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Sorry, I'm an idiot ;-) Here it is Urge.com

Is this supposed to be Urge, the new beta music store interated with WMP11? Urge is a collaborations of MS with MTV, VH1, and CMT, and looks good if you don't mind an interface based almost ntirely on Flash. Urge is hardly news; at least, not this kind of 'Ooh, first glimpse of a new product!' news, but it IS fairly impressive. You don't need WMP11 to use it, but they do seem to operate together fairly well.

Unless there's another, Microsoft-only must store in the works, the only news here is that they are releasing a player, which -- considering how much MS has begun to ente the hardware market -- isn't terribly surprising. Very, very little is being said ABOUT the palyer, however. I actually think MS has a golden opportunity, if they can swing it, to move in on the iPod market; iPod advertisements are getting stale, and it has been a relatively long time since a new iPod came out. People are speculating on things like a larger, wider screen, and/or touchscreen control; MS has the R&D money to create a device like that, with a competitively-sized drive and battery life, and could probably release it at a good price point.

If there IS a new media store, we seriously need more info here!

I take it that you haven't heard the news: It's already being created!

http://www.urge.com/

http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/1924

In an article by Steve Johnson in the Chicago Tribune's online news-site http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/review s/critics/chi-0512210012dec21,1,423123.column?coll =chi-ent_critics-hed, Jason Hirschhorn, MTV Networks' chief digital officer said that they had talked to Apple about working together on Music and Video properties from MTV's catalog and was quoted saying:

"the problem is Apple believes in a closed system. It's hard to see how MTV and our brand work within that"

Isn't this odd: that the company wanting everyone to "Think Differently" changes it's corporate mantra to be "Think Capitalistically" or "Think Monopolistically" when it comes to portable media devices?

WhoWouldaThough?

--ScottKin

...that the favicon on http://www.urge.com/ looks like the Netscape logo? Pretty ironic, no?

So Apple, and now google, have video offerings. Video blogs are popping up all over.... and microsoft is just getting around to launching a music store (that, by the way, isn't even open yet).

] I realize that Microsoft expects to be able to dominate by competing brutally on price, and by leveraging the xbox platform, but how much of a head start are they going to give Google?

Nice. Take a look at the Urge website here and notice how the "G" in Urge is basically the Quicktime "Q" logo rotated about 90 degrees. They even used essentially the same hue of blue. These guys are chumps.

I, to see what would happen, went to urge.com. It is just a pic that says "Urge, coming soon", (which if you think about, is funny in and of itself) but the page source (and the bottom of the page) has this:

So it seems the brand, at least legally, belongs to MTV and Viacom, unless I am reading too much into it.

Hmmmm... the Urge "G" kinda looks like the QuickTime "Q". :)

I like the similarity between the G here and this Q here :)

The favicon file on Urge.com is the old Netscape logo - http://www.urge.com/favicon.ico

The favicon file on Urge.com is the old Netscape logo - http://www.urge.com/favicon.ico

The urge.com page that is presented that says coming soon or whatever mines ALOT of data about you.

For example this is the URL of an image included on the page...

http://viadms.112.2o7.net/b/ss/viadms/1/G.7-PD-R/s 9552561766906?%5BAQB%5D&ndh=1&t=5/0/2006%2015%3A49 %3A12%204%200&pageName=urge_splash&g=http%3A//www. urge.com/&r=http%3A//apple.slashdot.org/article.pl %3Fsid%3D06/01/05/1334231%26tid%3D109%26tid%3D95%2 6tid%3D141%26tid%3D3&cc=USD&s=2048x768&c=32&j=1.3& v=Y&k=Y&bw=1016&bh=544&p=PCMan's%20IE%20Tab%20Plug -in%20for%20Mozilla/Firefox%3BPCMan's%20IEView%20P lug-in%20for%20Mozilla/Firefox%3BMozilla%20Default %20Plug-in%3BAdobe%20Acrobat%3BQuickTime%20Plug-in %206.5.1%3BMicrosoft%20Office%202003%3BJava(TM)%20 2%20Platform%20Standard%20Edition%205.0%20Update%2 06%3BShockwave%20Flash%3B&%5BAQE%5D

Then there is the little javascript that creates this URL ....

http://www.urge.com/s_code_urge.js

If you go to urge.com, you see just a "coming soon" graphic. It's marked copyright "MTV Networks", no mention of M$, but the really great part - the bookmark icon is the Netscape logo...

Check out http://www.urge.com/ it looks like MTV owns the rights to the Urge name and it might not be a MS name decision.

-Rick

The funny thing about this release, is that urge.com, the site that is registered to MTV Networks for this MTV/Microsoft music thing, uses the Netscape icon. Check it out for yourself. http://www.urge.com/ http://www.urge.com/favicon.ico Somebody at MTV has a bit of an anti-microsoft mentality!

The funny thing about this release, is that urge.com, the site that is registered to MTV Networks for this MTV/Microsoft music thing, uses the Netscape icon. Check it out for yourself. http://www.urge.com/ http://www.urge.com/favicon.ico Somebody at MTV has a bit of an anti-microsoft mentality!