We’ve finally seen some definitive proof (above) that Sirius XM will begin charging for online streaming ($3/mo), Pandora has brought audio advertising into their web player/experience, and Apple, along with their studio partners, is implementing variable track pricing. Obviously, there’s also a sizable contingent of people who feel free to help themselves. In light of this, I’m wondering what folks think is a reasonable cost for music.

These days, I shy away from digital media purchases. I prefer music streaming or rentals (think Zune Pass or Rhapsody). Both Pandora and Slacker offer a free tier of customizable music streaming for the web and mobile devices. I’ve been fine with the periodic audio (and visual) ads – licensing music isn’t free and neither is building out these services, bills must be paid. The Slacker app recently replaced Pandora (and XM) in my car… once I discovered their uncensored comedy feed. Pandora and Slacker offer optional subscriptions ($3 – $4/mo) for ad-free listening. And should I end up stuck with a painful commute, I’d consider pulling the trigger.

What do you use and how much are you willing to pay?

Leaving comments across the blogosphere…

Reach Your Broadband Cap With Comcast Backup Service
I’m still waiting for a way to track my data usage from their cable modem. Whatever software utility they’re working on doesn’t account for my Xbox, TiVo Amazon, and Netflix Roku VOD. However, I can’t bash Comcast too much… 250GB/month looks absolutely mammoth and generous compared to Time Warner Cable’s meager 40GB cap.

Video of Windows 7 UI on a netbook
James, don’t know if you read that YouTube embeds now have a HQ (high quality) toggle right in the video itself. It may not be HD resolution/size, but I don’t need to leave your site to see sharper video. While the video is playing, hover over that triangle in the lower right, click on HQ, and the better stream arrives.

Wireless Subsidies Reversed: Verizon’s $249 Femtocell
I’d rather just pay $200 to switch carriers to one that provides decent coverage throughout the house. A new gig I’m contemplating has poor AT&T coverage, which may line up nicely with moving to a Palm Pre on Sprint.

Are Bloggers Underutilizing PR People?
There’s still a certain amount of secretiveness amongst some PR people/firms. Not sure if they’re old school or what, but at least some seem adversarial with little to no info given. The firms/folks who engage in a dialogue are so much more enjoyable to deal with. And inevitably brings them better coverage, because we’re more informed. It’s really like any other relationship, both sides have to work at it and meet in the middle. Some can pull it off, others are incapable or unwilling. I guess the final point is that when you have so many negative experiences, and I’ve had many, you’re less likely to reach out to the (good) firms for comment, assistance, conversation.

Google Street View Captures Your Shame
Yeah, this totally lost its appeal when I also discovered it was a planned event with the Google Maps team. Impromptu nerdism is much more entertaining than a coordinated gaggle of nerds performing on cue.

Last Friday, the job hunting website Monster.com announced a data breech:

We recently learned our database was illegally accessed and certain contact and account data were taken, including Monster user IDs and passwords, email addresses, names, phone numbers, and some basic demographic data.

The appropriate and traditional way to handle an intrusion like this is to notify all customers. And require each account password to be changed. However, Monster’s taken the irresponsible, insufficient path of linking a “Security Notice” from their sidebar below the fold without requiring mandatory password changes.

This post serves two purposes: One, if you’ve ever utilized Monster I suggest you change your password ASAP. Second, and more importantly, it’s probably safe to assume mishaps and intrusions like these will continue amongst a wide array of online services – so, as inconvenient as it may be, employ as many unique passwords as you can during your web travels.

Leaving comments across the blogosphere…

Senate OKs DTV Delay, Still Needs Money for Coupons
While I don’t favor a delay and have said repeatedly the entire transition has been a cluster on multiple levels, local affiliates being permitted to flip the switch prior to to June 12th might make things even more chaotic. I’m sure maintaining simulcasts incurs expenses of one form or another. And some stations will drop NTSC broadcasts. But others won’t. So the folks who have no clue what’s coming will now be even more confused when some stations come in and others don’t.

Back to the proposals, I think it’s likely we’ll see a movement to recycle vouchers quicker than the current 90 days – the program really isn’t out of money, but rather the funds are spoken for with cards that may never be redeemed. Heck, I was sent two cards. One went to Best Buy (to get a converter for my mom’s kitchen television), and the other went into the trash. And this latest proposal allows folks to reapply for coupons if theirs have expired.

Pandora adds ads, while Slacker gets a facelift
For more parity, it’s worth mentioning that the free tier of Slacker radio on the iPhone serves periodic audio ads as well. I believe after every fifth song. But I love my Slacker, and recently discovered they even stream uncensored comedy. If they could get a CNN Headline News and/or ESPN Radio stream going, they’d pretty much kill satellite radio for good.

Palm Responds to Apple iPhone Patent Warnings
Wow, that Palm III pencil drawing is nice – very artistic and detailed. I mean look at the ridges on the stylus. The current crop of patent filers must employ lazier artists or maybe the engineers are responsible.

Back to the Pre, prior to Palm’s big reveal I was not-so-secretly hoping they’d reintroduce the Palm V form factor. Man, I loved that device. I used it on business travel with a dialup modem accessory to read email and access a server. So slim and sexy (when the modem wasn’t attached), and the OS was always quite sprightly.

Tallying the Numbers: Web Video Rivaled TV for Inauguration Views
I think you may be on to something with web video page reloads during stalled streaming. Also, the same people could be visiting multiple sites. In fact, I checked out ABC, Hulu (Fox), and CBS for a few minutes each… Yet had the television on CNN HD for hours. (CNN.com keeps wanting me to upgrade my Flash player to the buggy v10. Ain’t going to happen. In fact, most of my online news is now coming from MSNBC.com.)

Road warrior’s delight- Adapt MPJ-101 pico projector
I’ve seen the 3M and Optoma pico projectors in person, and the licensed WowWee one as well. They pretty much universally suck. It makes a great proof of concept and is a neat trick, but until the projected image is larger and the lumens are much higher there’s very little practical use for these things.

SugarSync Adds Shared Folders to Cloud Service
Wonder how much of this is available on the Mac. Seems like the SugarSync OS X client software has trailed the Windows version. Since migrating to the 13″ MacBook a month or so ago, I haven’t reinstalled the software (I have an annual subscription). Maybe it’s time for another look. One of the things that irked me was if I make changes in iPhoto, like merging events, they aren’t reflected within my online albums. I was kinda hoping SugarSync would replace MobileMe galleries… in addition to Mozy and Dropbox.

Normally I wouldn’t bother covering a point update. However just a short time after their initial release, Joost has totally revamped their iPhone video player interface. The original app suffered from a variety of usability issues, and a biggie was poor button placement leading to inadvertently killing video playback. (Check out that huge X near the aspect ratio/zoom button.) The new player controls and layout are definitely more polished, yet still retains a unique feel (compared to Apple’s built-in player controls). Unfortunately, Joost’s content selection is still hit or miss. Mostly miss. And video can only be accessed via WiFi, no EDGE or 3G. Which also leads me to question Sling Media’s product guy on the likelihood of Apple approving 3G SlingPlayer/Slingbox streaming.

Leaving comments across the blogosphere…

Control TiVo With Your iPhone for $3
I’m sorry, but a TiVo touchscreen remote is so much less efficient than the Glo remote. I don’t want to look down to change channels. Nor do I want to keep my iPhone on for a two hour Lost episode. I also prefer to adjust the volume on my television.

Boxee Gets ABC
Of course the challenge with services like Boxee, PlayOn, NeurosLINK is keeping up with the providers since as far as I can tell the stuff is being scraped. And should the providers make a change, these other guys will need to race to keep up. PlayOn’s had one or two Hulu outages for example when Hulu changed their site somewhat. Ideally, all the networks get on Hulu. And then Hulu gets on a box. Every episode, every season. (Of course, licensing doesn’t work that way with the various guilds and entities that all must be paid at rates that slide around depending on length of availability, release timing, etc – no one can afford it all.)

Apple TV Stays on its “Hobby” Horse
The bottom line here is that the living room is still a tough nut to crack if offering a separate box. The cable and satellite cos really have a stranglehold on the living room here in the US. (I wish we’d see a UK Freeview-esque movement which might open up the set-top box space.) Additionally, Bruce’s point is well taken. AppleTV is still too much of a closed ecosystem (without hacking) which in keeps many of the early adopters away – who often kickstart new tech adoption.

DISH Network coming to Windows Media Center
Draco? I thought it was Stargate. Too many codenames! Although, it’s possible there are two initiatives. Relaying ViP 211 content to a Media Center and some sort of Internet streaming. Then again, with the whole SlingGuide they may shift gears and this project could suffer the same fate of DirecTV’s MCE tuner.

MPAA vs RealDVD — Why You Care
No mention of the DVD Copy Control Association? They’ve licensed CSS to DVD-burning kiosks. So they, and the MPAA, may not necessarily be against sharing the tech and permitting archiving. (Before HD DVD was killed, Windows Vista archiving was demo-ed/pitched by Microsoft at CES.) But they didn’t produce, validate, or vette Real’s protection scheme. And it’s not Real’s technology to use without license. Having said that, I do agree many large companies are overzealous in claiming DMCA violations that appear to trump pre-existing fair use consumer protections. (In fact, I’m tired of YouTube takedown notices.) At the end of the day, most folks who want to archive their DVDs already know how. (Basically, I don’t believe there’s a market for Real’s software.) And I don’t see individual consumers, who don’t share their files on BitTorrent, being dragged into court for bypassing an encryption scheme or stealing.

I’ve previously been a bit lukewarm towards DISH Network’s DTVPal DVR, but as I contemplate dumping pay TV at some point this year I’m more motivated to explore all over-the-air (OTA) recording options. And the DTVPal DVR ($250) is pretty much one of only two mainstream retail HD DVR set-top boxes currently available. Unlike the similarly priced TiVo HD, DISH’s solution is subscription-free with guide data received OTA.

As you can see from the 23 enlargeable photos below, I’ve gotten my hands on a review unit. The enclosure is still rather plain, plasticy, and bulbous (can’t stack anything on it), with that unfortunate TV character illustration resembling a pig. However, in this case, it’s what’s inside that truly matters. Setup was a breeze. Heck, I probably completed the DTVPal DVR configuration in the same time it takes my TiVo to boot. The initial OTA PSIP guide data was pretty limited, but overnight the dual tuner DVR has been populated with the more comprehensive TV Guide (TVGOS). The unit seems about as a loud as my TiVoHD, perhaps slightly louder and definitely warmer – neither should be an issue. The Ethernet jack is active, and I did try to initiate a software update. But it appears that my OS is current. Perhaps, utilizing that Internet connectivity, at some point DISH Network’s CinemaNow video on demand (VOD) offerings will make their way to this unit. DTVPalDVR OTA ATSC reception seems similar to the TiVoHD, and all my major networks come in via just a small antenna, although I haven’t done any sort of exhaustive comparison of reception or picture quality.

So far, so good! I’ll have more to report in the coming weeks. Anything specific you’d like me to check out?

Pics after the break: (more…)