Category: Top stories
Paul McCartney's new album being sold DRM-free online… for $1.56
The music industry has been waging a battle against Russian music download site AllOfMP3 in recent months, over the way the latter sells digital downloads of brand new albums for less than a couple of dollars. However, it seems the floodgates could be opening for similar sites.
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in joint-interview at All Things D conference
Yesterday at the All Things D conference, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs went head to head for the first time since 2005, when they were last seen together. People have been speculating for weeks now in both online and print media about how the two would interact with one another in their joint-interview, and just what the two powerful computing geniuses would shed light on, if anything.
For those spoiling for a blood-bath, you’ll be disappointed. Instead what viewers were treated to was a 90-minute long chat about the past 30 years they’ve worked as rivals, complete with plenty of reminiscing and laughter at their early ideas. The interview was hosted by Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg and technology reporter Kara Swisher, read on below for all the deets…
LG launches Green Banana Phone in Korea
Mobile phones should have more interesting names. LG knows this, which is why its new LG-SV280 phone is being launched in South Korea as the ‘Green Banana Phone’.
iTunes Plus under fire for sneaky user-ID feature
Apple launched its iTunes Plus DRM-free downloads yesterday, but the company is already being criticised for the way that whenever you buy one of the iTunes Plus songs, your name and email address is embedded in its tags.
Microsoft's Surface: what it does, who it's for, and why we should lust after one
When several of us Tech Digest writers were present at Bill Gates’s keynotes speech at CES in Las Vegas and saw a brief display of what we now know is Surface, which Dave announced earlier this morning, none of us realised it would be released this year. Heck, we thought we were looking at the sort of space-age technology that comes hand-in-hand with flying cars and bite-sized pills for every meal.
Instead, Surface will be released into the wild (well, commercial wild, anyway) this Winter, where T-Mobile, Starwood Hotels, Harrah’s casinos and gambling-company IGN will have first access to this exciting new way of computing…
Sharp's awesome-looking Aquos 912SH TV-phone
After releasing a series of popular handsets with Vodafone a few years back, Sharp hasn’t really made any big waves in the UK with its mobile phones. It’s a shame, especially when you clap eyes on the company’s latest handset in Japan, the Aquos 912SH.
British cities rife with mobile viruses, says firm selling mobile anti-virus software
Given the last week’s controversy about how BBC’s Panorama used devices made by an anti-Wi-Fi campaigner to measure Wi-Fi radiation, it’s hard not to question scare stories about mobile viruses when they come from firms who sell mobile anti-virus software.
CBS to buy Last.fm for $280 million
If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em. That’s increasingly the strategy being adopted by Big Media companies grappling with the implications of Web 2.0. Hot news today is that CBS is about to buy UK-based personalised radio service Last.fm for an impressive $280 million.
Apple's new iTunes update promises 'iTunes Plus' DRM-free music
Something’s up in iTunes-land. It’s 7.55am, and I’ve just switched on my Mac. The Software Update application is asking me to download iTunes 7.2, which will allow me to “preview and purchase iTunes Plus music – new higher-quality DRM-free music downloads from participating music labels”.
Nokia takes wrappers off 8600 mobile phone
Hurrah, black is the new black, according to the Carphone Warehouse. I don’t have to throw out all my goth gear after all. Oh, hang on, they’re talking about mobile phones. The Nokia 8600, specifically, which the retailer is selling exclusively.
