![UT 3, 4 & The Milky Way [video]](http://static.flickr.com/2633/4135738280_d16c9dd389_t.jpg "UT 3, 4 & The Milky Way [video]")
It’s that time of year when songs on the radio remind me of Summer vacations at the beach and the care-free, don’t-bother-me-with-your-tragic-ballads, give-me-something-that-makes-me-want-to-dance feeling of being far enough away from September to just have fun.In that spirit, my favorite dance track of the Summer is the Song of the Week this week. Kat deLuna’s “Whine It Up” featuring Elephant Man is a a song with its own original dance, and it is a just plain dance tune. And no, you will not catch me doing the dance in real life. The first single from her debut album, “9 Lives” was originally released earlier this year to success in clubs, but hasn’t gotten that much airplay. But in a Summer filled with dark and depressing singles on both the pop and hip-hop side of the aisle, Whine It Up is the song you should be taking with you to the beach….Check out the song at Kat DeLuna’s Websiteor her MySpace Page
Dell and HP are each making moves in the smartphone market, Dell in deals with Nokia (and possibly Quanta Computer) and HP with its iPaq 510. But Dell’s hire of former Motorola executive Ron Garriques is believed to indicate an even more serious push into mobile devices.
Well Dave Winer’s take on Google’s potential as master of Feedburner is troubling, and probably not that far off the mark. It’s generated a lot of interest and some heated debate.
Dave draws the comparison to Microsoft’s leverage of it’s monopoly on desktop operating systems to foil Lotus 1-2-3, the then dominant spreadsheet application back in the day when ‘Office’ suites of software didn’t yet exist. He recalls the phrase “Windows isn’t done until Lotus doesn’t run.”, but this actually reminds me of another Microsoft move from that distant time.
In many ways this is the parallel in time of the discussions that were had when Microsoft bought Vermeer (now Frontpage) in 1995. There are obvious differences of course, but there are many similarities; Vermeer was the leading application to assist in publishing web pages, FeedBurner the leading service for publishing RSS feeds, near monopoly acquires both. Frontpage ended up being far from the dominant player in the space, despite tight coupling with Microsoft’s server products, and everyone forgot about the controversy after awhile.
Whether Feedburner gains monopolistic power over the feed publishing space will depend largely on the competition and how clever they can be in producing superior offerings. It will also depend on people like Dave Winer to continue to advance standards that allow feeds themselves to evolve and compete.
Scottish singer KT Tunstall’s new single Hold On will appear on her upcoming album supposedly titled Drastic Fantastic. The album’s not due out until September 18th, but radio stations are getting advance copies of the single. And you don’t have to wait until the album comes out, the single is due in stores and online August 27th. In the meantime, catch the single streaming from stations like WBOS.
Reports from Germany claim that T-Mobile will be the official German partner for distribution of the iPhone. Ads apparently appeared on the T-Mobile website for the device, but were quickly removed.
Vodafone today denied that it plans to make a bid for the 55% of Verizon Wireless that it does not already own. A blog associated with Financial Times had reported that unnamed sources had confirmed a $160 billion bid for Verizon Communications, Vodafones partner in Verizon Wireless.
Apple could release a smaller, cheaper version of the touchscreen iPhone later this year, JP Morgan analyst says.
Golden Skans from London-based band Klaxons is the song of the week. Their album Myths of the Near Future was released at the end of March, but this track is percolating up as a single.
Self described as “nu-rave” the dance-rock track is catchy and upbeat.
The band is touring the West Coast in July and international locations across 4 continents in August and September.
The Klaxons Web Site
and their MySpace page
Filed under: media
The T-Mobile HotSpot@Home announcement flew in the face of a tidal wave of iPhone ‘News’ last week. Seamless integration between cellular calls and wifi-based calls on T-Mobile HotSpots (including one in your home) is riding a wave that’s just beginning.
As reported by the BBC, mobile phone company O2 win right to sell Apple’s IPhone in the UK.
Amy Winehouse’s Rehab, the second single off her Back to Black album was originally released in the UK last Fall, but in the wake of the success of You Know I’m No Good, Rehab has been climbing the charts in the US with fresh energy, and is into the top 10 this week. The song draws from her experiences with her record label which pushed her to go into rehab as a result of her public behavior in the wake of her successful debut album, Frank (2004).
Her vocals have been compared to Macy Gray and Lauren Hill, but there’s more Aretha Franklin in her voice than either of the two more contemporary artists.
She’ll be touring the US in September with Paolo Nutini.
Filed under: media
Motorola recently announced the immediate availability of its Moto Z8 slider handset in Spain, with other parts of Europe and Asia to follow.
One of the coolest new phones of 2007 is definitely the LG VX9400 a swivel screen TV phone designed to utilize Verizon’s VCast TV service, and Qualcomm’s MediaFLO technology. One of several new phones to offer “Live” broadcast TV, the VX9400 is perhaps the most hyped, but its swivel-to-lanscape QVGA screen is distinctive, and the picture quality is excellent.
Verizon is offering an extensive lineup of braodcast TV partners including MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, NBC News, NBC Entertainment, CBS and Fox, but the service is available only in select Verizon markets…with more on the way.
Vivendi’s Universal unit appears to be set to challenge Apple’s terms for distribution of its catalog through Apple’s popular iTunes application/service just as Apple’s market importance gets a boost from the first weekend sale of over half a million iPhones.
Universal has notified Apple that it will not renew its contract with Apple, leaving its distribution relationship on an ‘at will’ basis. This is in contract to Sony BMG which recently renewed its contract for another year.
Estimates of Universal sales through iTunes place the number at approximately $200 million annually.
Read more in the New York Times article by Jeff Leeds.
While the entire digirati and most mass media outlets remain obsessed with the phenomenon that is iPhone, life moves on in the mobile universe. Other phones that deliver the features promised in iPhone continue to ship and new advanced models are appearing. HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung all have some awesome phones on the market and more are coming….
The Motorola MotoRIZR Z8 is now available in Europe with 30fps high def video, true 3G HSDPA connectivity, and a full suite of multimedia applications including mobile access to BSkyB and podcasts courtesy of Podcast.com (disclaimer: the blogger is an employee of Podcast.com) Great little phone that fits easily in your shirt pocket, activates easily with a variety of carriers (subtle dig), and packages exceptional phone performance along with full video functionality in a small kick-slider package that actually fits your face.
AT&T is working to to remedy an activation problem that is preventing an estimated 2% of new iPhone customers from getting their phone working. Business account users attempting to move over from other carriers were among those having special difficulty with the AT&T activation process
