We all remember the flash-mobs of yesteryear, way back in …. 2003, when the first one happened in the UK.
Well, last Wednesday saw the Mobile Clubbing flashmob descend Liverpool Street Station on the East side of London, as flagged by Helen Keegan (Technokitten).
From the photos and the videos, it looks like it was pretty well attended, with what was estimated as a thousand people.
The instructions?
1. Bring your favorite dance music and walkman/mp3/ipod/phone with you
2. Arrive at the station at around 19:153. No dancing before 19:24
4. Spread out throughout the whole station concourse
5. When the clock strikes 19:24 DANCE LIKE CRAZY!!
6. Try not to dance in one place
7. Dance like you’ve never danced before
8. Dance for as long as you can
9. Enjoy :)
Come 19:24 they started dancing to their own music, leading to the individual, random gyrations that you can make out on the video – with the added strangeness that there’s no music playing, as everyone has headphones on. James A White goes into more detail.
Thanks to Monkeys & Kiwis and The City Gentleman for use of the photos.
Google will soon be offering free music videos on its Google video Web site after striking a deal with industry bigwigs, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. 
“Our partnership with Google is rooted in the pioneering approach we’ve used to offer fans more music, while benefiting artists and protecting copyrights,” gushed Warner Music in a press release. 
Google has said that it will be offering further access to Sony and Warner’s hefty audio-visual catalogues in the coming months through partner Web sites in its AdSense network. 
In true online video blog style, the announcement was made by Mr Diddy (not one of 
Details of the deal between Mr Diddy and Burger King haven’t been disclosed, but we’d imagine that it’s going to be worth more that a couple of orders at their stores, even if his entourage are ordering large. 
We attribute much of Mr Diddy’s knowledge and acceptance of YouTube down to 
Looking like lovechild of a bedtime romp between an iPod and a mobile phone, Samsung’s X838 phone has real “gimme!” appeal. 
Because of the narrow, slimline construction, the number keys are unusually arranged in rows of two, with the usual ‘call’ and ‘end call’ buttons at the top. 
There’s also an easily accessible ‘hold’ button so you don’t end up ringing your Mum when you’re rocking out to Pantera, as well as a volume up/down control on the side of the unit. 
We spent some time trying to translate the text from the 
Warner Music Group has announced a deal with YouTube to distribute music videos, as well as extras such as band interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and artist rockumentaries. 
“As user-generated content becomes more prevalent, this kind of partnership will allow music fans to celebrate the music of their favourite artists, enable artists to reach consumers in new ways, and ensure that copyright holders and artists are fairly compensated,” he continued. 
Apple has for once pre-announced a new product, codenamed iTV (which is unlikely to be the final name as they’d get sued in the UK for a start). 
In the UK, the iTunes music store was closed all day yesterday for refurbishment, with a black screen just saying ‘Showtime.’ At about 6pm (UK time) Steve Jobs announced why. There’s a slew of new/updated iPods and more content on the store as well as version 7 of iTunes for Mac and Windows (more on this later). 
Movies (and video from the iTunes store) are now stored in 640 x 480 format. 
Both the Nano and iPod video now have search features so that albums can be searched for etc., using the click wheel (with on-screen letters and search criteria). Gapless playback is a new feature, so songs can be played continuously without the normal two second wait between songs. There’s no beat matching yet, but maybe that’s Apple’s next enhancement so DJ’s will be out of a job. 
iTunes 7 is now available for download. The indexing has been improved, as has navigation by re-organising the Library and other indexes that normally appear on the left hand side. If iTunes is linked to an account on the iTunes store, it can now download artwork for any music on your system. Searching is also easier, as both music and video can be searched by viewing the artwork and then seeing what’s available in say that album. 
All movie and video content is now stored in 640 x 480 format. 
There are a couple of dilemmas for anyone who takes their MP3 player to play in the car. How do you get the sound to the car stereo and how do you stop the thing sliding about all over the place? The TrekStor MP3-RadioStation f.ox tackles these. 
Where do the tunes come from? There’s no storage on board, as the music is supplied via a USB memory stick that plugs in the bottom. This arrangement brings the advantage of low cost expansion and that the music storage is only limited by the size and number of memory sticks you’ve got. 
Sadly for UK users, devices like this can’t be used legally, as Ofcom don’t differentiate between low-power gadgets such as this that transmit over a short distance and a full blown radio station. 
In a move that was as unexpected as night following day, MySpace has finally revealed plans to introduce its own music downloads service before the end of the year. 
Now the most visited site in the US, MySpace boasts millions of users with the site already established as an essential part of any new band’s online promotional activities. 
This gets around Apple’s stubborn refusal to licence their FairPlay digital rights management system to third parties, letting music fans play purchased tracks on their iPods.