Monopoly iPod Game Review

Macgirl's been playing Monopoly non-stop the last week to bring you this review. Find out how it stacks up against the board game original. And yes, it still takes a long time to play:

MiND TV and the future of television

The iTunes store, YouTube, and other online outlets are quickly changing the landscape of television/video. However, cable and broadcast television aren't going away overnight. The public's new-found appeal for short-form content could just end up being perfect for television.

We had a chance to interview Howard J. Blumenthal, CEO of MiND TV, the new mind programming concept of WYBE in Philadelphia:

The New Napster: What You Need To Know

Not content with their subscription service, (although maybe that's what they really want to you to get.. more in a moment) Napster has announced it's own music download service. And, get this... individual tracks are $.99 with most albums being $9.99 Here's the skinny:

Pros:
Library of 6 million songs
Great sounding / quick previews
Previews automatically go into the next track, allowing you yo easily preview the entire album.
iPod Compatible, and great sounding DRM-free 256 kbps MP3's.

But it's certainly not all good..

Cons:
Not Safari compatible
Doesn't interface with iTunes like the Amazon store
The interface feels cluttered.

But probably the most bothersome part to me, and the most Windows-ish feature for those of us who try to avoid such things, is the signup process.

Here's a look at the first page:

Seems harmless enough: Enter a username and password, and continue to the next page:

Notice anything odd? The only two account preferences are for the two types of subscription services, which are only nominally Mac compatible. (these songs won't play on the iPod, for example.) So now what do you do? The only two options are streaming accounts. but if you back out of this screen, and return to the main interface, you'll discover that you're now a "Light" member.

It feels slimy to only have two streaming options to choose from, essentially cancel out of that screen, only to discover you now have an account anyhow.

The selection and sound quality are great, but like most iTunes competitors, the user experience is sorely lacking. This store is definitely a distant third to iTunes and Amazon, and all the songs in the world can't make up for that.

Free NBC shows on the iPhone.. What is NBC Thinking?

In a somewhat under-reported development (we're doing our part) Gizmodo announced that full episodes of "30 Rock" and "The Office" are now available for streaming on the iPhone (and iPod touch) for free. Without ads. If you want to give it a try, just head to nbc.com on the iPhone, and you'll be re-directed to the iPhone site, then click on the videos tab.

Bear in mind this is the same NBC that pulled its catalog from the iTunes Music Store, and also just signed an agreement to bring the content to the Zune for a price. The video, by the way, looks bad. As in worse than Youtube bad, and there seem to be severe issues with audio sync. You get what you pay for, I suppose. The question is, why would you pull your catalog of content that people were happy to give you money for, then offer it up in free, bad resolution? You're not hurting Apple, as people now have a new (albeit ridiculously small) reason to buy an iPhone, and not pay for your content.

The melding of old-school media companies and new technology continues to be a topsy-turvy affair...

TDL Live: This week's Apple news and rumors (5/5/08)

In case you missed it, things got a little wacky during the Cinco De Mayo Live show. Enjoy our look at all the Apple news and rumors this week!