This is a demo video of the new FlyTunes Internet radio tuner service. FlyTunes delivers music, talk, weather, and traffic to the Apple iPhone and iPod touch.
The video shows the installation process and demos a few stations.
Microsoft is still struggling to come up with a Zune platform that competes with Apple’s iPod/iTunes juggernaut, reports Electronista:
Microsoft has revealed that it has sold two million of the music players since their launch in November 2006, revealing relatively flat growth for the device lineup.
The results leave Microsoft with just a fraction of Apple’s US share and with comparatively slow development. The company has primarily affected marketshare of Creative, who has dropped from four to two percent marketshare year-over-year, but has been unable to dislodge second-place SanDisk (at 11 percent) or the top-selling iPod.
Apple, in its latest quarter, sold 10.6 million iPods, or more than five times Microsoft’s cumulative sales to date.
At this point, Apple’s more likely to cannibalize it’s own iPod sales with more advanced devices, like the iPhone, than Microsoft is doing with the Zune. Microsoft’s recent Zune update moves the platform forward, but not as quickly as Apple is doing with the iPod/iPhone.
Orb Networks today announced a new service that streams live TV to the iPhone and iPod touch.
“TV on the iPhone is now real,” said Joe Costello, CEO of Orb Networks. “Steve Jobs may think that buying shows from iTunes is the same as watching TV, but iPhone users know better. When the NBA playoffs are on, you want to see the game, live, wherever you are. Free.”
To get around the iPhone’s extreme limitations on supported video formats, Orb created a special application, OrbLive, to enable the streaming of any video format to iPhones. Here’s a short demo video:
“Although the iPhone provides users with a great way to experience the web, it offers a ridiculously sub-par streaming video experience. When all the carriers’ free phones can stream lots of things that my iPhone can’t, something’s seriously wrong. OrbLive finally brings the iPhone’s streaming video experience up to par with other mobile phones.”
Orb’s service requires a jail-broken iPhone at this time.
Following two class-action lawsuits, Apple Canada is offering $45 credits to Canadian residents who purchased first-, second- or third-generation iPods before June 24, 2004.
The proposed settlement is the result of two iPod owners suing because rechargeable batteries in the second year of use conked out after just three hours, contrary to the advertised claim of eight hours between recharges.
Apple agreed to a settlement covering both claims. As many as 80,000 Canadians could be eligible, including 11,310 Quebecers, said Montreal lawyer Philippe Trudel, who represented Lenzi.
Speculation is running wild on the Web about Microsoft possibly building a content censor into the Zune software.
It comes as a result of a New York Times article that looked at why NBC pulled its TV content from Apple’s iTunes store and is now distributing it for the Zune.
NYT’s Saul Hansell writes:
Late Tuesday afternoon I reached J. B. Perrette, the president of digital distribution for NBC Universal, to ask why NBC found Microsoft’s video store more appealing than Apple’s.
He explained that NBC, like most studios, would like the broadest distribution possible for its programming. But it has two disputes with Apple.
First, Apple insists that all TV shows have an identical wholesale price so that it can sell all of them at $1.99. NBC wants to sell its programs for whatever price it chooses.
Second, Apple refused to cooperate with NBC on building filters into its iPod player to remove pirated movies and videos.
Microsoft, by contrast, will accept NBC’s pricing scheme and will work with it to try to develop a copyright “cop” to be installed on its devices.
Microsoft’s official word has been to deny this. According to Microsoft’s Cesar Menendez:
We have seen some chatter in the blogosphere over the last 24 hours around a couple of posts speculating about what Zune may or may not do in terms of putting content filtering features directly into the Zune family of devices in future releases.
We know you guys are following this discussion closely, and wanted to be absolutely clear on this issue:
We have no plans or commitments to implement any new type of content filtering in the Zune devices as part of our content distribution deal with NBC.
We think some folks in the industry were expressing hopes for how the entire industry, not just Microsoft, would come to look at content distribution, and some speculation has ensued. Again, no plans are in place toward this end.
Menendez’s comment are unlikely to clear up the controversy.
There Are Good Reasons To Fear Microsoft’s DRM & Content Filtering
DRM is still a major stumbling block limiting the consumption of digital video. With Microsoft’s dismal record with DRM’d media, the NBC deal is doomed to failure.
If NBC, and other networks, are serious about digital media, they are going to have to either figure out viable ad-supported free content models or go the way of the music industry, and sell unencrypted content that will work on any player.
Microsoft today announced new Zune software and online features. Here’s the official info an the updates:
Zune Software Updates
Responding directly to customer feedback, Zune has updated and added features and functionality to address better integration between the software, the online music community and the store. In addition, the updates include frequently requested features such as the ability to sync multiple Zune players at once. Specific feature updates include the following:
Auto playlists. Users can create an auto playlist that updates itself automatically as new music is added.
Browsing videos. Consumers can browse their video collection by genre and series, plus they can preview videos before they play them on full screen.
Editing album and track information. Users are able to edit track or album information (metadata) quickly via multi-select and drag-and-drop. The advanced metadata editing features make it easy to edit multiple tracks or survey albums and artist information.
Organizing collections. In addition to sorting by artist or album, consumers can now sort by genre. While browsing by genre they can further sort music by artist, album or release year.
Gapless playback. Consumers will now be able to listen to an album without the brief gap between tracks, both on their Zune and in the Zune software. This is a must-have for live-concert recordings and compilation albums.
Syncing groups. Zune software now syncs to multiple Zune players simultaneously. Users can prepare which content on their computer to sync even when their Zune isn’t connected. Consumers can create custom sync groups for music, pictures and videos.
Zune reminders. Experience is improved when a Zune player’s memory is nearing capacity, via an easy-to-use tool.
On May 6, the Zune Spring 2008 update will be made available to all Zune owners.
Here’s what’s in store:
Television On The Zune
More than 800 episodes of television series to download and watch (on the desktop and to sync to the Zune) including “South Park,” “Afro Samurai,” “Witchblade,” “The Hills,” “The Office,” “Heroes,” “30 Rock,” “Battlestar Galactica,” and a bunch more.
Episodes will be priced at 160 points (about $1.99).
The Expanded Zune Social
Syncing Zune cards with devices, reputation badges, enhanced album art, artist reviews and more
An Enhanced Zune Experience
New features here include: Auto Playlists, Better Album and Track Information Editing, Collections, Gapless Playback and Group Syncing.
Podcasts
Unfortunately, there is nothing new in this release for the podcast part of our little media device.
All in all, it looks like there’s still no rudder steering the direction of Zune development. It’s still a second-rate iPod, with useless wireless features and a cumbersome digital store.
As long as Microsoft focuses on imitating an advanced, well-loved, mature competitor, it’s going to remain a second-rate platform in the eyes of most buyers.
MacRumors reports that AT&T hotspots are now offering free Wi-Fi access to iPhone users.
Barnes and Noble, Starbucks and presumably AT&T’s 71,000 other Wi-fi hotspot locations are now offering iPhone users a custom portal to access free Wi-Fi. A special iPhone formatted page asks for your mobile phone number. Once entered, you can access the Wi-Fi access for free.
MacRumors has been able to confirm this finding at a local Barnes and Noble. Blurry photo provided:
AT&T recently partnered with Starbucks (displacing T-Mobile) to provide Wi-Fi access to Starbucks’ 7000 stores nationwide. This partnership allowed existing AT&T broadband customers free access and AT&T promised that it would “soon extend the benefits of Wi-Fi at Starbucks to its wireless customers”, but no official announcement has yet been made.
Even better - this functionality is based on the iPhone’s user agent - which is easily imitated with the browser on your computer.
We haven’t had a chance to give this a try yet. If you’re at one of AT&T’s 71,000 hotspots today, give this a try and let us know how it works!
Update: This service appears to have been disabled, at least for now. No official word on this from AT&T.
Rolling Stone has an interesting interview with Metallica’s Lars Ulrich that touches on the state of Metal, the band’s fight against Napster, how they are using digital music and trying to learn from Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails:
You were one of the first artists to sue over copyright infringement and voice concerns over aspects of downloading. Eight years later, with bands like Radiohead embracing the Net and yet charting, how has your stance changed, if at all?
We have FLACs and MP3s for sale. It was never about downloading per se. We have the Vault where you can download shows from twenty years ago for free, full-on and it’s been there for years. You can download recent shows days after they happen for cost.
Back in the day there was a much bigger question about “on whose terms?” We said, “Wait a minute, it should be about the artist.” Then all hell broke loose and we sat on the sidelines for a while. We’ve always been fiercely independent and controlling; sometimes to a fault. That’s why we exist and why all these people show up.
And as far as the next record goes …
You know, this is our last record under contract with Warner, so we’re looking at how we can embrace everything. We want to be as free a players as possible. We’ve been observing Radiohead and Trent Reznor and in twenty-seven years or however long it takes for the next record, we’ll be looking forward to everything in terms of possibilities with the Internet.
Have you thought about the climate into which you’ll be dropping this new album? What is the state of metal today?
I think you saw. Metal is fucking alive and well and doing better than it has in many years. It seems like most of the metal in the Seventies and the Eighties is still revered. It seems like most fourteeen year olds are into Deep Purple, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, as opposed to some alternative, grunge and especially the rap-rock of the Nineties. When you’ve been around a while you tend to disregard cycles, but there is a resurgence way deeper and more penetrating into the fourteen-year-old mindset all over. It’s unbelievable.
Metallica has received a lot of criticism over the years for their fight against Napster. While they still aren’t embracing file sharing, they aren’t against offering free music downloads on their own terms. The group now has hours and hours, if not days, of free music available for download at their site,
Molly Wood has a great take on the state of the Zuneover at Crave, offering 5 reasons she’s leaving the Zune behind and a scary tale about how her Zune erased thousands of her songs:
About two weeks ago, I was going on a trip. My Zune’s battery had run out, so I plugged it in to charge it to take on the plane with me. Despite my settings in the Zune software not to sync all my music, video, pictures, and podcasts, the Zune started its sync dance.
When it was complete, it gave me this message:
10 items added
2,372 items removed
WHAT!!!???
Yep. The software, in its auto-sync wisdom, removed every single song from the device that was not stored locally on the computer. There was no prompt, there was no “I can’t find this” warning like the iTunes Library will sometimes offer. It just decided, out of what I assume was some misguided antipiracy effort, to remove any songs that it couldn’t find on my hard drive. What if I were syncing the machine with two different computers with two different music libraries, you ask? Too bad. Zune is in control.
And you know what? I don’t like being told what to do. I don’t like sitting on a wiped Zune two hours before I’m supposed to leave from the airport. I don’t like software that ignores what I think is a pretty specific request for manual syncing, and I don’t like device behaviors that assume I am stealing music. What this all boils down to, I’m truly sorry to say, is that I don’t like my Zune. Hello, again, little iPod buddy.
Any media player is going to have its bugs and quirks. Unfortunately, Microsoft has failed to make the Zune’s bugs and quirks worth putting up with.
Microsoft is still struggling to come up with a Zune platform that competes with Apple’s iPod/iTunes juggernaut, reports 
Speculation is 
