Hasta La Gadget!

Digital downloads, at least pertaining to music, have come a long, long way. The iTunes Music Store in particular has surpassed Walmart as America’s leading seller of music, and it’s evolved from a DRM-laden mess to a restriction-free(ish) marketplace with higher-than-average bitrate support. But it seems that 256kbps simply isn’t high enough. According to unnamed “executives involved in talks,” Apple — as well as a few other digital music retailers — are currently in discussions with labels to “improve the quality of the song files they sell.” Essentially, these retailers are hoping to hawk 24-bit audio rather than the compressed 16-bit files available today, possibly with a price premium attached. The real trick, however, won’t be coercing the labels to cooperate, but to retool future devices to actually play back 24-bit files. iTunes itself is already capable of handling ’em, but the iPod, iPhone and a slew of other handheld devices aren’t. The report doesn’t mention how close to a deal anyone is, but we’re guessing it’ll be sooner rather than later. Here’s hoping the iPhone 5 ships with 128GB of capacity — we’re going to need an awful lot of space to handle those lossless Police albums.

Apple and other music retailers purportedly looking at 24-bit, high-fidelity audio downloads originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 01:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  CNN  | Email this | Comments

Nokia will jump from the burning platform this Friday, but whither will it dive? Towards Microsoft and Windows Phone 7, as continually rumored, or towards Google and Android? Two turkeys told us the latter isn’t likely, and Bloomberg‘s anonymous sources seem to agree, saying that Nokia is indeed in the final stages of talks with Microsoft, and is “close to announcing a software partnership.” These spooks also say that Google was also in the running, but is no longer favored for the job, and as such we’re very likely to see Windows Phone 7 running on Nokia devices soon. We’re sure you’ll have some very strong opinions about that — we had a few ourselves — but please keep it clean in comments below!

Update: The Wall Street Journal just published a report of its own, by and large saying pretty much the same thing as BW. “If an agreement can be reached in time… Elop likely would announce the deal Friday.” The report also said an executive shakeup might be in the works, with “several senior members of the executive board expected to leave.” Show of hands, who all’s excited for Friday’s announcement?

Bloomberg: Nokia definitely in talks with Microsoft, partnership likely (update: WSJ, too) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 22:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Bloomberg, WSJ  | Email this | Comments

Looks like Capital Markets Day is shaping up to be quite the barnburner for Nokia. In the wake of news that Microsoft and Nokia may have some sort of tie-up in the works, Germany weekly Wirtschaftswoche is reporting that newly appointed CEO Stephen Elop will be bidding adieu to a number of high-ranking officials. Citing “company sources,” the paper stated that Mary T. McDowell, a bigwig in the mobile phones unit, as well as Niklas Savander, the manager of the markets unit, could be on the outs. Moreover, Kai Oistamo (Chief Development Officer) and Tero Ojanpera, the manager responsible for services and mobile solutions, may also be enjoying their final weekends as Nokia employees. It’s all part of a monumental strategy shift, and if it all pans out, it’ll be Elop’s first major move since taking over as CEO last September. Of course, Anssi Vanjoki more or less left on his own accord, and the company has essentially forged ahead with little to no change since. We’re told that Nokia has hired headhunters to scout top people to fill said slots, but it’s hard to say why Elop feels that new brains are needed. Here’s hoping it’s the start of something… competitive.

Update: Having had a few minutes to digest this news, it’s worth pointing out that neither Alberto Torres (exec leading MeeGo Computers) nor Jo Harlow (head of Symbian Smartphones) are rumored to be at risk. So if the report is true, then these organizational changes appear focused on, 1) rectifying Nokia’s inability to quickly execute upon its corporate strategy and, 2) the recent walloping Nokia received in emerging markets like India where Nokia’s S40 feature phones once ruled the land, but are increasingly under attack by aggressively priced cellphones from Chinese and Indian handset makers.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Nokia reportedly planning ‘organizational changes,’ mobile phones exec on the outs originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Feb 2011 11:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Nokia Blog  |  Wirtschaftswoche  | Email this | Comments

News Corp. set to unload Myspace? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Feb 2011 13:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Download Squad  |  Paid Content  | Email this | Comments

July 19, 2010 marked the day that Amazon’s digital book sales eclipsed the sales of hardcover books, and it barely took half a year for those e-book sales to also overtake the sales of paperbacks. According to the ouftit’s latest earnings release, “Kindle books have now overtaken paperback books as the most popular format on Amazon.com.” The company had surmised that this would happen by Q2 of this year, but it clearly went down a lot earlier than even it expected. Bezos and co. also sold through $12.95 billion worth of goods, representing The Jungle’s first “$10 billion quarter.” That came up to $416 million in net income, representing an eight percent uptick year-over-year. Of note, operating income slipped from $476 million in Q4 2009 to $474 million this year, with the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates generating a staggering $18 million hit.

When looking at 2010 as a whole, Amazon’s sales were up 40 percent over 2009, with operating income rising some 25 percent to $1.41 billion compared to the whole of 2009. Speaking specifically of the Kindle, the company is now moving 115 Kindle books for every 100 paperbacks sold, but this obviously only takes into account the US book business. We’re still no closer to finding out exactly how many Kindles have been moved, but we’re told that “millions” of the third-gen model were moved in Q4 2010, and the Kindle Storeitself has over 810,000 books on its digital shelves. Head on past the break if you’re thirsty for more, Sir Economist.

Continue reading Amazon celebrates its first ‘$10 billion quarter’ in sales, finds Kindle books overtaking paperbacks

Amazon celebrates its first ‘$10 billion quarter’ in sales, finds Kindle books overtaking paperbacks originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Amazon  | Email this | Comments