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Napster has just launched its first mobile music video service, Napster Clips in Japan. This new service puts a premium on unlimited access to a high-quality digital video service that would complement Napster’s music subscription service. In partnership with Japan’s NTT Docomo, Napster is offering this service via the mobile operator’s new N960IL onefone mobile handset.

Napster Clips is highly dependent on the broadband network which is ably supported by NTT Docomo’s communication infrastructure. Hence users are assured of a continuous video viewing experience from the N906il handset through either NTT Docomo’s 3G/FOMA network or the new Home U service. The latter is a high speed wireless LAN connection through home broadband network. 

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Apple’s iTunes Store better watch it’s back, because here comes Napster with not just another online music service, but one that now offers a whooping 6 million DRM-free music tracks. With this number of available tracks Napster has now become the world’s largest major label MP3 catalog and the largest library of independent music worldwide.

Beginning today, all digital music that is downloaded from Napster will be a DRM-free MP3 that is compatible with any MP3 player or music phone, including yes you guessed it right, the iPod and the iPhone. Downloaded music will remain at 99 cents for a single track and $9.95 for most full albums. Most of Napster’s digital music is encoded at a 256kbps bitrate and shall include album art. In addition, users can freely browse Napster’s catalog without any obligation or commitment to purchase. Napster is also offering a web-based on-demand streaming service which users can access from anywhere using computer with Internet connection.

Read [Business Wire]

Shawn Fanning, who rose to fame as the founder of the legendary music sharing network Napster before crashing back to earth thanks to the likes of Metallica and the RIAA, has turned up in a new role as a Volkswagen spokesperson. The new ads from the German automaker portray a classic 1964 Volkswagen Beetle named Max hosting a talk show. His guests have included Leonard Nimoy from “Star Trek”, David Hasselhoff from “Baywatch” as well as Bobby Knight and Heidi Klum. Each guest discusses a particular trait of the Volkswagen brand.  Max, the Beetle talks about how Fanning brought music sharing to the world and Fanning talks about how the Volkswagen has developed clean diesel fuel. When Max argues that Fanning’s thing is cooler, Fanning wryly replies “Yeah but your thing is legal and trust me, legal is cooler!” Not surprisingly, the word Napster isn’t actually mentioned at all but it didn’t have to be. Everyone knows what “free music sharing service” is being talked about! Keep reading to check out the video…

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AT&T has announced two new music applications; mSpot’s Make-Ur-Tones and mSpot Remix. Likewise, AT&T also announced its plan of expanding the Napster Mobile service it gives under the AT&T network. All three music applications provide mobile music lovers the freedom to choose the music they want to listen to and use in their AT&T mobile phones.

Available for a monthly subscription of $6.99 for three ringtones, the mSpot Make-UR-Tones allows customers to search for music tracks from the AT&T Media Mall, cut a 30-second part of the song using the a built-in editor, preview the output and then download the personalized ringtone to their phone. Unfortunately, mSpot Make-UR-Tones will only work with the Samsung SYNC, Samsung A737, Samsung A747 and the Motorola V3xx.

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Napster and O2 have reached an agreement that would make available 5 million music tracks to O2’s mobile subscribers. The deal is set to expand O2’s limited music database while bringing another milestone in Napster’s move towards transforming its services into a legitimate online song shop.

Under the Napster-O2 deal, digital tracks from Napster can be sold to UK users for 99p or a bundle of 5 tracks for £4, roughly around $2 per track. When O2 subscribers buy digital songs from the O2 portal, the digital tracks will be automatically sent to both their mobile phones and to their registered email addresses.

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Napster is embracing DRM free and have announced that they are going to shift their whole catalog to MP3 exclusively. This means that the largest on-demand subscription service will work on pretty much every MP3 player on the market. According to Napster they are the first in the market to go 100% MP3 and the unlimited music model will remain at the core of their business.

“Napster To Go is a portable subscription service and is supported by a wide array of device manufacturers including major mobile phone manufacturers, who are expected to ship new Napster To Go compatible handsets in 2008.”

We should get more information on availability soon, but hopefully this will force other providers into a similar move and end up in a level playing field with more competition.

Via [GeezZone]

Apparently the thing to do these days is to file a patent early, wait until competing companies are extremely popular, and then sue the hell out of them.  That’s what NTP’s stance was against RIM (Blackberry), and that’s Intertainer’s stance now.  Intertainer filed a patent in 2001 (granted in 2005) that according to BusinessWeek, “outlines the business model for offering video content from various providers to consumers over the TV and the Internet.” It’s not clear how this relates to Napster, but we’re assuming there’s some other vague language in there that makes the suit legit...or they’re just trying to sqeeze money out of another giant.  We’ll have to wait and see how this one unfolds.

Read [BusinessWeek] Via [Engadget]

Did you just realize that you left someone off of your holiday shopping list and now need to scramble to get him a gift? If you aren’t too close with him and he has yet to know a thing or two about gadgets, technology and pop-culture, you may want to consider picking up one of the Insignia MP3 players.

Best Buy’s private label brand, Insignia, offers two models: the Sport 2GB (NS-DA2G) and the Sport 1GB (NS-DA1G). Both models are 0.5” thin, weight 1.2 ounces, have a 1.2” OLED screen, built-in FM tuner, USB 2.0, have a rechargeable battery with 18 hours of playback time, and are PC and Mac compatible. They also both support MP3, WMA, WMA-DRM, PlaysForSure , Napster and Rhapsody subscription services and JPEG image files. The 2GB model also adds audible support.

I had a chance to play with both models (which are essentially identical) and was left rather impressed with the functionality and ease of use as compared to name brand players (check out the interface here). The 2GB price is right, the size is good, and they are easy to use for you non-tech folk. I suggest heading over to Best Buy to pick one up if you are currently in the market, or forgot to get someone a present.

You can get 1 GB for $79.99 or 2 GB for $99.99, not too bad if you don’t feel pressured to buy a iPod name brand.

Everyone has assumed that Apple’s iPhone would be going to the network that typically raises the bar, but reports are flying everywhere that Cingular is about to pair with another music service.

Expectations are for Cingular to pair with Napster, Yahoo and eMusic. First offering will include PlaysForSure so you can play subscription tracks, eventually followed by pay-per-track and all-you-can-eat offerings. The phones will also have Cingular’s “Music ID” that allows users to hold a phone up to a speaker and have the song playing automatically matched with the Napster database. Cingular is currently the only provider out of the big there (Verizon, Cingular, and Sprint) without a music download service, so it is clear that something will be coming - though it is any one’s call on what it will actually be.

Update:Cingular also teamed with XM Satellite Radio to offer mobile access to audio streams of 25 channels for $8.99 a month.

Cingular Music contains eight distinct menu options:

• Music Player: Music Player is where you can access the phone’s entire catalog of music. Within Music Player, users can create their own playlists by choosing songs from the All Songs menu list as well as have songs played in random order.
• Shop Music: The Shop Music folder is where users go to purchase or explore music content from Napster and Yahoo! Music, depending on your handset. Users can also personalize their phones by purchasing ringtones and Answer Tones™ from the Cingular MEdia Mall.
• MusicID: For the first time, users can identify a song with MusicID, Cingular’s music recognition service, and then purchase that song from the handset by directly linking into the Napster library where the song(s) can later be side-loaded. Beyond this new feature, MusicID can easily identify a recorded song by a simple press of the button. Within seconds, a song can be analyzed among a database of more than 3 million songs and then, when identified, you are provided the name of the artist and the track. And, if the song matches an available ringtone, you can easily purchase it without having to spend time searching.
• Music Videos: The Music Videos folder provides a direct link to Cingular’s video offerings, including video content from MTV Networks’ premiere MTV, VH1 and CMT music brands; Warner Music (Music Choice); as well as original video footage from Cingular Sounds Live (CSL) concert series.
• Streaming Music: The Streaming Music folder is where users can listen to various genres of music content from either XM Radio Mobile or MobiRadio, depending on their handset.
• The Buzz: The Buzz is the place to go to access Billboard Mobile, a mobile music application that gives Cingular customers access to music and entertainment news, Billboard charts and local concert information, directly from the handset.
• Community: Comprised of artist fan sites and chat rooms, the Community folder is where music fans can connect with others who share similar interests. From sharing music and reviews within a particular community (via SMS or IM) or simply listening to music from your favorite artists’ site, the Community folder is a one-stop-shop for discovering and re-discovering music.
• Music Apps: The Music Apps folder is the home for other new and exciting music-centric applications including Mobilcast, a podcasting service, and Hip Hop Official, a music video application.

Featured Handsets
Although Cingular offers several music-centric handsets, five phones will feature the dedicated Cingular Music menu – the Cingular SYNC by Samsung (available Nov 6 for $49.99 after a $100 rebate), LG CU500, Sony Ericsson W810i, Sony Ericsson W300i and Cingular 3125.

Beginning November 6, consumers can visit www.cingularsource.com/cingularmusic for more details on Cingular Music, including handset information.

It’s been many weeks since we spoke to you last but the CE trends have not changed. Microsoft has announced the Zune and Apple hyped up new iPods and movies at their “Showtime” event. I wouldn’t call this podcast a news report as Doug and Adam dive into some great debates about how essential iTunes is to the iPod, if the Zune can actually survive, how Microsoft is copping Nintendo, and much more. Listen in to this portable audio edition of the Gadgetell podcast.

This podcast was once again sponsored by GoDaddy.com and comes with a 10% off coupon. It was also made possible by Gizmo Project, PodServe, and Plantronics extremely high quality and comfortable .Audio 510 USB computer headsets.

Listen In
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Hosts: Doug Berger, Adam Berger
Producer: Greg Cherniet
Music: Dvir Tzadok
File size: 23.6MB
Length: 00:34:24

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Feedback is much appreciated. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please email us at gadgetell (at) gmail.com.  Thanks for listening!