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Music streaming service Spotify wins early fans

Move over, Pandora. There's a new music service in town--well, in some towns anyway.

TorrentFreak has an in-depth write-up of a new music streaming service called Spotify, which shows an awful lot of promise--so much so that the music piracy-focused blog sees it as a viable alternative to downloading pirated songs for free.

Spotify is a lean, downloadable application that lets users stream music instantly from its library--a library built with the blessing of EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and some smaller record labels. That, of course, begs the question: how does it make … Read more

LG Blu-ray box to offer CinemaNow, YouTube videos

LG Electronics will add video streaming features from CinemaNow and YouTube to its 2009 lineup of networked Blu-ray players, the company said Tuesday.

The company will be showing off the new functionality at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) next week in Las Vegas. (Click here for CNET's complete coverage of CES 2009.)

LG launched its first network-connected Blu-ray player in July with partner Netflix. As part of the deal, viewers get access to more than 12,000 movies and TV shows from Netflix.

With Tuesday's announcement, LG Blu-ray customers will also get access to 14,000 movies and … Read more

How can we expect Blu-ray to succeed?

Online research firm Futuresource released a study Monday that discussed the relative success Blu-ray is enjoying right now in Western Europe.

According to the report, Blu-ray disc sales are up significantly in Europe so far this holiday season, and based on its findings, it believes the strong sales will continue through 2009. In fact, it believes European Blu-ray sales will triple during 2009, seeing 2.5 million players enter homes next year. Similar results are being witnessed in the U.S.

But that's not all. A release last week claimed the latest Batman film, The Dark Knight, witnessed sales of 1.7 million Blu-ray units, representing the most popular Blu-ray title of all-time.

Quite impressive, eh? Well, what if I told you that worldwide combined DVD and Blu-ray sales of The Dark Knight totaled 13.5 million units? Suddenly, that 1.7 million Blu-ray unit mark doesn't look so hot next to the 11.8 million DVDs that were sold, huh?

Of course, we shouldn't expect Blu-ray to catch up anytime soon. According to Futuresource in a study it released earlier this year, Blu-ray isn't expected to outsell DVD until 2012. And even then, Blu-ray will control just a bit more than 50 percent of media sales with DVD coming in around 45 percent to 50 percent. In other words, DVDs will still be a major force four years from now.

Based on all that information, can we honestly sit here and say that Blu-ray has a chance at becoming the success DVD is?

I just don't see it.… Read more

Philips adds two new network audio products to its Streamium line

Philips' line of Streamium products was one of the pioneers in the network audio realm, but it never really clicked with consumers (at least in the U.S.), even as competitors like Sonos and Logitech's Squeezebox began carving out their own niches. But Philips is hardly throwing in the towel: the company has unveiled two new models, the Streamium NP2500 and the Streamium NP2900.

Both models offer the same basic features of the earlier Streamium NP1100: streaming non-DRM audio files from networked Windows and Mac PCs, as well as the ability to stream Rhapsody content (subscription required) and thousands … Read more

CES 2009 preview: Gaming

While last year's CES didn't offer much in terms of gaming, it would appear that CES 2009 has a lot more in store. This is partially thanks to the Nintendo Wii, which has not only solidified itself as the best-selling console of this generation, but because the system lends itself so well to third-party accessories. We expect to see plenty of new products announced exclusively for the Wii from companies like Mad Catz and Nyko.

It's possible that Microsoft may reveal some new info regarding the Xbox 360 hardware. Rumors of a Blu-ray drive continue to swirl, … Read more

Simply streaming radio

If you're open to browsing thousands of Internet radio stations from around the world, you've come to the right place. Tuner Internet Radio for iPhone has a great (but not flashy) interface for browsing stations by musical genre or popularity, and for searching a station by name. Apart from bookmarking favorite stations and glancing at the bit rate next to the station name, there's not much else you can do except sit back and enjoy the beats (and perhaps the visualizer); that's with or without headphones, as long as you jack up the sound to enjoy … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: The case of the missing Web movies

Some movies previously available for streaming on iTunes and Netflix are disappearing from those sites' libraries. Reporter Greg Sandoval drops by the podcast studio to explain why (hint: it's about money) and whether we can expect it to change anytime soon.

Also in this podcast: We knew layoffs were coming to Yahoo, and today, they finally happened; Mac clone maker Psystar uses a new argument in its legal fight against Apple; AOL makes it easy to track your friends' social-network movements; and how Web users in England got their Wikipedia back.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's … Read more

Daily Tidbits: Delicious goes on the road

Social-bookmarking site Delicious announced Tuesday that it has launched a mobile site to allow users to view saved pages while on the go. Delicious Mobile allows users to browse saved bookmarks, view their in-box, and browse recent bookmarks and tags from the Delicious community. The company says it will integrate its social search engine into the mobile site next.

Analysts from market research firm Gartner said Wednesday that organizations need to understand how social networks are "altering the recruitment landscape and adapt recruiting strategies and systems accordingly." Gartner analysts went on to say that by 2011, organizations that … Read more

Netflix cuts 50 tech jobs; streaming issues linger

Web video-rental store Netflix has laid off 50 technical specialists, the people who typically do most of the trouble-shooting for customers with tech issues, such as struggling to connect the service to their laptop or set-top boxes.

Steve Swasey, a Netflix spokesman, said 15 of the company's 65 technical specialists will join the 300-person Customer Service group. According to Swasey, Netflix also plans to add 50 more people to its customer service unit sometime after the New Year.

Swasey said there just wasn't as much need to keep so many tech specialists. He credited Microsoft's Silverlight with … Read more