While Congress debates the $700 billion question, MySpace and T-Mobile/Google spent this week rolling out their latest, each seeking to create a new standard.
MySpace aligns with the major labels and launches the new MySpace Music with downloads from Amazon.com (without leaving MySpace Music), an uncertain number of songs (but lots of them to be sure) and an infinite number of playlists (of up to 100 songs each). Infinity times 100 is a lot of major label playlists and opportunities to buy from Amazon. Overall, the service looks very attractive. Searching and streaming songs was quite easy and I’m not yet craving anything from the Dollar Menu. Game changer? We’ll see.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile and Google announced that the HTC G1, the first Android phone, is expected to ship October 22nd. Touch screen plus a keyboard, lots of features and the Android Market - a more open version of the iPhone Apps Store. Coolest feature? Quite possibly it’s Compass Mode, which could forever change the way we scope out new rendezvous locations. Game changer? The beginning of it.
