Zune Pass Music Subscription Price Increase

http://zuneinsider.com/2011/09/29/zune-music-marketplace-expands-to-canada-new-changes-to-zune-music-pass-in-the-us/

http://www.winsupersite.com/blog/supersite-blog-39/zune-2/zune-pass-heads-canada-140761

http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2011/09/29/microsoft-taking-zune-to-canada-revamping-zune-pass/

Don’t read those blog posts wrong, Zune is not lowering the price, it is raising it. Currently I pay $14.99 for the monthly subscription PLUS 10 free song downloads per month. Starting in October new subscribers will pay $9.99 for the monthly subscription with NO free song downloads. (It appears I will be able to keep my plan if I want.)

If we postulate that average song downloads cost or are worth about a dollar, then $10 out of my $14.99 each month was for the downloads, meaning I was paying $4.99 for the subscription service. That was a great deal! Now they want to charge me twice as much? Boo.

Is this a chance for Spotify to swoop in, undercut the new price and steal my business, my money, my loyalty, my heart away from Microsoft? (Sorry for the dramatics, they are aimed at motivating Microsoft.)

It actually isn’t Spotify’s big moment, but as usual the devil’s in the details. Spotify on my iPhone is only available (after the trial) with the $9.99 plan, not the $4.99 plan they also offer. Furthermore according to Spotify’s website, if I am reading it correctly, the premium account only extends to 3 devices (phone or pc).

My current Zune plan includes 3 pcs and 3 devices, but it looks like the new Microsoft plan is for 4 devices total (new users losing 2). However they have thrown in some music videos (psh).

The number of tracks each has seems to be roughly equivalent – today I saw mention of 15 million on Spotify’s site and 14 million on Zune’s. I’m sure that goes back and forth. And I’m sure that the depth on particular kinds of music varies between the services.

Bottom line, this is a bad time for Microsoft to raise the price, because they put themselves on par with Spotify, which was more expensive, but doesn’t require a Zune or Microsoft phone. That said, I’ll probably stick with them while my Zune hardware lasts and I can keep my plan for $4.99/month. After that I’m a free agent!

Group Video Chat

I had to research Group Video Chat for a teenager. Free and easy were the requirements. I figured all the big social sites had it by now. Turns out that is not true yet, though soon I’m sure. Here’s the current state:

Facebook – Facebook has group chat and video chat (through Skype), but the two don’t meet. However there’s a third-party app for Facebook called “Social Hangouts” that provides group video chat for 20 people, it’s free, and is supposedly pretty standard for a Facebook app.

Skype – Skype has free group and and free video chat, however the group video chat is a premium feature, and at least one person in the chat has to have a paying or business account.

Google+ – Google does provide group video chat, for free, in a feature called “hangouts”. It’s supposed to be really easy to use as well.

There are lots of other chat and video products/sites/companies, but this really has to be quick and easy, and the teenager already has some experience with the ones mentioned above.

Tablets at my local Staples

I happened to be in my local Staples the other night, and noted down the plethora of tablets they had on display:

Samsung Galaxy 10.1
Mororola Xoom
Acer 10"
Dell Streak 7"
Blackberry Playbook

There were a couple of readers sneaking in as well:
Kindle
Nook

Seems like just yesterday this category didn't even exist.

Free credit report

Everybody knows the catchy commercial jingles. You can hear the songs at http://www.garagespin.com/2008/08/17/free-credit-report-song-commercials-music-mp3-and-lyrics/ or on YouTube.

That site actually is one of those free trial offers where you get signed up for something ongoing.

But what I didn't know is that thanks to a federal law, the big 3 credit reporting agencies Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion actually do have to provide you with a copy of your credit report, free, annually, and there's an easy-to/use website for that.

http://www.annualcreditreport.com/

And if you don't think this is legit (I was skeptical myself), check out the Wikipedia article:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annualcreditreport.com