amazon cloud player

Seven questions about Amazon's mystery streaming box

Is there a Kindle TV box on the horizon?

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the answer is yes. Amazon is said to be readying its own streaming-TV box to take on the likes of the Roku, Apple TV, Xbox, PlayStation -- and every TV manufacturer that now builds smart-TV apps like Netflix and Vudu directly into televisions.

The Seattle-based e-tailer already has an ambitious home video strategy. Amazon Prime customers get thousands of free movies and TV shows (in addition to free shipping of real-world goods) with the $79-per-year membership, and the company is ramping up production of original series as … Read more

Apple's iWatch and the smartwatch trend

Wednesday's CNET Update is watching the wrist:

The buzz is building over the rumored Apple iWatch. Today's tech news roundup looks at the latest report on the team working on Apple's smartwatch and the growth of this new category.

Along with the wrist, Under Armour wants to be the gadget for your chest. Armour 39 is the company's new fitness monitor set to take on the Nike FuelBand, and it is a sensor worn around the chest during a workout. If you want to live-track your progress, you'll need an iPhone app or the special $… Read more

Vroom, vroom: Amazon Cloud Player now available in Ford cars

Amazon's Cloud Player is now available in Ford Sync AppLink-equipped cars, the Internet giant said today, giving drivers another option for accessing music while on the go.

Ford owners can wirelessly connect the Amazon MP3 app on their Android smartphones to the Sync connectivity system to access their entire music library using voice commands or audio controls.

"We want customers to be able enjoy their entire music library wherever they want, from whatever device they choose," said Steve Boom, vice president of digital music at Amazon. "And we know that cars and music go hand-in-hand."… Read more

Amazon Cloud Player arrives on Roku, Samsung Smart TVs

It's been months since Roku announced that the Amazon Cloud Player was "coming soon," but today the company finally made good on that promise.

Amazon's cloud music service is now available on Roku and Samsung Smart TVs, offering the ability to stream your own digital music tracks without needing to keep a separate computer running. For Roku, it's a solid response to Apple's iTunes Match service, which offers cloud storage and streaming for $25 per year.

While Amazon Cloud Player started off as a largely free service, it now requires a similar fee as … Read more

Get started with Amazon's scan-and-match Cloud Player feature

Amazon just announced a pretty big update to its Cloud Player service. The enhancements include scan and match, increased storage, and the free upgrading of lesser audio tracks to 256 Kbps.

With the new service, gone are the days of 5GB of free storage. You can now store all of your Amazon purchased music, along with 250 songs purchased elsewhere for free. Or, you can pay the $25 fee for 250,000 songs worth of storage per year.

The scan-and-match service will scan your computer's hard drive for music, and then match your music catalog with Amazon's catalog. … Read more

Verizon's new data plan burns singles

Today we're rocking out in the cloud to take our minds off our mobile bills:

Verizon has completely restructured nearly all of its phone plans with something called a Share Everything Plan. The plans will give you unlimited text and unlimited voice. As for data, you have to pay for how much data you want a month. Then you have to pay another fee for each device that will use that pool of data.

Verizon is encouraging you to have multiple devices that can all share from the same plan, but it can make your bill more expensive if you're an individual. … Read more

Music wars: Google vs. Amazon vs. Apple

Apple has finally entered the music-in-the-cloud arena with the introduction of iTunes on iCloud, making it a competitor to Google's Music Beta and Amazon.com's Cloud Player. Here, we compare all three services. We'll update and amend the chart below as we get more information.

Cloudy, with a chance of video

With Apple's iCloud coming next week, hot on the heels of Amazon and Google's cloud services for music, it seems like the years-old dream of cloud media streaming is coming to greater fruition than ever before. That's promising news to me, a person who cut the cord on his cable TV over a year and a half ago. I live off the Internet and my various devices--my laptop, game consoles, iPhone, and iPad--to get my media, be it TV shows, movies, music or books.

So far, it looks like 2011 will be more the year of Cloud Music than that of Cloud Video. And that's a shame, because I'm getting fed up with my half-baked digital-video life.

I've spent the last week with a product called Pogoplug Video, which attempts to do what no one's currently offering yet: the ability to stream multiformat video files easily across multiple platforms, be they gaming console, computer, or phone/tablet, even across the Internet or 3G.

I held high hopes for the Pogoplug Video. The $199 device is much like the Pogoplug Pro we reviewed last year, equipped with a more powerful processor. And, it does what it promises, to a point: video files stored on hard drives or USB sticks plugged into the Pogoplug do indeed technically play back on iPhones, iPads, laptops, or even via DLNA on an Xbox 360 or PS3.… Read more

Music Beta vs. Amazon Cloud

Google has finally launched Music Beta, a cloud service that stores your music and lets you stream it to any browser or Android-based device. It's invite-only for now, but the beta version is free. It's not without its limitations, but we think it will certainly become a viable competitor against Amazon's recently released Cloud Player. Here, we present a chart that compares the two services.

Music Beta Amazon Cloud Player Storage capacity 20,000 songs Anywhere from 5GB to 1TB (that works out to around 740 to 152,000 songs, assuming each song is around 4 minutes long recorded at 255Kbps) Cost Free and invitation-only for now. 5GB storage for free; $20/year for 20GB, and $1,000 a year for 1TB. Songs bought on Amazon don't count against the limit. Offline options Recently played songs are automatically cached for offline listening on Android devices. You can also manually select songs/albums for offline listening. But you can't download songs to a different computer. You can download the songs to a different computer/device without restrictions. Amazon Cloud Player also uses caching to optimize streaming on Android. Free music Google provides some free samples during initial setup None Store None Yes; songs cost $0.69 to $1.29 and albums are $7 on average. There are often $3.99 album deals as well. Mobile Android app; playable on iOS via the browser Android app; playable on iOS via the browser Requirements Google account. U.S. only for now. Amazon account. U.S. only for now. Other features Custom playlists that can be synced with the cloud, intelligent mix Amazon's Cloud service extends beyond just music. Sorting New & Recent, Songs, Artists, Albums, Genres, Time, Song Title, Plays, and Rating. Songs, Albums, Artists, Genres, Time Edit song info? Yes No

Buzz Out Loud 1465: I left TiVo because TiVo left me (Podcast)

Comcast and TiVo's long-running negotiations (think five years, people) to bring TiVo software to Comcast's set-top boxes is now officially dead. As are TiVo's hopes, as far as we're concerned. Also, CNET may have tipped off Sony to yet another planned attack this weekend, and good news! They stopped it! Bad news: PSN and Qriocity may not be fully operational until May 31. Also, a civil war seems to be brewing over at Anonymous, and you can't pay attention because you have too much brain. --Molly