Beats Audio, the company behind the popular Beats by Dr. Dre line of over-ear and in-hear headphones, is reportedly planning to acquire subscription music service MOG. The deal was first reported by Business Insider and then reaffirmed by AllThingsD on Tuesday. Founded in 2005, MOG is a service similar to Spotify, Rhapsody and Microsoft’s Zune. It makes use of a freemium model and allows subscribers to stream unlimited music to a computer, tablet or smartphone. At last count, MOG touted more than 500,00...

Amazon’s new web-based Kindle Store for the iPad reportedly helps the online retailer dodge Apple’s fee that it would otherwise pay through a native Amazon Kindle Store iOS application. Amazon’s subscription program typically charges retailers 30% of all generated revenues, which has caused retailers like Amazon to create new ways for customers to purchase goods without having to pay a fee. The Financial Times also recently pulled its application to avoid the same subscription charges, and ...

Amazon updated its Kindle application for iOS devices on Wednesday with support for PDF files as well as newspaper and magazine subscriptions. A Kindle user can now email a file to his or her Send-to-Kindle address and then access it from within the application, and the app will open Adobe PDF files sent to a computer through iTunes, from Safari or directly from an email account. Amazon also added support for viewing more than 400 newspaper and magazine subscriptions inside the application. The UI for reading...

Gamefly announced on Tuesday that its “Unlimited PC Play” beta client is now available for free for all Gamefly members. We first heard about Gamefly’s intentions to launch a PC client earlier this year, allowing subscribers to read news, check out reviews and play hundreds of PC games from dozens of top publishers. ”We are thrilled to finally be able to open up the beta so anyone interested in video games can start using the client, and we are hard at work expanding our catalog of  ...

Google is reportedly in talks with retailers in an effort to create a subscription-based expedited delivery service that will compete directly with Amazon Prime. Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported that Google has contacted a number of retailers in an effort to provide unlimited speedy deliveries to members who pay an annual fee. Among the retailers Google has reportedly contacted about the service are Gap, OfficeMax and Macy’s. “They’...

Until now, if you wanted to purchase an app on an iPad you had to pay a one-time purchase fee. Now, Apple is opening up its policies a bit to allow developers to create applications that charge monthly subscription fees for access to content. Big Fish Games is the first studio to gain approval from Apple to introduce an app subscription model, Bloomberg said. Big Fish Games will allow iPad owners to pay $4.99 per month for unlimited access to all of its games, and Apple takes a 30% cut of all revenues. “...

Research In Motion announced on Wednesday that its BBM Music service will launch Wednesday in the United States, Canada and Australia. To begin, users can opt to sign up for a BBM Music Premium membership, which will allow them to access music and share with friends on their BBM contact lists. BBM Music Premium members will be able to select 50 initial songs from a library of millions. Members will then be able to view and play the 50 songs selected by other BBM Music Premium members in their contact list. A ...

Microsoft will lower its Zune Music Pass from $14.99 per month to $9.99 per month beginning on October 3rd alongside the service’s launch in Canada. The service will now be priced in line with Spotify and similar services. Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace is home to 14 million songs and a Zune Music Pass subscription provides unlimited streaming access to the music. Unlike other services, Zune Music Pass allows subscribers to keep 10 songs per month. Microsoft’s move is no doubt an effort to att...

Former renegade peer-to-peer file sharing service Kazaa is back from the dead. After numerous legal battles and settlements that reportedly reached into the hundreds of millions, Kazaa will attempt one last time to use what little heat surrounding its name is left in an effort to sell music. The firm now offers a like-named iPhone and iPad app that works just like Spotify, Rhapsody, Zune and the plethora of other music subscription services on the market today: pay $10 per month, stream as much music as you ...

Research In Motion is working on a music service that will tie in with BlackBerry Messenger. CNET reports that RIM will deploy a test version of its subscription-based streaming music service in the coming weeks, and that a final product will come later. BlackBerry owners will be able to share their songs with other subscribers using RIM’s BBM service, the report suggests. It’s unclear how much the BlackBerry maker plans to charge, but The Wall Street Journal said it will cost “significantly...

Amazon has updated its Kindle for iOS application with support for magazine and newspaper subscriptions. iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users can now browse, purchase, and read from more than 100 newspapers and magazines, complete with high resolution color photos, and the company confirmed that more content is on its way. Amazon customers with existing subscriptions can find recent issues under the “Archived Items” menu inside the application. The update also removes Amazon’s Kindle Store but...

Apple is toying with the idea of placing a bid on the Hulu video streaming service, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. In June, Hulu announced that it had hired Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim Partners to assist with a the sale of the company and rumor had it that Yahoo! was interested in making a bid at that time. Should an acquisition happen, Apple might use Hulu to create a subscription screaming video offering in an effort to compete with services such as Netflix. Currently, customers can only purchase or rent...

Netflix announced two new unlimited DVD plans on Tuesday, including a $7.99 option for one DVD at a time and an $11.99 option that allows users to rent two DVDs at a time. The company also said that it will discontinue its current $9.99 monthly option that provides access to unlimited DVD rentals and unlimited instant streaming each month. Instead, the movie rental service will charge users $7.99 a month for unlimited streaming and a minimum of $7.99 per month for unlimited DVDs (with one rented out at a time...

Hulu announced on Thursday that its Hulu Plus application is now available on select Android smartphones. The service costs $7.99 per month and allows users to browse and play Hulu Plus content directly on their smartphones. It’s currently only available for the Motorola Atrix, Motorola DROID X, Motorola DROID 2, HTC Inspire 4G, Nexus S, and Nexus One, but Hulu says it will add more devices throughout the year. New users can sign up for a free 1-week trial to give the service a whirl, and the app is ava...