babies

CD Baby will let bands sell singles, download cards

CD Baby remains an essential part of any independent musician's toolbox, offering musicians an easy and relatively inexpensive way to sell CDs and MP3 downloads from a personalized Web page. It's not necessarily the cheapest way to sell music online, but its long track record and wide variety of services, including digital distribution through iTunes and other stores, and short-run CD manufacturing (provided by Discmakers, which bought the company last August), still make it my top recommendation for independent artists.

This July, the site will relaunch with several significant improvements, including more attractive artist pages, the ability to … Read more

Road to Pandora now goes through Amazon

Pandora is a great music-discovery service, so it's only natural that independent bands would hope to get their music placed on it. Unfortunately for them, Pandora just made that a little harder--and a little more expensive.

As I first saw on the Digital Audio Insider blog a couple weeks ago, Pandora recently changed its music submission process, and is now accepting solicitations only from bands who have a physical CD for sale through Amazon.com. That requires the artist to manufacture a CD with proper album art and bar code, which is much more expensive than creating a bunch … Read more

Father's Day special: Baby care and meaningful marketing

The $10 billion market for baby and young children’s furnishings (cribs, other case goods, layette, nursery decor, and the like) and accessories (car seats, strollers, baby monitors, diaper bags, etc.) is a lucrative market, and the baby stroller is one of its most competitive sectors. Hundreds of models vie for the attention of parents-to-be, and the level of detailed research, due diligence, and individual preferences may come close to the decision making process by an airline for the purchase of a Boeing 787. There are only few things – at least that’s what the industry makes you believe – that … Read more

WaTunes offers free digital distribution for musicians

Talk about a race to the bottom: a week after I pondered which digital music distribution service was cheapest, WaTunes made the question irrelevant by offering digital distribution for free. That's right--for no money down and no cut of the royalties, WaTunes promises to distribute your digital downloads to iTunes, Amazon's MP3 store, Rhapsody, eMusic, and Rhapsody.

So how does the company expect to make money? The answer became clear this week when WaTunes launched its premium-priced service, WaTunes VIP. For $29.95 a year, artists and labels will get distribution to more stores (including the Zune Marketplace), … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 960: Segues with Segways

We get taken to task today for our segues, which, we admit, can be quite forced sometimes. So, we show some examples of the good and the bad. We also have a Cooley rant about the new Segway minicar from a few weeks ago. And I suggest we go clubbing with baby seals, and Cooley and Natali threaten to kill me.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 960

Now closing: GeoCities, a relic of Web’s early days http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10226255-2.html http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2345857,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03069TX1K0001121

Obama getting a … Read more

Apple apologizes for Baby Shaker

Updated at 3:00 p.m. PT with word from Sikalosoft.

Apple issued a statement Thursday apologizing for allowing the Baby Shaker application onto the App Store.

Just hours before the App Store offers up its 1 billionth download, Apple was forced to acknowledge that perhaps the most notorious iPhone application ever constructed was "deeply offensive" and a "mistake." Baby Shaker appeared on the App Store Monday, and was pulled Wednesday after a media frenzy grew following the discovery of the application by the founder of a shaken baby syndrome foundation.

Apple's statement follows in … Read more

The 404 327: Where we're nervous magicians waiting in the wings

Some Blues Traveler and a box of Glazed Pop'ems warm us up for another fantastic show. Just the three of us today. Justin is still trying to recover from his night out with the Jasmine France.

On today's show, we geek out a little bit when we discuss the new "Star Trek" movie by director JJ Abrams. Caroline McCarthy got a sneak peak at it last night, and makes Wilson, the only Trekkie on the show, jealous. Justin gets into the finer points of things when he argues which is better: "Battlestar Galactica," "Star Wars," or "Star Trek". Wilson thinks this is a no-brainer.

Also on today's show, find out why Kevin Smith got "Wayne Gretzky-ed" off NHL.com's blog. Google makes it a little easier to build a custom search profile. Unfortunately, they can't take those drunken, nude pics of you off the Web. And two dudes get a $26,000 bill from T-Mobile after they send each other over 217,000 text messages. That's true bromance. The box to send the bill alone cost $27.55.

We honestly can't think of worse app for the iPhone than the apparent baby-shaking app! We can't even pretend to make a joke about this one. We're just surprised that it made it passed Apple's strict vetting.

Finally, Wilson's subway stalker calls The 404 and tells us about her upcoming surgery. He's shaking in a corner about it. Send us your voice mails at 1-866-404-CNET (2638). Stalkers welcomed.

EPISODE 327 Download today's podcast | Subscribe in iTunes | Subscribe in RSS… Read more

Apple removes 'Baby Shaker' from App Store

Apple has removed the Baby Shaker application from the App Store, just hours after it was discovered.

The application still shows up in the App Store search, but upon clicking on the title, an error message appears. Baby Shaker, a game in which the user is invited to silence a baby's cries by violently shaking an iPhone, appeared on the App Store Monday despite Apple's policy of banning "offensive" iPhone applications.

Company representatives have still not responded to inquires about how Baby Shaker made it into the App Store in the first place. In the past, … Read more

Apple approves 'Baby Shaker' for App Store

Updated 1:25 p.m.: Apple has pulled Baby Shaker from the App Store.

If you needed any further proof that Apple's App Store approval process is horrifyingly out of whack, consider one of the latest additions to the App Store: Baby Shaker.

A company called Sikalosoft is currently selling a $0.99 iPhone application called Baby Shaker, as of Monday. The object of Baby Shaker is to stop the incessant crying of an infant pictured on screen by violently shaking the iPhone, at which point two red "x" marks appear over the baby's eyes. "… Read more

Baby sites for the new baby boom

A recent report claims more babies were born in 2007 than any year in U.S. history. Since then, baby Web sites have become all the more important as a tool for parents who want to document and show the world how their little one is growing up.

I've found four baby sites that provide parents with the option to share photos with friends and family. They also let them track milestones in the baby's life. And they're all worth trying out.

Baby sites

BabySpot

BabySpot is a social network for parents to share some of their favorite pictures of the baby in their life.

Once you get to your baby's page, BabySpot lets you upload pictures and tag them. You can connect with others and share your photos. You can even write blog posts, post events, and upload videos of your favorite moments. Think of BabySpot as a Facebook for babies.

One of my favorite BabySpot features is the ability to add applications to my profile. Though there aren't nearly as many apps as you'll find on Facebook, one app, called BuboMe, lets you customize your baby's photos. You can add holiday themes, bubbles, and more. It's a neat tool that will help you add some flair to your pictures.

BabySpot is well designed, has an active community, and creating a profile that's filled with all your baby's special moments is easy.

Lil Grams

Lil Grams helps you secure your memories and send them off to friends and family, no matter where they are.

Once you get to your personal Lil Grams page, you can start uploading pictures of your kids. If you don't have access to the portal, you can add pictures to your profile via e-mail. Lil Grams even has a desktop app so you can drag-and-drop images into your profile without using your browser.

It's a nice touch, but the real value of Lil Grams shows itself when you start sending those images to family members. You can e-mail them a link to view the photos, you can send them an SMS if it's easier to reach them on their mobile phone, or, if you want to send photos to your parents who don't have a computer, Lil Grams will let you create prints and send them through snail mail. I didn't order any prints, but I did share some photos of my cousin's child through e-mail and SMS and it worked beautifully.

Overall, I was quite impressed with Lil Grams. Though you can share images through services like Flickr and Shutterfly just as easily, Lil Grams uses its focus on babies to attract parents.… Read more