iTunes

Microsoft has announced Zune, its new personal media brand and associated download service.  There is much speculation about the player and its features. Pundits are weighing in on the validity of the rumored “closed” system (similar to Apple’s iPod/iTunes environment)–good idea, bad idea? There will be video, but not until later, it will be wireless, Continue Reading →

MY VIDEO IPOD LOVES ME! Unfortunately, I only like it “as a friend.” It all started last December when we met at a holiday party–the chemistry was extraordinary. It was sleek, beautiful and full of mystery (“Lost”), drama (“Law & Order”) and intrigue (“Desperate Housewives). It had a sense of humor (“SNL”) and even a Continue Reading →

It’s the dawn of a new year–filled with excitement, possibilities and promise. By now all of the new HDTV sets are hooked up, new iPods are formatted, iTunes accounts are set up, and BitTorrent 4.2.2 is properly installed. Let the media frenzy begin. Just one problem … according to studies by SA and Leichtman, over Continue Reading →

Cable and Congress are at it again. During a hearing that was supposed to be about indecency, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin brought up a study which “concludes that purchasing cable programming in a more a la carte manner in fact could be economically feasible and in consumers’ best interest.” The idea of a Continue Reading →

We hear the content industry and rights holders complaining about piracy everyday: file sharing, physical piracy, theft-of-services, derivative works, etc. But has anyone stopped to think about how many times consumers are asked to pay for the same content? Computer files may be the final form factor, but that is not stopping media companies from Continue Reading →

Did Steve Jobs finally screw up?  After all, if there was such a thing as the portable video business wouldn’t everyone would have been walking around with a Sony Watchman for the last 20 years?  No and no. Apple’s new video iPod probably won’t capture the imagination of consumers quite the way its audio predecessor Continue Reading →

Growing up in the 70s on Long Island, I had a pretty set after-school routine. Throw my coat over the living room railing, throw my books on the kitchen counter, grab a soda and a big bag of chips or cookies and throw myself on the couch in front of the television set. Most afternoons Continue Reading →

The Los Angeles Times Reports: Technophiles predicted that the PDA would go the way of the dinosaurs, and it looks like the prediction is about to come true.   Thanks to the success of the MP3 player generally and the iPod specifically, cell phone manufacturers are turning PDA/phones into music-playing PDA/phones, and wireless carriers are Continue Reading →

In addition to its bigger announcements of iTunes 4.9 and its new color screen iPod lineup, Apple today quietly dropped the price of the 1GB iPod shuffle to $129, from $149.   The price cut is seen as a move to boost sales and distance the device away from the lower-end iPod mini model. It Continue Reading →

The British aren’t coming … they’re here!  The BBC will move a step closer to delivering what it calls “iTunes for the broadcast industry” later this year, launching a public trial of iMP, which allows viewers to download any show from the previous week that they may have missed. Some of us call this a Continue Reading →