In the furthest reaches of India’s rural heartland, the cellphone is bringing something that television, radio and even newspapers couldn’t deliver: Instant access to music, information, entertainment, news and even worship.

Despite its rapid modernization, many of India’s 750,000 villages remain isolated except for the cellphone reception that now blankets almost the entire country after a decade of rapid expansion by operators. So in villages that don’t receive any FM radio stations, people have begun calling a number that has a recording of Bollywood tunes and listening to it on their headsets.

This primitive cellular “radio” service was used by close to 20 million Indians last year, phone company executives estimate.

“I call it the poor man’s iTunes,” says Mahesh Prasad, president of Reliance Communications Ltd., one of India’s largest cellular companies. “A villager waiting for a bus has nothing to do. When he wants to kill some time, this is the only entertainment media available.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Starbucks (SBUX) is launching a store-finding and menu-information application for the iPhone, and is testing a second app that will let customers use the phone as their Starbucks card.

The two apps are the coffee chain’s first for the iPhone and iPod touch. It has previously offered mobile services, such as the ability to send a text message to locate a nearby store, and has worked with Apple (AAPL) to make in-store songs available through iTunes.

The apps resulted from customer feedback it received via social-networking sites and My Starbucks Idea, the online community it launched last year, said Stephen Gillett, its chief information officer. “We think it’s really talking to our customers in new ways.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

So here’s the thing about the smartphone market: there are way too many of them.

The year 2010, JMP Securities analyst Samuel Wilson asserted in a report this morning, “should be the year of the shakeout in smartphones.” He believes most of the market share and carrier focus will consolidate around three vendors. His view is that two of the winners “have effectively already been chosen.” In that group he includes Research In Motion (RIMM), “already a leader with its strong market presence” with a focus on the enterprise, and Apple (AAPL), driven by the App Store, iTunes and a strong Web browser.

So who will take the third slot?

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The “iTunes LP” is just one of the many new iTunes features revealed yesterday during Apple’s announcement at their “It’s Only Rock and Roll”-themed event. But the iTunes LP, unlike the other new features which get to exist as simple and fun enhancements in iTunes 9, has a heavy burden on its shoulders.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

So Apple (AAPL) announced a new iPod lineup on Wednesday.

I think they botched it, and in doing so, they showed very un-Apple-like cracks in the product lineup. Here’s why…

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Though technically he returned to work two months ago, it was as the host of Wednesday’s Apple (AAPL) music event that Steve Jobs publicly retook the reins of the company he founded.

Jobs was the first person to emerge on stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts here to open the now-annual September iPod introduction.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Eight months ago David Papazian was on top of the world. His company, Mobigame, had just released its first videogame for the iPhone. In the space of just a few weeks it had won two prestigious awards. The past two years of early mornings, late nights and tireless endeavour were set to pay off; the sacrifices had been worth it, the indie developer dream was coming true. Today, he sits dejected and worn.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Over the past three decades, a few titanic rivalries have defined the technology industry’s megatrends, ultimately determining which products eventually end up in consumers’ and companies’ hands. Now, adding to the annals of competition that include Microsoft’s (MSFT) clashes with Apple (AAPL) in the ’80s, IBM in the ’90s, and Google (GOOG) in this decade, the new defining rivalry in tech may be between Google and Apple.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The iTunes music store sells single songs at approximately the same price, with artist presented in more or less the same way. Apple’s (AAPL) App Store, however, is still somewhat like the wild west (at least as far as music goes), where the rules are being made up in real time.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

I continue to think of my iPhone not as a phone but as a personal computer. Which is why I continue to be so nonplussed about Apple’s (AAPL) barring of some applications on the grounds that they compete with its own apps, and others at (reportedly) the behest of AT&T (T).

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Way back in what we called “the 80s,” my father bought a VCR. Its magic let us record TV shows for later viewing, and we loved it. In fact, VCRs did 4 things: 1) Record the show you were watching, 2) Record a show that was airing on a channel other than the one you were watching, 3) Watch videos previously recorded (your own or commercial movies), 4) Record shows all on its own.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The news this week that Napster is relaunching with a $5-a-month subscription plan that includes 5 free MP3 downloads would appear to be a troubling development for RealNetworks’ (RNWK) rival Rhapsody service, which will set you back $13 a month for a streaming service that lacks the free MP3s. It is also no doubt irritating to Real that it comes from a company that is now a unit of Best Buy (BBY): in the past, the Best Buy digital music store was a re-branded version of Rhapsody, which came pre-loaded on non-Zune, non-iPod music players sold by the retailer.

Earlier this week, I chatted about the situation with Neil Smith, VP of business management for Rhapsody America. His spin on the Napster story is that what they’re really doing is going head-to-head with Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes store–that Napster is “all about the downloads.” He says Napster basically wants to use the new approach to get into the pre-paid music gift card market, using the free downloads as a driver to steal share from Apple. He thinks selling tracks is more their goal than “turning the tide toward subscription from purchase,” which is where Real is focused.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

When the University of Missouri School of Journalism’s student newspaper reported that incoming students of the journalism program would be required to purchase either an iPhone or an iPod Touch, it touched off a debate about whether universities can require specific tech purchases or whether certain companies can have a tech “monopoly” on campuses.

As it turns out, students won’t actually be punished or disciplined if they don’t buy one, though the school does recommend it–-the intention was to help out students who were on financial aid so that the cost of iPhone or an iPod could be included in a financial aid estimate. This summer the entire MU campus will be installing Tegrity, a class lecture recording program used by Stanford University and others, where they can download them for free on iTunes, and the journalism school thought students could use Apple (AAPL) iPhones or iPods “as a learning device.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

If you were buying 30,000 songs, would you rather pay $30,000 or $15 per month? Microsoft (MSFT) is trying to advertise the Zune Pass by underlining the advantage in price.

Microsoft’s Laptop Hunter ads (one, two, three, and four) must be doing quite well, because what Microsoft started off as a price attack on Macs seems to have transcended over to the online music store business.

Read the rest of this post on the original site