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Apple Releases New iTunes Beatles Ad

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 7:52 AM on December 10, 2011

It seems Apple thinks you may want to give the gift of the Beatles this holiday season as they have released a brand new iTunes Beatles ad.  The new ad comes right on the heels of a free children’s eBook hitting the iTunes store.  The Yellow Submarine eBook carried with it the simple “For Steve” dedication and tells the tale of the 1968 movie in the form of a children’s book, with clips from the film, animated illustrations, and a read-along from actor Dean Lennox Kelly.

The new TV ad, which was posted to YouTube by Apple yesterday, features a clip from the song Magical Mystery Tour as the video rolls seamlessly through a history of the Beatles albums with real and animated pictures.  The commercial excludes U.S.-only Beatles releases like “Meet the Beatles” and focuses exclusively on the core U.K catalog, ending with Abbey Road.  The ad ends with a simple “The Beatles on iTunes”.

With Beatles music still fairly new to the digital form and still just as popular as it was when it was released more than 30 years ago, it’s not really a surprise that Apple would put out this little reminder in time for holiday shoppers looking for just one more little gift.  The Beatles music has now reached a whole new generation of fans, including my own children who were 13 and 10 when we took them to their first concert two years ago – Paul McCartney won them over.

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Posted in Apple, itunes, Music

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Buffalo CloudStation Duo Hands-On Review

Posted by Andrew at 5:16 PM on December 4, 2011

On test here is the 2 TB version of Buffalo‘s CloudStation Duo, a RAID-capable NAS with built-in Pogoplug, giving the user their own personal cloud.

Buffalo CloudStation Duo with PogoPlug

The CloudStation Duo is squarely aimed at the prosumer market, both in terms of the hardware and the software on-board. For the hardware, it is equipped with two 1 TB drives and the unit can either be setup as JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) or else RAID 1 in which each disk mirrors the other. Obviously, in RAID configuration, the NAS has only 1 TB of storage available for use.

For the built-in software, there’s a BitTorrent client, Time Machine support and DLNA multimedia server

Buffalo CloudStation Duo with Pogoplug

Those familiar with Buffalo’s LinkStation range will spot that the Buffalo CloudStation (CS-WX) looks identical the LinkStation Duo (LS-WX), albeit with a new CloudStation sticker on the top left of the front panel. Removing the front panel reveals nothing different on the inside either. Two swappable SATA drives, allowing for replacement in the event of failure or upgrade to a larger capacity.

Buffalo CloudStation Duo with Pogoplug Buffalo CloudStation Duo with Pogoplug Rear

Round the back, it’s the same layout as well. The USB port can be used to add additional storage or as a print server (which is also available as part of the “cloud”.)

All of the CloudStation’s functions are controlled by a built-in webserver, so it’s not essential to install any software on a PC. I found the IP address of the CloudStation via my DHCP server’s status table and after I had the IP, it was simply http://…. in a web browser. Setting up the CoudStation is straightforward. On first login, it recognises that the device is uninitialised and asks how the drive is to be setup. I went for RAID 1 which then meant it spent the next few hours building the array. This has to be completed before any new shares can be setup.

The shares (or folders) appear in Windows as any normal folder does, so copying files to the CloudStation is just a case of drag’n'drop.

Anyone who has setup a NAS before will find it all straightforward. The interesting part is the addition of Pogoplug’s personal cloud. To get started with this, simply open http://cloudstation.pogoplug.com/activate/ in any web browser. The website asks what type of CloudStation is connected and then walks through five basic steps to connect the device up, finally checking connectivity at the end.

As you might expect, the website prompts for an email address and password for secure access to the CloudStation via Pogoplug. A confirmatory link is sent via email and once that’s all checked, you’re logged into the CloudStation remotely and you can start using your personal cloud.

Buffalo CloudStation Duo with Pogoplug

And it’s brilliant. I was also able to play music and videos directly in the browser. Here’s a screenshot of it playing a video.

Buffalo CloudStation Duo with Pogoplug Video

And playing a music. You’ll just have to hear the tune in your head.

Buffalo CloudStation with Pogoplug music

The web interface is very comprehensive and you can do more from the internet that you can actually do on the local NAS. For instance, it’s easy to share files and folders with friends and family, which is very handy for photos. You can also share to Facebook, if you are into the social networking scene.

If you have a printer connected to the CloudStation, you can print to it to by sending emails with attachments to a Pogoplug email address. Not a perfect solution, but not bad for the odd occasion. There’s a similar feature that lets you upload files to the CloudStation via email which could be handy at times.

I was also able to gain access from my HP Pre 3 using the Pogoplug app. Similar clients are available for iOS and Android.

There are loads of other features such as the transcoding of video, use of HTML5, bulk downloading of folders and backup from the CloudStation to Pogoplug’s cloud. In fact, there’s too many to mention them all but suffice to say that everything I tried worked well.

To close this review, I wasn’t too sure what to expect from the “personal cloud”. I mean, how different can it really be from an ftp site with all your files on it? The revelation for me was the media aspect. Showing photos to friends and family is easy, listening to music from your entire collection is simple and videos can be streamed from home to wherever you are. I love what the the Buffalo CloudStation can offer when combined with Pogoplug.

The Buffalo CloudStation Duo comes in 2 TB and 4 TB variants and is available from all good retailers. Prices on-line suggest typical prices of around £250 and £310 respectively, which is only a small premium over the LinkStation Duo’s prices.

Psst….Buffalo…any chance you’ll offer a firmware upgrade for the LinkStation Duo to convert it to CloudStation Duo? I’d even pay for the upgrade.

Thanks to Buffalo for the loan of the CloudStation.

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Posted in Android, cloud, iOS, mobile, Music, storage, Streaming

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Starbucks’ Free Pick of the Week

Posted by Andrew at 3:09 PM on November 20, 2011

Starbucks Coffee CupI’m possibly a bit slow on the uptake here, but Starbucks in the UK are offering a free “Pick of the Week” iTunes download. Some weeks it will be a music track, other weeks it will be an e-book, some will be well-known, some will be up-and-coming.

I came across this freebie last week while frequenting my local coffee house but after checking on-line, it looks like the promotion has already been running for a few weeks.

You’ll find little credit card-sized vouchers with a download code on the back close to the tills. I picked up The Damned United by David Peace. Enter the code into iTunes / iBooks and it’s added to your collection. Easy.

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Posted in Apple, itunes, Music

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Best Buy Selling Napster? To Rhapsody?

Posted by Jeffrey Powers at 1:06 PM on October 3, 2011
Rhapsody

Rhapsody

The details are not disclosed, but it looks like Rhapsody has come to an agreement with Best Buy to take over Napster service. Of course, this is Rhapsody’s attempt to counter the surge of users on Spotify.

Napster was founded in 1999 by John and Shawn Fanning. Of course, issues arose with the downloading of illegal music, which was brought to the forefront by the band Metallica. The peer-to-peer sharing site went bankrupt in 2002, then sold their assets to Roxio, who then sold the company to Best Buy.

Rhapsody has also been in the music space since 2001. Their music streaming service has gone through a few changes, but survived for over ten years. So when Spotify brought a surge to the online streaming service category, it would make sense that Rhapsody would want to counter.

“This deal will further extend Rhapsody’s lead over our competitors in the growing on-demand music market,” said Jon Irwin, president, Rhapsody. “There’s substantial value in bringing Napster’s subscribers and robust IP portfolio to Rhapsody as we execute on our strategy to expand our business via direct acquisition of members and distribution deals.”

The only thing we know from the details is that Best Buy will still keep a stake in the company. That could become a great marriage for Rhapsody, because Best Buy has been known for putting bundles into their product sales. Getting someone on a service for a couple free months and hope they don’t cancel the membership when the time comes.

Currently, Rhapsody and Napster are the two largest on-demand music services. With the acquisition, they will be able to run against Spotify and the Facebook integration.

The deal will be finalized on November 30th.

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Posted in Music

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Spotify and Facebook

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 6:28 PM on September 27, 2011

SpotifyI have a Spotify Unlimited subscription which I created as soon as Spotify became available in the U.S. If I am not listening to Podcast or watching something I am listening to music on Spotify. I also have a Facebook account, mostly to keep up with my family and friends from high school and college. Occasionally if there is a song I really like or it triggers a memory I share it to Facebook, along with Twitter and Google Plus With the new Facebook update if you connect your Spotify account to Facebook, every song that you play is shared to it. There are several other music applications that also work this way, including IHeartRadio, Earbit, Rdio, Slacker Earbit and Songza.

I connected my Spotify account and it works. If you have your Facebook account open to your profile and you are listening to a song, that song will appear as you are listening to it. I connected my Spotify account to Facebook for a couple of days and then decided that my friends really didn’t need or want to know every song I listened to. Plus because I have music playing in the background and I like to try new playlist from ShareMyPlaylist I may not even like the song that is playing.  I am just doing some exploring to find new songs, artists and bands. One solution would be to disconnect Spotify from Facebook entirely, but I don’t want to do that.  I could see using the information later to set up playlist. I just want to have more control on what I share and when I share it. My solution to this has been to go into app settings in Facebook and click on edit and then go to custom settings and set the share to only me.  I hope this will work when the new Facebook changes go public. I want to use Facebook to collect the information, but only share the songs I want to. I wish there was a way to be able to share specific genre to specific groups, For example if I am listening to jazz music then I only want to share that with friends who like jazz and not those who like rap.

I am also not happy with the way apps are being integrated and dependent on Facebook. For example if you want to sign up for Spotify now you must have a Facebook account. To me this is a case of putting all your eggs in one basket. Granted Facebook is a big basket. However not everyone wants to have a Facebook account for various reasons including privacy concerns. Spotify has now cut itself off from these potential users. Plus it means as a user the more the apps I use are integrated into Facebook the harder it is to leave. I have already been through the walled-garden era with AOL, I really don’t want to go back.

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Posted in Facebook, Information, Music

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Erasure’s Tomorrow’s World

Posted by Andrew at 10:50 AM on September 9, 2011

To preview their forthcoming album, Tomorrow’s World, pop duo Erasure have produced a tribute to the future-gazing BBC TV show of the same name. British geeks of a certain age will fondly remember this TV programme for introducing us to gadgets such as Walkmans, CDs and camcorders. It was also notorious for showing off products that promptly disappeared and never made it to market. The programme ran from 1965 to 2003 and drew over 10 million viewers at its peak.

Erasure’s tribute is a reworking of the programme’s soundtrack and has an accompanying video that includes many famous gadgets from the past. Here it is.

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Posted in Gadgets, Geek Culture, Music, TV

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UK to Rewrite Copyright?

Posted by Andrew at 12:42 AM on August 2, 2011

Channel 4 News is reporting that the British Government will put forward changes to the UK’s archaic copyright laws on Wednesday. Format shifting for both music and video is expected to become legal as will sharing  with family. Parody works will gain protection.

The proposals will be announced by Vince Clarke Cable, Business Secretary on Wednesday, and while file sharing using peer-to-peer and similar technologies will remain illegal, the legalisation of format shifting will allow companies like Amazon and Google to offer online music services which store copies of the owner’s music collection. This is currently illegal under British law which is why none of the current offerings are available here.

The protection to parody works (spoof music videos) is also good news as several popular songs such as Newport State of Mind have struggled to stay on-line in the UK where parody doesn’t have the protection it might in the US.

Overall, very welcome news for consumers in the UK and fingers crossed that the proposals don’t get too watered down before they become law. More news on Wednesday.

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Posted in Legal, MP3, Music

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Slacker Radio vs Spotify

Posted by geeknews at 1:10 PM on July 18, 2011

Slacker RadioSpotify

I’ve been trying out Spotify Premium the last couple of days since it came out in the U.S. I have to decide between it and Slacker Radio which I’ve been having a lot of fun with lately. First Spotify appears to have more tracks in it’s collection 15 million compared to 8 million for Slacker. They both appear to have licenses with most major record companies, Sony BMG, EMI, Warner Music Group, plus numerous independents. There are clear differences between th two services outside of numbers, which one you choose will depend on what you are looking for.

Playlist

The first difference I noticed was how you set up playlist. With Slacker Radio, you pick an artist you like and it will give you a list of similar artist, you can then uncheck the ones you don’t want to hear. However you don’t get to choose specific songs. Slacker radio also has genre specific stations, top stations and highlighted stations. The genre specific station are somewhat limited though. With Spotify you have to create the playlist yourself by picking and choosing the artist and songs you want to have in the playlist. When you pick an artist there is a tab where you can see and browse similar artist and then add their songs to the playlist. Spotify doesn’t create any stations for you. I have to admit that the lazy part of me likes Slacker Radio, but the controlling part of me prefers Spotify in this area.

Exploration and Sharing

Slacker Radio also has a leg up when it comes to exploration. Slacker Radio automatically creates a playlist of similar artist from you what you start with. This is a great way to find new artist that you might like. With Spotify you have to choose each artist individually, it is easy to get stuck in the rut of choosing the artist you already know, instead of ones you don’t. The one area that Spotify does help with exploration is if you connect it to Facebook. When you connect it with Facebook you then see the playlist of your friends on Facebook that are also using Spotify. You can only play those songs that are available through Spotify. The more friends you have that are on Facebook and Spotify the better this is for exploration. Both services allow you to share easily with the popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Cost

As far cost is concern both Spotify and Slacker Radio have a free version that includes ads. Spotify’s free version limits you to 20 hours of streaming per month as far as I can tell there is no such limitation on Slacker radio. Both have two paying subscriptions. On Slacker Radio you can pay $3.99 a month and get no more ads and unlimited song skips. You can also cache songs to play when you are offline. You can also view full lyrics instead just partial. Spotify’s first paying tier is called Unlimited and is $4.99. With this tier you get unlimited streaming and no ads. The top-tier on Slacker Radio is called Premium and it is $9.99 a month. It includes everything available under Radio Plus in addition you get the ability to play songs and artist on demand and create custom playlist. I am currently paying for Plus Radio on Slacker so I am not sure how well the premium version works. Spotify Premium is also $9.99 a month this adds offline mode for playlist. You can also play Spotify on your mobile device if you paying for the Premium version. You can take advantage of Slacker Radio on your portable device even if you are using the free version.

Additional Differences

One of the biggest advantages Spotify has over Slacker Radio is it let’s you include your personal music library, so you can create playlist from both your own library and what is available through the Spotify catalog. You can not add your own library to Slacker Radio. Also Spotify does have a desktop application, Slacker Radio is web base and is available in the US only. Spotify is available in mutiple countries. I like the way Slacker Radio looks and is set up better then Spotify. It is just easier to see where things are with Slacker Radio. For example on Slacker radio if I want to buy a song or album the button is right there and easy to see, on Spotify it is hard to see.

Final Word

The bottom line is if you have lots of friends who use Spotify along with Facebook and like to share music with them. Plus you want to have access to your personal library then Spotify is for you. However if you are more into exploration I would go with Slacker Radio. Right now I am leaning toward Slacker Radio. How about you, what music service do you prefer and why?

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Posted in Information, Music

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Amazon Takes on Google in the Cloud Music Market, Doesn’t Impress

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 8:10 PM on July 6, 2011

Amazon came first with the cloud music storage service, but Google tried to trump them.  While I never tried out Amazon Music because I just didn’t find it compelling enough, I have been test-driving Google Music for a couple of weeks now.  Why did I find it more alluring?  Storage space!  Now Amazon is upping the ante, though.

While Google has no paid plan and no space limit, simply offering 20,000 songs of storage, regardless of file size, Amazon now has a different, but  also intriguing, plan.  It does come with one important, and potentially deal-breaking, caveat – you have to buy the music from the Amazon MP3 Store.  The unlimited storage they are advertising is for music you buy FROM them.  Although, if you already have an account, and have uploaded a bunch of non-Amazon purchased music you will also have unlimited storage….for a limited time.  How limited remains to be seen.

If you are wondering just how much space 20,000 songs takes up, well, I can’t say for sure, it varies based on your file type and encoding.  However, I can say that my 11,000+ songs (most at 256 KBPS) total approximately 90 GB.  That’s only slightly more than half of the number of songs that Google Music is willing to store in the cloud at no charge.

I am a big fan of Amazon and a regular customer, but for now I am happy with my choice of Google Music.  Amazon will need to go a bit beyond today’s announcement to sway me.  With this market still being new and just starting to heat up, though, I expect that they will be forced to compete with, not only Google, but the upcoming Apple threat as well.

 

 

 

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Posted in amazon, Information, MP3, Music

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Install and Run The Google Music Android App

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 2:00 PM on June 27, 2011

With my invitation to Google music secured, the Google Music Manager installed on my PC, and 90 GB of music slowly making its way to the cloud, there is one final hurdle to overcome.  That is installing the Google Music app on my Droid X.  After all, what good is all of this if I can’t have my music on my mobile device wherever I go?  So, that is what we are going to walk through now.  We will install and explore this service together as novices.

Start off by searching the Android Market for “Google Music”.  The official app should be the very first result.

Click to download and install the app.  It’s a small file and should take less than one minute.  Once it has installed you can launch the app for the first time.  Oddly it shows up under the simple name of “Music” as opposed to “Google Music”.

Once launched, the interface was simple but it also told me that there were “no music files available”.  I had assumed I would need to log into my Google account, but there was no option to do so anywhere within the program.

As it turns out, the install should prompt you to associate an account with the app – mine had not done that.  I uninstalled, re-downloaded, and installed again.  This can actually take some work and Googling to get it working.  There are some crazy solutions out there, some of the them are pure voodoo.  But, voodoo isn’t real, and I can’t say exactly how to get it to work, all I can tell you is to keep  trying.  This can prove to be frustrating and different solutions are probably available for different model devices.

(Yes, I know I didn’t remove my email from the above screenshot, I will just trust all of you not to spam me, and welcome you to contact me with questions or comments).  So, now we are in business.  Since I only have one account associated with my phone I did not have to choose it, but was automatically linked.  At this point you receive a welcome screen – and my congratulations for persevering through all of the crap that Google is putting their Music beta testers through on Android.

And now, finally we arrive at the finish line.  The player is open and shows all of the music that uploaded from your PC to the cloud.  Press the menu button and you get the options seen at the bottom of the following screenshot.  Scroll across the top of the screen menu and you can choose from artist, album, genre, etc.

You may have a LOT of trouble getting here, but once installed, Google Music is pretty darn cool.  If you haven’t yet signed up for the service then you can request an invitation at Google Music.  Expect a delay of at least two weeks before hearing anything.  Consider that your patience warm-up to installing the Android app…

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Posted in Android, google, Music

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