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Startled by the rumors that Apple intends to launch its own streaming television today the rest of the industry is already reacting: Sony intends on launching its own music and video subscription service tonight.

According to a report by the Financial Times, Sony’s new service will launch on its PlayStation 3 video game console at first, and then gradually creep out to other Sony-brand, internet-connected devices like Sony Walkman players, Vaio computers, Bravia TVs and even Sony Ericsson mobile phones.

Sony’s not the only one setting up shop with a streaming media subscription service: Amazon is also apparently inking some deals right now to allow it to stream television shows and movies, speaking with NBC Universal, Time Warner, News Corp and Viacom.

It certainly seems like other companies think Apple’s got a big announcement up their sleeves for later today, and are scrambling to catch up.

[via 9to5Mac]

Whether you were disappointed or elated with the new products and services on Tuesday’s Rock n’ Roll event, you have to admit there was a lot of stuff going on.

One small, almost overlooked new-ish item: “Mayhem”  the first standalone digital book is for sale on iTunes 9.  (Fortune’s Jon Fortt ran into singer/actor Tyrese Gibson who produced it at the event, or he says he might have missed it, too.)

Although there are plenty of comic book apps and magazines on iTunes, this one is different.
Mayhem is more like a book on steroids. For the $1.99 purchase price, you get the comic book,  an iTunes LP with an exclusive track, plus storyboards, a making-of video and two freebie comic books.

This is the first digital book that Apple had a hand in designing and it shows — reports say the interface is versatile enough to work as well on a touch-screen as it does on a full-size screen.

The Mayhem iTunes LP was designed by Sam Herz, one of Apple’s user interface engineers for  iTunes, and Barry Munsterteiger, creative director for rich media and Internet technologies.

After the event, Steve Jobs once again stated that Apple won’t be trying to encroach on Amazon’s territory any time soon — should we believe him?

Via Fortune

The Amazon Mobile app could get you out of a few Christmas-present dilemmas. The app gives iPhone and iPod Touch users access to wish lists, shopping carts, one-click shopping, plus all the customer reviews and ratings that may make last-minute buys less of a shot in the dark.

It also includes a nice feature called “Amazon Remembers” which lets you save snapshots as visual post-its if you see something you want to buy later. The app saves the photo and searches for similar items, too.

Released a few days ago, it’s had some good reviews, including a five-star rating from “ericthewhat” who says: “Great. I can definitely see my drunk-texting problem becoming a drunk-shopping problem.”

Well, at least you won’t be sobbing into your beer buying stuff like “I’ve Never been to Me.”

In the first release, one of the useful things you can’t buy or download from Amazon are MP3s.

From the mobile app you can put MP3s on your wish list and then buy from your computer, but it’s a bit of a buzzkill for what otherwise seems a useful app.

Via: 37 prime