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>> Amazon launches a Wikipedia-like site for music. Microsoft and Apple both look to have new MP3 players on the way. And the Smashing Pumpkins come to Guitar Hero. It's Wednesday, September 3. I'm Natali Del Conte, and it's time to get Loaded.
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Amazon launched a Wikipedia-type site for music. The site is called "SoundUnwound," and it lets users edit information about any given band, artist, label, album, or song. The site is new, but already there is some information posted from IMDb and Musicbrainz. If you want to edit of add to any of it, though, you have to submit your edits to Amazon, and they'll filter out any silliness of vandalism. The site has album, art, and videos embedded into postings, but I was surprised that it's really not all that easy to just click on an album and then be directed back to Amazon to purchase it. There's just one small text link next to an album or song for that. I would have thought Amazon would have pushed commerce all over the site, but I guess the site really is about the info, and of course, the music.
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Microsoft may be working to create their own version of Apple's App Store Apple's App Store. InfoWorld is reporting that the company may be planning to launch a site called "Skymarket," where they'll sell Windows mobile applications ala carte, the way Apple does for the iPhone. Windows Mobile users can already get third party applications, but there's no one good place to go for them just yet. Microsoft needs this. In fact, I'd say all mobile operating systems do.
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Google launched a video-sharing program for businesses. This is part of the Google Apps premier edition sweep. That's for corporations. You can upload, share, and embed any video within your business group accounts. And, of course, it uses YouTube's player. The videos are said to be secure, but users can download them to separate devices, so I guess that doesn't make them all that secure. This application is free if your company has Premier Edition. There will also be a student version launching on September 8th that will be free until March 9th, after which it will cost $10.00 per year per user.
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In other Google news, the company has integrated contact lists into Picasa. The company's photo sharing site got a new nametags feature that lets you organize your photos based on who is in each photo. It takes contact information from your lists and then makes these photos accessible in Gmail within each person's contact information. This is a pretty simple but useful tool. I wish Yahoo! did it for flicker.
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Hulu is changing its video model slightly for the fall premier season. Usually Hulu won't put episodes of a currently running show up until they've aired on TV. But this month they'll bend the rules a little for shows like Knight Rider, Life, Chuck, 30 Rock, and Lipstick Jungle. The season debut of these shows will be on Hulu a full week before they broadcast. This is awesome, but it also shows us that Hulu is learning from its successes. The company can obviously see that these shows are profitable online, so there's no benefit to holding them back. I wish that NBC had learned this lesson just a little earlier, in time for their Olympics coverage.
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If you're building a big following on Twitter, you might want to think about monetizing your account. A new program called Twit Ad lets you sell ad space on your Twitter Page, a lot like Google's AdWord program lets you sell ad space on your blog. Fortunately, the ads don't go in your Twitter feed. They just sit alongside your posts in the columns on your twitter page. This sounds relatively benign, but the problem is that most people don't really visit individual Twitter pages all that often. I mean I visit my own home page, or else I read Twitters in feed program like Twirl or Twitterific. I don't really have a need to visit individual sites, so it will be interesting to see if anyone can actually make money by advertising on their vanity page. I doubt it, but couldn't hurt to try.
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It's looking more and more like new iPods are on their way. Several of us members of the press got an invitation to an event in San Francisco next Tuesday. And the graphic on the invite does look like it's iPod related. I'm very sorry to have had to decline. I love a good Apple launch. But I'll be in San Diego covering the Demo Conference. Not to fear, we will have it well covered here on CNET TV, and of course, on Loaded. So stay tuned for that.
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The iPod isn't the only MP3 player rumored to be getting upgraded. Rumors are floating around that new 16-gig and 120-gig Zunes are on their way to market. Microsoft usually releases new Zunes around the same time that Apple upgrades the iPods, so this wouldn't really be surprising. But still 120 gigs falls short of the highest capacity iPod, though, which is 160 gigs.
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The latest band to release music straight to Guitar Hero is the Smashing Pumpkins -- not exactly the hair band genre we've come to expect. But, okay. The band's new single, Glow, will be released in the upcoming Guitar Hero World Tour game. The Pumpkins other hits, such as 1979 and Today will also be included in the game. And songs from their debut album, Gish, will be released some time next year. I love the Pumpkins. They remind me of my high school years. But I'm not sure I'd want to hear many people sing their music on Guitar Hero. Billy Corrigan has one of those voices that's kind of hard to emulate.
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Those are all your headlines for today, but I will be back tomorrow with more. Thank you for watching. I'm Natali Del Conte with CNET TV, and you've just been Loaded.
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