Worries over Google phones: What if they're just ordinary?

by Daniel Langendorf

November 7th, 2007 | Posted in Mobile | Comments4 Comments

googleI’m all for openness, open source, Linux, Wikipedia, the whole community. And I love the fact that Google is in partnership to develop an open mobile operating system, which in theory should lead to new and exciting innovations for our cellphones.

But I’m worried.

The product developer in me has seen this many times. A group of people get together — researchers, industrial designers, hardware engineers, software engineers, the electrical guys, marketers, number crunchers, project managers, consultants, vice presidents, parts sourcing, manufacturing, interface designers — with the sole desire to design, develop and manufacture a successful product. With any luck, that product might be an industry-changer.

Like the Google phone.

Or, as we now know it, phones developed and manufactured by others that uses the free and open-source Google mobile operating system Android. It’s that phones developed and manufactured by others that really bugs me. Continue reading »

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Radiohead's album "In Rainbows" draws a surprising number of "freeloaders"

by Daniel Langendorf

November 6th, 2007 | Posted in Audio | Comments5 Comments

radiohead smallSo, in the end, 38 percent decided to pay for the lastest Radiohead album, “In Rainbows”, while 62 percent did not.

ComScore has provided the first definitive numbers regarding Radiohead’s decision to offer its latest album on a pay-what-you-think-it’s-worth basis. The music world is keenly watching Radiohead’s experiment to cut out the middle man and go it alone. Other bands, such as Nine Inch Nails, are planning similar defections.

During the first 29 days of October, ComScore notes, 1.2 million people worldwide visited the InRainbows site, with a “significant percentage of visitors ultimately downloading the album.” Of those who decided not to pay for the album, 60 percent were from the United States, 64 percent from the rest of the world.

“I am surprised by the number of freeloaders,” Fred Wilson, managing partner of Union Square Ventures and a well-known music aficionado, told ComScore. “The stories to date about the “In Rainbows” ‘pick your price’ download offer have been much more optimistic. I paid $5 U.S. and had no reluctance whatsoever to take out my card and pay. Continue reading »

Microsoft IPTV finally gaining traction

by Josh Catone

November 6th, 2007 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

Microsoft IPTVSince the mid-90s when they launched a 24-hour cable news network and purchased WebTV, Microsoft has been trying to figure out how to marry television with the Internet (see our full history from July). Now, a decade later, they may finally be gaining some traction.

BusinessWeek reports this morning that though only about 500,000 homes get TV service over the Internet from phone companies using Microsoft software, the company’s IPTV efforts appear to be gathering significant steam. AT&T’s U-Verse IPTV service has grown from 51,000 to 126,000 customers over the last quarter and should be available to 8 million homes by year’s end. Swisscom has signed up 50,000 customers for its Microsoft-powered service (about 1.6% of the Swiss TV market). British Telecom, meanwhile, has designs to sign up 2-3 million IPTV customers within the next 5 years, on the back of Microsoft solutions.

Continue reading »

NPR opens up NPR Music for our listening pleasure

by Daniel Langendorf

November 5th, 2007 | Posted in Audio | Comments5 Comments

npr musicMany, many years ago, the local National Public Radio Station (NPR) stopped playing music when anybody was actually listening to the radio. I used to tape random chunks of music, not caring what it was, to take with me on trips because it was so good.

When the station stopped broadcasting music when I was awake, and the Internet came along, I turned to NPR’s Web site, its show All Songs Considered, and podcasts to hear interviews with musicians, listen to their music, and find artists I’d never heard before. But, alas, the old NPR site wasn’t much fun to use, especially if you’re on a Mac and don’t care much for RealPlayer or Windows Media.

NPR relaunched NPR Music, and I’m in music heaven again. The new site uses a slick Flash pop-up player that’s super-easy to use and, as an added bonus, works across all NPR properties. Continue reading »

Google's plan: not one Gphone but thousands

by Daniel Langendorf

November 5th, 2007 | Posted in Mobile | Comments6 Comments

Also see: The Gphone is coming; how Google could rewrite the rules

open handset allianceIt’s clear that Google, which announced its entry into the wireless world today, is out to break the stronghold of the carriers in the U.S. to advance their own initiatives — selling mobile ads and getting their applications on as many cellphones as possible.

androidAs expected, Google did not announce it was delivering an actual branded phone, dubbed the Gphone. Instead Google is leading a broad industry partnership known as the Open Handset Alliance and is developing an open software mobile platform known as Android. Together, Google hopes, these will deliver a new breed of handsets and greatly improve the mobile Internet experience for consumers worldwide.

“We are not building a Gphone, we are enabling 1,000 people to build a Gphone,” Andy Rubin, Google’s director of mobile platforms, told The New York Times. (See also Rubin’s blog announcement.)

Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive officer and chairman, said in a statement, “Our vision is that the powerful platform we’re unveiling will power thousands of different phone models,” he said. Continue reading »

Study: P2P downloading leads to more CD sales

by Josh Catone

November 5th, 2007 | Posted in Audio | Comments5 Comments

Michael Geist points to a recent study conducted in Canada in part by Industry Canada (a federal agency) about music purchasing habits that includes some potentially bad news for the recording industry. According to the results of the The Impact of Music Downloads and P2P File-Sharing on the Purchase of Music: A Study For Industry Canada study, which surveyed over 2,000 Canadians, there is a positive correlation between file downloading over P2P networks and legit purchases of music on compact discs. This might come as a surprise to industry executives who have long complained that peer-to-peer file sharing is immensely damaging to CD sales.

According to the study’s authors, there is “a strong positive relationship between P2P file sharing and CD purchasing. That is, among Canadians actually engaged in it, P2P file sharing increases CD purchases.” The study estimated that there is an increase of 0.44 CD purchases per year for every 12 P2P downloads. When viewed as a whole, the study found no positive or negative effect on CD purchasing from P2P filesharing in Canada.

Continue reading »

Joost announces developer days

by Richard MacManus

November 5th, 2007 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

Joost on a set-top-box within 18 monthsJoost has just announced its first developer days, which the Internet TV company is promoting as a chance to meet some of their developers and get some tips for building widgets. Here are the details of the Developer Days. If any last100 readers plan to attend, contact us if you’re interested in writing a guest post about your experience.

Note that some of the presentations will be filmed and Joost will upload them onto a special Developer Channel in Joost later in the year.

Who:
These workshops are aimed at developers with at least basic knowledge of html and javascript

What:
* a (free) lunch
* short presentations from the widgets team at Joost, including an introduction to building widgets, and an update on widget features in new releases
* a preview of our first commercial widget
* the opportunity to work on a widget or two yourself or use the workshops to get hands-on help for widgets you’ve started to develop.
* we’ll finish up with a drink or two and some free stuff to take away.

Where and when:
* initially in three locations: London, Amsterdam and New York.

London (Covent Garden) – 1pm – 6pm – Friday 16th November
Amsterdam (Central location) – 1pm – 6pm – Saturday 1st December
New York (Financial District) – 12pm – 5pm – Friday 7th December

To register your interest, RSVP to dev-workshop@joost.com and let them know which Developer Day you would like to attend and whether you would like to bring a friend or colleague. Joost will then send you more details on the location and format of the day. You may have to go on a waiting list, but they will let you know if that happens.

Weekly wrapup, 29 October – 2 November 2007

by Steve O'Hear

November 4th, 2007 | 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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Last100 headlines this week:

Note: Apologies for the late and sparse wrapup this week. Normal transmission should resume next week!

Nokia's Ovi stumbles as N-gage is delayed and Warner doesn't want to play

by Daniel Langendorf

November 2nd, 2007 | Posted in Audio, Other | Comments2 Comments

nokia oviNokia’s newest brand, Ovi, hit a bit of a snag this week. Touted as “the key that unlocks every door”, Ovi apparently isn’t unlocking the game portion of its site, N-Gage, until December.

Nokia, which introduced its long-awaited gaming service at a large media event in August, said N-gage would be available globally in November. Due to software testing issues, Nokia said today it is delaying N-gage’s launch until December.

“Software testing is taking a bit more time than we expected,” Nokia spokesman Kari Tuutti said.

Additionally, the Warner Music Group Corp. said today it is withholding its music from the just-lauched Nokia Music Store over concerns about illegal downloads at Nokia’s file-sharing site, Mosh, The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) noted today. Continue reading »

NBC Universal willing to take risks and fail, expected to axe DotComedy

by Daniel Langendorf

November 1st, 2007 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

dotcomedyYou got to admit one thing about the TV networks. Unlike the digitally-careful print media, these TV guys are willing to experiment with digital strategies, fail, dust themselves off, then try something new in hopes it will stick.

Just look at NBC Universal this week. They start off with the beta launch of Hulu, the online joint venture with News Corp. that was first touted as a “YouTube killer” but ended up being a boutique streaming site for the networks’ content.

A couple of days later, NBC U president and chief executive officer Jeff Zucker spits on Apple, saying the Steve Jobs-led company has “destroyed the music business” and must be stopped before it does the same to video. Just a few months earlier, Zucker said NBC Universal was pulling all of its content off iTunes when the network failed to get what it wanted in contract renegotiations with Apple, a bold move to be sure.

Now NBC U is reported to be shutting down its stand alone comedy site, DotComedy.com, according to Mike Shields of MediaWeek. Shield’s sources indicate that DotComedy, which launched in mid-2006 as a part of NBC’s focus on digital media, will fold and move the site’s content and traffic to NBC.com and, presumably, Hulu. Continue reading »

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