Ad-supported music download service SpiralFrog enters the dead pool

by Steve O'Hear

March 20th, 2009 | Posted in Audio | Comments7 Comments

I can’t say I’m surprised but it’s sad nonetheless. Ad-supported music download service SpiralFrog appears to be no more.

Unable to raise a further round of funding and crippled by debt, the service couldn’t overcome “a macro-economic perfect storm”, a source close to the company tells CNet.

Basically, any startup whose revenue is purely tied to advertising is facing tough times – last100 included – as the downturn means that brands are cutting their marketing budgets or at least being far less experimental in how they spend their money. That’s bound to make new business models like SpiralFrog’s particularly vulnerable. Continue reading »

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Google helps add 500,000 public domain eBooks to Sony Reader store

by Steve O'Hear

March 19th, 2009 | Posted in Mobile, Other | CommentsNo Comments

Not sure if this is such a big deal but owners of Sony’s Reader – which includes my dad – can now access over half a million public domain books via the company’s eBook store, courtesy of a new partnership with Google Book Search.

Titles include an “extensive list of traditional favorites”, according to the joint press release, such as “The Awakening,” “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” and “Black Beauty”, along with Jane Austin’s “Sense and Sensibility” and “Emma.” Continue reading »

iPhone's 'In App' purchases will be a boon to micro-payments

by Steve O'Hear

March 18th, 2009 | Posted in Audio, Mobile, Net TV | Comments1 Comment

If it wasn’t already clear who owns the customer – Apple or its mobile carrier partners – yesterday’s announcement that ‘In App’ purchases will be a prominent feature of the next version of the iPhone’s OS suggests, once again, that power resides very much with Steve Jobs and co. in Cupertino.

When iPhone OS 3.0 is rolled out this summer, developers will be able to charge for additional content within their applications – so that, for example, an iPhone game could at anytime prompt a player to purchase additional levels or other in-game content, such as maps, without the user having to leave the app and billed through their existing iTunes account. For the privilege, Apple takes its standard 30% cut, once again bypassing the carriers. That in itself is disruptive enough. However, there’s another force at play.

Micro-payments. Or more broadly, in an era of free and ad-supported, getting consumers used to the idea once again of actually paying for content, albeit online. Continue reading »

Zatz Not Funny: Pandora on Blackberry, iPhone OS 3.0, Roku, iPod Shuffle

by Steve O'Hear

March 18th, 2009 | Posted in ZNF | Comments1 Comment

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

Pandora & IHeartRadio released on Blackberry

Dave Zatz: Two new (and free) music streaming apps have joined Slacker on the Blackberry this week.

iPhone 3.0 OS channels Xbox Live (plus cut & paste)

Dave Zatz: The first half of Apple’s presentation was geared towards developers and hardware partners, introducing support for new payment and device connectivity options. Both of which had me drawing comparisons to Xbox Live.

What’s next for Roku? (beyond YouTube & Blip.TV)

Dave Zatz: As I discovered last month, it looks like YouTube is headed to the little $99 Roku media player. And it turns out GOOG may not be the only new partner joining Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand.

New iPod Shuffle – shiny but tiny

Mari Silbey: Apple is making hay again with yet another news announcement: A very very tiny [iPod] Shuffle with 4GB of storage and a talking interface… Right off the bat I see a lot of things I don’t like about the new music player.

iPhone 3.0's dichotomy: playing catch-up while pushing the envelope

by Steve O'Hear

March 17th, 2009 | Posted in Mobile | CommentsNo Comments

At a special press event in Cupertino today, Apple previewed the next version — 3.0 — of the iPhone’s OS. And in doing so, the company showed once again how on one level it’s playing catch-up by delivering features that all other existing smartphones (and some feature phones) already have, while at the same time pushing the envelope further than its competitors.

In the catch-up camp is copy and paste, support for MMS and stereo Bluetooth (A2DP), media library access for third-party apps, and the previously announced ‘push notification’ system, Apple’s alternative solution to true multitasking and background apps. Continue reading »

Voodoo Chile: Pandora lands on Vudu set-top box

by Steve O'Hear

March 16th, 2009 | Posted in Audio, Net TV | Comments1 Comment

No longer a ‘one trick pony’, Vudu’s ambition to become a fully-fledged platform, capable of pulling in content from a range of third-party services, appears to be bearing fruit.

Today the company announced that owners of its set-top box now have access to Internet radio service Pandora. Features include support for multiple Pandora accounts, “enabling every member of the family to play his or her own personalized Pandora stations”, along with the ability to create custom stations and tweak them dynamically by thumbing tracks up or down. Continue reading »

Boxee releases remote control iPhone app

by Steve O'Hear

March 16th, 2009 | Posted in Mobile, Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

Another ‘remote control’ app has landed on iPhone, this time for media center software Boxee. The Boxee Remote app works over WiFi and operates in two modes: ‘Gesture’ and ‘Buttons’. In Gesture mode users drag the Boxee logo around the screen to trigger up, down, left and right and clicking on the logo activates play/pause. Alternatively, Button mode offers up a virtual version of Apple’s own hardware-based remote control, which although less imaginative is probably more practical. Either way, the free app is very bare bones, making it all the more baffling that, according to Boxee, Apple took such a long time to approve it.

See also: iPhone remote control app for VLC Media Player AND Sonos delivers touchscreen controller via iPhone

Weekly wrapup: Hulu goes social, Apple Netbook, Kindle usability, Nokia music, and more

by Steve O'Hear

March 15th, 2009 | Posted in last100 weekly wrapup | CommentsNo Comments

Here’s a summary of the last 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

Hulu goes social, it’s all about the ads

Right in time for its first anniversary, video site Hulu has announced that it is dipping its toe into social networking.

CBS to stream NCAA’s March Madness on iPhone and iPod touch

Buoyed by the success of last year’s March Madness on Demand and, presumably, its experiment with live streaming on Joost, CBS is making video coverage of the college basketball tournament available to owners of Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. Continue reading »

CBS to stream NCAA's March Madness on iPhone and iPod touch

by Steve O'Hear

March 12th, 2009 | Posted in Mobile, Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

Buoyed by the success of last year’s March Madness on Demand and, presumably, its experiment with live streaming on Joost, CBS is making video coverage of the college basketball tournament available to owners of Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. Available through a dedicated iPhone app, users will be able to view live games (WiFi only) and access real-time scores, stats, and other related content. Interestingly, the app isn’t free but costs $4.99 available through iTunes and the iPhone’s App Store, another example of media companies using Apple’s mobile software store as a way of charging for content.

Hulu goes social, it's all about the ads

by Steve O'Hear

March 12th, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

Right in time for its first anniversary, video site Hulu has announced that it is dipping its toe into social networking. Similar to competitors CBS-owned TV.com, Joost and Sling.com, the NBC Universal and News Corp. joint venture is rolling out a feature its calling ‘Hulu Friends’ whereby users can create profiles and, optionally, share their viewing activity with other members of the site. Contacts/friend-lists can be imported from both Facebook and MySpace, along with popular web-based email services, such as GMail.

The upside for Hulu, presuming they can persuade users to join yet-another-social network: As paidContent notes, “the direct sharing of video preferences and content within Hulu will make it much more easy to track what individuals are watching and hence, make them more targetable for ads.”

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