Album sales in the United States jumped 3% during 2011 according to one report. That may seem like minor growth, but it is actually the first time album sales have increased since 2004. Nielsen SoundScan said Adele’s album “21″ sold 5.8 million copies, and total sales came in at 458 million albums for the year. Make no mistake, however, CD sales are still on the decline. Sales of full digital albums climbed 20% to 103 million units but CD sales dropped 6% to 225 million units. Nielsen’s senior vice president of analytics Dave Bakula said the addition of Google’s music store in the Android Market also helped serve as a catalyst for digital music sales growth. ”It shows there’s still a lot of growth potential in digital,” Bakula said. “That’s something I don’t see falling down.”

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Facebook has decided to kill off its Facebook Deals product, a service that was launched to compete with other coupon service providers such as Groupon and LivingSocial. “After testing Deals for four months, we’ve decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks,” Facebook told Reuters. “We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses. We’ve learned a lot from our test and we’ll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses.” Facebook will instead focus on Pages, Sponsored Stories and its Ads product. Facebook announced Deals in November and began testing the service in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco. It partnered with aDealio, Gilt City, HomeRun, kgb deals, OpenTable, Plum District, PopSugar City, ReachLocal, Tippr, viagogo and zozi to power the service.

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Dish Network on Thursday revealed plans to shutter 200 additional Blockbuster stores, dropping the number of nationwide locations to approximately 1,500. Dish won an auction to take control of Blockbuster and its remaining assets this past April, after the fallen giant filed for bankruptcy last September. Dish said that the 15,000 employees working in Blockbuster locations that will remain operational will not lose their jobs. The company also said employees of the locations set to be shuttered will have the opportunity to transfer to other stores. Blockbuster failed to evolve with the shifting movie rental industry — when it finally did begin to offer new portfolio options to compete with the likes of Netflix, it neglected to add any real value or differentiation beyond competitive offerings. Coupled with the expense of operating physical rental shops, Blockbuster didn’t stand a chance. Dish Network acquired Blockbuster’s in April for approximately $228 million in cash, and it remains to be seen whether or not Dish can manage to transform the current business into something worthwhile.

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Late last month, Amazon announced that customers subscribed to The New York Times via its eReader would qualify for a free digital subscription to the paper’s website. Not to be outdone, Barnes & Noble today announced that users subscribed to The Times via the NOOK Newsstand will also have full access to the  publication’s web content, too. The famed paper made waves on March 17th when it announced that it was moving to a pay wall model for its website. Users are allowed to read twenty NYT articles each month before they bump into the new toll booth and are required to pay for access. While the publication noted that those subscribed to its traditional home delivery service would be given full-access to all online content, it was not made clear how those digesting the Times via eReaders would be affected. The full press release is after the break.

Subscribers to The New York Times on NOOK™ by Barnes & Noble to Receive Free Access to NYTimes.com

Customers Enjoy Digital Edition of Newspaper on NOOK Devices, Plus Online News, Opinion, Videos and More

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced that all subscribers to The New York Times through NOOK Newsstand™ will also enjoy access to the NYTimes.com website. Barnes & Noble customers can already enjoy their digital subscription to The New York Times, reading the daily e-edition content on NOOK Color™ Reader’s Tablet, NOOK™ and NOOK Wi-Fi® eReaders. Coming soon, NOOK subscribers to The New York Times will also be able to access NYTimes.com, The Times’s award-winning website, including timely news updates, opinion, blogs, video, interactive graphics and more, at no additional cost.

“We are excited to expand our long-standing relationship with The New York Times to provide NOOK customers with online access to even more great content any time,” said Jonathan Shar, Vice President and General Manager of digital newsstand at Barnes & Noble. “Our customers already enjoy access to one of the leading NOOK Newspapers™ on their favorite NOOK device, and we believe they’ll appreciate the easy access to all of the wonderful online content available at NYTimes.com at no extra cost.”

The New York Times continues to be one of the bestselling NOOK Newspapers and, as with other digital periodicals, is available for a risk-free, 14 day free trial for all customers.

“The Times’s digital subscription plan was designed to offer access to our high-quality journalism across a variety of platforms,” said Yasmin Namini, senior vice president, marketing and circulation, and general manager, reader applications, The New York Times Media Group. “We are pleased be able to offer online access to NYTimes.com as part of the subscription experience for our loyal readers on NOOK devices.”

Barnes & Noble customers with current subscriptions to The New York Times through NOOK Newsstand™ will be notified via email in the coming weeks with more information on how to enjoy free access to NYTimes.com.

For more information and to order The New York Times for NOOK, visit www.bn.com/nytimes or visit any of NOOK Boutique or display in one of Barnes & Noble’s more than 700 bookstores (http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com) to learn more.

Today American Express introduced its new digital payment system called Serve. Serve works similar to PayPal in that it allows users to create an account that can be used for sending or receiving money. Users can access their accounts from American Express’ Serve iOS and Android applications, via the Web, or through Facebook. Serve has two fees, including 2.9% plus $0.30 per load deposited, although this is discounted to 0$ for cash, debit, and ACH. Similarly, there’s a $2 fee on ATM cash withdrawals, although the first withdrawal each month is free. The good news is, American Express is waiving the deposit fee for the next six months. Serve lets users create a master account and you can create sub-accounts for friends or family members. American Express also provides a debit card with each Serve account that can be be used at any ATM or merchant that accepts American Express. “We are working with a range of partners to integrate Serve as a payment method and deliver customized offers, and we will waive most consumer fees for the next six months,” said Dan Schulman, Group President, Enterprise Growth at American Express. Hit the jump for the full release.

American Express Announces Serve(SM), the Next Generation Digital Payment PlatformServe Offers Person-to-Person, Online, Mobile, and Traditional Card Capabilities in a Single Account NEW YORK,  March 28, 2011 –

American Express today unveiled Serve(SM), a digital payment and commerce platform that gives consumers a new way to spend, send and receive money with services that go beyond the existing global payment networks.

With Serve, consumers can make purchases and person-to-person (P2P) payments online (serve.com), via mobile phones, and at millions of merchants who accept American Express cards. Serve unifies multiple payment options into a single account that can be funded from a bank account, debit, credit or charge card, or by receiving money from another Serve account.

Serve is an easy-to-use, digital alternative aimed at consumers who currently rely on cash, check and debit card. Serve accounts can be accessed via Serve Apple iOS and Android applications, at Serve.com and through Facebook. Through Serve, American Express aims to expand into new segments of the market that do not rely on traditional charge and credit cards to manage their day-to-day finances.

“Serve is a new type of payment platform that isn’t tied to a single card or mobile operating system. It’s a flexible, easy to use platform, which from day one brings tremendous assets to the alternative payments space and gives consumers an option to shop on-line and off-line at millions of merchants who accept American Express,” said Dan Schulman, Group President, Enterprise Growth, American Express.

“We intend to quickly evolve the Serve platform by adding new features and functionality as we learn from consumer and merchant experiences. To encourage a broad cross-section of people to experience the benefits and convenience of Serve, we are working with a range of partners to integrate Serve as a payment method and deliver customized offers, and we will waive most consumer fees for the next six months,” said Mr. Schulman.

How it works
Consumers set up an online account at Serve.com or through a smartphone app. Funds can be added from bank accounts, debit cards, credit and charge cards, or other Serve accounts. Customers can use those accounts to send and receive money to friends, pay bills and make purchases online. Serve bridges online and offline commerce – each customer will be issued a Serve reloadable prepaid card linked to their Serve account that can be used at any merchant or ATM that accepts American Express cards.

Unlike traditional debit card accounts, Serve offers users the ability to easily create, manage, and specify sub-accounts for their friends, family members or colleagues. Sub-accounts are linked to the master account and allow users to set spending profiles for everything from children’s allowances to dog walker fees.

The Serve platform evolved from technology obtained through the acquisition of Revolution Money in early 2010.

Serve is available immediately to anyone in the U.S. and is expected to launch into other international markets over the coming year. American Express will continue to evolve the features and functionality of Serve based on market feedback. To gain consumer and merchant insights about Serve and to help shape upcoming releases, a marketing pilot will also be conducted in Eugene, Oregon.

Partnerships
While payments are the foundation of the Serve platform, American Express is also announcing a number of partners who will use the platform to deliver relevant offers that drive spend and build loyalty. Three of the first partners are Ticketmaster®, Concur® and Flipswap.

“A cornerstone of the long-term vision for Serve is developing partnerships with commerce, gaming, entertainment, and social networking organizations,” said Mr. Schulman. Partnerships, with players such as Ticketmaster, Concur and Flipswap will introduce Serve to new customers and help build scale. These companies have loyal communities of customers, and we are thrilled to partner with them as we grow and expand Serve’s reach.”

Ticketmaster will offer Serve as a platform for customers to make and collect payments toward ticket purchases from other customers. Concur will utilize Serve as an expense management and reimbursement method for transactions processed via Concur’s small business expense reporting service, Concur Breeze. Flipswap will utilize Serve to issue refunds more quickly to consumers who sell or trade in their old mobile and cell phones for reuse or recycling.

Details around these and a number of additional partnerships will be announced over the coming months.

Giving Back Widget
Serve is also partnering with five major charities – Autism Speaks, Best Friends Animal Society, Malaria No More, Save The Children and Stand Up For Kids – to enable each organization to raise funds via a donations widget. Widgets can be downloaded on Serve.com and at facebook.com/paywithserve, and shared on other Web sites, including Facebook, to encourage donations. Serve will match all contributions via the widget up to $100,000 for each charity.

In the coming months, Serve will offer selling widgets that give customers the ability to sell items through their own social networks.

Highly Competitive Fees Waived for Launch
Serve consumer fees will be highly competitive. There are only two fees for consumers and we are waiving the fee to put money into the Serve account for the next six (6) months. The two fees are:

• Putting money into a Serve account: 2.9% + 30c/per load, discounted to 0% for cash, debit and ACH.
• ATM cash withdrawal (after first one each month free): $2.00

Unlike some other products in the market, Serve has no fees to open an account, no monthly fees, no fees for P2P transactions, no fees to set up sub-accounts (up to four accounts) and no fees to use the widgets.

Merchants who accept American Express cards will pay a prepaid discount rate for transactions made both in stores and online with a Serve prepaid card.

Investor Conference Call – Live Audio Webcast
A conference call with members of the investment community will be held today March 28, 2011, at 11:00 am EDT. The call will be hosted by Dan Schulman, Group President, Enterprise Growth, American Express.

Live audio of the conference call will be accessible to the general public at http://ir.americanexpress.com. A replay of the conference call will also be available at the same Web site address.

About Serve
Serve, by American Express, is a next generation payment platform designed to deliver emerging payments and services to address the changing ways consumers interact and exchange money — with one another — as well as merchants. Learn more at serve.com and connect with us on facebook.com/paywithserve and twitter.com/serve.

About American Express
American Express is a global services company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success. Learn more at americanexpress.com and connect with us on facebook.com/americanexpress, twitter.com/americanexpress and youtube.com/americanexpress.

• the willingness of consumers to use the Serve product, and in particular consumers that do not traditionally rely on charge and credit cards to manage their day-to-day finances, which will depend in part on their willingness to try the Serve product instead of competing payment products and their satisfaction with the operability, fee structure and other features of the Serve product;
• the ability of the Company to add new features and functionality and ease of use to the Serve platform on an accelerated basis that reflect the needs and desires of consumers, merchants and other participants in the payments space, which will depend in part on the Company’s ability to retrieve and effectively assess information from users and other parties on a real-time basis and then make the right judgments in how to build-out the existing Serve platform;
• the success of the Company in developing relationships with partners, both in and outside the U.S., who will effectively integrate Serve as a payment method for their customers, which will be critical in facilitating the Company’s ability to expand the scope and number of Serve users; and
• technology trends that will impact the environment within which Serve operates and influence how the Serve product will have to evolve to remain compatible and competitive.

A further description of these uncertainties and other risks can be found in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010, under Item 1A. Risk Factors and Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements, and the Company’s other reports filed with the SEC.

Taiwanese handset giant HTC has announced a “strategic investment” made in the digital media-delivery company Saffron Digital. “Saffron Digital has developed an incredible expertise in mobile multimedia delivery,” said Peter Chou, HTC’s CEO. “This ability to deliver optimized content in the future will be a key asset as content becomes more and more complex and localized. We are excited to be working with Saffron to increase our global service delivery capabilities and expertise.” The company, which already does business with HTC, LG, Paramount Digital Entertainment, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile and Nokia in Europe along with Samsung in the U.S., will, in all likelihood, bring digital content delivery to HTC’s Sense smartphone experience. The press release notes that Saffron will “continue to provide its cutting edge media and content services to its third party partners.” Hit the jump to check out the full announcement.

HTC Makes Strategic Investment in Saffron Digital, a Leader in Digital Multimedia Delivery

TAOYUAN, Taiwan–(BUSINESS WIRE)–HTC, a global leader in mobile innovation and design, today announced it is making a strategic investment in London-based Saffron Digital, a global leader in digital multimedia delivery.

“Saffron Digital has developed an incredible expertise in mobile multimedia delivery. This ability to deliver optimised content in the future will be a key asset as content becomes more and more complex and localised,“ said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. “We are excited to be working with Saffron to increase our global service delivery capabilities and expertise.”

Saffron Digital has experienced a phenomenally successful year with its innovative technology integrated into products and services in Europe by HTC, LG, Paramount Digital Entertainment, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile and Nokia, among others, and in the US by Samsung. It has entered into partnerships with industry-leading companies such as Microsoft, and Widevine, to ensure that customers are given the best possible video experience across a range of devices.

“HTC’s investment increases our global expansion capabilities and provides us with an opportunity to expand into new markets like Asia and new sectors like games and music delivery,” says Shashi Fernando, CEO of Saffron Digital. “We have grown Saffron Digital into one of the best and most exciting digital service providers in the world and this enables us to take digital content delivery to a new level for our customers around the world.”

Saffron Digital will continue to provide its cutting edge media and content services to its third party partners, which include device manufacturers, network operators and content providers in 26 countries. The company’s headquarters will remain in London and Los Angeles while its management team will continue unchanged.

About Saffron Digital
Saffron Digital is a global mobile delivery platform company, whose products and services are live in 26 countries and 14 languages. Its proprietary technologies, which include the ability to support multi-device media delivery, superfast encoding and Domain Based DRM, have been integrated into products by clients including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, HTC, LG and Samsung, as well as services for Sony Pictures, NBC Universal, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Sky, T Mobile and Vodafone. Shareholders in the company include Beringea, NewSmith Capital and Duet Asset Management.

Saffron Digital is listed in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 and Technology Fast 500 EMEA for 2010, and also won the Best Video Service Provider at this year’s Mobile Entertainment awards.

About HTC
HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry. By putting people at the center of everything it does, HTC creates innovative smartphones that better serve the lives and needs of individuals. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com.

According to Mr. Hugh Hefner’s Twitter account, his company’s iconic Playboy magazine will be coming to Apple’s iPad, beginning in March, uncensored. Since the launch of the iPhone, Apple has been fairly strict in keeping adult materal off of its digital content store. The two tweets we’re referencing read:

Big news! Playboy–both old & new–will be available on iPad beginning in March.

and in a reply to a follower’s question:

@hughmcook Playboy on iPad will be uncensored, Hugh.

This is not the magazine’s first attempt to take advantage of the digital lifestyle consumers are embracing. Several months ago, Playboy began selling an external hard drive, priced at around $300, that contained a complete digital catalog of all Playboy publications from 1953 to 2010. Any gentlemen out there plan on subscribing to the iPad version of Playboy for… you know… the articles?Read

For this week’s Throwback Thursday, we’re rewinding time just fifteen short years back to 1996. A time when the Macarena was on top of the charts, the Olympics were in Atlanta, and fanny-packs were still moderately socially acceptable. We’re talking toys, and today we’re talking about Tamagotchis.

First sold in 1996, Tamagotchis were portable, digital pets often seen dangling from keychains and backpacks. Before you could care for Sims on your PC, you could purchase a Tamagotchi from your local toy store, activate it, name it, and care for it from its infancy all the way through its twilight years. The more love and affection you doted upon your digital pet — by feeding it, playing with it, and picking up after it — the better behaved it was (meaning: the less time you had to spend with it; ironic we know). Neglect your little, digital friend and it would die. The Tamagotchi came in a host of different forms: dogs, cats, zoo animals, humans — you name it and you could virtually care for it. Parents and parent groups were enamored with the toys; thinking they were an excellent way to teach children responsibility and hard work… or something like that.

How about it? What was the name of your Tamagotchi?

BGR’s Throwback Thursday is a weekly series covering our (and your) favorite gadgets, games, and software of yesterday and yesteryear.

A camera without Wi-Fi? That’s so 2010. Today, Samsung announced its Wi-Fi enabled, 14.1 megapixel SH100 digital shooter. This new, connected camera has the ability to take your candids and, via its built-in Wi-Fi, display them on an HDTV with DLNA support, upload photos to Picasa or videos to YouTube, and post to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter… all without a computer. The camera can pair itself with your Android smartphone for use as a remote and wireless viewfinder:

You can use Wi-Fi to connect to your Android® powered Galaxy S™ smartphone, so you can view the shot you’re about to take in real time on your phone. If you’re not happy with it, you can zoom in and out to get the best picture, and then activate the shutter remotely when you’re ready to pose. This innovation means that the days of running between your camera and your subject, trying to line up the perfect group shot, are over. Users now have total control of their camera in the palm of their hand, from wherever they are in the shot. Users can even use their phone’s GPS to record exactly where they were when they captured their favorite memories.

The SH100 can also wirelessly backup its stored images to your home’s PC. Not bad Sammy, not bad at all. The camera, which will be showcased this week at CES, will retail for $199 and should go on sale in March. We’ll take two. Hit the jump for the full press release.

Samsung’s New SH100 Brings Your World Closer
New Wi-Fi-enabled camera delivers ultimate connectivity on the move

CES, Las Vegas – January 4, 2011 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, announced today the launch of the new SH100, a compact Wi-Fi enabled camera that delivers great shots that you can share over the internet and social networks with your friends and family, from wherever you are in the world. The SH100 is set to be Samsung’s leading fully connected camera in 2011, building on the success of the company’s wirelessly connected cameras to date and allowing Samsung to take a dominant position within this growing market.

Samsung’s pioneering steps within the connected camera market can be seen in the SH100′s unique innovation, which allows you to connect wirelessly to your other devices with ease. You can use Wi-Fi to connect to your Android® powered Galaxy S™ smartphone, so you can view the shot you’re about to take in real time on your phone. If you’re not happy with it, you can zoom in and out to get the best picture, and then activate the shutter remotely when you’re ready to pose. This innovation means that the days of running between your camera and your subject, trying to line up the perfect group shot, are over. Users now have total control of their camera in the palm of their hand, from wherever they are in the shot. Users can even use their phone’s GPS to record exactly where they were when they captured their favorite memories.

The SH100′s built in Wi-Fi can also automatically back up your shots to your PC by only pushing two buttons, or by using DLNA to wirelessly connect to your HDTV and see your photos and videos right away. Wi-Fi enables you to upload your pictures instantly to your social networking sites such as Facebook, Picasa or Photo Bucket, or email them to individual email addresses straight from the camera. The people you care about can now enjoy your experience from wherever they are. You can also record HD video and share your favorite moments over sites such as YouTube™. To make the upload process of large files easier and quicker, the SH100 includes an account with mobile hotspot provider Boingo™, giving you access to over 200,000 Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide.

The SH100 is the latest example of Samsung’s user-focused innovation and design. The company has always carefully researched its target audience, and in 2011, Samsung is applying this research to create unique products for a younger, more digitally connected generation of camera users. The company is also leveraging its strength in other product areas, such as mobile phones, to make emerging camera technologies, such as Wi-Fi, accessible to all camera buyers, even those on smaller budgets.

“At Samsung, we are always striving to innovate and you can see this in every product we release,” said Mr. Hyunho Chung, Executive Vice President and Head of the Digital Imaging Business, Samsung Electronics. “From our in-depth consumer research, we know that younger users have different needs from their digital camera. They don’t want to wait until they get home to share their favorite moments with their friends, they want to be able to do this instantly from wherever they are. The SH100 gives young people the chance to bring their world closer, by drawing on Samsung’s technological strength to deliver total connectivity in a compact camera, at an accessible price. Through the SH100, we hope to provide the best product for people looking for ultimate connectivity from their camera, and strengthen Samsung’s leadership in the compact camera category.”

Experience the Convenience
The SH100 uses built in Wi-Fi capability to deliver unique new experiences for all camera users. By selecting the PC Auto Back-up function, your camera will automatically find your PC and download the latest photos onto it, even if the PC is turned off. This feature is compatible with the Wake-on-LAN (WoL) system which many modern home PCs are already equipped with.

Innovation in Control Helps you Capture the Moment
The Wi-Fi capability on the SH100 also allows you to use your smartphone as a remote control and viewing device for your camera. If you’re shooting over a crowd at a concert, you can enable the Remote Viewfinder function, meaning that you can hold your camera high over your head while you see a preview of the picture in real time on your phone screen. It’s also ideal for taking self shots as you can zoom in and out using the 5x optical zoom, and access basic menu functions including parameters and shooting modes. When you’re happy with the shot, you can operate the shutter remotely too, and the camera will record the GPS information for photo geo-tagging.

Seamlessly Simple
Samsung has also used its strength in the smartphone market to develop a new Smart Access user interface (UI) for all of its new compact cameras. The touch based UI works in the same quick, intuitive way as many smartphones. Advanced functions, such as sharing content wirelessly, can be done simply by a few touches of the buttons on the large, clear 3″ LCD screen. The Smart Access UI enables users to drag, click and control ‘app-style’ icons, easily flip through photos, and control a range of the camera’s features.

The Heart of your Digital Home
The SH100 features Samsung AllShare, which uses DLNA technology to allow you to connect to your HDTV and stream content wirelessly. For instance, when you get home from a concert, you can now watch the videos of your favorite songs instantly on your TV.

Retail giant Sears isn’t the first company that comes to mind when you think about digital movie downloads, but a newly launched offering aims to change that. The company has announced Alphaline Entertainment, a digital movie rental and download service that runs on the RoxioNow platform. First rumored back in July, Alphaline will offer users 24-hour movie rentals for between $3 and $4 or movie purchases for between $10 and $20. Movies can be viewed on a PC or on any RoxioNow capable device (e.g. Xbox 360). In the future, Sears hopes to support viewing on Macintosh computers, mobile devices, and network connected TVs. What do you think? Does Sears stand a chance against Amazon, Netflix, and the like?

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A report filed by the Wall Street Journal indicates that Google, Inc. will be opening an online eBook store in the near future. Scott Dougall, a Google product director, told The Journal that the new store “is set to debut in the U.S. by the end of the year and internationally in the first quarter of next year.” Independent booksellers around the U.S. are expected to play a fairly large roll in Google’s eBook ecosystem. As the WSJ reports: “Users will be able to buy books directly from Google or from multiple online retailers—including independent bookstores—and add them to an online library tied to a Google account. They will be able to access their Google accounts on most devices with a Web browser, including personal computers, smartphones and tablets.” The Google model heavily contrasts that of digital reading devices like the Amazon Kindle; the Kindle requires you to purchase books from Amazon’s store in the Kindle format.

Google Editions would also have a revenue-sharing model for third parties. Websites and blogs that talk about a particular book could link its readers to Google Editions to purchase the title and share in Google’s cut of the sale. Proponents of the service say it will provide authors an opportunity to sell their work anytime it is discussed on the internet.

Google’s passion for books is not new news by any means. The company has publicly stated its desire to scan all the world’s books (~150 million) into digital format and make the contents of the digital library available to its search engine users.

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Yesterday, there were internet rumors aplenty after Apple posted a cryptic message about iTunes on its homepage, and today, we have to wonder no more. After a long holdout, it looks as though the music catalog of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Star, and George Harrison — better known as The Beatles — will be available for download from the iTunes Music Store.

It is a fairly well-known fact that Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, has a soft-spot for the gang from Liverpool and has been actively trying to get the group’s music on his company’s digital music store for some time. Multiple publications have cited pricing disagreements between Apple, Inc., Apple Corp (the band’s holding company), and record label EMI as the reason for the deal’s delay.

The Beatles’ appearance on iTunes will mark the first time the group has made its work legally available in a digital, downloadable format. Albums will retail for $12.99 and the band’s entire box set can be purchased for $149.

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Before the invention of the internets, information was a hot commodity. If you needed to acquire information on an unknown or obscure topic there were several options at your disposal: the public library, that eccentric uncle who always knew the strangest things, and… encyclopedias. Hell, if you’re old enough you might even remember encyclopedia salesman going door-to-door hawking the novels of knowledge to you or your parents. Well, if you’re a shade too old for the days of the encyclopedia salesman, and Wikipedia wasn’t around when you were an undergrad, you’re definitely a going to remember Microsoft Encarta...

Microsoft Encarta was first launched in 1993 by the Redmond software giant after purchasing the rights to the Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia. The digital reference set — which was bundled on CDs and later DVDs — contained tens of thousands of articles, was easy to search, and required zero shelf-space in one’s abode. Encarta gained tremendous popularity throughout the 90′s as it was frequently bundled with new computer systems free of charge. In 1998, Microsoft bought Collier’s Encyclopedia along with New Merit Scholar’s Encyclopedia to further supplement their digital reference set, and, at its peak, Encarta had over 62,000 articles. Microsoft’s Encarta software is often credited as the force behind the destruction of companies such as World Book, who had previously dominated the encyclopedia market for nearly 100 years.

However, just as the dominance of print encyclopedias was brought to an end by the personal-computer revolution, so to was the age of Encarta by the internet revolution. As the 21st-century moved forward, more and more knowledge-seekers made “online” their go-to reference source. Search engines such as Google and free, collaborative encyclopedia sites such as Wikipedia led to the software’s dethroning. Eventually, after a sixteen year existence, Microsoft shutdown Encarta in 2009.

There you have it, this week’s stroll down memory lane. We’re interested to hear about your Encarta memories… and curious to know if anyone has a complete, print, encyclopedia-set older than Andrew.

Thanks to Zara for this week’s Throwback Thursday suggestion!

BGR’s Throwback Thursday is a weekly series covering our (and your) favorite gadgets, games, and software of yesterday and yesteryear.

According to analytics company Nielsen, digital music sales in the United States were flat during the first half of 2010; showing no positive growth from 2009. The data should be concerning to record labels as digital music sales rose 28% from 2007 to 2008 and 13% from 2008 to 2009. Nielsen’s Jean Littolff spoke with Reuters and explained: “I think this is a plateau, it doesn’t mean that this digital consumption is going to drop significantly.” Nielsen cited lack of consumer confidence and confusion over the plethora of ways to acquire your digital music online as possible reasons for the sudden slowdown. How about you? Are you buying less music these days?

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Benjamin Vigier is a bit of a near field communication (NFC) pioneer. Since 2004, he has worked with the likes of Bouygues Telecom, Sandisk, and mFoundry. He is also responsible for, “the development of mobile wallet applications for two top US mobile network operators and an NFC wallet application for a top three US bank.” So when U.S. electronics company Apple, Inc. decided to hire him as their “commerce product manager,” the rumors began a flyin’. Unsurprisingly, Vigier and Apple both declined to comment on the hiring, but a look at some of the recent NFC related patent filings by Apple have given the rumors legs. NFC World reports the following NFC related patent filings for Apple int he last few months:

• An NFC-based mobile payments service that lets consumers make payments to merchants and other consumers via a credit or debit card, directly from their bank account or using credit stored in their iTunes account.
• The ‘iPay, iBuy and iCoupons’ patents, describing a comprehensive mobile payments, mobile commerce and mobile marketing business based around an NFC-enabled iPhone.
• Products+, an NFC-based product marketing and promotions application.
• An airline ticketing and boarding pass application that describes an unmanned, automated airport ticketing and baggage counter kiosk and introduces the concept of an automated security checking process where users of the iTravel app could process themselves through the security clearance system and check themselves in at the boarding gate.
• The Grab & Go patent, designed to make it easy for customers to transfer files between devices such as the Mac, iPhone and Apple TV.
• An NFC-enabled iPod, games controller, TV and iPhone.
• An NFC-based concert, entertainment and sports venue ticketing application that includes exclusive bonus features for users of Apple’s service.

Maybe someone will leave an NFC enabled iPhone in a bar? Until then… let the rumors continue.

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