American Idol now on iTunes

Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Interactive Media, 19 Entertainment, FremantleMedia and Apple, for the first time, have partnered to bring music fans all of the contestant performances from Season Seven of television’s most popular show exclusively on the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com). Kicking off with the “American Idol” Top 24 semifinalists this week, customers can purchase music performances for 99 cents per song, and viewers will be able to purchase the full video of Top 12 finalist performances for $1.99, starting March 11. In addition, beginning today, fans can pre-order performances of their favorite contestants from the iTunes Store, which will be automatically downloaded the day after the show airs.

“We have some truly outstanding talent this year, and by working with Apple and iTunes, we’re giving viewers another great way to enjoy America’s brightest new stars from ‘Idol,’” said Simon Fuller, creator of “American Idol” and Founder of 19 Entertainment. “I’m sure there will be many memorable performances that viewers will want to relive from this 2008 season.”

“We’ve created a special section on the iTunes Store for ‘Idol’ fans with an incredible array of music and video performances from television’s most popular show,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We think ‘American Idol’ viewers are going to love the ability to purchase and download ‘Idol’ performances from iTunes.”

iTunes will also provide exclusive direct links from the free streaming performance videos on americanidol.com (www.americanidol.com), the official website of the show and home to MyIdol, the Internet’s largest “American Idol” fan site. Fans will be able to simply click through to iTunes if they want to purchase their favorite performances to own and enjoy on their iPod, iPhone™ or Apple TV.

The iTunes Store is the world’s most popular online music store with over four billion songs sold, and has the world’s largest catalog with over six million songs. With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as new iTunes Movie Rentals, integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, the ability to turn previously purchased tracks into complete albums at a reduced price, and seamless integration with iPod and iPhone, the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.

Pricing & Availability
iTunes 7.6 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download from www.itunes.com. Purchase and download of songs and videos from the iTunes Store requires a valid credit card from a financial institution in the country of purchase. American Idol music and video content is available in the US and Canada only. Music performances are 99 cents (US) and video performances are $1.99 (US) per episode and can be viewed on a Mac or PC, iPod nano with video, iPod classic, fifth generation iPod, iPod touch, iPhone or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV.

Google gains 40% search overnight!

With 4 out 10 phones beeing sold by Nokia, its pure math that Google will gain 40% more search on the mobile platform as they enter a collaboration on mobile search.

Nokia and Google today announced that Google’s popular search engine will be integrated with the Nokia Search application.  The integration will begin in select markets with the Nokia N96, Nokia N78, Nokia 6210 Navigator and Nokia 6220 classic. Google search will be extended to additional Nokia handset models in the future. Ultimately, Nokia will make Google search available to its customers in over 100 countries around the world, serving mobile owners speaking more than 40 languages.

Nokia Search, now with Google, offers fast and easy access to web information from the handset.  In addition, Nokia Search also makes it possible for users to search content on their device and use local search engines for a complete search experience.   Nokia Search is available on many devices and provides direct access with one click from the active standby screen, saving users time and steps in their searching.  Once users have found the information they are seeking, Nokia Search enables users to act on that information by engaging device assets such as maps, messaging or the browser with just one click.

The collaboration announced today builds on previous cooperation between Nokia and Google. Google search has previously been available on Nokia Internet tablets, and last year the Nokia N95 8GB became the first mobile device to fully support YouTube, the video-sharing platform owned by Google.

Nokia Search is available on more than 40 Nokia devices in over 40 languages and in more than 100 countries. For the latest list of compatible Nokia devices, please visit www.mobilesearch.nokia.com

TomTom personalize online content

TomTom launches online Content-Sharing Platform through TomTom HOME

Users can seamlessly download, upload and share content with other members of the TomTom satnav community for free.

TomTom just launched the industry’s first content-sharing platform for TomTom devices that allows users to easily download, upload and share a wealth of navigation content with other users for free.  The content available to share and download will offer something for everyone from personalised start-up images, to warning sounds to funny voices and more. 

The platform will be made available on the latest version of TomTom HOME, which has been unveiled for both PC and MAC users. This new version is available from today and has been designed to bring new levels of personalisation to the navigation experience of the entire TomTom community.

The content-sharing platform comes fully integrated into the new version of TomTom HOME, is easy-to-use and requires no separate installation.  Users simply connect their device to their computer, launch TomTom HOME and select the type of content that interests them. Within each area the user will see a list of content supplied either by TomTom, a third party or individual TomTom customers.  They simply click on the “add” button to install the content onto their TomTom device. To upload and share content, users simply fill in a short description of the content and can then easily transfer the item from their device to TomTom HOME.

Nice extras
Symbolising the importance of user-generated content, users can rate content via a star system, as well as sort it by how it’s rated by the TomTom community.  Additionally, TomTom HOME will automatically distribute any updates to existing content, for example if someone updates a POI set of favourite restaurants, their changes would automatically be sent out to TomTom HOME users who have previously downloaded that set.

New Map Share features
In addition to the content-sharing platform, the new version of TomTom HOME features new management improvements to Map Share, TomTom’s patented map improvement technology.  Now users can limit the corrections they download by country or region, enabling those with limited memory space on their device to use Map Share more selectively.  Additionally, Map Share now features a status indicator which keeps users informed on how up to date their maps are. 

The full portfolio of content available to share and download includes:
• Personalised Images: For the driver that wants to express their individuality, TomTom offers a database of images appear that users can have appear on the touch screen of a TomTom device when it is turned on or shut down.  Drivers can access loads of pictures from the image of a cowboy riding off into the sun, to the logo of their favourite automotive brand.
• Vehicle Icons: One of TomTom’s most popular content offerings allows the driver to choose a variety of different car models and colours on the touch screen (ranging from a classic 1960’s sedan to a modern hot pink car) to symbolise their exact place on the road
• Warning Sounds: To alert drivers to any number of situations on their journey, such as the close proximity of a safety camera or their favourite POI (anything from a museum to the best scuba diving site), drivers can choose from sounds that include an airplane taking off to the sound of an elephant!
• Funny Voices: A full database of funny navigation voices to take the boredom out of travelling are available on the TomTom content-sharing platform. Drivers can install different navigation voices, including the real John Cleese and blunt sports team coaches!
• Colour Schemes: TomTom users can install new colour schemes directly onto their TomTom device to suit individual taste in colours or they can even choose to have the main colours on the navigation screen reflect the colours of their national flag. 
• Map Overlays: Drivers can create their own maps and overlay them onto the map that comes with their TomTom device.  Examples of overlays that people could create are walking routes, maps of large exhibition halls, or amusement parks.
• POI’s:  A huge set of POI’s (Points of Interest) is available on the TomTom content-sharing platform that will enrich every driver’s navigation experience.  POI’s range from golf courses to internet hot spots to coffee shops.
• Routes: A large and growing number of free routes available for most Western European countries can be found on TomTom HOME.  The routes are from the best sources (mostly well-known motor magazines and websites) but also people from the TomTom community can create and share their favourite routes.
• Content will continue to be added. The platform can be found at: www.tomtom.com/home/personalise-device.

Create your own online auction for $40 with iSale 5

equinux has just released the fifth generation of its award-winning online auction management solution, iSale. iSale 5 offers all Mac users a way to flexibly create and manage their online eBay auctions. The Template Editor allows each of the 222 templates, included with iSale, to be easily edited to fit the user’s needs. Additionally, iSale 5 simplifies the search for product information and pictures for your auctions and can import product details from your database.

Import and search for product information

With the new Research Assistant, product descriptions can be easily taken from FileMaker databases and Delicious Library and then added to an auction per mouse click. Additional plug-ins allow you to research product information, as well as pictures, using Google, Amazon, the ISBN Database (for books) and any other website a user might wish to use. The Research Assistant saves all of the information it collects in a folder, so it can easily be copied and pasted into your auctions.

“All iSale users will greatly benefit from the new version. iSale 5 not only gives you the possibility to manage and create your auctions, but it now also shortens the time it takes to look up information about the items you’re selling,” says equinux CEO Till Schadde. “iSale 5 is the most powerful and comprehensive online auction management software that equinux has ever released. iSale 5 includes an all-new Template Editor that allows users to edit over 200 iSale templates and save them under Favorites.

Manage and Archive Auctions

Anyone who wants to let his contacts know about any upcoming auctions, can post running auctions on his Facebook profile. And iSale 5 makes it possible to manage multiple libraries, allowing users to archive old auctions.

Full power with Mac OS X

iSale 5 takes full advantage of new functions and capabilities in Leopard. The user interface reflects the style and design of Leopard, as well as the other features from Leopard that seamlessly integrate into iSale. iSale 5 used the systemwide Calendar system so users can manage their deadlines and the QuickLook preview allows all users to find any auction with Finder. To benefit from all of the new features, iSale 5 requires Mac OS X 10.5.

Prices and Availability

Upgrades for iSale 5 are available starting today for $19.95. And all customers, that purchased their iSale license after December 15th, 2007 can upgrade for free at my.equinux.com. Full version of iSale 5 are available, starting at $39.95.

Its official Amazon to Begin International Rollout of Amazon MP3 in 2008

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced that in 2008 the company will begin an international rollout of Amazon MP3, Amazon’s DRM-free MP3 digital music store where every song is playable on virtually any digital music-capable device, including the PC, Mac(R), iPod(R), Zune(R), Zen(R), iPhone(TM), RAZR(TM), and BlackBerry(R). Amazon MP3 is the only retailer to offer customers DRM-free MP3s from all four major music labels as well as over 33,000 independent labels.

“We have received thousands of e-mails from Amazon customers around the world asking us when we will make Amazon MP3 available outside of the U.S. They can’t wait to choose from the biggest selection of high-quality, low-priced DRM-free MP3 music downloads which play on virtually any music device they own today or will own in the future,” said Bill Carr, Amazon.com Vice President of Digital Music. “We are excited to tell those customers today that Amazon MP3 is going international this year.”

Launched on Amazon.com in September 2007, Amazon MP3 offers Earth’s Biggest Selection of a la carte DRM-free MP3 music downloads, which now includes over 3.3 million songs from more than 270,000 artists. Every song and album in the Amazon MP3 music download store is available exclusively in the MP3 format without digital rights management (DRM) software and is encoded at 256 kbps to deliver high audio quality. Amazon MP3 customers are free to enjoy their music downloads using any hardware device; organize their music using any music management application, such as iTunes(R) or Windows Media Player(TM); and burn songs to CDs for personal use.

Most songs available on Amazon MP3 are priced from 89 cents to 99 cents, with more than 1 million of the over 3.3 million songs priced at 89 cents. The top 100 bestselling songs are 89 cents, unless marked otherwise. Most albums are priced from $5.99 to $9.99. The top 100 bestselling albums are $8.99 or less, unless marked otherwise. Buying and downloading MP3s from Amazon MP3 is easy. Customers can purchase downloads using Amazon 1-Click shopping, and with the Amazon MP3 Downloader, seamlessly add their MP3s to their iTunes(R) or Windows Media Player(TM) libraries.

The company is not disclosing a specific launch timeline for individual Amazon international websites.