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PC owners got a new Internet music download site last week, one boasting the least expensive per-song rates but carrying many of the restrictions that have stymied rival music services.
Although online retailer BuyMusic.com will offer more than 300,000 songs from the five major recording labels, users of the service will not necessarily have the freedom afforded customers of Apple's iTunes service. That service permits transfer of music to multiple computers, portable devices and compact discs.
BuyMusic is charging between 79 cents and $1.29 for individual song downloads. The charge for downloading a full album starts at $7.95 and can go as high as about $12. The iTunes' service charges $9.99 for most full albums.
Apple secured uniform licensing deals from all the recording companies that allow iTunes songs to be burned onto CD an unlimited amount of times, save for a restriction for making multiple CDs with the exact song lists. All songs on iTunes also can be transferred to up to three different computers and to the iPod, a portable digital music player.
Different songs on BuyMusic have different restrictions for how often they may be burned onto CDs or copied to other PCs or portable music devices. They all can be burned onto CDs at least once. Songs purchased at BuyMusic can't currently be played on the iPod.
Nikon introduces new pro digital camera
Departing from two technologies commonly used for digital photography, Nikon's latest professional digital camera, the D2H, is built around a new type of imaging sensor. As a side benefit, the new chip promises a sharp reduction in the shutter lag that frustrates many consumers.
The new camera also reflects a shift in Nikon's approach to pixel power. While the D2H is designed and priced for professionals, its 4.1-megapixel resolution is equal only to that of cameras generally made for everyday consumers.
While no price has been set, Nikon spokesman Richard LoPinto said, the camera's cost likely will be comparable with that of a D1H, Nikon's current digital camera for photojournalists, which is $3,840 without a lens. The D2H is to reach stores in October.
5 fingers + 20 keys = standard keyboard
A one-handed keyboard from FrogPad involves a long learning curve, but its 20 keys provide the functions of a standard keyboard's 100-plus keys. Consumers who are willing to put in some practice to get comfortable with the FrogPad's many keystroke combinations may discover a useful ergonomic tool.
The keyboard, which measures 5 by 3.75 by 0.4 inches and has a list price of $189 at www.frogpad.com groups vowels and the most frequently used consonants within easy reach of the thumb and three middle fingers of the right hand. Keys that activate caps mode, numbers and symbols are arrayed along the bottom and sides. Other functions that a standard keyboard delivers are achieved by pressing key combinations.
The keyboard connects to laptops, tablets and desktops with a USB cable. With some exceptions, including a physical disability or a situation in which desk space is at an absolute premium, it does not make much sense to replace a standard desktop keyboard with the FrogPad, Howard Millman writes in the New York Times.
Sprint PCS plans Wi-Fi networks
Sprint PCS will offer Internet access through 2,100 Wi-Fi wireless networking venues by late 2003, the company said last week. The service will begin this summer with 800 locations operated by Wayport and Airpath Wireless, primarily in hotels and airports in the United States.
Sprint PCS plans to install 1,300 locations of its own; the company has built internal Wi-Fi systems for businesses, universities and hotels in the past two years. Jason Guesman, a Sprint PCS business marketing director, said the company offers a cellular data service called 1xRTT that operated at 50 to 70 kilobits a second. The service is available throughout the company's cellular network with unlimited access for $80 a month. Most business venues have an Internet connection of at least 1.5 megabits a second, with Wi-Fi's maximum potential peaking at more than 20 megabits a second with newer standards.
Guesman said that although pricing had not yet been set for Wi-Fi service, the company would charge one standard fee for access at any location.
Wozniak's company unveils wireless details
Apple Computer Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak is turning his creative wheels again.
Make that his Wheels of Zeus Inc., a Los Gatos, Calif., startup he founded in January 2002 to develop wireless technologies that would be "helpful to people's everyday lives." The company, which has been working in stealth mode, announced its management team and unveiled a few product details.
The company hopes to create a wireless network of location-monitoring tags and base stations to help people keep track of pets, children, briefcases or other wayward things. The network will use a low-power, long-range radio technology - the same 900-megahertz spectrum used on many cordless phones - along with global positioning satellite technologies.
The company plans to license its technology and reference designs to consumer electronics and other manufacturers, which will sell the devices for an estimated $200 to $250, said Gina Clark, vice president of marketing and business development.
Specific products will be announced in 2004.
Suit targets fake error messages ads
A Pennsylvania man tired of online ads that impersonate computer error messages is leading a lawsuit against a leading Internet advertising company.
The lawsuit claims DoubleClick Inc. has hijacked computer users by getting them to click on ads that look like real Windows error messages. The messages redirect people to commercial Web sites selling everything from vacation packages to electronics.
DoubleClick did not immediately return a call for comment.
Pittsburgh attorney Stanley D. Ference filed the lawsuit in a state court on behalf of computer user Christopher Steelman. Ference said DoubleClick was targeted because it controls ad distribution.
A legitimate error message will describe a computer's problem in a gray box with a blue header bar. The pop-up ad, however, may have a heading such as "Message Alert" and text that reads "You have 1 message waiting for you."
The lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status, seeks $5 for each computer warning ad served by DoubleClick and $500 in punitive damages for each user subjected to the ad. DoubleClick has served an estimated 500-million of these types of ads, Ference said.
In May, a California software manufacturer agreed to make changes in Internet pop-up ads that also impersonate computer error messages.