Radiohead Subverts Download Model

By Digital Trends Staff October 2, 2007

Radiohead Subverts Download Model The British rock band Radiohead has always seemed uneasy with the business of music. For their new album, In Rainbows, to be released on October 10, they’ve declared their position – andit’s subversive. Fans will be able to download the entire album from the band’s site for whatever they wish to pay (although there will bean administration fee of around 90 cents). Or, if they prefer, they can pre-order the discbox, as the band is calling it. This will consist of In Rainbows on CD and also on two 12” vinyl discs,along with artwork and lyrics, along with another CD of extra songs, artwork and more. This, however, isn’t quite as cheap, selling for $80 including postage. This is the first releasefor the band since 2003’s Hail to the Thief, which fulfilled their contract with Parlophone. Once news of the release appeared yesterday, the band’s site crashed – but it wasdue to fans putting in orders for the discbox rather than those waiting for the free download. On the site, band member Jonny Greenwood wrote, “….it’s getting busy in there – busierthan they expected. So if you please bear with us, it should get cleared out soon. I sound like a bouncer. Get behind the rope. No denim. Thanks for your patience with the site & interest in therecord.” It’s certainly a grand experiment, letting fans decide the value of a band’s new work, but it seems to be creating a trend. The Charlatans are also giving away theirnew single and album as downloads available only through the radio station Xfm. Radiohead have a history of refusing to go with the flow. For several yearsthey refused to make their back catalogue available on iTunes, since the service allowed individual tracks to be downloaded, rather than insisting on theentire album. It’s only recently that their older material has become available on 7Digital.

Editors' Recommendations

Digital Trends Staff

Digital Trends has a simple mission: to help readers easily understand how tech affects the way they live. We are your…

Smart Home

Touchless doorbell feature shouldn’t be exclusive to new models

arlo smart home security for peace of mind video doorbell lifestyle image

Ahead of CES 2021, we were already expecting touchless experiences to ripple throughout every corner of the smart home. Cleanliness and social distancing have proven effective in reducing the spread of germs, so if there’s a possibility to lessen exposure through physical contact, you know it’s an application that companies will want to exploit. That’s exactly what we saw with the touchless video doorbells introduced at CES 2021. On one hand, it seems like a feature that’s practical for the times, but I would argue that it is one of the laziest implementations we’ve come across.
Our natural inclination to touch
I’m pretty sure it’s everyone’s inclination to press the doorbell once they approach a home’s front door. Even with today’s existing video doorbells, you're still required to press the button to ring the bell. It’s this natural instinct that may prove to be the biggest challenge for touchless video doorbells to become practical. Yes, the Alarm.com Touchless Video Doorbell addresses this issue by not only slapping verbiage on the doorbell explicitly stating it’s touchless, but it works in conjunction with a mat on the floor where visitors are told to stand.

On the flip side, I’m curious about Arlo’s touchless offering. The company announced it during CES 2021 but didn’t provide any details beyond it leveraging 'Proximity Sensing Technology' to achieve a touchless experience. Who knows what that entails, but I think companies will need to come up with mechanisms that would help distinguish this touchless ability -- mainly because people are just too inclined to press on doorbells.
Why not just roll this out to existing doorbells?
Indeed, this feature is useful in the age of COVID-19, but I’m left wondering how it can be rolled out to existing video doorbells. Seriously, there are ways companies can go about rolling this out so it’s just not exclusive to new models. In fact, I think it’s more feasible than you'd think.

Smart Home

Wyze branches out with $199 robot vacuum featuring lidar tech

wyze enters smart cleaning market with 199 robot vac vacuum

Wyze is best known for its affordable security cameras, but now the company is entering the robot vacuum cleaner market with a $199 bot that boasts enough features to compete with many of the bigger names on the market. Unlike many budget models, the Wyze Robot Vacuum uses precision lidar to navigate through the home and avoid common obstacles and pitfalls that might snare other models. Users can also set up virtual walls to keep the vacuum from running into things like pet water bowls and over stairs.

The Wyze Robot Vacuum also has schedule times for automatic cleaning of specific areas of the home. This is particularly useful for keeping high-traffic areas (like the space in front of the door) clean.

Smart Home

Smart toothbrushes are expensive. Quip’s model is proof why you don’t need them

you dont need spend fortune smart toothbrush quip brush

Brushing your teeth is a deeply ingrained part of the daily routine for most people. You wake up, stretch, get out of bed, and brush your teeth. It’s the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night. When something is as ubiquitous as that, can a smart toothbrush really make much more of a difference than a normal toothbrush?

Well, yes and no. A smart toothbrush can certainly enhance the brushing experience and give you a deeper, more dentist-like cleaning, but you don’t need to spend a fortune on one. As time goes on and smart toothbrushes become more advanced and complex, their price goes up. I spent some time using Quip's new Smart Brush, and it has forever changed my mind. Here’s why you don’t need to break the bank on a smart toothbrush.
Still a better clean than manual brushing
There's no denying the effectiveness of electric toothbrushes when it comes to getting rid of plaque -- they're better than manual brushes. Period. Two of the more popular brands on the market, Oral-B and Sonicare, have shown consumers the advantages of toothbrushes that leverage vibrating brush heads -- and Quip's interpretation is no different. Actually, Quip has been a name in the electric toothbrush scene for a while, but the recent launch of its smart toothbrush shows big improvements to the design.