Absolut Vodka’s new marketing campaign involves two massive machines and you. That’s right, you. It’s all pretty crazy and grandiose, but essentially two MIT grads have built two huge machines, one located in NYC and one in Stockholm. The first is machine is The Absolut Quartet, and is what they’ve called a “multi-instrumental music-making machine”. Through the use of art and technology they’ve created the “equivalent of a classic human quartet”. The machine is made up of 3 robotic musicians and when you log in you become the 4th musician, leading them by what you play. The other machine, the Absolut Choir, is 22 “characters” (they’re actually sculptures) of varying size each containing their own unique synthetically produced voice. You type words and sentences and “inspire members of the choir to sing”. Interaction with both machines is enhanced with 4 live web cameras.
Check it out here (warning: the site is the inverse of Web 2.0).
Being a musician has its perks, especially when it comes to getting ‘tail’. What better way to show off your devotion to the guitar then with the Orpheus wallet. Built into the outer skin are 3 pick holding slots.
Voicetunes fulfills a need that most of us don’t require the ability to vocally tell our iTunes what to do. Also, in case they didn’t know, Apple computers can already be controlled by voice, just access the feature in your System Preferences>Speech.
The EMS, or E-Paper Music Score eliminates the need to carry books of sheet music. Using a single flexible display matched with E-ink technology the device can display sheet music transmitted via Bluetooth. Included in the package is a foot pedal so you don’t have to take your hands of the instrument to change pages.
It’s probably safe to say we’ve all been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the much anticipated and hyped Slacker Device (aka Slacker Portable). Started by the founding fathers of MP3 players (CEOs of the original MP3 player companies) The Slacker Device takes an old approach - we’re talking Tivo like music (aka Pandora, iLike) - to the portable world. Although Apple has long dominated the MP3 market, The Slacker Device does pose a threat to Apple’s 70%+ market share, but not a significant one - at least not one that will garner double digital numbers anytime soon given both technology adoption life cycle and infurstructure issues (powerful wireless signals aren’t ubiquitous enough yet).
So what’s the verdict? Well, Wired got an exclusive (I’m jealous) with The Slacker Device, but only provided a top level review - very Wiredesqe. Wired agrees that it’s an “antidote to music collection boredom”. You can modify your music collection with a ‘like/dislike’ or ‘ban’ feature. This get’s you to truly customized music. Thank God, because if they didn’t nail this, the The Slacker Device would be useless. This is supported by clean sound, detailed band and bio info with art work. They were a little frustrated with the free service option which only allows 6 song skips per hour, which is in addition to ads. But hey, its FREE. On the other hand, the premium service ($10 a month) allows endless skipping and no ads.
Apparently there is some satellite that will allow song refreshing without the need for WiFi, but that’s neither here nor there right now. The device will arrive with your top 10 selected radio stations. It comes in 3 sizes: 2GB, 4GB and 8GB. You can also add your own MP3s, but after adding Slacker Radio your left with 500MB, 1.5GB and 4GB respectively. Slacker describes the portable player sizes in stations: 10, 25 and 40. Surprisingly, it’s not touchscreen and includes a ‘touchstrip’ which is apparently quirky, and some hard keys located on the top and either side of the device - there is a jog dial in there some where. Battery life is a measly 10 hours, but I’m not sure if that’s without or without WiFi use. We all know what WiFi does to the iPhone battery (insert toilet flushing noise here). Based on the pics, the included headphones look no better then the headphones that come with the free Napster Mp3 players - that means they probably suck. If you’re wondering how the device works, then I suggest heading over to the Slacker website for complete details. In short, The Slacker Device caches your radio stations on your device. Whenever you’re in range of accessible WiFi, or plug into a computer via USB it’ll update your stations based on your musical preference. The Slacker Device, or Slacker Portable sounds promising. Slacker Radio is available to anyone right now. I’d suggest giving that a shot, building up your stations and then if you find yourself enjoying that library more then the one you own, drop the $200 - $300.
Update: Laptopmag just dropped me an email and they’ve got a full blown review. How’d they rate it? 3.5 out of 5 stars. They love The Slacker Device, but feel a Gen 2 or a licensed version might be more robust. Check out Laptopmag’s Slacker Device review here.
Come mid 2008, Nokia will begin to rollout its unlimited music service dubbed “comes with it” to select countries. What is it? Purchase a select high end Nokia phone and it will include unlimited music downloads for 1 year. So far, Nokia has managed to sign up one label, Universal Music Group, and plans to add others. According to Nokia the deal will be profitable for both parties. That’s gotta be one expensive handset given the music label’s recent griping and complaining when it comes to ‘profits’. After one year, Nokia (and participating labels) hopes that users will be hooked on the service and renew - the fee has yet to be determined. Surprisingly, all music downloaded during the first year can be kept beyond the trial end date and played on a PC or Nokia. Of course there’s a much bigger scheme going on here. Nokia will soon launch their Ovi (means door in Finnish) website which will allow users to organize photos, music and more. Apparently, they’ve created some “neural network” that’ll display photos in a 3 dimensional like space and connect those to associated emails, contacts, locations shot, etc. Apparently, we should expect significantly upgraded handsets because the current and standard Nokia interface is beyond antiquated at this point. What’s my take? I’m surprised Nokia didn’t just scoop up Napster or Real, and leverage their already-in-place agreements with the music industry. Apple might be affected by this, but it’ll take years for Nokia to scratch their surface given their market penetration. After all, the ideal consumer (aside from one without any iPod) would be one with an old iPod and looking to upgrade to a handset that’s compatible with both future music services and their past music collection. If they have a small library of AAC encoded music (aka iTunes) they might just opt for the iPhone which will be in gen 2 by mid 2008.
Nokia Won’t Play iPhone’s Tune [Businessweek]
Napster unveiled Napster 4.0 today. The biggest change? You no longer need to have the Napster App installed on your machine to access your unlimited music subscription. If you wanna sync a device you’ll still need the application, though. Napster also might have DRM free music by ‘08 - now that would be phenomenally kick ass. That’s when I like to say Shut The F…ront Door (say it out loud, its funnier). Included above is a screen shot of the Napster 4.0
Update: I tired accessing Napster from my iPhone but was given “Napster doesn’t currently work with Safari. Please use Firefox”. Not an exact quote, but you get the idea. The good news is that you can FINALLY use Napster on your Apple, albeit in a web browser.
For years I’ve been complaining about the iTunes Store’s shoddy sound quality (128Kbps). If you can’t tell the difference then you get your ears checked. Today, Amazon launched their Music Store called AmazonMP3. It’s straight up kickass - pending any UI checks. It’s of course in Beta, and currently offers 2 million songs from 80,000 artists in blissfully superb 256kbps sound quality. The real kicker, aside from the top notch sound quality, is that they’re all DRM free – they can be used on any MP3 player. You’ll have to download a file to your machine and it currently works on Apple and Windows. Songs and albums go as low as $0.89 and $4.99 respectively.
like music (aka Pandora, iLike) - to the portable world. Although Apple has long dominated the MP3 market, The Slacker Device does pose a threat to Apple’s 70%+ market share, but not a significant one - at least not one that will garner double digital numbers anytime soon given both technology adoption life cycle and infurstructure issues (powerful wireless signals aren’t ubiquitous enough yet).
