downloads

Wal-Mart joins downloadable movie battle

Wal-Mart is joining the fray of movie download services today. Its new store (which is mysteriously unfriendly to Firefox) features movies from all six major studios including Disney and Sony--two studios that have a long history of proprietary use and ties to competing download services.

Films range from about $13 to $20 and can be watched almost immediately depending on your connection. Movies are managed and played through a custom player that runs only on Windows PCs. You also can watch the movies in Windows Media Player. Like the iTunes Movie Store, titles released on DVD will be available … Read more

News Roundup

-- Find toxic wastelands via Google Earth. The EPA released a master list of landfills and other offenders to the public today in hopes of getting some recognition on mapping services such as Google Earth and Windows Live Local. Here's hoping for a Toxic button next to the beloved satellite view on Google maps. (CNET News)

-- Global digital-music sales nearly doubled in 2006. It was a good year for digital downloads, but they're still coming in at only 10 percent of the total music market. (CNET News)

-- MTV to buy RateMyProfessors.com. With more than 900,… Read more

Netflix to launch movie download service

Netflix is set to launch its long-awaited movie download service over the next six months. The new service, which will be sold separately and also as part of the regular Netflix subscription plans, bills movies on time, not on amount. For instance, plans will have various tiers of movie times, and each streaming movie counts against that time. Think of it as an allowance.

Netflix is also launching a new service called Program which lets users watch portions of movies as opposed to the whole thing, in essence, turning Netflix into a YouTube for movie clips.

There will be about … Read more

Sending that 1GB file over email gets easier

Pando earlier this year launched it service that lets consumers send 1GB attachments with email. Basically, the download gets send across peer-to-peer networks. Now the company has released plug-ins that let you add the attachments without leaving your email application.

"In the first version, you installed the software. Then you opened the application and typed in an email address. We had a standalone product," said CEO Robert Levitan. "Now you can go to Yahoo email or Outlook or Gmail, hit attach and go."

Although consumers tend to be initially skeptical of the software, it works, and … Read more

Great MP3 minds think alike

They say diversity is the spice of life, but a new music app claims you can add flavor to your listening routine by networking with those who have the exact same tastes as you.

A group called Emergent Music today launched Goombah, a community-driven, music discovery site and desktop application. Goombah offers its members "taste-targeted free music" through patent-pending technology that claims to analyze users' iTunes collections and listening behavior and connect them to people and music that "precisely match their taste."

It's not rocket science to conclude that people with similar music collections are … Read more