gracenote

Gracenote CarStars first look (video)

Brian Tong gets a first look at the Gracenote CarStars system, which scans your music collection and selects and artist to be your personal musical guide, giving you track suggestions depending on where you happen to be driving.

Buzz Out Loud 709: We're gonna need a bigger cloud

We explain Live Mesh, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tries to explain why customs can search your laptop without any reason at all, and eBay (yawn) sues Craigslist over some (yawn) stock stuff. Also, Apple buys a chipmaker and that story leads to wild speculation about chips and such. No, really. It's a tech show. Haven't you heard this show before? Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 709

Live Mesh: The version you can understand http://mashable.com/2008/04/23/live-mesh-simplified/ http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9925747-2.html http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9926229-56.html… Read more

Sony acquires Gracenote for $260 million

Sony has acquired Gracenote, a company that provides tools for identifying digital media, for $260 million.

Sony, which announced the deal Tuesday, said it will allow Gracenote to operate as a standalone business and that it intends to use Gracenote's technology to "enhance and accelerate its own digital content, service, and device initiatives."

Gracenote's senior management is expected to stay with the company. Sony said in a statement that the deal is expected to be finalized late next month.

Gracenote has amassed a database of audio files that content owners can use to track their copyright … Read more

Gracenote covers for Ford

At CES and the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, Ford will show off its next generation navigation system, initially to be made available on the all-new Lincoln MKS. The system's 40GB hard drive will include the Gracenote database, which will automatically tag any CDs ripped to the drive, something Gracenote already does in the Cadillac CTS and Lexus LS 600h. But Gracenote goes an extra mile with Ford, providing cover art for music playing in the system. Users will be treated to a scan of the album cover art while tracks from the album play. Further, the system incorporates Gracenote'… Read more

What's the concern about online lyrics?

Back when the Web was young, one of my favorite sites was the International Lyrics Server, a searchable database containing lyrics to more than 100,000 popular songs. In 1999, the site was sued by the Harry Fox Agency, a major song publisher, and Swiss police raided the site's ISP and the homes of two of its owners. The site shut down, and today lyrics sites are among the worst, plagued with obvious inaccuracies, pop-up ads, and even drive-by spyware installations. (I won't link to them, but run a search for any song lyric on Google and you'… Read more

News roundup: MySpace, Yahoo, Amazon

MySpace and Photobucket make amends. The block on videos from Photobucket for MySpace users was lifted yesterday. According to a post on the Photobucket blog, "open lines of communication and procedures with MySpace" were made to make sure it doesn't happen again. The blockage affected nearly a quarter of Photobucket's 40 million registered users. Related: MySpace launched a version of its site today for Latino Americans.

Yahoo, Gracenote launch lyrics service. Yahoo Music users will now be able to pick up the lyrics to their songs after a deal was made with digital media company Gracenote. … Read more