Steven Levy’s The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness is a big, iPod-styled book that’s part thoughtful take on the history and impact of the iPod, and part unfortunate fanboy raving. The Perfect Thing has benefited from the hype surrounding the iPod, and the publisher has tried to tap into that […]

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), a consortium of technology vendors for promoting short-range wireless networking, has announced a program to make it easier to find products that will let you listen to music wirelessly. The Bluetooth SIG recently launched the Experience Icon Program to guide and help consumers purchase interoperable products implementing Bluetooth wireless […]

Another research group is predicting a slow start for Microsoft’s Zune portable media player. According to Gartner, the Zune is unlikely to find much success during the 2006 holiday season. “Microsoft‚Äôs claimed differentiation for Zune is based on applying Web 2.0 community concepts to the music experience,” notes Gartner. “With the inclusion of an integrated […]

Microsoft announced today that it was ending sales of music from MSN Music, its 2-year old attempt to create an iTunes killer. While Microsoft officially plans to continue to support the PlaysForSure format, the company is eliminating Windows Media Format music downloads from its site and introducing a new format with the Zune media player. […]

Apple today announced the launch of iTunes Latino, a dedicated area within the US iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) featuring Latin music, music videos, television shows, audiobooks and podcasts. iTunes Latino offers hundreds of thousands of Latin and international music tracks, including exclusive tracks and albums available only on iTunes.‚ÄúLatin music has been a huge hit on […]

Apple‚Äôs new iPod shuffle, the world‚Äôs smallest digital music player, will be available in Apple‚Äôs retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers this Friday, November 3. Nearly half the size of the original, the new iPod shuffle is half a cubic inch in volume, weighs half an ounce and features a minimal aluminum design with a […]

Podcast Solutions, by Michael Geoghegan and Dan Klass, is a comprehensive introduction to podcasting. The book is bylined “The Complete Guide to Podcasting,” and does a good job of delivering on this promise. A powerhouse of podcasting talent is behind the book. The authors, Geoghegan and Klass, are podcasters that pioneered the production of podcasts […]

Potion Factory has released a beta release of Tangerine, an application designed to create playlists based on the BPM and beat intensity of the songs in your iTunes library. “We came up with the idea after I noticed that I was spending a good 30 minutes to come up with about 30 tracks for working […]

The Boston Symphony Orchestra has launched its BSO Online Podcast, now available on the orchestra’s website and as a podcast.The podcast focuses on the BSO’s two-year Beethoven-Schoenberg project ‚Äî with audio and video clips that include video documentaries about the composers’ lives and historical contexts, plus overviews and analysis of the music to be performed […]

Divvycast today announced free podcast hosting for bands and musicians. The free service offers 50 MB data storage and 5 GB per month bandwidth. The new free level joins Divvycast’s existing 3 subscription tiers, which start at $9.95 per month for 1GB data storage and 50GB per month bandwidth.