snapshot 11/19/07

Amazon launches wireless book reader "Kindle"
Online retailer Amazon.com said on Monday it will begin selling an electronic book reader with wireless access, the latest attempt to build consumer interest in portable reading devices. The battery-operated Amazon Kindle will sell for $399 and let users download books, newspapers and blogs over a wireless connection. It can carry about 200 books downloaded from Amazon.com at about $10 for new releases.

Wireless functionalities, based on cell phone broadband technology EVDO, are built into the 10-ounce, thin white device. Downloading content does not require a computer and takes less than a minute for a full-length book, the company said.


AT&T to launch 1st Napster Mobile phone this holiday season
AT&T Inc said it plans to launch a mobile phone with handset maker Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) that will be their first to support Napster Inc's wireless digital music service, in time for the holiday season. The mobile phone, exclusive to AT&T, will apart from other features allow customers to search a music catalog and preview song samples, and will be available in stores from November 23, the top U.S. phone company said in a statement.


PayPal offers secure way to shop non-PayPal sites
PayPal, the payments service arm of online auction leader eBay Inc, is set to release on Tuesday a convenient way for its customers to make payments on Web sites that don't accept PayPal directly. The new software utility, called the PayPal Secure Card, recognizes when a user lands on an e-commerce checkout page and automatically helps the user fill out the payment form in a secure way that also offers stepped-up fraud protections.

Through a partnership with credit card issuer MasterCard Inc, Secure Card generates a unique MasterCard number each time a PayPal user arrives on an e-commerce sales checkout page that does not otherwise accept its payments. "From a merchant's perspective this looks like any other MasterCard transaction," said Chris George, director of financial products for PayPal. "And it's just another PayPal purchase to the customer."


Famous names back music on social media Web sites
Hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons, AOL founder Steve Case and former rap star MC Hammer are each backing a version of the latest media trend: building fans' music consumption into their social networks. The music industry has watched as fans buy less music even though they listen to more of it than ever through a proliferation of outlets on the Web. One of the biggest trends has been for fans, particularly those under the age of 30, to spend hours on social networks to connect with their friends and family. Their music is following them there.


Unlocking DRM
In the end, the long battle by the record labels against unrestricted digital music may have been little more than sound and fury signifying nothing. At least, that's how it's starting to appear now that two of the major labels in recent months have embraced in some fashion the MP3 format, which has no copy protection. The early returns from those moves indicate they've had little impact on the industry's fortunes -- for better or for worse.

Sales of DRM-free music to date have "outperformed" EMI's expectations, and Wal-Mart has seen its MP3 sales grow "considerably" since August, when its Web store made them available, representatives for the two companies said. However, neither they nor other labels or Web stores disclosed specific sales results.


International indie music trade group Merlin has launched its web site via Hypbot
Merlin is a non-profit organisation, owned by its members and is charged with representing independent music companies in enhancing the commercial exploitation of their copyrights on a global basis. With members in over 25 countries, Merlin is the first rights body focusing purely on the interests of the global independent music sector, which collectively represents 30% of all music sales.

With a globally representative board elected by its community, Merlin ensures that independents finally have a vehicle which can protect and enhance the strength, diversity and unique interests of its members and enhance their ability to compete and access new revenue streams in the ever changing world of digital music.


Digital music downloads won't replace CDs, says report
"Sales of music CDs are continuing to decline annually at double-digit rates. At the same time, we see indications that downloads of digital music are increasing," noted Mark Best, an analyst at JupiterResearch. "That said, digital music downloads are not replacing music CDs." Best was referring to a report issued today by Jupiter which forecasts that while spending on digital music downloads will step to $3.4 billion by 2012, CD sales will keep on dropping over the next five years. On the whole, the increase in downloads won't make up financially for the decline in CD sales, according to Jupiter's study.


Pandora now has classical music
feature from Pandora users is the ability to Pandora-ize classical music, and well, it is here. For all you fans of the concerto, symphony, the sonata, and all the finer styles of music the world has to offer, Pandora has your audio fix ready to download into your ears in grand style.

As with all previous Pandora ideas, you can type in the name of your favorite composer to create a station. Hard to say at this point just how much classical music is available, because it takes a while to classify all that music using the near 400 point genome scale. You will simply need to check that out for yourself, and let us know how you like it.


Amazon Kindle vs. Sony Reader
EVDO is great, but paying a 10-cent per-file fee to sync your own PDF and DOC files to it via email? Which are then converted to a proprietary format? No native PDF support? Gah! Kindle isn't so much a reader device as a portable DRM bookstore. At least you can slurp plaintext off of SD cards.

There's nothing wrong with all that, but I need something that can view what I already have, including PDF. Who doesn't already have countless files of every imaginable type? For $400, format neutrality should be assumed. EVDO's no use to me if it's just linking into paid content and Wikipedia. (UPDATE: Looks like it will read plaintext, HTML and Images off SD card, but not RTF, DOC or PDF.)