First iPod Dock/Speaker With DAB August 12, 2007

Read more Digital Audio , MP3 , Music , Radio , iPod

For £99, Intempo is promising a seductive little addition to your entertainment gear with what it claims is the first iPod speaker dock with a DAB radio thrown in for good measure.

The very stylish RDI-03, which will ship in October, is the first merged product from Intempo which already builds speaker docks and decent DAB radios. The glossy piano black exterior hides 30Watts of power including a 15Watt subwoofer. It’s compatible with iPods and MP3 players and will charge all iPods, barr the Shuffle.

The DAB radio sports a alarm clock function too and everything can be controlled by the remote. You will be able to find it in Dixons, Currys.digital, Argos and Amazon.

Expect to see more clever products like this as the year rolls on, and about time too.-Martin Lynch

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Universal Drops DRM – Snubs iTunes August 12, 2007

Read more Apple , Digital Audio , MP3 , Music , Online , iPod

Universal Music Group, which roundly denied any plans to introduce DRM-free downloads, has pulled a U-turn and announced a 6-month trial with thousands of albums and tracks up for sale without the dreaded copyright technology. EMI, which was the first to drop DRM completely, must be doing OK then.

The DRM-free albums and songs will sell through retailer services and online providers like RealNetworks, Wal-Mart, Amazon.com and Google, among others. The company said:

“The experiment will run from August to January and analyse such factors as consumer demand, price sensitivity and piracy in regards to the availability of open MP3s.”

Some of the music will be sold for 99 cents, a bit cheaper than the $1.29 Apple charges for its DRM-free tunes. So, where does iTunes fit in here with Universal. Ah, nowhere actually.

Universal will not be allowing iTunes access to its DRM-free content. The reason seems to be that Apple is already too strong in the digital music arena and Universal wants to increase competition [and its own profits] by going with the rest.

Not much of a DRM–free trial/experiment if you exclude the largest download service on the planet though, is it?-Martin Lynch

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