Portishead and last.fm Pull 'a Radiohead'

The heads have it. Radiohead, back in October, shocked the digital media distribution world by offering "In Rainbows" online, before its hard copy release, with no set price. Instead asking fans to pay what they felt the albums was worth.

They pulled the files after December 10th, but understandably, the trick work like a charm; the blogosphere was ablaze with the news of a free album direct from the artist and the recording, once released on CD, enter the charts at #1.

Portishead, another English based band that saw major fame starting in the mid nineties and have also had quite the long hiatus, are set to release their latest effort "Third" on last.fm, later this month.

The release won't be a free download. However, fans can listen to the entire album before they buy; not just clips of songs...ehm, Steve you hearing this, bro.

Last.fm has always let music fans hear their catalog of tracks in their entirety; however, this is the first time they have had an exclusive release.

Portishead has a special place in last.fm's heart. They spearheaded last.fm by being the first artist the founder, Martin Stiksel, uploaded, and his affinity for Beth Gibbons, Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow of Portishead is shared by millions. Mainly, because they rock in a slow and oh so melancholy way. Happy listening.

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Alpine Uses iTunes Tagging in New DMRs

Alpine and Apple having been engaged in a long standing courtship, have decided to take their relationship to the next level. Building on the successes of the iDA-X001, Alpine is releasing three more digital media receivers, for your auto, based on the same design functionality and iPod integration of this earlier model.

Of course, newer iPods will be compatible with these yet to be released Alpine head units, but the real windfall for Apple is the new iTunes tagging feature that will be incorporated into Alpine's flagship receiver, the iDA-X100.

iTunes tagging works in conjunction with HD radio. Let’s say, for whatever reason, your iPod playlist just isn’t ‘doing it’ for you. So you make the executive decision to switch over to HD radio programming (you just happen to have that module installed). Then things start to look up again, there’s this rockin’ song playing from some artist you haven’t discovered yet. In fact, you’ve enjoyed the song so much you would like to take note of the artist and song title. This all seems fairly plausible, right?

At this point, iTunes tagging comes into play; all you’d have to do is press a button, there by ‘tagging’ the song playing on the radio. That tag is then relayed to your iPod and when you next sync the iPod to your computer you’ll be prompted to purchase the tagged song at, where else, the iTunes store. How’s that for Marketing 2.0?

Also, seemingly in effort to build a buzz about their new releases Alpine has “leaked” their new product line brochure.

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Archos 605, Wi-Fi PMP for the Techie

The Archos 605 Wi-Fi PMP, isn’t going to score you any cool points in the eyes of hipsters, they're hypnotized by shiny apples. But, as far as you and your cohorts are concerned this Wi-Fi enabled touch screen PMP is straight off the pages of Buck Rogers, and excruciatingly hip. Its elegance is not in its presentation. The beauty lays in its functionality, functionality that isn’t tied to a one-way file transfer or DRM video content from the manufacture’s own media store. Archos 605 mounts its internal memory as a drive on Mac or PC via USB, pretty basic (for any non-Apple PMP). You can then transfer whatever media or data files you wish, to and from the player’s memory. The memory offerings, which are substantial, come in 30, 80, & 160 Gigs capacities.

Screen size is always a draw with portable video players. Archos 605 has one of the largest on the market at 4.3-inchs. It displays in 800x480 resolution, so movies, pictures, and WebPages look the same as they would on your PC. They’ve also made the touch screen smudge resistance, somehow.

The best design features on any electronics are practical ones and because nothing screams impracticality like having to hold your video player while watching a two hour movie, this player has a sturdy metal stand built in. Also built into the unit is a speaker for sharing your movies in group viewing sessions. Archos 605's design drawbacks are the proprietary USB connection, its scratch magnet of a case and dirt prone white front buttons.

Archos 605 is a standalone player for music, videos, photos, and PDFs. The content portal, which is like online store, allows you to buy or rent movies and music from different providers, (how novel, competition in digital media distribution).

As with many devices from Archos, the 605 is a base for many add-ons. Marketing fluff aside, what you get in the box isn’t going to allow you to fully utilize the player’s capabilities. But then you wouldn't want to pay extra for stuff you might never use. At 20 bucks a pop, plug-ins allow for high definition playback, Wi-Fi internet radio, reading multiple video file formats, and more. If you plan on using Archos’ Wi-Fi connectivity to browse the net you need to purchase Opera web browsing software, $30. This mobile browser is highly rated and the flash plug-in gives you more of the web than Mobile Safari browser, which has no flash plug-in.

The most expensive, and consequently the most useful, add-on is Archos DVR Station, or dock. It adapts the video signal to your television, then, turns your digital video player into a digital video recorder, hence the DVR in the name. The DVR allows you to record and playback your favorite television content on the portable player, or on your television. Why pay a charge to watch shows on your PMP that you’ve already paid for in your cable subscription? Archos DVR Station also includes a physical keyboard on the DVR’s remote making web surfing and emailing while lounging in the EZ-Boy much more viable.

Archos has released a versatile, relatively inexpensive, customizable portable player that is unmatched in screen resolution. You may have to drop some additional cash to enhance functionality, but the investment is completely worth it, especially when you travel. If you are thinking iPod consider what you’ll be giving up, drag and drop hard drive support, wirelessly rent movies and music, and DVR. Sure the presentation is a bit lacking, but do you buy PMPs to impress others or yourself?

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Amazon MP3 Dumps DRM

[Image courtesy of Amazon]

posted by Andrew Harris

Competing directly with the iTunes' market share, everyone chasing those guys, Amazon today announced the public beta release of "Amazon MP3". Offering up 2 million downloadable songs, half are being priced lower than itunes at $0.89 each, the rest at $0.99, full albums will be offered at between $5.99-$9.99. Amazon's most competitive feature of the new offering, besides higher bitrates, is the lack of copyright restrictions. So you can play Amazon MP3 music purchases on any machine, player, or device that can read MP3. ("Oh and apple takes a hard right hook to the jaw")...some indie labels will be breaking the ties that bind and going DRM free for the first time with Amazon.

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