Apple has announced that it has expanded its iTunes Plus offering to over two million tracks and lowered the price of all iTunes Plus tracks to 79p in the UK, with similar reductions in the States.
The iTunes Plus catalogue (the largest DRM-free catalogue in the world, according to Apple) now includes artists from Sub Pop, Nettwerk, Beggars Group, IODA, The Orchard and many others, along with EMI's digital catalogue.
"iTunes Plus has been incredibly popular with our customers and now we’re making it available at an even more affordable price", said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes.
"We're adding over two million tracks from key independent labels in addition to EMI’s digital catalogue and look forward to even more labels and artists making their music available on iTunes Plus."
iTunes and EMI only began offering their DRM-free music in the UK in May this year, leading to speculation that the sales figures have not been good for songs (which did cost 20p extra per track) for them to have seen a price cut so soon.
No figures have been released on how many DRM-free tracks have sold, EMI did comment earlier this year, but only to say to initial results were "good".
The main reason attributed to this price cut is the launch of Amazon's strong rival DRM-free MP3 service in the States.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Nokia N810 Internet Tablet
There are mobile phones with Internet capabilities and then there are Internet tablets. Then there is the new Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. Building upon its predecessors, the Nokia N810 tablet is being touted as a new phase in portable internet communication. Whether you are near a Wi-Fi hotspot or have your Bluetooth-capable mobile phone, you can take advantage of the N810 to make internet calls. The N810 features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a touch-scren interface. There's also a VGA camera for video conferencing.
One of the big plus-points of the N810 is the integrated GPS receiver and pre-loaded maps. It comes with tons of POIs, and you have the option to upgrade to Wayfinder's voice-guided navigation. You can easily carry it in your pocket or in the car. The large 4.13 inch , 800x480 pixels resolution widescreen is great to fit in your palm, and with an optional 10GB memory card you can carry up to 7500 songs. Nokia claims up to 45 hours of music playback on the device.
Powered by maemo Linux based OS2008, the Nokia N810 has a customizable UI and support for Adobe flash 9, Bluetooth headset, Skype, and Video Gizmo. Priced at US $479 (excluding tax), the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet will be available starting mid-November.
800 Apple Store Employees joining the unemployment line
So let’s say that you worked at one of Apple’s retail stores roughly around the time when the iPhone was released. If you were so lucky, you, and all of your co-workers, got a free iPhone courtesy of your employer, Apple.
I’d be as giddy as a little school girl if I got a free iPhone. What I sure as hell wouldn’t do is try and cash in on the $100 rebate that came out a few months later when they dropped the iPhone price.
Apparently there were at least 800 people with far less decency than me. Did they forget the part where they didn’t pay for the iPhone in the first place? Its ok, I consider it much like the gene pool, occasionally it needs a good colonic to clear all the crap out.
iPhone/iPod Touch have water seals on them
You know how sometimes companies who sell electronics and give them a good warranty or guarantee they do little things so that if whatever you come in needing fixed was caused by accidental damage done by you, instead of a hardware failure they can make you pay? Like for this example, cell phones that you have dropped in a puddle will show it with a little sticker that changes colors, usually next to the battery cover.
Well the iPhone and iPod Touch have those too, its just a lot harder to find unless you know where it is. Look down your headphone jack on either of those devices, and at the bottom of that well, you’ll see the sticker.
I am sure there are ways to circumvent it, but at the same time, its kind of crappy of them to put it in a place where a single drop of rain could cause it to change, but not cause any damage to the rest of the phone. Maybe if they hadn’t sealed the rest of the phone away from easy access they could have put it somewhere more practical. Regardless, you now know you can’t play off that canoe trip you took with your iPhone as a hardware malfunction, so don’t try it.
Apple: "we plan to have an iPhone SDK in developers' hands in February"
That's right folks. You read it correctly. Cats & dogs are living together, and in other news Steve Jobs has, via Apple's 'Hot News' page, announced that Apple will, FINALLY, support third-party development of native applications for the iPhone.
The SDK will arrive, for iPhone and iPod touch (!), in February 2008 after MacWorld San Francisco. Apple "[is] excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users," but they are taking the time to do it properly "because we're trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once -- provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc."
I think I can speak for everyone here at TUAW, and of course our loyal readers, when I say that this move is so incredibly welcome and WOW. All I can say to Steve is: "What took you so long to let us at your beloved devices?" Now the only question is whether the various iPhone dev teams can sit on their collective coding hands until Valentine's Day...
The SDK will arrive, for iPhone and iPod touch (!), in February 2008 after MacWorld San Francisco. Apple "[is] excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users," but they are taking the time to do it properly "because we're trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once -- provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc."
I think I can speak for everyone here at TUAW, and of course our loyal readers, when I say that this move is so incredibly welcome and WOW. All I can say to Steve is: "What took you so long to let us at your beloved devices?" Now the only question is whether the various iPhone dev teams can sit on their collective coding hands until Valentine's Day...
T-Mobile USA Announces Highly Anticipated New Sidekick LX
T-Mobile USA, Inc., today announces what Sidekick fans have been craving - the next evolutions of the T-Mobile® Sidekick® family. Two newly designed devices – T-Mobile Sidekick LX™ and
T-Mobile Sidekick Slide™ – will hit the streets this fall and both feature the must-have assets that make Sidekick the ultimate messaging device, including the newly launched, custom-designed MySpace application.*
T-Mobile Sidekick Slide™ – will hit the streets this fall and both feature the must-have assets that make Sidekick the ultimate messaging device, including the newly launched, custom-designed MySpace application.*
While Sidekick enthusiasts await the new devices, T-Mobile kicks off Sidekick Nation, a user-generated video contest hosted by MySpace where fans have the chance to show their creativity and win a grand prize that includes $10,000 and a trip to Hollywood to see his/her video highlights aired on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Set music free with a Bluetooth™ speaker that looks as good as it sounds
The new Portable Bluetooth™ Speaker MBS-100, announced today by Sony Ericsson, is the perfect accessory for your Walkman® phone or most other Bluetooth™ enabled music phones. For anyone wanting to share their music, whether at home or in the office, but avoid a series of wires and complicated set-up, the Portable Bluetooth ™ Speaker MBS-100 looks and sounds the part.
As previously seen on the MTV European website, the Portable Bluetooth™ Speaker MBS-100 is the first portable speaker from Sony Ericsson able to stream music wirelessly from your phone via Bluetooth™.
“The Portable Bluetooth™ Speaker MBS-100 is completely unique to the market. The quality of the sound, the design and the convenience of taking it wherever you want, makes this the perfect complement to your Walkman® phone,” explains Jacob Sten, Head of PBU Accessories at Sony Ericsson. “You can listen to your favourite songs wherever you go, all you need is your phone and your MBS-100. The sound experience, coupled with the striking design makes this a must-have music accessory.”
Music on the move
Enjoy your music with powerful sound wherever you want, when you want. Connected wirelessly to your phone, this uniquely designed speaker allows you to share your favourite songs in a heartbeat.
Exceptionally easy to use; just connect your phone wirelessly with the Portable Bluetooth ™ Speaker MBS-100, eliminating the hassles of trying to connect wires, and within seconds you can enjoy the music from your phone with clear loudspeaker sound.
Powerful Sound
The Portable Bluetooth™ Speaker MBS-100 has been created for music lovers who want to enjoy and share their music anywhere. Your favourite music deserves crystal clear powerful sound, and the MBS-100 provides just that using the latest A2DP streaming technology to deliver the very best in sound quality.
Completely Portable
The compact design of the Portable Bluetooth ™ Speaker MBS-100 makes it easy to take with you. The specially designed carrying bag, included with the speaker, helps to protect it when you are on-the-move and ensure it won’t get scratched or damaged.
The MBS-100 also comes with an integrated rechargeable battery, offering up to five hours playtime on a single charge, you will have enough power to really share and enjoy your music.
Stand-out design
Sony Ericsson has topped the style stakes with this latest edition to its line up of speakers and music accessories. Design boundaries have been broken; the Portable Bluetooth ™ Speaker MBS-100 has a unique style and an understated black finish that complements the range of Sony Ericsson Walkman® phones and works well with most Bluetooth™ enabled music phones.
The Portable Bluetooth™ Speaker MBS-100 will be available from Q4 2007 in selected markets.
Bluetooth™ Car Handsfree HCB-105
In addition to its new Portable Bluetooth™ speaker, Sony Ericsson also announces another exciting accessory today, the Bluetooth™ Car Handsfree HCB-105. This pocket-sized in-car solution requires no installation and combines a sleek design with remarkable sound and performance.
The HCB-105 provides a convenient way to communicate handsfree while on the road, minimising physical distractions. The Bluetooth™ Car Handsfree HCB-105 attaches to your car visor via a simple clip and can be controlled using just two buttons to power on or off, answer or end calls and adjust volume.
With a talk time of up to 25 hours and a standby time of up to 700 hours, the HCB-105 lets you keep in touch, even on the longest of journeys. It is the perfect in-car solution for those that demand good looks, simplicity and extraordinary sound quality.
The Bluetooth™ Car Handsfree HCB-105 will be available in selected markets from Q1 2008.
Add more to your K850 or W910
Aside from these two new accessories, Sony Ericsson can confirm that two new flagship phones, the K850 Cyber-shot™ phone and W910 Walkman® phone (both announced in June), will reach the shops within October. Just in time for the Xmas rush, you can get even more from these two phones with either the Portable Bluetooth™ Speaker MBS-100 or the Bluetooth™ Car Handsfree HCB-105.
The W910 is an HSDPA Walkman® phone that is designed for entertainment; whether music, 3D games, video, or high-speed Web access. It’s also geared to let you choose your music, your way. Select Shake control and just flick the phone to control games or skip and shuffle between tracks. Or opt for SensMe™ and discover music to match your mood and tempo.
The K850 Cyber-shot™ phone is a 5 megapixel camera phone with Auto focus and Xenon flash. It is a Tri-Band HSDPA phone for high-speed picture and video blogging and has advanced digital camera features – BestPic™, Photo fix and PictBridge.
Technical Specifications:
| General | |
| Product Name | Portable Bluetooth™ Speaker MBS-100 |
| Product Numbers | 1202-2804 (EU) and 1202-2807 (UK) |
| Warranty | Standard 1 year warranty |
| Packaging | Box |
| Kit contents | Portable Bluetooth™ Speaker MBS-100 Charger Carrying Bag User Guide |
| Hardware | |
| Size (mm diameter) | 100mm |
| Weight (g) | 225g |
| Bluetooth version | Bluetooth specification V1.2 |
| Bluetooth chipset vendor | CSR |
| Chipset version | BC03 |
| A2DP version | 1.0 |
| AVRCP version | 1.0 |
| Battery | Type Li-lon Capacity 900mAh |
| Music streaming time | More than 5 hrs |
| Standby time | More than 50 hrs |
| Charging time | Less than 5 hrs |
| Output | 1.5 watt |
| Colour | Black |
| Compatibility | Music mobile phones that support the A2DP Bluetooth™ profile |
| General | |
| Product Name | Bluetooth™ Car Handsfree HCB-105 |
| DPY (with Cigarette Lighter Adapter CLA-61) | DPY 901700 |
| Warranty | Standard 1 year warranty |
| Packaging | Box |
| Kit contents | Bluetooth™ Car Handsfree HCB-105 Cigarette Lighter Adapter CLA-61 User Guide |
| Hardware | |
| Size | 130 x 53 x 22 mm/5.12 x 2.09 x 0.87 in |
| Colour | Black |
| Number of keys | 2 |
| Battery | Li-Polymer 900mAh |
| Performance | |
| Talk time | Up to 25 hrs |
| Standby time | Up to 700 hrs |
| Compatibility | |
| Bluetooth™ specification | 2.0 |
| Bluetooth™ profiles | Headset and Handsfree |
| Sony Ericsson Bluetooth™ headsets are compatible with the Bluetooth™ mobile phones of both Sony Ericsson and other phone brands. |
Legal Information
Motorola to join Sony Ericsson in ownership of UIQ
London and SCHAUMBURG, IL – October 15, 2007 – Sony Ericsson and Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) today announced a definitive agreement under which Motorola will acquire a 50% interest in UI Holdings BV, the parent company of UIQ Technology AB, which is currently wholly owned by Sony Ericsson. Under the agreement, Motorola and Sony Ericsson will work together and jointly invest in the development of the UIQ open user interface platform. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. As previously announced, Sony Ericsson acquired UIQ Technology from Symbian Ltd in February 2007.
UIQ Technology licenses the UIQ open user interface and development platform to mobile phone vendors around the world. Motorola and Sony Ericsson are committed to further advancing UIQ as a strong, independent cross-vendor user interface for smartphones and media-centric phones. Today’s announcement should be seen as an invitation to other mobile device vendors to participate in the UIQ community, either as shareholders or licensees.
Motorola and Sony Ericsson also plan to significantly increase their cooperation and support for the UIQ developer program. More details will be unveiled to developers at a special event today following a media and analyst briefing.
Both companies have agreed that UIQ will be vendor and chipset independent. In addition, UIQ will be licensed on equal terms to all mobile device vendors in the industry. Sony Ericsson and Motorola are committed to expanding the shareholder base of UI Holdings to include other handset vendors.
Sony Ericsson and Motorola each have been UIQ licensees for many years and have launched several successful Symbian/UIQ based products including, the Sony Ericsson P1 smartphone, the new W960 Walkman® phone and the Motorola MOTO Z8. UIQ, offered the industry’s first touch-screen interface back in 2002, and now supports both QWERTY and classic numerical keyboard configurations as well as finger touch data input. UIQ’s single code base greatly simplifies customization for handset vendors, operators and third-party developers.
Miles Flint, President of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, said “This is an important transaction that demonstrates the increasing importance of open operating systems for all handset vendors. By working together in a strong, mutually beneficial partnership, hand-set vendors can reduce development costs and help operators launch more consistent services with greater efficiency. At the same time, service providers and applications developers benefit from a more robust environment to create compelling end-to-end solutions which benefit consumers by enabling a more personalized user-experience”.
Alain Mutricy, Senior Vice President, Platforms, Motorola Mobile Devices stated: “Motorola’s investment in UIQ will enable us to bring feature-competitive multimedia devices to market. Its flexibility will enable us to bring devices to market that meet regional preferences or specific operator customisation requirements. We look forward to working closely with our partners, Sony Ericsson and UIQ.”
Johan Sandberg, CEO of UIQ Technology, said, “We are extremely excited to be working closely with Motorola and Sony Ericsson, two well-established industry leaders. UIQ offers a truly personal and rich user experience plus important flexibility for developers, operators and phone vendors as it supports many form factors in one code base. UIQ has benefited greatly from our partnership with Sony Ericsson and we are confident that Motorola’s interest will create new and important growth opportunities for UIQ, our customers, employees and consumers around the world”
Motorola’s investment in UI Holdings BV is subject to customary regulatory approval and is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Sony Ericsson and Motorola confirmed their aim is to further expand ownership of UIQ in the future and hope to make further announcements about new shareholders and licensees in due course.
Motorola "enrich" the MOTO Z8 product experience
he multimedia offering is to get "industry-leading" applications and solutions from Actimagine, CNN Mobile, DataViz, Podcast.com, ShoZu, weComm and Yahoo!.
The Kick Slider, that launched recently, will offer owners the following:
* Actimagine - Actimagine develops and sells Mobiclip, a patented software video codec which has been optimised for mobile platforms. Mobiclip offers DVD-like quality - 30fps full screen - for all kinds of video, both free and premium content, without apparently compromising battery-life.
* CNN Mobile - CNN International allows users to stay informed while on the go with CNN Mobile internet site. A pre-embedded URL in the MOTO Z8's internet browser allows direct access to CNN's "World News Now", an hourly, two-minute video news summary, as well as the easy-to-navigate home page with links to ohter stories and areas.
* DataViz - DataViz offers its Documents To Go document viewer application for MOTO Z8. The Documents To Go viewer edition is specifically tailored for Motorola's MOTO Z8 and enables users to open and view Microsoft Office
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.
* Podcast.com - Enables consumers to download their favorite audio and video podcasts direct from the internet automatically to their handset or PC.
* ShoZu - ShoZu provides mobile social media services that enable fast, easy exchange of multimedia content and web-based services on mobile phones. Optimised for MOTO Z8, ShoZu's Share-It service provides users with an easy method to upload photos and video clips captured on their camera phones to a growing list of over two dozen blogs, social networking sites and news desks, as well any email address, with one or zero clicks.
In addition, ShoZu offers MOTO Z8 users its ZuCast media delivery service, which offers automated, zero-click delivery of user-selected content such as video, audio, photos and music directly to the mobile phone.
* weComm - weComm develops the Sky Anytime on Mobile application for BSkyB. It has worked closely with Motorola to port the application to the MOTO Z8 for pre-installation. Sky Anytime on Mobile provides MOTO Z8 users with an interactive mobile TV application that extends Sky's digital TV experience to the mobile platform.
* Yahoo! - Yahoo! Go 2.0 is a mobile application featuring an easy to navigate carousel of widgets that gives consumers access to a wide variety of Internet services - search, local, mail, photos, news, sports and weather services on their mobile phone and will come pre-loaded on MOTO Z8.
Key features include Yahoo! oneSearch, Yahoo! Local, Yahoo! Maps, Yahoo! Mail, Flickr, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports,
Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Entertainment and Yahoo! Weather.
The Kick Slider, that launched recently, will offer owners the following:
* Actimagine - Actimagine develops and sells Mobiclip, a patented software video codec which has been optimised for mobile platforms. Mobiclip offers DVD-like quality - 30fps full screen - for all kinds of video, both free and premium content, without apparently compromising battery-life.
* CNN Mobile - CNN International allows users to stay informed while on the go with CNN Mobile internet site. A pre-embedded URL in the MOTO Z8's internet browser allows direct access to CNN's "World News Now", an hourly, two-minute video news summary, as well as the easy-to-navigate home page with links to ohter stories and areas.
* DataViz - DataViz offers its Documents To Go document viewer application for MOTO Z8. The Documents To Go viewer edition is specifically tailored for Motorola's MOTO Z8 and enables users to open and view Microsoft Office
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.
* Podcast.com - Enables consumers to download their favorite audio and video podcasts direct from the internet automatically to their handset or PC.
* ShoZu - ShoZu provides mobile social media services that enable fast, easy exchange of multimedia content and web-based services on mobile phones. Optimised for MOTO Z8, ShoZu's Share-It service provides users with an easy method to upload photos and video clips captured on their camera phones to a growing list of over two dozen blogs, social networking sites and news desks, as well any email address, with one or zero clicks.
In addition, ShoZu offers MOTO Z8 users its ZuCast media delivery service, which offers automated, zero-click delivery of user-selected content such as video, audio, photos and music directly to the mobile phone.
* weComm - weComm develops the Sky Anytime on Mobile application for BSkyB. It has worked closely with Motorola to port the application to the MOTO Z8 for pre-installation. Sky Anytime on Mobile provides MOTO Z8 users with an interactive mobile TV application that extends Sky's digital TV experience to the mobile platform.
* Yahoo! - Yahoo! Go 2.0 is a mobile application featuring an easy to navigate carousel of widgets that gives consumers access to a wide variety of Internet services - search, local, mail, photos, news, sports and weather services on their mobile phone and will come pre-loaded on MOTO Z8.
Key features include Yahoo! oneSearch, Yahoo! Local, Yahoo! Maps, Yahoo! Mail, Flickr, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports,
Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Entertainment and Yahoo! Weather.
gPhones start shipping
NN is reporting that Google phone has begun shipping. But, before we all get too excited, it appears that the handsets are for further development only.
"These initial phones are not going to be for sale," Benjamin Schachter, a UBS analyst said. "These are going to be available for developers only to understand how the software works."
"These initial phones are not going to be for sale," Benjamin Schachter, a UBS analyst said. "These are going to be available for developers only to understand how the software works."
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