There has been a bevy of wireless news in the past couple of days (some of which actually affects us New Yorkers), and I’ve been meaning to post about it or Twitter about it, or something, so here’s my attempt to catch you up.

In a move that looks conciliatory, but really kind of seems like a big who cares when you think about it, AT&T bowing to pressure federal regulators, in its beneficence, has decided to let iPhone users use Skype over 3G as opposed to Wi-Fi only. I don’t really know anyone that exceeds their minutes on their iPhone, nor do I know anyone who really uses the Skype app either, but hey, it’s better than a poke in the eye with a stick. I can see this as a boon for people use their cell phone to call long distance a lot, but like I said, other than that, it seems like a bit of a non-event.

In other wireless news, still smarting from the AT&T/iPhone exclusivity deal (I mean, they have to be smarting right?), Verizon has decided to try and go the other way, and partner up with Google and Android for a new batch of handsets. (Can a Zune handset be far behind?)

Verizon and Google plan to co-develop several Android-based devices that will be pre-loaded with applications from both parties as well as from third-party developers. A family of Android phones built for the Verizon Wireless network will come from “leading handset manufacturers,” according to a statement issued by the two companies.
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The agreement will come to fruition within the next few weeks as Verizon Wireless introduces Android-based handsets. [InternetNews.com]

Not to be outdone, according to a report in the Wall St Journal, AT&T is planning on launching a new Android phone in early 2010 in partnership with Dell.

Finally, In news that is sure to make the next episode of CommandN, Rogers is about to lose its exclusive deal as Canada’s only iPhone carrier when rivals Bell Canada and Telus Corp. start selling them next month. Perhaps a little competition will give Canucks a break on their monthly phone bills (Canadians used to have the highest cost of iPhone ownership in the world):

Bell announced Monday that it will launch national service in November on the $1-billion next-generation wireless network it has been building with Telus, months ahead of schedule. The project extends the two companies’ existing third-generation (3G) networks to include the same technology standard employed by Rogers, the nation’s largest cellphone company. [GlobeandMail.com]

Holiday season is just around the corner, and while it can be a little hit and miss at times, there are usually a few good buys to be had during Dell’s 8 Days of Deals event.

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If you’re in the market for a new Nano or possibly a new iPod Touch, you might have noticed that they seem to cost the same about everywhere you look. However, if you’re looking pay less than retail, there are a few outlets where you can save a buck or two. Costco carries iPods at their brick and mortar locations, and as of this weekend, the iPod Nano 8GB was retailing for $139.99, which is $10 less than MSRP. They didn’t have anything else in stock at the time, but if my memory serves me correctly, when it was $399 everywhere else, the 32GB 2nd Generation iPod Touch used to sell at Costco for $369. In terms of other bargain locations, Adorama (on 18th St in Manhattan) typically has the best prices for iPods across the board. Before the new models were announced, Adorama was selling the 32GB 2nd Generation iPod for $359, which was the lowest I’ve seen it offered anywhere, online or offline. I’m not sure what their pricing will be on the new line of iPods, they should be getting them in stock towards the end of this week. The only catch of course, with buying an iPod from Adorama is that you have to be able to get to the store and while Manhattan is a big city, there a still a lot of people who won’t be able to take advantage of the in-store special. Finally, Amazon.com itself is actually a good place to get a discount on an iPod even before you employ the methods I’ll be talking about below. For instance, if you check the site right now, you’ll see that the new Black iPod shuffle is $59.00 (instead of $79.98) and the new 8GB iPod Touch is $189.99, $10 below MSRP.

More on how to get 10% at amazon.com after the jump.

“Save 10% On Everything at Amazon.com” continued after the jump

The Beatles Lithograph Giveaway

Send an email to contests@bumpershine.com to win this lithograph!

Number 9, Number 9, Number 9? Today is an auspicious day for music fans and gamers alike. The entire Beatles discography has been given a complete and long overdue digital overhaul and will be lovingly reissued (in both mono and stereo) on CD today. The stereo albums will be available for purchase as a complete box set or as individual CDs. Mono mixes of the first 10 Beatles albums will only be available for purchase as part of a limited edition boxed set, an early buying frenzy actually lead the initial run of the 10,000 mono box sets to sell out completely before their official release date, EMI has since stated that more copies will be produced to satisfy the demand. Eventhough I’ve got most of the Beatles catalog on CD in their original analog releases, I’m having a hard time resisting pulling the trigger on the new stereo box set. The increased fidelity would surely be a welcome to my home stereo system, but for a music geek, the new packaging is kind of exciting too:

Each of the CDs is packaged with replicated original UK album art, including expanded booklets containing original and newly written liner notes and rare photos. For a limited period, each CD will also be embedded with a brief documentary film about the album.

On their own, The Beatles reissues are a huge deal, (granted they would have been even more earth shattering five years ago), but today also marks the release of The Beatles Rock Band video game, which digitally chronicles the progression of the band from their early days at the Cavern Club to their final live performance on the rooftop of the Apple Corps in 1969. Not being a real gamer myself, I’ll admit that the meticulous attention to detail that has obviously gone into making this game has made me think twice about getting myself a little early chanukah present, here’s just a small example of what I’m talking about:

To turn classic Beatles songs into the stages of a video game, each song needed to be separated into its several components, so that if the person playing the guitar misses a note, the guitar sound can drop out while the music made by the other instruments is unaffected. Because the Beatles mostly recorded on four-track and two-track equipment, with multiple instruments sharing a tape, Martin had to spend months using digital filters to eliminate sounds at certain frequencies and not others.
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Just as Giles Martin chose to walk a line between reality and fantasy when choosing and mixing the audio, Harmonix put an extraordinary amount of research toward a result that is at once meticulously detailed and purposefully ahistorical. They pored over reference books to determine which instruments the Beatles used on each song and studied photos of concert venues and their respective crowds in order to properly render 1960s fashion and hairstyles. When Olivia Harrison was worried that George looked a bit off, she invited the art team over to look through her personal photo archive — with a set of calipers. And when the designer of the guitar-shaped instrument controllers couldn’t find a high-resolution photo showing the wood grain on McCartney’s Höfner violin bass, he had the Höfner company send over a block. [NYTimes.com]

In honor of all this hoo-hah, I’m giving away a copy of the Beatles lithograph shown at the top of the page. To enter the contest, just send an email with your name and address (US entrants only) to contests@bumpershine.com and tell me the name of your favorite Beatles record. A random winner will be notified on September 18, 2009.

But wait, there’s one more thing… Today is also the day for Apple’s Annual Music Event, which will take place at Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, CA. Rumors are running wild about what might possibly be announced, but among the things that could happen are:

• A revamped iPod Touch lineup, including a 64GB iPod Touch with a camera and microphone
• The addition of cameras and increased HD capacities to the entire iPod lineup
• The scrapping of the entire iPod Classic lineup
• An update to the Apple TV device
• iPhone HD video out
• The return of Steve Jobs to the podium
• The new “Cocktail” digital album format
• iTunes 9 (a fitting day for a version number increment)
• The mythical Apple tablet device, and
• The Beatles catalog coming to iTunes

As for the last rumor on the list, Yoko Ono confirmed in a now-pulled Sky News article that The Beatles catalog is headed for digital distribution, but that the announcement will not be made today. For what it’s worth, EMI has also denied that any announcement will be made today [Engadget.com]. If you’d like to keep up with the minute by minute play by play of today’s music event, you can follow the live blog stream over here or here starting at 1 PM ET.

Apple Music Event

The Beatles remasters and The Beatles: Rock Band product shots after the jump.

“What’s Happening on 09-09-09? The Beatles Reissues, The Beatles: Rock Band, Apple Music Event, and a Beatles Lithograph Giveaway” continued after the jump

So apparently, the music labels don’t really like it when you just buy singles. I’m not sure whether Apple actually cares that much as I was always under the impression that they just keep the iTunes store around as a means to sell iPods. Be that as it may, Apple is about to make a new digital album format, codenamed “Cocktail”, the next must have product for teens and tweens everywhere. (It was confirmed today that Apple’s annual music event will take place on September 9, 2009.)

Apple is working with the four largest record labels to stimulate digital sales of albums by bundling a new interactive booklet, sleeve notes and other interactive features with music downloads, in a move it hopes will change buying trends on its online iTunes store.
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“It’s all about re-creating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music,” said one executive familiar with the plans.

Apple wants to make bigger purchases more compelling by creating a new type of interactive album material, including photos, lyric sheets and liner notes that allow users to click through to items that they find most interesting. Consumers would be able to play songs directly from the interactive book without clicking back into Apple’s iTunes software, executives said. [Financial Times]

After reading this the first time, my immediate impression was, this is not going to work, this will not to revitalize album sales by any means. I know it’s easy to be a naysayer, but here’s why I reached that initial conclusion: first of all, I think the premise is a bit misguided, the problem isn’t that the people are “just buying singles”, the problem is that people aren’t legally buying music at all anymore. After re-reading the FT article though, it actually sounds like these are not the people Apple and the labels are going after, they seem to have already given up on those scofflaws individuals who file share exclusively, and now they are shifting their focus to the sector of the public that still buys music, but only cherry picks the songs they like from an artist’s catalog. For these people, a little more pizazz in a digital download package might act as an inducement to “buy an album” as opposed to a single, but I think for most folks, the move towards the iTunes store and an entirely digital content library has: a) made the single so affordable and accessible that people will be hard pressed to go to back to buying albums no matter the new format actually consists of; b) conditioned people to abandon whatever love they had for packaging, liner notes, and everything associated with the physical object and just focus on the music.
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OK, so I took a few days off after writing the above paragraph and it occurred to me how I might be wrong, (as I often am when it comes to Apple products), and how Cocktail could potentially save the recorded music industry if they do it the right way. While no one really knows what Cocktail actually is yet, some reports have it as a format that includes “artwork, linear notes, lyrics, and videos”. After hearing that, I balked at the idea of “enhanced liner notes” or “albums with videos”, to me there is not enough added value there to get people to pay extra for an album. But then I got to thinking, what if Cocktail is more than that? What if it is more like an RSS feed that consists of a stream of frequently updated and exclusive content related to the artist and the album you just bought? Sure, buying an album and getting deluxe artwork and maybe a video is great, but what if you get exclusive access to the next video before the rest of the world because you bought the album? I don’t know about you, but that’s something I’d be willing to pay for. It doesn’t have to stop at pre-release videos though, “album purchaser only” concert presales, exclusive artist podcasts, and interactive games are all potential examples of the kind of thing I’d be willing to shell out some of my hard earned dollars for. Essentially, what I am describing is attaching a dedicated music blogger to every new record that comes out and then having that content pushed to your iPhone (or whatever) on a regular basis because you purchased the “enhanced version” of the album. To me there is definitely some value in the type of product I am describing, and in fact, when you think about it, what you’re really purchasing is the access to the premium content with the album is being thrown in much like an added bonus. Come September 9, I guess we’ll see whether they were listening to me or not.

The much ballyhooed ZuneHD is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com with a retail price of $219.99 for the 16GB model and $289.99 for the 32GB model (sadly, there is no 64GB model at this time). The release date for the ZuneHD is set for September 15, 2009, which is allegedly one week after Apple’s annual music event, (speculators say it will occur during the “week of” September 7, and quite possibly on September 9, 2009). If you’re in the market for a new mp3 player, as of today, the cheapest 32GB iPod Touch you can buy is $359 at Adorama (in store only), which makes a 32GB ZuneHD look pretty attractive at $289. However, according to numerous Internet rumours and a recent TechCrunch article the new iPod Touch 3.1 (which is pretty much a certainty at this point) will contain a camera and a microphone and come in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB varieties, with the 32GB version being priced at $299. If, in fact, the price differential comes down to a mere $10, no matter how good it is, I think the ZuneHD will once again face a huge uphill battle in stealing any market share away from Apple. Futhermore, MG Siegler from TechCrunch makes a good point in regards to the timing of the Zune release:

What I’d really like to know is who plans these events for Microsoft? How on Earth didn’t they not realize that Apple has an iPod event pretty much every year now in the first few days of September? I’m sure it would have been a big pain in the ass, but why not put everything you have into ramping up production earlier and getting it to market before Apple can respond? [TechCrunch.com]

As for me, I’ve been jonseing for a large capacity iPod Touch since, well, pretty much since the original 4GB/8GB iPhones were announced (iPod Touches didn’t actually even exist then). Up until now, I’ve actually been holding out for something like a 100GB iPod Touch, but since I don’t see that happening anytime soon and I’m pretty interested in the app store, I guess I’ll settle for a “compact” 64GB model (should it actually be released this year).

The Spotify iPhone App

Look out Cupertino, the Swedes are coming. According to a recent article in The Observer, Spotify, the hugely popular Swedish streaming music service, is coming to the America “in the third or fourth quarter” of 2009. In the mean time, Spotify has developed an iPhone app, which is currently awaiting App Store approval, (check out the video demo above, it truly looks amazing). The killer feature of the Spotify app is the “offline mode” which allows you to listen to your playlists when you are not connected to the Internet (if you are on a plane or on the Underground for example). The big chatter on the Internets right now is whether or not the overlords over at Apple will approve the Spotify iPhone app for distribution through the App Store. As you may know, Apple is famously fickle about what gets approved. The $64,000 question of course is, will a free unlimited streaming (and downloadable) music app cannibalize iTunes music sales? (Doesn’t that question kind of answer itself.)

In other Spotify news, according to the Financial Times, the company is about to take on some new financing which would put it’s current value at $250 million:

The Li Ka Shing Foundation, the Hong Kong tycoon’s charitable arm; Wellington Partners, London-based venture capitalists, and others are closing in on a total investment of up to $50m, a bigger amount than expected that values Spotify at $250m (£148m), according to people familiar with the process. [FT.com]

Tom Davis, a veteran comedy writer and Al Franken’s writing and performing partner for many years, recently released a memoir entitled, 39 Years of Short-Term Memory Loss: The Early Days of SNL from Someone Who Was There. Davis will be making a one-off appearance at UCB on Monday (June 1) to promote his book (which was not so well received by the masses at amazon.com) on Inside Joke with Carl Arnheiter, and oh yeah, Dave Hill will be there too.

David Cross, another former Inside Joke guest turned author has also written a new book entitled I Drink for a Reason. Cross’ book isn’t a memoir, but rather a mix of “personal essays, satirical fiction posing as truth, advice for rich people, information from America’s least favorite Rabbi and a top-ten list of top-ten lists.” I Drink for a Reason hits the bookshelves on August 31, 2009

The New Zune HD

What looks good about the new Zune HD:

• New form factor (it looks somewhat familiar, but I can’t quite put my finger on where I’ve see that look before.)
• Bigger (480 x 272) OLED screen, touch sensitive, multitouch enabled
• Built-in HD Radio receiver
• HD video (720p) playback via HDMI cable
• A full-screen Internet browser (IE) optimized for multitouch
• Wi-Fi enabled, capable of instant streaming from the Zune store

What details are still a little bit fuzzy:

• The press release makes no mention of capacity. If it’s not a 64GB device at a reasonable price, the chances of making a serious dent in Apple’s market share are pretty slim.
• “At Expo (E3) next week, attendees will see firsthand how Zune integrates into Xbox LIVE to create a game-changing entertainment experience.” This vague marketing speak makes no sense to me. Will they be making an apps store? Daddy needs some Twitter on his Zune.
• Will the Zune Pass ever include Video? As I’ve said before, having this feature would truly be a game changer, and probably convince a lot of folks (including me) to buy the Zune hardware.

Full Zune HD press release after the jump.

“The Zune HD Is Coming” continued after the jump

To upgrade your browser, go to “About Google Chrome” (accessed through the wrench icon), then click the Update Now button. Or, if you haven’t installed Chrome already, go to www.google.com/chrome and download a copy (try it, I think you just might like it). The biggest new feature in Chrome 2.0 is support for full-screen mode (F11), a welcome addition for those of us (like me) that like a good screen capture every now and then.

Hey, you may have noticed that there are no new posts today, well just in case you thought I was slacking, check out the new “Upcoming Events” sidebar item (look to your right and down a bit), it’s nifty! As always, you can view my entire “Upcoming Event Calendar” (based on recent posts) over here.

PS You can find the source code along with an explanation of how I created the event calendar over here.

Hey geeks, this is tonight (April 28)!

Get your Twitter ready. 92YTribeca and Mashable present a new series of social media discussions that will have you talking all over the internet. This second installment brings together the local startup community, as we hear about projects in their infancy and the startups that have grown into thriving small to medium businesses. Presenters include Philip James, CEO and Mark Angelillo, CTO of Snooth; Melanie Notkin, Founder and CEO of Savvy Auntie; Michael Galpert, Co-Founder of Aviary; Scott Belsky, Founder and CEO of Behance; and a closing presentation by Adam Ostrow, Editor-in-Chief of Mashable (or, as they’re known in Twitterverse, @philipjames, @markangelillo, @savvyauntie, @scottbelsky, @behance, @adamostrow, @mashable…and you can follow us @92YTribeca). [9YTribeca.org/talks]

The Oscar Tweets were a lot more fun than the show. Congrats to Slumdog Millionaire! (BTW, presidential prognosticator Nate Silver was 4 for 6 on the major awards. Today, he blogged about what went wrong.)

Full list of winners after the jump.

“Twitter and The Oscars” continued after the jump

Intrepid readers may have noticed the link to the “Upcoming Events” on the right sidebar underneath my site search box. What is that you ask? Well, since I’m always posting about shows, and then constantly forgetting about them by the time they roll around, I wanted to devise a way to enter the show as part of a post, and then have it show up magically in a list of upcoming events. So, with that in mind, I created a little hack for Wordpress using some php code and the Custom Field Template plugin by Hiroaki Miyashita. If you were wondering how it all works, I’ll give a brief explanation here and a link to all the code you need. First of all download the following two items:

DOWNLOAD: Custom Field Template Plugin, Meta Data Event Calendar

Fig. 1 – Custom Field Template Plugin with Event Calendar Settings

First things first, download and install the Custom Field Template plugin for Wordpress. The CFT provides a nice GUI interface for adding metadata to each post which is what drives the event calendar. While you could do what I’m what I’m doing without the CFT plugin, it would be much, much more time consuming. Once you’ve got the CFT template installed and activated, you’re going to want to configure it a little in the plugin settings. I’ve got my plugin configured specifically for New York area events, and you can look at download my settings over here, of course feel free to change the options based on where you live. (I think the settings are more or less self explanatory, especially once you look at them in the context of adding a new post.)

Article continued after the jump.

“The Upcoming Event Calendar: A Meta Data Driven Wordpress Event Calendar for Bloggers” continued after the jump

I was randomly searching for bands on Twitter the other day, when I came across a tweet by @mashable with a link to this farily comprehensive list of artists maintained by Canada’s Gabriel Nijmeh. Some of the more active and engaging musicians on Twitter include @johnroderick (of The Long Winters), @mchammer (who must Tweet 24/7 given the number of updates he makes), and (questo of The Roots). Oh yeah, though I’m not a musician, you can find me on Twitter at @bumpershine (where I Twittered about this spreadsheet a few days ago).