comebacks

T-Mobile introduces Samsung Gravity 2, Samsung Comeback

On Tuesday, T-Mobile announced the upcoming availability of two new messaging cell phones, the Samsung Comeback and Samsung Gravity 2. The Comeback will be available starting Wednesday, July 22, for $129.99 with a two-year contract, while the Gravity 2 is expected to ship in August (though an exact release date and pricing were not announced at this time).

Perhaps the more interesting of the two is the Samsung Comeback. The handset features a flip design where the screen opens to the right (like a book) to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. The phone has plenty of messaging options, with … Read more

LP revival: Fact or fantasy?

I'm not sure why, but there's a never-ending stream of articles cheering on vinyl's comeback. I guess if it's a slow news day, editors can't resist plugging in yet another story about booming LP sales, and they always claim something along the lines of "Kids are digging the grooves, they've seen the light, and now crave analog sound!"

Puh-leeze!

Don't get me wrong; I wish it were true. Maybe in some alternative universe, vinyl is flying off the shelves, and kids are ditching their iPods and buying turntables.

Back here on the Earth we know and love, 2008 sales of LPs were up 89 percent, from 990,000 in '07 to 1.88 million in '08. That's hardly a boom, now that CD sales are in the hundreds of millions. The best-selling LP of 2008 was Radiohead's "In Rainbows," which sold a piddling 28,800 platters. Second-place honors went to another British band, The Beatles, which sold 16,500 "Abbey Road" LPs. If those numbers are accurate, and Radiohead's Thom Yorke and company were trying to live off LP sales, they'd have to get day jobs.

So sure, there's more and more new and reissue vinyl, and that's great, but only a teensy-weensy number of people buy new vinyl. Most of my vinyl-loving buddies regularly score free records on the street, or pay a buck or two for used vinyl to play on their megabucks high-end turntables. Again, no problem there, but it's not the same as a true vinyl resurgence. That's just media hype.

I love vinyl because it looks cool and sounds great. I own around 4,000 LPs. And I'm hoping that the vinyl revival keeps growing. But the market for physical media--CDs and LPs--has nowhere to go but down. More than anything else, people want cheap or free music, playable anywhere they want. … Read more

Muxtape returns from RIAA-induced hiatus

Muxtape, the upload-your-own mixed-tape service, came back on the scene on Tuesday. Founder Justin Ouelette had originally shuttered it last August in order to keep the RIAA off his back after licensing attempts and paperwork had overwhelmed him.

The new version of the service, which does not allow users to upload music from their hard drives, instead relies on bands to submit their own tracks for listeners to play on Muxtape--and Muxtape only.

There are a dozen bands to start with, all of which have been hand-picked by the service's creators. Bands that are interested in getting their music … Read more

Will the Gizmondo make a comeback?

Some of you may remember the Gizmondo, a portable gaming console announced in 2005 that was positioned as a competitor to the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. Tiger Telematics, the company which produced it, was headed by a couple of Swedes who eventually left the firm just before it went bankrupt in early 2006. It's an incredible tale involving a crashed Ferrari Enzo, dealings with the Mafia, and millions of dollars of investor funds going down the drain.

Now it looks like Carl Freer, Gizmondo's former chairman, wants to revive the brand. In an interview with a Swedish publication, … Read more