In this case, it's speculated that the holdup either has to do with rights issues surrounding the music or possibly the way the apps in question access the music library. But without word from Apple, the developers can't be sure. The delays have angered fans, too, one of whom created the petition in hopes of forcing Apple's hand.

Update: One of the applications was just approved. Click through for more info.

The three developers mentioned in the fan-posted petition include Amidio, Pajamahouse Studios, and Musicsoft Arts. All three have created DJ applications which tap into a users' own iTunes library. Unlike the DJ applications already available in the App Store, these new apps let users mix their own tracks while offering features like simultaneous playback of multiple tracks, pitch, fade, tempo, and more. Other DJ applications, on the other hand, only let users mix loops that have no rights associated with them.

The rights issue may be one of the problems causing the delays. It's highly likely that the labels don't want their artists' songs to be used in this way without some sort of controls in place - if they deem to allow this type of interaction at all. If that's the case, though, the developers simply want Apple to tell them so.

Another explanation for the delay may have to do with Apple's current ban on dual access to the iPhone's music library via third-party applications. In order to work around this ban, the developers came up with an alternative method which involves transferring music over Wi-Fi instead. Of course, Apple may see this "workaround" as just a loophole allowing the developers to break the rules while not technically violating any of Apple's edicts. But again, without word from the company itself, there's no way to be sure.

The Petition

Although the developers themselves aren't behind the online petition, they've been frustrated for some time regarding the delay. For example, a posting on the Sonorasaurus blog reads:

"We have been waiting about 3 months now with no word on if we are approved and when we can release. It is nice to see other people taking issue with Apple's system and their interest in getting DJ apps on the platform. So to whomever thought to include us in their petition: Thank you."

The petition itself isn't a kindly-worded plea for Apple's attention either, but an angry letter demanding that attention instead:

There are more than 20 million of iPhone and iPod Touch users in the world, but there is no decent DJ MP3 application on iPhone/iPod Touch. Why? Because Apple doesn't approve any of them! At least two quality DJ MP3 applications - Touch DJ (www.amidio.com) and Sonorasaurus (www.sonorasaurus.com) are held "in review" since the beginning of the September. That's 8 weeks in limbo which is insane. The developers of the apps are now facing serious troubles because a lot was invested into the production of the apps. Moreover, Apple doesn't specify any reasons for such delays. There's simply no information about what is going on. This is all really weird and absolutely unfair.

Later, the petition writer adds that they had become aware of a third application, DJ Player, which was also waiting approval.

Similar Apps Already Approved

What's really strange about this current delay, writes a blogger on Sonorasaurus.com (the app from Pajamahouse Studios), is that there are applications which have already been approved by Apple that offer similar features as their new app. For example, the Quixpin DJ uses the same mixing feature, Deadmau5 Mix uses the same packaged songs feature, and Air Sharing uses the same file uploading via HTTP feature. And Musicsoft Arts already has an app called the DJ Spooky The Secret Song which uses the same codebase as the yet-to-be-approved DJ Player application.

UPDATE: Oddly enough, of the three apps in question, Amidio's application was approved first, having just launched today in the App Store. Are the others far behind? Did the petition catch Apple's eye or is this just a coincidence? We'll have to stay tuned to the other developers' websites and Twitter accounts to know for sure.

Fans Care, Too

Regardless of what happens, though, it's an interesting development to see fans getting involved in complaining to Apple instead of just the developers themselves. Although we've already seen high-profile pull-outs from notable Apple developers like Joe Hewitt who created the iPhone's Facebook application and Rogue Amoeba's Paul Kafasis who quit after a three-and-a-half month delay in app approval, we've rarely heard complaints from users outside the tech blogosphere demanding the same. Could this mean "regular" folks are now becoming aware of Apple's issues too? Possibly. The 272 people who have signed the petition aren't all Apple developers or tech pundits. They're just people who want these apps approved.

Hat tip to iLounge for pointing to this petition.

We're starting with online music. No industry, except arguably the newspaper one, has been rocked (pardon the pun) more by the Internet than the music industry.

The online music decade started with Napster, a music file sharing service created by Shawn Fanning that operated between June 1999 and July 2001. Napster enabled people to freely share MP3 files over the Internet; however it quickly ran into major legal trouble. Napster was the subject of lawsuits in 2000 by touchy metal band Metallica and others. It was eventually shut down by court order, after several major record labels went after the service.

After Napster's demise, a P2P application called Kazaa became the most popular service for music file sharing. But it too eventually succumbed to record industry attacks.

Curiously, both Napster and Kazaa were recently reincarnated as law-abiding services. After years of re-launch attempts, Napster was acquired by Best Buy in September 2008 and was born again in May 2009. Meanwhile Kazaa turned into a legit music subscription service in July this year.

iTunes / iPod: Digital Music Goes Commercial

While Napster and Kazaa tried to skirt around the commercial imperatives of music, like paying artists, Apple took on the record industry in an entirely legal way. In January 2001, Apple launched a digital music player for music called iTunes. Then in April 2003, the iTunes Store was launched. It offered the ability to buy songs for 99 cents each, which had a major impact on the music industry.

Soon after Napster's demise in 2001, Apple launched what was to become a revolutionary device in the music industry. The iPod was launched in October 2001 and it became the most popular portable music player since the Sony Walkman in the 1980s.

Fast forward to 2009 and iTunes continues to evolve. In January Apple announced that iTunes would go DRM-free. In September 2009 Apple launched version 9 of iTunes, which included a Genius-like recommendation feature for apps and 'iTunes LPs' - a feature that brings liner notes and artwork to digital albums.

MySpace: Music & Social Networking

MySpace was launched in August 2003 and soon became a popular hangout for local bands, especially indie rockers. MySpace provided a way for those bands to promote their music and reach a wide network through social networking.

As ReadWriteWeb's Sarah Perez wrote last month, it was a virtuous circle for MySpace. The bands' presence on MySpace "began to attract a young, hip crowd of users who were interested in following pop culture, and, in particular, the up-and-coming artists they discovered while browsing through the network. Only eight months after its launch, MySpace began to experience exponential growth, as its users created profiles and friended others who would then, in turn, invite more users to join the social network. Thanks to the "network effect," MySpace soon became the place to be online. Everyone was there."

However by 2008, MySpace had ceded the social networking crown to Facebook. In 2009, MySpace is once again trying to reclaim its heritage as a music service. In October MySpace launched "Artist Dashboards" and integrated its music video vault with recent acquisition iLike.

Pandora & last.fm: Online Music Discovery

Online music services have flourished in the 'web 2.0' era, when the ability to find new music and share it with others via the Web became increasingly sophisticated.

Two services in particular stand out. One is Pandora, a free online music discovery service. Pandora was founded in 2000 and continues to grow, despite various legal issues over the years. As ReadWriteWeb's Frederic Lardinois noted earlier this year, Pandora derives its revenue from targeted audio advertising in its music streams and affiliate sales through Amazon's MP3 store and iTunes.

Last.fm is another online music discovery service. It was founded in 2002 and was sold to CBS in 2007. It continues to innovate in 2009, for example in May this year last.fm announced combo stations, allowing a user to create a station with up to three artists or tags.

Conclusion

This post and series was inspired by one of my favorite blogs and podcasts, NPR's All Songs Considered. They're currently looking back at the decade in music and much of the discussion is about how the Internet helped define it.

And it's true, when you think of music at the end of 2009 you think of iTunes, Pandora and last.fm - MySpace even. The record industry is still coming to terms with these and other changes.

Tell us your online music memories of the past 10 years. What's been your favorite online music product or service during that time?

The down and dirty deets are as follows: 3Mbps up and 10Mbps down speeds via a KU-band satellite. According to our late-night, Twitter-powered research, this beats more than a few Earthlings' connection speeds. To learn more about the hardware, servers, and how often the crew gets told to "just turn everything off then on again," read on.

Moving on to hardware, the space station houses 68 IBM ThinkPad A31 laptops and 32 Lenovo ThinkPad T61p laptops, one of which is a server. Between cabled routers and WiFi hotspots, our brethren in space have a few ways to connect to the Internet via their local network. Their connection also allows for limited video calls. But there are no iPods for astronauts - or relatively few, at least. The team reported that the crew don't usually request to bring netbooks, gaming devices, or MP3 players aboard the ISS.

The ISS crew is connected to the Internet indirectly. Data is run through the ISS server and through NASA. Email for the crew is updated three times a day.

So, what happens when the system fails? Although the ISS crew is trained to respond to and repair common problems, the Houston ground crew maintains an exact duplicate of the space station's network for extraordinary circumstances. When viruses infiltrate ISS machines, as they have in the past, the infected machines are quarantined; and from the notes we've read, hackers have not yet been able to affect ISS's systems. Also, the ISS's IT folks told CNET, "One thing that really impacts the crew's day-to-day operations is if the file server itself fails. This forces them to reload the hard drive and re-establish all the network drives and all the apps. They actually have to get out the media and load the image to the hard drive... Over the last nine years, this has only happened twice."

We hope to bring you more news on the Internet as it applies to space, but we have reason to believe these updates may be sporadic. Stay tuned, live long, and prosper.

What Will This New Feature Look Like?

In this new implementation, users can't choose between the Lala or iLike widget. Instead, Google will randomly decide which widget a user sees. This gives Google the option to switch between services and to include other services in future as well.

Buy Songs from Rhapsody - See Lyrics from Gracenote

Underneath the music onebox results, Google will feature links to its other partners, like Rhapsody and iMeem, where users will be able to purchase MP3s.

Google's partnership with Gracenote also allows it to show lyrics in the search results now. As Marissa Mayer pointed out in today's announcement, finding lyrics is still very hard on Google. Now, users can type lyrics into the default search box and Google will return results from the music search feature, and users can play the song right on the search results page.

Big Winners: Lala and MySpace

The big winners here are obviously Lala and MySpace/iLike. For Lala, this has been an especially busy period. Just last week, Lala announced a partnership with Facebook. It now powers Facebook's music gifting service.

iLike has a traditional streaming model. The company streams some song full length and some as 30-second samples. Users can buy MP3s from iLike for between $0.99 and $1.29. MySpace bought iLike earlier this year, and the widget on the Google search results page will be MySpace-branded.

Lala's business model is more interesting. Users can stream every song on the service once for free. After that, customers can buy the right to stream it for $0.10 or buy the MP3 for $0.89. Users can also upload their own music library to Lala and then stream those songs freely over the Internet.

How important this move is for the two streaming music services becomes clear when we look at the current traffic data for music-related searches on Google.

Update: We just had a quick chat with Lala's CEO Geoff Ralston after the event. The Lala team is obviously very excited about the partnership with Google and as Ralston told us, the company worked with Google for quite a while to get this new feature up and running. According to Ralston, Lala's partners in the music industry were very supportive of the integration. We also asked him if he was worried that the new influx of traffic was going to bring Lala's servers down. Google, however, stress tested Lala's servers and couldn't bring the service down with up to 550 queries per second.

What Does Google's Current Music Traffic Look Like?

Hitwise's Heather Dougherty took a close look at Google's music traffic earlier today. According to Hitwise's data, about 6% of last month's top 1000 search terms on Google were music-related. In total, Google sent about 1.48% of its traffic to music sites. The majority of these searches (15.32%) lead to a Wikipedia site, but almost 10% currently go to YouTube, 5.7% to Yahoo Music and 3% to MySpace.  Now that users can listen to music right from the search results page, these services - including Google's own YouTube - will likely see a drop in music-related traffic over the next few weeks.

In September, after the successful launch of the B&N e-book store, we couldn't help but wonder if B&N's e-book brand was hurt by the fact that it didn't offer any compatible readers yet. Now it looks like B&N is going in the opposite direction: the company will offer so many compatible readers that consumers might actually be confused by this large selection. Amazon, which offers two very similar readers under the Kindle brand, doesn't have this problem.

In a perfect world, every e-reader would be able to read every e-book from every store. You could buy a book in the Amazon Kindle store and read it on your B&N nook. Real books don't have any restrictions, after all. Many new users will assume that e-book readers work just like regular books or like MP3 players and music stores, which have now mostly given up on DRM. With the new influx of devices, B&N and its partners will have to make sure that they educate new users about compatibility issues between different devices and stores.

Why B&N Needs Its Partners

It will be interesting to see how these other devices sell next to B&N's own nook. The nook is closely linked to the B&N brand, while Plastic Logic and iRex aren't household name for most consumers. This is why B&N had to launch its own e-reader and partner with other companies. In order to beat Amazon, B&N couldn't just copy Amazon's device strategy with the nook. The company also had to go beyond this and offer partnerships to other device manufacturers to hedge its bets and to open up its store to a larger audience.

Users will be able to lend out books for up to 14 days at a time.This is definitely an area where the Nook can outshine the Kindle. Users can just select a book and then send it to their friends' Nook, iPhone or iPod touch.

Just like the Kindle, the Nook will also allow users to synchronize books across devices, so that the Nook knows where a users last stopped reading a book on the iPhone, for example.

Judging from the images on the leaked Nook site, it also looks like the device will come in different colors.

As far as eBook standard go, the Nook will support EPUB and PDF documents. In addition, the device can also play MP3 files.

Wireless Connection

Just like Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader Daily Edition, the Nook will also be able to download books wirelessly. To facilitate this, B&N has made a deal with AT&T. Interestingly, Amazon's Kindle International Edition also runs on AT&T's network, though B&N's focus is squarely on the US and we don't expect the company to offer its eBooks and the Nook outside of the US anytime soon.

B&N's eBook Strategy

B&N is adopting an interesting strategy for its eBook store. Unlike Amazon, which only supports the Kindle, B&N supports a multitude of devices, including the iRex DR800SG, the forthcoming Plastic Logic QUE, and various mobile, including the BlackBerry, iPhone and Motorola Cliq. Thanks to a partnership with Google, B&N also gives its users access to over 500,000 public domain books - another feature that is currently not available on the Kindle.

Thanks to the number of features like lending, bookmarking and syncing that the Nook can offer thanks to its tight integration with the B&N store, however, it remains to be seen if users will actually be interested in these third-party devices or if the Nook will simply become the de facto eReader for B&N customers.

Clearly, though, the Nook will put a lot of pressure on Amazon this holiday season. While Amazon could bank on the name recognition of its own brand and the Kindle so far, B&N will surely get a lot of publicity out of this launch and the Nook actually looks like a more interesting device than the current generation of Kindles.

Details from the Press Release

Update: Here are all the details about the Nook from the leaked press release, courtesy of our friends at Engadget:

Product Highlights:

• Try, Then Buy - Once you sample for free, buying ebooks is easy. An entire book downloads wirelessly in seconds. Many bestsellers and new releases are just $9.99.
• No reading glasses required! Choose from 5 different font sizes so you can read with ease. The best-in-class E Ink ® display with a 16-bit gray scale offers great contrast with no glare or backlight making for hours of reading enjoyment.
• Just add an expandable Micro SD card , purchased separately, to add to your nook's 2 GB of internal storage space. Besides your ebooks, magazines and newspapers, add pictures, music, and personal documents. PDFs load directly and look great.
• Sample eBooks for free just about anywhere you are, on us. Browse eBooks, magazines and newspapers on AT&T's 3G Wireless Network or on Wi-Fi. And every Barnes & Noble has free Wi-Fi, so you can connect at lightning fast speeds.
• With 2GB of memory, nook stores up to 1,500 books, newspapers and magazines. Need even more space? Just add a memory card for storage of up to 17,500. An entire library light enough to take with you everywhere, so you'll never be without your favorites.
• Never lose your place. Use the virtual bookmark to bring you back to the last book you've read, right where you left off. If you forget your nook at home and are stuck on a bus, keep on reading with your iPhone™, or BlackBerry®, using our free eReader software.
• You can share nook to nook, but it doesn't stop there. Using the new Barnes & Noble LendMe™ technology... you will be able to lend to and from any iPhone™, iPod touch®, BlackBerry®, PC, or Mac®, with the free Barnes and Noble eReader software downloaded on it.
• Control your nook with an easy-to-use full-color touchscreen, created to work seamlessly with the crisp, clean E Ink ® display. Just use your finger to swipe through titles and tap open your next read.
• Visit the store, turn on your nook, and see what pops up on your screen. It's as simple as that. You will get exclusive content, special discounts and more. And soon, you will be able to read entire eBooks for free at your local Barnes & Noble.

Designed for a Better Reading Experience

• nook feels great in hand and features a contoured, easy-to-hold back. About the size and weight of a paperback book, nook is thin, small and portable. Its best-in-class E Ink® Vizplex™ display is easy on the eyes with text as clear and crisp as a printed book. And with no glare or backlight and adjustable text size, you can read comfortably for hours. Our minimalist design puts the focus on the content, not the technology, welcoming the reader to dive right in.

Color Touch Screen for Easy Navigation

• The first-ever color touch screen for navigation on an eBook reader offers an immersive experience, inviting you to virtually browse through brilliant cover art, flip through an expansive library, or search using a virtual keyboard. The combination of color and touch on the beautiful lower screen make navigating nook intuitive and simple, even for the tech novice. nook presents the controls, navigation and keyboard you need, only when you need them.

Download eBooks Wirelessly

• With fast 3G wireless and Wi-Fi access, nook is the most-connected eBook reader. Browse and instantly download eBooks, magazines and newspapers simply and seamlessly on AT&T's 3G wireless network, the nation's fastest, with no set-up required or additional wireless costs. Connect to the complimentary Wi-Fi, provided by the AT&T Wi-Fi network, in Barnes & Noble stores and download at broadband fast speeds.

Lend eBooks to Friends

• With nook's breakthrough LendMe™ technology, lend a wide selection of eBooks to friends free of charge, for up to 14 days at a time. Just choose the book you want to share and send it to your friend's nook or iPhone, iPod touch, select BlackBerry® and Motorola smartphones, PC or Mac® with Barnes & Noble eReader software.

A Continuous Reading Experience

• With ―Reading Now,‖ your virtual bookmark, nook brings you back to the last book you've read, right where you left off. And it works across a range of devices. If you forgot your nook at home, Barnes & Noble's free eReader software on your iPhone, select BlackBerry and Motorola smartphones or laptop lets you pick up where you left off, including annotations. And when you're reunited with your nook again, the Reading Now page will be updated and ready to go.

Over one million stories. Any time, anywhere.

• Browse and buy from our extensive collection of over one million eBooks, including thousands of free titles, virtually anywhere you are. Get your favorite eBooks, newspapers and magazines, plus exclusive reads from Barnes & Noble, delivered via fast and free wireless, with no PC required.

Portability and Personalization

• You can also easily transfer PDF-format documents from your computer to access and read business documents, legal contracts and travel information on your nook. And transfer your photos to create custom screensavers.

Save Time, Money and Space

• Carry up to 1,500 eBooks using nook's 2GB of memory, and a virtually unlimited library using nook's expandable memory slot, which will hold up to 17,500 eBooks on each 16GB MicroSD card. Buying eBooks is simple and seamless. With just two touches, you'll be able to purchase and download eBooks in seconds. And many bestsellers and new releases are just $9.99, so you can enjoy more for less.

Listen to nook

• Using a standard pair of stereo headphones, plug into nook and listen to your favorite songs (MP3s), uploaded through your computer. Use the headphones or built-in speakers to enjoy listening to audiobooks, podcasts, lectures and more.

Protect Your nook in Style

• nook comes with a removable back cover which you can personalize from a selection of four additional great colors. You can also chose from a range of accessories by renowned designers and brands as kate spade new york, Jack Spade, Jonathan Adler, Tahari and others.

Experience nook at Your Local Barnes & Noble

• Customers will be able to browse complete eBooks for free on nook at any Barnes & Noble store, whether or not the actual book is in stock, beginning later this year. Plus settle into the café and get exclusive in-store-only content, free eBooks, special offers and much more using Barnes & Noble's complimentary WiFi, provided by the AT&T Wi-Fi network.

Images used courtesy of our friends at the WSJ Digits blog who deserve credit for discovering this leak.

The project's lofty goal is to essentially create an open web of books where anyone can publish their books and make their content available via search.

Although still in the early days of development and potentially taking years to complete, the BookServer project will allow search engines to index books from all over the web. What that means for an end user is that you could type a title into a search engine and the engine would return results listing everywhere you could get that book in digital format including online bookstores, libraries, or a direct method from the publisher itself. Depending on your needs, you could borrow the book or purchase it and then download it to your digital device.

While the project isn't exactly a direct effort to take down Amazon's online bookstore or Google's upcoming online eBook store called Google Editions, it will provider book publishers and online libraries with the means to more effectively compete with those companies. By allowing publishers to set their own pricing and manage the distribution of their books, they will be able to take back control from Amazon and Google who would rather dictate those terms for them.

An Open Marketplace for eBooks

A secondary goal of BookServer's open system is to fight back against the proprietary marketplaces, such as Amazon's Kindle Store, where books are only sold in a copyright-protected format (.AZW) that only works on the company's eReader device, the Kindle. Elsewhere, some book sellers use other proprietary formats, others use the open ePub format, and still others distribute books as Adobe PDFs. For consumers, this multitude of choices only leads to confusion. People don't know what formats their particular device can read or where to get them. It brings to mind the similar issues consumers have had with digitally distributed music. To this day, many are still confused about whether their iTunes purchased music can play on other devices or whether tunes purchased from other online MP3 stores will play on their iPods.

While Google promises its Google Editions store will allow anyone to access digital books as long as they have a web browser and internet access, it's still unknown at this time how the company plans to make the digital content available offline. Will it require the use of special web browser plugins to do so? Until Google reveals more about the technical details, it is not possible to know how truly open their online store will be. And even if their store is 100% open, they are still a company whose ultimate goal is to profit from their work of digitizing books. BookServer's goal, on the other hand, is to provide universal access to book data made available in open formats.

Today, a few booksellers have partnered with the BookServer system including Feedbooks, O'Reilly, Adobe, and the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project.

Now, finally, the Apple/Palm war seems to have ended. With the latest update to Palm Pre's webOS software, the company has come up with a new tactic altogether: forget about iTunes, use Amazon instead.

The back-and-forth between Apple and Palm was getting ugly. A cat and mouse game transpired involving hacks, crippling updates from Apple, and then re-hacks from Palm which did nothing for either company's image. Some felt that Apple had every right to protect their software from being used with other devices - after all, if something went wrong with Pre syncing, consumers could easily blame Apple's software for the troubles. They may even call in for support, not understanding that Apple wouldn't be able to handle issues arising from the use of a competitor's hardware.

Others, however, felt that Apple should open up. With their dominance over the entire digital media player industry, keeping their proprietary software a closed system was a way to make sure that no up-and-comers could ever have a shot at becoming a popular alternative to the iPod or iPhone. Palm, of course, felt this way, too. They complained to the USB-IF saying that consumers should have a right to decide how they use the media they purchase. That is, if they bought content from iTunes, they should be able to sync it to the Pre.

The USB-IF did not agree, though. They sent letters to both companies explaining that Palm's use of Apple's USB vendor code actually violated the group's rules and would need to end. Clearly, Palm lost this round, too - but don't count them out just yet.

Palm Releases webOS 1.2

Yesterday, Palm released an update of the Pre software, webOS. While most of the reporting surrounding the new OS involved the important update which brings paid applications to the Pre's App Catalog, another under-reported feature is actually just as (if not more) important. The Pre now lets you download over-the-air from Amazon's MP3 Store.

According to the Official Palm Blog, the Amazon integration now works over both WAN or Wi-Fi, meaning that you don't need to be hooked up to a PC via USB to purchase music on your Pre. You can do so directly from the device, just like Apple iPod Touch and iPhone users can do through Apple's mobile iTunes Store. Although the iTunes experience overall may have been the preferable option for many users, Amazon at least provides a viable alternative for Pre owners. Amazon's online catalog may still be a few million short of that of Apple's, but often their prices are much more affordable thanks to daily deals and albums that start at $4.99.

While Palm hasn't officially responded to the USB-IF's letter - despite being told they had to do so within a week - it seems that they have, without actually saying so, made their decision. The latest update's release notes do not mention iTunes syncing, and, as many expected, it has not been re-enabled.

It looks like Palm Pre has given up the fight for good, now betting entirely on Amazon. The company's original plan to sync with iTunes was a calculated risk and one which now leaves consumers holding the short end of the stick. How many Pre owners bought the Pre because it synced with iTunes? How many are angry or disappointed because it doesn't now? It may have been better if Palm never went this route to begin with and worked on making the Amazon integration the key selling point from day one. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20. However, their decision may end up having a major impact on the company's future, considering they've essentially bet the farm on webOS, ending support for devices running both the original Palm OS and Windows Mobile. Will giving up on iTunes impact device sales for the struggling company? Or will extricating themselves from this nasty war with Apple end up being the best thing they could have done?

Focus on Narration

As Brainshark's CEO Joe Gustafson and David Klein, the company's product director, pointed out when we talked to them last week, today's presentations at conferences or business meetings either include too much information per slide or consist of nothing more than just a few words and images per slide. While it is great that a lot of speakers make their presentations available after a public talk, most of these slides mean very little without the narration of the presenter. By giving presenters a wide range of options to add narration to their slides and to add videos and other documents, myBrainshark hopes to bring this context back to these disembodied presentations.

In comparison with Slideshare, myBrainshark is more flexible when it comes to how a presentation can be organized. Inside your presentation, you can easily switch back and forth between documents (Brainshark supports Office 2003 and 2007) and videos, for example. A Brainshark presentation doesn't even have to include a PowerPoint file - you can also use the service to voice-annotate a whitepaper, for example, or to narrate that exciting Excel spreadsheet you worked on all weekend long.

Focus on Professionals

While the company is mostly targeting business users - something that's clearly in Brainshark's DNA - users can also easily create a photo slideshow with the service. While Brainshark is marketing this feature as an opportunity for real-estate agents to showcase their offerings, nobody is going to stop you from putting up a narrated slideshow of your latest family picnic, either.

Selling Presentations

MyBrainshark also gives professionals the ability to sell their presentations. While anybody can register for a free account, Brainshark will give professionals the opportunity to go through a vetting process and then sell their presentations on the site. One example currently available on the service is a presentation about sexual harassment prevention for managers, which is selling for $15. These professionals (Brainshark calls them 'Learning Providers') can set their own prices for these presentations.

Verdict

Overall, the fact that Brainshark has been in this business for 10 years clearly shows in the product, which is very polished. Even though it only offers a subset of the features available in Brainshark's enterprise product, myBrainshark still offers more features and flexibility than most other online presentation services.

Greenwood's biggest complaint about MP3s was not quality or sound compression, but rather abundance. He suggests that MP3s make it far too easy for fans to hoard music without "giving it their full attention". In a recent Pitchfork article Eric Harvey suggests the opposite. Says Harvey, "The mp3 may have atomized music into millions of little pieces, but each piece, it seems, found a publicist. The average music fan now has the built-in capacity to double as promoter and distributor in an ever-expanding arena that's making and eliminating rules every minute."

Whether you see them as hoarders or promoters, one thing is certain, the iPod generation is changing how music is consumed. But if they can't depend on tiered pricing for audio quality, how can companies monetize the new music fan? While a Stanford study suggests that the iPod generation prefers the flat sound of an MP3, it doesn't mean today's listeners aren't willing to pay for their music. According to an NPD Group report purchasers of digital music downloads increased by 29% last year with iTunes controlling a quarter of all music sold. Some of the ways fans still generate revenue for bands include streaming music subscriptions, track and album purchases, concerts tickets, merchandise and paid application downloads.

Update, Ed: there can be a big difference in audio quality of MP3s promoted on the Web. For example the quality varied greatly between Radiohead's In Rainbows album and Saul Williams' album (promoted by Trent Reznor). See Kim Gaskins' post on the new Latitude Research blog Life Connected for further analysis.

Photos taken from Dead Air Space

$99 Is the New $199

In an earlier report, Rotman Epps argued that breaking the $199-barrier would be a major breakthrough for the eReader market and would allow these devices to become mainstream. Now it looks like $99 might actually be the point where eReader would become an impulse buy for the majority of consumers.

The good news for eReader manufacturers, however, is that those who intend to buy an eReader within the next six months are willing to pay up to $159 and those who actually already own one are even willing to pay over $250. A bargain price for eReaders for both of these groups would around $100, though.

Price Inevitably Comes Down

When it comes to consumer electronics, prices always come down in the long run, and we will surely see a similar trend for eReaders. For now, manufacturing costs for eReaders are still relatively high, but publishers could subsidize eReaders through a subscription model, for example.

It is clear, though, as Rotman Epps points out, that most consumers don't put a lot of value on these devices yet and that prices will have to come down substantially. Even then, Rotman Epps argues, eReaders will never be as popular as MP3 players because the majority of consumers "don't care enough about reading or technology to invest in this type of single-purpose device at anything close to realistic prices."

According to this report, PC penetration will reach its saturation point by 2013, though a growing number of households will continue to install home networks.

Interestingly, Forrester found that young families are the most enthusiastic consumers when it comes to adopting new technologies. They are more likely to own a Blu-ray player, for example, than any other group, including young singles. They are also more likely to own a game console (especially a Wii) or a mobile phone that can play music and videos.

Older singles and couples without children get left behind here. They are less likely to own any of these gadgets and only 73% of them actually own PCs.

In many ways, it makes sense that young families are leading the charge when it comes to adopting new technologies. After all, the parents are likely to have grown up with the Internet and mobile technology as essential parts of their daily lives. As Jacqueline Anderson, the author of this report, points out in an interview with the New York Times, this group is also more likely to buy digital camcorders and cameras so that they can chronicle their children's early years.

Online

When it comes to the Internet, young singles and couples, according to Forrester, are still the most connected group. They represent about 49 million adults in the US and 87% of them are online. They also spend more time online than any other group (16.6 hours). At the same time, these young singles and couples are also more likely to bypass regular TV service and home phone service altogether.

We would have expected older families (over 40 with kids younger than 18) to be somewhat less connected, but 84% of these families are online and 2 out of three have a broadband connection at home. As expected, however, these families tend to spend more time with traditional media sources than younger families, which probably explains why this group is more interested in purchasing high-definition TVs than others.

Internet users over 40 who are either single or empty-nesters - a total of 101 million adults - use the Internet and new technologies less for entertainment. Instead, this group focuses on using services that provide immediate and obvious benefits, including online shopping.

A few more stats from this report we found interesting:

• only 4% of US households plan to get a DVR in the next six months
• 83% of those who own a camera phone also own a digital camera and 26% of those own more than one camera
• for older couples and families, traditional media still remains important, but for families and singles under 40, new media use (in terms of hours spent per week) has now surpassed traditional media
• more than 70% of older singles and couples without children read local newspapers in print or online; only about 45% of young singles do so
• young singles and couples without children are 25% more likely to buy Apple laptops and 15% more likely to purchase an Apple desktop than other groups

Methodology

All of this data is based on a survey Forrester conducted by mail in February and March 2009. In total, 53,668 households in the US and Canada responded. The data was weighed by age, gender, household income, household size, education level, region, and market size.]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/young_families_are_now_the_early_adopters.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/young_families_are_now_the_early_adopters.php News Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:30:56 -0800 Frederic Lardinois This is part 1 of a three-part series on the fundamental characteristics of the real-time Web.

Like cloud computing less than a year ago and social networking two years ago, the real-time Web is the new black on the tech circuit. The trend has been publicly bandied about this summer, starting with a few industry get-togethers, followed by several enthusiastic testimonials from investors (notably angel investor Ron Conway's widely posted list of ways for Twitter to monetize). It was then capped by a glowing report in BusinessWeek in early August.

The trend is not with Twitter alone. Just as the social Web was more than Friendster, then MySpace, and now Facebook, the real-time Web is more than just 140 characters bursts about what your friends and acquaintances are thinking and doing. The number of people using Twitter (44.5 million in June 2009) and the purchase of FriendFeed by Facebook for $47.5 million are eye-opening figures alone, but the number of independent developers building on top of and alongside the Twitter platform make it something worthy of close attention. Unlike the social networking space, these are not "Me too" networks or a mess of widget applications. The depth and breadth of the problems that independent developers are addressing are clear evidence that a serious trend has formed, one with significant implications for both the technological infrastructure of the Web and for the companies that rely on the Web.

As with other recent waves of innovation (Web 2.0 and cloud computing, for example) there is no single definition of what the term "real-time Web" means. As a result, it is used as a catch-all phrase for a number of developments underway. At this point, we can identify that the real-time Web...

1. is a new form of communication,
2. creates a new body of content,
3. is real time,
4. is public and has an explicit social graph associated with it,
5. carries an implicit model of federation.

A New Form of Communication

One obvious way of looking at Twitter is as a new form of communication, with its own protocols and ways of doing things, and with similarities to instant messaging (IM) and email. The timing of communications on it is near synchronous (i.e. it is a continuous stream of up-to-date messages), and its tone is conversational and authentic (marketing messages and ghost tweeting are frowned upon, at least for now). Like IM, email, texting, and even the telephone, technical constraints (in this case, a 140-character limit) create a rather special conversational structure, giving Twitter-speak its own distinct mode of communication.

This arbitrary limit also simplifies its usage, which has had a tremendous effect on the adoption rate. For one, the limit makes it easy for adopters to pick up the general etiquette, and thus the barrier to participate is much lower than it is for most things tech. Plus, the technology threshold is low: no authoring software or templates (as one might have for a blog) are needed, nor do you have to create an extensive profile, as you do with social networking. Figures suggests that many independent bloggers, especially in technology, media, and political sectors, have dramatically reduced their blogging schedules, preferring instead to publish their thoughts, or refer to the thoughts of others, in 140-character segments throughout the day, rather than regularly come up with 500-word blog posts.

One consequence of the 140-character limit (and a key reason why the real-time stream is so easily adaptable to other uses) is that messages are largely atomic in nature. Each refers to an individual item: a thought, link, event, product, person, or company. They also typically contain some evaluative or emotional component, such as "Look at X because it's cool or interesting" or "I support Y" or "I disagree" or "this is no good."

This discrete nature of Twitter messages means that items, and the sentiments attached to them, can be extracted and then aggregated, allowing us to measure the activity being generated around a particular subject and, in some cases, the general feeling about it. This is not unlike the way buy-and-sell orders signal interest in a stock; but in this case, any popular subject matter can be tracked. In combination with other factors, this discrete nature and emotional component allow for some interesting usage and applications.

This deconstruction of content is not limited to Twitter. The movement to expose underlying data and make it more actionable is gaining momentum across industries and platforms. One example is the move to report financial data in XBRL format (eXtensible Business Reporting Language). Another is the growing use of microformats and RDFa, which are small patterns of HTML that represent data on commonly published subjects on Web pages, such as people, events, blog topics, reviews, and tags. Twitter's character limit and accessibility, however, are the simplest and most recognized example of how elements of connected data can provide value both individually and in aggregate.

The Power of Constraints

One of the more magical aspects of Twitter is that it reminds us that arbitrary constraints can have a liberating and profound effect on creativity. It sounds counter-intuitive, but coming up with a host of examples doesn't take long. If a group of high school students were given the choice between writing an essay about their summer vacation or writing a 300-word essay on the funniest thing that happened in the last three weeks, we could easily guess which would get their pens moving faster and lead to more imaginative results.

Poetry shows a similar relationship between constraint and inspiration. Whether having to keep to a certain meter or follow a particular rhyming scheme, poets come up with turns of phrases and ideas that they might not have otherwise happened upon if they did not need to fit words into a pattern. The limitations also give them license to play with language in a way that would not make sense or be valued in other modes. The same goes for music, with its meter and form, and even TV shows and movies, whose time restrictions and story constraints can make for enjoyable, funny, scary, or moving experiences.

A New Body of Content

Another characteristic of the real-time Web is that it gives the world a new body of content, one that, unlike IM or email's, is largely public. Plus the underlying APIs allow third parties to make use of the data through programs, thus extending the reach of the content. (Only 20% of Twitter traffic comes from the site itself. The other 80% comes from users accessing the platform through APIs.) Ron Conway and other proponents of the real-time Web see this new body of content as a great opportunity for investment, with the potential for companies to shape, extend, present, and amplify it in any number of ways.

On the surface, people consume this body of content simply by reading messages from people they follow. Much like a stock ticker, these messages scroll across whatever client they use to access it. When it first launched -- without the scale, celebrities, and business leaders -- many people failed to see the value of this mode of interaction. It was interesting, but not compelling. Now with its scale, the personalities using it, and a better general understanding of how to use it (less about your breakfast, more insight, reaction, and commentary), the channels have become fascinating -- overwhelming if you follow a lot of people, but fascinating nonetheless.

The tipping point in Twitter's adoption rate came when its stream became searchable. This happened in July 2008, when Twitter purchased a tiny search company called Summize and renamed it Twitter Search. The acquisition made it easier for users and third parties to pull specific words and tags from the Twitter stream.

This new capability revealed another layer of value, because it enabled people to access particular threads of information. Users could now search for other users, words, and specific topics. An example from earlier this summer was the aggregation of the steady stream of messages about the green revolution in Iran. With APIs, we could create filters to keep constant track of a person, item, or topic. Real-time search and filtering are still primitive, though, and a tremendous effort is being made to improve them. As one investor puts it, a lot of investment is being made "to build filters that give you only the portion of the firehose that makes sense to you."

Content in digital format is not really new. We saw this with early Web pages, then MP3s, blogs, videos, social network profiles, and so on. The difference is accessibility. Web pages have to be crawled and indexed, which limit the derivative use and retransmission of their data. RSS provided a revolutionary way to syndicate content and made it much easier to process by machine. The accessibility of the Twitter stream via APIs extends this syndication idea even further by providing much greater immediacy and fidelity. As Twitter and third parties introduce better filtering mechanisms, that stream and, by extension, other content formats on the Web will be able to be more effectively harnessed and extended.

Inside Baseball Twitter

More advanced uses of Twitter, such as retweeting, direct messaging, and thread tagging, make it a bit more of an insider's game, but even their limits makes them not all that difficult to pick up. The interesting thing is that these uses (RT for retweet, @username for mentions, and #keyword for hash tags) can be followed mechanically and used to capture these derivative streams.

Read part 2 of this series.

Guest author: Ken Fromm is a serial entrepreneur who has been active during both the Internet and Web 2.0 innovation cycles. He co-founded two companies, Vivid Studios, one of the first interactive agencies, and Loomia, one of the top recommendation, discovery, and personalization companies. He has worked at the leading edge of recommendations and personalization, interactive development, e-commerce and online advertising, semantic technologies and information interoperability, digital publishing, and digital telephony. He is currently advising a number of startups and looking at the next big thing in Web 3.0. He can be found on Twitter at @frommww.

Everybody Now Offers Wireless Syncing

While wireless syncing and book delivery may not be that important to every potential eReader user, it did give Amazon a major leg up in marketing its Kindle and Kindle DX. In a month or two, this advantage will be gone. Amazon's competitors also offer more stylish devices, and some of the upcoming new eReaders will also offer touch screens - another feature that Amazon's Kindle doesn't currently offer.

EBook Price is Now the Same Everywhere, But Sony Supports Downloads From Local Library

In terms of pricing, Sony will soon offer an eReader for $199, which will put a lot of pressure on Amazon - though Sony's cheapest device will not offer wireless capabilities. As for books, prices everywhere are converging around a reasonable $9.99, the price Amazon pioneered as the default price for bestsellers in its Kindle store.

What's even more exciting is that eReader users will soon be able to borrow eBooks from their local libraries. Sony just announced a partnership with OverDrive, which supplies eBook technology to over 9,000 libraries. Amazon doesn't offer a similar program (yet).

Amazon's Problem: The Kindle is Closed

What's giving Amazon's competitors a major advantage right now is that their devices are far more open than the Kindle. As Slate's Farhad Manjoo points out, Sony and company could still be far more open and do away with all copyright restrictions. But at least you will be able to move your books to different devices, even though Sony still uses the standard EPUB format with a DRM wrapper, for example. Amazon's proprietary format, on the other hand, doesn't allow you to move your Kindle eBook to your new Sony Reader, for example.

For now, most publishers are still wary about releasing books without copyright DRM. We can only assume that the book publishing industry will go through a similar cycle as the music industry, however, and that DRMed eBooks will also go the way of DRMed MP3s.

The eBook market is still young. For now, Amazon's only other advantage over its competitors is that it currently has a lot of momentum among early adopters. But, as Forrester Research's Sarah Rotman Epps argued in a recent report, as eBooks move into the mainstream, late adopters may not feel the same loyalty towards Amazon that early adopters had.

Of course, Amazon could still come out with a new eReader and a more open strategy. But for now, it doesn't look like Amazon is planning to change its strategy anytime soon, and we haven't heard any news (or even rumors) of a new Kindle for quite a while. If Amazon doesn't watch out, it could soon be left behind, because other eBook vendors and hardware manufacturers offer a more open and attractive platform for publishers and users.

We first looked at the Republic Project in February this year, when it was still in closed beta with only a handful of artists, including Tim Myers, Dexter Freebish, Steriogram, and Still Time. During the beta period, the service provided a lot of help to these bands, but now that the site will be open to all bands, this amount of hand-holding won't scale and bands will have to use the project's self-service tools to manage their accounts. Bands will get a widget that they can put on their site or MySpace page to bring fans to their Republic Project site. On the service, they will be able to upload new videos, track orders, and set the price for their albums and a release date.

When we talked to Republic Project CEO Ryan Swagar yesterday, he stressed that the project is now open for everybody, no matter the size of their fan base or style of music. Bands can set the price for their albums anywhere from $2.99 to $9.99. All of this money will go directly to the band. In addition, the Republic Project will charge fans a fixed $1.99 transaction fee. Swagar also noted that bands don't have to produce full albums but could also use the service while they're in the studio to record just a few songs.

Focus on Video

Of course, bands are free to upload as much or as little content during the pre-release phase as they want, though to make the best use of the service, we would expect bands to update their fans at least once every couple of days. The Republic Project will hold all the money it collects from fans in escrow, just in case a band never actually finishes an album.

Once an album is finished and all the music is uploaded to the service, the band flips a switch and the finished music goes out to all the fans. At the same time, though, the band's site on the service will shut down and the band can sell its final product anywhere else as well. The service does not plan to become a full-blown music retailer and won't sell any of the tracks after the album is finished.

From what we have seen so far, we think the Republic Project looks like a great idea that is very well executed. We are also not aware of any other company that currently provides these services. The Republic Project fills a niche for both musicians and bands and it will be exciting to watch how bands use the service over the next couple of months.