PS3’s on-demand music video service, is a hit with… record labels

I was so underwhelmed with VidZone, the PlayStation 3’s on-demand music video service, that I couldn’t bring myself to review it. The UI is clunky and videos stream in a 4:3 aspect ratio, even for recent releases, so that they don’t fill up the whole screen on my High Def telly.

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First 'powered by Chumby' device to be a digital picture frame, Internet-connected TVs to follow

When Chumby, makers of the boutique gadget of the same name (a sort of cross between an alarm clock radio and digital picture frame, housed in a leather ‘bean bag-esque’ casing), announced that is was porting its widget-based platform to third-party hardware, the emphasis was on Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes. Now it seems that the first ‘powered by Chumby’ device will be something much closer to the company’s own hardware: a digital picture frame, to be released in time for the holidays, reports Forbes.

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Blockbuster VOD service to land on Motorola handsets sometime in the future

This one feels a lot like a non-announcement, although technically it’s actually a pre-announcement.

Bricks ‘n’ mortar video rental chain Blockbuster is teaming up with Motorola in the U.S. to deliver its video-on-demand service to the handset maker’s future devices. Future being the operative word here as we don’t yet know when or on what phones, although it’s likely that the service will utilize Blockbuster’s recent partnership with Sonic Solutions, owners of the video download store CinemaNow, whose technology is already compatible with a range of mobile devices.

See also: Dan Rayburn: 10 years on Blockbuster still lacks a digital strategy

The fact that both Blockbuster and Motorola aren’t in the best of shape with regards to their respective markets won’t been lost on many, with Gizmodo’s Joanna Stern summing it up nicely: “I think it is romantic when two companies can hold each other in tough times.” Tough times indeed, although I’m skeptical that this partnership will do much for either companies’ bottom line.