Sony has spent the last three years restructuring the company and today releases its big plans for growth. Apparently, the next big thing is electronics products that connect to each other and the Internet and stuff. You know, downloading movies onto a game console or syncing your music with a music player. Wow, I can’t wait for all that kind of technology to come out.

We here at TechConsumer have been pretty harsh on Sony, but it feels like the company has been playing catch up for a long time. And even in areas where it was once the innovator, it now sucks. (Here’s a site that rates the best “CD Players / Recorders,” and Sony is at the bottom of the list.)

Now seems like as good a time as any to recap some of Sony’s blunders for just the past year (we wouldn’t want this post to get too long):

Sony Charges $50 Extra to Sell You Laptop with No Crapware

“But apparently Sony figured out that if 70% of its customers aren’t interested in two dozen icons of offers (really Sony, 3 to 4 is one thing, but over 20?), the company should offer a crapware-free version of its laptops. Sony, in all its branding glory, has decided to trademark the term “Fresh Start” but has made the huge mistake of charging $50 for it.”

Sony DVD Player + Sony Movies = Won’t Play

“Does Sony really think that it is acceptable to produce DVDs that don’t even play in your own company’s players, nevermind players by top manufacturers such as JVC, Mitsubishi, Pioneer, RCA, Samsung, or Toshiba?”

Sony Thinks Blu-ray Will Sell Like DVD by End of 2008

“While the vast majority of Blu-ray players out there are the ones built-in to the Playstation 3, Sony has plans for cheaper Blu-ray players including a new focus on “IT devices.” (Because we all would adopt Blu-ray if only our computers had it, apparently). Last but not least on the list of reasons, more Blu-ray movies will be offered by Hollywood studios to entice you into switching to the new format.”

The $100 PS3 Game: Gran Turismo 5

“When Sony announced that Gran Turismo 5 Prologue would be available for $40 in April, I couldn’t help but have a knee-jerk reaction. How could Sony get away with charging $40 for GT5 Reduced Lite Junior Prologue when the full version would sell for only $20 more? Here’s how, the word is out today that the full blown version of Gran Turismo won’t be out for another year! Is this a new business model for delayed games or just Sony trying to satiate the rabid Gran Turismo fans?”

Blu-ray in the News: High Prices & No Microsoft Love

“Since Blu-ray became the next generation movie disc format of choice, the consumer supposedly has been better off. But Tom’s Hardware claims that prices of Blu-ray players are higher than ever and that now, in fact, is the worst time to buy.”

Paul’s Soapbox: DRM, 3G, Playstation Home

“For those not familiar with Playstation Home (also referred to as just Home), it is Sony’s total copy interpretation of Second Life The Sims Online a virtual world. It was originally announced in March 2007 and scheduled to come out in open beta in August 2007 and public release in October 2007. Later they promised a ‘Spring 2008′ delivery, only to announce in Spring 2008 that it would be coming out in Fall 2008.”

Feel free to add to this list by leaving a comment below.

Note: This article is cross-posted at BobCaswell.com.

Sony LCD TVs Sony Plasma TVs

Paul’s Soapbox is a regular feature of TechConsumer where I sound off on various tech topics/products that I’m interested in (or hate). This is just my $.02, so consider yourself warned. This week’s subjects are all over the place: DRM, “3G” Wireless, and Playstation Home.

First award winner goes to DRM (digital restrictions rights management) for “How not to create a sustainable business model.” I don’t know how many of you consumers out there saw this, but Microsoft has decided to turn off the DRM services for the MSN Music Store. This means that anyone who bought leased music from MSN is effectively screwed. The music will still play on the machines they have authorized already, but when the computer stops, so will the music. And just like musical chairs, anyone who paid for that music will be left without a chair.

Now you may be saying to yourself, “Well who bought music from MSN? I want to know who these two people are.” But this has already happened with Google Video, Major League Baseball, MTV URGE, AOL Music Now, and Virgin Music Club. Somehow the mainstream technology media isn’t quite catching on to the realities of DRM. I don’t think that there is a sustainable business model for music ownership that includes DRM. Music subscription services are an exception because they don’t ever act like you own anything. Maybe that’s why I get my digital music elsewhere.

If DRM was the winner of the anti-business model, so-called 3G wireless service is the runner up. ComputerWorld recently reported on 3G data networks and while most of the review is generally positive there was one thing that stood out to me. AT&T and Verizon both cap their services at 5GB of data received per month, and word is Sprint will be following suit (they are actually capping it at 300MB if you are roaming!). At first 5GB might seem like a lot of data, but when you break it down that is not the case.

If a business user were to use the 3G service for 8 hours a day only on weekdays, they could average only 29MB per hour of data without going over. Considering that the TechCrunch homepage is 1.8MB by itself or about 1/16 of the hourly quota for a business user. Or put another way, your connection can only average 8KB/sec or you’ll go over. That is for only 20 days a month, for only 8 hours of the day. Heaven forbid someone used it everyday because then that is only 169MB for the whole day!

Last but not least is Playstation Home, which is soon to join Duke Nukem Forever as the world’s most famous vaporware (yes, I’ve heard some people have actually seen it, supposedly). For those not familiar with Playstation Home (also referred to as just Home), it is Sony’s total copy interpretation of Second Life The Sims Online a virtual world. It was originally announced in March 2007 and scheduled to come out in open beta in August 2007 and public release in October 2007.

Now I’m not really good at math yes I am but August is only five months after March, and we are now about fifteen months past that date, and there still hasn’t been a public beta. Later they promised a “Spring 2008″ delivery, only to announce in Spring 2008 that it would be coming out in Fall 2008. I don’t know if there is a solution to this problem for Sony other than to ship Home sooner rather than later, but you have to wonder what they were thinking when they made the announcement(s) about Home’s development timeframe. Any takers on it actually coming out in Fall 2008? Much less whether it will have been worth the wait?

The really amazing thing is, through all of the troubles the PS3 has gone through (and it really couldn’t be much worse) it is still a system people will consider buying. Talk about a powerful brand.

Note: This article is cross-posted at PseudoSavant.

Sony CEO Ryoji Chubachi knows something we don’t. At a press conference a few days ago, he pointed out Sony’s plan to increase Blu-ray market share to 50% by the end of the year. How is this possible you might ask? Well, apparently new Blu-ray devices to be offered by Sony will include a model integrated into an HD LCD TV with Blu-ray recording functionality.

But that’s not all. While the vast majority of Blu-ray players out there are the ones built-in to the Playstation 3, Sony has plans for cheaper Blu-ray players including a new focus on “IT devices.” (Because we all would adopt Blu-ray if only our computers had it, apparently). Last but not least on the list of reasons, more Blu-ray movies will be offered by Hollywood studios to entice you into switching to the new format.

All of this may very will be true, but none of it has happened yet. The Playstation 3 is still the best deal for anyone interested in Blu-ray. And that’s because you get a gaming system along with your Blu-ray player for the $400 you’ll be spending. Otherwise, your Blu-ray player options still seem to be well into the $400 price range.

And let’s not forget the cost of the movies themselves. HD DVD movies now are finally reasonably priced only after the format is pretty much dead. But Blu-ray? Does Sony really think that $27.95 is the new price for movies?

Plus, we’re seeing some serious momentum behind the move toward downloadable/streaming content. All things considered, though, I think the biggest challenge for Sony is that people seem just fine with good ol’ DVD. Sure, I could see this changing but only if the premium for Blu-ray (over regular DVD) was, say, 20-50%. I personally think 400%+ is a bit much.

*Update* Gizmodo has the news of a new Sony Blu-ray recorder release. I think the first comment is very telling:

“So now that Blu Ray won, we’re supposed to all run out and stock up on Sony products we never wanted in the first place? No thanks.”

                                                    
When Sony announced that Gran Turismo 5 Prologue would be available for $40 in April, I couldn’t help but have a knee-jerk reaction. How could Sony get away with charging $40 for GT5 Reduced Lite Junior Prologue when the full version would sell for only $20 more? Here’s how, the word is out today that the full blown version of Gran Turismo won’t be out for another year! Is this a new business model for delayed games or just Sony trying to satiate the rabid Gran Turismo fans?

Gran Turismo is arguably the most popular/prolific console racing series ever, and certainly one of the Playstation 3’s key exclusive titles (second only to Metal Gear IMO). Apparently, even Sony can’t get their key exclusive games out the door in any sort of timely fashion for the PS3. By the time the “real” GT5 comes out, the PS3 will have already been out for two and a half years! That means that there will have been a four year span between the release of GT4 and GT5.

To put that in perspective against another big console exclusive, look at Halo. Each version only had three years or less after the preceding one, and Halo 1 was even a launch title. Although, how well would have a Halo 3 Lite have done? Probably really well, unfortunately. This could lead to more developers with deadline problems releasing partial versions of their game and then the full version only a year later, as they’ll just cash in for a total of $100 instead of $60 without hardly any extra work.

This isn’t the first time the Gran Turismo series has seen a gimped Prologue version however; the fourth installment had one too, and it came about four years after GT3. So I don’t know how much can really be attributed to the much talked about development difficulties on the PS3. Perhaps Polyphony Digital (the developer) just can’t get their product out the door in general.

All I know is that this can’t be a welcomed trend for gamers. Let’s hope that the GT5 Prologue owners don’t get stuck paying full price for what will essentially be a car and track pack.

What are your thoughts on this? Would you rather have only the complete fully polished game less frequently, or would you prefer getting games in installments (ala GT5 or even Half-Life 2 style)?

Note: This article is cross-posted at PseudoSavant.

Related Link:  Gran Turismo 5

Sony and crapware have a special relationship, so much so that it takes over two minutes for its laptops to boot into Windows (compare that with 30 seconds for a MacBook). The company has even issued press statements explaining its reasoning: “The programs are carefully selected and provide benefits to many consumers, up to 30% of whom act on the offers.”

But apparently Sony figured out that if 70% of its customers aren’t interested in two dozen icons of offers (really Sony, 3 to 4 is one thing, but over 20?), the company should offer a crapware-free version of its laptops. Sony, in all its branding glory, has decided to trademark the term “Fresh Start” but has made the huge mistake of charging $50 for it. Here’s the description:

“Opt for a Fresh Start^TM and your VAIO PC will undergo a system optimization service where specific VAIO applications, trial software and games are removed from your unit prior to shipment. Fresh Start^TM safely scrubs your PC to free up valuable hard drive space and conserve memory and processing power while maximizing overall system performance right from the start. “

I love the terminology. “System optimization service” is what we’re calling a computer that comes without crapware. And by characterizing hard drive space as “valuable” and memory in need of conservation, Sony is effectively digging its own grave. I mean, do they not see that consumers notice this? If this new $50 feature “maximizes system performance,” then what does that imply of all the Sony laptops sold before it?

Also, it should be noted that no “Fresh Start” is available unless you pay the extra $100 for Microsoft Windows Vista Business. Here’s a list of all the crapware Sony installs:

• Two desktop icons for America Online services
• At least two dozen icons for random offers
• Two desktop icons for Microsoft services
• Napster window in the lower right part of the screen
• “Watch Hit Movies Now!” icon which requires you to pay to play the movies already taking up space on your computer
• Internet Explorer preloaded with AOL toolbar
• AOL set as default search engine with Google not even listed as an option
• Symantec Internet Security 60-day trial (requires multiple rounds of warnings / scans / updates before use)

*Update* Wired is running a piece claiming that Sony “won’t charge $50 to remove bloatware.” They even have quotes from Sony spokespeople: “There will be no charge for Fresh Start.” Well, I just went to Sony’s website to verify this news and… surprise, surprise, the charge of $50 is still there. Maybe it’ll change soon, but Sony PR and Sony Online apparently need to talk first.

*Update 2* Gizmodo has a brief post that pulls a Sony quote of nowhere: “Starting March 22, Sony will offer Fresh Start free of charge. We want VAIO users to have the best experience possible with our PCs, and we believe Fresh Start will help ensure that happens right out-of-the-box.”

It looks like the consumer uprising today may have had an effect. Here’s another quote, this one from Sony’s Mike Abary, Senior Vice President of the VAIO division:

“We didn’t intend that to happen. We’re removing the $49 charge. VAIO is the poster child for negative experiences people had [with trialware]. We recognize that, and we acknowledge it. We’ve been really beat up by this issue. We’re listening and we’re taking action.”

Note: This article is cross-posted at BobCaswell.com.

Since Blu-ray became the next generation movie disc format of choice, the consumer supposedly has been better off. But Tom’s Hardware claims that prices of Blu-ray players are higher than ever and that now, in fact, is the worst time to buy.

Interesting. I’ve been tracking Blu-ray vs. HD DVD player pricing for the past year via Amazon and hadn’t noticed any recent increases. As of today, the Blu-ray players on Amazon are priced in the same range they’ve always been: the mid to high $300’s. Right now the cheapest Blu-ray player on Amazon is this Samsung for $357. I’ve seen it $20 cheaper, but I’ve also seen it more expensive.

The truth is, of course, that until Blu-ray players fall well below $300 (which I haven’t seen on Amazon), there’s no point in buying anything but the Sony Playstation 3. It’s $400 and has Blu-ray included. And HD DVD players are now the same price as upconvert DVD players. Amazon has this HD DVD player for $79 (via the TigerDirect link on the right).

Meanwhile, Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360, today seemed to squash any rumors of Microsoft working on a Blu-ray add-on for the Xbox 360:

“Xbox is not currently in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience… We’re the only console offering digital distribution of entertainment content.”

So there you have it. Since Blu-ray won the next gen movie disc war: Blu-ray prices aren’t coming down, HD DVD players are the new upconvert DVD, and digital distribution seems to be where Microsoft is headed. More coverage and opinions via Techmeme.

For anyone keeping score since Blu-ray won the next generation movie battle, HD DVD players are now $99. And that’s with 7 movies included. Considering these players also work well as upconvert DVD players (DVD players that convert and play regular DVDs at a slightly higher picture quality), in some ways, it’s actually the best deal on the market if you’re looking for a good DVD player.

If you value the 7 movies included (incidentally, most regular DVD players don’t come with free movies like this) at the discounted price of $10 per movie, then you’re effectively getting a nice DVD player for about $30. Retailer Play.com is using similar logic, as it relabeled all its HD DVD players for sale as upconvert DVD players (but Play’s deal isn’t nearly as good as Amazon’s).

And remember that Blu-ray players are well into the $300 price range. The best deal available is really the Playstation 3 for around $400; you may as well get a gaming console if you’re already willing to spend over $300 for the next generation of movies. I agree with Saul Hansell who writes for the NYTimes blog BITS:

“I suspect Sony’s Blu-ray will have a hard time for a few years, but not because of downloading… The competition for Blu-ray players is the latest generation of DVD players that can generate a high-definition picture from a standard-definition disc.”

*Update* There’s a rumor floating around that the Xbox 360 HD DVD player will be dropping to $49. It currently includes 6 movies with purchase (until the end of February 2008).

Toshiba today announced that, “it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders.” March 2008 will be the month when the plug is pulled. Just in the last month, we’ve seen Warner Brothers become the latest Hollywood studio to go for Blu-ray while both Blockbuster and Netflix announced plans to phase out HD DVD.

And let’s not forget Wal-Mart’s announcment of “Blu-ray only” plus Best Buy saying Blu-ray is the “preferred” format. Despite some analysts thinking this war could have gone on for another year, Toshiba was quick to cut its losses and move on. It’s just as well; the format war wasn’t doing consumers any favors. But who do we talk to in order to get Sony to move Blu-ray down to a reasonable price?

Last I checked, Amazon is selling an HD DVD player with 7 movies for a record low of $109 (that’s close to the same price as many “upconvert” regular DVD players but with free movies). Although, that kind of pricing isn’t likely to matter much anymore; prepare to spend big on the next generation of movies. Blu-ray players are still 3x the price of HD DVD. All of them listed on Amazon are well into the $300’s or higher.

See below for Toshiba’s press release:

Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses

19 February, 2008

Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content

TOKYO–Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ‘next-generation format war’ and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. “While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

This decision will not impact on Toshiba’s commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.

Paul’s Soapbox is going to be a new regular feature of TechConsumer where I sound off on various tech topics/products that I’m interested in (or hate). This is just my $.02, so consider yourself warned. This week’s subjects? Two of my favorite companies to hate: Apple and Sony.

What the hell is up with Apple and their fetish for making products that don’t have user-replaceable batteries? It was bad enough with the iPod, (even if it isn’t quite the only MP3 player in that category) but then they added the iPhone to the list, and now the MacBook Air (my vote for the worst product name since Microsoft Bob). I really can’t understand how it is acceptable to have to send in your cell phone or laptop every year or two (according to Apple) just to have a battery replaced. Did I mention that they’ll rent an iPhone to you while yours is in the shop?

How many iPods have been thrown away and replaced by new models because the battery died and it wasn’t worth the $66 investment in an old iPod. That’s great for the environment. And can someone tell me why it costs $20 more for an iPhone battery replacement than an iPod? It should be telling that Apple has FAQs just on battery replacement!

Next up on the chopping block? Sony. This whole Blu-ray and PS3 business just annoys me. It is like they can’t make up their mind on what their products are going to do before they launch them. The Blu-ray spec was so not-ready-for-primetime that the Playstation 3 has been the only safe-bet for a future-proof Blu-ray movie player. This helpful guide to what features each Blu-ray player does and doesn’t support should be proof enough that Blu-ray still isn’t really ready for the average movie buying consumer (let’s ignore the price that is 3x higher than HD-DVD too).

The Playstation 3 has been all over the product map as well. In the little more than a year that the PS3 has been out, they have had five different versions of the console and they are about to add a sixth, yet they have never sold more than two SKUs at a time. Let’s see, will this new one play PS2 games? If it does, will it be all games via hardware, or some games via software? Does it have WiFi? What about SACD support? Oh you haven’t heard of that? It is just another failed media format by Sony that some PS3s support.

And while Sony has made it obvious that they are using the PS3 as a Trojan horse for Blu-ray (or is it the other way around now?) could someone tell them that many people like to use universal remote controls when they watch a movie? Just try to explain to my wife why she can control everything in my living room with our Harmony remote (which we absolutely love), except for the PS3. Surely out of the five or six variants of the PS3 they could have made one that had a remote “eye” like the Xbox 360 does.

Speaking of the Xbox 360, even though they have three SKUs, all of the differences in features are accessories, so even a $280 Arcade model could be accessorized out to be like an Elite (minus the black paint job) if you wanted. The PS3 SKUs differences can’t be fixed/change after the fact.

Oh, and lastly, would it be too much for the PS3 to actually come with the HD cables (component or HDMI) to actually hook up their “true HD” game console to my HDTV (you know, like the Xbox 360 does)? I’m sure it makes sense to people that they are getting a free “Blu-ray HD” movie, but not the HD cables to watch it with. Actually wait, don’t do it Sony, I love to watch people at BestBuy get suckered talked into buying an $86 Monster HDMI cable (one of the few remaining joys of brick-and-mortal shopping). You know if they didn’t waste all that money on an HDMI cable they might have some money for an extra game or controller…but you wouldn’t want that sale, would you Sony?

Note: This article is cross-posted at PseudoSavant.

Last year around this same time I wrote on the then current companies killing DRM (Digital Rights Management, music with restrictions). Coincidentally, this year has the month of January giving us even more news on the battle-for-unrestricted-music front.

Here’s the latest news about music within the context of Amazon, Napster, Sony, and Yahoo:

Amazon

Amazon MP3 now offers DRM-free MP3s from Warner Music Group’s catalog, which makes Amazon’s MP3 download store the first to offer DRM-free music from Warner Music and brings Amazon’s library up to 2.9 million songs, all without restrictions. Warner’s catalog includes some of the most popular artists: Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Madonna, Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc. And Amazon may eventually have something in the works with Yahoo (speculation, see Yahoo news below).

I reviewed Amazon MP3 when it first came out and found it superior to iTunes for music purchasing: it’s cheaper ($0.89/track), it’s all DRM-Free, it’s higher quality (256 kbps), it’s more accessible (MP3), and there are no switching costs (integrates seamlessly with iTunes and most other popular desktop music programs). If you haven’t already, check out Amazon MP3 here.

Napster

Napster will sell music downloads in the MP3 format starting in the second quarter of this year (ironically enough, the format that made Napster popular in the first place even if back then it was illegal). CEO Chris Gorog said the following:

“We projected a year ago that there would be a critical mass of support for MP3, and we’re pleased to see the music industry is beginning to support it… There’s now enough top-tier content out there. There’s little question that the broad adoption of MP3s will provide an uplift for the industry.”

Sony

Sony BMG, the music label that’s taken the longest to think of a solution that doesn’t involve DRM, will start offering DRM-free music very soon. Reports on this news are a bit conflicting, however. A Businessweek article started the buzz by claiming these songs would be available via Amazon MP3, starting with Justin Timberlake’s latest. But then, a date of January 15 was given as the beginning of Sony DRM-free music but with a twist:

You have to purchase a plastic card called the “Platinum Music Pass” for the album you’re interested in. These plastic cards are only available from retail stores and cost $12.99 (significantly more than Amazon or iTunes album purchases). You then have to visit MusicPass.com and enter a code to download the DRM free album you selected in the store. It looks like Best Buy and Target will be the first stores to start this experiment. Perhaps not the best DRM-free news but progress nonetheless.

Yahoo Music

Yahoo Music’s VP of Product Development Ian Rogers has been hinting at big news revolving around dramatic changes in Yahoo’s music model. He said, “We’re in the process of redefining what Yahoo! Music is, and making it the Music destination in Yahoo!’s successful image.” And then he explained that Yahoo is not a music retailer and probably won’t be anytime soon.

He had plenty more to say with the focus on merging all sorts of content within a music context:

“Today users are creating tremendous value and for the most part we’re ignoring it. They’re writing blogs about your artists, putting bios on Wikipedia, documenting last night’s concert on Flickr and video sharing sites, showing what songs are most popular by their behavior on Last.fm, building “box sets” on community sites, etc. How has the music industry leveraged this? What tools have you created to enable or encourage it?”

I agree with TechCrunch’s assessment that, “…it looks like Yahoo wants to spearhead an effort to create open standards around music buying, playing, managing and sharing… In one set of slides near the end of the presentation, he shows a use case where a user discovers music on Yahoo, links to purchase it at Amazon, and then manages it again back at Yahoo. My guess is this is exactly what Yahoo will be. They’ll abandon their subscription music service and promote third party music download sites like Amazon instead. But I also imagine they’ll do this via a set of open standards where any service can participate.”

Well, 2008 seems to be off to a good start with DRM-free music options. Now if only DRM-free could be extended to other forms of digital media (movies, etc.), maybe 2009? If only…

Make sure your computer parts are up to date so you can listen to streaming music and online music including your favorite songs on your PC!