RIM rallies on song service, Apple founder's exit (Reuters)

TORONTO (Reuters) – Shares of Research in Motion rose more than 2 percent on Thursday, after the BlackBerry maker unveiled a new cloud-based music service that allows users to share songs with other subscribers.

RIM hopes the feature, which is not available on Apple's ubiquitous iTunes, will help its BBM Music service to compete with iTunes and other established brands.

The stock rose the day after Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs stepped down, leaving the company to face the future without its founder and visionary. The news sent Apple shares lower.

RIM shares rose as much as 2.8 percent to C$29.04 on Thursday morning, before slipping to C$28.25.

Shares have risen more than 30 percent in the last 14 days, but are still well below a year high of C$69.30 in February.

(Reporting by Julie Gordon)

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RIM near BlackBerry music service launch: sources (Reuters)

NEW YORK/TORONTO (Reuters) – BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is close to rolling out its own music streaming service that will work across its mobile devices, according to four people familiar with the plans.

The new service is likely part of an attempt by RIM to improve its BlackBerry Messenger service as it competes with the mobile media platform strengths of rival Apple Inc and Google Inc's Android.

RIM is in late-stage negotiations with major labels, including Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, Sony Corp's Sony Music, Warner Music Group and EMI Group. The new service is expected to be announced by Labor Day in the United States, September 5.

RIM has been enhancing its BlackBerry Messenger offering, popularly known as BBM, since announcing its "social platform" at last September's DevCon event where it unveiled the PlayBook tablet computer.

A RIM spokeswoman declined comment on the report but said BBM is one of the largest mobile social networks in the world.

RIM's BlackBerry smartphones have been hit by a sharply declining market share in the United States, even as the company has expanded sales in other parts of the world, partly because of BBM's popularity.

Analyst Matthew Thornton at Avian Securities said he doubted the music service would attract new users but might help the company keep its existing BlackBerry customers interested.

"I just don't think trying to replicate Apple is really going to change their situation near term," he said.

"For RIM it's going to be the new OS 7 product first and foremost ... and then it's about QNX and making that transition."

RIM has just launched an updated operating system on three new touchscreen devices intended to catch up with the technical specifications of Android and other rivals. The company plans to launch the first BlackBerrys using the QNX software, used on its PlayBook tablet, early next year.

The PlayBook comes loaded with the music store of 7digital, half-owned by HMV. 7digital's store includes some 13 million tracks, and purchases made via a PlayBook can be moved to other devices.

BlackBerry smartphones do not offer a RIM-enabled way to buy music, although audio and other files can be loaded onto the devices from a computer.

BlackBerry users can also download music apps from RIM's store, including Slacker, Rhapsody and Pandora.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company says some 45 million people use BBM, which allows BlackBerry users with data plans to pass text messages, pictures and other files to each other without incurring charges from their network carrier -- 70 percent of them use it daily.

Its latest version allows independent developers to incorporate BBM into their applications, meaning users can stay in a news, sports or games app while sharing it with their BBM contacts.

BBM is touted as a major attraction for younger BlackBerry users and customers in emerging markets because of its lower cost and immediacy. The service runs over RIM's proprietary network and tells a sender when a message has been received at the other end.

RIM's shares closed 3.8 percent lower on Thursday at $25.76 on Nasdaq and down 3 percent at C$25.49 in Toronto. The stock has lost more than half its value since the start of the year.

($1=$0.99 Canadian)

(Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Robert MacMillan and Rob Wilson)

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Judge: Lohan needs to speed up community service (AP)

By ANTHONY McCARTNEY, AP Entertainment Writer Anthony Mccartney, Ap Entertainment Writer – 1 hr 34 mins ago

LOS ANGELES – A judge warned Lindsay Lohan Thursday that she must spend more time doing community service and enroll in psychological counseling or risk running into problems with her probation.

In a separate development, Lohan was sued for assault and battery in Riverside County by a former worker at the Betty Ford Center who had a dispute with the actress in December.

In Los Angeles, Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner reminded the actress during a status hearing in her criminal cases that she had to complete 480 hours of community service by next April, and that she would not grant any extensions, even if Lohan is working on a film.

"She's not going to get five minutes more than one year" to complete the service at a shelter for women and the county morgue, Sautner said.

The judge opened the hearing by telling Lohan that probation officials had submitted a report stating she had violated the terms of her release.

"Don't look shocked Ms. Lohan because it isn't true," Sautner said, explaining the probation officer was relying on incorrect information.

The judge did chide the actress for not providing officials with a phone number where she could be reached for monitoring.

It was Lohan's first appearance in court since completing 35 days of house arrest. Her attorney, Shawn Holley, noted the actress was prohibited from doing community service during that time.

Lohan, 25, has completed one of four anti-shoplifting classes. Sautner said she must complete the rest before returning to court on Oct. 19.

Holley said her client is having trouble enrolling in court-ordered psychological counseling. Sautner agreed that the actress should not have to enroll in group treatment, but said Lohan must find someone to counsel her within three weeks.

Lohan cannot afford to pay a psychiatrist who was previously treating her but would find a new program shortly, Holley said.

The actress remains on probation for a 2007 drunken driving case and a misdemeanor grand theft case in which she pleaded no contest in May to taking a $2,500 necklace without permission.

In the newly filed lawsuit, court records show Dawn Holland, who is now using her maiden name Bradley, sued Lohan claiming assault and battery. A full copy of the suit was not immediately available.

Bradley's attorney, Owen McIntosh, said his client requires surgery on her wrist for an injury sustained in the incident.

"This is a very real injury," he told The Associated Press.

Steve Honig, a spokesman for Lohan, declined comment on the case.

Police did not charge Lohan in the incident, and Bradley was fired from Betty Ford Center for discussing it on camera with celebrity website TMZ.

Bradley had been attempting to administer a breathalyzer test on the actress, who had missed curfew and was with two other girls who admitted drinking that night, according to a probation report.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/celebritydocket

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Britain's Prince Philip praised at 90th birthday service (AFP)

WINDSOR, United Kingdom (AFP) – Britain's royal family gathered Sunday for a service of thanksgiving marking the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II's husband Prince Philip.

More than 750 guests, including senior royals, his Mountbatten family relatives, foreign royalty, past and present staff and friends from the world of sailing, polo and carriage driving turned out to celebrate his milestone.

The Duke of Edinburgh, the longest-serving consort in British history, turned 90 on Friday and marked the occasion in idiosyncratic style -- getting on with his duties as he hosted a charity reception and a colonels' conference.

Sunday's service at Saint George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, west of London, was the focal point for his birthday commemorations.

His grandson Prince William and his new wife Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, braved the rain to attend, as did the former king Constantine II of Greece.

The Dean of Windsor, the Right Reverend David Conner, made the congregation laugh when he told them the duke, born a prince of Greece and Denmark, "doesn't like to the praised".

But he said praise was due for the royal patriarch, who for more than six decades has been the queen's tireless supporter.

The dean paid tribute to Prince Philip's service to Britain and the wider Commonwealth, his patronage of more than 800 organisations and his "modest" nature.

The duke, known for his plain-speaking, received a new title for his 90th birthday Friday.

The queen made him Lord High Admiral -- the titular head of the British Royal Navy -- partly in recognition of the promising seafaring career he gave up to spend a lifetime at her side.

Prince Philip told the BBC he would finally scale back his workload.

"I reckon I've done my bit. I want to enjoy myself a bit now, with less responsibility, less frantic rushing about, less preparation, less trying to think of something to say," he said.

"On top of that my memory's going, I can't remember names. I'm just sort of winding down."

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Apple nears cloud music service with label deals (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Apple Inc is close to launching an online music storage and streaming service after reaching deals with three of the four major labels and is expected to wrap up the fourth in a few days, according to several people familiar the plans.

The iPhone and iPad maker completed work on the new service a while back, according to two people, and will beat Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc in the bid to launch a comprehensive 'cloud' music service. The iTunes cloud-based service will offer users the ability to buy, store and stream favorite songs and albums wherever they have an Internet connection on any device.

Warner Music Group Corp was the first to reach a cloud deal with Apple more than two weeks ago and was followed by EMI Group and Sony Corp's Sony Music Entertainment more recently, according to three people with knowledge of the talks. Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, the largest music company in the world, is "within days of putting pen to paper on the new cloud service," said a fourth person.

Spokespeople for Apple and the labels all declined to comment.

The big technology companies are vying to be leaders in new ways for fans to access songs and videos. As the sales of physical media such CDs and DVDs fall rapidly, the tech giants are betting they can sell media subscriptions, software and innovative devices linked to these services.

While Amazon is the leading e-reader maker, Apple and Google are competing on mobile platforms for smartphones and tablet devices.

Apple has discussed plans for a cloud-based iTunes service on and off over the last year with the labels. It stepped up negotiations recently, according to these people. It is now expected that Apple will likely be in a position to announce its cloud music plans in time for the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on June 6.

Steve Jobs, Apple's founder, has in the past unveiled products, including the iPhone 4, at the WWDC.

There is a chance the new music service could be ready to launch by June 6, but it would also need deals with song publishers. Apple has opened talks with some publishers, according to two people.

Amazon and Google launched music locker services in the past few weeks without new licensing agreements, leading to threats of legal action from some music companies. At the time, Amazon argued its Cloud Drive service does not need licenses and said uploaded music belongs to the users, something the labels dispute.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; additional reporting from Poornima Gupta in San Francisco; editing by Andre Grenon)

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Google to launch online music service: report (Reuters)

(Reuters) – Google Inc could launch a new online music service as early as Tuesday, which will be similar to a service recently started by Amazon.com Inc, The Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Journal said Google is likely to announce the service at its annual Google I/O developers conference in San Francisco, adding that the service will operate in a testing mode initially and not be available to the public at large.

In April, Amazon unveiled a service that allows customers to store about 1,000 songs on its web servers for free instead of their own hard drives and play them over an Internet connection directly from web browsers.

Google could not immediately be reached by Reuters for comment.

The Journal said Google has not sought licenses from the four major recorded-music companies and the new feature is likely to include a system that functions much like a remote hard drive.

Users could listen to songs they have uploaded to the service in a "streaming" mode, but will not be able to download the files, the daily reported.

Earlier in the day, Google-owned YouTube said it will add more than 3,000 mainstream movies for users to rent from Monday.

(Reporting by Renju Jose in Bangalore, editing by Bernard Orr)

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