Labels: Digital media, iPod

NBC Universal said yesterday that it would soon permit consumers to download many of NBC’s most popular programs free to personal computers and other devices for one week immediately after their broadcasts.

The service, which is set to start in November after a test period in October, comes less than three weeks after NBC Universal said it was pulling its programs out of the highly successful iTunes service of Apple Inc. That partnership fell apart because of a dispute over Apple’s iTunes pricing policies and what NBC executives said were concerns about lack of piracy protection.

The files, which would be downloaded overnight to home computers, would contain commercials that viewers would not be able to skip through. And the file would not be transferable to a disk or to another computer.

In a second phase of the NBC rollout, customers would pay a fee for downloads of episodes that they would then own, and the files would be transferable to other devices. NBC hopes to offer this service by mid-2008, depending on how quickly the company can put in place the secure software necessary to allow payment by credit card.

The latter system is what is already available through iTunes.

Labels: Digital media, iTunes

The iPhone is a closed system, like the iPods before it, so third parties can only develop software for it if they are EXTREMELY close to Apple. This is an incredibly frightening trend. As Apple gets more and more of its revenue from non-Mac devices, they are also getting more and more of their revenue from devices that simply exclude third parties.

On iPods, Airports, Apple TVs, and now iPhones, Apple wants every app perfect. Which is nice, in theory. In practice, it means innovation only happens at Apple's pace. The marketplace of ideas is much smaller, and the devices are much poorer because of it. (Example: Why can't I stream music from my iPhone or iPod touch to my Airport Express?)

[With] the latest iPods Apple [have] gone a step further, and disabled some docking stations that don't have a special chip in them provided by Apple; forcing customers to use only Apple-approved accessories. Apple's emulating the most pernicious qualities of Nintendo and the Microsoft XBox -- you pay us a tax or you don't work with our systems.

Apple's "approval" just comes from Apple getting a cut. It's a measure of greed, not quality. We're not talking about THX-certification here, we're talking about extortion. This kind of lock-in seems very appealing for the company doing the locking early on, but it always, ALWAYS ends up biting the company in the butt.

Then we come to ringtones. Every phone I've owned in the last ten years has allowed to make my own ringtones. But since Apple is so close to the record companies, and they are already so grumpy with Apple, Apple did a deal that benefits record companies and Apple. Not artists, certainly not consumers.

A million customers don't get to do something cool with their iPhones. Because of greed.

Now we see that iPod owners who upgrade to a newer iPod must re-buy the games they've already bought, because the new iPods are incompatible with the old. No credit given for having already bought an identical game.

Steve ... give up on trying to control everything. It's only going to keep hurting Apple, more and more, to control content and hardware and software. It's going to make them into the kind of mega-monopoly that we always, ALWAYS end up hating. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. 100% of the time.

Apple should license FairPlay, or allow iPods to play PlaysForSure music. Either one. Basically, Apple should allow other music stores to sell DRM'ed music that works on iPods and iPhones.

Faced with the choice between doing what’s right for customers or charging them money for something they shouldn’t need to pay for, Apple chose the latter. There is no middle ground. And any business that hinges on your customers “not knowing any better” is a bad business.

Labels: Apple, Digital media, iPod, iTunes

Forbes takes a look at a product Apple seems to have all but ignored since it was first released last year:

iTV is a flat-out iFlop. Renamed Apple TV upon launch, the ballyhooed box has sold perhaps 250,000 units--far behind the 1 million sold for the iPhone, which was priced twice as high and has been on the market less than half as long. Apple ... provides detailed sales data for the iPod and other digital wonders but won't reveal any numbers for Apple TV; apparently the truth is too humiliating.

Jobs' own ambivalence about the iFlop, however, is evident. At a tech conference in May Jobs took the stage and casually dismissed Apple TV as merely "a hobby." In briefing Wall Street on quarterly earnings on July 25, Apple execs ignored the video product.

Jobs confined Apple TV to handling only the content you could get through Apple's own iTunes. This parochial and proprietary approach, in an increasingly open, Internet-infused world, had relegated the company's Macintosh line to a narrow slice of sales. Yet it also had let the iPod dominate online music, which may be why Jobs believed he could pull off the same thing in video. Wrong.

So here's the thing. In the days leading up to the Apple TV's release, I bemoaned the fact that it lacked DVR capabilities and thus could never be real competition for Microsoft's excellent Media Center software (available since 2002) and Media Center Extender hardware (available since 2004). That's still true today, and as I noted in my review of the Apple TV, the device is really just "an iPod designed for your living room instead of your pocket. It is simply yet another way to consume content purchased from Apple's nearly-ubiquitous iTunes Store." I award the thing 3 out of 5 stars and declared that it is "big on hype but short on functionality."

But is it a flop?

Maybe. I do like the idea of the Apple TV, though again, it's hugely diminished without DVR functionality. If you've completely bought into the Apple digital media ecosystem, it works pretty well. But even then there are limitations: You still can't buy any HD content on iTunes, relegating the box's 720p display capabilities moot. And if you rip your own DVDs to MPEG-4 or H.264 you have some choices to make, as the Apple TV can play back 640 x whatever movies aimed at the iPod, but the reverse isn't true of the slightly higher-resolution movies the Apple TV supports, but the iPod does not. The whole thing is kind of a mess. Technologically, the Apple TV is a mixed bag.

If these sales figures are to be believed, the Apple TV is a sales flop as well. If this were Microsoft, we'd all knowingly nod our heads at the notion that the company would simply issue a few upgrades and eventually get it right. But this is Apple, which tends to bolt from defeats, especially the high profile ones, as quickly as possible.And that's a shame, because the Apple TV could have turned into a cool product. For me, the most damning evidence that this will never happen is Jobs himself and his comments about it being "a hobby". It's just too bad.

Labels: Apple, Digital media, iPod, iTunes

Let me get this straight: Steve Jobs insists that songs on iTunes cost 99 cents and television episodes cost $1.99 because consumers crave simple pricing.

Except, of course, when it comes to Apple’s own products.

There were wrinkles created by all the dynamic pricing. Customers who paid $599 when the iPhone came out two months ago saw their status drop from early adopter to, well, sucker, after Mr. Jobs cut the price of the device by a third. After Mr. Jobs was crucified for playing it too cute on the so-called “Jesus phone,” he issued a non-apology apology and a $100 store credit to help those early buyers salvage some dignity.

A pricing error? Absolutely. And when you think about it, the media companies Mr. Jobs is fighting with want the opportunity to make the same mistake.

Apple saying it would not carry television shows from the coming NBC season because the network wanted double the $1.99 price and NBC saying that was not true.

“Apple is not telling the truth. We never asked to double the wholesale price of our shows," said Cory Shields, a spokesman for NBC Universal. “Our negotiations were centered on our request for flexibility in wholesale pricing, including the ability to package shows together in ways that could make our content even more attractive for consumers.”

Labels: Apple, Digital media, iPhone, iPod, iTunes

Labels: Digital media, iTunes, Zune

Labels: Digital media, iTunes

Labels: Digital media, iTunes

NBC Universal has decided not to renew its contract to sell television shows on iTunes, becoming the second major media company to challenge Apple Inc's dominance in digital entertainment.

NBC Universal had demanded more control over pricing for digital downloads of its shows, which include "Battlestar Gallactica" and "Heroes," said a source familiar with the matter on Friday, confirming a New York Times report.

A spokeswoman for NBC Universal confirmed it will not renew the contract and declined to elaborate. NBC Universal is the No. 1 supplier of digital video to the online store, accounting for about 40 percent of downloads.

Labels: Apple, Digital media, iTunes

Acknowledging its proprietary audio technology was a marketplace flop, Sony Corp. is shuttering its Connect digital music store and will open its portable media players to other formats.

The moves were announced Thursday at a Berlin consumer electronics trade fair as the Japanese electronics pioneer unveiled a pair of new digital Walkmans that can play the Windows Media Audio, MP3 and AAC audio formats.

Sony said it would phase out operations of its struggling Connect online store, which sold songs in the company's proprietary ATRAC format.

"This gives customers greater flexibility in their music software approach," the company said in a statement. "As a result, Sony will be phasing out the Connect Music Services based on Sony's ATRAC audio format in North America and Europe."

Labels: Digital media, iTunes, Zune

It's hardly surprising that MTV has dumped its 'Urge' music partnership with Microsoft and hooked up with RealNetworks and Verizon. What would you do if you got stabbed in the back?

Zune is hardwired to Microsoft's Zune store. If you want songs for your Zune, you buy them from Microsoft.

In other words, Microsoft screwed its industry partners when it launched Zune. MTV's Urge store was part of the PlaysForSure camp and I'm sure execs at the network were just waiting for the chance to get one back at Microsoft after it launched Zune without PlaysForSure compatibility.

They did this Tuesday by hooking up with Real and Verizon.

The bigger question is this: How can Microsoft ever again ask partners in the increasingly important online entertainment space to take its promises of ongoing support and compatibility seriously?

Labels: Digital media, Zune

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has begun selling some of its online music catalog without anticopying software, stepping up its competition with Apple Inc.'s iTunes store.

Wal-Mart will sell songs without the software -- known as digital rights management, or DRM -- through its walmart.com site for 94 cents a track, or $9.22 an album. The No. 1 seller of recorded music said it will launch the service with songs from two major record labels, Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group and EMI Group PLC.

Labels: Digital media, iTunes

Further muddying a format war over the next generation of DVDs, Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. said they would ditch the high-definition Blu-ray format and release high-definition digital videodiscs in the HD DVD format only.

The move will likely draw out the war between the two formats, in which Blu-ray had seemed to be winning the momentum. Now it will likely take at least two more holiday sales seasons before one format becomes a clear winner, studio executives say.

Paramount, which had previously released in both formats, is a plum catch for the HD DVD format, backed heavily by Toshiba Corp. and Microsoft Corp. Its skating spoof "Blades of Glory" comes onto DVD at the end of the month, and "Shrek the Third" and "Transformers" are likely to become top sellers when they are released on DVD for the holidays. Paramount distributes the films produced by DreamWorks Animation.

Now, "we can put all of our resources behind one format," both in marketing and manufacturing terms, says Kelley Avery, president of Paramount Home Entertainment. "You have to get behind one message."

The exclusive could be for as little as a year, according to two people familiar with the situation.

The studios won undisclosed financial incentives for exclusive commitments to release high-definition movies onto HD DVD only. A person familiar with the situation said the incentives included both cash payments and soft incentives such as marketing promotions.

Labels: Digital media, HDTV

A Russian court has found the former boss of music download website www.allofmp3.com not guilty of breaching copyright, in a case considered a crucial test of Russia's commitment to fighting piracy.

The allofmp3.com website angered Western music companies by undercutting the price of downloads in deals they said breached copyright law.

Denis Kvasov, head of MediaServices which owned the site, was put on trial after entertainment companies EMI Group Plc, NBC Universal and Time Warner Inc pressed for a prosecution.

"The prosecution did not succeed in presenting persuasive evidence of his involvement in infringing copyright law," said judge Yekaterina Sharapova.

Kvasov always said he was within the law because the site paid part of its income to ROMS, a Russian organisation which collects and distributes fees for copyright holders.

The judge agreed with his defence.

Labels: Digital media

Is it bad reporting, bad research, or something worse?

That’s the question I asked myself when I read this NetworkWorld account of Peter Gutmann’s presentation at the Usenix Security Symposium last week. Gutmann is a researcher in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Auckland in New Zealand who specializes in encryption (on his home page, he describes himself as a Professional Paranoid).

Gutmann generated a lot of heat last December with the publication of a paper that called Windows Vista’s Content Protection scheme “the longest suicide note in history.” He updated it in April, mostly to call his critics names, and he updated it yet again yesterday with a top-of-the-page slam at my ZDNet colleague George Ou, who took exception with some of Gutmann’s claims yesterday (see Claim that Vista DRM causes full CPU load and global warming debunked!).

Gutmann has a flair for melodramatic language and headline-grabbing phrases, but his theoretical arguments against Vista’s video subsystem fall apart quickly when they make contact with the real world.

Labels: Digital media, Vista

The artificial audio of MP3s is quickly becoming the primary way people listen to music. Apple already has sold 100 million iPods, and more than a billion MP3 files are traded every month through the Internet.

But the music contained in these computer files represents less than 10 percent of the original music on the CDs. In its journey from CD to MP3 player, the music has been compressed by eliminating data that computer analysis deems redundant, squeezed down until it fits through the Internet pipeline.

When even the full files on the CDs contain less than half the information stored to studio hard drives during recording, these compressed MP3s represent a minuscule fraction of the actual recording. For purists, it's the dark ages of recorded sound.

How much the audio quality is affected by the MP3 process depends on the compression strategy, the encoder used, the playback equipment, computer speed and many other steps along the way. Experts agree, however, that the audio quality of most MP3s is somewhere around FM radio. The best digital audio, even with increased sampling rates and higher bit rates, still falls short of the natural quality of now-obsolete analog tape recording.

How good MP3s sound obviously also depends greatly on the playback system. But most MP3s are heard through cheap computer speakers, plastic iPod docking stations or, worse yet, those audio abominations called earbuds.

Labels: Digital media, iPod, iTunes, Zune

Dell announced plans yesterday to acquire a private MP3 software company called ZING Systems Inc., an indication that Round Rock is interested in re-entering the MP3 product ring.

In September 2005, Dell unveiled its own player, the DJ Ditty, to compete with the iPod Shuffle –you may not recall because it all happened so quickly. The Ditty was pulled last August, less than a year after its launch. At the time, a spokesman told the Wall Street Journal the company wanted to focus instead on its core products, like PCs and printers.

ZING licenses its technology to Sirius (SIRI) and SanDisk (SNDK) for their MP3 players, and according to the company’s website, its software lets people not only listen to live digital streams but collect songs from them and make playlists.

Labels: Digital media, iPod, Zune

After August 15, 2007, you will no longer be able to view your purchased or rented videos.

Labels: Digital media, Google, Internet

Apple today unveiled an all new all-in-one iMac line featuring gorgeous 20- and 24-inch widescreen displays encased in elegant and professional aluminum and glass enclosures. The entire new iMac line features the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors and a new, ultra-thin aluminum Apple Keyboard, built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing and iLife '08, making it the ultimate digital lifestyle desktop computer for both consumers and professionals. The 20-inch iMac now starts at just $1,199, $300 less than the previous 20-inch model, and the 24-inch iMac starts at just $1,799, $200 less than the previous 24-inch model.

Apple today announced significant enhancements to its .Mac online service, highlighted by the debut of .Mac Web Gallery, a new feature for sharing photos and movies on the Internet. .Mac Web Gallery lets members easily share photos and movies directly from iLife '08 with anyone on a Mac, PC or iPhone(TM) in stunning quality. In addition, .Mac Web Gallery visitors can download high quality images for printing and even contribute photos using a standard web browser or email. Other new .Mac features include a tenfold increase in .Mac storage to 10GB, support for personal domains for iWeb websites and enhancements to .Mac Mail.

Apple today introduced iLife '08, the most significant upgrade ever to Apple's award- winning suite of digital lifestyle applications, featuring a major new version of iPhoto and a completely reinvented iMovie. iPhoto '08 automatically organizes photo libraries into Events that let users more easily manage their growing photo collections, and iMovie '08 introduces an entirely new way for users to quickly make movies and share them online. Both iPhoto and iMovie integrate seamlessly with the new .Mac Web Gallery, Apple's new service for .Mac members to instantly create and host stunning online websites for their photos and videos. iLife '08 also features iWeb '08, with live web widgets such as Google Maps that let users create even more dynamic websites, and GarageBand '08, with its new Magic GarageBand feature that makes it fun and easy for both musicians and non-musicians to create great sounding songs.

Apple today introduced iWork '08, a significant upgrade to Apple's productivity software suite featuring new versions of Pages and Keynote word processing and presentation applications, and introducing an innovative new spreadsheet application called "Numbers." Numbers introduces the concept of intelligent tables on a flexible canvas, a new approach that makes it easy to organize information, create calculations, analyze results and make spreadsheets look as great as they work. Pages '08 now features distinct modes for streamlined word processing and flexible page layout, a new contextual format bar and change tracking, and Keynote '08 now includes text effects, transitions and themes that help users easily compose spectacular presentations, and Smart Builds with easy-to-set-up A-to-B animations that make impressive animations easy for anyone to create.

Labels: Apple, Digital media, Internet, Mac

The TiVo HD is a member of the Series3 family, but it differs in several ways from the original unit. TiVo’s main objective in producing the new unit is to lower the cost of the box, allowing for a lower retail price. While the original Series3 has an MSRP of USD$799.99, the new unit is only USD$299.99.

So, what did TiVo sacrifice to lower the cost of the unit? Actually, not a lot. And what they did drop will probably not be missed by most users - especially when their wallet is $500 heavier. Contrary to various rumors, the TiVo HD is still a dual-tuner, high-definition unit. It handles analog and digital cable as well as analog and digital antenna signals (NTSC and ATSC). Functionally, the TiVo HD is pretty much just like the Series3, only with a 160GB drive instead of 250GB.

Labels: Apple TV, Digital media, DVR, Media Center