Business Tech

Songbird, an iTunes alternative that originally combined music playback and management with Web-based music discovery, will exit stage left permanently at the end of the month.

CEO Eric Wittman revealed in a blog post that Songbird will no longer be maintained as of June 28, and that its parent company, Pioneers of the Inevitable, also would be closing down.

"[T]he company has found ourselves unable to fund further business operations," he said. The open-source desktop version of Songbird, its mobile apps for Android and iOS, and its music discovery service Songbird.me will all go dark. Wittman … Read more

In another step toward 3D printers finding a place in everyday businesses and homes, online retailer Amazon has dedicated a section of its site to selling 3D printers.

The site sells 3D printers from well-known manufacturers such as Makerbot, as well as others such as Cubify and fabbster, alongside 3D printer filament and spare parts.

Prices for machines range from the $1,099 JET/Open Source 3D printer Replicator G to $2,479 MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D printer.

The section marks another move toward mainstream adoption for 3D printing and follows office-supply chain Staples' decision to begin stocking 3D printers.… Read more

Display panels for the iPad Mini Retina should begin leaving the factory in the coming months, according to market researcher IHS iSuppli, echoing recent comments from other analysts.

Panel production for the high-resolution Mini will be "less than 3 million" units in the third quarter, Sweta Dash, senior director of LCD research at IHS iSuppli, told CNET.

And that means Apple's next small tablet should follow sooner -- or later. "We see it coming in the second half," Dash said. "The challenges [display makers] face are the [production] yield rates. And being able to … Read more

Andy Lees, Microsoft's vice president of corporate strategy and development and a rising star within the company, has stepped down from the post just months after getting it, according to a new report.

Lees won't be leaving Microsoft altogether, but will go on sabbatical to return to his family in the U.K., All Things Digital is reporting. When he returns, Lees will have a new position within Microsoft. What that position will be, however, is unknown at this point.

Prior to being promoted to vice president to head up corporate development and strategy, Lees led Microsoft's … Read more

Adobe Systems' competitors smell blood in the water.

Having seen the torrent of criticism that greeted the company's move last month exclusively to subscription sales for most of its software, many are launching promotions and otherwise scrambling to win over the disaffected.

"We've put in place our outreach program to users, saying, 'Hey, come and try us,'" said Nick Davies, general manager of Corel's digital media and productivity software group. Corel launched a promotion that lets Adobe CS4, CS5, and CS6 users buy Corel software for the upgrade price rather than the full price.

"… Read more

Google may get its second-generation small tablet into consumers' hands before Apple does.

Market researcher IHS told CNET that Japan Display Inc. and AUO are expected to make the display for the next-gen Nexus 7, while Quanta will make the tablet itself.

"As far as I know, JDI and AUO didn't start to supply this panel to Quanta yet. However, they are saying it will start from June and July," Ricky Park, who heads research for TV, Tablet, Monitor and Notebooks display at IHS, told CNET. He is based in South Korea.

The "launch...of the … Read more

Google's controversial Chrome Frame, a secure Internet Explorer plug-in that fought to bring the modern Web to legacy versions of Internet Explorer, will soon be going the way of Reader, Wave, and other Google projects not deemed worthy of a future.

Chrome engineer Robert Shield wrote in a blog post on Thursday that Chrome Frame had outlived its usefulness. Basically, it wasn't being used. Google said that its lack of appeal was because the use of browsers that support modern Web site technology has advanced far enough beyond where it was in 2009, when Chrome Frame launched.

Gary … Read more

Everybody knows we all need faster Web sites: speedy load times and responsive pages means that people stay on a site longer, look at more photos, see more ads, and buy more stuff. Much of the work to speed things up has happened in the browser, but a startup called Instart Logic hopes to profit by changing what happens on the server, too.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company came out of stealth mode Thursday, describing how its technology works and touting customers including Game of Thrones Ascent, GameStop, Bonfaire, and Kitchit.

"We generally drop people's load time … Read more

Apple is exploring iPhones as large as 5.7 inches, as it feels the heat from large-screen rivals, according to Reuters.

The company is considering the introduction of "at least two bigger iPhones next year," the report said.

One could sport a 4.7-inch screen and the other a 5.7-incher, Reuters said, citing sources in the Asia supply chain.

"Suppliers have been approached with plans for the larger screens," the report claimed, adding that the move is "still under discussion."

The motive appears to be a growing need to respond to large-screen smartphones … Read more