Ouch.

While lots of music services are still trying to figure out how to make money by distributing copyrighted music you’ve heard of, SoundCloud is taking a different tack. As I wrote last fall:

It’s designed to let professional and amateur musicians share their own music with each other and the public, via cloud-based files that the company hosts.

Once the tunes are on SoundCloud’s servers, the service makes it easy to move the stuff around the Web, via its own widget and an API that’s showing up on lots of interesting sites, apps, services and devices, including Facebook and Apple’s iPad. You can load SoundCloud files into Spotify, the streaming music company that Index has also invested in.

The service uses the freemium model, offering most of its capabilities for free, and charging up to $700 a year for more storage and extra features.

You can also use SoundCloud for less enlightened purposes, like sharing music you don’t own. But the company has recently implemented an audible “fingerprinting” service, like the ones Google’s YouTube uses, which allows copyright owners to take down files they don’t want on the Web. And that should give the company legal cover, unless the YouTube/Viacom case takes a very different turn.

In a blog post announcing the funding, SoundCloud says it will use the money to scale faster and “be more present in the US.” It also posts short clips, using its service, from its new investors–Index’s Mike Volpi and Union Square’s Fred Wilson.

Here’s Wilson:
Thoughts on SoundCloud by fredwilson. Uploaded with SoundCloud Android

And Volpi:
Mike Volpi Audio Blog on Friday morning by mvolpi. Uploaded with SoundCloud iPhone

And if you’d like something more entertaining, here’s a very long mix of classic hip-hop, via Cut Chemist:

Cut Chemist – Hip Hop Lives (1985-1996) by Cut Chemist

In fact, the Bay Area unit was one of the first parts of Nokia that CEO Stephen Elop visited when he took the job earlier this year–in part because the company’s board had already scheduled to have its meeting in the area.

Silicon Valley has slowly become an important spot for the company, despite the fact that Nokia doesn’t sell all that many smartphones in the U.S.

Earlier this month, the company’s area employees got a new home as Nokia consolidated nearly all of its Bay Area workers in new offices in Sunnyvale (see picture above). Each floor of the Finnish-style interior has self-standing structures that from the outside look like saunas, but are actually “privacy huts” used for small group meetings or just some alone time pondering the ins and outs of the cellphone business. Nokia kept its research labs in Palo Alto and Berkeley so they could stay close to the area’s top two universities.

The local staff is doing a range of different things. About 50 of Nokia’s Silicon Valley employees come from the company’s 2008 purchase of a Norweigian company called Trolltech, which makes an application platform called QT that is used to control everything from phones to trains and more.

There are also a variety of individuals and small groups working on various product and research efforts. Kari Pulli is a Nokia Fellow who focuses on camera technology. He helped develop a panorama photo feature that is part of the latest Nokia cellphones. His team also developed an HDR photography capability–a feature Pulli reminds people was added to Nokia’s phones before Apple included it in the iPhone. He said his team is currently working on techniques to improve cellphone pictures taken in low-light conditions.

Typically, such photos are either noisy or blurry, depending on what step is taken to compensate for the lack of light. But by taking two pictures–one picture that aims to be sharp, though noisy, and another that will be a bit blurry, but have low noise–he said that a better composite image can be created.

Pulli, who was born in Finland but has spent the past four years in Palo Alto, said he is not too worried that the new Nokia chief is not Finnish. “At least he’s Canadian,” Pulli said, pointing out it’s another cold, dark place that loves hockey. (Elop does love hockey.)

While some of Nokia’s workforce is building new features, others are working on making sure that the company has partnerships with all the important companies in the valley–especially the Facebooks and Twitters of the world.

As for the research projects, they vary widely, and many are only tangentially related to Nokia’s core phone-making business.

Tico Ballagas is a user experience researcher working on how to make technology a better tool for family communications. So he’s been spending a lot of time with Elmo as part of a Family Story Play project to see if distant relatives can better connect with young relatives by reading a story to them over videoconferencing gear.

Meanwhile, Jorg Brakensiek is working with a number of German carmakers to develop a framework known as Terminal Mode, which would allow all manner of smartphones to be usable within cars without users having to stare down at a screen to make use features like maps, email and more.

What many at the offices lament, though, is the fact that so few of the people in the U.S. get a chance to appreciate their work. While Nokia certainly has its challenges globally, it is all but invisible at the cutting edge of the U.S. market. that’s because none of the major carriers here sell a subsidized model of the company’s high-end phones.

What’s worse, the phones that the carriers do sell tend to be the most basic and boring of cellular designs. The company has plans to change that next year, when it hopes the introduction of Meego-based phones will finally sway U.S. carriers to offer subsidized Nokia smartphones, ideally by next summer.

But he says he has now reconsidered and wants the book sold, after all–even if it angers some WikiLeaks supporters.

To recap: Amazon received a storm of criticism yesterday for selling this oddly named e-book “WikiLeaks documents expose US foreign policy conspiracies. All cables with tags from 1 5000,” even though Amazon has refused to host WikiLeaks documents themselves.

Amazon’s common-sense answer to critics was that the book is commentary and analysis about the WikiLeaks data and that it intended to keep selling the title.

Later on Thursday, the book disappeared from Amazon’s shelves, and Amazon said it had been “removed by author.” But now it’s back once again.

What happened? I asked author Heinz Duthel to explain. We’ve corresponded via email, and while there’s a bit of a language gap (he’s a native German speaker), I think I understand the gist of the story: Duthel’s instinct after receiving threats was to yank the book, but now that he’s had time to think it through, he wants to sell it after all.

Below, an edited version of my correspondence with Duthel. I’m leaving his responses in their original form rather than risking making an inaccurate guess while cleaning them up:

December 9
Peter Kafka: I see now that the book is no longer available at Amazon’s store. The listing there says it has been “removed by author.” Can you please explain why you wrote the book, why you published it and why you decided to remove it?

December 10
Heinz Duthel: Yesterday I had a shocking day (at age 61) with my III. book about Wikileaks. I did remove the book after I received about 60 emails (anonymous) with insults like ‘after finish with paypal, mastercard, amazon’ we will remove you and all your books from the web’, ‘we know who are you and we will take care about you singing daughter (she is 15 and started to make some music since 2 years) and so on. Amazon.com did send me one email (Stephanie Derouin of Amazon’s Kindle Self-Publishing (DTP) Executive Customer Relations. Can you please confirm that this is your intent? You may email me at [xxx]@amazon.com. ) so I replied that I have removed the book because I don’t want that amazon.com is hacked only because of my wikileak book.

Since then one of my domains, heinzduthel.com has to be removed from my hosting company because of high cpu usage. This from 1:30 till 5:50 European Time. Now the domain is back again (amazon shop script) but I had to clean the cache for 2 hours on the domains, because it look like I had a few hundred thousand ‘visitors’.

Kafka: Your book now appears to be available on Amazon again. If that’s true, why did you decide to do so given the threats, etc.?

Duthel: I am surprised it is online again because I left this up to amazon.com in my email as you have seen. I think there is no reason why it should not be online, because I think the comments bellow the book atamazon.com are not justified at all.

…honestly this book (Wikileaks IV) is nothing else then just about Assange, Wikileaks and why, what, question marks, comments etc.

This book is in fact something for readers interested to know what is going on or what is Weakileaks and have no time to search the whole internet, sources, media, press etc.

Kafka: I am surprised to read that you’re surprised it’s now available. Did you specifically tell Amazon to remove your book? And are you okay with the fact that it’s available once again?

Duthel: Peter, to question I:

Here is the email after I have removed the book and Amazon did ask me if this has been my intent.

Dear Miss Stephanie

No it has not been my intent, I have just been informed after reading the news in Google.com that maybeamazon.com would have or get problems from all this hackers or world regulators, like Mastercard, Visa or Paypal. So this is not my attention.

I think this book like any other has the right to be online and no one can or has the right to commit extrajudicial proceedings against books or publication.

But you can see all this supporters of Wikileaks and Julian Assange black mail each and every one who is against their self proclaimed freedom of press.

After talking with my family Lawyer this evening in France he suggested to place back the book or books as it is up to Amazon to decide what is wrong or good and not some self appointed world regulators outside there…

To question II.

Yes I am OK if the book is online and available because it has been the reason why I wrote the book, but I left this up to amazon.com because I don’t want to be responsible if because of this book amazon.comget problems, hackers or what ever.

Called as a witness for Oracle, Catz reiterated an earlier point made by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, saying that had SAP licensed the materials that its TomorrowNow subsidiary ultimately pilfered, it would have cost “billions.” She also reminded SAP’s legal team that her email on SAP/TomorrowNow as a competitive threat was written without knowing about TomorrowNow’s copyright infringement.

Worse, she dismissed SAP’s offer of $40 million in damages as laughable. “SAP paying us damages of $40 million would be a reward for their bad behavior. “It’s like taking someone’s $2,000 watch and hocking it for $20, and then offering to give us $20. It’s crazy. It completely undervalues the entire basis for our industry.”

A powerful jab, and one that’s making the rounds in media reports on the trial today.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Oracle Enlists Process Servers, Not PIs, to Find HP CEO
• Oracle-SAP Trial: Ellison Swaps Katana for Poison Darts
• Objection: Mr. Ellison Is Referring to the Defendant as “Choleric of Temper” Again
• Oracle Lands Early Shots in SAP Trial
• Your Honor, We Object to Mr. Ellison’s Repeated Use of the Term “Slimy Weasels”
• Oracle to HP CEO: Chicken!
• Oracle Vs. SAP: We Got a Right to Pick a Little Fight–Bonanza!
• SAP’s Tab in Oracle Case: $120 Million and Counting
• Gag Order Denied in Oracle, SAP Trial
• Ellison Taunts HP CEO a Second Time
• SAP to Ellison: Save the Drama for Your Mama
• Ellison to HP CEO: “Warrior, Come Out to Plaaeeay!
• SAP: Please Gag Oracle
• HP Scandal Sucks in New York Times Columnist Over Conflict of Interest
• Welch to HP Board: You Don’t Know Jack!
• Insiders Criticize Ellison For HP CEO Slam
• Was Apotheker HP’s First Choice of CEO?
• HP Names Ex-SAP Chief Apotheker as CEO

BoomTown usually does not get all weepy over the departure of public relations folks at Internet companies, in that cynical I’ve-seen-’em-come-and-I’ve-seen-’em-go kind of way.

But the leaving of Brandee Barker (pictured here) from Facebook most certainly elicited a small single tear of sadness this morning, when she called into All Things Digital Global HQ to say she would no longer be tossing me her patented–and very endearing–hand-in-the-face “no comment” for the powerful social networking site.

After four long and tumultuous years, she leaves the company on Dec. 10.

(In a changing-of-the-guard theme, Barker follows longtime advertising sales exec Mike Murphy, who also recently resigned, out the door.)

In a statement, Facebook said:

“We can confirm Brandee is leaving Facebook to start a communications consulting business focused on early stage tech companies. We are grateful for her dedication and the company has benefited greatly from her contributions. We suspect Brandee’s future clients will also value her talents and experience and we wish her much success with her new venture.”

Indeed, although the geeks always get the credit, Facebook owes an awful lot to Barker, for helping its products and services stand out in a sea of competitors.

For certain, it was not as influential as it is today when Barker got there as its head of PR, just as the start-up was beginning to make itself known.

There were only seven million Facebook members when Barker joined, compared to 500 million today.

Still, the veteran communications exec was quickly aware of its power when 750,000 of those members protested against Facebook’s introduction of the initially controversial news feed.

“I had no idea when I took the job that it would be like that,” said Barker, who was employee No. 120 at Facebook, in an Interview with me this morning.

In fact, it has been like that ever since then, as she has navigated a series of triumphs and just as many mishaps for the company as it grew and grew.

One of her favorite moments, she told me, was the introduction of the Facebook platform at its inaugural F8 developers event several years ago.

“Mark [Zuckerberg] had a real vision and the craziness that followed it was an incredible experience,” said Barker, who was the one largely responsible for introducing the decidedly quirky co-founder and CEO of Facebook to the world.

For the most part, Barker shepherded him well, even as the fire hose of attention increased in media, consumer and regulatory pressure over issues ranging from the controversial founding of Facebook–Barker has a masters from Harvard University in Winklevii crisis management–to privacy snafus and more.

A lot of her ministrations were funny, though, as she remembered: “Another great moment was when I insisted Mark take a suitcase instead of a backpack to his first Davos in 2007, so I went out and bought him one.”

And let us not even get into the flip-flop controversies or when I snarkily called Zuckerberg “toddler CEO” to Lesley Stahl on “60 Minutes.”

Barker handled it all with grace and humor.

But as Facebook has grown to more than 1,500 employees and its business has boomed, Barker–who recently returned to the company after having a baby–decided that bigger was not better, at least for her.

“I had a pretty deep evaluation when I was away from the company that what I am good at and what I like is working with early-stage companies and their teams,” said Barker, who will start a communications consultancy. “At this point in my career, that’s what I want to do.”

Barker noted, in fact, that there were a lot of companies started by former early Facebook employees like her that might become clients, although she declined to be more specific.

In the end, another “no comment” for me from Barker!

I don’t mind, because here is my comment, on the record and for attribution: It’s a sad day for Facebook, and I’ll miss Brandee Barker very much.

Speaking of no comment, here is Barker in one of my favorite no comments, from behind a plant at a 2008 Silicon Valley luncheon for the German DLD conference:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101108/brandee-no-comment-barker-finally-comments-pr-honcho-leaving-facebook/feed/ 6 http://allthingsd.com/20101102/scvngr-goes-global-sort-of/ http://allthingsd.com/20101102/scvngr-goes-global-sort-of/#comments Tue, 02 Nov 2010 08:00:03 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=36595

BoomTown likes the sassiness of SCVNGR, the location-based service that’s not Foursquare, including the rank enthusiasm of its founder, Seth Priebatsch, to do whatever it takes to stand out in the competitive space.

Today, it is by “leveraging the most comprehensive places database in the world–the Google Places API,” which will essentially take the start-up global.

It’s part of a lot of moves by the Cambridge, Mass.-based SCVNGR, which tries to go beyond simple check-ins by emphasizing the game aspect and posing real-world challenges for users to complete.

Recently, hunting for ways to keep pace in the fast-moving social location space, the start-up released revamped versions of its Apple iPhone and Google Android apps.

And, earlier this summer, SCVNGR was one of the first to integrate with Facebook Places.

I did a video interview with Priebatsch a few months ago at SCNVGR’s office, which you can see below, as well as the official press release for the Google Places integration (nice Klingon joke!):

SCVNGR Goes Global
Willkommen! Bienvenue! Yokoso!

Boston–November 2, 2010–“Hello World!”

That’s the badge SCVNGR users unlock after checking-in for the first time on SCVNGR. And today we’re excited that anyone in the world can start unlocking it. Because today we’re going global!

Hot on the heels of our update for iPhone and Android, and having just broken the half-million user number in record time, we’re making sure that everyone everywhere can play SCVNGR. SCVNGR is a real-world game played via iPhone and Android apps. It’s a social game all about going places, checking-in and completing challenges and earning points. You can unlock badges and real-world rewards (think free coffee, discounts and more!) and easily share where you are and what you’re up to with your friends on SCVNGR, Facebook and Twitter. It’s very social, very fun and as competitive as you want it to be.

Today this mobile social game is going live all across the world by leveraging the most comprehensive places database in the world–the Google Places API. This integration will instantly bring SCVNGR right to your fingertips at millions of locations across the globe so you can check-in, snap pics, do the social check-in, complete and build challenges, unlock badges and rewards and most of all, have fun!

“Our goal has always been to build the game layer on top of the world. But until today, we were missing a critical component…the rest of the world,” said Seth Priebatsch, SCVNGR’s Chief Ninja. “We’re excited to go live globally today, and to do so with the best location database on the planet.”

SCVNGR’s default interface will be presented in English but the content that players can create (the custom challenges to try at each place) can be added in any native language. SCVNGR adapts itself naturally to different places by enabling everyone who plays the game to also have the opportunity to build the game by creating their own fun things to do (we call them “challenges”) at each place. So get excited to start seeing challenges in German, French, Japanese, Chinese and maybe even Klingon! (Disclaimer: Probably not Klingon.)

So hello world and welcome to SCVNGR! Just grab the free app for iPhone and Android and start playing!

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101102/scvngr-goes-global-sort-of/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100517/pirate-bay-runs-aground-again/ http://allthingsd.com/20100517/pirate-bay-runs-aground-again/#comments Mon, 17 May 2010 13:49:06 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=19573 The Pirate Bay, the world’s most notorious hub for illegal downloads, is down again.

The Swedish site has been out all morning. TorrentFreak pins the outage on legal pressure from Hollywood studios, via an injunction granted by a German court against broadband provider CB3ROB, which had been routing the site’s traffic to the Web.

But if you’re looking to nab free music and movies via the site’s BitTorrent hub, you probably won’t have to wait long. As CNET points out, The Pirate Bay has lost bandwidth providers in the past and usually pops back up in fairly short order.

Meanwhile, if you want to grab your stuff via other means, there are plenty of options. LimeWire, for instance, which lost what appears to be a significant court case last week, is still up and running.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100517/pirate-bay-runs-aground-again/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100429/viral-video-ouch-apple-gets-smacked-hard-by-jon-stewart/ http://allthingsd.com/20100429/viral-video-ouch-apple-gets-smacked-hard-by-jon-stewart/#comments Thu, 29 Apr 2010 08:12:02 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=27851

Here’s a video that is sure to go rocketing around the Web today: A smackdown by Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” of Apple for its behavior related to the stolen iPhone 4G prototype.

It’s titled: “Appholes.”

That’s gotta hurt.

There’s not much more to be said than Stewart does in a tough attack on the recent door-bashing police raid of a reporter from Gizmodo, which bought the smartphone from the person who allegedly found it in a German beer garden in Silicon Valley.

Stewart began the opening monologue by saying he was a huge fan of Apple (AAPL) and its products, but soon was lacing into the company and blaming it for the messy legal morass.

There are a ton of great lines, although it’s the easiest jibe at iPhone wireless carrier AT&T (T) that is still the funniest: “If you want to break down someone’s door, why don’t you start with AT&T, for God sakes? They make your amazing phone unusable as a phone!”

He ended with a plea to CEO Steve Jobs: “C’mon, Steve, just chill out with all the paranoid corporate genius stuff. Don’t go Howard Hughes on us.”

Then, of course, Stewart asked for Jobs to send him the new 4G: “It looks totally sick.”

Enough said, here’s the video:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Appholes
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100429/viral-video-ouch-apple-gets-smacked-hard-by-jon-stewart/feed/ 8 http://allthingsd.com/20100427/a-boomtown-bier-trinken-visit-to-the-gourmet-haus-staudt-home-of-iphonegate-can-you-say-oktoberfest-in-april/ http://allthingsd.com/20100427/a-boomtown-bier-trinken-visit-to-the-gourmet-haus-staudt-home-of-iphonegate-can-you-say-oktoberfest-in-april/#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:33:29 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=27716

When BoomTown was kibitzing with SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg about where to meet up this week for a chat to catch up, we decided to forgo the obvious and instead choose the complete Silicon Valley cliche of the moment.

Destination: Redwood City and the now-infamous Gourmet Haus Staudt.

As in, the beer garden behind the German grocery store where the iPhone 4G prototype was snatched off a stool from a birthday-celebrating Apple (AAPL) engineer by person still unknown and sold to the now-police-shookdown Gizmodo gadget site.

In other words, just like going to the Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) or Google (GOOG) garage, but fun and with German beer.

We chatted with a very delightful bartender, who filled us in a bit on the night–about the birthday party, about the funky place being popular with tech folk and about how most patrons believe the smartphone was stolen.

There is a lost-and-found behind the bar, he said, and pretty much everyone returns items left by ale-addled customers.

And, let me just say, if the conspiracy theory types who think Apple planned the whole thing saw this charming, but dowdy, joint, they’d think twice about some fiendish plot by CEO Steve Jobs.

This is a perfect place to lose an iPhone or anything else you can imagine.

In any case, we’ll see how it all plays out in the days ahead.

Until then, although no video was allowed, but here are some lovely snaps from my in-my-possession-despite-the-giant-glass-o-beer 3G iPhone to enjoy (click on the images to make them larger):

Unassuming Front:

Window With Gnome and German Hat-Wearing Lion (Also Beer, Natch!):

Dave Points Out the Obvious:

Dave and the Sign:

More Sign (Nine! No, 11! No, 13 German beers on tap!):

Stools of No Return:

Gemütlichkeit-filled Dave und Bier Nicht Mehr:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100427/a-boomtown-bier-trinken-visit-to-the-gourmet-haus-staudt-home-of-iphonegate-can-you-say-oktoberfest-in-april/feed/ 4 http://allthingsd.com/20100422/qotd-prost/ http://allthingsd.com/20100422/qotd-prost/#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:15:24 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=39001

“I recently read in the news that you lost a very special phone at a German beer bar in California. We all know how frustrating it can be to lose personal belongings, especially when it is such a unique item.

At Lufthansa we also noted with great interest your passion for German beer and culture….Therefore we would love to offer you complimentary Business Class transportation to Munich, where you can literally pick up where you last left off.”

– Lufthansa spins a bit of clever PR from this week’s iPhone prototype debacle.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100422/qotd-prost/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100226/sellaband-selling-bands-again/ http://allthingsd.com/20100226/sellaband-selling-bands-again/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:21:51 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=16762 Sellaband, the Dutch company that lets fans “invest” in musician’s albums, is back, after a brief dip into bankruptcy.

A German investment group has purchased the company’s assets and has installed a new CEO, Michael Bogatzki. Here’s his introduction to Sellaband’s artists and users, who have pledged more than $3 million toward various projects to date. Check out the comments, though–some Sellaband fans/investors are awfully grumpy.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100226/sellaband-selling-bands-again/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100208/sap-board-to-ceo-auf-wiedersehen-sweetheart/ http://allthingsd.com/20100208/sap-board-to-ceo-auf-wiedersehen-sweetheart/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:01:31 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=34408 Leo Apotheker has resigned as CEO of SAP AG after the German software company’s supervisory board declined to renew his contract. SAP offered no reason for the departure, insisting it was by “mutual consent,” though this hardly seems the case given the fate of Apotheker’s contract.

Voluntary or otherwise, Apotheker’s exit had been rumored for months. Under his leadership, SAP (SAP) posted its first annual drop in revenue since 2003 and announced the first mass layoffs in the company’s history. That said, Apotheker hasn’t had an easy time of it; righting a company like SAP in a down market is a near Sisyphean challenge by any measure.

As Ray Wang notes over at Enterprise Advocates, “Though a seasoned executive with over 20 years with SAP, Leo was in the wrong time wrong place….He entered a down market while in charge of a sinking ship. Low morale among the Walldorf engineering team, the issue with Enterprise Support and maintenance, and uncontrollable poor quarterly performance proved to be factors beyond his control. Customers over the past 2 to 3 years began to wonder how to tap SAP’s innovation. A clear need emerged for having more technologists at the helm.”

Apotheker will be succeeded immediately by two co-CEOs: Jim Hagemann Snabe, head of product development, and Bill McDermott, head of field organization. Their ascension to the top spot returns SAP to the co-CEO structure the company used before Apotheker took the reins alone just seven months ago.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100208/sap-board-to-ceo-auf-wiedersehen-sweetheart/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100204/a-t-mobile-ipo/ http://allthingsd.com/20100204/a-t-mobile-ipo/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:17:09 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=34311 If there is indeed a fledgling IPO recovery this year, T-Mobile USA may end up being part of it. “Unidentified sources close to the matter” tell The Wall Street Journal that Deutsche Telekom is considering taking its U.S. wireless unit public.

Evidently, the German telecommunications outfit is looking to placate shareholders dismayed by the unit’s performance of late. Not only is T-Mobile trailing far behind rivals like AT&T (T), Verizon Wireless (VZ), and Sprint (S), it’s losing subscribers. In the third quarter of 2009, for example, T-Mobile lost a net 77,000 customers.

Were Deutsche Telekom to move ahead with a T-Mobile IPO, it might be able to raise enough capital to build out its network, improve reception in major markets and start winning back some of the subscribers it has been losing.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100204/a-t-mobile-ipo/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100119/connecting-with-your-inner-earpiece/ http://allthingsd.com/20100119/connecting-with-your-inner-earpiece/#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:17:22 +0000 Katherine Boehret http://solution.allthingsd.com/?p=1023 Apps are hot. These are the small programs that can be installed on a digital gadget to get it to do more than what it did when you bought it. Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and iPod Touch are the best app platforms right now thanks to the company’s App Store, which offers an estimated 125,000 apps. Research in Motion (RIMM), Android, and Palm (PALM) devices also work with apps.

But why should smart phones have all the fun? Yahoo (YHOO) Connected TVs from Samsung, LG (LG), Sony (SNE), and Vizio allow people to load app-like “widgets”—including Facebook, Twitter, weather and stock quotes—onto their big-screen TVs. And GPS navigation devices take advantage of apps for information on fuel prices and traffic.

This week, I tested a Bluetooth earpiece that also can be made smarter with apps: Aliph’s $100 Jawbone Icon (http://us.jawbone.com). Like many other wireless earpieces, it connects to your Bluetooth-enabled phone so you can talk, hands-free. Unlike other Bluetooth earpieces, the Jawbone Icon can be plugged into a computer and loaded with different settings and apps. This works using Aliph’s Web-based software platform called MyTalk (http://mytalk.jawbone.com) and some apps enable more than hands-free talking.

For now, there are only two apps that truly expand the functionality of the earpiece, in my opinion. But MyTalk is a good start in making this tiny Bluetooth device more sophisticated and encouraging more hands-free productivity.

The idea of connecting an earpiece to a PC is helpful in two respects. First, it turns the Jawbone into a dynamic product that can be updated and enhanced over time, rather than never changing from the day you buy it. Second, it lets users more easily adjust the settings of a device that’s too tiny to have its own screen, thus eliminating the need for more confusing buttons on the device. Over time, these earpieces could become even simpler and smaller as more of their settings are adjusted on the computer.

Since the Jawbone Icon and its MyTalk software platform launched this week, only five “dial apps” and 10 “audio apps” are available for synching to the earpiece. The former are apps that perform functions by dialing out on your phone, like hands-free text messaging; the latter are settings to adjust the voice making announcements in your ear, like telling you that the battery needs charging. As of now, only one of each app category can be synched onto the Jawbone Icon at any given time. Aliph plans to make the Icon capable of simultaneously running multiple apps sometime this year.

If you ever used one of the earlier Jawbone models and thought you weren’t hip enough to remember how its hidden earpiece buttons worked, the Jawbone Icon’s refreshingly simple design will bring a sigh of relief. It uses two easily detected controls. One is an obvious button on the top of the earpiece that controls the earpiece’s functions. The other is a tiny on/off switch on the inside surface that couldn’t be easier to use.

The Ace model personified

The Icon comes in six models with catchy names that match the “persona” of the audio apps: The Hero, The Rogue, The Ace, The Catch, The Thinker and The Bombshell—each literally has its own distinct voice. Each device weighs less and has a wider and shorter design than previous Jawbones. The Icons come in shades of black, silver, white, red and gold, depending on the model’s persona, and resemble handsome jewelry.

Each earpiece has a short, gray bendable USB connector that allows for easy access to a PC’s USB port. This is used for synching and charging the earpiece, though a separate wall charger also comes in the box.

I tested my Jawbone Icon by plugging it into both an Apple MacBook Pro and a Dell (DELL) running Windows 7. I logged onto http://mytalk.jawbone.com and requested an invitation to use the MyTalk software by sending Aliph my email since it’s still in a “private beta” or experimental phase. You’ll have to do the same until MyTalk comes out of its private beta stage sometime in the next few months.

After setting up an account using my email and a password, I followed on-screen instructions to get started with synching apps to my earpiece.

MyTalk’s dial apps include five programs that help you do more with your voice, so you don’t need to look down to type on a mobile device. Once synched with your Jawbone Icon, the app will activate as soon as you press and hold the earpiece button.

For now, only two of the five dial apps are really helpful for the headset: Jott and Dial2Do. Both let people use their voice to send themselves reminders, send tweets on Twitter, and send text messages—assuming the programs correctly interpret what is dictated. I had pretty good luck with this, though one test of the text-messaging function thought I said “needle” when I really said “noodle” and another interpreted “blinds” as “blind.”

Of the two, I found Dial2Do a little easier to use. Its Basic Account is free but is limited to sending yourself reminders, while a Pro Account costs $40 a year or $3.99 a month, and offers social-networking, emailing and text-messaging, among other things. Jott can only be used free for one week, but requires a credit-card number for signing up and will charge $2.95 a month after the trial week is over.

MyTalk’s remaining three dial apps aren’t too exciting: “Directory Assistance 411″ and “Voice Dial,” a feature that only works if your phone has built-in voice-dial capability, which most do now. Another app called 1-800-FREE411 lets users get 411 information without being charged carrier fees.

MyTalk’s audio apps include six playful voices, three in different languages (German, Spanish and French) and one plain, unaccented English voice. Each of the playful voices has a coinciding photo and name when you’re picking settings on the Web site. One called “The Bombshell” is represented by an attractive, blonde woman who speaks in a sexy voice. A voice called “The Rogue” says, “I am ready for my assignment,” when the earpiece is turned on. During most of my testing, I kept my Jawbone Icon set on “The Ace,” represented by a woman with a smart British accent who said, “They can wait,” when I declined calls.

The chosen audio app voice speaks every so often, like when the device is turned on, when you query the headset’s remaining battery life (an indicator light also tells you the remaining charge), when an incoming call is received or when you turn the headset off. But the Voice Dial app uses the standard voice that comes with your device’s voice-dialing capability—not the fun audio app voice you’ve chosen.

Another downside to the headset is that it isn’t yet able to tell you the name of whoever is calling even if you have them as a contact in your phone; instead, it only reads the phone number aloud. If you’re like me, you don’t know have many numbers memorized anymore, so this isn’t helpful. Instead, it forced me to look at my phone for the caller ID, defeating the purpose of a hands-free earpiece. Aliph hopes to fix this problem within a year.

The Jawbone Icon is the first earpiece to use a software platform for adding apps, and MyTalk makes synching easy. Although Aliph plans to offer more apps and software updates for the Jawbone Icon (and subsequent devices), there will likely always be some activities that are simply too difficult to perform using voice alone. But MyTalk is a good first step toward making the Bluetooth earpiece more useful.

Email mossbergsolution@wsj.com

Write to Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100119/connecting-with-your-inner-earpiece/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091123/bertelsmann-backs-away-from-scoyo-its-educational-kids-site/ http://allthingsd.com/20091123/bertelsmann-backs-away-from-scoyo-its-educational-kids-site/#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:37:40 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=13204 German entertainment conglomerate Bertelsmann, which made a move into the online kids/education market earlier this year, appears to be having second thoughts.

Bertelsmann is looking for an investor to buy some or all of Scoyo, which it launched in Germany in January of this year and previewed in the U.S. in September, the company confirmed via email. It says that while it hunts for new money, it is keeping the German site up and running but has put development of the U.S. site on hold “as it will be a decision of the new investor how to deal with the US portal.”

I’ve been told that the company has invested as much as $30 million over two years into the project, but Bertelsmann declined to comment on that figure.

I’m not in the target market, and I’d be unable to use Scoyo even if I were, as it only runs on Windows machines. But here’s the way the U.S. site describes the service: It is “targeted to the supplemental and homeschool markets, [and] will deliver high-quality educational content for children in Kindergarten through 8th grade across a variety of subjects and disciplines.”

The beta is free, and the site was supposed to launch a subscription service next year.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091123/bertelsmann-backs-away-from-scoyo-its-educational-kids-site/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091119/how-to-see-a-handball-watch-france-cheat-its-way-into-the-world-cup/ http://allthingsd.com/20091119/how-to-see-a-handball-watch-france-cheat-its-way-into-the-world-cup/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:51:43 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=13080 In the U.S., this is no big deal, but in much of the world this is now the sports equivalent of the Zapruder film: French soccer star Thierry Henry cheating, via a handball, and propelling his team past Ireland and into next year’s World Cup.

The Web is full of chatter about yesterday’s game, but video is hard to come by. Again, this appears to be a case of Google’s (GOOG) YouTube flexing its ContentID system on behalf of copyright owners, in this case the European sports marketing company Sportfive.

This is a theoretical victory for content creators, who want to be able to control how and where their stuff appears on the Web. But since there doesn’t seem to be an approved video, it’s not really a solution. If it’s a story that’s attracting most of the world’s attention, someone’s going to find it, somewhere.

For instance, a bit of searching did yield these two, at least for now: A high-quality YouTube version of what appears to be a French broadcast, via the Los Angeles Times, and what appears to be a German highlight reel, via DailyMotion and FootyTube, which consistently has great soccer highlights, legal or not (thanks to Zen Web Solutions for the reminder).

France v Ireland Republic
by histormac

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091119/how-to-see-a-handball-watch-france-cheat-its-way-into-the-world-cup/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091007/nov-9-deadline-set-for-amended-google-book-deal/ http://allthingsd.com/20091007/nov-9-deadline-set-for-amended-google-book-deal/#comments Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:00:43 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=26163 November 9. That’s the day on which Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers are to submit an amended version of their book settlement, one that addresses concerns that it might give them unfair advantage over other digital libraries or violate copyright laws abroad.

The judge presiding over the case, who’d been urged by the U.S. Department of Justice to reject an earlier version of the settlement, set that date during a morning hearing so brief that when MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka asked Google CEO Eric Schmidt about it at a company roundtable this morning, Schmidt was unaware a date had been set. When Peter broke the news to him, Schmidt didn’t have much of a comment, but he did speak briefly about the settlement and Google’s view of it earlier in the morning.

From Peter’s paraphrased notes on the session:

With respect to book search, we were doing something that we thought was appropriate. We were sued, and after three years of discussion we’ve come to a settlement. This is perfectly normal. From our perspective, this is a settlement we like, it’s a settlement we think they’ll like, and we’ll hear what the court says, within minutes. Let me reframe your question: There’s nothing particularly exclusive about what we’re doing. The rights registry we’re doing is for the benefit of orphan works. “It’s not a particularly good business for us. We’re doing it because we think it’s the right thing to do.” We don’t think the settlement is perfect, but we think it’s good.

Though it’s not yet clear what form the revised settlement might take or what adjusted terms are being discussed, Google and the authors and publishers it has allied with it have quite a few critics to appease, including academics, librarians, privacy advocates, would-be rivals and the French and German governments.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091007/nov-9-deadline-set-for-amended-google-book-deal/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090902/youtube-uk-settles-royalty-fight-turns-music-videos-back-on-again/ http://allthingsd.com/20090902/youtube-uk-settles-royalty-fight-turns-music-videos-back-on-again/#comments Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:00:55 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=10687 Rejoice, British Web surfers! You’ll soon be able to watch your favorite music videos on YouTube again.

Google has reached a settlement with a British licensing group in a dispute over royalty payments, which means that YouTube’s U.K. outpost will begin showing licensed music videos again. The clips disappeared five months ago when YouTube and PRS for Music, the U.K. body that collects money on behalf of songwriters, couldn’t come to terms.

Google (GOOG) executives wouldn’t disclose how much they’re paying songwriters for the rights to play videos that feature their songs, but said they would be cutting PRS for Music a single check that covers the length of the deal. The new pact will extend through June 2012 and will retroactively stretch back to the beginning of this year.

The deal may provide a blueprint for resolving a similar dispute between the video site and a German rights society. But I’m not sure it will do much for the one Google is still (still!) stuck in with Warner Music Group (WMG).

Meanwhile, this video doesn’t feature a British composer or performer and wasn’t shot in Britain. No connection at all, really. But if you like Lou Reed, louche ’70s fashion and/or awesome ’70s facial hair, you’re gonna like it.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090902/youtube-uk-settles-royalty-fight-turns-music-videos-back-on-again/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090820/now-showing-on-youtube-usain-bolts-amazing-200-meter-run/ http://allthingsd.com/20090820/now-showing-on-youtube-usain-bolts-amazing-200-meter-run/#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:16:50 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=10117 Really doesn’t matter if you have the slightest interest in track and field. If you have a pulse, you will be amazed when you see Jamaican marvel Usain Bolt smashing yet another sprinting record, which he did just minutes ago at a German track meet.

Check it out:

Note that this clip is likely an unofficial one, at least for U.S.-based Web users, which means that YouTube may take it down in the near future. But no matter: Just type “Usain Bolt” in YouTube’s search box, adjust the “sort by” slider to “newest” and you’ll see clips come flooding in.

Presumably, at some point, Universal Sports, a unit of GE’s (GE) NBC Universal, will get around to posting a sanctioned version of the clip on Google’s (GOOG) video site, but by that point anyone who wants to see the run will have done so. Still, I wouldn’t expect it soon: NBC, recall, is the same outfit that made tennis fans watch one of Wimbledon’s most exciting matches in recent history on tape delay, for no good reason at all.

UPDATE: I spoke too soon. You can indeed watch a sanctioned version of the clip on Universal’s site, though it took some refreshing to get it running. Nice quality once you get there. Still nothing on YouTube, though.

In any event, Universal won’t allow sites like mine to embed the clip when it does appear. Their policy is not to do so because of “geo blocking” issues–a rep told me earlier this week when I was inquiring about the status of yet another amazing clip of Bolt smashing yet another record. If you want to see the official version of that one, you’ll have to go to Universal’s site or this YouTube page.

But if you don’t want to wait, you have plenty of options, like this:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090820/now-showing-on-youtube-usain-bolts-amazing-200-meter-run/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090427/sap-and-teradata-punch-back-at-oracle/ http://allthingsd.com/20090427/sap-and-teradata-punch-back-at-oracle/#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:47:21 +0000 Ben Worthen http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=11215 SAP (SAP) and Teradata (TDC) plan to announce Monday a joint effort to make the German company’s software work better with Teradata’s database systems, the latest example of tech companies combining hardware and software.

A growing number of vendors have begun offering servers that come bundled with particular programs, styling the combinations as appliances that are easier to install and manage than components sold separately. Oracle (ORCL) in October announced a joint effort with H-P (HPQ) to offer a “data warehouse” machine that was designed to better search through corporate information better than standalone hardware and software from the two companies.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090427/sap-and-teradata-punch-back-at-oracle/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090331/fremantlemedias-tony-cohen-speaks/ http://allthingsd.com/20090331/fremantlemedias-tony-cohen-speaks/#comments Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:24:55 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=11365

While in London recently, BoomTown got the chance to do an onstage interview with Tony Cohen of FremantleMedia, the under-the-radar media company that is one of the most successful international producers of mostly televised entertainment.

You might have heard of one of its brands: The “Idol” juggernaut and all its spinoffs, including “American Idol.” Yes, the man we can finally all blame for Ryan Seacrest!

But its FremantleMedia Enterprises division is also hard at work at pushing its programming off-screen in areas like merchandising, the Internet, interactive television and wireless, as well as doing more traditional licensing deals.

Fremantle is actually part of the RTL Group, one of the biggest media companies in Europe, which is 90 percent owned by German media giant Bertelsmann.

I was curious to know that Cohen thought would happen to the TV industry in the next five years and when and if the Internet can produce a successful creative video business.

Happily, unlike a lot of other jumpy entertainment moguls, he is not even slightly afraid of the Internet, and he had a lot to say, most of which centered on the continuing power of content.

Here’s a short video interview I did with Cohen:

[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090331/fremantlemedias-tony-cohen-speaks/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090227/ebay-shares-hit-7-year-low-counterfeiting-woes/ http://allthingsd.com/20090227/ebay-shares-hit-7-year-low-counterfeiting-woes/#comments Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:46:02 +0000 Eric Savitz http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=8954 Not a good day for eBay (EBAY) shares, which are down 23 percent for the year to date, and now sit at their lowest level since 2001.

Highlighting the problem of counterfeit merchandise sold on the site, Bloomberg reports that the company provided a tip to German police that triggered the seizure of 20 tons of knock-off designer clothing last month. While it is certainly good to see eBay taking an aggressive posture on fake goods, the company clearly has an issue to resolve here. As Bernstein Research analyst Jeffrey Lindsay notes in the story, eBay is “only as good as its worst seller in the minds of its customers.”

The story also notes that eBay has been sued by a number of luxury brands for not doing enough to insure that sellers don’t peddle fakes.

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