Week of June 9, 2008

iPhone Gets Radio

Friday, June 13, 2008

Apple has recently announced two new deals that will make radio available on the iPhone. The first is a deal with AOL, which will make 350 streaming CBS local stations available free on the iPhone as a result of CBS' recent deal with AOL. The second bit of news about the iPhone is that they've reached an agreement to make 25 XM channels available. In the latter deal, carriers will charge customers about $9/month for the XM service.

Streaming audio on mobile phones (whether from "radio" or other proprietary services) is bound to take off some time. Making it available on the previously closed system that is the iPhone is a significant step. For terrestrial radio, this is a must. Radio need to reorient its thinking to the fact that its content and its brands are what's important, not the platform.

Firefox 3 To Be Released June 17

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Firefox, the Internet browser which has slowly been gaining in market share against Microsoft's Internet Explorer, has announced the release date for its third version-June 17. As part of the release, the Mozilla Foundation will be attempting to break the Guinness Book of World Records for most downloads in a day with the release. So far the foundation has received over 1 million pledges to download. Check it out yourself on June 17 by visiting getfirefox.com.

AOL Radio Re-Launches With Help from CBS

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

The new AOL Radio service has re-launched, and the former channels powered by XM Radio are now powered by CBS Radio. AOL is still programming 200 of its own channels, but CBS is providing over 100 channels of programming itself. The real interesting aspect of the service is that CBS will be selling the ad inventory locally. That's right, the national AOL Radio service will be sold locally by CBS Radio stations. AOL Music executives have been in the press stating that ad-supported music was a difficult, if not impossible, business to run on their own and that CBS's local ad teams were the real difference.

With more and more local account executives being given online ad inventory to sell, the real question is how will they prioritize their time? Will the focus on broadcast ad sales lessen? Will online get short shrift? Will whole new ad teams emerge that focus on online only? These are important questions that will have to be answered by radio-and soon.

3G iPhone Arrives; Apple WWDC Summary

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Well, the announcements have been made and some of the rumors have been squashed. The key news from yesterday's Steve Jobs keynote? An outline of the new Macintosh OS (called Snow Leopard), the rebranding of .Mac to Mobileme, which will sync your content across multiple computers and mobile devices, and... the new 3G iPhone. Some of the rumors were false (No forward facing camera for video chat), while the key ones were right: 3G network access for faster data speeds and a new price point--$200 for the 8 GB model.

WWDC Starts Today

Monday, June 9, 2008

The entire tech and mobile world is focused on the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) today, and especially Apple CEO Steve Jobs' keynote address. The reason is simple: All of the recent rumors about the next generation iPhone are about to be answered. Some of the leading predictions: The new iPhone will be 3G capable and include video chat capability with a forward facing camera. It will also include integrated GPS for geolocation, and, one of the most exciting rumors for consumers: The phone will be subsidized by AT&T and go on sale for $200, a steep discount over the previous iPhone price.

So stay tuned for news!