Dave's Download

The music labels remain committed to selling their music through subscriptions, reports Greg Sandoval at CNet's Digital Media blog. He describes a recent conference panel where a Universal Music Group exec explained that iTunes-like sales won't save the industry. Said David Ring of Universal:

If what we're trying to do is one-by-one downloads...that's not a business that can grow. It won't be healthy for the industry.

Like a lot of consumers, Sandoval remains skeptical of subscription services:

There isn't a single music-subscription service selling music from the top labels that generates significant revenue. Yahoo couldn't make a go of it and got out. Napster and Rhapsody, RealNetwork's subscription service, continue to appeal to niche audiences. People just don't like the idea of losing their music if they stop paying fees.

I think subscriptions have great appeal. But Sandoval is right, there are base issues that need to be addressed in any plan. I need to know that I'll be paying a consistent fee to get access to my music. And in the event my provider tanks, I need to know that all the work I put into finding and organizing my music is transferable to another service.

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Budget-maker Westinghouse is readying a new 42-inch LCD TV for sale at $700, reports Electronic House. The news might not deserve a lot of attention except the set comes at what's called "full HD," or 1080p resolution.

That means it would reproduce every pixel available from Blu-ray, which offers the best-looking playback for digital video. That also makes it a breakthrough price, with most 1080p sets still selling for $1,000 and up.

I've argued that most users won't see enough difference on a 42-inch set to justify the typical 1080p markup. At that size, regular HD at 720p looks just about as good. But with this Westinghouse set, there is no markup.

Now we can focus our debate on the merits of 120 Hz.

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It looks like federal regulators may force some TV stations to continue broadcasting an analog signal, not allowing them to switch to all-digital to save money.

The FCC has to approve stations that want to make the move. The Los Angeles Times reports that acting FCC chairman Michael Copps was pointed in saying not all stations will get approval:

"We reserve the right to deny those requests if we find that it would not serve the public interest or if it would frustrate Congress' goal of giving consumers adequate time to prepare."

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A blogger has updated his post to calm anxious Palm Pre watchers, who were getting excited at the prospect the smartphone might hit the market next month. Some even reported the phone would arrive in 10 days or so. Boy Genius Report now predicts the handset will arrive in late May or early June.

That's more in line with most of the earlier speculation. Palm has only said the phone would arrive sometime in the first half of the year.

Impressive demos at CES have generated much anticipation. But those demos were tightly controlled. The company's attitude at CES, where reps were shy to even let reporters hold the darn thing, suggested the phone had significant bugs to kill and rough edges to smooth. I think even June is optimistic.

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