subscriptions

OnLive drops fee, set-top 'MicroConsole' coming

We've been quite excited about the potential of streaming-video game service OnLive, which forgoes any physical software or system/graphics needs and lets players play games on remote servers via streaming video. The effect is largely seamless, and for some games like adventures it's a fantastic cloud-based substitute for owning an expensive gaming laptop. The only drawback was price: OnLive's games not only cost money, but the OnLive service also levied a subscription fee.

That fee's now been waived: OnLive has dropped its monthly charge. That means that free demos can now be sampled without any … Read more

More Zune content coming to Xbox, and the world

This fall, Microsoft will roll out a number of updates to its Zune desktop client and related music and video services, allowing more content on more devices, in more countries than ever before.

First announced during June's E3 conference, Xbox Live Gold members will soon be able to stream on-demand music from the Zune catalog of 11 million tracks directly to their consoles. This service will complement the Zune Video Marketplace service, which has been on Xbox Live for more than a year, allowing HD video rental and purchases.

The Zune music service itself will also see an international expansion, as well as a transition to a 100 percent MP3-formatted download catalog. New regions capable of making song purchases include the U.K., France, Italy, Spain, and Germany. Purchases can be made using Microsoft's free, PC-only Zune software, or any Windows Phone 7 device. … Read more

Slacker Premium Radio to offer on-demand music

Slacker Radio first launched in 2007 as an intuitive online music player that let you stream a variety of preprogrammed and custom-made radio stations based on your favorite artists and songs. Since then, the service has added a continuous array of new features, from its own short-lived devices to apps for your Blackberry and iPhone to Twitter feed functionality. Tonight at an event in New York, Slacker, Inc. will show off its latest offering: Premium Radio.

Slacker Premium Radio will offer all the features of Radio Plus--no ads, no skip limits, mobile station caching--with the added benefit of on-demand functionality. … Read more

Apple prepping newspaper subscription service?

Apple will soon announce a newspaper subscription service for its iPad, a recent report from the San Jose Mercury News claims.

Citing unnamed sources, the report said that Apple could take as much as 40 percent of all advertising revenue generated by the publications' iPad apps. Its sources also said that Apple will take 30 percent of newspaper subscription fees.

In turn, Apple would make all of the subscription services available in its app store. Exact details on how users would pay for the service were not disclosed in the report.

To improve the publications' advertising revenue, Apple has reportedly … Read more

The 404 659: Where we check out the bubbles on that one (podcast)

Facebook is about to get a whole lot creepier. A small group of users are beta-testing a new "subscribe" button located under users' profile pictures that could make Facebook stalking as simple as a single click.

The button is a lot like "following" someone on Twitter and here's how it works: If you click the "subscribe" button, all of that user's activities, from new pictures to status updates to videos and links, will show up in your notifications. Few details have been released so far, but we're interested in knowing if the service will show you who's stalking your profile or if you can subscribe to non-friends, which would take the creep factor up to a solid 10.

Moving on to another creepy story, a school zone in West Vancouver is testing a rather extreme measure to force drivers to slow down in their vehicles.

The experiment places a 3D hologram of a young girl chasing a ball in the middle of the street that drivers will see about 100 feet away, giving them plenty of time to slow down...or have a heart attack and veer off the road. We can see the utility in a 3D cop on the side of the road or a flashing light to alert drivers entering school zones, but this is a little nuts.

To Jeff's delight and Wilson's girlfriend's dislike, Angry Birds is now available on the Android operating system. Granted, it's a "Lite" version in beta and many users (including Jeff) are experiencing random restarts and freezes, but it should tie over your addiction until the official version finally drops. For all the iPhone players out there, don't forget that the Angry Birds Expansion Pack is also available.

Finally, we have a handful of voicemail messages that we haven't gotten to play all week, and today's batch inquires about the infamous "Cheese Stands Alone" episode, voicemail phone numbers, and a rare appearance from everyone's favorite Verbose Asian Guy! Set it on repeat, guys--it ain't happening again! :)

Episode 659 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Report: Sony to launch latest iTunes challenger

Sony has apparently dusted itself off and is ready to take another crack at Apple's iTunes.

Sony has plans to launch a music and video subscription service, according to a report in The Financial Times. The Japanese conglomerate is expected to announce the service Wednesday at a technology show in Berlin, just ahead of Apple's media event in San Francisco.

According to the FT, "Sony would use its [Web-connected] PlayStation games consoles as the starting point for a new service that users will be able to use across a range of other Internet-connected devices. That could include … Read more

Report: Amazon working on streaming service

Amazon is talking to major media companies to create a new subscription service to deliver movies and TV shows over the Internet, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The service, which would be accessible via Web browser and devices such as Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players, and the Xbox game console, has been pitched to media giants News Corp., Time Warner, Viacom, and NBC Universal, according to the Journal. Amazon's Video on Demand service offers digital downloads of movies and individual TV episodes, but the new service would focus on offering older content in a model similar … Read more

Grooveshark pulled from App Store

It was fun while it lasted. I had wondered how Grooveshark could charge just $3 a month for unlimited on-demand music streams to your iPhone while other companies charge more than three times as much.

Turns out, it can't.

Earlier this month, the Grooveshark iPhone app appeared in Apple's App Store. On Monday, Apple pulled the app. According to Grooveshark's blog, Apple received a complaint from Universal Music Group UK.

This isn't exactly a surprise, given that Universal Music filed a lawsuit against the upstart subscription music service earlier this year. In a statement, Apple confirmed … Read more

Grooveshark comes to iPhone

It's been more than a year (!) since I first tested an early alpha version of the Grooveshark app for iPhone, and now the company has finally jumped through the necessary hoops to get it into the App Store.

Grooveshark's Web site has for several years offered on-demand streaming of just about any song in existence, and it remains one of my favorite destinations. The iPhone app is also free, and it gives you a 30-day free trial, after which you'll have to sign up for a VIP subscription. Still, that subscription costs only $3 a month or $… Read more