Ubuntu One Music Store goes into public beta, Canonical calls for more testers

by David Gilson

March 23rd, 2010 | Posted in Audio | Comments3 Comments

RhythmboxU1MusicStoreLast week, we reported on Canonical’s moves to incorporate a music store into Ubuntu. Ahead of Ubuntu’s April release of “Lucid Lynx”, Canonical have officially announced the public beta of their desktop music store.

The key to the music store’s infrastructure is Canonical’s cloud storage solution, “Ubuntu One”. Purchased MP3’s are initially sent from 7digital to the user’s Ubuntu One storage account, which are then synchronised to the user’s PC. Purchased tracks are only permitted to be re-downloaded three times from 7digital. Although, having the tracks stored within the Ubuntu cloud makes this limitation practically irrelevant.

Continue reading »

LATEST POSTS

Hello iPad, surfing the web while watching telly up 35%

by Steve O'Hear

March 22nd, 2010 | Posted in Mobile, Net TV | Comments1 Comment

This one is from the bleeding obvious department but it’s noteworthy nonetheless.

The Nielsen Company’s latest Three Screen Report, which tracks consumption across TV, Internet and mobile phones, says that in the last quarter of 2009, Americans’ simultaneous use of the Internet while watching TV reached three and a half hours a month, up 35% from the previous quarter.

“Nearly 60% of TV viewers now use the Internet once a month while also watching TV”, notes the report.

Now I won’t regurgitate the other stats (see the table below) but I will point a finger at the likely culprits: Laptops, or more specifically Netbooks, and handheld devices such as the iPhone and other smartphones, and let’s not forget the iPod touch. Along with social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter etc.) giving rise to the virtual watercooler viewing experience.

The same ‘couch computing’ craze likely behind Apple’s decision to release a tablet computer, the iPad, now and in its particular form-factor. Continue reading »

Once again Hulu can't tell the difference between a web browser and a web browser

by Steve O'Hear

March 22nd, 2010 | Posted in Net TV | Comments2 Comments

Kylo-420x236It looks like they’ve done it again.

Hulu, the US-only video-on-demand service, has reportedly blocked Kylo, a newly released web browser, from accessing its site.

The crime? Being too damn TV-friendly. It’s a story reminiscent of the Hulu/Boxee fiasco.

As Dave Zatz described it: “Kylo is a custom Mozilla app designed for couch-based content consumption. Assuming you have a computer connected to your television.”

In other words, it’s basically a Mac/Windows web browser, just like any other, except it has a UI that’s somewhat designed for 10-foot operation in front of the telly.

That’s a no-go for Hulu it seems. Continue reading »

Motorola unveils Android-powered landline phone, lacks Skype or Google's app store

by David Gilson

March 22nd, 2010 | Posted in Comms, Mobile | Comments1 Comment

motorola-home-phone

At this year’s CeBit, Motorola showed off a cordless landline telephone running Google’s Android operating system, as reported by Engadget earlier this month. Known as the HS1001, the device is built by Binatone, and is expected to ship in the third quarter of this year with a price tag of $150. The hardware sports a 2.8″ touch screen and loud-speaker. And as you’d expect, the handset uses DECT technology, but surprisingly, it also has WiFi.

The phone won’t carry the Android market place, however, or even have Skype installed, though you’ll still be able to access email and browse the web just as with any other Android phone. Continue reading »

Zatz Not Funny: Android set-top box, 3 iPad questions, Google headed to DISH

by Steve O'Hear

March 19th, 2010 | Posted in ZNF | Comments2 Comments

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

android-set-top-box-419x120

Return of the Android set-top box

Dave Zatz: As it turns out, it does look like Google aims to conquer the television with a dedicated offering. And why wouldn’t they take their open source platform and ad serving business to a larger screen? Continue reading »

OnLive streaming games readies US launch, vapourware accusations put to rest?

by David Gilson

March 16th, 2010 | Posted in Other | Comments2 Comments

onlivePerhaps this will put the vapourware accusations to rest.

OnLive, the streaming games start-up, has announced that it will begin rolling out its subscription service ($14.95 per-month plus the cost of purchasing or renting the games themselves) to customers on the 17th of June 2010 to coincide with this year’s E3 gaming conference.

It will be a US-only offering, however, at least for the foreseeable future, restricted to “to early registrants throughout the 48 contiguous United States”. This is in-line with their beta test program which requires users to be within 1000 miles of one of OnLive’s data centres.

The idea behind OnLive is that rather than having a powerful games console in your home, OnLive handles all of the heavy duty computation and graphics rendering. Then, a video stream of the game is sent back to your screen, and your controller inputs are sent back to them, and so on. Continue reading »

Windows Phone 7 to get some Netflix streaming and XBox Live gaming action

by Steve O'Hear

March 15th, 2010 | Posted in Mobile, Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

2010-03-15mixappspWhen Engadget Editor-In-Chief Joshua Topolsky says something is game changing I tend to take notice. That’s how he described developments in the Windows Phone 7 world (previously Windows Mobile) in reference to a demo given at today’s MIX10, Redmond’s developer conference.

Specifically, Topolsky was referring to a Netflix streaming app (Watch Instantly) powered by Silverlight running on Microsoft’s latest mobile OS, along with support for XBox Live gaming.

Both moves clearly demonstrate that Windows Phone 7 series is the Zune phone that many have been wishing for. It’s also evidence of how the company plans to exploit what is arguably its strongest consumer brand – XBox – to give its mobile OS and the third-party hardware that will be running it, fresh impetus. Much needed in the face of so much competition from the likes of iPhone, Android, Palm, BlackBerry and Nokia.

A video of Netflix on Windows Phone 7 is embedded after the jump… Continue reading »

Nokia Booklet 3G: Thoughts and first impressions

by Steve O'Hear

March 15th, 2010 | Posted in Mobile | CommentsNo Comments

14032010147I’m typing this from my local coffee shop on a Nokia Booklet 3G, the Finnish handset maker’s entry into the crowded Netbook ‘mini laptop’ space. And there’s no doubt that I’m in possession of one of the better looking devices of this type that are on the market.

Nokia’s design cues feel like they’ve been taken directly from Cupertino, the hardware aesthetics are certainly Apple-inspired.

But then so is the price.

Retailing for just shy of £650 from Nokia’s own online store, for what is for the most part under the hood an average Atom-powered (1st generation?) Netbook, seems a little ambitious. Then again, your average price savvy Netbook buyer clearly isn’t the customer. Continue reading »

Ubuntu One Music Store – The new iTunes?

by David Gilson

March 15th, 2010 | Posted in Audio | Comments1 Comment

Ubuntu enters the music market

Canonical enters the music market

Canonical are making some interesting moves with respect to making their desktop Linux distribution, Ubuntu, more friendly to mainstream users. They now have a Dropbox like service called Ubuntu One. Of which, the short term goal is to sync users’ files and application settings, via the cloud, across all of their Ubuntu computers.

Further to this, it seems that Canonical clearly has aspirations to deliver DRM free music to desktop users. They have already given a vague outline of incorporating an ‘Ubuntu One Music Store’ into their default music player, RhythmBox. An alpha tester, “Popey”, of Ubuntu’s next desktop release, 10.04 “Lucid Lynx”, has already blogged that Canonical are likely to use 7digital as the back-end for this service (link). He has also blogged that RhythmBox has been prepared to both: feature the music store, and look for MP3 tracks stored on users’ UbuntuOne drive (link). The latter means that when a user buys music from the Ubuntu One Music Store, the MP3 files will be available to the user on any of his/her Ubuntu computers.

The final tantalising piece of the Puzzle is that another Ubuntu 10.04 alpha tester has reported that it is now possible to view tracks and playlists stored on his non-jailbroken iPhone. Continue reading »

YouTube updated for Symbian, now supports user accounts

by David Gilson

March 12th, 2010 | Posted in Mobile | Comments2 Comments

YouTube's new application homepage on S60

YouTube's new application homepage on S60

It’s taken a while but YouTube has finally added support for user accounts in its updated client for phones running the Nokia-led Symbian OS.

Announced on the 10th of March, users can now log into their YouTube account enabling them to access their favourites, subscriptions, and videos. YouTube stated that it has taken them this long because they wanted to focus on speed of search and playback. Also new to version 2.4 is suggested search terms as you type in a search query. Continue reading »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »