music

When Korean pop star Psy unleashed the eye- and ear-grabbing video for "Gangnam Style" on the Internet, he probably didn't expect it to be remade by a crew of aliens and Starfleet personnel. Even better, the song has been translated into the Klingon language. HIja'!

The music video is also a celebration of the 25th anniversary of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Watch out for cameo appearances from Data, Counselor Troi, and Commander Riker. Guinan shakes it down in the infamous elevator scene.… Read more

This is an update of a deal I wrote about earlier this year.

If you own an iDevice, you've got access to an embarrassment of music-streaming app riches. To name a few: Pandora, Slacker, Spotify, and my new favorite Songza, which streams music based on your mood or activity.

(And don't forget SiriusXM Internet Radio. That deal from Friday is still active, provided you remove the promo code from the form and leave that field blank.)

Of course, to really make the most of those kinds of apps, you need a powerful stereo to which you can beam … Read more

There was a time when Sony was the first name in consumer electronics. The company's Trinitron TVs dominated the TV market for decades. In 1975, Sony's Betamax was the first widely adapted consumer video recorder format. The Walkman hit the market in 1979 and changed the way people listened to music, creating the personal audio market category. In 1982 the CD, which the company developed jointly with Philips, changed the way we listened to music even more. Sony extended its reach when it purchased CBS Records in 1988 and Columbia Pictures in 1989, and scored a triumph in … Read more

Samsung Electronics is on the lookout for mobile-software companies it can acquire to strengthen the content it offers customers beyond what's available on its popular mobile devices such as the Galaxy series of smartphones and tablets.

Reuters reported Thursday that the Korean electronics giant will be buying its way into a better competitive position with Apple, Google, and Amazon in the digital-content space, particularly in the music market, which is worth nearly $9 billion.

"The message we're getting from the top is to raise software compatibility, and buy rather than build, if needed," Kang Tae-jin, senior … Read more

We have to admit that it had been years since we used RealPlayer, and we weren't quite sure what to expect from this version. Nor were we particularly excited about trying it out; we have a media player already, thank you, and what could RealPlayer possibly do that we hadn't already seen before? Quite a lot, it turns out. In addition to managing and playing your media, it can also download and convert videos, keep certain content private, and more.

RealPlayer has a sleek and intuitive interface that opened with a page touting its latest features. After a … Read more

Samsung is expected to announce a new Galaxy Music smartphone on October 11, according to multiple reports from this week.

Despite the obvious promise of music, the handset should have only basic hardware. Features are said to include a 3-inch QVGA (240x320-pixel) display, a single-core 850MHz processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage, and a 3-megapixel camera. It should run on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and come in single-SIM and dual-SIM models.

I'm having a hard time understanding what Samsung is doing with the Galaxy Music, seeing as how this is such outdated hardware. While I understand that … Read more

Being a cheapskate can get expensive. If you're anything like me, you're intimately acquainted with the phrase, "too good a deal to pass up." And so you end up spending a lot in order to save a lot. Oh, the cruel irony.

Today, I'm going help you get a lot without spending a lot. I've rounded up three pretty sweet deals, and the most you'll pay for any of them is two bits. (That's 25 cents for those of you not familiar with old-timey vernacular.)

1. 25-cent Android apps.

To help celebrate … Read more

A new music service from MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom was given the video treatment today.

Kim DotCom posted a video on YouTube today showing off a new music service that he, and what appears to be a large development team, are working on. The two-minute video includes everything from a listing of artist songs to some details on functionality, including the ability for users to upload their music to the service.

Megabox was first revealed last year as a technology that promised to transform the music industry by allowing artists to sell their own music and earn 90 percent of the revenue … Read more

Apple's efforts to trademark an icon for its iOS music player in the U.S. have been denied due to design from a company that no longer exists.

As part of a decision handed down by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board last week, the group found Apple's icon a bit too similar to one issued to iLike in 2008, upholding an initial finding from a trademark examiner.

iLike, of course, no longer exists. The company was gobbled up by MySpace in late 2009 and was eventually absorbed into the company's own music product.

"In comparing … Read more