labels

With the iTunes' banner waving supremely over the digital music landscape, Google continues to build its own music service, CNET has learned.

According to multiple music industry sources, Google could launch a music service that offers song downloads and streaming music as early as this fall.

Google has already signaled that it wishes to give users of phones equipped with Google's Android operating system a better music offering. At Google's I/O conference last month, the search engine offered attendees a demonstration of a Web-based iTunes competitor. Also TechCrunch reported two weeks ago that it discovered a "… Read more

The music industry wants a federal court to order Lime Wire managers to stop streaming advertisements and collecting ad revenue, and to cease offering software upgrades, according to court documents.

U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood could deliver a knockout blow to Lime Wire on Monday morning if she agrees to grant the music industry's request--filed with the court on Friday--for a permanent injunction against the controversial file-sharing service. The top record companies accused LimeWire violating copyright law in a complaint filed August 2006.

Bleak is the only way to describe Lime Wire's future after Wood … Read more

Digital music has not been altogether kind to Robin Kent.

Kent was once CEO and chairman of mighty ad agency Universal McCann, but since jumping to digital music, he has had the misfortune of working for one start-up that went bust (SpiralFrog) and another that has done little more than attract controversy (Qtrax). Kent is now walking away from the sector.

On Tuesday, Kent notified associates that after three years working almost exclusively for Qtrax, he will no longer provide consulting services to the much maligned legal peer-to-peer company, which is only available in a few overseas markets. Qtrax has … Read more

Options abound for those of us too lazy to go to the store who like to take a more active role in what we wear. I wrote about ShirtsMyWay awhile back, and recently, the folks at Blank Label asked me to give their site a look-see as well.

The process is much like that of ShirtsMyWay, where you design your own shirt by picking out fabric, styles, details--the whole nine yards. And while both sites look nice, Blank Label gives off a more youthful, edgy vibe; this is neither better nor worse. In fact, I kinda dig it because depending … Read more

Once again, it looks as if the recording industry is standing square in the way of giving users what they want: access to their digital-music collections from any device in any location.

Earlier on Friday, a notice appeared on Lala, announcing that the service would be shut down on May 31. Apple acquired Lala in late 2009, and a lot of folks have speculated that Apple would launch its own version of Lala's online-music locker service, which enables users to upload their music collections to Lala's servers, then stream those songs to any Internet-connected device.

(Technically, users don'… Read more

To ring the closing bell on our spring 2010 roundup of retail laptops, we're taking a look some high-end laptops you'll find on store shelves. These are a relative rarity, as brick-and-mortar outlets such as Best Buy tend to focus on Netbooks and budget systems, leaving little room for more expensive products.

But if you're ready to drop $1,000 or more on a laptop, and want that hands-on instant gratification you get from buying retail, there are a few options to consider. Not surprisingly, we were generally pleased with all the laptops in this price category. They offered appropriate high-end components and features for their high-end prices, with Blu-ray drives and gamer-friendly graphics cards (but not in every system).

Our overall favorite was the The Sony Vaio VPCF115FM/B, which packs in Blu-ray, decent graphics, a 1080p screen, and a superpowerful Intel Core i7 processor, all for $1,349.

The Dell Adamo XPSis a notable outlier, as its one of only a handful of $2,000 laptops we can even think of anymore. It deserves serious credit for taking some major design risks, and it is certainly a cool conversation piece, but poor battery life keeps it from being a great on-the-go laptop.

Note: For our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges, check here.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more

To bring you our spring 2010 roundup of retail laptops, we've been testing and reviewing boxed versions of popular PCs--from entry-level systems starting at $329 to massive $2,000 gaming monsters. These are very much like the laptops you'd configure and buy online from Dell or HP, but these models are fixed configurations, have slightly different names, and are often a better deal compared to building the same system online.

In the "Mainstream" category, covering laptops from $600-$999, we found a lot of variety. While there were a couple of clunkers in this group, mostly because they charged mainstream prices for budget components, we were please to find a couple of real winners as well.

In the end, we couldn't pick a single favorite, so instead we have dual recommendations. The Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904is a sequel to one of our favorite laptops from last year, the Toshiba E105. As part of Best Buy's Blue Label program, it's a custom model that is one of the first notebook computers to include Intel's Wireless Display technology.

We also quite liked the Samsung R580, which packed in a high-end CPU, discrete graphics, and a Blu-ray drive, all for under $900.

Note: For our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges, check here.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek last week offered crowds at a tech conference in Los Angeles a glowing report about launching an ad-supported music service in the U.S.

Ek, who founded the site that has wowed Europe and ignited huge anticipation in the U.S., told the audience the launch was "looking pretty good." He told Billboard later that Spotify's preparations were "in the final stages." Well, Daniel Ek meet Edgar Bronfman Jr.

Bronfman, CEO of Warner Music Group, one of the four largest record companies, doesn't appear to be bullish on the idea … Read more

Spotify, the already much-buzzed about European music service, has seen speculation about an impending U.S. launch cranked up to such high levels that it's hard to separate fact from fiction.

On Tuesday, Billboard's Glenn Peoples landed an interview with Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and asked him when the popular service will finally land in the United States. This is what he said: "We're in the final stages of setting up. Yesterday we signed a data center contract, which is huge for us...So, we're gearing up for a U.S. launch. I can't … Read more