Rhapsody for iPhone: It’s Live

When Real said that it had submitted a version of its Rhapsody music service to the iPhone App Store, I was still smarting from the Google Voice Voice debacle and feared the worst. Would Apple decide that Rhapsody would confuse users and reject it, or send it into limbo? But the news tonight is good: Rhapsody was approved and should be live on the App Store as you read this. And it’s quite good–maybe the best thing to happen to music on the iPhone (and iPod Touch) since the iPhone, in fact.

In most respects, it’s very much like the Rhapsody that’s been available for PCs for eons, but with an iPhone-esque interface that’s a close cousin to Apple’s own iPod app. You can search for albums, songs, and artists from Real’s catalog of 8,000,000 tracks; add them to your queue for listening; create playlists and save music to your library; browse preprogrammed radio stations in various genres and autogenerated ones based on the work of any artist; and read about artists as you listen to their work. Everything’s integrated with PC-based Rhapsody, so the music you save to your library shows up anywhere you can listen to the service.

All of this music is streaming, so it’s available anywhere you can get cellular or Wi-Fi access, and isn’t anywhere you can’t (such as on airplane flights, for instance, unless Wi-Fi is available and you pay to connect your iPhone or Touch to it). Real says it may release a version of Rhapsody that can store music locally; for now, it’s integrated the app with the iTunes Store. When you listen to something you like so much that you want to own it, you can tap and hold the song title to bop over to iTunes and purchase it in downloadable form.

In most respects that matter, Rhapsody is well done. The quibbles I have all stem from my attempts to listen to it on the road via my car stereo. Like all iPhone streaming audio apps, it occasionally loses its connection; when it does, it gives you an error screen without any buttons or clear indications of what you should do. (I exited the app and reconnected, but I’d rather that it gracefully reconnected on its own.) And it’s lacking two features which I wish all iPhone music apps had: landscape mode view and the ability to keep the iPhone screen on indefinitely when it’s plugged into a power source. (Okay, it’s also missing the ability to play in the background while you use another app, but there’s nothing that Real can do about that.)

If music fans have a major issue with Rhapsody on the iPhone, I think it’s going to relate to the cost, not the app or the service. Real is making iPhone users pay for a $14.99 a month Rhapsody to Go subscription, the plan designed for handheld listening. But on other portable devices, Rhapsody permits downloading to the gadget itself so you can listen without an Internet connection; Rhapsody for the iPhone is closer in capabilities to the PC version which costs $12.99 a month. And even that is pricey given that archrival Napster charges $5 a month for unlimited streaming and five downloads a month. (Napster says it’s written an iPhone app but music rights issues would make it unrealistically expensive to offer; maybe Real is locked into the price it’s charging by licensing issues.)

Ultimately, I think that Rhapsody is worth fifteen bucks a month to some folks, since it gives the iPhone unlimited on-demand listening for the first time and costs as much as an album-and-a-half from iTunes. (If it could store songs on the iPhone itself, it would definitely be worth it–and I’m fearing the worst again just thinking about whether Apple would approve such a version.) In any event, I’m glad the service has landed on the iPhone; this is the first time that a subscription music service has been available on an Apple device, and it’ll be fascinating to see if it it catches on. (There’s a seven-day free trial–if you give it a try, let us know what you think.)

After the jump, some screen shots.

Continue reading this story…

Apple Event: Big Whoop? Medium-Sized Whoop? Nonwhoop?

Today, Steve Jobs and company announced iPhone OS 3.1 (Genius mixes, ringtones); iTunes 9 (iPhone LP content, iPhone app management, fancier syncing, media transfers, new look); cheaper iPod Touches with more capacity; iPod Shuffles in new colors with a lower starting price point and a stainless steel version; a capacity bump for the iPod Classic to 160GB; and an iPod Nano in fancy new colors with with a video camera, FM tuner, voice recorder, and pedometer. It also gave a bunch of iPhone OS game companies a chance to show their new wares. Oh, and Steve Jobs returned to the stage and Norah Jones sang a couple of songs.

Seems to cry out for a T-Poll:

Microsoft to Best Buy Salespeople: Windows Good, Macs Bad!

Over at Ars Technica, there’s an interesting piece on training materials prepared by Microsoft for Best Buy staffers making the case that Windows 7 PCs are preferable to Macs. Most of the points in Windows’ favor that the materials raise are true; it’s just that anything that might tend to favor the Mac is left out. I guess that’s an improvement over earlier Microsoft PC/Mac comparisons that involved both truth-stretching and errors.

If I ran Best Buy, I’d do my darndest to keep anyone with an agenda other than serving the customer out of the selling process. Pretty much by definition, that would prohibit companies from doing these sorts of comparisons of their own products with those of competitors. I mean, if Macs are so crummy, why does Best Buy sell them?

It reminds me of an experience I had at CompUSA years ago: I was eyeing a Canon inkjet printer when a salesguy strolled up and gravely warned me that Canon printers’ ink cartridges had an alarming tendency to dry up–unlike those in HP printers. I couldn’t figure out why a CompUSA rep would care whether I bought a Canon or HP product–until I realized that he was actually an HP employee who CompUSA had allowed to troll for customers in its aisles…

The Quest For Wireless Power Continues

Dave and I saw several demos back at CES showing off wireless power solutions for cord-free gadget charging. However, here I am nine months later still lugging a zillion power cables in my computer bag. (Though Dave does have a solar-powered Bluetooth headset.) Unfortunately, universal wireless power doesn’t seem any closer to reality today than it did back in January. But, as if to argue the point, a press release landed in my inbox announcing a new commercial deal between two “wire-free power” companies, WildCharge and WiProwess. WiProwess now has a licensing agreement allowing it to help companies integrate WildCharge technology into their products.

The interesting part of the news is not so much the licensing agreement as the potential applications of it. I asked the WiProwess folks to send along further details on product implementations, and got a range of applications for car, hotel, and office environments. Much like luxury cars today get embedded GPS apps, iPod docks, and even Wi-Fi, I can easily see an automotive brand partnering up with a company like WiProwess to bring wire-free charging pads to front-seat consoles. Similarly, a high-end hospitality or office furniture partner might use wire-free charging to boost its brand image. The critical thing here is getting distribution partners so that wire-free power as a technology doesn’t have to sell itself one consumer at a time.

Of course, the whole wire-free proposition will be a lot easier to market once it doesn’t include proprietary technology and a lot of adapter tips. But if you’re an early adopter with some extra cash, check out the products available now from the WildCharge website. (David Pogue liked the hardware he tested late last year.) A WildCharge Charge Pad now goes for $50 alone, or for $70 or $80 when bundled with a gadget skin or adapter.

(This post republished from Zatz Not Funny.)

New Dell Adamo: How Thin Can You Go?

Dell has a teaser site up for the Adamo XPS, a new laptop in its luxury Adamo line. It has nothing to say about the system except that it’s 9.99mm thick–presumably at its thinnest point. That’s compared to the original Adamo‘s thickness of 16.5mm, and the MacBook Air’s 4mm-19.4mm. (Unlike Apple, Dell quotes only one figure even though the case looks similarly tapered.)

It makes no sense to have an opinion on the new Adamo until we know something about its specs and its price, but I’m glad to see Dell make some machines in which serious engineering, not specs-for-the-price-point, is the guiding principle. With Microsoft’s Windows ads entirely focused on promoting Windows econoboxes, it’s easy to forget that the slickest Windows laptops give Macs a run for their money (at–mysteriously enough–similar price points).

Your Apple Event Predictions: The Tally

On my way into this morning’s Apple music event, I told a fellow attendee that those of you who participated in our survey yesterday had collectively predicted that Apple would announce an iPod Touch with a camera and a version of iTunes with social networking features, and that Steve Jobs would make an appearance. “I think they got two out of three right,” I said. By which I meant that I thought the Touch and iTunes predictions were spot on, but that Jobs would most likely not preside.

Turns out that you did get two out of three right–but you were right about iTunes and Jobs, and wrong (like most everybody else) about the Touch. You were also wrong (like many folks) about the iPod Classic being discontinued, but it was a squeaker: 51 percent thought it was toast, and 49 percent rightly believed it would stick around.

Only one other thing came to pass that you thought wouldn’t: An overwhelming 75 percent of survey-takers predicted that there wouldn’t be an iPod Nano with a camera. Apple, it turns out, thought otherwise.

Okay, so those results fall short of being uncannily accurate–at worst, they’re comparable to those of most big-time Apple pundits. You guys ever thought of doing this for a living?

Fifteen Questions Prompted by Today’s Apple Event

It seems to be a mandatory component of the kabuki that is Apple press events and coverage thereof: Nearly every such product rollout is initially dismissed as a disappointment. Despite the welcome return of Steve Jobs, this morning’s one certainly is certainly getting lukewarm reviews, in part because it failed to involve even such relatively mundane rumored gizmos as an iPod Touch with a camera.

I came with my expectations firmly in check, and saw at least one bit of news which will change my life as a user of technology for the better (iTunes’ new tools for managing iPhone apps). So while I may not have been wowed, I also wasn’t nonplussed by the lack of all-new products or other major developments. And as usual, a lot of what was interesting at this event had as much to do with implications as the concrete facts. After the photo of Steve, fourteen questions and attempts at answers…

Continue reading this story…

“Don’t Copy That Floppy” Returns!

No matter how hard the entertainment industry may try, there’s no avoiding cheesiness in anti-piracy campaigns. Telling someone not to break the law is inherently lame, even if the message is justified.

So I’m thrilled to see that the Software & Information Industry Association is embracing the cheese with a follow-up to “Don’t Copy That Floppy,” the classic anti-piracy video from 1992. Just like the original, the new video features DP (“Disk Protector”) rapping about the dangers of piracy and the injustices of denying content creators their hard-earned cash.

The only thing is, the message has drastically changed. For starters, the SIIA is no longer saying you should buy one copy of software for every computer you use. (“Anything less is like going to the store, taking the disk and walking out the door,” DP used to rap. “It’s called thieving, stealing, taking what’s not yours.”) These days, it’s pretty common for consumers to demand a little more flexibility than one copy per PC.

More importantly, the latest video is not as endearing as the original. Instead of focusing on the moral consequences of ripping off content creators, the the sequel pushes the message that “it’s not just a copy, it’s a crime.” Images of a mother getting arrested for her daughter’s copy schemes accompany a college kid’s nightmares of being locked up and hassled in prison. Accordingly, DP’s voice has grown noticably deeper and more threatening. The video ends with a notorious software pirate, Jeremiah Mondello, warning viewers not to make the same mistakes as him.

The change in tone smacks of desperation. Software piracy has exploded in the 17 years since “Don’t Copy That Floppy,” thanks, of course, to the Internet. And because we’re a more cynical culture now, it’s no longer enough to appeal to the pirate’s conscience — everyone knows the executive’s pockets are affected, too. All that remains is the threat of hard time. For the average person, it’s hard to see that message as anything but, well, lame.

iPods DO Get a Refresh, But Only the Nano

While it looked as if this Apple event was going to be for the birds with not much if any impressive news out of Cupertino, turns out we were wrong. As expected, the Nano got a refresh, adding a microphone, camera, and speaker to the device.

As far as I know, the video camera was expected, but this is the first I’m hearing of a microphone or speaker. The size of the player is not changing — although Apple is smartly mentioning that the Nano is a fifth the size of the popular Flip digital video cameras, which the Nano obviously now competes with.

Guess what else the Nano has now? An FM radio. Thought you’d never see that, right. And Apple knows its market for these things: all Nanos come now with built in pedometers, giving those athletes who make up a significant portion of its customer base another reason to upgrade.

An 8GB model would be available for $149, and a 16GB for $179.

Apple Starts a Price War

You knew this was coming: Apple has announced that it would cut the price of the 8GB iPod Touch to $199, while offering a 32GB for $299 and a  new 64GB for $399. This effectively puts it in direct competition with the Zune HD, whose 16GB model retails for $219, and 32GB model which retails for $289.

Think the iPod Classic is about to die? Think again, it lives on: Apple announced a gargantuan 160GB model for $249, as far as I know the cheapest out there for a portable media player of that capacity.

iTunes Gets a Makeover, New Features

The first announcement off of the pipeline is a new version of iTunes, which is available immediately. iTunes 9 contains a few significant enhancements, so lets run through them.

Improved Syncing: Definitely a useful feature. Many of us have iPods smaller than our music collections, so Apple’s enhancements here should help. You can sync via a certain type of music, such as artist or genre. Photos work in the same way too: here it could be a person or event. Movies even work — only syncing new movies. At the same time you may select media that you always want to sync.

In other words, much greater control over what media is on your iPod or iPhone.

Home Sharing: This feature allows a user to copy media on up to five computers on his or her home network. Users would be able to see what files are missing from their libraries that are on other computers and copy it over.

iTunes LP: This new offering is likely a result of the variable pricing that the record industry won from Apple a while back. Just like your old LPs, these packaged deals would include extras, including cover art, lyrics, videos and the like.

Social Media: As rumored, you can share “Wish Lists” to Facebook and Twitter.

Would You Buy a Touch PC?

I’ve guestblogged again at WePC.com–this time about touchscreen PCs, which are apparently a trend that’s set to explode (or try to, anyhow) once Windows 7 ships. I think that Windows 7 will help–it’s the first version of Windows with built-in support for touch input–but that a lot more has to happen before touch computers have a shot at being a hit rather than a fad. Check out my thoughts and let the WePC.com community know what, if anything, would convince you to buy a touch-enabled PC.

While you’re there, you might want to investigate the WePC.com contest. The site’s giving away gaming PCs, laptops, and netbooks to folks who provide the most insightful answers to questions  (or who are just lucky enough to win in regular drawings).

Join Us for Live Coverage of Apple’s Music Event

I’ll be here at 1oam PT sharp (actually a few minutes before that–shhhh!) to tell you what I learn, as I learn it, right from the comfort of my seat at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center. Come hang out with me and fellow Technologizer community members, won’t you? Click here to view live coverage.

5Words for Wednesday, September 9th 2009

Like 5Words? Subscribe via RSS.

Are these new Touch, Nano?

Last-generation iPods: cheaper! Cheaper!

Windows 7 safe from flaw.

Google Voice: SMS by e-mail.

TweetDeck adds MySpace, Twitter directory.

Hands on with Archos tablet.

Pandora music comes to Android.

Microsoft trains Best Buy employees.

There are 10,000 Android apps.

At last, Lady GaGa headphones.

Palm Announces the Pixi

It’s been the subject of rumors for months–including ones that said it was on hold–and now it’s official: The second WebOS phone from Palm is on its way. It’s called the Palm Pixi (rumors had the code name as Eos or Pixie) and it looks to be a Centro to the Pre’s Treo: a cheaper, simpler member of the family. It’s got a one-piece case, eighty fewer pixels of vertical resolution, no Wi-Fi, and a slower CPU than the Pre. Other than that, it seems to have the Pre’s important features, including its 8GB of memory. And it’s thin. Really thin. Like, thinner than an iPhone thin. Engadget, which has a good hands-on write-up with video, is impressed overall.

The Pixi is premiering on Sprint in time for the holidays; Palm isn’t announcing the price, but the Pixi announcement also included the news that the Pre is now $149 after rebates with a two-year Sprint contract. (That’s not $99, but it is a $50 price cut.) If the Pre is $149, it seems all but a done deal that the Pixi will be $99, and that the Pre won’t drop to that price anytime soon.

With the Pixi all official, the single biggest Palm-related question is now this: When will a WebOS phone show up on a carrier which isn’t Sprint?

Facebook (or Part of It) Lands on Android

iPhone owners have had a very solid Facebook application for a while now–one that’s better than ever in the recent 3.0 release. Users of Android phones just got their first Facebook app–developed by Google with help from Facebook, and available in the Android Market–and the charitable way to look at it is to think of it as a good start. It’s got some of the obligatory basic features, like the ability to view your wall, your feed, and info on your friends. You can comment on things and Like them, and upload photos. There’s a neat Android Widget–a sort of mini-Facebook that sits on the phone’s desktop–and an equally neat Facebook address book that lets you dial your friends’ phone numbers if they’ve listed them in Facebook.

But the list of things that are in the iPhone app but not the Android one is just about as long as the list of items the Android one does have. If there are photos, I can’t figure out how to view them. I also can’t tell if there’s a way to pull up a friend’s info unless that person happens to have something in your feed. There’s no support for events or chat, and I don’t see a way to accept friend requests. And some aspects of the user interface are a bit wonky (it takes so many clicks to view comments on your wall that you might lose interest).

Android fans aren’t completely out of luck; it’s easy enough to jump from the app into Facebook Lite, the Web-based version of Facebook. Despite its name, it’s a richer incarnation of the service than the Facebook app in a number of ways, and sports features which the app lacks. But if I’d been champing at the bit to get my hands on Facebook for Android, I’d be disappointed by this first version. With any luck, Google is already at work on a meatier update.

After the jump, some screens.

Continue reading this story…