Google Expected to Reveal Music Store This Week

7:00 PM - November 14, 2011 - By Kevin Parrish - 
Source : Geeky Gadgets

A press event scheduled for Wednesday may officially announce Google's MP3 storefront and music sharing.

Various reports are indicating that Google has distributed invitations to a "These Go To Eleven" press event that will take place on Wednesday, November 16 at 2:00pm PST / 5:00pm EST. The actual location in Los Angeles is unknown, but consumers will be able to watch the event by heading over toGoogle's Android Developers YouTube channel here.

Sources claim this event will focus on the long-awaited GoogleMusic MP3 store, an assumption based on the event's title which is named after a scene in 1984's This Is Spinal Tap movie. Google is expected to reveal the new MP3 store for the Android Market that will automatically store purchases in the Google Music virtual locker. The company is also expected to introduce social networking features that will allow users to "share" their music on Google+ and other popular sites.

Sources are also claiming that Google has definitely landed a licensing agreement with Universal Music Group. But the search engine giant is still conducting talks with Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, possibly indicating that Google Music won't have their support at launch. So far it's unclear whether EMI will even participate in the new service.

One of the disagreements that has reportedly plagued negotiations between Google and the major labels centers around an app currently on the Android Market called MP3 Download Pro. According to allegations, the app allows any user to search from public search engines and download music to their mobile phones. The RIAA even claims that the app is being used for piracy. So far Google has yet to kick the app off the Android Market.

Yet despite that setback, record labels are reportedly looking for an iTunes alternative and believe that Google has the money, internet presence and "know-how" to pull it off. But sources claim that record labels want Google to provide music from all top record companies and all the licenses. So far Google has managed to sign on only one, and the other two are seemingly having cold feet because their "all or nothing" needs aren't being met. Had EMI chosen some interest, Sony and Warner may have already signed up.

That said, Google may only make negotiations that much harder to finalize if it launches a music store this week without the approval of all four labels. Given the press event's title, Google may even reveal that it will actually sell video on the Android Market (instead of just rent) along with MP3s. We'll find out in two days.

Huawei buys Symantec stake in JV for $530 million

By Lee Chyen Yee and Sinead Carew

HONG KONG/NEW YORK | Mon Nov 14, 2011 6:38pm EST

(Reuters) - Huawei Technologies, the world's No.2 telecoms equipment maker, plans to buy Symantec Corp's 49 percent stake for $530 million in a joint venture between the companies that provides security solutions for corporations.

The agreement is subject to regulatory approval, but analysts and company executives foresee few hurdles as the joint venture is based in of Hong Kong.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2012, Huawei said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The transaction involves a non-U.S. headquartered joint venture in which Huawei is already the majority owner with a 51 percent share over the past four years," said Ross Gan, a spokesman from Huawei. "The majority of the assets and customers are located in China and other regions. This is not about the U.S.," he said in an email.

Gan said Huawei would brief relevant government stakeholders as part of the routine regulatory approval process for such transactions based on the local laws and regulations that apply.

Shenzhen-based Huawei and smaller crosstown rival ZTE Corp have previously encountered obstacles in clinching some deals in the United States due to national security concerns.

For Huawei, the concerns also stem from its founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei, who is a former Chinese military officer.

Earlier this year, Huawei backed away from its acquisition of U.S. server technology company 3Leaf's assets, bowing to pressure from a U.S. government panel that suggested it should divest the assets.

In 2008, Huawei gave up a bid for U.S. networking equipment company 3Com, while in 2010, a group of Republican lawmakers raised national security concerns about Huawei's bid to supply mobile telecommunications equipment to Sprint Nextel Corp.

But this case is different, as the joint venture Huawei Symantec was set up in Hong Kong by Huawei and U.S. security software firm Symantec in 2008.

The aim of the joint venture was to provide and develop network security, storage and systems management solutions to telecom carriers and enterprise customers.

The venture, in which both Huawei and Symantec contributed around $150 million each at that time, has R&D centers in Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shenzhen and Silicon Valley in the United States, according to the company's web site.

"It's a good thing for Symantec in that it's been a drag to their earnings per share. I'm sure its incrementally positive," said Brian Freed, an analyst at Wunderlich Securities. "There shouldn't be any political or regulatory issues related to this."

The venture has lost money since it was set up in February 2008, according to Symantec's most recent annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Symantec posted $123 million in losses for its share of the venture's losses from February 2008 to December 2010.

Symantec achieved the objectives that it set out for the venture and is leaving with a good return on its investment, Symantec's chief executive, Enrique Salem, said in the statement. The company will continue to invest in China, he added.

Huawei said both companies had talks over the past few months on the future of the venture and decided that it would benefit from a single owner.

Huawei is not listed. Symantec shares rose 2.8 percent to $17.40 in after-hours trading.

(Additional reporting by Jim Finkle in New York; editing by Matt Driskill)

Co-founder of “open-source Facebook” Diaspora dies at 22

November 14, 2011 | Sean Ludwig

Ilya Zhitomirskiy, the 22-year-old co-founder of the Diaspora social network — which gained recognition for challenging Facebook — died this weekend, the company confirmed Monday.

The official cause of death has not been reported, butCNNMoney has said that it was likely suicide, according to an anonymous source. The company as well as the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s office would not release details on the death, and the San Francisco Coroner’s Office has stated that determining the cause of death will take weeks.

Diaspora was announced by four New York University students, including Zhitomirskiy, in April 2010 and launched later in the year as a “personally controlled, do-it-all, distributed open source social network.” In other words: the anti-Facebook.

The project garnered a large amount of press in May 2010 when it raised over $200,000 on the pledging site Kickstarter, with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg even reportedly making a donation. But later on, the site continued to struggle to find further funding and relied solely on donations.

We at VentureBeat, who follow and talk daily with members of the startup community, would also like to extend our thoughts and condolences to Zhitomirskiy’s family, friends and co-workers.

Google releases Android 4 source code, but true openness still elusive

By Ryan Paul

In a statement posted to an Android developer mailing list, Google software engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru announced that the Android 4.0 source code is being rolled out to the public Android Open Source Project version control repository where it will be available for the public to download.


Android 4.0, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), is the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system. It will ship on the upcoming Galaxy Nexus handset, which was unveiled last month at an event in Hong Kong. ICS is a significant update because it brings together Android’s tablet and phone interfaces in a unified environment.


The availability of ICS source code is especially significant because it marks the first time that Google’s tablet code has been opened to public scrutiny. Google previously withheld the source code of Honeycomb, the company’s tablet-centric version of the operating system, and only provided access to select partners. That disappointing move prevented the independent Android community from building custom ROMs for devices like the Motorola Xoom.


Google contended that corners were cut during Honeycomb development and that the software was held back because it was unsuitable for widespread availability. The decision to unilaterally withhold access to source code for competitive reasons undermined the company’s early claims about the extent of Android’s openness.


The Honeycomb source code is technically included in today’s ICS code drop, because ICS was developed on top of the Honeycomb code tree. Google has not actually tagged the specific Honeycomb releases, however, in order to discourage third-party developers from creating Honeycomb builds of Android.


“This release includes the full history of the Android source code tree, which naturally includes all the source code for the Honeycomb releases. However, since Honeycomb was a little incomplete, we want everyone to focus on Ice Cream Sandwich,” wrote Queru. “So, we haven’t created any tags that correspond to the Honeycomb releases (even though the changes are present in the history.)”


The source code release today will significantly ease tensions between Google and the third-party Android platform development community. The fact that the company is publishing the code before the availability of the first Android 4.0 device is a commendable improvement over Google’s previous Android code release practices.


Android 4.0 code is now available, but the code drop doesn’t fully ameliorate the fundamental issue raised by Honeycomb: Google has the ability to withhold code for any given release as it sees fit, because the actual Android development process occurs behind closed doors. Publishing the ICS source is a welcome move, but changes in governance are still needed to make Android a truly open project.


Photograph by Tim Lucas

Amazon Hoping Software Lights a Fire Under Tablet

By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO And STU WOO

In the year-and-a-half since Apple Inc. released the market-leading iPad, other companies have tried to one-up the technology giant by going smaller, lighter and cheaper. Now, as the number of tablet entrants picks up, the competition is expanding to what the device can do and not just what it looks like.
On Monday, Amazon.com Inc. began shipping its new Kindle Fire, a $199 tablet packed with custom software that the Seattle company hopes will distinguish its device. The apps include a tailored version of the Pulse news-reader, versions of its Audible audio-book app and IMDb movie database, and its own Amazon shopping store, according to the company.
Akshay Kothari, co-founder of Pulse, said Amazon approached the Silicon Valley start-up about six months ago to build something that couldn't be easily replicated on other devices. Pulse is also available on Barnes & Noble Inc.'s Nook as well as the iPad.


But the version for the Kindle Fire will have features not available for other devices. For example, stories breaking in Pulse will appear in an area of the Fire home screen where users scroll through books and other content, without requiring people to launch the app. Consumers will also be able to send stories they read on Pulse to other Kindle apps, such as apps for saving content, he said.
As their hardware starts to resemble each other's, "software is the most defensible position" tablet makers like Amazon have, Mr. Kothari said. He declined to comment on any financial terms with Amazon.
The same approach is being used by a variety of tablet makers trying to attack and expand the market beyond the iPad, which has unique software features tied to the device. The iPad currently commands a 70% share of the tablet market, according to Forrester Research and Piper Jaffray & Co. analysts, and has an ecosystem of some 140,000 apps for the iPad specifically.
Others are now racing to match the selection and showing off when they do. Last week, Amazon issued two statements within two days about its software offerings, saying it secured "several thousand" apps including ones from online-video service Netflix Inc., game-maker Zynga Inc., and Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN.


Tablet makers are still challenging each other on hardware too, though a more head-to-head battle likely won't come until next year. That's when Amazon will release another tablet computer with a touchscreen that is about 9.7 inches, according to a person familiar with the matter, instead of the 7-inch-size that began shipping this week. The iPad has a 9.7-inch screen.
The person familiar with the matter also said Amazon has five million Kindle Fire tablets on hand to sell during the holiday season.
It is unclear when the new 9.7-inch Amazon gadget would be sold. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the company was working on another model it could release next year.
Amazon declined to comment on a new device.
Barnes & Noble is also trying to differentiate its $249 Nook tablet by creating special experiences with popular apps unique to its device. The gadget's customized software lets customers access Netflix movie recommendations from the home screen. It also allows them to record their own voices while reading children's books.
Barnes & Noble's chief technology officer for digital products, Ravi Gopalakrishnan, said the software on the device is "one of the big things" that sets the Nook tablet, which will start shipping this week, apart from other tablets.
Tablet makers are also competing over the stores where users find and buy apps, not just the apps themselves.
"Some [app stores] are better than others," said Bing Gordon, an Amazon board member and partner at venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, citing speed and ease of use as examples. Mr. Gordon said he thinks there is room for the Fire, which uses Google Inc.'s Android operating system and has built its own store for Android applications, to differentiate itself through features such as social video and apps.
As it tries to shift from selling physical to digital goods, Amazon has particular reason to focus on software that helps it sell more digital books, movies and other content, analysts note. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster estimates Amazon loses $10 to $15 on each Kindle device sold, including the Fire. So the company needs to plug the shortfall in other ways.
Apple, which makes the vast majority of its revenue from hardware, is also talking more about software these days.
In October, the company released iCloud, software for syncing content between Apple devices, its iMessage messaging service for tablets and some two hundred other software tweaks.
For its iPhone 4S that went on sale the same month, Apple didn't upgrade the hardware significantly and focused on the software, introducing new features like its Siri digital assistant.
Write to Jessica E. Vascellaro at jessica.vascellaro@wsj.com and Stu Woo at Stu.Woo@wsj.com

iTunes Match: A solution for a problem Apple helped create

(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

Do you have digital baggage? Apple wants to help...again.

Apple's iTunes Match service, which went live in iTunes 10.5.1 today and costs $24.99 a year, tackles a problem users run into as time goes on: music libraries continue to grow, as do the ways users want to listen to their music, but there's still the pesky issue of where to store that library of songs, and keep it safe.

Streaming music services like Spotify and Rdio have solved this by pushing the library and purchase mode to the back seat, offering monthly paid subscriptions instead. The end result is something that fixes two problems: one being that you don't have to worry about what you have and don't have on the content side, and the other being that it's device- and storage-agnostic, since you can just stream what you want.

But such products aren't dealing with the kind of baggage iTunes users might have, which could be gigabytes upon gigabytes of music tracks purchased legitimately, right alongside music that was taken from a friend, or pulled from a peer-to-peer service. If those tracks aren't in the service's collection, you're out of luck, and are forced into continuing to hoard them on a machine, even taking that library (and subsequent digital baggage) with you from computer to computer for the rest of time.

Complicating that further is Apple's own lineup of devices that tap into iTunes, which play by different rules. There are computers with plenty of storage and big screens to manage the equally large music libraries. One step below that are iOS devices like the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, which pack considerably less storage than a computer, but are where listening to music on the go is equally, if not more important, given their mobility. Finally, there's Apple TV, the diminutive $99 box that acts as a conduit to the iTunes Store for things like movies and TV shows, but up until now has relied mostly on networked music libraries and streaming radio stations for any musical prowess. Trying to maintain a single library between all these is not impossible, but it can present challenges.

(Credit: Apple)

With the introduction of iCloud in June, Apple began to solve at least one part of the problem, offering users a way to re-download tracks they've purchased from the company on any device--be it a computer running iTunes, or an iOS device. The previous system would require that users hoard that digital file somewhere for safe keeping.

iTunes Match also takes on the licensing issue that surrounds the rest of the user's library--the music that person didn't buy from Apple--up to 25,000 tracks of it. This is especially relevant given where Apple's iTunes started out. In the time between when it was released, and when Apple launched its Music Store, the company's tag line was "Rip. Mix. Burn," an acknowledgement and encouragement to grab music tracks from CDs and hoard them in libraries.

iTunes Match addresses the hoarding problem by finding user tracks that correspond with what Apple has in its library, and giving users a licensed copy, digital safe-keeping of unmatched tracks, and a way to re-download either of those to any device. This, in itself, is one of the biggest adjustments in the way Apple is re-thinking storage. No longer is it about saving those files to a hard drive for safe keeping. Instead, you're paying for a highly-specialized storage service that keeps everything, even tracks that weren't in Apple's library, in the cloud.

In many ways, the service hearkens back to MobileMe, Apple's precursor to iCloud, on which iTunes Match relies. The original pitch for MobileMe was a "(Microsoft) Exchange for the rest of us," offering users a way to keep files, settings and contacts flowing between devices, as long as you were paying the annual fee. Just like Match, it too did much of the heavy lifting on Apple's servers in return for staying within Apple's system.

But MobileMe tried to do too much, too fast, and suffered numerous hiccups on its way to stability and utility. This time around, Apple seems to have learned from that lesson, pricing Match at a fourth of what MobileMe cost and keeping its utility far more specialized. Where MobileMe sought to mix a variety of services together into one, Match is simply a piece of iTunes and iCloud that aims to simplify a particular behavior. That sounds pretty simple. Let's hope that means better performance.

LG to launch a Google TV by January?

At the end of October, Google announced that they were updating their Google TV with claims that this time around it would be a lot better than the first version. The Internet search giant had stated that Google TV would be made available on Sony as well as Logitech devices. Since, the announcement of the updated Google TV, Logitech has distanced themselves from Google TV citing that the affair was a financial disaster for the company. According to a report by Bloomberg Businessweek, it seems that LG is looking to fill that void left by Logitech and unveil a television set that is based on Google TV at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 2012.

Unnamed sources have informed Bloomberg that this would be the first LG TV with Google TV. LG is the world’s second largest television manufacturer and with their partnership with Google in unveiling a Google TV, this may help Google in building their Internet features on television sets. The report goes on to state that both parties in question have declined to comment on the launch of the new television. 

With the Google TV update, the brand aims to focus on four areas of improvements which are keeping it simple, making it easy to find something worth watching, making YouTube better on TV and bringing more apps to TV. The report also states that Samsung are in talks to develop a Google product.

Android apps and games to come on Kindle Fire, next week

Kindle Fire, one of Amazon's ambitious products will now allow users to have an even wider array of options to choose for, apart from the books, movies and music, et al that have been there, since always. According to an official announcment, beginning from next week, thousands of Android apps and games will be made available to the users of Kindle Fire. Among the apps and games, which the users will be able to experience on Amazon, include Netflix, Rhapsody, Pandora, Twitter, Comics by comiXology, Facebook, The Weather Channel and popular games from Zynga, EA, Gameloft, PopCap and Rovio. 

The announcement further states that users need not register themselves multiple times to download the apps. They could do so by using Amazon's 1-Click Payment technology, instead. The official statement further adds that in order to give the users the best possible experience of the apps offered on Kindle Fire, Amazon have already tested them before on the tablet. Further, it is being learnt that once a certain app gets downloaded from the Amazon App Store, users can avail the same app on their Kindle Fire and other Android devices. 

For more details on the apps that Amazon would give you access to, click here

Sony introduces the Cyber-shot DSC-TX55 in India

Building on their Cyber-shot line-up in India, Sony has unveiled the DSC-TX55 here. The brand seems to have raised the bar really high this time by launching the Cyber-shot DSC-TX55, which is being touted as the world’s slimmest camera. Sony has added a lot of interesting qualities in this slim shooter by adding a 16.2 Megapixel Exmor R CMOS sensor, 5x optical zoom, full HD video recording, 3D image capture amongst others. Sony claims that this camera is slimmer than an AA-size battery, excluding the lens cover.

Here is a quick look at the main features of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX55:

• 16.2 Megapixel Exmor R CMOS sensor
• 5x optical zoom
• BIONZ image processor
• Aperture F/3.5 – F/5.6
• High speed auto focus
• 3.3-inch Xtra Fine OLED wide touch-screen
• 3D still image capture
• 3D Sweep Panorama mode and Sweep Multi Angle
• Full HD video recording
• 92.9 x 54.4 x 13.2 mm
• Weighs 109g

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX55 is available at all Sony Centres and other major electronic outlets in India. This incredibly slim camera is priced in India at an MRP of Rs.19,990. For more information, click the link here

Epson brings out first-generation multimedia glasses, the Moverio BT-100

Abrand better known for their printing and imaging technology, Epson is fast making its way into the portable entertainment media segment. Now, an official statement from the company confirms their first step into it. Epson has brought out the first-generation of their multimedia glasses, called Moverio BT-100, which they claim has been designed and built keeping the needs of those who travel frequently, and love having portable media on them during such travels. For this purpose, Epson's Moverio BT-100 allows the traveller to view images with a size of 320-inches, even from a distance of 20 metres. The display comes equipped with QHD display resolution, which Epson calls 'a quarter equal to full HD'. Epson claims that the Moverio BT-100 are a pair of see-through transparent, multimedia lenses, which allow users to not only watch their content with full privacy, but also be completely aware of their surroundings while doing so.

Also bundled-in with the pair of multimedia glasses, is an Android 2.2-enabled, pocket-size device, which allows for web browsing. Both used together will allow users to view various kinds of content like, MPEG 4 videos, files and other applications, adds Epson. Interestingly, the official statement also mentions that users can also watch 3D content, on-the-go using these multimedia glasses. The pocket-sized device has a host of dedicated buttons in place for the regular functions, as well as a touch-sensitive trackpad, further adds the statement.

Other features of the Moverio BT-100, include: Wi-Fi connectivity, control unit, detachable headphones, 4GB SD card, internal1GB memory and a carry case. Details about the pricing and availability of the Moverio BT-100 have not yet been revealed.