Technology News

Cellphone Bills That Truly Roam/ Understanding the Fine Print

Source: Michael Ricci
January 8, 2009

The Roaming Orgy: iPhone, data and the telecoms

Using a data-enabled cellphone in a foreign land has become a little like falling asleep on a train in Naples if youre not careful, you could end up with empty pockets. You know the feeling.

Shock, fear, panic, said Mike Cottmeyer, a software consultant in Suwanee, Ga., referring to an $800 iPhone data bill hed been hit with after visiting Toronto for a few days last year. It kind of makes you ...

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Universal Cuts Custom Ringtone Deal with ID Interactive's Urtone

Source: HypeBot
January 8, 2009

UPDATED: Ringtone sales are in a slump and labels are scrambling to new ways to revive them. Many of the initiatives attempt to boost revenues by cutting out the middle man and aiming for direct sales. That includes the new deal between Universal Music Group and ID Interactive to provide a custom-ringtone solution for its labels.

ID's UrTone player allows consumers to select any part from any track and customize a ringtone to be delivered instantly to their cell. Users ...

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Live Nation Ticketing is Live

Source: All About Jazz
January 8, 2009

Live Nation Launches Ticketing Company. The bulk of the world's largest promoter's 10-year contract with Ticketmaster has expired and the company has now launched its in-house ticketing company.

“Anytime you have a major rollout, you hold your breath and hope there are no major glitches," Live Nation CEO of global music Jason Garner tells Billboard. “We went live over the [holiday] break and I didn't hear one complaint from anybody about the system." Garner admits the rollout was “pretty complex, ...

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Stonehenge: One Totally Awesome Rave Location

Source: All About Jazz
January 7, 2009

Stone circles acoustics are ideal for listening to repetitive trance rhythms

Stonehenge was built as a dance arena for prehistoric “samba-style" raves, according to a study of the acoustics of the 5,000-year-old stone circle. Using cutting-edge technology, Rupert Till, an expert in acoustics and music technology at Huddersfield University in northern England, discovered that Stonehenge's megaliths reflect sound perfectly, making the stone circle an ideal setting for listening to repetitive trance rhythms. Till and colleague Bruno Fazenda first carried out ...

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Macbook Pro 17 Inch 2009

Source: All About Jazz
January 7, 2009

Precision aluminum. The new gold standard. Carved from a single block of aluminum, the new unibody enclosure is slim and streamlined, making this MacBook Pro the worlds thinnest and lightest 17-inch notebook just 0.98 inch thin and 6.6 pounds.

But its not just for looks. The rigid construction of the unibody also makes MacBook Pro more durable than ever. So you can throw it in your bag and pull it out at a photo shoot, in a hotel ...

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Universal vs. Veoh: Score 1 for Music 2.0

Source: HypeBot
January 7, 2009

Over the holidays Universal Music Group lost a major lawsuit to online video sharing site Veoh. Much like the many lawsuits flying around between the major labels and music 2.0 companies that enable fans to upload content, Universal sought to make Veoh responsible for any copyright violations the fan may have incurred - like the time you added Dylan's “Like A Rolling Stone" as a sondtrack to the home video of you throwing your kid brther down a flight of ...

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iTunes to Expand DRM Free and Variable Pricing According to Report

Source: HypeBot
January 7, 2009

IT'S OFFICIAL: SEE UPDATE HERE.

As soon as today at Macworld, Apple will announce that iTunes is expanding its DRM offering to include all of the major labels and will add variable pricing according to cNet. Over the aor downloads are also part of the deals which were concluded last week. Leaked details appear to match many of the label demands that

Songs will be priced in three tiers: 69-79 cents for older catalog, 99 cents for midline product and ...

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It's Official! Apple's iTunes Drops DRM, Adds Variable Pricing

Source: HypeBot
January 7, 2009

UPDATED: From today's Macworld address: Three pricing tiers: $0.99 cents, $0.69 cents, and $1.29. “Depending on how the music labels offer music, Apple will price accordingly." Starts n April. Most albums will still be priced at $9.99. iTunes Plus: Plays on as many computers as you own. Now at 256 kbps AAC encoding Free 1 click upgrades for your entire purchased library to iTunes plus. DRM Free: 8 million songs are DRM free as of today. By the end of ...

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