Archive for: media
Despite earlier rumors that Microsoft was in the process of discontinuing the Zune HD media player, a new update appears to bring new life to an aging platform. The new update brings one simple yet important feature — email. The “email for Zune HD” app is a free download from the Zune HD Marketplace and supports Gmail, Hotmail, and Exchange accounts (POP3 and IMAP support is said to be iffy).
From our quick jaunt around the web, it appears that this bare bones email app is merely half-baked. The inability to customize server settings, short list of supported email account types, and no contact syncing whatsoever have been voiced. However, the biggest flaw we’ve seen highlighted so far is that the app needs to re-download email every time the app is closed and re-opened. Still, having something is better than nothing wouldn’t you say?
To say the tablet market is exploding right would be an understatement. Currently, there are no less than half a dozen manufacturers including but not limited to Toshiba, LG, RIM, and Apple. Each company and device has their own spin on how a tablet should look and function. Who makes the best tablet is more or less subjective. But there’s another new kid on the block — Creative.
But where other tablets have more or less focused on screen size, apps, or appearance, Creative is taking a different approach and focusing on sound quality.
Media junkies celebrate! VLC Media Player is now available. Verson 1.1.0 brings a few enhancements (from the prevoius un-released 1.0 version) including the ability to delete files on the iDevice without having to go through iTunes, a bunch more of codecs are now recognized, and quicker decoding. Sounds like a win to me. Free in the App Store — go and get it!
Western Digital’s Jim Welsh claims that by 2014, every household will have at least 1TB of digital content. That’s a pretty bold claim. What about the millions of non-tech savy seniors — you know, the ones that have trouble operating the microwave? I’m pretty sure they won’t be streaming last.fm while updating their Facebook and tweeting their friends. I doubt “every” household will have 1TB of digital content for at least another decade or two.
Still, it is kind of interesting to think about. A better question: How much do digital content do you own now, and how much more do you think you’ll acquire as we race along to the future (and in this case, 2014)?
- September 1, 2010 2:04 pm
New iPod Touches were a given. Still, it’s nice that they’re finally here. But as awesome as they are, the new iPod Touch is hardly the only thing worth talking about.
Hop inside and get the quick rundown of everything Apple dished out today…
Ask any tech competent person about DRM and they’ll correctly tell you it’s useless — unless of course you goal is to piss off someone and neuter their experience with legally obtained content. The image that has attached itself to DRM isn’t going away. So, content creators have to get crafty every now and then. (Too bad they can’t put that creativity into creating actual legitimate business models that don’t fuck over consumers…) Meet the latest face in DRM: UltraViolet.
The aim of UltraViolet is to be a digital, cloud-based locker of sorts that will “just work”. The claim to fame is that no matter the destination, whether it be gaming console, smartphone, tv, computer, DVR, etc., UltraViolet will allow playback of your content without hiccup. Though of course, that was the original claim of your standard DRM scheme. And we all know how that played out. Not to mention, a cloud-based account signals to me that an internet connection would be required to authorize/de-authorize devices to play your content. For a fair chunk of users, that wouldn’t be a problem. But alas, not all of us have internet. What are those people going to do? Everyone involved managed to get one thing right though — it’s free.
There’s plenty of big name media partners, physical, and digital retailers jumping on board, so DECE UltraViolet looks like it may stick around for a little while. Let’s just hope it goes better than the last dozen and a half DRM it-always-works schemes. Anyone remotely excited? Or would you rather keep playback across devices in your own hands, manually, and without a needed internet connection? Ya…me too.
Fresh off their “Rule the World” campaign, Verizon (Wireless still?) is coming forward to let feature phone users know that they are still important regardless of the onslaught that smartphones are unleashing. At the same time, the sharing and social abilities of smartphones shouldn’t be ignored, even on feature phones. To combat this, Verizon is launching a new Twitter-sharing service called “TweetToGo”.
TweetToGo is a BREW-based Twitter app (developed by Pelago and TweetPhoto) that will allow users access to @mentions, picture sharing via TweetPhoto, direct messages, replying, and of course, tweeting. One other notable additions coming to TweetToGo are GPS support (allowing geo-tagged tweets and pictures), Twitter lists, trends, and access to saved searches. Overall, for a feature phone app, TweetToGo looks rather robust and complete.
Look for TweetToGo, available now and currently supporting 25 different VZW phones, in the “Get It Now” media center. Press release after the break…
Let’s see, in the age of digital distribution, where newspapers and magazines are dying all around, BestBuy is taking it upon themselves to launch an “all new” magazine dubbed “@gamer”. Is it DOA?
To be fair, @gamer is said to offer subscribers (more on that in a moment) both insightful editorial content and savings to BestBuy stores. As far as editorial content goes, the best 30-40 hardware and software items in the gaming scene wil be covered in each issue. Furthermore, each issue of @gamer will feature roughly $20 of redeemable coupons readers can cash in at local BestBuy stores. Sounds pretty nifty, right?
That is unless you expect @gamer to be a free service. Now, I understand the world can’t operate for free. As such, @gamer won’t be either. The cost will go as follows: 10 issues for $19.99 or a $5.99/issue in-store. The coupons are somewhat of a nice gimme, but enough to get me to pay for a magazine of month old content when I can simply hop online (a month prior) and read the same thing for free? No thanks.
From here on out, I can honestly say that I wouldn’t care if every “good ol boys” print media corporation closed up shop and died. They obviously don’t know what the hell they’re doing in this new fangled digital age we live in. Nothing highlights this better than the NYT’s latest hissy fit over iPhone app “Pulse”.
Pulse was a paid app that pulled news stories from the NYT’s actual feed as well as many other news outlets. The NYT’s complained to Apple about the whole paid/copyright issue and Apple complied, removing Pulse.
The real problem here is this: There’s thousands of apps and services across multiple devices and platforms that do this very same thing. Limiting it to Pulse (which until now didn’t have a ton of publicity) doesn’t make sense. Then again, decisions from dying, bassakwards businesses rarely do — hence their down-spiraling.
The devs behind Pulse have stated that they’re simply going to remove the NYT’s feed from the app and re-submit. Good for Pulse, bad for NYT. Though if the NYT is trying to distance themselves from the digital mindset that is increasingly overtaking society, so be it. NYT who…?
**Update: And just like that — Pulse is back in the App Store. However, how it got back so quickly is unbeknownst to us…and Pulse. According to co-creator Akshay Kothari, they haven’t the slightest why it’s back again. Perhaps Apple realized the ridiculous claims made by the NYT, hmm?
