From the New York Times: "In a departure from its focus on cellphones, Nokia is aiming for another kind of wireless user.

"The Nokia 770, which will go on sale this fall for about $350, is a miniature tablet intended primarily for surfing the Web over a Wi-Fi connection. While it uses a chip similar to those found in personal digital assistants, the 8.1-ounce device is not intended for business travelers, and it will not have an address book or a calendar. Instead, it is designed for the casual Web browser, at home or at the nearest cybercafe...

"The tablet, which uses a 4.1-inch touch screen, can play videos and download music, photos and syndicated news from the Web. The rechargeable battery is good for up to three hours of browsing.

"The current version of the tablet's Linux-based software includes programs for e-mail and Internet radio. (Janne Jormalainen, vice president for convergence products at Nokia) said the next version would allow the device to be used as an Internet phone -- bringing it back into more familiar Nokia territory."

Read this entire piece in the New York Times, online here.

From Business Week Online: "The Good: The Musicmatch player works like a gem, and the LAUNCHcast radio service offers good value. The Bad: Musicmatch isn't compatible with iPods. The Bottom Line: A solid choice for folks who aren't wedded to iPods.

Radio service works well,
but it has a few things to "learn"
"I was excited to try out LAUNCHcast, part of Yahoo!'s emerging music empire. The Internet radio service invited me to fill out a long form listing my favorite musicians across a broad range of genres. I had a good time clicking through the extensive list of options that were presented to me and adding four favorites of my own.

"After all this work, I was somewhat perplexed when I booted up my personal radio station for the first time, only to hear Extreme's neo-doo-wop ballad 'More than Words,' a band that didn't appear on my list. Oh well, I thought, I'll just skip ahead to the next song. Then I realized that wasn't an option and that I'd have to listen to all five minutes of the song. A message offering me an opportunity to buy the song didn't help, either.

"A few minutes later, LAUNCHcast played a song by 4 Non Blondes. I have nothing against 4 Non Blondes, or Extreme for that matter, but I'm not inclined to listen to either band. I waited patiently for the next programming. It turned out to be a commercial...

"By upgrading from LAUNCHcast's free version to LAUNCHcast Plus, for $3.99 a month, I get a commercial-free, higher fidelity service. And paying members can look at and influence one another's playlists...

"My experience with Extreme and 4 Non Blondes notwithstanding, Yahoo has come out with a competitive offering. For an annual fee that works out to $4.99 a month, subscribers can listen to more than 120 radio stations and a catalog of about 1 million songs...

"Influencers" make it like
listening to music with friends
"The larger question about subscription music services is whether they can capture the feeling of sitting around a friend's living room, flipping through the album collection, and discovering something new and worthwhile. That's the goal of the 'influencers' feature. You can peek at the musical preferences of people whose taste you trust. You... can add their preferences to your LAUNCHcast personal radio station...

"The radio station will eventually 'learn' more about your preferences, playing the tracks you rate highly on a more frequent basis. And you can instruct LAUNCHcast not to play tracks that you don't like ever again.

"The advantage of sitting around a friend's living room is that you can put the CD in the player and listen to exactly what you want. LAUNCHcast's digital living room can't quite duplicate that experience without violating laws. But the advantage is that it lets millions of people into the living room at once."

Read this entire review in Business Week Online here.

From Radio Magazine: "Several companies involved in audio technologies have banded to form the Internet Surround Music Project.

"The charter members of the group are Cakewalk, Coding Technologies, recording artist Richard Devine, Jazz Mutant, Minnetonka Software, Nasseri Music Business Solutions, Native Instruments, Steinberg, recording artist Amon Tobin, Tuner2.com and Winamp.

"The Internet Surround Music Project has started an Internet forum at www.tuner2.com for artists to publish 5.1 surround music and will run contests to encourage aspiring artists.

"Recognizing that radio has traditionally driven demand for new music formats by providing broad exposure, the Internet Surround Music project has a two-fold purpose: to provide a way for artists to get their multichannel music heard by publishing it on the Internet, and to encourage more artists to produce content in surround sound by running contests where artist submissions are judged and awarded prizes based on quality, originality and popularity."

Read this entire article online here.