Enter the MusicPal by Freecom. It's a wireless internet radio that doesn't require a computer to tune into individual stations. It's also an MP3 player. And an RSS reader. Oh, and an alarm clock.

Using a WiFi connection, the MusicPal will stream internet radio - with support to over 5.000 radio stations - plus it will stream any MP3 music from your computer or home network. The RSS reader will display your feeds right on the unit - hardly useful if you want to be knee deep into your Orbitcast feed. But think more along the lines of RSS feeds of stocks, sports scores, local weather, etc.

And it's available for $149.

[Product Page via GeekAlerts]
Thanks Bearing Drift Ohio!

They're not done yet.

The Carmel Group, commissioned by the NAB, has released yet another "ping-pong" chart to show that Sirius and XM directly compete with each other.

A follow-up to an earlier study by The Carmel Group, this features a more in-depth "ping-pong" chart than before with a huge list of competitive actions and reactions between the two companies.

The study asserts that "without this continued competition, consumers will not be able to obtain substitutable competition from competitors within the all-important vehicle; and importantly, choice, competitive pricing restraints and service will undoubtedly - and significantly - suffer."

And of course, NAB spokesperson Dennis Wharton had his pom-poms in hand with this to say:

"Contrasting XM and SIRIUS's history of competitive behavior with their track record of abusing FCC rules, the central question remains: Should two fierce competitors with a demonstrable record of FCC rule-breaking be rewarded with monopoly power? We -- along with consumer groups, minority organizations, antitrust experts and more than 80 members of Congress -- think the answer is no."

Following the April study release, I discovered an earlier article written by The Carmel Group that was not commissioned by the NAB which stated that satellite radio's "competition comes in the form of traditional analog AM & FM radio, as well as burgeoning services like MP3 players, terrestrial radio, and video- and Internet-to-the-vehicle." This was, in my opinion, a completely opposing position from the NAB-commissioned study. A point that caught the attention of the New York Post.

Now The Carmel Group is back with an extended "ping-pong" chart to prove that Sirius and XM did indeed compete with each other.

But, so what?

Proving that Sirius and XM compete(d) with each other has little to do with disproving that they are part of a broader relevant market. If two radio stations in a single market compete with each other, does that mean that they don't compete with other radio stations in the same market? Of course not.

Further, observing the competitive responses between those two radio stations won't give us any insight into the "continuing proliferation of outlets and rapid pace of technological change in the media marketplace" that the NAB is so worried about.

So all the "ping-pong" charts in the world are simply just exercises in futility.

[The Carmel Group Study (PDF) via AllAccess]
Thanks Derek!

Ford Motor Co. has started installing its Ford SYNC in-car entertainment system into vehicles late last month and, by a recent count, there are now over 10,000 SYNC-equipped vehicles in Ford's dealer system and more than 1,000 in customer hands.

In an informal canvassing of early buyers, Ford has said they are "hearing good news," with the system meeting high expectations.

Ford has also kicked off a significant marketing push, rolling out SYNC advertising in an online, print and television effort. See below for a video of one of their latest ads:

When I asked about the company's estimated penetration rate, a Ford representative said that they expect to build half of all Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles with SYNC.

"This will be a significant feature for us," he added.

AT&T is making Napster’s entire music library of over five million songs available for wireless over-the-air download starting early next month.

This represents an important shift in AT&T's stance on over-the-air mobile music downloads versus sideloading music (such as using the iPhone). Speaking of the iPhone, Napster will not work with Apple's uber-phone which is tied to iTunes.

Songs will still be ridiculously expensive - costing $1.99 each - or $7.49 for five songs per month. Unfortunately, until mobile carriers begin to competitively price individual tracks with other digital music providers (i.e., $0.99/song), sideloading will continue to dominate mobile audio. There just isn't a significant enough value proposition to spend twice as much to buy songs over-the-air (note, I'm talking about downloading and not streaming).

When you download a song directly to your phone, you'll automatically get an e-mail message which lets you put a second copy on your computer. Customers who already have songs through Napster will be able to transfer them to their phones as well.

AT&T plans to roll out several new phones next month that will include the Napster service.
The company also will focus more on exclusivity, making more music available only from AT&T through direct deals with artists.

Napster recently introduced a web-based service replacing the separate client download. Napster songs are still - unfortunately - laden with DRM restrictions. AT&T earlier this year partnered with eMusic, which caters more to the indie scene and offers its songs free of any DRM. And in fact the industry in general is moving more towards DRM-free waters. While the additional access to AT&T customers is always a benefit, Napster needs to competitively price their per-song downloads, and drop the DRM, if they want to stay ahead of the curve. Unfortunately, Napster has been playing a game of "me-too" rather than innovating in the space.

For now, it's just another option in an increasingly competitive digital download market.

[New York Times via Switched]

Sprint has launched its own network of original programming, and is the only U.S. wireless carrier to product its own exclusive content.

We know the mantra "content is king" but need to remember that creating content is not an exclusionary practice. Here we have a situation where a wireless provider, the 3rd largest in the U.S., is now a content creator. It's merging distribution, with programming.

Welcome to Sprint Exclusive Entertainment (SEE). SEE features brief on-demand programs that average around 2-minutes in length and focus on three major areas – sports, music and entertainment news.

SEE is provided at no extra charge to customers with any Power Vision data plan. Now I need to mention that since it's targeted towards Power Vision subscribers, the content is video. But that doesn't detract from the point that the lines of "programming" and "distribution" are blurring.

Sprint's programs are shot at various on-site locations and at a brand-new studio managed by Sprint's production partner Intersport. The studio is equipped with state-of-art technology including satellites, fiber, lighting grids, multiple flat-screen LCDs, several editing suites, top-of-the-line studio cameras and high-powered graphics computers. Sprint said they'll continue to build their content offerings in the months ahead.

SEE is creating over 150 programs each week, each hosted by personalities ranging from the semi-famous to the well-known.

Sports
Providing analysis throughout the day before and after sporting events, hosts include:

• Marshall Faulk (former NFL MVP running back, current NFL Network analyst)
• Drew Rosenhaus (popular sports agent)
• Trev Alberts (former ESPN Game Day anchor, College Football All-American)
• Tom Waddle (former NFL wide receiver, ESPN Radio host, NFL Network talent)
• Joe Girardi (three-time World Series Champion, FOX and YES Network broadcaster)
• Jenn Sterger (former SI.com commentator)
• Hub Arkush (ProFootballWeekly.com managing editor)
• Dave Revsine (former ESPN Sports Center anchor, Big Ten Network broadcaster)
• Dorsey Levens (Super Bowl Champion)

In addition to general sports commentary, specific SEE sports programs focus on NASCAR, golf, fantasy sports and football, including the NFL Center program with highlights from every NFL game throughout the season. Sprint will also provide full coverage from an on-site studio at events such as Super Bowl XLII and the men's college basketball tournament.

Music
Hosted by former VH1 VJ Rachel Perry, Sprint is offering an expanding variety of music content from several genres, including:

• music news about artists, album releases and upcoming tours
• a weekly "Top 10 Videos" segment
• exclusive artist interviews
• exclusive concerts

As news breaks, SEE music programs are released throughout the day. SEE delivers exclusive content from big names in the music biz like Hurricane Chris, Juanes, Rihanna, Soulja Boy, Sum 41, T.I. and T-Pain.

Entertainment News
SEE is also the exclusive mobile provider of CelebTV.com, which delivers the latest celebrity and entertainment news from host Kelli Zink, who is also a frequent commentator on shows from FOX, CNN, MSNBC and others. CelebTV.com provides 10-12 updates everyday.

XM and Sirius are unique companies in that they blend both technology and programming. They provide both content as well as the enabler of the content - distribution - into a simple neat package in your dashboard. But when you have wireless companies with a massive subscriber base to market to (Sprint has around 55 million subscribers) who is now in the content-creation business, bells should start ringing in both satcasters' offices.

[Sprint SEE]

While much of the media focus revolves around super phones like the iPhone or the Voyager, the reality remains that most consumers just want cheap (or free) phones and cheap service. So Motorola has come out with a fresh crop of decidedly low-end phones to appease the critical masses.

Enter Motorola's new "W series" phones.
And the W160, W180, W213 and W377 (pictured above) all feature integrated FM radios.

Motorola said the phones, which would sell at an affordable price point, are meant for people who just want to talk and send text messages on easy-to-use phones or who are looking to upgrade their basic cell phones.

For many future W series owners, this will be the first - and only - handheld FM radio they own. Sure, some people might have a handheld FM radio to listen to the game - but most people don't see the value at carrying around a radio with them. Radios aren't something you buy, they just happen to be there. But with an integrated radio in a common everyday phone, now it's just automatically in their pocket.

Satellite Radio needs to get into cell phones just as much as they need to get into vehicles. I'm not talking about piggy-backing on the carrier's networks, but integrating the chipset into phones so people can experience the full service. Integration is the key. The problem with satellite radio - and it's a big one - is the lack of reception indoors. In order to be integrated into people's lives, and into their pockets, you need to be available to them everywhere.

[Motorola]

AT&T announced earlier this week that the company is buying the wireless licenses of privately held Aloha Partners for about $2.5 billion. The licenses for the largest U.S. mobile service will allow coverage for a potential 196 million customers in 281 markets, including 72 of the top 100 U.S. markets.

The question remains, what will AT&T to do with this 700-megahertz chunk of spectrum?

AT&T spokesman Michael Coe told Reuters that AT&T had yet to determine what services it would run over the airwaves.

"We'll look at which option makes sense for AT&T and our customers," he said. "We'll either use the spectrum for broadcast video or two-way communication like voice, data or on-demand content."

My guess is the latter seems like the most likely use. Silicon Alley Insider has a similar theory:

"Carriers, which need to sell more data and entertainment services to make up for declining phone-call revenue, often tout broadcast-quality mobile TV as one of the next big things."

But Scott Wills, senior executive at Aloha and president and chief executive of its HiWire broadcast mobile-TV subsidiary, said the company initially bought the licenses thinking that wireless broadband would be the best use for the spectrum, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Consumers don't just want to watch YouTube on their phones. While fun and a novelty, it's the convenience of having a mini-computer in your pocket that really serves value. Check your email, surf the web, and access some streaming content (be it video or audio).

I guarantee that it's not just "access" that the wireless companies are looking at. Eventually all the carriers will provide nationwide broadband wireless access, and we're reaching saturation in the wireless U.S. market. So they need differentiation. And the best differentiator would be providing exclusive on-demand content through these high-speed services. People already pay $40+ a month for high-speed internet at home, they will want more if they want to pay for that capability in their pocket.

As Sirius and XM can attest to, spectrum is only half of the equation.

TiVo and RealNetworks have partnered together to allow TiVo subscribers to listen to songs and streaming radio from the Rhapsody digital music service on their televisions.

For TiVo, it's a way to differentiate itself from the growing competition from Cable/Satellite TV providers. For Rhapsody, it's yet another way to penetrate into people's homes.

Consumers using the service will be able to search for music directly on their TV, browse charts of Rhapsody's most popular artist or tunes, or listen to thousands of radio channels. The difference here is that TiVo customers are used to paying a subscription fee (although they will receive a free one-month trial of Rhapsody) - so there's less of a learning curve than with "traditional" consumers.

"The big thrust for us is to try to expand the pie, bring digital music to more consumers," Michael Bloom, Rhapsody's general manager, told Reuters. "CD sales have been in rapid decline. This is one of the ways that we are going to help in that regard."

The takeaway here is that TiVo will continue to look for ways to differentiate itself from competing DVRs, and the best way to do this is through content. Being service agnostic, TiVo is open to anything. And Sirius and XM, like all media companies, need to be heard everywhere. It's a natural fit.

[Reuters]

Just freshly launched last week, iHeard is a new Internet Radio search engine. And the scary part is that it makes finding and listening to any Internet Radio station very very (very) easy.

Too easy.

Seattle-based Fusa Capital Corp. unleashed iHeard last Tuesday, allowing users to find free Internet radio stations from around the globe - and hear them - within a single destination website.

Organized by genre, country and language, the iHeard engine even indexes online simulcasts offered by AM/FM radio stations, and plays the streams right inside the original window. Unlike Radio-Locator, you're not just shunted off to another website - it all plays seamlessly within your browser. A choice of streaming formats depending on the station you're listening to is provided, including RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, Winamp and iTunes.

Iheard is the latest addition to Fusa Capital's network of search sites: which includes podanza.com (Podcasts), newstowatch.com (News Aggregator) and searchforvideo.com (self-explanatory).

The question is, can you access it from your smartphone and then listen in your car? (The answer is yes, I just did it.)

[iHeard via WebWare]

Internet radio streaming to your car isn't a pipe dream for years away. It's available right now, and using the new Ford SYNC, it's available this Fall using voice command.

See this video for a demo...

Mark Ramsey calls it "geekcasting" - a lovable word, but only given because there's a lot of steps involved in getting it to work. Funny, the same could be said about satellite radio.

Welcome to the not so distant future...

[via Hear 2.0]