beatles

Germany says nein! to Facebook spamming non-Facebook users. Also, Amazon gets a patent on the Barnes & Noble Nook dual-screen concept, and Netflix begins closing the window on when new movies are available for streaming. Special guest: Darren Kitchen of Hak5!

One of the great mysteries involving Apple Records, the music label created by the Beatles, is why the band's music is still not available online--legally.

Perhaps that could change as Apple Records has at least now for the first time made some of the label's catalog available for download. In partnership with EMI Music, Apple Records announced Tuesday that it is releasing 15 remastered albums that it will also make available for download on October 26.

Among the acts whose music is being released by Apple Records, the chief division of the Beatles' primary business entity, Apple Corps, … Read more

Maybe it's an American thing; we love big stuff. We equate size with quality, and think that exquisitely designed, silly, expensive products are always better than more affordable alternatives. Is the new iPod always better than last year's model? Then again, how do you define "better"?

A lot of audiophiles believe more watts, more power, higher digital sampling rates, higher resolution, heavier turntable platters, speakers with more drivers, bigger drivers, or more channels of sound will always produce better sound. It ain't necessarily so.

Don't get me wrong, I love high-end audio. But I … Read more

Christmas has come and gone, but it's not too late to think about giving yourself a post-holiday treat. And Olive is here to help. The company is offering a free copy of the Beatles Remastered CD collection to anyone who purchases an Olive 4 or Olive 4 HD digital music server. Yes, at $1,500 to $2,000, this is no impulse buy, but if you're in the market for a high-end digital music server, having the Beatles CDs (a $200 value) thrown in for free just might get you to take the plunge. (We liked the previous … Read more

A court has hit pause on the sale of Beatles tunes from the Web site BlueBeat.

Judge John Walter of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California late this week issued a temporary restraining order against BlueBeat after being petitioned Tuesday by the Capitol Records unit of music label EMI, which owns the Beatles' recordings.

The judge found BlueBeat's arguments "lacking in clarity" and wrote that the defendants failed to offer reliable evidence to support "their claim that they 'independently developed their own original sounds'."

As Matt Rosoff wrote this week … Read more

Apparently the Large Hadron Collider is doomed. It can't even survive a bread bombing by birds. The Droid arrived on the scene though, and people actually lined up. However tethering is gonna cost you on the thing. Are you still in love? And Gwen Stefani doesn't like you making her sing Honky Tonk Women.

Episode

Midnight Droid madness in Manhattan http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-10392128-266.html

Verizon Droid Tethering Will Cost You http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/181590/verizon_droid_tethering_will_cost_you.html … Read more

Last week, a music site called BlueBeat made headlines by offering Beatles songs as free streams and 25 cent downloads. The Beatles are known for not making their songs legally available on iTunes or any other online forum, so observers rightly asked "how are they doing this legally?"

EMI, the record label that owns The Beatles' recordings, has a simple response: they're not doing this legally. But here's where the story gets very strange.

BlueBeat is owned by a company called Media Rights Technologies, which specializes in digital rights management technology. DRM is supposed to be … Read more

If you're a fan of A) music, B) The Beatles, C) Rock Band, or D) looking silly (I kid, I kid), you've no doubt had your eye on the recently released Beatles Rock Band bundle.

It normally sells for $159.99, but Amazon is offering The Beatles: Rock Band Value Edition for $99.99 shipped. It's available for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii.

The bundle includes the game itself, natch, along with three "instruments": guitar, drum set, and microphone. You can optionally add two more microphones and sing three-part harmonies, which sounds pretty cool.… Read more

Leaks from the secret negotiations of the ACTA treaty allege that ISPs worldwide would be required to lose safe-harbor protections, implement three-strike antipiracy policies, and worse. We think this is outrageous. AT&T thinks Verizon is outrageous because of its commercials and so is taking Verizon to court. Also, EMI finally got around to suing BlueBeat.com for selling Beatles tracks online. But you can buy a Beatles USB stick for $280. So, you've got that going for you.

AT&… Read more