Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

It is no secret that MySpace has completely changed the music scene.  Arguably, the artists MySpace music page is more important than their website.  But other sites are creeping up and taking advantage of something MySpace has not mastered:  new music.

Sites like thesixtyone.com and others are helping new artists get noted.  By allowing voting and an incentive to listen to new stuff, these sites are creating fans for little known acts from all over the world.  Take Temple Scene, a two person ensemble from the UK.  Their songs have done very well on thesixtyone.com and on MySpace.  I had the chance to get the bands input on the value of other sites that focus on new music.

Gadgetell:  Which is more important for building a fan base: MySpaceor thesixtyone.com?

Temple Scene: To be honest, it’s difficult to say if we are getting more listeners from MySpace or T61, because in both cases we have a smallish group of vocal fans, but we have no way of knowing how many other people might be interested. Certainly we can reach more people on MySpace, but on T61 there’s a much higher ratio of people who actually end up getting into the band (being a music lovers’ site).

Gadgetell: So how how many people are we talking about?

Temple Scene:I have no idea! That’s part of the motivation for selling the songs - we’re not going to sell enough to make real money, but as we release each E.P. we’ll actually have some data about how many people there are who like our songs enough to spend their time/money getting them! It’ll be weeks before we get any sales data though.

From an interview at Max Bumps:
silkworm: What effect, if any, has your experience with thesixtyone.com had on the process of putting together the new EP? What are your thoughts about the site?

Temple Scene: Until recently, we’d been streaming the music and keeping our options open about the next move, but the fantastic feedback we’ve been getting on the61 encouraged us to re-assess that. There’s nothing more satisfying for a musician than people wanting to buy your music - and nothing more frustrating than telling them they can’t! The best part has been seeing the reaction to our songs. We just try and make music we like, but it’s amazing to find out that other people like it too.

Like a lot of people, we found the61 on Digg, and it was immediately clear that someone had finally solved some of the fundamental problems with music discovery sites. There are countless places that use competitions and votes as a way to get extra traffic from a band’s existing fan base, but where no one has any incentive to stay and explore. the61 actually puts listeners in contact with new music, and makes it fun - any site that can do that is something special.

You can download a free copy of Temple Scene’s Story and stream their first E.P. at thesixtyone.com, last.fm and MySpace.

CTIA exposed a bunch of new companies getting into the voice to text game and it is expected to be a fast growing area.  This morning saw my post on Nuance, a company bringing voice to text to GPS (in addition to a voicemail to text service), last month we saw Spinvox get $100 million in investment to grow internationally.  Today, I got the opportunity to mix it up with James Simonoff, CEO of SimulScribe whose company is a leader in voicemail to text serivce and get the pulse of his company and where he believes the market is headed.  Simulscribe also extended a 30 day free trial for Gadgetell readers.  See the end of the post for link.

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I’ll make no secret that I don’t love eBay anymore.  There was a time I did, but since then I’ve been burned by unsavory folks, shoddy product descriptions and a protection that really never seemed to protect me.  The problem is I am still that cheap guy not wanting to pay retail for anything; only now I can disguise it as being green: I don’t want to add another product into the waste stream.

So what to do?  Well, my new pal Chris Whittome of trade2save aims to change that.  His vision is a used - or pre-owned if you like - marketplace where you can decide if you want one “like new” or “very good” or can settle for just “good”.  The Trade2save team will buy up your unwanted items, classify it, and put a price tag on it that will be attractive.

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I was able to catch up briefly with the PosiMotionteam and learned just a little bit more about their idea to bring an external GPS receiver data to the iPhone.  Since Apple doesn’t seem to be freeing up bluetooth for anything but the headset and the SDK isn’t allowing software to talk through the dock, just how do you get GPS data into the phone?  PosiMotion’s answer is via WiFi.  Clever.

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At CES I got a chance to sit down with Larry Smith, COO ARCHOS, and talk about his ARCHOS TV+.  To say he was passionate about this device would be a gross understatement; he was downright giddy about it.  Since then, Apple has re-intro’d their Apple TV so I thought I’d get Larry’s response to it.  In short, he still isn’t impressed.

Why?  Well the biggest difference is TV+s ability to be your DVR.  Oh yeah, and a WiFi DVR.  That combination seems to me like a knock out punch, but throw in more memory for the price Apple is charging and you’ve got a compelling value proposition.  Here is is the interview:

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I had the chance to sit down with Palm’s PR for a private briefing at CES 2008 and had some time for Q/A at the end.  I disclosed to them that I’m a big Palm supporter and are waiting for their big “come back,” so they knew I’m not the enemy.

A large part of our discussion surrounded the infamous “open letter” to Palm that Engadget’s Peter Rojas, Ryan Block, and Joshua Topolsky published back in August called Dear Palm: It’s time for an intervention”>Dear Palm: It’s time for an intervention, and we discussed shortly thereafter.  Read on for the full Q and A regarding their decision to stop production of the folio, their next gen platform, and plans to go head-to-head with the iPhone.

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“So, what is new?” is the first question I get as I get into the taxi from in front of the Las Vegas Convention Center.  I had been trying to answer that question for the past four days.  I’ve seen seas of LCD TVs (most black, shiny and look virtually identical).  There has been lots of HD networking products, lots of talk about Blu-ray (not lots about HD-DVD, ha).  More and more iPod docks than seems necessary, but who am I to complain.

What I saw and heard a lot about is manufacturers working on technology they don’t know what they (or we) will do with.  Like Microsoft’s PopFly, a mash up for Silverlight.  According to a MS spokesperson, “we don’t have a revenue model for it yet”.  There was some push for mobile TV (ala Korea) but I am not sure if that is going to catch on.

The cabbies next question followed quickly, “what new phones are there?” I really had hoped we’d see some response to the iPhone at this show.  I would have thought it was the perfect time to steal some thunder from Macworld, but no.  The best phone I saw was the new ROKR from Motorola that had a fuction-specific, changeable touch pad with tactile feedback.  It was amazing.  Not earth shattering, but something even the mighty iPhone should have.  FYI-We are at a Palm conference right now that I believe we’ll get to see something new so check for that and I might revise this answer.

So after he asked me questions, it was my turn.  What were other peoples answers to those question?  His answers really were not that different than my own findings: nothing super duper.  Sure there is still some innovation gone, but they are improvements to existing stuff, not market changing items.

Gadgetell is far from near reporting on what is coming down the pipe this year and I don’t think I am alone in hoping they come up with something mind blowing in the following days.  Good luck boys.

I was chatting up Leigh Geary of coolsmartphone.com about what his expectations were from Mr. Gates at tomorrow’s CES keynote.  With the iPhone entry, Google’s Android looming like a specter, we (both Leigh and I) are looking to Windows to bring something new to the table.  Will Bill deliver something outstanding in his last CES address as CEO?

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We’re meeting with the Facebook team a little later today, and want to know what questions you all have for them.  Leave them in the comments below and we’ll choose a few of the best ones to ask.  More to come.

Karl Wiley is the Senior Director of eBay’s technology and media category. He is responsible for developing and executing long-term strategy, and implementing marketing and promotional programs to drive increased seller and buyer activity. Since joining eBay in 2001, Wiley has most notably created and manage eBay’s Preferred Solution Provider Program and was one of the founding members of eBay’s business-to-business initiative one of the company’s fastest-growing categories today.

Karl, thank you for taking the time to give our readers a greater insight into the world of eBay. Please tell us a little about yourself and your role at eBay?
Currently, I am the senior director for eBay’s technology and media category. I am responsible for developing and executing long-term strategy, and implementing marketing and promotional programs to drive increased seller and buyer activity in that category.

2. What are the most popular categories in eBay?
The most popular categories on eBay are: Motors, Clothing & Accessories, Consumer Electronics, Computers, Books/Music/Movies, and Home & Garden.

3. What sort of data can you share about the growth of the tech business?
As of Q1, 2006, the following eBay technology and media businesses delivered $1 billion or more in worldwide annualized GMV (gross merchandise volume):  Consumer Electronics, Computers, Books/Music/Movies, Cameras & Photo.

4. Why do you believe tech is such a large business on eBay?
eBay is well-suited for the sale of tech products. Sellers (retailers, manufacturers, independent entrepreneurs) have access to a huge global community (more than 200 million registered users) and buyers can easily comparison shop for not only new, in-season merchandise, but for used and refurbished goods.

eBay also enables consumers to upgrade to the latest models by selling their existing products on the eBay marketplace.

5. How does eBay deal with grey-market products being sold, such as a Japanese Sony PSP prior to it being released in America?
eBay follows the same laws as the offline world. We develop our policies in partnership with our community, government agencies and industry associations. Also, eBay is a marketplace, not a retailer. We do not sell goods and can’t confirm the origin of items on the site. As a marketplace, we seek cooperation and rely on the expertise of rights owners to inform eBay of listings in violation, which then are taken down.

6. Do you believe eBay has a positive or negative affect on retailers like Best Buy?
eBay offers a complementary sales channel that allows sellers (retailers, manufacturers) to reach more and different customers than they could through traditional distribution channels - their brick-and-mortar locations or through their own Web sites. eBay also enables sellers to liquidate returned, refurbished or out-of-season merchandise, which they generally would not be able to do cost-effectively through their existing channels.

Currently, many retailers run successful storefronts on eBay.

7. Do eBay sales increase or decrease in times of a recession? In a boom?
eBay sales have shown consistent, steady growth, regardless of changes in the overall economy.

8. What was the least popular product ever sold? Most popular?

Judging the least popular product would be difficult, but popular items (and by that I mean items with the most searches) include Sony PSP, Xbox360 and iPods. In fact, as of today (7/17) those are the most popular searches on eBay overall (according to eBay Pulse, http://pulse.ebay.com/).

During holiday 2005, the Xbox was one of the hottest items sold on eBay
-- it caused quite a frenzy!

Karl, thank you for taking the time to give our readers an insight into the world of eBay. We are looking forward to the PS3 and Wii listings as well as all the Blu-ray and HD-DVD products as they become more popular and available.