RIM seems to be working hard this year. Besides the Storm launch we’ve received news that the company is creating Berries ready for LTE and now we find out that it’s also preparing to launch a whole new music streaming service based on Didiom.

Didiom is a music marketplace which will get you on-device downloads and tracks streaming from your iTunes library to your handset. Didiom tracks cost $0.89 and albums cost $9.99. Nothing particular you say right? All files are DRM-free MP3s but we don’t know yet when everything will be ready for action.

Tags: Didiom, DRM, Mobile News, Mobile Software, music, Research In Motion, RIM

Alltel has a new LG phone for its customers. The LG Rhythm is a music phone which comes with Digital Signal Processing, a graphic equalizer, an internal FM transmiter and a 3.5 mm stereo headset and a microphone that can toggle from music to calls and back. There’s also an LG mechanical wheel with a center touchscreen, and a dedicated music hot key. The Rhythm comes with a 2 inch QVGA display, a 1.3 megapixel camera with zoom and camcorder, Bluetooth 2.0 capabilities and microSD support for up to 16 GB.

The Rhythm will cost $119.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate, with a two year contract. Intersted? Go to Alltel starting today!

Tags: Alltel, Alltel, LG, LG, Mobile News, music, Rhythm

Apple threatened earlier to shut down its iTunes operation in case the Copyright Royalty Board would have decided to increase the royalty rates for CDs and downloaded songs. Between you and me, I think Apple wouldn’t have done anything like it. Apple iTunes might not bring in that much profit for the Cupertino-based company, but it certainly influences lots of people when choosing their next MP3 player or their next iPhone.

Luckily for everyone but artists the board decided on Thursday that it would preserve the same rates as before which means everyone, but artists, is happy now. The Apple iTunes stays open, and the prices won’t change.

Tags: Apple, Apple, iTunes, Mobile News, music, Other Brands

By now you should already be aware of the official existence of the G1 handset from T-Mobile. It’s the main event of this September 23rd and we’re going to be talking about it for quite a while.

One of the features presented at today’s even was Amazon’s music store. The application will come preloaded on the G1. You will be able to search your music, buy it and download it to your G1 to listen to it later. Kind of like an iTunes store but from Amazon, and with no Genius on. (more…)

Tags: Amazon, DRM, G1, Google, microsoft, Mobile News, MP3 Players, music, Portable Devices, software, T-Mobile, T-Mobile

Samsung has announced 2 new music phones. These are the Beat to the power of b or Beat^b and the Beat to the power of s or Beat^s. Strange names for some mid-level phones. The ^b is going to be available this month while the ^s is coming next month. (more…)

Tags: Mobile News, music, Samsung, Samsung

For those of you wandering if Napster still exists Best Buy has the perfect answer. Best Buy acquired Napster for $121 million. What do you think about that Metallica?

Best Buy is going to pay $67 in cash while the rest will be paid by Q4 of this year. Why 67 mil in cash?
Moving on then, Best Buy is going to get Napster’s 700,000 digital entertainment subscribers which is not to bad. Best Buy’s president Brian Dunn said he wants to use “Napster’s capabilities and digital subscriber base to reach new customers with an enhanced experience for exploring and selecting music and other digital entertainment products over an increasing array of devices.” OK then, you go ahead and you have your fun with Napster! Beware though, Metallica might be watching!

Tags: BestBuy, entertainment, Mobile News, Mobile Software, music, Napster

Samsung Highnote is another new handset from Samsung. It’s a dual slider handset which will be also available from Sprint starting with October 19th. You will get this phone for just $99.99 after $50 with the same 2 years contract.

The Highnote will indeed play music for you. The design will let you access your digital music. Sliding the phone upwards will give you access to a dial pad for better music control. You will have access to Sprint’s Music Store, Sprint’s Navigation, and web and email. There’s a 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth connectivity and the speaker-independent voice recognition we’ve seen also in the Rant earlier.

Tags: Highnote, Mobile News, music, Samsung, Samsung, Sprint, Sprint

While it was leaked yesterday, the general public wasn’t able to get their hands on the latest version of Apple’s iTunes until today, with new features to boot.

The coolest feature by far, are the new Genius Playlists. What is a Genius Playlist you ask? Well, it’s a new feature that allows you to pick a song and then generates a playlist of similar songs. Pretty neat huh?

Some less exciting features include an all new grid view, HD TV shows, some new accessibility features for those hard of hearing, and a fancy new visualizer as you can see above.

But why listen to me? Apple has an official page up with all of the new features included in iTunes 8.

Tags: 8, Apple, Apple, iTunes, music, software

LG has a new music phone for Indian customers. The KP199 Dynamite is the model I am talking about. Besides music features it will get you some good battery life. But let me show you more of it’s specs!

This LG will sport a VGA camera with video recording, an MP3 player with FM radio, A2DP Bluetooth and 60MB of internal memory space upgradeable via microSD cards. There’s an FM radio alarm and an anti-theft mobile tracker. USB charging is also possible besides data transfer.

The phone will cost you just 4,390 Rupees in India or about $100. There’s no news on international pricing yet.

Tags: india, LG, LG, Mobile News, music

Your penchant for high-fidelity sound production might buy you the latest Foxl portable music system. And believe me; your costly desire would not make a big dent into your savings. In fact, the latest offering from Soundmatters Inc. gives you all-a powerful sound quality, stylish design, compact looks and convenient options.

Pick its bluetooth model or not, the portable stereo loudspeaker nearly offers the same functions like-80Hz-20kHz frequency range, two 1″ Linear Magnetic Drive woofers tuned to 100Hz, Flatmagic Bass radiator and foxl Lithium-ion Bass battery which lasts up to 5 long hours.

However, if you purchase the audiophile-grade music system with bluetooth, you will be able to enjoy wirelessly streamed music from various devices and also entertain noise-free telephone calls by the help of internal noise/echo cancelling microphone. This sounds a real treat for music-lovers.

Expected to be released in September, it lets you enjoy music on-the-go at a fascinating price of $249 and $199 for bluetooth and non-bluetooth model respectively.

Tags: Audiophile, foxL, music, Pocket-sized, portable, Portable Devices, Soundmatters, System

Dell feels ready for another hit at the MP3 player business. Curiously enough they did feel ready before but there was no happy end. And Dell is ready to launch not one but two MP3 players.

The new players might arrive in September as some rumors say while others say early next year. One player will have pre-loaded with software which will work with an online music service. The second player will offer extra WiFi connectivity and it will be priced around $100. It remains to see what Dell has exactly in mind for their players.

We’ll definitely need more specs to see if this Dell player has a shot of competing against any of them iPods.

Tags: Dell, ipod, MP3 Player, MP3 Players, music, Portable Devices

While T-Mobile wants to copy Apples’ App Store it appears that Vodafone wants to copy Apple’s iTunes thing.

And not only did Vodafone launch one music store but they have launched two. Just to make sure you have a selection of songs to chose from right? The first store, Omnifone’s MusicStation has been around for a while, but now Master Voda has something new: Vodafone Music.
(more…)

Tags: Apple, iTunes, Mobile News, Mobile Software, music, store, Vodafone, Vodafone

LG KP265 is a music slider phone that has just been announced for the Russian market. It’s a simple phone with simple features. Nothing particular about this LG KP265. The KP265 has an FM radio and a music player. Besides music it has full multimedia capabilities.
(more…)

Tags: Cell Phones, LG, LG, Mobile News, music

Nokia has a two-way slider phone outside their N-series. The 8208 will be a music oriented handset and that’s where the two-way sliding display comes in. Slide the display down and you get music controls for managing the phone’s music interface. Slide it up and you will get everything else.

Besides the music playing capabilities, the 8208 will have a 3.5mm headphone jack, a 3 megapixels camera and GPS. This Nokia will play in CDMA networks and it will be the first to support EVDO Rev.A access where available. This handset is supposed to come out in China from China Unicom and in North America from Bell and/or Verizon.

This Nokia 8208 should be available rather soon since it is already featured on Nokia’s pages. There’s no official announcement so we’ll be waiting for release dates and future pricing.

Tags: Cell Phones, Mobile News, music, Nokia, Nokia

More and more mobile carriers want in on music events and music deals. Verizon has just released the V Cast with Rhapsody which seems to be a pretty clear anti iTunes move. Now it appears that Vodafone wants to work with MySpace to offer a social networking and music kind of application for mobiles.

This right here is an association I wouldn’t have foreseen. But Vodafone has apparently signed an agreement with MySpace to offer the Vodafone Music Reporter, “online global interactive platform” which will let Vodafone customers to share photos videos and commentary on Vodafone Music Unlimited events. The service will be available in Europe for now, in countries like Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.

So it’s nothing like the V Cast or iTunes. It’s something totally different. Imagine being at a concert this summer and having your mobile video picked up and broadcast to other mobile users of the Vodafone Music Reporter. And such a service will certainly not come free. We don’t know prices of an eventual release date yet but we will send them your way once they get leaked.

via iTWire

Tags: Cell Phones, Mobile News, music, MySpace, v cast, Vodafone, Vodafone

We would have considered this another run-of-the-mill music-oriented device were it not for its 3.5-mm headphone jack, a trump card that most other musicphones do not possess. And its capability to play up to 29 hours of your favorite tracks.

Other than these two major factors, the LG KM501 falls into the low to mid-range criteria with a 2-inch 240×320 display, a 2-megapixel camera, and 42MB of internal memory with support for up to 4GB expansion by way of microSD. Of course, to live up to its musicphone status, the KM501 has dedicated music keys, equalizer settings, and a handy background mode, not to forget the FM radio.

The KM501 is available only in Taiwan as of now, with no info on pricing yet.

Tags: cell phone, Cell Phones, km501, LG, LG, music, Uncategorized

If you want style and beauty, then look no further as LG has released its new LG KM380 Music Phone. The KM380 is a flip phone that is different from most clam shells we see today. Yes, we do see the flaps in todays clamshell phones to cover the numeric keypad, but unlike the phones today, the KM380’s flaps are functional. It has the five way navigation tool that allows users to control you music - a very interesting innovation.

The LG KM380 is already available in China and sells for about US$200.

via: mobilemag

Related topics:
LG LX400 CDMA Phone for Sprint
LG KP320 Cell Phone
LG VX3200 (CDMA) Phone

Tags: LG, LG, music, Phone, Uncategorized

After the Nokia Music Store in Australia, Nokia opened its store for France. With a selection of over 2.5 million songs from French and international artists, Nokia is working with record companies for more hits to be included on the store front.

You can also sync music from a PC on other Xpress Music handsets like the Nokia 5610 and Nokia 5310, Nokia N82 and N95 8GB edition.

Music tracks can be purchased for €1.00, while full albums start at €10.00. A monthly subscription that allows users to stream unlimited music is also available at €10.00.

Visit the store at Nokia Music Store.

(more…)

Tags: Cell Phones, music, Nokia, store, XpressMusic

Samsung had a treat, at least for the media, announcing its latest Anycall MusiCall mobile phone series. The Samsung Anycall F338 release was backed up with mini live-concert performances of singers like Justin Cheng, Kary Ng and RubberBand. Samsung promises an ultimate sound experience on the Anycall F338 phone.

Available in a slider design, the Samsung Anycall F338 provides quick access to the phone’s music interface. It supports A2DP - advanced audio distribution profile - for stereo Bluetooth. With support for 3.5G (HSDPA) networks for high-speed data transfer, the phone brings with it a 2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom. A secondary VGA camera is available for video conferencing.

The Anycall F338 supports 4GB microSDHC memory cards for expanded memory.

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Tags: 3.5G, a2dp, audio player, bluetooth, Cell Phones, fast, HSDPA, music, Samsung, Samsung, smartphone, stereo audio

Verizon unveiled its latest line-up of hot mobile phones for the holiday season. The line-up includes:

Juke by Samsung
The Juke is a swivel-design mobile phone that you have to flick open 180 degrees to reveal the keypad. Available in s teeny-tiny form factor, the phone features 2GB of internal storage (fancy term for saying there is no support for additional storage). Verizon calls it a fashion-forward fancy phone (ooh), and the Juke, true to its name, handles MP3, WMA and unprotected AAC files.

Pity it comes with just a VGA camera though. Thankfully, Bluetooth stereo support is a saving grace.

BlackBerry Pearl 8130 Smartphone
The BlackBerry Pearl 8130 Smartphone needs no introduction.

The Venus by LG
Available in black and pink, the Venus features dual front screens, with the lower portion offering touch input with vibration feedback, designed for quick access to the phone’s features. The Venus is also music-centric and comes in a slider design. With support for microSD memory cards up to 8GB, this is a decent phone compatible with Verizon’s Get It Now downloadable applications and V Cast Video and Music.

Venus can handle MP3/WMA/AAC files and comes with a 2 megapixel camera; it can record video as well.

The Voyager, also by LG
The Voyager is equipped with a large external touch screen. Open it up laterally and you get a QWERTY keypad to book. It features a web browser, music player and is compatible with high-speed wireless broadband access. Like the Venus, it features a microSD memory card slot for expanding memory up to 8GB.

No info on the pricing yet. The four phones will be available in stores before thanksgiving.

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Tags: Cell Phones, deals, form factor, holiday season 2007, music, portable, slider, small, v cast, Verizon, video, wireless