Author: Stuart Dredge
Now The Charlatans are giving their album away as a free digital download
Cor, and indeed, crumbs. It’s a heady day for UK music fans. Not only are Radiohead letting fans set the price of downloading their new album, but now The Charlatans have announced plans to give away their new album as a free download via XFM.
Opinion: Radiohead's In Rainbows is their bravest decision yet
Stuart Dredge writes…
As a band, Radiohead aren’t shy of taking risks. Witness how they’ve evolved musically, in the transition between The Bends and OK Computer, and then onwards into their more electronica-influenced recent albums. The easy path would’ve been to have cranked out a few more emotive rock albums and become The New U2.
Now the band has made its bravest move yet, taking the decision to sell their new album ‘In Rainbows’ directly to fans as a digital download, for which fans decide how much they want to pay. Admittedly, there’s also a £40 ‘Discbox’ option for the hardcore fans, which should reduce the risk.
Quick Pic: Giant Sega Rally sand car
Sega wants you to buy Sega Rally for Xbox 360. They want it so much, they’ve made a big car out of sand to show that, er, well… Okay, i don’t know what it shows. But pretty cool sandcar, eh?
More women own games consoles than men, survey says
That’s right. Ad agency JWT has been conducting a survey called, er, Denizens of Digitivity (try saying that after a couple of naughty-lemonades), and has found that 44% of female respondents said they own a console, compared to 39% of males.
“The idea of gaming being just for the 18 to 34 male set is now out of date,” says JWT’s Ann Mack. What’s interesting is that the message hasn’t quite got across to the games industry, judging by the huge number of grey, boring military-themed games staring out whenever I flick through a games magazine.
Apple in the dock: Top 5 iPhone lawsuits
Apple has great lawyers. Top-notch. They’re so good, that even a brave, morally courageous blogger such as myself wouldn’t dare print allegations that Steve Jobs CENSORED his CENSORED while taking CENSORED and CENSORED his CENSORED. Several times!
Joking aside, though, Apple needs good lawyers, because as a large consumer tech company, it’s often the target of legal action – some flippant, some serious. iPhone has already caused its fair share of legal headaches, attracting several lawsuits already in its short life. Such as? Well…
1. The One About Price Discrimination. I reported on this at the weekend: New Yorker Dongmei Li is sueing Apple for price discrimination, underselling, discrimination in rebates, and deceptive actions. Why? On launch day, there were only 4GB iPhones by the time she reached the front of the queue, yet a couple of months later, that model was phased out and the 8GB model got a $200 price cut. Cue lawsuit. More info
Radiohead ARE selling their new album In Rainbows online… and they want you to set the price
After the kerfuffle this weekend surrounding the mysterious RadioheadLP7 website, which turned out to be a hoax, now Radiohead have actually annnounced their new album. It’s called ‘In Rainbows’, and the band will be selling the digital version themselves in just ten days time. Oh, and it’s up to you how much you pay for it.
What’s that? You don’t trust me after the last time I raised your hopes? Well, it’s an official announcement on the Radiohead website, with a link through to the In Rainbows site, where you can preorder the digital album, and also order a £40 ‘Discbox’ version which includes vinyl, CD and a bonus CD – as well as the downloads.
Wii gets hacked: modchip on the way imminently
I never buy the ‘backups’ excuse for modding your console. It’s about buying 20 pirated games from Dodgy Dave down the local market for £15, surely. Who backs up their games, seriously?
Anyway, there are reports that Nintendo’s Wii has been well and truly hacked, with a modchip coming out imminently called the Wii D2C Modchip Actel. However, it only works with around 80% of region-protected games, and it requires you to do complicated soldering stuff to install.
Apple faces legal onslaught from disgruntled iPhone owners
Getting sued by your own customers isn’t an ideal corporate strategy, it’s fair to say. Yet Apple is facing the threat of several legal actions over the iPhone, from unhappy owners of the device.
For example, New Yorker Dongmei Li is sueing Apple, AT&T Wireless and Steve Jobs himself for price discrimination, underselling, discrimination in rebates, and deceptive actions.
It’s because she could only get a 4GB iPhone on launch day, then saw Apple drop the price of the 8GB model by $200 and discontinue the 4GB version. Dongmei isn’t the only unhappy iPhone owner though…
Robosapien gets a Sesame Street makeover to become ElmoSapien
Cor. Someone’s taken the Robosapien robot and merged it with an Elmo hand puppet to produce ElmoSapien, complete with over 200 custom sound effects to make the bot sound just like the real Elmo.
Well, the fictional puppet Elmo, obviously, but you know what I mean. Full instructions on how to make ElmoSapien are provided on the RobotsRule website, and it seems fairly easy. Better still, it’s effectively a suit for your Robosapien, so doesn’t mess the bot up if you want to transform him back in the future.
PS3 and Xbox 360 have "near identical" UK sales figures for 2007
Sorry fanboys, here’s one statistic that can be trumpeted both ways. According to games trade mag MCV, sales of PS3 and Xbox 360 are neck-and-neck for 2007, contrary to many people’s expectations.
Sony fanboy perspective: this is despite PS3 only going on sale towards the end of March, so Xbox 360 has had 12 more weeks on sale and STILL hasn’t ground Sony’s console into retail dust.
