It seems service provider or cellphone maker these days is starting their own digital music store. Not one to be left out, Samsung’s announced that they will make their own line of digital music players that work with their own proprietary download service.

Samsung’s already got the digital music player side down, making swanky devices like the YP-K5, but will their agreement with MusicNet be enough to get them into third or fourth place behind iTunes and other already-established music services?

The music store is expected to launch later this year. – Jason Chen

Samsung to launch music download service [Reuters via Crunchgear]

Filed under: Nokia, Misc

Filed under: Motorola, Misc

Filed under: Motorola

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Filed under: Motorola, Nokia

Nothing like a bit of handset maker rivalry, and who better to epitomize that war than #1 Nokia and #2 Motorola? With Nokia slowly rolling out their retail plan, which started with a store in Moscow last December, Motorola is jumping into the fray and hopes to open their first store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The strip currently houses an Apple Store, but more relevantly is the future site of Nokia’s store, which should open a block away from the proposed Motorola site. Moto is hoping to open their space by June 5, which seems a bit rushed seeing how they haven’t even closed on their prospective space yet, but since they’re getting the former Terra Museum of American Art, perhaps they think there won’t be much construction needed. If Motorola can stay on target, their store will open before Nokia’s, which apparently means a lot to Ed Zander and co. — and who are we to stand in their way?

[Thanks, Joe D.]

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Filed under: Desktops

With all the hubbub around Apple's new Fifth Avenue store, Dell has decided to jump into those dangerous waters once again. Their brief foray into Sears stores in 2003 didn't last long, and they currently have 161 mall kiosks across the country, but this time Dell is doing it Apple style and opening two 3000 square foot stores. The stores are showing up in the NorthPark Center in Dallas and the Palisades Center in West Nyack, NY -- both Apple locations -- but they won't have inventory. Dell is going to stick with their direct model by offering online orders from their store, and will just use the retail store to showcase their products in action. They're still working out the details such as a Genius Bar equivalent, but we're standing by to see a few thousand Dell fanboys line up for free t-shirts and rabid fandom.

[Via AppleInsider]

Filed under: Desktops, Misc. Gadgets, Laptops, Portable Audio, Portable Video

New York City nightlife used to mean hanging out in smoke-filled nightclubs at the edge of town and stumbling home as the sun came up. But, from what we hear, you can't smoke in the clubs anymore (not that we're really too upset about that), the real estate boom has squeezed a lot of them out of town, and there's even been talk of more aggressively enforcing the city's decades-old anti-nightclub statute. So, what's a denizen of the night to do? Well, it looks like Apple's come up with the answer. As previously, rumored, the company's new midtown store, which opens tomorrow, will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The store, which has gotten a lot of buzz for its five-story, glass encased, Jobs-designed, cube-shaped entryway, will feature 4,000 square feet of retail space, most of it underground, and will be able to satisfy those musical and computing urges, day or night. Word is that the store will also be giving away one MacBook an hour to lucky visitors over the next couple of days (starting with tomorrow's 6pm opening), so we expect some pretty sizable crowds to show up. Yo, Steve: Add a dance floor and teach your Geniuses to really tend bar, and we may just drop by one night and pick up one of those pods of yours.

[Thanks, Jake]
Photo courtesy Dave Thorup.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Portable Audio

Apple is set to take the wraps off of its New York flagship store next Friday, and is hosting an invitation-only event on Thursday to show off the shop to journos and analysts. Of course, we don’t normally care a whole lot about new Apple stores, even ones with five-story, $9 million glass cubes as a centerpiece. Still, we’re at least a little intrigued by this one, given that the rumors continue to fly that Apple will introduce the Core Duo-powered MacBook next week, and may even refresh some iPod models. And it certainly wouldn’t be unprecedented for Steve Jobs to use the store opening to show off some of that new gear. We can be sure of one thing, though: despite the new store’s shape (just what is it with Jobs and cubes, anyhow?), we’re unlikely to see any new Macs that mirror its design any time soon.

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Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Software, Nokia, Symbian, UMTS

Taking a cue from other design-obsessed companies such as Apple and Sony, Nokia has announced plans to open a line of retail locations in the U.S. -- the first ones outside Russia and perhaps Finland that we're aware of -- and even better, will be offering models not available from carriers or traditional channels. The flagship store is set to open in Chicago on June 21, and will sell "virtually anything that could possibly be available in this market," according to a Nokia spokesperson, including such high-end handsets as the recently-launched N93 and N73 3.2 megapixel cameraphones, N91 4GB musicphone, and UMTS-enabled N80 smartphone (which happens to sport a three megapixel CCD as well). PC Mag's article on the upcoming stores, the second of which is scheduled to hit New York before the end of the year, also includes an update on the N91, which will apparently receive a key software upgrade sometime after launch that enables playback of DRM-protected content.

Update: Several readers have very kindly pointed out that Nokia has stores in much of Europe and Asia.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

So Engadget finally has a store. Aren't you stoked? Too bad it's absolutely not affiliated with Engadget or its parent companies (if it is, in fact, real, and not a photoshop or hoax). That, and apparently it's located in the Midvalley Megamall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. So, next time someone's in Malaysia, would you do us a favor and check up on 'em, make sure they're doing the Engadget name good? And since we can only assume the Engadget store's proprietors are reading this, we'd like to shout 'em out and say hey, what's up, were you planning on telling us about this at some point? Yeah, we can understand why not.

Filed under: Helio, MVNOs

Phone-oriented flagship retail locations seem to be all the rage these days, but who would’ve thought MVNOs would be getting into the action? MySpace-friendly Helio looks to gain some additional visibility when it opens its first of five dedicated stores in Santa Monica this October. If the renderings hold true, we have to admit the place looks pretty nifty — just add some hot new devices to match the decor and Helio may have a winner on their hands. Additional facilities will be opening in New York, Denver, San Diego, and Palo Alto through late ’06 and early ’07. Any love for the midwest, guys?

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Filed under: Nokia, Misc

After doing a little globetrotting through Moscow, Chicago, and Hong Kong, Nokia’s finally ready to bring its flagship store concept to home turf. Their Helsinki location, which opens today, should offer Finns the same multimedia-in-your-face extravaganza that has blessed the three other locations opened thus far. For those keeping track, this marks flagship retail location number 4 of 18 for Nokia, with New York coming up next.

[Via MobileBurn]

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Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, Symbian, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

Besides opening their second flagship store this side of the pond, Nokia had a couple other tricks up their sleeve in preparation for what has turned out to be an exciting weekend for Nokia fanboys of the American persuasion — namely, the US releases of the E70 and N93. We can personally attest that E70s have been quietly flying off shelves of the Chicago outpost (see picture above) for the past week or so; Nokia’s been unable to keep them in stock, in fact, though we don’t know whether the release was supposed to have been synched with New York’s grand opening today. At any rate, the model being sold is the US-friendly E70-2 variant that swaps out 3G support in favor of a GSM 850 radio, and features a black face that (in our humblest of opinions) looks better than its European counterpart. Meanwhile, the N93 is the same ol’ model Europe gets, lacking 850; caveat emptor for peeps with marginal 1900 coverage. Oddly, these handsets are both still listed as “coming soon” on Nokia USA’s website, and rumor has it that they may never officially be released here outside the flagship facilities, so book your flights now, folks — they say the Midwest and the East Coast are nice this time of year.

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