RealNetworks spinning Rhapsody off into separate company

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Internet, Music

RealNetworks has just announced that it will be spinning off its Rhapsody music service into a separate, independently-operated company that will be based in downtown Seattle. This move follows the departure of founder Rob Glaser as CEO of the company, and about 150 RealNetworks employees will make the transition over to the new Rhapsody. Rhapsody, a joint venture between RealNetworks and Viacom MTV Networks, will no longer see it’s majority stake held by Real, which currently has a 51 percent share. RealNetworks says this is a move that is focused on streamlining company operations. Interesting, to say the least, since as far as we’re concerned, Rhapsody is the most interesting and mainstream product that RealNetworks has to offer.

Read More | RealNetworks

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Comcast rebranding services as Xfinity

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Broadband, Corporate News

In a puzzling move, Comcast announced today that they are going to be rebranding their broadband services under a new moniker: Xfinity. Seriously. Starting next week, Xfinity TV, Xfinity Internet, and Xfinity Voice will be rolled out to current Comcast customers in 11 markets, those being: Boston, Philly, Baltimore, DC, Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Hartford, Augusta, and Chatanooga, along with parts of the Bay area. Don’t expect any changes in the actual services you receive, this is just a name change, similar to when CableVision rebranded their services under the Optimum banner.

Expect a marketing blitz in the markets named above to start next Friday, including TV ads during the Olympics, print, and radio spots.

Read More | Comcast Voices

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Apple iPad revealed

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News, Handhelds

It’s been a long, rumor-filled road, but today Apple has finally revealed a tablet, called the iPad. Steve Jobs seemed genuinely thrilled to demo the iPad, which weighs just 1.5 pounds, is a half-inch thin, and has a 9.7-inch capacitive touchscreen IPS display. More interesting, Apple has built their own custom 1GHz processor, called the Apple A4 chip, to power the iPad. According to Jobs, the A4 chip “just screams,” and as a result, the iPad boasts a 10-hour battery life, with a full one month of standby time. You’ll be able to get one in 16, 32, or 64GB sizes, and we’ll have the prices as soon as they’re announced prices listed below. Bluetoth, 802.11n Wi-Fi, speaker, microphone, and dock connector round out the offerings.

One of the big draws of the iPad is that all current iPhone apps will run just fine on it, and you can choose to run them at the original resolution, or in a pixel-doubled mode for fullscreen on the iPad. Apps can also be optimized for iPad to take advantage of the full screen resolution, as well as enhanced gestures. A new iPhone SDK, which includes iPad support, will be released later today.

The goal with the iPad is to do the tasks like web browsing, email, photo viewing, video watching, and e-book reading (Apple is including a new ereader app called iBooks) better than a netbook ever could, but also better than a smartphone ever could. The iPad has a “gorgeous” keyboard that actually looks very easy to use, and the actual built-in applications look more like the full version of OS X than what you’d find on the iPhone or iPod touch. In fact, you even get full-featured applications like iPhoto, iTunes, iBooks, and even Pages, Keynote, and Numbers in iWork for the iPad.

As far as 3G data plans, the iPad has two plans available from AT&T in the US. $14.99 per month for up to 250MB of data, or $29.99 per month for unlimited data. The best part? There are no contracts. You pay on a pre-paid month-to-month basis, so there are no cancellation fees. You activate your plan directly from the iPad, with no reason to hit an AT&T Store. All iPad 3G models are unlocked and use GSM micro SIMs, so in theory, you could get a better plan of your own elsewhere and just use that.

Let’s talk pricing - each model of the iPad is available as a Wi-Fi-only or Wi-Fi + 3G configuration. 16GB is $499 / $629, 32GB costs $499 / $729, and the 64GB model will be $699 / $829. As far as availability, iPad without 3G will start shipping at the end of March, while the 3G models will start shipping at the end of April. Choose wisely!

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Amazon bringing apps to Kindle with Kindle Development Kit

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Handhelds, Software

Amazon is getting into the apps game, with “active content” coming to the Kindle later this year with the announcement of the Kindle Development Kit (KDK.) You’ll be able to download these apps wirelessly using the Kindle Store once they launch, and we already know that there are some devs that are already hard at work on their Kindle active content.

Amazon says it has already released the Kindle Development Kit to a select number of partners, including the video game giant Electronic Arts, and will make it more widely available when a limited beta period starts next month. It anticipates formally adding what it calls “active content” to the Kindle store sometime later this year.

Some are seeing this as a reaction to the many, many new ereaders that we saw debut at CES 2010, while others think it is a preventative measure to take some steam out of whatever it is that Apple will be announcing next week at the January 27th Apple Event. Regardless of what it is, having more value added to a device is never a bad thing.

Read More | Amazon

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Verizon FiOS launches faster symmetrical 35Mbps Internet speeds, better HD TV bundles

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Broadband, Corporate News, HDTV, Home Entertainment

This morning we got word that Verizon was bolstering their FiOS packages, with the big news (from where we sit) being that the company is now offering a new symmetrical 35/35 Mbps Internet package as part of their “Best” bundle, which also brings an expansion of offerings in their FiOS TV HD package. For those who just want the blazing Internet goodness without the HD, they are also offering a 25/25 Mbps service, and they still offer the 50/20 Mbps service as well, which is a bit odd. They seem to have updated all of their Internet packages, and now the highest tier has the slowest upload speed out of them all. Hopefully that’ll change fairly quickly, because things appear to be a bit off-balance there. Nevertheless, FiOS is now in a position where they don’t have any competitor in the US that matches their upload speed, regardless of cost.

It’s not all fun and games, though. There is also a higher early-termination fee that comes alongside the new services. Formerly, it would cost $179 to terminate the two-year contract, but now it’s up to as much as $360. Again, that’s only if you cancel, and we think that once you get a look at the uncompressed HD and feel for the speedy Internet, you’ll decide that you’re in for the long haul.

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It’s official: Apple holding event on January 27, showing ‘latest creation’

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News, Rumors

Okay, gang, Apple has finally sent those press invitations out to an event they are holding on January 27th, and if there is one thing we can surmise from this one, it’s that we will be seeing the release of a new product. Whether you want to call it the iSlate, iPad, Apple Tablet, MacBook touch, or whatever else, we’re putting all our money on a brand new multitouch tablet device, with Apple aiming to change the world yet again. Oh, and updated MacBook Pros as well.

The event starts at 10:00AM Pacific time and comes to you from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco. Join us then, because we’ll be hitting you with the news as it happens.

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Is Verizon encouraging AT&T users to partake in Operation Chokehold?

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Cell Phones, Corporate News, Wireless / WiFi

My pal Matt Hickey from over at Crave has seemingly connected a few dots as it pertains to the battle between AT&T and Verizon, and this whole Fake Steve Jobs “Operation Chokehold” stunt aimed at taking down the AT&T Wireless data network this Friday afternoon. In case you are unfamiliar, Fake Steve proposed that AT&T customers load up bandwidth-intensive apps on Friday at noon, all at the same time, to saturate the AT&T network to a point of failure as a way of expressing they they are fed up with the horrible performance of the network. Thing is, one of my other pals, John Czwartacki, who just happens to be a contributor to the Verizon Policy Blog and a prolific Verizon personality on Twitter, linked to the movement via a tweet. Some are seeing this as a Verizon official condoning, or possibly even encouraging, the whole “Operation Chokehold” act.

Personally? We think that this is more of a finger pointing statement. It’s John saying “Haha - look at AT&T - their users are so fed up that they want to crush the service that they pay for! Tee hee! Verizon customers wouldn’t do that to us!” What do you think? Was John, and thusly Verizon, out of line here? Either way, we can stomach the rivalry that is happening in the television commercials…but let’s keep the battle outside of our Twitter streams, okay guys?

Edit: John Czwartacki just hit me with an email, pointing out that he certainly doesn’t condone this behavior at all, and even said as much in a few tweets that followed. He was simply linking to industry news, as he normally does. He thinks that if customers are fed up with AT&T, they should vote with their wallets. We agree.

Read More | Crave

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The gloves are off: Verizon iPhone attack commercials go full swing

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Cell Phones, Corporate News, Videos

Oh man, you’ve got to love how Verizon Wireless has gotten so bold now that they’ve finally got a killer device in the Motorola DROID to brag about. You’ve also got to love how Apple is getting a taste of their own medicine, after running the “I’m a Mac” ads for years now. Verizon is aiming to highlight their phone offerings, as well as their huge 3G network, in their holiday commercials that dump on the iPhone and AT&T. There are three so far, and we must admit, they’re pretty clever. You can watch all three commercials, one of which sees the iPhone banished to the Land of Misfit Toys, after the break.

Click to continue reading The gloves are off: Verizon iPhone attack commercials go full swing

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Nook e-reader shipments pushed back to December

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Handhelds

The nook e-reader, Barnes and Noble’s supposed Kindle killer, just hit it’s first speed bump with the delay of the ship date. Originally, the nook was set to ship to customers on November 30th. However, B&N says that because sales were higher than expected, they are pushing the ship date to December 11th—a full 11 days later. Luckily, if you got your pre-order in early, yours should still ship on November 30th. However, if you are placing a pre-order at this point, don’t expect to see your device until mid-December. If you were thinking about picking up a nook for someone for the holidays, your best bet might be to buy one sight unseen.

Read More | Brighthand

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Palm Pixi launches on Sprint on November 15 for $99

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Cell Phones, Corporate News, Handhelds

Right on time, Palm and Sprint have finally made their plans for the Palm Pixi public. In case you didn’t know the Pixi is just the second device from Palm that runs their webOS operating system (the first being the Palm Pre.) On November 15th, you’ll be able to pick up a Pixi from Sprint stores, RadioShack, Best Buy, and Walmart for a cool $99.99 after $50 instant rebate, and $100 mail-in rebate. So, really, you’ll need $200 in the back if you want to cop one of these on day one. Yeah, we agree with what we know you’re thinking - what is Palm smoking that gives them the confidence that they can sell this phone for $100, when the much more powerful Pre can be had for $150? We’d love to find out, because we expected to see this one launch at $49-79, but hey, we aren’t Palm.

Anyone gonna pick this one up?

Read More | Palm Pixi

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