mp3

Did Steve Jobs help or hurt music?

Perhaps the question should be, "Did Steve Jobs help or hurt the sound of music?" He did not invent digital music or MP3 players, but that didn't stop him from redefining the way people buy and listen to music.

Then again, Napster was around before iPods and iTunes, and it allowed people to amass gigantic music collections at zero cost, which I don't see as something to be proud of. Having 10,000+ songs on an iPod is one thing, but do people ever really listen to all of that music? Record labels could not compete … Read more

Facebook bumps up privacy controls

The new iPhone may land on Sprint by mid-October, developers can start submitting apps for Windows Phone 7 "Mango" due out next month, and Facebook has announced new privacy controls.

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

SanDisk Sansa Clip Zip review: Short and sweet

The MP3 player will never die. You can show me your smartphones and your tablets and all of the dozens of ways we have now to listen to music, but there will always be a place in the world for a cheap, reliable MP3 player.

SanDisk's latest Sansa Clip Zip is proof of this point. Starting at just $49 (4GB) and decked out with an enviable array of audio format support (including AAC and FLAC), an FM radio, a voice recorder, a stopwatch, and a 1.1-inch color screen, the Clip Zip is destined to become the same kind … Read more

Media Converter for Android does it all

Media Converter for Android lets you convert images, videos, audio files, and more into just about any compatible format, from PDF to MP4 to you name it. It can even convert video files to MP3s.

Media Converter's interface is as straightforward as it gets. Just launch the app, then choose one of the converter options on the Home screen: Video Converter, Audio Converter, Image Converter, Document Converter, Ebook Converter, or Archive Converter. From there, browse for your file, choose your output format, hit Convert, and watch the magic happen. The app itself actually doesn't do much converting. What … Read more

EMI v. MP3tunes decision leaves much undecided

MP3tunes.com founder Michael Robertson claimed a victory yesterday in his copyright fight with record label EMI, even though Robertson could be forced to pay as much as $75 million to EMI in damages.

EMI also ballyhooed a triumph in the case, despite failing to convince the judge to bar MP3tunes from safe-harbor protection under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. EMI filed a copyright suit against MP3tunes in 2007, accusing that company and sister service Sideload.com of enabling users to search for copies of pirated music and then store them in MP3tunes' locker service.

The truth is that neither … Read more

New BlackBerry Curve arrives

RankMyHack.com lets hackers brag about their latest endeavors, the iPhone 5 is rumored to be a dual-mode device, and Research In Motion has released a new BlackBerry Curve.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Apple fixes bugs with iTunes 10.4.1 update

Apple has released an update to iTunes that addresses a number of bugs that have cropped up in the program since the original 10.4 release. The latest 10.4 release brought Lion-specific enhancements to the program, including full-screen capability, but early adopters of the latest version ran into a few problems with playback and the management of items in their media libraries. The iTunes 10.4.1 update released today addresses some of these issues.

According to the iTunes 10.4.1 download page, the latest version fixes the following problems:

Fixes a problem where the media keys on … Read more

Court says MP3tunes protected by DMCA

A federal judge has decided that MP3tunes, a music locker service accused in a lawsuit of enabling mass piracy, has protection under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. But the judge has also ruled that the company's founder, Michael Robertson, is personally liable for music he uploaded to the service without permission of copyright owners.

In a 29-page decision, U.S. District Judge William Pauley granted the summary motion filed by record company EMI on the two points.

Pauley, from U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, ruled that Robertson and MP3tunes.com are liable for … Read more

Windows compression utility made just for Mac

WinZip for Mac brings one of the oldest names in Windows compression utilities to the Mac, and we think they did it right. Featuring a clean Mac-like interface, WinZip for Mac lets you compress and secure your files for both sharing with others while keeping them away from prying eyes. Using a simple drag-and-drop interface, you can quickly add files to an archive, then compress them in the standard .ZIP format or create .ZIPX files--a format WinZip says is its smallest compression format to date. Both worked great on our test machines and the ability to password protect even just … Read more

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 blocked in Europe

Facebook releases a Messenger app for iPhone and Android, Anonymous threatens to shut down the social network, Amazon launches the Kindle Cloud Reader web app for e-books, and Wal-Mart shuts down its MP3 store.

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded: