CES Preview: Mustek unleashes Freestyle MP3 player headphones
Featherweight and ergonomically designed, new Freestyle! headphone-style MP3 players from Mustek are perfect for the gym, bicycling, snowboarding, running or just listening to music at home. And best of all, they have no bulky wires or uncomfortable ear buds. The new Freestyle! players feature 2GB of internal memory to hold 600 of your favorite songs in either MP3 or WMA audio format, the rechargeable Li-ion battery is supposed to give music fans ten hours of continuous music playback.
Mobile Video: Nintendo DS now playing movies
Nintendo DS now allows watching movies and reading books. Why, you can even read your favorite books and comics on the DS. This upgraded version of the DS will include a USB reader and a Micro SD cartridge should you wish to store more movies and e-books.Yet to be released on March 2008, the new DS Lite unfortunately, doesn’t allow you to download content via Wi-Fi, thus the need for Micro SD slot for file transfer.This may be a gadget tad behind the PSP but I’m pretty sure there are some who prefers the mini-laptop look of the DS. Now, any more interesting feature? (ReBu)
Web Video experts see solid growth for mobile multimedia
According to San Diego. Ca.-based web video pioneer PacketVideo the global mobile multimedia industry made solid progress in 2007, and that progress mostly came from mobile operators honing their established service offerings and improving the end-user experience. PacketVideo (PV) is a multimedia software company whose software powers more than 170 million multimedia mobile devices worldwide. As a subsidiary of NextWave Wireless Inc. (NASDAQ: WAVE), supplies the multimedia software that enables such services as Verizon Wireless’ VCAST music and video services, NTT DoCoMo’s 3G FOMA service and Orange’s Orange World services.
Fox Searchlight Pictures/Rhino: ‘JUNO’ soundtrack featuring Kinks, Sonic Youth
Dec 10, 2007 News
Rhino will release the soundtrack for JUNO, a comedy from Fox Searchlight Pictures directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking) and written by Diablo Cody. Opening in select theaters December 5, the film’s soundtrack mixes classic artists, such as The Kinks and Mott The Hoople, with indie faves Sonic Youth and Cat Power. The soundtrack will be available December 11 exclusively as a download from digital outlets for a suggested price of $10.99. The physical album will be available for purchase in stores January 15 for a suggested list price of $13.98.
The 20-song collection includes eight songs by Kimya Dawson – a featured solo artist as well as member of the groups The Moldy Peaches and Antsy Pants. Two Dawson-penned instrumentals make their debut on the soundtrack, as well as “So Nice So Smart” from Dawson’s 2004 Knock-Knock Who? and “Loose Lips” and “Tire Swing” from Dawson’s Remember I Love You, which was released last year. The track “Anyone Else But You” was recorded in 2001 by Dawson and Adam Green as The Moldy Peaches. The film’s young stars – Ellen Page and Michael Cera – appear on the soundtrack as well, performing their own version of “Anyone Else But You.” Dawson’s other group, Antsy Pants, contributes a pair of tracks to the album, “Vampire” and “Tree Hugger.”
Nokia now ‘Comes with Music’: One year free music downloads to go after Apple
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The world’s biggest maker of mobile handsets, Finnland-based Nokia, is set to go head-to-head with Apples’s iTunes online music service by offering free music downloads to buyers of new Nokia phones with integrated music players. Nokia just announced a deal with the Universal Music label to provide the label’s releases, and aims to ship more than 180 million music-enabled phones by next year. Currently top stars such as Akon, Al Jarreau or PJ Harvey are signed by Universal Music.
Microsoft: Redmond buys Photo Sharing Service WebFives
Dec 3, 2007 News
As always, Microsoft is very late to the game. Maybe it’s a part of their strategy: wait until Google (Picasa Web Albums) and Yahoo (Flickr) establish solid market positions, and then develop or buy an (usually inferior) product of their own and try to corner those remaining 10% of users.
This time, they’ve acquired WebFives (previously Vizrea), a photo/video/audio sharing site primarily aimed at mobiles, specifically Nokia devices. In typical Microsoft fashion, they’re promptly shutting down the service (current users have 30 days to download their content) which will probably reemerge later as a Microsoft branded product.
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Here’s an excerpt from the letter that Mike Toutonghi had recently sent to all Webfives users:
“In November of 2007, we reached an agreement with Microsoft, wherein Microsoft has acquired all rights to WebFives technology, patents pending, trademarks, and software to incorporate into its products and services over time. In order to make our wind down process as easy as possible for our users, Microsoft has agreed to provide us with a license to continue operating WebFives until the end of the year, giving you time to copy any information you would like to keep to your own PCs or another service prior to the end of the year.“
Just what the users wanted to hear, I guess.
[via ZDNet]
Microsoft Acquires Photo Sharing Site WebFives.
Web content: Comdey Central to boost Atom.com
COMEDY CENTRAL will make Atom.com its new home for original online content and will triple its investment in making videos for the web. The Atom site will allow the network to separate its original online content from its major TV properties, such as the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Comedy Central hopes that creating a dedicated destination will help its original Internet content find an audience.
