Use iTunes to stream music over the Internet

Simplify Media Back before digital, I carried stacks of cassette tapes or CDs, even a boom box once, so I could listen to music when I traveled. Now that the digital age is here, the cassettes and CDs have been replaced by mp3s and an iPod (or two). Something, however, is still missing.

I couldn’t carry my entire record collection with me then, and I have more than 80 gigs of music now, so no matter what I’d leave music home. Inevitably I’d want to listen to a Miles Davis disk from the ’70s and not one from the ’50s that I brought with me.

If you use iTunes to manage your digital music, it’s now possible to have your entire collection — every scrap of music in your Library — available to you or your designated friends using a simple application known as Simplify Media. Continue reading »

Sony introduces new PSP, teases with PS Home cell phone

New PSP Star Wars Edition

First the news: During its press conference at E3 today Sony introduced a new PSP, which looks like the first PSP, except it’s 30 percent lighter and 19 percent slimmer. (Engadget gallery.) What’s “new” is a video output that allows you to play PSP games, movies, photos and other PSP applications on your television.

The new PSP will be available in September in original black, an ice silver color, and a Star Wars Battlefront special edition (as displayed by Chewbacca himself). The unit will cost $199.99.

sony-game-on-phone.jpgNow the hmmm item of the day: Sony showed a version of PS Home working on a Sony Ericcson cellphone (Gizmodo story). It’s not 3D, but it does have communication and chat features working on the phone. It can automatically send photos you take in the real world and place them into PS Home’s 3D environment like a picture on a wall in your apartment. Continue reading »

Nintendo: everybody's a gamer

Nintendo Wii Fit

The introduction by Nintendo of the Wii Zapper and the Mario Kart Wheel at E3 today was great for gamers, but what struck me during its press conference was the fabled game company’s continued, relentless assault into our living rooms and turning everybody into gamers.

Nintendo contends this is a conclusive turning point for the video game market, the moment where video games stand alongside television, movies, and music as a staple of entertainment in our homes. A few statistics, as seen through Nintendo eyes: Continue reading »

Microsoft on your telly: a history of the company's Internet TV strategy

This is the first article by Mack D. Male, in a two part series, exploring Microsoft’s Internet TV strategy. Mack is the author of Windows Media Blog and mastermaq.

Microsoft on your telly: a history of the company’s Internet TV strategyTelevision over the Internet, better known as IPTV, is a small but growing segment of the very large market for television products and services. Gartner predicts the number of IPTV subscribers will grow from 3 million in 2005 to 50 million in 2010, creating huge opportunities for technology vendors. However, there’s more to the story than simply moving the signal from traditional broadcast and cable networks to Internet networks. Continue reading »

E3: XBox Live Video Marketplace coming to Canada and Europe, as Disney jumps on-board

XBox Live Video MarketplaceAt last night’s opening keynote speech for the 2007 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Jeff Bell, Microsoft’s VP of Marketing for the Xbox, made a number of Internet TV-related announcements. The major, and longed after news, is that Video Market place, which enables users to download paid-for television shows and movies to the XBox 360, will finally launch in Canada and Europe by the end of the year. Bell also revealed that Xbox Live currently has more than 7 million members, and that content sold through the Video Marketplace has brought in $125 million of revenue.

The second big announcement is that, as of today, Disney content will be available on Xbox Live. Continue reading »

Jalipo offers "pay as you go" Internet TV

Jalipo offers “pay as you go” Net TVJalipo is a browser-based Internet TV service which offers on-demand (TV shows and movies) and live broadcasts on a minute by minute “pay as you go” basis. This, the company claims, will help encourage producers to offer more of their content online because it will “stimulate the world of PC owners to discover, enjoy, and gently learn to pay a little for TV…” Micro-payments have worked for things like ring-tones and SMS text messaging, so why can’t it work for online video, the company argues. Continue reading »

Order movies direct from TiVo

Amazon Unbox on TiVoTiVo users can now access Amazon Unbox directly from their set-top-box, negating the need to use a PC in order to browse and purchase movies. Although the movie download service has been supported by TiVo devices since March, the feature previously required users to place orders through Amazon’s web site, rather than via a TiVo connected to the TV. Continue reading »

iriver dances to the tune of Rhapsody

iriver dances to the tune of RhapsodyRealNetworks and iriver have announced the launch of the clix Rhapsody, a version of iriver’s portable media player which is optimized to integrate with Real’s subscription-based digital music service. The new features focus on music discovery, such as automatic updates that deliver personalized play-lists each time a user connects to the service, as well as the ability to rate songs, albums and artists directly on the device. The partnership follows a similar arrangement between Real and SanDisk for the later’s Sansa Rhapsody player.

It’s interesting to see a number of hardware manufacturers align themselves so closely with Real, in an attempt to create devices which work seamlessly with the Rhapsody service. The upside is, in theory at least, that — like with iPod/iTunes — the user experience should be greater as both companies can control all of the pieces and fully integrate the hardware and software. This is also the reasoning behind Microsoft’s abandonment of its ‘PlayForSure’ partners when the company launched its Zune platform. The downside is a lack of choice for consumers, where each device is tied to a single paid-for music service. However, the success of Apple’s iPod strategy would suggest that users will take ease-of-use and simplicity over choice, anytime, and that’s assuming that most people get their music from paid-for digital music services in the first place. Which, of course, we know they don’t.

(CrunchGear and Gizmodo both have a review of the clix Rhapsody)

Does live TV over the net make sense?

Zattoo - live TV on your PCOver at NewTeeVee (a favorite blog of ours), Om Malik questions the logic of streaming live TV over the Internet. Echoing comments made by Business 2.0’s Erick Schonfeld, in reference to LiveStation, Malik writes:

In this age of hyper personalization, where DVRs are at our command, ready to playback the latest escapades of Vinnie Chase & the Boys, who needs live TV. Unless it is live sports extravaganzas, say NBA finals or SuperBowl (or Wimbeldon Tennis), television is no longer what appears on the TV Guide grid or on the hour.

Schonfeld goes even further, writing:

The Internet is the ultimate on-demand television system, where the choices of what to watch and when have no practical limits. The concept of live TV almost makes no sense in that context. Why limit your audience only to those people who can tune in at a certain time? … live TV will be a liability on the Web unless those streams are also stored for later viewing.

Having had Zattoo running on my desktop for the last couple of weeks, I’ve really enjoyed having a live TV stream playing in a small window in the corner of my laptop while at the same time: writing email, Instant Messaging, or blogging. If there is such a thing as background telly, then live TV on the Internet fits perfectly. Mostly I’ve had the BBC’s 24 hour news station playing, or on Sunday, for example, the men’s Wimbeldon tennis final. Proof, you could argue, that Schonfeld and Malik are right when they say that sports and ‘breaking’ news are the exception that proves the rule. However, I see another merit to live TV, over the net or otherwise. Continue reading »

Weekly wrapup, 2 – 6 July 2007

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.

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