Tag: REALNETWORKS

The RealPlayer app for Android has gotten a major update, and it's all because of user input! OK, so Real may be playing that angle up a bit in its official blog post, but it's clear from playing with the updated media app that it's taking suggestions and criticism seriously. In addition to a generally improved and more polished interface, RealPlayer for Android has added a landscape "now ...

It's still not quite ready for beta testers to try out, but Real Networks was more than happy to give CES 2011 attendees a look at their upcoming Unifi service. Unifi will allow users to stream digital content stored on their desktop to computers to a variety of devices -- including your favorite smartphone. Unlike some desktop-to-mobile streaming apps, Unifi will also let you send content back ...

Big things are happening at subscription-based music service Rhapsody, and now might be the time to give it a second look. Rhapsody has spun off from RealNetworks, and the new company is already making changes. They've introduced a new, less expensive subscription plan, as well as an Android app. They've even got a brand-new logo. Rhapsody's new plan, Rhapsody Premier, works with either a PC or ...

Real Networks are setting free (or letting go of? Depends how you look at it, I guess) their on-demand music streaming service, Rhapsody. They are not leaving it completely -- they're spinning it off, but will still remain on its board and put $18 million into the service. This is in addition to the $33 million the service is already getting in ad revenue from MTV. Rhapsody has been one of ...

Collapse is a popular color-matching puzzle game that's been around for a couple of years, but now it's getting a fresh relaunch across mobile, desktop and web platforms, and a new name in all caps: COLLAPSE! RealNetworks is taking COLLAPSE! viral by making it available on PC, Mac, Facebook, BlackBerry, iPhone, and Android. COLLAPSE! is actually the first big game to come out of RealNetworks' new ...

The Rhapsody streaming music service from RealNetworks may be coming to the iPhone soon, according to a post on the RealNetworks blog. The iPhone app is finished and being sent off to Apple for review this week. There's a video demo of the app, and it looks like a decent front end for the subscription-based service. An Android app is also in the works. The iPhone app isn't too flashy, but appears ...

RealNetworks is probably the most visible company to come out with a DVD ripping utility. There are dozens, if not hundreds of other applications that let you copy the data from DVDs to your hard drive. But being high profile is sometimes all it takes to land yourself in court -- which is exactly where RealNetworks has found itself, even though the company's RealDVD software includes DRM ...

RealNetworks executivies may have thought that the company was releasing a lawsuit-proof DVD ripper when it decided to add mandatory DRM to its RealDVD application launched last month. After all, while the software lets you rip DVD movies and save the video on your hard drive, it makes it extraordinarily difficult to share the media with other users, or even to watch it on a portable device or ...

You know how RealNetworks confidently launched a commercial DVD ripping program and then went and pre-emptively sued a bunch of movie studios to demonstrate in court that the software doesn't infringe on copyrights? Yeah, the studios sued back. And while the courts figure out how to deal with the whole mess, RealNetworks has been ordered to stop selling the RealDVD software. NewTeeVee reports ...

Say you're a major multimedia software company and you've just released a product that you absolutely know is going to tick off copyright holders, like say, major movie studios. You could wait around and for someone to file a lawsuit saying that your software, like say, a DVD ripper, violates their copyrights. Or you could try to resolve the issue before it gets to that point and file your own ...

RealNetworks has launched a DRM-free MP3 music store. The Rhapsody MP3 store has music from all four major labels, with over 5 million tracks available for download. Most songs are priced at 99 cents, and most albums cost $9.99. That's about the same price that Apple charges for DRM-free AAC audio files, but a bit more than Amazon MP3 charges for many songs and albums. All songs will be encoded ...

Several companies that broadcast internet radio streams, including RealNetworks, Yahoo!, and this blog's parent company, AOL owe ASCAP millions of dollars. That's according to a federal court in New York. While the court did not determine the exact amount of money owed, ASCAP estimates that the fees could climb as high as $100 million. ASCAP stands for the American Society of Composers, ...

Yahoo! is preparing to dump its Yahoo! Music Unlimited service and replace it with a partnership with RealNetworks' Rhapsody. A few weeks ago we reported on a rumor that Yahoo! was exploring the idea of launching a DRM-free music store to compete with Apple and Amazon. It looks like the company decided to go another direction. Both Yahoo! Music Unlimited and Rhapsody allow users to access a ...

It looks like RealNetworks is expanding its online video game holdings. PaidContent reports that the company best known for its audio and video player is buying Gametrust for under $50 million. This doesn't mean RealNetworks plans to release the next Halo. Gametrust focuses on casual gaming. You know, the sort of games that you open in a web browser, play for a few minutes, and then move on. ...

MTV is expected to announce today that it will partner with RealNetworks, merging the two company's online music services. This probably means the end of MTV's URGE music site, which probably won't affect much of anyone. As far as we can tell, you could count the number of URGE subscribers on one hand. And you might not need all your fingers. Anyway, URGE had been a partnership between MTV and ...