Origami Video

Whoa... this thing is a lot bigger than I thought it was from yesterdays pictures. Watch a promotional video for Microsoft's Origami Project here. It is a small tablet PC with WiFi/bluetooth/3G(?) connectivity that will, among other things, be able to remote content from a Media Center PC. It looks like a full-blown XP machine to me as opposed to Win CE, although t is hard to tell from the video. Rumor is that it will run about $500.

Microsoft's Origami project - Engadget

Microsoft's Origami project - Engadget

Engadget's got some pictures and speculation on Microsoft's soon-to-be unveiled "Origami Project" (www.origamiproject.com).




Potentially an OQO type of ultraportable device? Probably and instant-on Windows Mobile device with WiFi and portable media capability. It is obviously no coincidence that this "technology" announcement is coming a couple of days after Apple's. They must think that what they've got up their sleeve trumps Apple's rumored touch-screen 6G iPod Video.

As I've mentioned before, I think a "WiFipod" is extremely compelling (although I'm biased and would certainly prefer a PlaysForSure device that works with all the subscription music services). Shameless Plug: Check out AOL Music Now! Should be an interesting week....

Digital music fans: Should you rent or buy?

I'm not still not a fan of the term "rent" (you don't "rent" cable TV - or milk for that matter), but I agree there are people that should buy tracks and others that will benefit more for a subscription service. Below is a quiz from The Mercury News that will help identify which approach may be better from you.

KRT Wire | 02/24/2006 | Digital music fans: Should you rent or buy?: "SHOULD YOU BUY OR RENT YOUR MUSIC?

1. The collection of CDs I listen to regularly has:

A) fewer than 100 discs.

B) more than 100 discs.

2. I often want music that I don't have on CD.

A) True.

B) False.

3. The music I listen to is:

A) usually easy to find in stores.

B) not easy to find.

4. My musical tastes:

A) vary from month to month.

B) don't often change.

5. When I buy a song I like, I:

A) don't listen to it any more than the rest of the music I've purchased.

B) listen to it over and over again.

6. I listen to the radio a lot.

A) True.

B) False.

7. I learn about new music:

A) by hearing it in random places and tracking it down.

B) from friends' or trusted sites' recommendations.

---

YOUR SCORE

Add up the number of A's and B's from the seven questions.

More A's: You may want to consider renting; it gives you the opportunity to explore a huge catalog of music without committing to any one song or artist for too long.

More B's : You probably want to consider buying; either your tastes are too esoteric or you're the type to purchase a few songs and enjoy the heck out of them"

iPod is this Generation's BetaMax

Does anyone else see the parallel? Closed ecosystems eventually fail.... VHS vs. Beta. Apple vs. Windows. MiniDisk. The list goes on and on. One day I'll come back to this thought and rant on it more, but in the meantime I just wanted to throw that out there...

Rumor: Apple to Buy Palm? - Gizmodo

Rumor: Apple to Buy Palm? - Gizmodo: "Rumors are running rampant lately and today we hear that Apple may be evaluating a Palm purchase."

Whoa, now that would be interesting.... iTreo anyone? It would make sense given the rumors about Apple wanting to be a MVNO (Mobilve Virtual Netowrk Operator). Definitely something to watch...

Away Message

Set your away message to promote AOL Music Now...

I'm not here right now, but check out AOL Music Now while you wait!

I've got some ideas on how to personalize this, but since I'm not a programmer I'm going to have to hit someone up that acutally knows what they are doing. :-)

A "Perfect" Album Arrives From Britain?

A Perfect Album Arrives From Britain - You haven't heard of the Arctic Monkeys? You will.: "It's enough to make a Yank suspicious of Arctic Monkeys, whose "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" arrives with more buzz than any British debut since Oasis' Definitely Maybe a dozen years ago. But lo and behold, the record isn't just great - it's perfect. "

The albums not hitting the US until Feb. 21st, but you can catch a couple of videos from the link above. Gotta admit it... sounds like it's got some good potential.

muSick in the Head on SuprGlu

muSick in the Head on SuprGlu

This could be interesting... a personal (outbound) feed aggregator. This combined with Immedi.at may be a cool mash-up. I'll play with it and let you know what I think.

USATODAY.com - Get your music to go: Online subscriptions get a test drive

USATODAY.com - Get your music to go: Online subscriptions get a test drive: "A friend argues that he would never use the to-go services because if he pays for music, he wants to own it. But for anyone who wants to check out lots of new music on the run - frequent travelers, bike riders or joggers - the prices of the to-go services can't be beat. "

Forget the other services they talk about and go to the "preview" of AOL Music Now (www.aolmusicnow.com).

USATODAY.com - 2006 could be year that Apple CEO Jobs falls off pedestal

"Sometime in 2006, Steve Jobs will probably get hosed. That's not so much a prediction as it is playing the odds. Nobody in America gets such a long ride on the oh-we-sooooo-adore-you bandwagon."

The tide is beginning to turn....

New Playlist Alerts via AIM!

Now that I've got Immedi.at working, let the fun begin. Want to get an IM whenever I create a new playlist? Click here!

Perhaps more interesting is the mash-up I created between Music Now, Wists and Immedi.at, where you can subscribe to my album recommendations (see the sidebar to see what they are). Conceptually, every time I add an album recommendation, you would get an AIM with a link to the album within the Music Now catalog. To subscribe to this one, click here.

So far, the IMs seem to take there time getting to you, but I'm guessing the folks at Immedi.at are getting slammed right now with traffic.

immedi.at: It's like RSS crack!

I haven't gotten this to work yet, but once I do you can bet I will talk more about it. The concept is... subscribe to be notified via AIM whenever a feed is updated and/or a post is made to someones blog. This tied into some of the music service feeds that I use could be REALLY powerful. Stay tuned, I'll keep trying.

UPDATE: I've now got it working... click here to try it out.

Digital Music News

"AOL will use its recently-acquired MusicNow property to deliver a web-based solution, while Napster and RealNetworks will broaden their existing application-based approaches. Meanwhile, Apple has little intention of moving away from the application, indicating that competitors are taking fewer cues from the market leader.


The key advantage of a web-based solution is accessibility - not only from multiple computers and browsers, but increasingly from mobile devices. At first blush, the proposition is compelling: buy or listen to music from wherever you are, by simply entering a username and password. And for a player like AOL, a web-based approach is designed to integrate more smoothly into a larger music destination."

E-Commerce News: Entertainment : AOL Aims High With MusicNow Buy

E-Commerce News: Entertainment : AOL Aims High With MusicNow Buy: "MusicNow has a long history in Internet time, having been founded in 1999 as FullAudio. Circuit City owned it for about a year, in a move that many analysts viewed as a bold experiment at the time but has proven to be a poor fit.
But that time has given MusicNow ample opportunity to develop a strong user interface and the type of features menu that analysts say will be increasingly important to set music download sites apart, especially as the predicted shift from pay-per-download -- the current model offered by the dominant Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iTunes -- to subscription services."

AOL Adds Further Tune To The Sounds Through Its Music Subscription Service

AOL Adds Further Tune To The Sounds Through Its Music Subscription Service: "On Thursday, America Online Inc., announced the spectacular news that it has acquired online music subscription company MusicNow LLC, and has launched a preview of the AOL-branded service."

AOL Adds Further Tune To The Sounds Through Its Music Subscription Service

AOL Adds Further Tune To The Sounds Through Its Music Subscription Service: "On Thursday, America Online Inc., announced the spectacular news that it has acquired online music subscription company MusicNow LLC, and has launched a preview of the AOL-branded service."

The Modern Journalist: It's Back To The Web For Digital Music

The Modern Journalist: It's Back To The Web For Digital Music: "Breaking with the Apple iTunes / Napster model, many biggest digital music providers are moving portions or all of their services onto the Web. This trend toward the Web by music services may be a part of a broader move by technology companies--most notably in Microsoft's new Window Live campaign--to offer increasingly powerful computing features on the Web that were once limited to computer desktops and hard drives."

Jon Wright UK - Music To Our Ears

Jon Wright UK - Music To Our Ears: "Nice to see other music providers starting to think a little differently about how they deliver music online. According to CNET news, America online are going to do things a little differently by providing music that consumers can access anywhere."

GarageRockers

GarageRockers: "As long as WMA DRM is Windows only, they leave out the statistically better educated, wealthier users. Of course, the fact remains that even if Microsoft were to make WMA DRM Mac compatible (and in their current state of desperation, it's pretty much just a matter of time), the better educated user is still most likely to make the smarter choice, and buy an iPod and buy from iTMS because their DRM restrictions are more open than those of WMA DRM."


Ah, now here's a logical arguement... I would contest the point, but I'm obviously not appopriately educated to the point where I could engage in a battle of wits with him (since my OS has a "Microsoft" emblazoned on it). What I love most about his "logic" is that the reason iTunes/iPod will win is due to it's unsurmountable market share position (80% marketshare). Bascially, if you're not the market leader then you shouldn't even try, yet he seems to be composing this arguement from his Mac.....

Dygital's Blog - AOL Announces Acquisition of MusicNow

Dygital�s Blog � AOL Announces Acquisition of MusicNow: "This is good, and competitive to iTunes. Though, realistically, iTunes has more marketshare and more opt-in users with iPods; this does offer people with that Microsoft �PlaysForSure� crap an option to use this service. This is a pretty cool service, for the same price as iTunes and integrates with your AOL/AIM login. I wish they had a PayPal option, but heh, I guess its okay as it is. This service is better than MusicNet that AOL has been offering for a while now. Glad to see some more progress."