GigaOM is reporting that Google may be in talks with UK mobile phone service provider Orange to produce a mobile phone pre-loaded with Google’s software that would allow even easier access to Google’s mobile services on the move.

From the original Observer article:

Their plans centre on a branded Google phone, which would probably also carry Orange’s logo. The device would not be revolutionary: manufactured by HTC, a Taiwanese firm specialising in smart phones and Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), it might have a screen similar to a video iPod. But it would have built-in Google software which would dramatically improve on the slow and cumbersome experience of surfing the web from a mobile handset.

It’s likely that we’d see things like Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar and perhaps the Docs & Spreadsheets apps on this phone – but where would this leave Google services on other handsets?

Google already have done some good work into getting their online services into the mobile arena, with Gmail available through XHTML and a Java application for phones and many of their other services having mobile incarnations.

What would this device uniquely offer in that case – a better experience, additional services that haven’t been ported to the mobile platform yet or what?

Google already offers its search engine and other services on mobile phones. It has a partnership with Vodafone and last month announced a broadband agreement with the operator 3. It is working to make youTube, the video-sharing site it bought recently for £870m, easily accessible on handsets. But it is eager to expand in what experts see as a huge potential market, possibly the key to the future of the internet.

Manufacturers such as Nokia and Motorola are working to make the mobile internet commonplace. Earlier this year Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice-president of Nokia, said at a product show in New York: ‘In the mid-Nineties I said that if you don’t have a mobile phone you will be making a declaration that you wanted to be outside organised society. People said I was crazy, but now everybody has a mobile phone. Today I’m saying that in 10 years’ time the same will be true if you don’t have the full internet in your pocket.

A spokesman for Google said: ‘We don’t comment on market speculation and rumour, but we are focused on mobile and there’s nothing new in our commitment to that space.’ Orange declined to comment.

Interesting… very interesting.

Owners of the iTrip gadget (a nifty device which streams your iPod’s audio signal over FM) in the UK can now be a bit happier, as Gadgetell are reporting that Ofcom, the regulatory body, have officially legalised them and similar FM transmitting devices.

I reported on Ofcom thinking about legalising them a while back on Gizbuzz, but it’s now officially done.

The ban actually stretched back to the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1949, which banned the use of FM transmitters without a licence or exemption. New laws have just come into force which now exempt this kind of gadget.

And that means that Griffin (the maker of the iTrip) and other manufacturers can finally start selling their gadgets in the UK and people won’t be breaking the law by using them.

Microsoft’s ‘iPod killer’, the Zune, was officially launched in the US yesterday and the media, both conventional and new, are documenting the event.

The BBC have an article on the new player and a quick round-up, while Engadget have unboxing photos and videos of the new media player.

This site also has a brief look at the first impressions of the Zune experience and you can see the official Zune website from Microsoft here.

Unfortunately, it looks like for UK gadget lovers, the Zune will not be arriving until at least next year.

In response to the new range of iPods and the price drop to only $249 in the US for the 30 GB iPod, Ars Technica are reporting that Microsoft will price the Zune at the same price for the US – $249.

They have also announced that songs will available for download from the Zune Marketplace download service at $0.99 each in the US, which incidentally, is the same price as music downloads from the iTunes (Music) Store. However, downloads will also be available in exchange for 79 ‘Microsoft Points’ (which you can buy and then use for Zune music, or Xbox Live Marketplace downloads etc).

Unfortunately there seems to be no word from Microsoft on UK pricing for either the player or the music downloads, although we may be able to guess at the cost of music judging by the UK exchange rate for ‘Microsoft Points’. They are 0.85p per point [source], which means in theory a song would cost 67.2p (slightly lower than iTunes’ 79p per song in the UK).

It seems unlikely there will be much difference in song pricing between the iTunes Store and the Zune Marketplace, as the article points out, as it wouldn’t be in the record labels’ interest.

Engadget have the story that Microsoft’s upcoming Zune digital audio player will probably have a battery life of around 12 hours for audio and 3.5 hours for video.

It’s worth mentioning, though, that those figures are quoted for having the Zune’s wireless functionality switched off, and the wireless networking is likely to drain a lot more charge.

So let’s compare this to the latest iPod battery life (that’s the big 80 GB video one we’re talking about here). The new iPod is stated as having 20 hours of audio and 6.5 hours for video (playing 640×480).

Now, of course, we always need to take manufacturer’s battery life statements with a generous helping of scepticism, but still, it appears the iPod has the edge here (unless Apple are ‘optimising’ for the benchmarks a bit more than Microsoft dare to). The audio figure is unlikely to make much difference in a real world environment (I’m guessing most people would put their iPod on charge within 20 hours of continuous playback), but the relative difference between the video figures is, frankly, astronomical.

The iPod gives you almost double the quoted video battery life of the Zune and although Microsoft haven’t confirmed these figures, I doubt they’re going to be far off the figures of the first Zune player.

So, is battery life that important? I guess we’ll see – and no doubt that as the Zune evolves as a brand, we’ll see new players with new features and different statistics.

A senior Nintendo executive has revealed that the upcoming Nintendo Wii console will cost under €250 in Europe (that’s about £170 over here, provided they don’t make the UK pay more). Our US readers will be able to purchase the Wii for $250 (equivalent of £133 and €195) or less, according to the information Nintendo released in May.

Note this isn’t a confirmed price for Europe, merely a recognition that the Wii won’t cost more than those figures. Also, the European price might not strech to the UK and we may end up paying more, judging by what previous console pricing schemes have been like.

However, this still makes the Wii the cheapest next-generation console of the three, and will even rival the last generation machines like the original Xbox and PS2. At the moment in the UK, you can get a brand new original Xbox for about £89 and a brand new silver PS2 for around £99. The Wii is significantly more expensive than the last generation consoles, but crucially, using these figures, it’s cheaper than the Core Xbox 360 system at £199, which should help it.

Another thing we don’t know about is the price of the games. Xbox 360 games range from between £40-50, which is quite a premium (Microsoft make a loss on the hardware and have to make it up through game sales). The Wii console is cheaper to produce, and if the games can beat these prices even by a £5 or so, the Wii will have another advantage.

The BBC is reporting that Microsoft’s upcoming Zune portable music player will support sharing of tracks using wireless networking. It’s not clear from this story what kind of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions will be placed on users who share and sample music this way. There’s also no word of whether this wifi sharing and sampling functionality will extend to users of other devices that use Windows Media DRM (such as Creative’s Zen line). It’s also looking unlikely that the Zune will interoperate this way with any future versions of the iPod that support wifi, due to the incompatibilities between Microsoft’s DRM and Apple’s DRM used in iPods.

I’m sceptical about how well this will help Microsoft in their obvious aim of trying to eat into Apple’s dominant market share in the music player and music download market. Microsoft will certainly have to try very hard to not only match the iPod in terms of style and ‘coolness’, but also they will have to convince people to buy from their Zune music store instead of the iTunes Music Store.

That raises the issue of incompatibility – as I’ve said Microsoft’s DRM is incompatible with Apple’s. This essentially means that tracks purchased through the iTunes Music Store won’t be easily transferred to the Zune. Of course, there will be ways to do it (burning a CD won’t usually include the copy protection), but the legality of these is debatable.

Well, all we can do now is to wait for more news to emerge from either Microsoft officially, or other sources. Microsoft say the first Zune players will be released in 2006, with more coming in 2007.

Just a quick post, as there are only sketchy details about this at the moment; but it has been confirmed that Microsoft are going to release a portable music player to rival Apple’s iPod. The project to build this player is codenamed ‘Zune’ and Microsoft apparently are going to release it sometime this year.

There are already Zune spoof sites popping up and a lot of rumours flying around. All we know at the moment is that it’s Microsoft’s portable music player, it’s called ‘Zune’ and it’s going to be released this year. There will be more details here at Gizbuzz when we get them.

A friend asked me today what MP3 player he should buy. He has a budget of around £150, and apparently has an ‘irrational objection to Apple’. So, I thought I’d post my answer here.

Sansa e260 4GB – £144.99

This seems to be the iPod Nano competitor that everyone’s talking about. It offers a good feature set, according to the product manual:

• Digital Audio Player – supports MP3, WMA, and secure WMA, audio files. Other file types need to be converted to these formats.
• Video Player – supports video files transcoded and transferred to the device through the included Media Converter software.
• Photo Browser – supports photo files transcoded and transferred to the device through the included Media Converter software.
• Voice Recorder – supports voice recording function with built-in microphone.
• EQ effect – you are able to select an EQ mode to personalize your music experience.
• micro SD Slot – supports read or write from external micro SD cards.
• Internal Memory – allows users to store data on the internal memory
• Compatibility with Microsoft PlayForSure subscription services

In the US, an FM radio with recording is added to the feature set. But for some reason, not in Europe. Even without this feature, it is an impressive set of capabilities, offering features not found in its rival, the Nano. The killer features for me are the ability to expand the memory with MicroSD cards, as this offers a very cheap way to upgrade the capacity now that flash memory prices are so low, and the support for PlayForSure subscription services. This support means that it matters less that the Sansa doesn’t work with iTunes, and that it will be compatible with the new URGE service from MTV and Microsoft. All in all it makes a very good choice for a budget mp3 player, especially if you do have an ‘irrational objection to Apple’.