Apple’s decision to finally open source its Apple Lossless (ALAC) format is welcome news.

For one thing, people who use iTunes to store and archive their CD collection, and take care to change the audio quality to Apple Lossless, will be able to stream their collection to a wider range of products.

For Linn, where we’ve been advocating FLAC, yet supporting an unofficial version of ALAC, it means we no longer risk the wrath of Apple HQ for letting people listen to their music collections through our systems.

Linn DS has supported both FLAC and ALAC formats (amongst others) for many years because our customers wanted it and there was no justification for restricting playback.

Apples opens core

But what has prompted this sudden outbreak of sanity from Apple?

Without meaning to sound uncharitable, I reckon there’s a pure, commercial motive. And that is…24-bit.

As I reported from my visit with Neil Young, the momentum around 24-bit is growing. Artists want it. The music-loving public wants it. The majors see it as one last chance to re-monetise their back catalogues from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Problem is, Apple owns the main route to the customer with iTunes.

So here’s the deal. The majors offer Apple the 24-bit catalogue. Apple wants the format to be ALAC for the sake of iTunes compatibility. The majors demand ALAC be open source, so that the good stuff can be enjoyed beyond the Apple World to the widest possible audience.

In other words, I believe this is an essential piece of the jigsaw that will see iTunes offering 24-bit music downloads in 2012.

It’s a couple of days late but it’s been worth it. HBO GO is now available on the entire family of Roku devices. Here’s what we found:

This version of HBO GO is significant since it’s the first one actually built for a connected device. While HBO GO has been available on the Boxee and higher-end Samsung HDTVs, that version of the app is browser based. Despite the attractive browser interface, it’s always been challenging to navigate. The navigation on the Roku’s HBO GO app is seamless in comparison. The first time you start the app, you’re provided with a code you enter on the HBO website. After a minute, you’re all set!

HBO GO on the Roku is the first streaming service that actually told me that parental controls were disabled. The reminder is a good idea given some of the content on HBO. HBO is one of the few services that supports sub-accounts with different levels of parental controls.

Like most apps on the Roku, episodes for a series are displayed in a series of thumbnail tiles. However, compared to most Roku apps, the order of the episodes is reversed.

The UI is also smart enough to remember where you were in a particular episode and which episode in a series you had viewed last. It also works if you’ve been watching on a browser and then start again on the Roku. Within an episode, the replay button is enabled. However, when you fast forward or reverse, it does not present the series of thumbnails showing where you are. Netflix does this and it would be a handy enhancement for future versions.

As promised, HBO GO is streaming in high definition. Picture quality is good. It appears to be streaming at 3.5 MBps which delivers a 720P picture. This is better than the 2.5 MBps stream that Amazon Instant Video supplies for it’s 720P content on the Roku. There was little or no evidence of pixelization during action scenes or camera pans. This is where the picture stands out compared to the browser based version. It’s not as noticeable in still shots.

The audio is in stereo but is a big improvement! The sound is richer compared to what you hear in the browser based version of HBO GO. There’s good range and resolution to the audio as well as decent depth. There was no sign of closed captions in the app. In a future release, HBO is supposed to rollout 1080P and surround sound. I can’t wait.

For version 1.0, it’s a good start. HBO GO is yet another reason to get a Roku.

Not that it’s much of a concern, right now, but a standard for Ultra High-Definition Television (UHDTV) is nearing reality as an ITU Study Group reached agreement on the key technical details.

With Japanese broadcaster, NHK, looking to roll out a service in its homeland, around 2025, with a potential pixel count of 33 million – compared to 2 million – for plain old Full HD, it promises to be a major upgrade over existing images but there’s not much on the horizon in terms of a display to show them on although there are plans for public screenings of some of next years Olympics at various public venues across the globe, in the new format.

According to Christoph Dosch, Chairman of the Broadcasting Service Study Group, “UHDTV promises to bring about one of the greatest changes to audio-visual communications and broadcasting in recent decades. Technology is truly at the cusp of transforming how people experience audio-visual communications.”

“UHDTV will create an immersive experience for viewers and will generate a host of new business and marketing opportunities,” added ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré.

See you in 15 years for the follow up to this one but 4320p sounds ok!

Skye founders launch Vdio, a service that lets users “instantly watch the best in TV and movies, right now.” Vdio is currently in closed beta and available only in the U.K.

More trouble is on the horizon for Netflix. GigaOM says Vdio (Vee-dee-o), which allows users to “instantly watch the best in TV and movies, right now,” is hoping to scoop up those who recently abandoned Netflix.

Founded by Janus Friis, co-founder of Skype/Rdio/KaZaA, Vdio in is closed beta at the moment, and will first launch in the U.K.

Information about how much the service will cost, what kind of content Vdio will offer and when it plans to launch in the U.S. seem to be missing.

Pricing and content will be key, considering some of the recent gripes we’ve heard about Netflix. Refresh Vdio’s home page and you’ll get stills from TV shows such as Mad Men and Breaking Bad, as well as films including The Dark Knight, Enter the Dragon and The Shining.

Vdio’s home page also makes us think an active Facebook account is a requirement to use the service.

We’re guessing the Vdio people know what they are doing. Skype just sold to Microsoft for about $8.5 billion.

When GigaOM confirmed the launch of Vdio, reaction immediately started spreading online about whether Vdio will be a Netflix killer.

Personalized internet radio service Pandora has updated to a great “New Pandora” with some major changes: a sleek new look to the site, removal of the 40-hour listening cap, a way to share your stations, and more.

Pandora has been gradually rolling out the new site over the last two months, but the new site is now officially up for all with the new look and new features, including the improved player control buttons on the interface (with the thumbs up and down buttons) and the ability to shuffle collections of stations.

One of the more interesting improvements is the music discovery additions. Click a “share” button to share stations via Twitter, Facebook, or email. Stations will have their own URLs and Pandora also says it is making discovering music even more intuitive and personalized.

Perhaps the best news, though: unlimited listening. You can now listen as much as you want for free. Although, for $36 a year you can upgrade to Pandora One and get higher quality streaming for noticeably improved sound.

If Spotify proved one thing with its U.S. launch, it’s that people will go nuts for free music. So now MOG, one of my favorite paid streaming music services, is getting a free version of its own.

Like Spotify, MOG lets you listen to any song or album you want from a library of about 11 million tracks. But unlike Spotify, MOG’s free service isn’t strictly time-limited. (Spotify users get six months of unrestricted listening, followed by 10 hours per month and five plays per track.) Instead, MOG uses a game-like system that rewards certain actions with more free listening. Refer some friends, get some free time. Recommend a playlist, get more free time. Click on an ad, get more free time.

MOG won’t say exactly how much free listening you’ve got or how much you’re earning. Free listening is represented by an ambiguous meter that works like a gas tank (that is, before cars told you how many miles you had left). But MOG says that if you’re got a lot of clout through social media, you could theoretically get free music forever.

The whole system is the service’s way of trying to go viral. To that end, MOG is launching a new HTML5 app that’s easier to use than MOG’s old website and a lot more convenient to access than Spotify’s installed application. David Hyman, MOG’s founder and CEO, coyly told me that if Facebook were to “hypothetically” launch a music service of its own (as rumored and expected), MOG would allow users to log in through the social network.

In a couple of months, MOG will start showing ads on its website, but what the company really wants is for people to eventually sign up for its paid service, which for $10 per month includes smartphone access and unlimited listening. The premium version of MOG is good enough to replace iTunes and downloadable music entirely, but these kinds of services have never gone mainstream because people don’t like the idea of leasing songs instead of owning them. That’s a problem, because they’re unsustainable on ads alone.

Ideally, free versions MOG and Spotify will convince people that unlimited streaming music has its virtues and that paying for the service is worthwhile. But they also risk reinforcing the idea that music should be free, prompting record labels to pull the plug on licensing. I hope the former scenario is the one that pans out, because I like these services and want them to stick around for a while.

Report 1 Projector’s

The big story at CEDIA 2011 in Indianapolis, if you happened to be a native, had to be Payton Manning’s possibly career ending neck surgery, though for the rest of us in the consumer electronics industry the story was 4K and the emergence of “faux K.” 4K, according to the standard set forth by DCI (Digital Cinema Initiative), is an image that is 4,096 pixels wide by 2,160 pixels tall. “Faux K” on the other hand is 3,840 pixels across by 2,160. The reason I bring up the two “formats” is because there was a lot of buzz surrounding 4K; however there was only one company with the goods to back up the hype – Sony.

Sony was the clear winner at CEDIA this year with the introduction of their new, consumer grade, 4K front projector, the VPL-VW1000ES. Boasting a native resolution of 4,096 x 2,160, the VPL-VW10000ES is a true 4K projector that can also scale legacy sources (DVD, broadcast and Blu-ray) to 4K via its internal scaler. The VPL-VW1000ES has a reported brightness of 2,000 ANSI lumens with a 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. On top of being a native 4K product the VPL-VW10000ES is also a 3D capable projector, though Sony was not demonstrating its 3D prowess during the show. Sony says the VPL-VW1000ES will be available later this year, think December, and will retail for a little under $25,000 – not bad, considering the nearest 4K option not named the VPL-VW1000ES starts north of $100,000.

I sat for a demo of the VPL-VW1000ES and came away very impressed. Its upscaling prowess was brilliant and showcased nicely via a clip from Resident Evil: Afterlife on Blu-ray disc. Sony did head to head comparisons of 1080p versus 4K using still photos captured on a large format still camera and again the differences in resolution were readily apparent and far from subtle. In terms of showcasing 4K in its native form, Sony had the trailer for the new Spider Man film for our eyes to feast upon, though if I’m honest the 1080p upscaled demo of Resident Evil: Afterlife was actually more impressive for it really highlighted, at least for me, why one could benefit from owning a 4K projector now versus in the future. No word on when native 4K content will be available for home consumption, though there is a rumor swirling around CEDIA, mainly the Sony booth, that Sony is working on a new compression standard to fit 4K content onto Blu-ray discs. If this is true (and if it can be done), then 4K may be closer to becoming reality than any of us, present company included, ever thought.

Epson
Epson was showcasing two new projectors at CEDIA this year, the Pro Cinema 6010 and the Pro Cinema 6100. The 6010 is a 2D/3D 1080p projector with 480Hz technology and a 200,000:1 contrast ratio and is the update to the hugely successful Pro Cinema 9700UB. The Pro Cinema 6010 comes with Epson’s zero dead pixel guarantee, a replacement lamp, ceiling mount, cable shroud and three year limited warranty. The Pro Cinema comes with two pairs of 3D glasses and will retail for less than $4,000

I sat in on a demo of the Pro Cinema 6010 and came away very impressed, especially with regards to its 3D performance, which I found to be exemplary and among the best I’ve seen regardless of price. That says a lot, for I generally hate 3D and I’m not alone, for 3D was NOT a selling point or even a draw at this year’s CEDIA show. The most impressive video demonstration of the whole show came by way of another Epson projector – the Pro Cinema 6100.

The Pro Cinema 6100 is a 2D only front projector, which will retail for less than $5,000 when it becomes available later this year. Featuring Epson’s version of D-ILA, the Pro Cinema 6100 has a reported 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio with a unique anamorphic lens memory setting which basically renders the need for an anamorphic lens useless – provided you don’t mind sitting through the 6100′s automated zoom out and focus procedure. The Pro Cinema 6100 features a new industrial design language, which is simply stunning. In terms of its performance, the Pro Cinema 6100, projected onto a Stewart Cine-W auto-masking StudioTek 130 screen, was bite-the-back-of-your-hand brilliant in terms of its contrast, color and detail presentation. While the Sony may have had it over the Pro Cinema 6100 in terms of its overall resolution (evident in only the finest details), I believed the 6100′s performance, pound-for-pound, was more impressive. The Pro Cinema 6100′s lens memory feature is also a nice addition and one I wish more projectors had.

Daniel Ek, the 28-year-old co-founder and public face of Spotify, the European digital music service, paced around the company’s loftlike Manhattan office on Tuesday afternoon, clutching two mobile phones that buzzed constantly.

The service, which began in Sweden in 2008, offers subscriptions to vast catalogs of music, but it faces competition from similar services in the United States.

After nearly two years of stop-start negotiations with record labels, Spotify was preparing to finally open in the United States. With less than 48 hours before its planned start, however, the company still had not completed its final major label deal, with the Warner Music Group.

Yet Mr. Ek said he was confident that there would be no delay, and that Americans would soon be able to experience what has made Spotify the world’s most celebrated new digital music service. He was right. By Wednesday afternoon, Spotify’s deal with Warner was signed, and on Thursday, as scheduled, it will become available in the United States.

“We’ve made it easier to listen, and we’ve made it easier for people to share,” Mr. Ek said. “Hence, people tend to get more into the experience, and they tend to find new music and build larger collections that they want to take with them. And therefore, they also pay more for music.”

If Apple’s iTunes ushered in digital music’s first phase as a large-scale business, then Spotify and other services like it could be its future. Rather than selling individual tracks to be downloaded, subscription services sell monthly access to vast catalogs of music, with whatever songs a listener wants to hear streamed directly to his computer or mobile phone.

Spotify will be offered in the same three-tier plan that it has in Europe: a free, ad-supported version; a basic ad-free version for $5 a month; and a premium service for $10 a month that adds access on a mobile phone, higher audio quality and other perks.

At first, Spotify’s free version will be available by invitation only, given out through current users or by the company to the thousands who have requested the service on Twitter and through its Web site. (Paid subscriptions will be available right away.)

With its lightning-fast interface, easy integration with Facebook and “freemium” business model, Spotify has quickly become the most popular such service in the world. Begun in Sweden in 2008 and until now available in only seven European countries, it has signed up 1.6 million paid subscribers and more than 10 million registered users in total. It also has been one of the fastest-growing investments in the new digital boom, having recently raised $100 million in a round of investment that valued the company at $1 billion.

But Spotify faces a number of challenges in the American market. While the company had relatively little competition in Europe as a subscription service, in the United States a number of similar companies have gotten a head start, including Rhapsody, Rdio and MOG. Like those services, Spotify allows its premium users to save a certain number of tracks to their phones for offline use, in the subway or on the plane. And new cloud services from Apple, Google and Amazon promise to make people’s music collections available anywhere they go.

Whether the company makes a profit is another question. It lost $26.5 million in 2009, but it has not reported on its financial performance for last year.

Spotify’s speed offers the company one significant advantage over its American competitors. (It achieves that speed partly through using a peer-to-peer network, which lets a song play almost instantaneously.) But its crucial selling point has been its free access, which the company believes can lure in new users, who then get attached to its playlisting and social networking features and will be enticed to join.

That reliance on free access, however, has also worried American record labels and some analysts, who fear that it could cannibalize sales from other sources, like iTunes.

“What Spotify seems to be doing is solidifying a perception that music should be free,” said Mark Mulligan, an independent media analyst in Britain. “It’s one thing to download from BitTorrent and keep looking over your virtual shoulder to make sure no one sends you a cease-and-desist letter. It’s another to be streaming music freely from a service that you know even the labels are advocating.”

Those concerns held up Spotify’s negotiations with the labels, and in April the company made concessions to the labels’ concerns by placing restrictions on the amount of time its free European users could spend on the service. For the first six months, a free user is now limited to 20 hours of listening a month; after six months, the limit becomes 10 hours, and no song can be listened to more than five times in a month. American users will be subject to the same limitations.

European users complained loudly when those restrictions were introduced, but Kenneth Parks, Spotify’s managing director for North America, who led most of the label negotiations, defended the changes.

“It’s still an amazing experience that’s free for the rest of your life,” Mr. Parks said. “It has not diminished the magic of what Spotify is about, and millions and millions across Europe, and soon the U.S., will validate that.”

Spotify argues that by offering virtually all available music free, and sharing advertising revenue with record companies (the major labels own about 18 percent of the company), it removes the appeal of piracy, and consumers who had been lost to the industry can be lured back.

For Mr. Ek, Spotify’s success is directly attributable to its ease of use as an alternative to illegal downloading, which in his native Sweden had almost completely overtaken the market when he and a partner, Martin Lorentzon, founded the company.

“At the time you could only buy DRM music tracks for 99 cents,” he said in his slight Swedish accent, referring to digital rights management, the system of restrictions used by iTunes and other digital retailers.

“At the same time, I could steal a file which cost zero, had no restrictions whatsoever and had better sound quality,” he said. “The illegal, pirated product was actually better than the one you purchased. So our view is, ‘How do we create a better product than piracy?’ ”

Another concern for labels has been the size of Spotify’s royalty payments, which are computed in fractions of a cent per stream, an order of magnitude less than the royalties associated with downloads and CD sales. (Download royalties vary, but in general record labels and artists collect about 70 percent of the retail cost of a download, which is typically $1.)

That means that song has to be streamed many times for it to make as much money as a download, but labels say that as Spotify has grown, those streams have started to add up.

Last year, Spotify paid about $60 million in royalties; that made it the second-largest source of digital revenue for European record labels, after iTunes, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

“Spotify are currently one of our top digital partners globally by revenue, and that is with them only being open in seven European territories,” said Simon Wheeler, the director of digital for the Beggars Group, an independent label group whose artists include Adele and Vampire Weekend. “I expect them to be second or third place this year for us.”

Many analysts and music executives say they believe that Spotify’s greatest advantage in the United States is Facebook. The service is already closely integrated with Facebook, so that users can easily share songs with friends and play with features like drag-and-drop playlists.

Spotify is also one of several digital music services that has been in talks with Facebook to help it develop an extensive media platform that could instantly raise its profile here.

Spotify declined to comment on those talks. But Mr. Ek said he was not concerned about the company’s ability to build up to a large scale in the United States.

“We want to make it simple for people,” he said. “If you want to take your music with you, you shouldn’t have to worry about 15 different sync programs or anything else. It ought to be as simple as pressing play and it works. And ultimately when you get to that point, that’s when people are prepared to pay. People are prepared to pay for convenience.”