Interesting news/reviews/deals from the portable audio market
Amazon’s mp3 store is drm free, and they are attracting a new ‘mp3 crowd’...more->
They launched the public beta in 2007. The mp3 store features two million songs from 180,000 artists and 20,000 labels, DRM free. Songs sell anywhere from $.89 to $.99 and full albums will range $5.99 to $9.99. Best sellers will sell for [...]
The LiliPod may look a little funny, but once you buy it you will be glad you did. Talk about protection and versatility for your iPod. The LiliPod is shock resistant and waterproof, meaning you could go swimming with this case and your iPod will remain happy and dry inside. The shell [...]
There have been rumors for years about Apple developing an iPod iPhone. It seems that these rumors may be true and the development may finally come to fruition.
The iPod iPhone will probably not be like typical MP3 cellular phones. An MP3 cellular phone adds music to communications, whereas converting an iPod to a cellular phone [...]
Dell exits the MP3 player business for good: all references to the flash-based DJ Ditty, the company’s sole offering in this department since it dropped its HD-based players in February, were pulled from the Dell website. [via]
Q4 financial results and conference call notes
$230.9M in sales ($305.4M a year ago)
$12.7M net loss ($31.9M a year ago)
Verdict? Betten than last year, but stil… Michael from epiZENter also jotted some notes from the conference call—interesting to see they’re pushing the X-Fi technology, talking about a future product that is connected to the Zen Vision:M [...]
Warner to experiment with ‘DVD album’ discs: these will feature:
stereo and surround mixes of the album
extras: ringtones, remixes, photos and video footage
pre-ripped digital music files. Warner is currently in talk with Apple to make those rips, so that they’re iPod-compatible and DRM’d (with FairPlay).
A handful of titles are expected in October, a “full-blown launch” next [...]
[Yes, this is a picture of Jessica Simpson. What’s worse is that in the post that follows, I may try to convince you to shell out two bucks for a track of hers.]
Y! Music is offering a DRM-free MP3 for sale. DRM-free. Yes, I know Allofmp3 and eMusic have been doing this for ages, but [...]
According to a WSJ story (registration req. to read the article—ATRACLife has republished it), Sony admitted to reporters they failed to meet the initial sales target for their new line of models introduced over the past year. Sony president Ryoji Chubachi, who was quoted saying “We miscalculated with the Walkman”, declined to point out a [...]
AppleInsider broke the news that iTunes Producer, the software labels use to submit music for inclusion to the iTMS, was updated to include support for tracks in the Apple Lossless format. Speculation that the iTMS may begin offering tracks in the lossless format have risen substantially ever since, but it’s probably safer to remain sceptical [...]
BusinessWeek runs a piece on Tim Schaaff, Sony’s Senior VP of Software Development: the man who left Apple to undertake a huge task—make Sony’s software work. That means bringing the various departments closer, giving more power to software developers and keeping a low profile so as not to collide with the rather autonomous hardware engineers.
Review: [...]