UPDATE 3.8.2010: Thumbplay contacted me less than 24 hrs after this post, and got me up and running on my blackbery 9760!

Thumbplay launched its music service this week, joining Mog, Rhapsody, Lala, Spotify, Last FM, and Myspace in the already crowded battle between streaming music services. The monthly subscription is $9.99. This is twice the rate of new entrant “MOG” (and $9.99 more than the free myspace!), but you get mobile access for the extra charge. Factoring in mobile makes Thumplay’s offer cheaper than Rhapaody’s similar desktop and mobile plan.

The selling point of Thumbplay Music is the ability to move your music to the cloud in one click by importing your playlists directly from itunes. It took just a few minutes to import 20 playlists, with 500 songs. The “import” was fast and accurate because it was only checking the data with the “cloud”, not actually moving files.
You can “import” songs to the cloud regardless of where they came from.

The second differentiator is Thumplay’s mobile access. With a full subscription, you can access your music and playlists from a “smartphone”.

Unfortunately the device list is small:
BlackBerry
Bold 9000
Curve 8900
Storm 9530
Tour 9630


Does it make sense to charge everyone for access with such a small device list? Since my blackbberry 9700 and iphone are not supported I cant comment on this part of the service.

Thumbplay contacted me less than 24 hrs after the orig post, and set me what I needed to set up my BlackBerry 9760! I’m listening now – full review coming!

The site says iphone and android support is coming soon. The site also directs you to check out the service with your mobile browser at thumbplaymusic.com. You’ll get the same version of the site that directs you to download the “desktop” software.

Thumplay’s Music service requires you to download a proprietary player (the service is not web based like MOG). The install worked easily direct from the Thumbplay site and support for both mac and pc is there. No surprises in the pc based player, nothing groundbreaking in the interface, and no sharing or social services.

While the import is nice and fast, mobile is the only game changer here. The pc based service offers nothing new. I haven’t seen any hands on reviews of the mobile access, so please comment with any links showcasing the mobile player! (working now – review coming soon!)

VIDEO
Great content, and nice technique for success:
How IKEA’s ‘Easy to Assemble’ Broke 1.9M Views (Without Cheating)

MOBILE
New product idea from the people:
World’s First Multimedia SF Novel on a QR Code T-shirt.
Buy it via ebay!

MUSIC
Devo is Back – I was there!
These guys are still unbeliveable!

“one of the few truly original rock acts of the last 40 years.”

San Jose Mercury news

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2009/11/07/devo-fans-find-satisfaction/?

The Nokia 5800 is more powerful than the Iphone, but it’s trapped by it’s software:

1.) NOKIA’S SYMBIAN TOUCH SCREEN OS DOESNT COME CLOSE TO THE IPHONE

It’s way to complicated and looks and feels as is if it wasn’t designed for a touch screen phone.

2.) TOUCH SCREEN RESPONSE IS “JERKY” NOT “SMOOTH”

You’ll miss the elegance and responsiveness of the Iphone. I quickly learned the “feel” of a touch screen counts as much as the hardware itself.

3.) MUSIC PLAYER ACTS LIKE A PHONE NOT A MUSIC DEVICE

The Iphone can legitimately be your music device. Nokia has some work to do with the music part of the 5800 before you can ditch your ipod and make this your main portable music device.

4.) NOKIA WEB BROWSER IS TO HARD TO USE

With the 5800, you’ll feel like the web and the phone weren’t meant to work together. I am still mystified at parts of the browser interface. Several steps are required to do basic browsing.

Main take away – It’s the software that matters! When you see the potential of powerful hardware and an open ecosystem, you wonder how Apple gets away with providing a closed ecosystem – a great mobile OS. Working outside the iphone/itunes ecosystem was a promise that excited me, but didn’t deliver. After two months of use, the basic software problems overshadow the 5800‘s potential.

Software trumps hardware, closed can trump open if the experience is amazing! The Nokia 5800 is much a more powerful phone, with open standards, yet not as desirable as the iphone because it is locked in by its os.

Get out your mobile phone, and check out the first in a limited edition series of QR code pieces we made for Green Day’s new album 21st Century Breakdown, in stores FRIDAY MAY 15th!

 
This is the start of several QR code experiments were trying and you can find the Green Day Codes out and about in the US in the next few days. Thanks to David Harper at Delivr for masking this happen! You’ll need a QR code reader for your phone to try this – get a reader in the iphone app store (neo reader is a good free one), if you have a nokia phone, you probably already have a reader in your appp folder, or go here to get one for most other devices!

1.) OPEN ECOSYSTEM – phone not tied nokia software
2.) BETTER SCREEN RESOLUTION. Much brighter and crisp plus a 3.2 MEGAPIXEL VIDEOPHONE – with great resolution and camera like display
3.) WIRELESS FILE TRANSFER VIA BLUETOOTH. Youll get addicted to moving files this way
4.) DRAG AND DROP mp3’s from desktop to phone library
5.) BETTER BATTERY LIFE
6.) THREE BUTTONS ARE BETER THAN ONE! It’s a nice concept for the iphone,  but its a much better phone having the flexibility of a few more real buttons, to compliment the touch screen interface.

These things mean alot, and i was suprised at how unwilling I was to give these things up once I was used to the expereince, Nokia truly has made some improvements to the “super music touch phone experience”.

Once you get past manually setting up the 5800 to connect, you have a lot of flexibility to move files and music around. I love just draging my files from my imac to the 5800 via bluetooth! Slower, but so slick moving music with no wires! And having a great video phone in the age of you tube is a not acceptable iphone. 

COMES WITH MUSIC
The 5800 is a “”comes with music” phone, but Comes with music is not yet available in the US, so I focus on core phone feature set. Unless the phone and core experience are amazing, around a phone people really want, I don’t think Comes with Music can be a game changer.

So can the Nokia 5800 stand a chance against the iphone? Not yet…

Ill be speaking at the “state of the digital union” panel at Digital Music East next week. The site says “This panel of industry experts will discuss the hot button issues of day, including the debate over digital music pricing, online and mobile music product offerings and business models….”. Thats the agenda – curious to know any topics you’d like to hear discussed?

My first time trying out the new N96 at a Rachael Yamagata instore at Borders! The n96 is similar to the N95, (upgraded to 16 gigs and a 5 mp camera) but with much better form factor and a lighter weight design. Zoom also seems better and clearer at close range, however you can still hear the annoying click when you use the zoom….

Not my best footage – lights seem to trick camera into a hazy picture, but her band creates a nice mood with the Intro, then a Beautiful song “Sunday” from her new album Elephants

Went to Baltimore last Weekend to see LIGHTS, on the Verizon Wireless College Tour 2008.
Headliners were Boys Like Girls, and Cute is What We Aim For. My first time seeing LIGHTS live, and I was impressed. The songs show how good they are live, she looks amazing, and she has a live energy that enhances the music. LIGHTS connected with the crowd right away.

Here is some footge I filmed with my phone and posted to my You Tube Channel.

Here is what She filmed with a Nokia N95, and then edited on her laptop. The music is also by LIGHTS!

Met all of my friends in Chicago for the fourth of July, and the POLICE, live, after all these years! My friend got busted for pot before the show and went to jail! The Chicago Police were not joking around. I was innocent but in handcuffs to for awhile, but they had nothing on me and had to let let me go!

So from the seventh row – here are some great clips!

Cool illustration of connected games via mobile, and some of the things that make them work!