Parting Shots: Nokia 5310
Added on 2008-10-01 15:58:00
by Marianne Schultz
 Our detailed review of the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic phone is now complete. What did we think of the tiny phone that promises to be your music BFF? Well, we loved the external music controls and the music player software is pretty good and allows you to make playlists and organize your music right on the phone. If you're the type who listens to music from dusk 'til dawn, you'll enjoy the decent music playback battery life of the 5310. But the budding photographers among you will not be so happy with the 5310 with its poor camera resolution and the eons it takes for a photo or video to be saved to memory, and we were disappointed that it can't play many video file formats at all. It has basic organizer functions help you keep your life in order, but you'll have to hunt down a way to sync it with your computer. The good news is that it costs only $49.99 when purchased online and comes with all the accessories you need to make the 5310 fit the bill as your digital music player, and is a pretty good value as a result.
Read the full review here.
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New iPhone firmware coming, Palm Treo Pro pre-order specials, Samsung recycling program, and more
Added on 2008-09-09 14:29:00
by Marianne Schultz
 Apple will release a new firmware update for the iPhone this Friday, Palm offers some incentives to pre-order the Treo Pro, Samsung announces its Recycling Direct program, and more in today's mobile news round-up
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| Tags: Apple, iPhone, iPhone 3G, firmware, 2.1, Palm, Treo, Pro, Samsung, recycle, Sony, Ericsson, music, unlimited, LG, VX9600, HTC, Opal |
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Apple Considering Premium for Unlimited iPhone, iPod Music
Added on 2008-03-19 03:48:00
by Tanya Palta
 
The Financial Times is reporting that Apple is in talks with major music labels as its considering charging a premium for iPhones and iPods in exchange for unlimited iTunes Store access.
This news comes as a surprise since Steve Jobs has always opposed this idea and calls it “renting music”. The service would entail customers downloading unlimited music and keeping that files permanently.
Apple has declined to comment.
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DRM-Free BlackBerry Music From Puretracks
Added on 2008-03-14 02:39:00
by Tanya Palta
 Who says BlackBerry users cannot have fun? Its no secret that RIM has been making a conscious effort to bridge the gap between the casual and the business user and now there is also a music-service on the horizon.
Puretracks, a Toronto-based digital music provider will soon launch a music service for BlackBerry. Universal, Sony ,BMG, Warner, EMI are just some of the big labels which have signed up with Puretracks.
A sneak peek of the Puretracks Mobile Edition music service for BlackBerry will be unveiled March 12 at the South By Southwest (SXSW) event in Austin, Texas. A full version of the mobile music service will launch at CTIA Wireless April 1
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Warner Music CEO Admits Mistakes
Added on 2007-11-16 05:53:00
by Tanya Palta
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BBC brings music to your mobile
Added on 2007-09-14 10:32:00
by Emily Price
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 The BBC has announced a partnership with spodtronic to deliver over 1,000 concerts to mobile handsets across Europe. The service will be available in 20 European countries and will feature artists like Pink Floyd, Queen, Muse, Coldplay, and Avril Lavigne. The service can be downloaded from spodtronics website and will run you 6 Euros or a little over $8 US a month.
[via IntoMobile]
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iPhone getting iTunes music store
Added on 2007-09-05 12:58:00
by Alfredo Padilla
 Apple today announced that they are adding Wi-Fi access to their iTunes music store, a feature that was initially demonstrated on their knew iPhone-like iPod Touch device. This application will be available later this month as part of a free update and will allow users to purchase iTunes music and download it directly to their device. In addition Apple announced a partnership with Starbucks that allows you to purchase music currently playing at the store via a tab that appears only when you are in the store. We assume that this is handled via the Wi-Fi hotspots that are ubiquitious at Starbucks stores, although we have to admit we feel a little weird about the though of Starbucks and our iPhone communicating to each other automatically. More details will be posted as we hear of them.
Update: It seems that you will be given free Wi-Fi access at Starbucks to browse the iTunes store. But this may not apply to web browsing via Safari or other data services. The rollout will begin on October 2nd in New York and Seattle, and expected to be deployed nationwide by the end of 2008.
[Via: Engadget]
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N81 hitting on August 29th?
Added on 2007-08-02 14:51:00
by Randall Bennett
 One of our fav sites, jkOnTheRun, run by James Kendrick and Kevin Tofel, noticed some weird ads cropping up on their mainly Google Adsense heavy site for a phone that looks vaguely Nokia inspired, hitting on 07/08/29, which for Americans, should read 08/29/07. Hmm... the same day Nokia officially announces their next music store. Interesting. Also of note, the commenters at JKOTR speculate it's likely the N81 8GB version, due to the button configuration. Looks like we've got 27 days to go before we know for certain, in the meantime, we'll just subscribe to their RSS feed.
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UpStage red pulls back the curtain June 18th
Added on 2007-06-13 12:35:00
by Randall Bennett
 Samsung rolled out a colorful update to the UpStage today, the red version. The $99 candybar phone sports a more traditional phone on one side, while the other is a media player with a larger screen. Expect it at Sprint stores by June 18th.
We ran the phone through it's paces a few months ago and weren't too impressed with the media playback, but people buying the upstage are likely buying it for the innovative design, so a red compliment to the potential "fashion phone" status probably will help push products.
Oh, and Samsung, next time you release one of these devices, put some gyroscopes in there so we don't have to push that lame button when switching from one side to the other. It's 2007, gyroscopes are so 2004 or earlier, so get to it already.
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Nokia's new software simplifies Mac syncing
Added on 2007-06-08 10:23:00
by Randall Bennett
 Nokia has made some real progress with their new sync software for Mac, Nokia Media Transfer 1.0. Ridiculously boring name aside, the software is actually pretty amazing and makes syncing between your Nokia phone and iTunes and iPhoto a snap. The software creates a new folder iCon (sorry, we had to) in both iTunes and iPhoto. Then, drag your fav playlists and photo albums into the folder, click sync and you're on the road with no messy mass storage issues to manage.
As an aside, if you want to finish fully syncing your phone, be sure to use iSync to sync contacts, calendars and tasks.
We just installed Nokia's software at the office, and are really impressed with the quality. So far, we've only used it to sync two devices in the last ten minutes, so we'll let you know if we find any issues with it as we continue to tinker. The software makes syncing phones as simple as syncing any other portable media player, which is definitely a good thing.
PS -- It's still in beta, so consider yourself warned. Download it from Nokia's site.
[Via AllAboutSymbian]
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Verizon's Announcement is a Free Prince Single and Song ID
Added on 2007-05-31 12:40:00
by Alfredo Padilla
 Verizon's music announcement today is that they are releasing Prince's new single Guitar exclusively on their V Cast music service and free. They are also announcing the introduction of V Cast Song ID, a service that allows you to identify up to 4 million songs by sound and allows you to immediately purchase the song from their V Cast service. Our previous baseless conjecture about Verizon reducing prices on their music was, well... baseless.
V Cast Song ID can be downloaded from Verizon's app page directly to your phone, go here for detailed instructions. It is currently available on the Chocolate, enV, VX9400, VX8700 and Samsung SCH-u620. Of course Cingular has had music ID on its phones for awhile now, but lacking the direct download service you can't purchase the song and listen to it immediately. This seems like a nice service, but we wish that you could buy songs from V Cast for a more reasonable price.
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Verizon Music Announcement Tomorrow
Added on 2007-05-30 19:16:00
by Alfredo Padilla
We received word today that Verizon will be making what they term "A major mobile music announcement.." tomorrow. The message mentions a new relationship with a major artist, which leaves us scratching our heads a little. In the realm of baseless speculation we wonder if Verizon might be thinking about dropping prices on its over the air downloads to 99 cents to match Sprint, but that might be wishing for a little much. We'll let you know for sure tomorrow.
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Beatnik Squeezes Your Music Even More
Added on 2007-05-30 09:09:00
by Alfredo Padilla
 Beatnik Inc. says that they can make over the air music downloads a reality for all users of cell networks, even if you don't have access to 3G. By using a new compression technology they say that they can reduce the size of a file up to ten times smaller than Mp3 currently does. This is accomplished by encoding repetitive sections of songs only once, and then reusing those sections as necessary. According to our calculations this means you will be able to squeeze the Beatles hit (?) Revolution #9 into about 10kb.
[Via Phone Scoop]
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Plantronics Debuts Pendant-Style Stereo Bluetooth Headset
Added on 2007-04-04 01:07:00
by Robert S. Anthony
 Plantronics has introduced a pendant-style wireless headset which supports stereo music streamed from cell phones and digital music players.
Instead of fitting over the ear, the Pulsar 260 Stereo Bluetooth headset looks like a set of wired ear buds with a small control box at one end.
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DRM-Free Songs: Good News for Music-Capable Cell Phones
Added on 2007-04-03 03:42:00
by Robert S. Anthony
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 Monday’s announcement by a major record label that it would begin selling high-quality music files without any copy protection bodes well for users of cell phones with MP3 players.
EMI Group announced Monday that in May it will start selling high-quality digital music files without digital-rights-management (DRM) restrictions features that limit how often a file can be copied or what devices it can be played back on. EMI’s DRM-free songs will be sold for through Apple Inc.’s iTunes Music Store for $1.29 each, a minor premium above the 99-cent, DRM-protected songs now in the store.
The move is good news for owners of music-capable cell phones since while many, like those with iTunes software built in, support DRM-protected files, many do not.
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Sprint Introduces 99 Cent Song Downloads
Added on 2007-03-26 14:01:00
by Alfredo Padilla
 In conjunction with the launch of their newest music phone the Samsung Upstage, Sprint today announced that they will be cutting prices for song downloads from their music store from $2.50 per song to just 99 cents per song. This puts them in line with online music retailers like iTunes and Rhapsody. It looks like Sprint finally realized that the convenience of downloading music to your phone doesn't outweigh ridiculous prices. More info after the jump.
[Via: Engadget Mobile]
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Winamp Remote Goes Mobile
Added on 2007-03-23 02:31:00
by Robert S. Anthony
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 Winamp, the venerable digital music player for PCs is going mobile. Nullsoft’s Winamp Remote for Mobile allows users to stream music from their PCs to any cell phone with a data plan and a digital music player.
The cell phone service is a new extension of Winamp Remote, a service now in beta testing which allows users to stream music from their Internet-connected PCs to any other PC with a Web browser.
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Any Phone can be an iPhone
Added on 2007-03-14 20:15:00
by Rusty Weiss
 Will the iPhone be obsolete before it ever comes out? Transmedia is offering new software which promises to make ‘every major cell phone on the market into more than an iPhone…’
The Glide Sync and Glide Mobile software has been available to Windows users since December, and is now available for U.S. Mac users, allowing them to access any kind of desktop file. But it doesn’t stop at just being able to access the files. They can be manipulated as needed, and then synchronized back to the Mac.
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| Tags: apple, iphone, transmedia, glide, sync, mobile, mac, macintosh, software, music, video |
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Beyonce to Endorse Samsung’s Music Phone
Added on 2007-03-14 19:14:00
by Rusty Weiss
Every company wants to capitalize on the fame and popularity of a rising or established star to help endorse their products. Such is the case of the advertising marriage currently being developed between Samsung and Beyonce Knowles.
The ‘naughty girl’ will be using the company's new Ultra Music SGH-F300 mobile phone. She will be featured in television commercials, advertisements and so on.
As an 11 time Grammy winner, Beyonce seems to be a perfect fit for a phone designed with music, video, and style in mind.
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Beyonce to Endorse Samsung’s Music Phone
Added on 2007-03-14 19:14:00
by Rusty Weiss
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Every company wants to capitalize on the fame and popularity of a rising or established star to help endorse their products. Such is the case of the advertising marriage currently being developed between Samsung and Beyonce Knowles.
The ‘naughty girl’ will be using the company's new Ultra Music SGH-F300 mobile phone. She will be featured in television commercials, advertisements and so on.
As an 11 time Grammy winner, Beyonce seems to be a perfect fit for a phone designed with music, video, and style in mind.
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