Also: The YouTube phone | iPhone discoveries | T-Mobile launches downloads service | Sportingo buys CaughtOffside.com | NetVibes co-chief executive leaves | eBay's free classified service | Future buys another cycling site | MSN's build-up to Live Earth | Virtual Worlds Conference | Channel 4's new talent | New toy of the week: Pownce
Just days after the demise of giant downloads site AllofMP3.com, Warner Music and Sony BMG are collaborating with Russian labels Soyuz and Nikitin and investment firm Access Industries to create a digital distribution network within Russia.
Digital Access will supply wholesale digital music to sites and mobile services from this autumn, including video, ringtones, photos and full-track audio. The operation will be headed by former TV executive Alexander Vaisblat. Warner chief executive Patrick Vien said the operation will "unlock the potential in the Russian market". Russia has the world's third largest mobile market with around 125m handsets, and mobile music sales grew by 25% in 2006 to more than $400m - already more than the physical sales market. Content from other record labels will be added later. (P2PNet)
That persistent Google phone rumour
AFP is reporting that Korean Manufacturer LG has signed a deal with Google to launch a YouTube phone. The iPhone already has that YouTube module, after signing a deal with Apple, and this would allow users to record, upload, view and share clips through the handset. LG already sells branded Google phones in Europe. (AFP)
iPhone discoveries
An estimated 700,000 were sold in the first weekend, exceeding analysts' predictions and AT&T's sales records. Meanwhile some cheeky scamp claims to have worked out how to activate his phone without gong through AT&T because its network, some have said, isn't great. The nobble means that only the iPod and wifi can be used rather than the phone part, which rather seems to defeat the point. (Jon Lech Johansen)
T-Mobile launches music downloads
T-Mobile has launched a music download service, offering 500,000 tracks for £1 each. The Mobile Jukebox should work with 32 of the most common phone models, offering music from Universal, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner as well as key independent companies. Downloads automatically include two formats, one in AAC and one Windows Media. Downloads are backed up by T-Mobile's My Music store so users have a backup if they lose their handset. The service is for T-Mobiel customers, with the cost of each download added to their bill.
Sportingo buys football blog CaughtOffside
Israeli sports community site Sportingo has bought the British football blog CaughtOffside for an undisclosed sum. The year-old site will continue to run separately and founder Chris Toy will become chief editor. The sites have already partnered together in the form of Toy writing features for Sportingo; earlier this year he has quit his job as an ad exec to focus on the site. (Sportingo)
NetVibes co-chief executive leaves
NetVibes co-chief executive Pierre Chappaz has left, leaving Tarir Krim in charge. Chappaz wants to focus on his personalised blog and news service Wikio that has 2m users each month. Chappaz does say on his
that he disagreed with Krim about the future of NetVibes and that the differences weren't reconcilable: "Strategies of distribution and monetization are the two points of disagreement between Tariq and I. We have a different vision of the evolution of Netvibes Universes, of presenting the service to users in an environment that is familiar for them. It's of no use to expose these kind of details in public, but suffice to say that these disagreements are old and we were not be able to reconcile them. My previous experience as a co-founder and CEO of Kelkoo makes me think that these matters are critical." (Giga Om)
eBay's free classified service now in 220 US cities
eBay is pushing its free online classifieds service Kijiji in direct competition with Craigslist, targetting young families that want to sell low-value items locally. eBay used to have a 25% stake in Craigslist and founder Pierre Omidyar sat on the Craigslist board. Kijiji operates in 220 US cities as well as overseas. (CNet)
Future buys another cycling site
Future Publishing has bought the 13-year old site cyclingnews.com from Knapp Communications for £2.2m. The acquisition was announced quite deliberately in the week that the Tour de France kicks off in London, and in the same week Future will also launch bikeradar.com to pool features from all Future's cycling sites which should have a combined monthly usership of 800,000.
MSN's build-up to Live Earth
MSN has announced something called the Live Earth Tree ahead of Saturday's climate change gig. The tree asks users to pledge their commitment to the environment and is set up like social networking tool of sorts, so users can find pledges from friends and family. Incidentally, research today said that two-thirds of people in the UK said they couldn't name any of the sponsors, which won't be great news for MSN. The Lightspeed/Ethical Reputation Index survey found that about 70% of people across the UK, US and Australia are planning to watch.
Virtual worlds conference
If you're not tired of discussion about virtual worlds already, there's a massive two-day conference planned for October which will include just about everyone in the space. The Virtual Economic Forum will feature a mix of academics, creatives and business minds, but much of the discussion will be focused on brand immersion and marketing which is about as far from the original spirit of the thing as you can get.
Channel 4's new talent
There's a whole babble of stuff going on at Channel 4, whose ongoing 4Talent scheme is rumbling on. A competition in partnership with Computer Arts magazine, 3D World and the Moving Picture Company is calling for 15-second stings, and another project with Mediabox offers 13-19 year-olds the chance to write, produce and direct short documentaries.
New toy of the week: Pownce
Currently playing with the Twitter killer, except Pownce doesn't actually have SMS support and that's really the neat part about the former. Pownce was founded by Kevin Rose, the guy that started the recommendation tool Digg. Mike Arrington on TechCrunch has already neatly summarised Pownce, saying there's very little difference other than the mobile updates and that the email notifications are rather bothersome. Stan Schroeder on Frantic Industries is quite clear that the phrase "Twitter killer" isn't over egging the pudding this time round, referring to Twitter's slow development, downtime and its sluggishness. Pownce allows users to choose who they send updates to, rather than sending it to everyone subscribed to your feed, as well as message filtering options.
"I still feel there's a lot of things that can be improved in personal communication space," detailing all the problems with email, IM and microblogging services, like Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce.
"Pownce fixes many of the problems that IM has but, well, it's still not working instantly. Plus it doesn't offer support for mobiles. Someone should eliminate all these problems and create a killer application that will make me want to ditch all my previous IM clients. Will it be Pownce? It's possible, but they still have quite a road ahead."
