lala
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Switched On: I'm in ur site, hearing ur t00nz
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: Last week's Switched On discussed Lala.com's introduction of free music locker services that sync directly to the iPod (and only the iPod). However, because it believes the sampling capabilities of the original Napster days were key to driving music purchases, Lala is also developing something that is bound to shake up subscription music services such as Napster and Rhapsody -- free and unlimited streaming of user-selected music from major labels. Once agreements are secured, Lala will essentially be giving away the rough equivalent of Yahoo Music's Unlimited's $5/month PC streaming service.. While Lala's version will have some offline functionality with cached tracks, it doesn''t yet offer tethered or a la carte downloads the way that Yahoo! Music and other PlaysForSure services do. At its preview launch, Lala will offer access to the complete Warner Music library -- hundreds of thousands of tracks -- and is pursuing agreements with the other major labels, as well as independents. It expects to pay approximately $140 million on licenses in the next few years to spur huge increases in music sales via viral and social network marketing; something that Napster.com's limited free listens were unable to do.
Switched On: Lala makes the Web the latest iPod accessory
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: When Lala.com launched just last year, the company raised eyebrows looking to build a business around trading of compact discs for a dollar per trade while expecting most of its revenue to come from sales of new CDs. The company claims that it actually reached profitability in its core business, but it realized that exposing members to lists of each others' CDs wasn't enough. Soon it added Internet radio by acquiring terrestrial-turned-Internet broadcaster WOXY.com. Lala has dismissed concerns that it would facilitate piracy as members ripped and flipped with the argument that the real problem that music faces today is the war for time and money versus other media. Consumers are inundated with cable channels, YouTube, RSS, DVDs, video games, Web sites and those clever Engadget columns that you know you should really submit to Digg more often. To this war, Lala is bringing two major weapons which brings the site determined to disrupt squarely into the realm of digital music. Not only will the company offer free music library hosting and downloading directly to one's iPod, but it is moving to offer free streaming of on-demand libraries from all four major labels, starting with Warner Music. Lala will enable any members to store their entire digital music collection on its site to stream on demand. Of course, Lala is not the first to have this idea -- MP3.com tried it in 1998 and earned the scorn of the RIAA, which forced the startup to nix the idea. Nowadays, several sites provide music locker services (often for a fee) for those wiling to upload their music files, which can be a lengthy proposition for those with large libraries.
Little Twin Stars grace case of Gigabyte's new phone
You may not have heard of the Little Twin Stars -- two characters from the same guys that created Hello Kitty -- but for fans of "Kiki" and "Lala", this phone is a must have. However, considering that the popularity of the Little Twin Stars peaked in the early-80s, we have to question Gigabyte's logic in targeting this specific demographic. That said, we've never been able to rationalize the tendency of phone manufacturers to place strange murals on their devices. It's not like we're blown away by the Little Twin Star mobile's specifications either, with the 2-inch 176 x 220 LCD and 2-megapixel cam having average stamped all over them, and the string of obsolete connections standards -- GPRS and USB 1.1 -- packaged alongside them feeling decidedly out of place in 2007. In summary: if you like the Little Twin Stars, then you might consider buying this phone. Otherwise, move along.
