Digital Zone with Patrick Wiscombe

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-------------------- TOPICS FOR FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2008 --------------------

In this edition of the Digital Zone, we talked about:

• Zune 3.0 released
• Zune song tagging
• Nokia's "music included" cell phone
• Western Digital releases their 400 and 500 GB harddrives
• Teen and cell phone status
• Bust Buy acquires Napster
• Watch movies and TV shows on IMDB.com for free
• U.S. International Trade Commission looking at Nintendo's Wii for patent violations
• The personal Yahoo e-mail account of Gov. Sarah Palin was hacked
• Two million Google Chrome downloads
• Google's first Android OS phone to cost $199
• Google continues to pull away in the search market wars
• Cablevision says ditch your DVR

-------------------START OF PODCAST TRANSCRIPT--------------------

Todd Carlson: (Announcer) Feeding your technology addiction. This is the Digital Zone, your daily podcast about the technology news and information shaping your life, heard on the home for all things technology - DigitalZone.us. And now, here's the host of the Digital Zone, Patrick Wiscombe.

Patrick Wiscombe: (Digital Zone Podcast Host) It's the Digital Zone for Friday, September 19, 2008. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you for tuning us in taking us along wherever you're listening today. Coming up on today's edition of the Digital Zone, song tagging comes to the Zune, Best Buy acquires Napster, CableVision says you should ditch your DVR for their new service, and a 4 and a half minute Bill Gates / Jerry Seinfeld commercial is realeased. Those are four of the stories we'll be talking about in the next few minutes right here on the Digital Zone. Joining me for the podcast is Brad Baird, the really smart tech guy. It's good to have you here. Let' get to our first story.

Nokia's first phone with free access to music is scheduled to go on sale on October 17. The package will differ from other bundles on the market because users can keep all the music they've downloaded during the 12 month subscription period.

Western Digital said that it began shipping 400 and 500 Gbyte hard drives for notebook computers. The company said it was offering the drives for a substantial discount: $219 for the 500-Gbyte Scorpio Blue model, versus the $299 Samsung price when it released its SpinPoint MP2 in June. The 400-Gbyte Scorpio Blue drive is priced at $189.99. The new Scorpio Blue drives are standard form-factor drives.

Cellcom launched a new advertising model in Israel which lets subscribers accumulate free cell air time in exchange for watching commercials. Cellcom, Israel's largest mobile phone operator, will award customers up to 45 minutes per month of free air time for watching the commercials. At the end, viewers will have to answer one or two advertiser questions to prove they paid attention. Coca-Cola, Nokia and Sony have already signed contracts to advertise.

PROMOTION CODE - DIGITAL: Before we continue, let me take a minute to thank the sponsor of the Digital Zone podcast, Cliphanger.com. If you've never seen a Cliphanger, please take a moment right now to visit their website to watch a 45 second sales video about this cool little gadget which is perfect for cell phones, PDAs, iPods, and MP3 players. If you decide to purchase a Cliphanger, you get 10% off your order but YOU HAVE TO USE promotion code DIGITAL as you're checking out to receive the discount. The promotion code field is at the bottom of the Cliphanger.com checkout page. Please check them out, Cliphanger.com. Now, let's get back to the tech news.

Cell phones have become almost as important to American teens as the clothes they wear, according to a nationwide survey of teenagers. The wireless trade association CTIA and Harris Interactive surveyed some 2,000 teens across the country and learned that teens feel that cell phones have become a vital part of their identities. They also believe that behind clothing, they can gauge a peer's popularity or status by the phone he or she uses. About four out of every five teens carry a cell phone. And almost half of the teens surveyed say that having a cell phone is "key" to their social lives. According to the survey, about 28 percent of all teens and 34 percent of kids 13 to 15 years old said that having the latest cool cell phone is "absolutely essential," and that the social pressure to have a "cool" phone is intense. Teens agreed that Apple's iPhone is the coolest phone on the market. But none of them owned one, largely because the devices are too expensive and so is the monthly service fee from AT&T. Consistent with the findings of the survey, the teens said they text message as much or more than they talk on the phone and 42 percent of those surveyed say they could text blindfolded. About a third of teens surveyed say they regularly play games on their phones and about 20 percent of them use their phones for social networking. The teens on the panel said they would be more willing to play games or surf the mobile Web if it was free. About 59 percent of teens surveyed said they would be willing to provide personal information to wireless operators to receive targeted text messages and roughly 40 percent of teens said they don't mind watching advertising if cell phone service is free. However, there are some services they don't like. Roughly 36 percent of teens said they don't like the buddy tracking features that reveals their physical location to others and they complained about poor battery life. They said they want their phones to be water and shockproof, made of flexible materials that can bend, and have artificial intelligence that will provide answers to questions.

Best Buy announced that it will acquire Napster for $121 million. The company will acquire 700,000 music subscribers, a Web-based customer-service system, and various mobile music delivery options.

The U.S. International Trade Commission has agreed to look into Hillcrest Laboratories' allegations that Nintendo infringed Hillcrest's patents in making its popular Wii video game console. Hillcrest has accused Nintendo of infringing four patents including the motion-detecting technology allowing users to select items on a screen by waving a handheld device.

Microsoft has just launched free software to convert every Zune player in the company's current product lineup -- including a new device with 120GB of storage capacity -- into a wireless-savvy music machine.
During Zune's initial design, Microsoft engineers created a platform that can be updated through the release of software upgrades. Users equipped with the Zune 3.0 software update can download music directly to their players, either over a home wireless network or through Wi-Fi hotspots at more than 9,800 McDonald's restaurants in the U.S. Zune users will be able to purchase the popular tunes played by their favorite FM radio stations. Microsoft intends to introduce a new "channels" feature that they describe as a hybrid between a playlist and a podcast, to which users can subscribe. The Billboard Top 100 chart, Fader magazine, KROQ in Los Angeles, and KEXP in Seattle are just a few of the brand-name offerings expected to be on tap. Microsoft's Zune 3.0 software release matches data already embedded within the signals of many FM radio stations -- called RDS and RT+ feeds -- with the four million songs available from the Zune Marketplace. Users simply click on any song they hear to instantly tag and purchase it. The Zune player lineup ranges from an entry-level device with 4GB of storage to a new model featuring a 120GB hard drive, which Microsoft says is capable of storing up to 30,000 songs, 25,000 pictures, or a 375 hours of video. Zune 3.0 also integrates a new social-networking capability that automatically relays the user's most up-to-date personal playlist to designated friends whenever the player is within range of a compatible wireless network. Playlists called "instant collections" enable users to more easily explore specific music themes and genres, or even choose from a list of available audiobooks. The Marketplace tab on the player's menu screen instantly connects users to top songs and recommendations from the Zune editorial staff.

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Amazon.com said that its subsidiary, Internet Movie Database, would allow users to watch feature films and TV shows for no charge on its website, imdb.com. Over 6,000 titles will be available and IMDB also said that the first episodes of new fall television shows like "Lipstick Jungle" and "30 Rock" will be available for free viewing before their first air date.

The personal e-mail account of Gov. Sarah Palin was hacked this week by an activist group known as 'anonymous', according to a Web site that publishes leaked documents alleging government and corporate misconduct. Anonymous gained access to Palin's Yahoo e-mail address this past Tuesday and gave the information to Wikileaks. Data shared included screen shots of Palin's inbox, two e-mails, her address book and several family photos. Though the Yahoo account has been deleted, Wikileaks has made the data available on its Web site via zip files.

Two million people in the United States downloaded Google's new Chrome Web browser in its first week of availability according to Nielsen Online. Nielsen, which bases its statistics on the behavior of a panel of Internet users, said that from September 1 to September 7, 1.93 million people visited the Google "Thank You" page associated with the download process, that's nearly 1.4 percent of all U.S. Internet users. This past Tuesday, the company began a program to let people get the latest Chrome updates.

The first mobile phone to use Google's Android mobile operating software will cost $199. The phone, which features a slide-out keypad, is being manufactured by HTC and will be sold by T-Mobile USA and will debut the device at an event in New York on September 23. T-Mobile USA plans to release new data service plans in conjunction with the Google phone that will be "aggressively priced."

Google extended it's lead to 63% in the U.S. Web search market in August, its biggest monthly gain in five months. Yahoo, the No. 2 player in the market saw its share of the business drop almost one percent to 19.6% from July while Microsoft, the No. 3 U.S. player, slipped 0.6 percent to 8.3 percent, according to comScore Inc. ComScore estimates that the number of searches performed by U.S. Web surfers on the five top search engines was virtually unchanged at 11.75 billion searches compared with July. The figure excludes searches users perform for mapping, local directory information or user-generated videos. Ask.com grew 0.3 percent to retain its fourth-place ranking while AOL edged up 0.1 percent to 4.3 percent

Cablevision plans to roll out a system in early 2009 that will let viewers record any show without a DVR, only a digital set-top box. Shows will be stored on Cablevision's servers instead of a home DVR. Subscribers will have to initiate the recording of shows, not Cablevision; and the stored programs will have to be unique to each viewer and not set aside for all subscribers. Subscribers will start out with 160 gigabytes of storage, about what a standard DVR has, and fees likely will like run about 9.95 a month. Consumers who sign up for the recording service won't have to wait for an installer to hook up a new box. Instead, their TVS will display a new DVR screen where they can choose programs to record and play using a new remote provided by Cablevision. Subscribers can store their shows on network servers as long as they want. Once the 160 gigabyte capacity is reached, the network DVR will automatically record over older shows.

Well, that's going to do it for today's Digital Zone. Before we take off, remember to use the promotion code DIGITAL when you order any of the products on Cliphanger.com and if you're headed to Disneyland, use promotion code CASTLE when you book your vacation on the GetAwayToday.com website. Thank you for listening everybody and we'll talk to you next Friday.

Todd Carlson: (Announcer) Delivering the technology news and information you need to hear directly to your iPod and MP3 player, this has been the Digital Zone with your host Patrick Wiscombe heard each weekday afternoon on the home for technology news and information - DigitalZone.us.

--------------------END OF PODCAST TRANSCRIPT--------------------