No terms of endearment

Via Scobleizer comes this Uninnovate indictment of Amazon Unbox. The author’s first two points highlight obvious deficiencies of Amazon’s offerings; his last point spells out the service’s unusually restrictive (in terms of what you can’t opt out of) terms of service. Most of these terms are often developed so that companies reserve the right to do things they may never do, but agreement to them still seems onerous for the convenience of digital downloading.

Comin’ around again

It looks like digital music has almost come full circle from the original Napster to Napster.com (limited free listens) and now to SpiralFrog, which will trade rights-managed music for your ad time. This notion of “paying” people to watch commercials online goes back at least as far as CyberGold, but SpiralFrog has potential because of the emotional value of music can be higher than its monetary value. The devil will be in the details for this one; much will depend on SpiralFrog’s catalog, but Universal Music Group has apparently signed on.

Managed copy meandering

In meeting with the HD-DVD promotion group yesterday, I discussed some mandatory features that the specification has that could be advantages, but perhaps not, if we see prolonged format war. One good outcome of the meeting was that there was no awareness of either the HD-DVD or Blu-Ray camps seeking to restrict licensing of dual-format drives, which seems like an inevitable outcome of the format war.

One reason that Microsoft and Intel claimed that they supported HD-DVD over Blu-Ray was the former’s support of “Managed Copy,” a feature that would enable consumers to back up movies to their hard disks to perhaps stream across home networks or “sideload” to portable media players. However, it turns out that the group that would be responsible for such a feature, AAAC, will not decide on the fate of Managed Copy until mid-October. All that the HD-DVD group has done has been to pledge support for the feature if it’s ratified, and then who knows whether studios will buy in. The Blu-Ray camp could include the feature as well, although BD+ would need to support it as well

GigaBeat vs. Zune’s zombies

No, it’s not a cross between 1960s Japanese and 1940s American monster movies. iLounge got some hands-on time with Zune and its initial report doesn’t turn up anything dramatically threatening to the iPod. As with Vista, Microsoft is paying more attention to eye candy and animations with smooth transitions (I must admit I’m a fan of the “dissolve”) and overlays of letters while scrolling are a nice navigation aid. Beyond that, it looks like Apple’s competitive advantage is still intact. The Zune has no scroll wheel and it’s thicker. As I’ve advocated, it also looks like Microsoft has put the kibosh on iTunes reimbursement as well. Toshiba’s GigaBeat S has the aided navigation and it’s just as small as the iPod with a larger screen like the Zune.

Of Zune’s much-touted Wi-Fi features, iLounge notes that you can “lend” a song to a friend for a day (what’s with the content industry’s infatuation with a 24-hour cycle?) While iLounge does a fine job of pointing out limited utility of this feature until both the Zune and its store achieve critical mass, it does represent one of the first advantages that protected music might have over unprotected music.

For example, you can stream MP3s across a home network, share them on as many PCs as you like, and download them to practically any portable music player, but Zune would only enable peer-to-peer sharing — even in its limited form — only for protected music. Microsoft may be banking on users wanting to reanimate a bunch of deactivated music files on their Zune as a distant way of driving viral music purchase. Microsoft will probably also work to enable this kind of sharing on Zune’s community-focused music service as well, where it can spread more quickly.

When is a platform not a platform?

The Wireless Report asks whether advanced music phones will ever be able to compete with the iPod and comes up skeptical owing to the product’s extensive ecosystem. I’m more bullish on such products. Yes, we’re in the early days but we’ve already seen great strides forward and even Apple concedes that music phones are bound to improve, hence the empty admission that they’re “not doing nothing” in the space.

Something I haven’t seen much coverage about regarding the iPod is that, despite its increasing functionality, media support and vast range of accessories that have developed over the years, Apple has not opened it up to developers the way Palm did with the original Pilot. Want to develop a new game for the iPod? You can’t. One could argue that a platform or API didn’t really save the PDA in the end, but it continues to be important in the realm of smartphones, which could be the iPod’s future and is certainly one direction for portable digital music in general.

Low-tech and high ratings

This gem from last month in the LA Times about how AM radio is enjoying great ratings comes via Zatz Not Funny. There’s an ironic observation on how Howard Stern’s departure from broadcast has resulted in at least a bit of a backfire but how FM may become a more formidable competitor in talk due to competition from satellite radio.

I was surprised to see no mention of HDRadio, which can boost the quality of both broadcast systems, bring AM (back) into the stereo era, and could enable at least FM to answer the quality level of XM and Sirius.

Logitech whacks Wi-Fi’s waiting game

As we continue to trudge toward a MIMO-based Wi-Fi standard that is robust enough to withstand the assault of microwave ovens and cordless phones, companies seeking to simplify wireless digital music distribution aren’t standing still. Squarely between Wi-Fi witholders Soundcast Systems at the point-to-point entry level and Sonos aimed at the Magnolia set.

Now Logitech is expanding its ho-hum 2.4 GHz-based Wi-Fi-alternative music streaming system marketed with the “Music Anywhere” logo in a dramatic way by adding a sleek remote control that can integrate with iTunes and other jukeboxes while streaming DRM-protected files by capturing processed audio output and then digitally encoding it again; the resulting system is the Wireless DJ Music System. Even with a two-room limit, this should be an exceptionally easy to use, flexible and robust system available for a fraction of the cost of the Sonos product.

My-lo point is no Bluetooth

Sony recently introduced Mylo (My Life Online), a device with a resurrected name that resembles its PSP (but is actually much smaller) and boasts an integrated slide-up keyboard. Early coverage labelled it an instant messaging appliance, perhaps a higher-end version of the Wi-Fi-enabled K-Byte Zip-It, but it really is more of a mobile Internet appliance akin to the larger but comparably priced Nokia 770, which Nokia unfortunately sometimes treats like an open-source science project.

Two main differences are that the 770 has a high-resolution screen better suited to Web browsing and Bluetooth. The absence of Bluetooth in Mylo is a quandary; I’d prioritize it more highly than Wi-Fi. If Sony is concerned about the difficulty of pairing or the availability of DUN-capable phones among young hipsters, it should recognize that they can already get a capable Bluetooth-enabled handset (and headset) for less than the Mylo.

In any case, like the 770, the Mylo has the de rigeur music and photo capabilities as well as an integrated Web browser. Mylo reportedly uses Trolltech’s QTopia operating environment; let’s hope its browser is better than the PSPs and that its keyboard is better than the Vaio UX’s. Unlike the 770, it includes a Skype client and hotspot directory, the latter of which it wouldn’t need (as much) if it had Bluetooth.

The wait for the wake

One of my pet fascinations over the past few years has been wondering why there are no “real” MP3 alarm clocks. With portable MP3 CD players available for about $25, you’d think that some company would offer such capability in a clock radio but, alas, such a product is difficult to find below the prices of expensive and bulky table radios. Besides, we don’t need half a gig’s worth of digital music in our alarm clocks anyway, much less iPod docks. Playlist support would be nice, though; geeks culd create sleep and wake mixes.

Philips almost got it right with the Shoqbox but it just wasn’t a great alarm clock and wasn’t priced like one, either, and the same applies to the iRiver Clix Cradle. Well, Americans may not be able to get something small with a decent snooze features, but it looks like our UK brethren can. The aptly named MP3 alarm clock has a simple smart design and even boasts an SD slot for about $60. How does it sound? Who cares?  The sleepy U.S. clock radio market — which now feebly markets aux in jacks as “MP3 line in” — could use such a product.

Beam me up… to the highest price

Much like digital cameras have, in the opinion of some, now reached beyond the quality of their forebears, Slim Devices — a pioneer of the audio-focused digital media receiver — is attempting to surpass the finest of compact disc players with the Transporter. At nearly $2,000, the “no compromises” receiver is the first component rack form factor since Turtle Beach’s once best-in-class but now discontinued AudioTron. (Slim Devices has bought the Google AdWord “AudioTron.”) My favorite feature, at least on paper, is its “clever knob,” which sounds a bit like a British schoolboy insult.

It’s good to see nimble Slim Devices continuing to innovate now that the category has attracted the likes of Sony and its CPF-IX001 2.1 wireless streaming system. The Wi-Fi streamer lacks the expansive display of the Squeezebox, but integrates some powerful compact speakers. There’s also low-end competition from Philips’ SLA 5520, its’ $99 digital audio adapter.