Is that the Best Buy? Best Buy acquires Napster for $121 million

Engadget is reporting that Napster will try again to be an mp3 force in the internets world buy selling itself to best buy.

“Announced this morning, the retail giant has agreed to buy Napster Inc. for a staggering $121 million, $67 million of which will be cold, hard cash. The deal is set to close in Q4 of this year, and it will include Napster’s “700,000 digital entertainment subscribers, web-based customer-service platform and mobile capabilities.” According to Best Buy president Brian Dunn, it intends to use “Napster’s capabilities and digital subscriber base to reach new customers with an enhanced experience for exploring and selecting music and other digital entertainment products over an increasing array of devices.”

Will this be this months iTunes killer….my guess is no

(Via Engadget)

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iTunes’ Rivals Are Worth a Look

iTunes’ Rivals Are Worth a Look
If there were a reason to keep using Apple’s iTunes Store exclusively to buy music online, it escapes me. Do you buy CDs only from your neighborhood record store? Not unless your best pal owns the store. In the world of physical music sales — yes, CDs still exist — there is little reason to spend $14 for an album while another retailer offers it for $10. We shop around for price. So why spend more at an online store when a virtual competitor is a mouse click away? Moreover, why shop for music at a place where you can play that purchase on only one company’s line of digital music devices?

Check out Amazon, Rhapsody or ,dare I say it,…Napster.

(Via MacNewsWorld)

No Napster for you….Safari

If you want to try out the new and improved Napster, make sure you are using Firefox.

Napster challenges iTunes with new MP3 store

Napster rolls out MP3 store in challenge to iTunes

Napster Inc., the digital music service, on Tuesday opened the world’s biggest MP3 download store with more than 6 million songs in a direct challenge to Apple Inc’s iTunes store.

The new Web-based music store will have digital songs from all major music labels as well as thousands of independent labels. The MP3-format songs will be compatible with the vast majority of digital media devices and mobile phones including Apple’s popular iPod as well as its iPhone.

Before now Napster has focused on selling all-you-can-eat monthly streaming music subscription packages but has struggled to win over the majority of fans who want to be able to transfer songs they like on to a portable device such as the market-leading iPod.

The new Napster service tries to take on Apple’s dominance in digital music by offering fans more songs without copy protection or digital rights management (DRM). Most of the six million songs on the iTunes Music store are available with Fairplay DRM, which prevents the songs from being played on most portable players other than the iPod.

Major labels in particular had previously been reluctant to allow online retailers to sell their songs without protection as a way to avoid piracy. As the industry outlook gets tougher more executives are willing to experiment or take a risk.

“We’re now moving from under the DRM cloud,” said Chris Gorog, Napster chief executive. “Now consumers can use Napster with any device,” he added.

Most songs on the service will be available for 99 cents each and $9.95 an album.

Though Napster will be hoping to take on iTunes it will try to do so by being compatible with Apple’s service. According to executives, MP3 songs bought on the Napster Web-based service will be automatically synched into a user’s existing iTunes music library if they use that library.

Read Full Article HERE

(Via Reuters: Technology News.)

aGEEKspot #1

News -This is the first installment of Tech Talk and it just happens to be on the same week as CES. The Consumer Electronics Show, the world’s largest annual tradeshow for consumer technology. This is where thousands of the new and cool products are introduced each year. Also this year will be Bill Gates 12th and final keynote address at CES, he plans to go part-time at Microsoft and focus more on philanthropic efforts. Next week we will catch up on all that happened at the show.

Other Big News – Napster says NO more DRM (digital rights management) Which means you can start downloading MP3s that will be compatible to all music players, they do still offer a subscription based service but it will have copyright restrictions. You can’t have everything…

Breaking news – Apple has just updated its MacPro to 3.2GHz WOW, that’s fast!

Gadget of the Week – The perfect accessory for sunny south Florida is the SOLIO. It’s a solar powered charger for all your handheld devices. It can capture and store power for your cell phone, ipod, PDA, GPS, digital camera and many more. Never run out of juice on the beach again! Sun power, It’s free, and it helps the environment. 

 

Tip – Love a website and want to share it, don’t just send your buddy the link, send them the whole page – If you have a Mac and you are using Safari Web browser & Mac mail, just press the Command key (with the Apple) and the letter “i”. The whole page will appear in your e-mail, just add your buddy’s address and let the sharing begin!

 

If you have techy, geeky, nerdy or gadgety news, reviews, tips or tricks – Let me know and we can share it with the world. Send them to:  aGEEKspot at Gmail dot com