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21 Jan 2010

Ever since Apple acquired music streaming service Lala in early December of last year, speculation has been flying surrounding exactly how Steve Jobs and company would incorporate the new assets into its wildly popular iTunes music service.

Early signs pointed to the cloud, and how Lala’s unique “upload your own music collection” feature could be leveraged to make users’ tunes centrally located online and available from theoretically anywhere. Recent reports from CNet back up that idea with a few new potential details: Apple is supposedly talking with the top four major labels about offering a free streaming music service to consumers.

According to sources, Apple executives have discussed a cloud-based service where users could upload their music libraries to Apple servers. That music could then be streamed anywhere, to any internet-connected device — potentially at no additional cost to consumers. The streaming service is being positioned as a “value add” that would boost further download sales instead of cannibalizing them.

What’s still up in the air is the legal repercussion of launching such a streaming service without renegotiating terms or reaching specific agreements with the labels. A similar precedent-setting case filed by EMI against streaming-music service MP3tunes won’t be decided until later this year, leaving the legal area very gray should Apple decide to move forward without officially renegotiating licensing agreements.

Still, they’ve apparently approached the labels ostensibly to obtain their blessing. Whether that blessing is given, and whether or not Apple has the clout to go ahead with the service without it, remains to be seen. We may find out more next Wednesday at Apple’s special event, which is shaping up to be truly action-packed.

Would you want to send your music into the cloud?

Tags: apple, cloud computing, itunes, Lala, major labels, music, riaa, streaming

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Tags: Apple, apple executives, apple servers, Cloud, free streaming music, labels music, Lala, Music, service, steve jobs, streaming service, year

Boston Logan Airport Offering Free WiFi

In: web resources

21 Jan 2010

The Massachusetts Port Authority Board has voted to allow free WiFi for travelers at the Boston Logan International Airport.

"One of the most frequently asked questions from our customers is: ‘Why don’t you have free WiFi at Logan?’ said Thomas J. Kinton Jr., CEO & Executive Director of Massport. "Well, we are pleased to be able to now say ‘We do!’ "

Boston-Logan

A secure WiFi system was installed through out the airport six years ago at a cost of several million dollars. The charge of $7.95 for the service allowed the investment to be recovered. For the next two years, Massport will continue its partnership with service provider, Advanced Wireless Group, and the free WiFi will be supported by advertising and sponsorship programs.

During the two month period when free WiFi was available as part of a Google sponsorship, use of the network increased nearly six-fold. Users who did not subscribe to a roaming service viewed a Google promotional page be fore accessing the Internet. Under the new system, roaming subscribers will get access and those using the free service will view advertising before accessing the Internet.

Related Articles:

>Google And Virgin America To Offer Free WiFi During The Holidays

>American Expands In-Flight Internet Service

>Google Offering Free Wi-Fi In Airports During The Holidays

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Panoramio “Very Comfortable At Google,” Co-Founder Says On Way Out The Door

In: web resources

21 Jan 2010

Screen shot 2010-01-20 at 1.23.37 PM Google has an unfortunate history of buying companies — and then running them into the ground. Sometimes, this leads to a bit of ill-will between the Internet giant and the companies’ founders. We saw a perfect example of this when Dodgeball’s founders (including current Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley) quit Google in a huff. Today, the co-founder of another acquisition, Panoramio, is out as well, but he insists the company is happy under Google.

In a post today on the Panoramio blog, co-founder Eduardo Manchón, says that after four and a half years working on the service, it’s time to leave. Google acquired Panoramio in mid-2007 and Manchón has been there ever since, running the service. He notes that, “Acquisitions can be complicated, and the private nightmare of a founder is the site not surviving the process, but after some time Panoramio feels very comfortable at Google.”

Panoramio has certainly gained a lot of exposure thanks to Google. It’s heavily featured not only in Google Earth, but also in Google Maps. The service claims to have over 20 million high quality photos in Google’s databases, which makes it much smaller than Flickr, Facebook, or even Google’s own Picasa, but the difference is that all Panoramio photos are geolocated, which makes them very useful for Google’s mapping projects. Under Google, the Panoramio photo collection has growth from about 2 million to this 20 million number.

Manchón’s exit seems to more closely mirror that of Jyri Engeström, the co-founder of Jaiku, who left Google last October. Even though Jaiku was another service Google managed to run into the ground, Engeström claimed that he enjoyed his time at Google but simply wanted to make new meaningful products. This is similar to Manchón’s stated reason for leaving, which is to join the “new hyperlocal Q&A site Askaro.com,” he writes to us.

Another Googler, Gerard Sanz, formerly of the Blogger team, will take over running the Panoramio community.