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Slacker Now Taking Hardware Orders

Amazon’s not the only one with new digital media hardware this holiday season, as internet radio provider Slacker is now taking pre-orders for their Portable Radio Player. And like the Kindle, no desktop computer is required: Revolutionary DJ technology built into the device, and a new class of radio licenses, allow the Slacker Portable to … Read more

Pandora Lands on AT&T Handsets

Forgive me if I’m a little behind, but I’m not used to receiving two Pandora announcements in one week. In addition to beefing up their online web services, Pandora has announced a partnership with AT&T to stream personalized music selections to handsets. AT&T customers will need a supported phone, a data and to pony up $8.99/month… which makes Sprint’s $2.99/mo Pandora offering look like a bargain. It’s great to see online services expand beyond the browser, but is AT&T setting themselves up for failure?

Guest blogger Kevin Groppe is a digital media enthusiast, located in the DC metro area, who covers media centers and home theater computers at Floppyhead.com.

Two things I hate about exercising with my current MP3 player are how the cable from the player to earbuds constantly bounces around and how covered in sweat my MP3 player gets when I hold it. With this in mind, OTTO has developed a Wireless MP3 Player Headset.

The unique concept behind the OTTO Wireless MP3 Player Headset is that it combines an mp3 player and headphones into one compact device, eliminating the wire from earpiece to MP3 player. For most people, carrying around your entire music collection in your MP3 player is overkill. 10,000 songs in the palm of your hand is great for long vacations or business trips, but not necessary for your commute or trip to the gym. OTTO embraces this fact and has developed an MP3 player that has a useful form factor with the following specs:

Apple Says No To Cash

According to Bloomberg and AP reports, as of 10/25 Apple is only accepting plastic for iPhone purchases “so sales can be tracked.” While Wired doesn’t believe this is illegal at a Federal level, I imagine there are jurisdictions where refusing cash is prohibited. In reality, this restriction won’t negatively impact many – However, and regardless … Read more

The CTIA Wrap

On a few occasions, I managed to sneak away from my work responsibilities and roam the CTIA floor. I also chatted up several mobile gurus I enjoy – including Sascha Segan (PC Mag), Bonnie Cha (CNET), and Ed Hardy (Brighthand). While the show was maybe 1/3rd the size of the Orlando event and there were fewer product launches/announcements, here are some of the cool, new phones I played with (in no particular order):

HTC CDMA Touch (Sprint)
I hadn’t held a Touch (GSM variety) since June, so I forgot how small this device is and that it feels great in the hand. I’m still not entirely sold on the touchscreen-only method of interaction (think iPhone), but HTC has stepped it up with the new CDMA Touch in adding 2 finger friendly typing overlays. An HTC rep also showed me a Touch Dual variant with a SureType-style keyboard – which is more my speed, though US launch plans haven’t been disclosed.

Nokia N95 8GB (GSM)
This phone looks sharp. And I’m not just saying that because I worked Nokia’s booth. Instead of naming it the N95 8G, it’d be more accurate to call it the N95+ or even the N96 — in addition to the that extra storage, the screen is noticeably larger, the buttons tweaked, and the shell has a sexy piano black finish. I didn’t catch all the details, so I’m not sure if it’s 3G in the US.

SanDisk Introduces Sneakernet Extender and Download Service

SanDisk has unveiled TakeTV — a new line of USB accessories (4GB @ $99, 8GB @ $149) which, when docked, allow standard definition DivX, Xvid, and MPEG4 television playback. I don’t imagine the sneakernet media extender market is very large. In fact, Iomega tried something similar (using a hard drive, as opposed to flash) last … Read more

Live (DRM) Free or Die Hard

A few folks have now reported on 20th Century Fox’s move to offer an electronic copy of the movie “Live Free or Die Hard” along with packaged DVDs when sales begin November 20th. I love the idea, though being touted as DRM-free is a bit suspect given the digital files are only compatible with Microsoft PlaysForSure devices.

A few things come to mind with this “Digital Copy” business model. First, bundling a tangible item and a digital file together makes sense. Despite the incursion of digital downloads, it’s going to be quite a while before we see the death of the DVD, and studios have a great opportunity to get consumers used to buying something with physical packaging in combination with their video content. In the future the tangible part might not be a DVD, but extras of some sort. (Tee shirts? Phone charms? Posters? I’m sure marketing will come up with something.)

Second, these digital files have to become DRM-free in the future. Maybe there needs to be watermarking (or some type of pin number access?), but those files have to be truly portable. There are too many competing platforms on the market for content to be tied to any single one.

Third, in this specific instance, where are the digital file’s video resolution details? How will it be presented on different screens and devices? Perhaps we’ll hear more closer to launch, or from the folks at Warner Home Video – who are trying the same tactic with their December 11th Harry Potter release.

Led Zeppelin Modernizes, Radiohead Evangelizes

Thank you Robert Plant and Jimmy Page for opening your catalog to digital downloads. Led Zeppelin gets started this week on Verizon Wireless but, come November 13th, will also make songs available via iTunes and other services. Kevin Tofel, of jkOnTheRun, has loaned me his Zune so I may try out the all-you-can-eat Zune Pass … Read more