Free music downloads? Is this good news for music lovers!? What’s the catch?

Universal Music, the world’s largest music company, has shaken up the record industry by announcing that it will make its song catalogue available as free internet downloads. Unlike Napster and other competing online music retailers, could this service actually pose a challenge to iTunes.

Are these tracks really free??? Don’t be silly.

Is Universal Music just giving away all their music for free? Not exactly. A series of advertisements would play while you wait for each song to download. Will this advertising model work for an online music store? According to research conducted by Universal Music and SprialFrog, consumers willing to watch non-intrusive relevant advertising in exchange for the free content. I guess some people like watching advertising. Not me. I’d rather pay TiVo a service fee for the ability to fast-forward thru the commercials.

Catch#1: you have to watch advertising before/while downloading tracks

So what is stopping someone from redistributing these free tracks on P2P sharing services like BitTorrent once downloaded? According to SprialFrog, Universal Music Group’s online distribution partner, digital rights management (DRM) technology will be built into all audio and video content to address the issue of piracy. However, DRM can be a double-edged sword if you are not careful. The model of DRM they plan on using is Windows Media based and means that any free tracks that you download cannot be burned on to a CD and won’t work with Apple computers or iPod music players. Personally, that’s a major deal breaker for me.

Catch #2: tracks cannot be burned on to a CD
Catch#3: tracks won’t work with Apple computers or iPod music players

In addition to Universal Music’s artists, which include U2 and Kanye West, SprialFrog is seeking to license the catalogs of Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Group. It’s a start. iTunes currently offers millions of songs and video content worldwide. SprialFrog and Universal Music Group have a lot of catching up to do.

Catch#4: smaller music catalogue than iTunes

Will this service actually pose a threat to Apple’s iTunes Music Store? Since iPod owners can’t use these free downloads, it’s doubtful. But you can’t blame the entertainment industry for scrambling to find new ways to make money as the Internet rewrites the rules of distribution and marketing.

digg story | methodshop

Thanks to Google, residents in Mountain View, California have one less monthly bill to pay every month… their Internet.

This month Google launched their free wireless Internet service called Google WiFi Mountain View. The service is completely free to the 72,000 residents of Mountain View and is not supported via ads. It covers the 12 square mile radius of the town and is comprised of some 380 access points.

Speeds have been reported at 1Mbps and Google is hoping that their product will convince many residents to drop their DSL & Cable offerings. Although these speeds aren’t super fast, Google’s free alternative will be something that most people will embrace. People who still want their high speed connections will have to pay for it.

If you’re not in Mountain View don’t despair, Google has teamed up with Earthlink for a more ambitious project - providing wireless Internet service to the San Francisco area. The San Francisco service will be a little different from the one now available in Mountain View in that it will be tiered. The free service (300 Kbps) will be supported by ads. If you want higher speeds (1 Mbps) without the ads, then you will have to pay monthly subscription fee.

So what is Google really up to here? Is Mountain View and San Francisco just beta cities for something much bigger like national WiFi? Google has been quietly buying up miles of “dark fiber” across the United States for years. Add that fiber network to the Wimax routers and chip sets slated to hit the consumer market next year and Google could wipe out the telecom and cable companies before they knew what hit them. Think about it… Google could instantly become a national ISP, phone (VoIP) and TV provider for the entire country.

It sounds easy, but consider the deployment difficulties of a national wireless network. A single WiFi base station can only cover a limited area. With overlap you are probably talking about 300-500 base stations per square mile depending on terrain. I’m no math major, but how many base stations would Google need to cover the entire United States? Over a billion? If Google did decide to build a national network, they’d probably have to hire all those former cable and DSL employees just to repair and maintain this massive network.

National WiFi domination… something to think about.

Sources: Techie Diva, News.com

digg story | methodshop

I went to the Gizoo launch party and found them all to be a real decent bunch of people with a real passion for all things gadgety. They’ve already donated a pair of bluetooth headphones and a wireless keyboard to our current gadget competition (which after playing with them I can safely say they are worth winning). The boss, John, also kindly agreed to make donations and contests a regular thing. Thanks John.

I’ve made a more detailed post about the evening over in the forums, thanks Gizoo for a very entertaining evening.

Unfortunately Dell isn’t the only company plagued by exploding defective Sony batteries. On Thursday afternoon Apple announced that they will recall 1.8 million lithium-ion notebook batteries after nine devices overheated. Two people have even reportedly suffered minor burns due to these battery malfunctions.

You can check out some of the fiery Apple laptops in this clip from NBC’s Nightly News with Brian Williams.

This recall is the second-biggest consumer electronics recall in U.S. history. Dell proudly holds the #1 position thanks to the 4.1 million batteries they announced a recall for last week.

So how do you know if you have a bad Sony battery in your Apple laptop? The bad batteries were sold worldwide from October 2003 through August 2006 in the following notebook computers: 12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch PowerBook G4 and 15-inch PowerBook G4.

If you own one of these Apple laptops, carefully remove your battery and take a look at the numbers printed on the back. The battery serial number is printed in black or dark grey lettering beneath a barcode. See this flickr photo for more info.

Once you mail your defective Sony battery back to Apple, you can still use your Apple laptop sans battery. Just plug in the AC adapter to power the computer until a replacement battery arrives. Apple pays for all the shipping costs and will even send you a postage paid label to send the bad battery back. Unfortunately you’ll lose the joys of laptop portability for about 4 to 6 weeks. That’s the estimated time it will take Apple to replace your battery. Look on the bright side - at least you won’t have to worry about a bonfire spontaneously igniting in your lap for a few weeks. Flame on!

For more information on the battery recall, check out this page on Apple.com.

youtube | digg story | methodshop

With the launch of the forums it’s been a very hectic day so I’ve only just found the time to write this, my 10 favourite gadgets from the past year. So in no particular order we have:

10 - LED Keyboard

This was probably the gadget that made me start Coolest Gadgets, it just looks so cool. Each key is it’s own little LCD screen which opens up a phenomenal list of uses.

The full keyboard is still not available to buy but you can get a 3 key version from Think Geek.
Read the rest of this entry »

Apple definitely has a successful formula when it comes to their elegant product design and marketing. Simple. Uncluttered. Clean… and very un-Microsoft. But what if Microsoft designed the iPod? What would the packaging look like? This video parody explores those possibilities.

What makes this video even more funny is that it was created by Microsoft. Microsoft spokesman Tom Pilla sent an email to iPod Observer saying that his company initiated the creation of the parody video.

“It was an internal-only video clip commissioned by our packaging [team] to humorously highlight the challenges we have faced RE: packaging and to educate marketers here about the pitfalls of packaging/branding… While MS did not release the video, it’s natural to share funny things with friends. So while we didn’t publicly share the video, it was shared with appropriate teams internally. We’re happy to see others enjoy the laugh as well.”

The music in the background might sound familiar. It’s the song “The Breakfast Machine” from the movie Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

digg story | methodshop

If you’ve always wanted to be able to play your PSP in the bath but were slightly nervous to do so a solution is at hand, zip lock gadget bags.

The zip lock bags (AKA Aquatalk) come in a variety of sizes to suit many every day gadgets, like PSPs, Nintendo DS flip-top mobile phones etc. As my knowledge of Japanese is on par with my knowledge of quantum physics, I’m not sure if they’re fully waterproof or just splash proof but either way I think I’d still be a bit hesitant to have a bath with a) an electric device and b) a couple of hundred pounds worth of gadget.

More info over at Rakuten, found via Ounae, thanks.

Our friends The Gadget Store have just rebranded so they have a new name and a new site to match, GIZOO.

Gizoo will be expanding on the range of gadgets and gizmos that the Gadget Store stocked. We teamed up with the Gadget Store during the World Cup to give away a bunch of England flags and we will be teaming up with GIZOO in the near future for some joint competitions.

I will also be doing a behind the scenes report on how Gizoo operates which I’m expecting to be a bit of an eye opener.

I’m now off to see what fun stuff I can find to play with at GIZOO :).