Nokia hopeful of signing up all four major labels for all-you-can-eat music offering

by Steve O'Hear

March 27th, 2008 | Posted in Audio | CommentsNo Comments

Having already secured Universal Music’s support, Nokia is hopeful that the three remaining major labels – Sony BMG, EMI and Warner, along with around ten independents – will also sign on in time for the launch of its all-you-can-eat music download service.

Announced last December at the annual Nokia World conference, “Comes With Music” will enable customers to buy a Nokia device with a year of unlimited access to “millions of tracks”, and – rather surprisingly – get to keep any downloaded tracks once the twelve month subscription period ends. The only way to then continue accessing the service, however, is to purchase a new “Comes With Music” device (see our follow-up report). Continue reading »

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Motorola's decline in mobile industry has been coming for a long time

by Daniel Langendorf

March 26th, 2008 | Posted in Comms, Mobile | Comments1 Comment

old motorola phoneI’m still shaking my head over this one. Motorola, one of the stalwarts of the mobile communications industry, will split into two publicly traded companies in 2009, one for its profitable infrastructure equipment, the other for its not-so-profitable mobile handsets.

How did this happen?

And what does it mean for the mobile industry?

I’ll let Wall Street debate the finer details of how Motorola’s crash-and-burn happened, but it comes as no surprise. I’ve been watching Motorola lose its grip in the mobile industry for almost three years, since the heady days of the Razr.

Back in 2005, Motorola introduced the Razr as an exclusive fashion phone costing $600 with a service plan, $800 without — and people complained that Apple’s iPhone was too expensive at its introduction. Like the iPhone, the Razr was the must-have geek toy of its time.

In 2006, however, Motorola allowed the Razr to enter the mass market as a mid-price (then super-cheap) phone, which lessened its must-have coolness and social impact. It seemed every snot-nosed kid at the mall had a Razr stuffed in a back pocket.

Continue reading »

Inside story: the making of a legal TV 'torrent'

by Guinevere Orvis

March 26th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | Comments12 Comments

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are my own and not those of CBC/Radio-Canada.

Inside story: the making of a legal TV ‘Torrent’Last week, CBC released an official DRM-free BitTorrent of a prime time show– a first for a major north American broadcaster (see last100 coverage). Since then we’ve been getting hundreds of emails of support and one clear resounding message: give us more. This begs the question, why aren’t broadcasters doing more? Why in the year 2008, seven years after BitTorrent’s birth and a lifetime in Internet years is this a groundbreaking thing? Let’s break down what it takes to get a legal torrent going and maybe we’ll get some answers. Continue reading »

3G iPhone said to be imminent – will it help UK sales?

by Steve O'Hear

March 26th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | Comments1 Comment

A 3G version of Apple’s iPhone could be on its way – literally – if one analyst’s sources are to be believed.

According to “sources in Asia”, Gartner’s Ken Dulaney says that Apple has placed a 10 million unit order for a 3G version of the iPhone — the handset’s first major hardware update since its launch last June. During a telephone briefing with iPod Observer, Dulaney also speculated that the updated iPhone would utilize OLED technology for the device’s display which should help improve battery life.

The lack of ‘3G’ – a mobile data technology that enables much faster Internet access on cell phones compared with the currently supported EDGE (2.5G) – is seen as a major shortfall of the iPhone, and is in part being blamed for poor sales in Europe. Hence Apple’s imminent move to a 3G iPhone, says Dulaney.

Other factors may also be at play. Continue reading »

Sony BMG has a (half-baked) plan for a subscription music service

by Daniel Langendorf

March 25th, 2008 | Posted in Audio | CommentsNo Comments

sony bmgThis is getting a bit embarrassing. Every few days a record label stands up and announces a new digital download scheme that will revolutionize the recording industry and save the environment.

OK, maybe not save the environment. We have Al Gore for that. But definitely the record industry. Somebody needs to save the recording industry, and it can’t always be Steve Jobs, so today it’s a dude named Rolf Schmidt-Holtz.

Schmidt-Holtz is the CEO of Sony BMG, the world’s second-largest record label behind Universal Music Group and ahead of Warner and EMI. Schmidt-Holtz told a German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, that Sony BMG is working on a subscription service that would allow customers unlimited access to the label’s entire library for a monthly fee, roughly US$9-$12.

Best of all — besides saving baby seals — the Sony BMG plan will work on all digital music players, including the ubiquitous iPod. And maybe, just maybe, if everybody behaves and stops pirating music, customers “could keep some songs indefinitely — that they would own them even after the subscription expired,” Herr Schmidt-Holtz is quoted as saying.

Continue reading »

Report: Two record labels ready to sign on for new MySpace Music

by Daniel Langendorf

March 24th, 2008 | Posted in Audio | CommentsNo Comments

myspace musicThere used to be a time when you could only download legal digital music from the iTunes Store and a handful of little-known indie sites. Now there seems to be legal downloading on every street corner, with the record labels cutting deals with everybody except iTunes.

The latest deal to gain legitimate steam is one between MySpace and two of the top four record labels, Sony BMG and Warner. According to a report today in the News Corp.-owned New York Post — coincidentally the owner of MySpace — the social networking site is close to signing deals with Sony and Warner as it puts together MySpace Music. The venture may be announced as early as this week, the Post notes.

“Everybody’s operating with a sense of urgency to try to close it out,” an “industry insider” told the Post.

The new MySpace Music is expected to be a mix of pay-per-download and ad-supported streaming audio and video. As the Post notes, no money is expected to change hands as the labels are “trading content rights in exchange for minority equity stakes in MySpace Music and the chance to participate in the advertising revenues that News Corp. hopes to generate from the service.”

Continue reading »

Forget about getting any work done, every episode of "South Park" now available online

by Daniel Langendorf

March 24th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | Comments2 Comments

britneyEvery episode of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” available online is bad enough, but now we can watch 12 years worth of “South Park.” Man, I will never get anything done ever again.

(Try concentrating while playing the recent “South Park” episode “Britney’s New Look.” Impossible.)

Announced at the end of November, “South Park” episodes have finally come to the Web, legal, of high quality, and nicely organized, with minimal commercial interruption. Viacom/MTV, owner of “South Park” home Comedy Central, and SouthParkStudios are giving us every episode for free at southparkstudios.com.

At the site you can stream full episodes, organized by season, and all sorts of clips (controversial goes without saying). There’s also “South Park” news, games, crap (downloads, mobile, and the store), and a fans section. Unfortunately, you cannot embed full episodes, but you can embed the 3,000 available clips.

SouthParkStudios is a joint venture between “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker and Comedy Central, with the parties splitting ad revenue 50/50. In addition to housing “South Park” content, the studios will also serve as a home for other animated projects from Stone and Parker. The arrangement also allows MTV Networks to expand its online video reach.

And now back to Britney’s new look.

Weekly wrapup, 17-21 March 2008

by Steve O'Hear

March 24th, 2008 | Posted in last100 weekly wrapup | CommentsNo Comments

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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Top digital lifestyle news

The big Internet TV news this past week is that Joost is reportedly switching strategy and will be bringing its service to the Web browser. Last100 editor Steve O’Hear wrote that the move “would signal an admission that Joost’s strategy to build its service around the kind of ‘lean back’ experience that it hoped to deliver via a full screen desktop application has largely failed.” Also Steve points out that the Internet TV landscape has changed dramatically — there are now a plethora of companies serving a similar mission to Joost, including big hitter Hulu, the NBC/Fox joint venture.

We also reported on Canadian broadcaster CBC’s decision to release a TV show for download, free, legal, and via BitTorrent; YouTube announced the winners of its annual video awards; and a new set-top box from Myka downloads and delivers torrents right to your television.

On the mobile front, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced that the big winners in the 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction were, indeed, Verizon and AT&T, the two biggest players in the industry. Dan Langendorf says that now the wait it over, it’s time for the U.S. mobile industry to innovate.

Following comments from Adobe, we also looked at the implications of Flash on iPhone (or the lack of). In a post titled ‘Who needs Flash on iPhone more? Adobe or Apple?‘, last100 editor Steve O’Hear asked: Is Adobe committing itself to building the missing version of Flash that Jobs demands? Or does Adobe really believe it can go-it-alone? “Without Apple providing the hooks to enable Adobe to tap into the iPhone’s Safari web browser,” Steve contended, “it’s hard to see how a Flash plug-in could be implemented. Instead, Adobe might be able to create a work around: some kind of stand-alone Flash Player that opens full screen to play certain content.”

In the same week, Microsoft hedges its bets and licenses Flash Lite from Adobe.

In Digital Music, LimeWire’s DRM-free music store launched; and there have been reports that Apple is exploring an “all you can eat” subscription model for the iTunes Store.

That’s a wrap for the week!

The Myka downloads and delivers torrents right to your television

by Daniel Langendorf

March 21st, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

mykaGizmodo featured a product today that I must say is interesting: The Myka is a device that makes it easy to download torrents and play them on your living room TV.

It’s no muss, no fuss BitTorrenting, perfect for people who don’t want to mess with downloading torrents and watching them on a computer, or preparing them for play through some bridge device to a television.

The Myka, which sort of looks like a beefed up Mac Mini, connects to the Internet via LAN or WiFi, has HDMI, Composite, S-Video and SPDIF connections, and a choice of 80, 160, or 500 gigabytes of storage. You can even add a USB expansion hard drive to a port that actually works, unlike what’s found on the AppleTV. It runs a Linux OS and is pre-installed with BitTorrent software.

Prices range from $299 to about $460.

For those of you who want to download and watch legal torrents, like CBC’s program “Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister“, or other fare (wink wink), The Myka might be a product worth exploring.

From an adorable laughing baby to a girl named Lisa, YouTube names video award winners

by Daniel Langendorf

March 21st, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | Comments2 Comments

youtube video awardsThere are awards for everything, so it’s only natural that YouTube honors the mostly-amateur artists who submit their work to the online video sharing site.

YouTube today announced the winners of the second annual YouTube Video Awards — and the content ranges from silly and amateurish to totally captivating. There’s an adorable laughing baby, Harry Potter puppets (including a naked Dumbledore), a blind painter, a 25-year-old Minnesota PhD student who sings an original song now covered by Green Day and John Mayer, and a girl named Lisa.

Granted, the content is far from professional or semi-pro at best, but that’s the point. If you want to see spit and polish, watch the Oscars or the Emmys. With the YouTube awards, you’ll see a laughing baby fall over, a human TETRIS performance, a dramatic show about friends who play online games, and a gripping short film about Lisa and her mentally ill mother.

While the “highbrow” write off the YouTube Video Awards as a “major yawn”, we think otherwise, especially as more devices — other than the AppleTV or TiVo — bring YouTube into your living room. When YouTube is readily available on your television, just like network and cable or satellite TV, then what’s the difference between it and NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and all the other channels?

Continue reading »

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