Will Video Save the Radio Star?
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Sirius finally makes a move to matter in video.
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Since the dawn of the musical era in radio, broadcasters have been free from paying royalties to musical performers. Radio was once the bands' ticket to the big leagues. That may change if two congressmen have their way.
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(InfoWorld) - On Thursday afternoon at the D: All Things Digital show, RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser demoed a new version of RealPlayer, to be released as a beta in June, that adds the ability to download video that's normally available only as a stream from Web sites and save it to your hard drive for later playback in RealPlayer. There's nothing earth-shaking about that -- utilities like KeepVid and the Firefox extension Video Downloader have offered similar functionality for quite awhile. But Real is aiming for something close to universal compatibility: It says its feature will work with video in Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media, and its own Real formats. And the mere fact that such a widely-used program is offering this capability may make it more mainstream. Sometime after the initial release, Glaser said, it'll follow up with a version that allows you to sync the videos you've downloaded onto an iPod. Walt Mossberg asked Glaser a question that I wondered about instantly myself: Is this all legal? Glaser said that Real respects DRM if it's there and won't let you download copy-protected video. As for non-protected video, he said that Real takes no stance -- it's up to the user to ensure that he or she is using the product for legal purposes. In other words, I'm still not sure whether it's kosher to download and preserve, say, a copyrighted clip from YouTube. But the chances that anyone will come after you if you're only doing it for personal use are presumably slim. Real's implementation of this idea looked slick in the demo: When it finds a video it can save, a little button appears over the video window. Click on it, and you can download. If you're one of those people who thinks of RealPlayer as a program that's hard to download and install and that mucks up your system in various ways, the new version may still be worth investigating: Glaser says getting and using it will be a smoother process, although he didn't provide details. To be fair to Real, its current version is already no more irritating than a heck of a lot of other free applications.
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(InfoWorld) - Bringing together existing technologies can often make a new product more useful, as can be seen with a few of the gadgets coming out of East Asia this month. Casio Computer has added a YouTube function to its newest digital still camera, so you can just shoot, connect and click to upload video to the popular Web site, while Sony's PSP is getting a mobile digital TV tuner. The month has also seen some playfulness in the MP3 space. Reigncom of South Korea's iRiver now has a Mickey Mouse-styled MP3 player, although its sale will be limited due to a marketing agreement with Disney. Meanwhile Japan's Sony has pimped out its E-series Walkman with crystals. Casio YouTube digital still camera Casio has the first digital cameras with a video mode optimized for YouTube. CalledÂ the Exilim EX-S880 and EX-Z77, the cameras will be released worldwide starting in the U.S. in August, followed by Europe and Asia soon after. So how do you get a clip onto YouTube? First, you shoot a video in the YouTube mode then slip the camera into a dock. This automatically starts a video management application on your PC (Windows XP SP2, 2000 SP4 and Vista only) and grabs the movie files. The application can be set up with a YouTube account, default title name and other settings, so getting the video online involves simply clicking the upload button. Alternatively, you can enter information specific to the clips and then upload them. It's very easy. The EX-S880 can take 8.1 megapixel images, has a 3X optical zoom and will cost about $300. Samsung's RDS music player It's difficult to differentiate MP3 players these days. They're all small and often have similar screens and are compatible with the same handful of formats. But along comes Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.'s U3 with a feature not often seen: RDS (radio data system). It's used on many FM radio stations in Europe and sends the station name, details about the song playing and other useful information alongside the signal. The U3 will display this on its 4-line OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screen. The U3 is about the same size as a pack of chewing gum and has its own USB (Universal Serial Bus) connector, so it doesn't need a cable to connect to a PC. It will be available in black, white, blue, pink and green, and in three capacities: 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB. It's available globally for $79, $99, and $149. Sony's PSP with digital TV Sony is bringing mobile digital TV to its PlayStation Portable. The plug-in tuner works with Japan's "OneSeg" format mobile TV broadcasts, which delivers a QVGA (320 pixel by 240 pixel) resolution video signal that can be processed easily by portable gadgets. The new PSP also features a video-out connector so it will be possible to hook up the device to a TV to watch programs, although as the same channels are available on conventional TV at higher quality there would be little to gain. It will cost Â¥6,980 ($57.38). OneSeg-format broadcasting is used only in Japan, so the tuner isn't compatible with the formats used in other countries. Fujitsu slim and waterproof phone With cellphones getting so light and slim it's easy to wade into the sea at the beach and forget your handset is still in your pocket. The usual result is a dead phone. But users of Fujitsu's new F704i don't have to worry. The handset, which will be on sale in Japan just in time for the summer, is waterproof. It's a WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) handset with 3G roaming and will be available in Japan only through NTT DoCoMo. It's a shame the camera offers only 1.3 megapixels or it would be even more useful for holiday beach snaps. IRiver Mickey Mouse MP3 player IRiver's Mickey Mouse MP3 player is too cute to pass over. The player, which packs 1GB of memory, is a small round ball with two smaller round balls attached to the top as ears, so that in silhouette it looks like the DisneyÂ cartoon character. The right ear twists to advance or back-up a song and the left ear is the volume control. There's an on-off button on one side and a small LED (light emitting diode) lamp on the other side that glows green or red to indicate whether that player is on or off. Models come in black, white, blue, pink and silver. It will initially be available in South Korea and Hong Kong for about $50. LG HSDPA Cellphones LG ElectronicsÂ is releasing a fewÂ new phonesÂ with support for HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) wireless data connections. The LG-KH1400 marries the HSDPA networking with digital mobile TV reception. The display can be twisted horizontally to watch shows, and there's a video output socket to feed the picture to a bigger screen. The handset also has a 2-megapixel camera. Another phone, the LG-SH130, is a more basic slider model that brings fast data transfer and global roaming without the bells and whistles of the KH1400. Both are available in South Korea only. Sony's 'bling' Walkman Sony is adding a touch of bling to its Walkman line with a set of E-series devices decked-out with a generous sprinkling of crystals. The music players, which were launched in a more bland plastic case earlier this year, will be available in September through a link with Tokyo's Abiste costume jewelry store. They'll cost between Â¥15,800 for the 1GB version and Â¥24,800 for the 4GB version and be available only in Japan. Â
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A new technology unveiled Tuesday would show what's being said on the radio using a receiver with a screen that would scroll text much like closed captions roll by on TV.
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WINTHROP, Wash., Sept. 12  /PRNewswire/ -- With summer quickly becoming a lingering memory, many families are faced with the decision of how to preserve and share the video they collected over their break.
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Now shows can be recorded without anything physical to record them on. The same goes for music. The days of tape-cassette&#39;s are long-gone, but CDs could be on their way out, too.
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By Sarah Jane Tribble, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Jun. 18--Wouldn't it be great to have your own TV channel broadcasting videos you create?   Best of all, you can make the video screen appear on your personal blog and show live video as you're filming it through your cell phone.
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About $200,000 in monthly expenses is a big check to write to run a radio station you may never own. That&#39;s the reality facing Chris Egan, who will have to decide how long he&#39;ll
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Stick a tape in the VCR and save it for posterity. Clip the newspapers. Buy the frame for the ticket stub. Baseball history beckons.
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Technologies that let people record satellite and Internet radio broadcasts digitally are opening a new front in the recording industry&#39;s war on music piracy.
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Hang the DJ marketing agency A startling claim lands on the desk of Vulture Central. Research from London-based marketing agency Frukt raises the verbless question, "Music radio dying?"â¦
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YouTube, one of the world's most popular Web sites, might be headed for a crash. At least one industry watcher is predicting crippling copyright-violation litigation coming from the entertainment industry.
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Blog: Music industry group that collects royalty payments has offered a compromise, but it's unclear whether it will go far enough to please disgruntled Webcasters.
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Paul Abrahams' comparison of blogs with the CB radio fad may or may not prove to be right, but too many of us are missing the wider influence of user-generated media.   It is not just bloggers who are influencing corporate reputations online.
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Don&#39;t you think it&#39;s time to retire that VCR? You probably have a DVD player or two, so you already know videocassettes are fast becoming obsolete.
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Editor, New Era:           There is a bill just introduced in Congress that will save Internet radio from the devastating royalty-fee           increases that will put thousands of Internet webcasters out of business on May 15.