Music

For labels, Apple's iRadio deal could be sweeter than Pandora

Apple is close to striking a streaming deal with two of the major music labels that could end up far sweeter for the music industry than what the labels currently get from Pandora, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.

Much has been made in recent weeks of Apple trying to squeeze the labels on terms, and the deals do have Apple paying the labels a per-stream rate that's half of what Pandora pays. But CNET has learned that Apple's planned music service would offer new revenue streams as well.

That includes a quick way for consumers … Read more

Microsoft Monocles? Redmond to make its own Google Glass?

The world is moving very quickly.

And where it's moving very quickly to is a place where we'll all look quite ridiculous and talk seemingly to ourselves as we walk down the street.

This is the heaven envisioned by Google, with its fascinating Google Glass. Yes, the glasses that make people look like no one's idea of a dinner date on the subway.

Many questions have emerged since these glasses invaded the public gaze. "Should one ban people wearing them while driving?" was one question. "How will Newt Gingrich look when wearing them?" … Read more

BlackBerry to shutter its BBM music sharing service on June 2

BlackBerry's BBM music sharing service will be no more.

As of June 2 the service will be shuttered, according to Mobilesyrup. BlackBerry sent out a mass e-mail to all of its BBM Music subscribers today informing them of the news.

Here's a portion of BlackBerry's e-mail, according to Mobilesyrup:

BBMT Music service will be discontinued as of June 2, 2013*. For paying customers, April is the last month that you will be billed. In May, as your BBM contacts stop using the service, songs in your playlists will begin to turn grey and will no longer be … Read more

Family Guy's Stewie makes Google Chrome lovable

If you want your browser to become astoundingly popular, one idea might be to employ the services of a 1-year-old who once rather liked the idea of killing his mother.

Please, I have the evidence.

For the latest, very fetching campaign for Google Chrome appears to be humongously popular among those who spend their days on the Web forwarding viruses.

Indeed, Ad Age reports that its little chart, prepared in conjunction with Visible Measures, shows that the Google Chrome campaign is the most popular viral entity of the last week.

The Stewie ad has proved, perhaps unsurprisingly, to be the … Read more

Rdio adds video service and takes on Apple, Amazon

The music-streaming service Rdio is upping its game by getting into the video business.

The company today rolled out Vdio -- a way to buy, rent, and share movies and TV shows with friends in real time. The service, which at first will be available only for Rdio subscribers in the U.S. and U.K., boasts thousands of hit titles, including "Life of Pi," "Zero Dark Thirty," "The Hobbit," and "Homeland." TV shows are available the day after they air, and the company says it will add new titles and bonus … Read more

The weirdly minimalist trailer for 'Funny Or Die' Steve Jobs movie

Steve Jobs was always a fine salesman.

The people at Funny Or Die involved in making "iSteve" -- a movie of his life -- are similarly inventive.

I was breathlessly sent a link this morning to the teaser trailer for this movie. It promised: "The trailer for iSteve, Funny or Die's Steve Jobs movie with Justin Long is finally here."

That, it is. But it's quite a minimalist trailer.

There are few real, well, pictures.

There are words, however.

"Genius left unchecked can lead to ruin," says someone.

"You gotta ride … Read more

Cheerleader assaults centurion? Must be a new Samsung ad

Selling TVs is hard.

Especially if the medium at your disposal is, well, TV.

Most look somewhat the same. Most seem to do very similar things, which is make "American Idol" look and sound better than it really is.

So one can understand Samsung feeling a touch hamstrung in trying to make its Smart TVs look astoundingly intelligent.

In this case -- thank you, Business Insider for finding this -- not only is the budget seemingly enormous, but so are the ambitions.

There are two ads that feature so many themes and special effects that you have come … Read more

When will Apple kill the iPod?

Physical music formats were so 20th century, so we put our music on computers. But even that was too much of a burden, so music is going up, up, and away, into the cloud and streaming. The iPod Classic is firmly rooted to the ground, and I like it that way.

I can live without Siri, iCloud, a camera, iOS 6, a Lightning connector, Bluetooth, AirPlay, or any of that jazz to keep the Classic's 160GB storage capability, and the Classic's "classic" 30-pin connector that still works with gazillions of docks and accessories. Is there another … Read more

Band claims Street View driver broke Google rules for video

There's nothing like country music to make you believe that life could be simple again.

So this morning, I was delighted to receive a YouTube video of a band called Gunnar and the Grizzly Boys.

It was headlined: "Redneck Country Band Ambushes Google Street View Car!"

I knew this couldn't possibly be true. I feel sure that Google's Street View drivers, who have to sometimes master rough areas and rocky terrain, must be armed.

Still, the video gave some sort of impersonation of a Street View image populated by, well, this redneck country band and … Read more