David Stewart may not be a business man, but he sure does know when he isn’t getting paid. The former Eurythmics man was recently appointed the founding member of Nokia’s new Artist Advisory Council (how does one get appointed a ‘founding member’? Surely you are one or you aren’t?), which has been set up to make sure that artists receive a fair slice of the digital pie.
And it seems that Stewart is the right man to defend the interests of his fellow artists judging by his incendiary comments this week claiming he wants to “drop the neutron bomb on the old paradigm of the entertainment industry and the way in which it functions.”
Speaking to Reuters, Stewart branded the current situation, “insane,” noting, “They say ringtones is a $3 billion business; I still haven’t seen one cent on a “Sweet Dreams” download. There’s always been a bit of foggy accounting.” Indeed.
Gathering pace, Stewart went on, “I am going to do it… It’s going to be a completely different world. I can send you clips of what I’m working on and you can pre-order it. There’s a dialogue going on so you actually know who your fans are and where they are.”
We are assuming he means figuratively rather than in a big brother like way but in any case it does sound as though Stewart is keen to turn the whole mobile music industry on its head and to the advantage of the artist. Time will tell if mobiles really will become a chief point of delivery for music but evangelists like Stewart can surely only help things along.
(Via mocoNews)
Social music site Last.FM uses a process called ‘Audioscrobbling’ to automatically grab data about music you are listening to and upload it to a central database.
Data from ’scrobbled’ tracks is used to build up a profile of your musical taste. Last.FM uses this profile to assemble a personalised streaming music station of similar artists and musical styles.
Asplayer is a Python app that brings this functionality to S60 3rd Edition phones for the first time. It only supports the scrobbling side of the equation at the moment - artist and title data from tracks played on your phone’s media player are uploaded to Last.FM using your internet connection - you will still need to go to the Last.FM website in order to listen to your customised playlist.
Asplayer is available here and requires a copy of Python for S60 and an account with Last.Fm, all available for free.
Pocket Picks takes no responsibility for readers whose musical taste generates streams of 80s hair metal or progressive jazz. You have only yourselves to blame.
Bolton firm IphoneUnlocking.org.uk (you can guess what they do) have launched their latest software for unlocking the iPhone (see!). It promises one-click unlocking that takes less than five minutes, which works with all models of the iPhone, from the 4GB original through to the latest 16GB model.
The software works on a PC or Mac, lets you put any SIM card inside, and also allows you to install unauthorised applications on the device. There’s also a feature called iPhone Stumbler, which lets you see any wireless network in your area, and connect to it (presumably that’s unsecured networks).
They’re charging £14.99 for the software, which you can pay for by PayPal and then download.
iPhone Unlocking website
Looks like it could be a scorching summer for iPhone fans. Industry speculation about when Apple plans to launch the 3G second-generation iPhone is focusing on June, following predictions by Bank of America analyst Scott Craig:
“Our latest channel checks point to a significant production build of a 3G iPhone beginning in the month of June after an initial small build in May.”
Specifically, Craig reckons Apple will build more than three million 3G iPhones in May, then ramp up production on more than eight million during the third quarter of this year. June would also make sense, since Apple’s developer convention, WWDC08, takes place from 9-13 June in San Francisco, providing Steve Jobs with the ideal stage to unveil the 3G iPhone. And, of course, June is also the month when the iPhone App Store is due to launch.
(via Reuters)
Well it’s happened, Motorola has been split down the middle. The board of directors have decided to split Motorola into two independent, publicly-traded companies, one called Mobile Devices and the other, Broadband & Mobility Solutions.
The mobile side of Motorola’s business, which has been hemorrhaging capital over the last year, has been a bit of an anchor around the neck of the company’s more profitable divisions, prompting the chop. As you might expect The Mobile Devices company will focus on the design, manufacture, and sale of mobile handsets and accessories while The Broadband & Mobility Solutions business will cover, government, public safety, home and network business.
From a consumer point of view, this may not mean much in the short term, especially with Motorola’s impressive 2008 handset line-up. Still, the changes will filter down at some point and if The Mobile Devices side of the business continues to under perform, Motorola’s future as a handset manufacturer could be bleak. You never know however, this could revitalize Motorola internally prompting a financial comeback. Let’s hope Moto doesn’t go the way Palm is currently headed.
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The mad panic to retrieve your still switched on mobile from the deepest darkest depths of your bottomless carry on suitcase, moments before take off might soon be a thing of the past.
Ofcom (the independent regulator and competition authority for the communication industries in the UK) has given approval for the use of mobile phones on UK registered commercial aircraft within European airspace. Basically that means that, in-flight mobile use on participating airlines will be allowed, albeit once the plane has reached an altitude of 3000 feet.
It isn’t quite a done deal yet, The European Aviation Safety Agency still needs to approve any necessary hardware but the indication from Ofcom is that this won’t be a big issue. What might be an issue is cost as the tech involved will require the calls to be routed via satellite link which will innevitably drive prices skyward (geddit, skyward?). Ofcom has stated however that it will be doing what it can to regulate “excessive charges and abuses of competition”.
In flight calling will only work with second generation networks to begin with but in the presence of growing interest, Ofcom believes that 3G services could well follow later. Could we be whiling away our flight time by skipping through endless YouTube videos on our handset’s before the decade is out? Here’s hoping.
(Via BBC)
Do you own a GPS enabled Blackberry? Do you want to keep meticulous tabs on the whereabouts of your friends and family? If the answer is yes then you might be interested to know that a company called BlackLine GPS Inc has just released a free service called Blip, especially for you.
But what is it? Well according to BlackLine, Blip is a ‘geo-social networking platform’ that allows users to share their location amongst friends, family members, and co-workers. Other trademarked buzz terms BlackLine is touting include, ‘Geo-Society’ and ‘Share Your Where’ which from what we can tell mean the same thing as ‘geo-social networking platform’ but sound more hip. Basically we are talking about a FaceBook-esq service with a focus on GPS (StalkerBook if you will).
Despite our cheekyness, it does sound like a good idea in principle, especially seeing as you can control exactly who in your network can see where you are so that your privacy is always ensured. Blip also lets you track the location history of your viewable contacts as well as view speed and direction information when someone in your network is on the move.
Still it is easy to see how an application like this could be misused or indeed, capitalized upon by an over zealous boss or jealous spouse. Still, if you have nothing to hide, it shouldn’t be a problem.
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The whole mobile VoIP front has been relatively quiet so far in 2008 and we would never have guessed that Nokia would be the company to break the silence. But with what? The Nokia 6300i, that’s what, which will offer a fully integrated VoIP client (for making VoIP calls) straight out of the box.
The device will be a combined GSM and wi-fi mobile phone with the ability to store up to two thousand VoIP, home, and mobile numbers which will be listed with WLAN and VoIP symbols to indicate the connection status and type of phone call.
Obviously we are keen to get some more details on this little devil, especially with regards to its ability to communicate with PC based VoIP clients like Skype and GoogleTalk. Even if the functionality is slightly gimped in this respect however, it is certainly a progressive choice of software for Nokia to include in a new device (though our guess is that Nokia will try to keep handsets of this type quite niche for the time being). The 6300i is releasing soon so stay tuned for more details when we have them.
(Via Just Another Mobile Phone Blog)
Although the imminent arrival of Windows Mobile 6.1 is hardly a well kept industry secret, having been spotted on Sony Ericsson’s forthcoming Xperia X1 handset at MWC last month, rumors are pouring through that Microsoft is still planning a bit of a fanfare for its official release.
The news hounds over at Pocket-lint claim that Microsoft will officially launch Windows Mobile 6.1 at CTIA next week on April 1 (not confirmed but probably not an April fools joke). Of course that doesn’t mean that it will be hitting the streets any time soon but at least it means we might learn some more about its touted improved features.
Unfortunately all indications are that we will have to wait a bit longer for more details about the lip-smackingly gorgeous Xperia X1.
(Via engadget)
In recent weeks, there’s been a buzz around the iPhone’s potential as a business handset, despite its original launch as a purely consumer-focused device. In part, it’s because Apple has plans to beef up the iPhone’s capability for corporate email. However, it seems Microsoft could be weighing in too, with plans to bring Office to the iPhone.
Check these comments from Tom Gibbons, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s specialised devices and applications group, in an interview with Fortune:
“It’s really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone. To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in that environment, we’re actually in the process of trying to understand that now… The key question is, what is the value that we need to bring? We’re still getting comfortable with the SDK, right? It’s just come out. So we had a guess as to what feasibility would be like, now we’ll really get our head wrapped around that.”
The same article suggests that Microsoft subsidiary TellMe is also eyeing the iPhon, potentially bringing its voice recognition technology to Apple’s handset.
(via Fortune)
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