Orb is expected to announce that it's supporting Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch in the next few days. Orb provides access to your playlists and songs on your home PC (as well as photos, videos and TV) from anywhere. It's Sling without the hardware, with many users simply using it to access their home music collections at work. On the iPhone and Touch, Orb is accessed through the browser. It wasn't as straightforward as that, however, since Apple stealthily blocks applications that use RTSP, the standard mobile streaming protocol. It will deliver your streams in MP4 instead.
Second-gen iPhone in final phase; Apple TV update planned - report
After meeting with key component suppliers and manufacturers in Asia, researchers for investment bank Goldman Sachs said this week they believe Apple will introduce two revisions to the iPhone in 2008 -- one minor, one major -- in addition to an Apple TV overhaul during the second half of the year. Among them is a second-generation iPhone currently in the "final design phase," the analyst said. The handset is expected to "have a similar form factor as the current version although it could have a different look and will probably include 3G capability."
Meanwhile, the analyst's Asian contacts have also led him to believe that "Apple will be making changes to Apple TV" sometime in the second half of 2008 "which could include an LCD display." Bailey estimates that the next-gen iPhone will launch sometime during the second half of the year, but also believes the company will tie over consumers with "a smaller upgrade with more flash memory earlier in the year."
Mog Gets Rhapsody, Gives You Instant Song Search-and-Play
Until now, Mog, the music blog network, has been missing one key ingredient: mainstream music. Music lovers could talk about music, share files of more obscure acts, and even share YouTube videos of popular songs. But today, Mog teamed with Rhapsody to deliver all those millions of tracks inside the web browser legally. (You will have to pay the $10-per-month PC subscription, or else use up Rhapsody's 25 free listens per month.) Mog also added a fast Spotlight-style search engine, which lets you grab songs fast. It'll even find songs you may not be able to play, but will tell you quickly whether you'll hear it or not.
Curtain Falls On Movie Download 1.0; But Get Ready For The Sequel; MovieBeam closing down, but Apple, Netflix, TiVo, others vie in the 2.0 game
Movie rental service MovieBeam, once backed by Walt Disney, Intel and Cisco Systems, will close down Saturday, stranding people who paid $200 for its set-top box with a useless piece of hardware. Call it the crash of Digital Download 1.0, an eight-year effort by Hollywood and tech startups trying to do an end-run around cable and satellite TV firms by selling movies and TV shows direct to consumers via the Internet. Other pioneers still standing despite taking some arrows in the back include CinemaNow, Akimbo and Vongo.
Analysts say these services were in large part simply ahead of the times. But a new crop of players -- including Apple, TiVo and Netflix -- believe the time is right. They're looking to steal market share for fee-based movies, TV shows and videos from cable and satellite TV companies. Time will tell what the killer application for downloading and watching video will be. Some companies are pushing a PC-to-TV solution. Others are looking at Internet-enabled TV sets such as Sony's Bravia. Others maintain an Internet-connected TV set-top box is the way to go.
Forget the SanDisk Deal, NBC Direct Will Soon Have Free Downloads in HD
In the meantime, NBC has something brewing that could actually make a difference to the digital-download appeal on its own site, NBC Direct. NBC will soon start using peer-to-peer technology from Pando to distribute its downloads, a story StreamingMedia broke a couple weeks ago. Yesterday at the Web Video Summit in New York City, where I was moderating a panel, I was able to confirm that a stripped-down version of Pando’s technology will be incorporated into the NBC Direct video player. I also learned something new. The reason NBC wants to go with P2P technology is because it wants to start distributing high-definition videos. Pando’s P2P system can help NBC not just to lower the cost of distributing large files, but also to differentiate itself with HD video downloads. No special Vudu box or SanDisk USB video device will be necessary.
Microsoft rebrands PlaysForSure to Certified For Windows Vista, confuses world
Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM just took another step closer to the grave with the help of some rebranding. Those of you with players from SanDisk, Nokia, and Creative among others, looking for compatible music from Napster, Real Rhapsody, Yahoo Music, Wal-Mart and such must now look for the "Certified for Windows Vista" logo, not PlaysForSure. Of course, Microsoft's Zune is also certified for Windows Vista, just not certified for Windows Vista so it won't play back the same protected files.
Eleven Seven Strikes iLike Deal, Slithers Into Facebook
Eleven Seven Music has now secured a strong position within Facebook, thanks to a well-chosen deal involving iLike. The label tie-up, which first surfaced last week, involves promotions for a number of Eleven Seven bands, including Drowning Pool, Mötley Crüe, and SIXX: A.M. The groups are posting music videos, tour diaries, personal video messages and online events onto iLike, and often debuting fresh content.
Those assets are being pumped into iLike's Universal Artist Dashboard and iCast multimedia blogging tools, and syndicated into Facebook via the popular iLike application. "Our new Universal Artist Dashboard offers Mötley Crüe, Drowning Pool and SIXX: A.M. a channel to reach the most fans with the least effort, with a syndicated presence on iLike, Facebook and beyond," explained Ali Partovi, chief executive of iLike. Other Eleven Seven artists include Buckcherry, Trapt, and The Exies. Eleven Seven was founded by Allen Kovac, chief executive of music marketing and management company 10th Street Entertainment.
Nokia: Comes with Music tracks are WMA 192kbps and 128kbps
- Audio is wrapped in an old-school, WMA DRM wrapper
- Songs can be burned to CD only after purchasing an upgrade of undisclosed cost
- Nokia has not announced any CWM devices, yet
- You can download music directly to your CWM device or computer using a unique PIN
- Songs will play only on your CWM device and the computer you registered with your CWM account
- Oh, and tracks will "typically" be delivered in 192kbps, while "older tracks may be delivered at 128kbps"
Once-Hyped SpiralFrog Continues Licensing March
Ad-supported SpiralFrog recently pushed its catalog past one million, a development that inches the company towards competitiveness. SpiralFrog was the focus of a media frenzy last year, though the startup is now trudging through a far less glamorous existence. That includes laborious negotiations with individual rights owners, and in at least one instance, a ludicrous multi-million dollar upfront licensing payment.
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