TTL – The Tech Link Blog

Dell

Recently, Dell started offering pre-installed movies on their computers during online checkout. They are now pushing the media distribution further by offering pre-installed “music packs” on their PCs.

Dell’s agreement with Universal enables the computer maker to offer attractively priced music when a customer buys a new computer. A 50-song pack will cost $25, and a 100-song pack will cost $50. That’s half of what it would cost if the same amount of songs were bough on iTunes!

All songs will be DRM-free. Users will be able to use and listen to the purchased songs anywhere, anytime. As of now, the XPS One and Dell Mini 9 netbook are excluded from the offering.

The Boston Globe

Netflix

Netflix, the company that started out as an online over-the-mail DVD renting service, is expanding rapidly towards online streaming and promising high definition (HD) content delivered directly on the Xbox 360.

Netflix has chosen to make the HD service available only on the Xbox 360 at first and then turn to the PC market. The service will be available through a dashboard update scheduled in mid-November.

Subscribers of the Netflix service will also have to be subscribed to Xbox Live! to be able to enjoy over 10,000 standard definition titles along with the new HD content. If you’re a big movie watcher, this offer might be very interesting…

The Boy Genius Report

P!nk: Funhouse

P!nk, along with LaFace/Zomba Label Group and Sony BMG, has entered yet another new kind of marketing with a free application available on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The application is available on the Apple App Store. Once installed, users will be able to listen to 30-second samples of all tracks available on P!nk’s newest album, Funhouse, which is available today. The application also allows access to restricted fan material such as pictures, videos, biography, etc.

It will only be a matter of time before we see all kinds of applications like this for other artists and let’s bet that the future only holds even more original marketing ideas for the public.

PR-CANADA.net

E3 Expo

The Entertainment Software Association has announced the official date for the E3 Expo. The 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) will be held in the Los Angeles Convention Center from June 2nd to June 4th, 2009.

This event gathers professionals and companies focused primarily on the video games industry, and helps them showcase their new and upcoming products and services to the general public. Much like a car show, but for video games.

The event suffered in the last few years from less and less traffic (because of smaller locations), so this year, the event organizers decided to make things more appealing by thinking BIG.

From the ESA press release: …these changes include increased booth sizes, increased qualified audiences, and an intensified focus on reinforcing the high-octane growth, innovation, and captivating entertainment that are driving the computer and video game industry.

E3 Expo
The Entertainment Software Association

Deezer

Music site Deezer has now released the first official version of their iPhone and iPod Touch player, and it’s available for download directly on the Apple App Store.

For those of you not familiar with Deezer, it is very similar to iMeem. You can search for songs, artists, albums and stream them directly on your computer without the need to download the song.

Deezer also offers web radios and something they call “SmartRadio” where the service lets you discover new music based on your listening taste. These two features will be the only ones available on the iPhone and iPod Touch at first but Deezer plans on releasing a full featured application that will allow the user to enjoy 100% of the features available in the future.

clubic.com (French)

Lala

Lala.com just launched a new service for its U.S. users called Music Mover.

The idea is simple and quite similar to blueTunes.net, where the service will scan you entire music library (it’s iTunes compatible) and upload only the songs that are not present in the Lala.com music catalog.

Once this process is complete, the user’s entire music library will be available for free and unlimited streaming over the Internet. The main difference between blueTunes and Lala is that Lala is completely free and blueTunes will make you pay if you send more than 100 songs to your account.

ars technica

iTunes

Apple has done it again! The iTunes Store has been offering TV shows/series download for only 36 months and they have already hit 200 million downloads.

The iTunes Store offers TV shows and series downloads from NBC, CBS, MTV, HBO, etc. at $1.99 for standard definition and $2.99 for high definition.

FierceMobileContent

Obama on the Xbox

We see them on billboards on the highway, we hear them on the radio, see them on web pages, in emails, on television, in movies, and now in games. Ads, marketing, product placement; it’s everywhere.

In this time of political campain, we can see the face of Barack Obama on a virtual billboard in the Burnout: Paradise game on the Xbox 360. Surprising? Well, more or less. There could be a Pepsi ad there and we wouldn’t bother so what’s the difference!

I just think it’s unfair to the viewers/players. General TV and TV shows are free because they are supported and payed for by advertisement. Games are not, so why have ads in them if it doesn’t benefit the players? Just my 50 cents.

GigaOM

Sansa slotMusic Player

Sandisk announced today the release of the first slotMusic player: the Sansa slotMusic Player.

The device will accept pre-loaded slotMusic albums on microSD cards as well as user-filled microSD cards up to 16GB (DRM-free mp3 or WMA). Consumers will have a choice of Sansa-branded or artist-branded players (ABBA, Robin Thicke, etc.)

The Sansa slotMusic Player will be available today at Wal-Mart and BestBuy (and others) at $19.99 for the Sansa-branded player and $34.99 for the artist-branded player which includes the specific artist’s album on a microSD card.

It weights in at 1.7 oz and measures 2.84″ x 1.45″ x 0.60″ and will come packaged with earphones (earbuds) and battery. One standard AAA battery should last for as long as 15hrs of playback.

Sandisk Press Release
Sansa

Xbox 360 HDD

Microsoft will be unveiling the new “Xbox Experience” next month. With it comes a 128MB update that users will have to download and install on their Xbox’s hard drive.

So what happens if you have an Xbox 360 without a hard drive?

Microsoft has thought of you and is now offering low priced memory upgrades for Xbox 360 owners that bought the console with no hard drive. Users will be able to get their hands on a refurbished 20GB HDD for only $19.99. We even have seen reports of a free 512MB memory card option!

Xbox 360 Special Offer
techAU

Zoho

It’s no secret that Microsoft Office is the most used desktop office application suite in the business world. What is surprising, is that more and more businesses are switching from desktop office applications to online suites.

Zoho and Google Apps are the most popular ones. Zoho has now over 400,000 users and Google Apps has over 500,000 users. Big names like GE, L’Oréal and now Washington DC are going this way for various reasons. Read it all..

Playstation 3

As Microsoft and Nintendo are aggressively pricing their gaming consoles for Christmas, one would expect the same for Sony’s Playstation 3… No this year folks.

From I4U News: “Sony’s CEO, Kazuo Hirai, told the Financial Times that the current PS3 pricing is the one that Sony will go into the Holiday shopping season. Sony is arguing that the Sony PS3 is a better value than rivals half its price.”

I4U News

Xbox 360

Microsoft officially responded to rumors around a Blu-Ray disc player for the Xbox 360.

They “do not plan on having Blu-Ray support anytime soon” confirmed Major Nelson on his official Xbox 360 blog. This probably has to do with very slow adoption of the “new” Blu-Ray media, and also because of the failure of the original HD-DVD external drive that Microsoft tried to push when HD-DVD was still alive.

I guess they just don’t want to repeat the same mistake again…

TG Daily

YouTube

YouTube will now be offering free, full-length original television series directly on their web page.

For now, only content provided by CBS is available but more broadcasters are expected to join YouTube on this as everything indicates that we are stearing away from standard TV and moving towards on-demand content.

Pocket-lint

Playstation 3

Sony has announced more details on the upcoming firmware updates for the PSP and the PS3. These updates should be available in the very near future.

With the new 5.00 update on the PSP, users will be able to access the Playstation Store right from the device using WiFi. It will also add a sleep timer for when you are playing music, and a full screen keyboard for easy typing.

The PS3 update will be version 2.5 and will feature support for a new Bluetooth headset, better voice transport system (when using a headset), movie scene search will allow users to set cue points at different intervals within a movie (like chapters) for fast access to certain scenes, power saving features will allow users to turn off the console and controllers when not in use, in-game screenshots, and background downloading with automatic console shut-down.

TechRadar UK