Kinoma Notes

As we count our blessings, we’d like to thank everyone for a wonderful 2010.

Thanks to our customers, because we literally couldn’t do it without you.

Special thanks to everyone who has recommended Kinoma Play and helped out on various forums. Your participation really makes a difference.

Finally, thanks to the bloggers and journalists who continue to help us get the word about Kinoma Play. (And stay tuned, because we’re going to have some pretty big announcements for you this year.)

We hope you have an absolutely amazing 2011!

Slate is a great current-events site. It covers politics, arts and culture, business, tech, sports — if you’re reading this, you’ve probably read a bunch of great articles from Slate over the years.

You may not know that Slate also produces some great podcasts — even video, through their Slate V channel. Today we’re very pleased to announce that both Slate podcasts and Slate V video are immediately available in Kinoma Play.

Nice! Tell me more…

Here’s what’s new:

• Audio Book Club — Discussions of new and important books, with lively (and sometimes heated) debates about the works
• The Confab — Weekly conversations with writers and editors of TheRoot.com
• Culture Gabfest — Slate.com’s critics debate the week in culture, from highbrow to pop
• Hang Up and Listen — A weekly sports discussion
• Political Gabfest – Aims to recreate the kind of informal and irreverent discussions Washington journalists have after hours over drinks
• Slate Magazine Daily Podcast – An informed look at news, politics, and culture with thought-provoking discussions, irreverent humor, and delicious reads
• Slate Poetry – A weekly poem read by the author
• Slate V — Videos from Slate Magazine
• Spoiler Specials – “Postviews” of current movies to be played after you’ve seen the film

Where do I find it?

You’ll find this new content in Kinoma Guide > News & Politics > Slate Magazine.

Enjoy!

If you know have other favorite content that we should include in Kinoma Guide, send links and short descriptions to content@kinoma.com. We’ll be add them for everyone to enjoy.

From all of us elves at Kinoma, we’re happy to announce that ho-ho-holiday music is once again available in Kinoma Guide.

Sweet! But it’s not even Thanksgiving yet

An excellent point. However, we checked with all the proper authorities and — because there’s no such thing as Thanksgiving music — we are totally allowed to provide you with great holiday music anytime after Halloween.

Well, I do love Christmas music…

That’s the spirit! And because you’ve been sooo good, we’ve got some extra-great stuff for you this year.

• Abiding Radio Christmas — Sacred vocal and instrumental Christmas music
• Christmas Celebration — Classic songs and contemporary Christmas carols
• The Christmas Lounge — Chilled holiday grooves and classic winter lounge tracks
• Christmas Melody — Beautiful Christmas songs from Italy
• Classic Holiday Radio — Classic carols and holiday music with the orginal artists
• Forever Christmas — Favorite contemporary and classic holiday tunes
• Holiday Favorites 101 — The best classic holiday songs on the net
• Kristmas Kountry — Hot Country Christmas from 181.fm
• Musik.Christmas — Christmas radio from Germany’s RauteMusik.FM
• North Pole Radio — Christmas and holiday music streaming 24/7
• Xmas in Frisko — Eclectic, irreverent holiday broadcast

So where do I find all of this jolly music?

It’s all available in Music > Holiday Music.

So install your favorite holiday wallpaper, tape red and green cellophane over the lights on your phone, attach antlers to your headphones and enjoy!

(If you have some other favorite holiday music streams we should inclulde, just let us know and we’ll gladly add them.)

Hello, Kinomans! Today we’re serving piping-hot updates to Kinoma Play and Kinoma FreePlay.

The individual app updates we’ve been doing this year have worked so well that — believe it or not — today’s update is the first whole-app update of the year!

This update improves YouTube compatibility.

YouTube recently changed some plumbing that affected Kinoma Play’s ability to play some videos. We’re updated Kinoma Play to handle those changes, which means picture-perfect playback of more YouTube videos than ever before!

Remember, our YouTube support includes support for VEVO, the YouTube partner site created by Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI (three of the world’s four major music labels). That means that you can use Kinoma Play to play a world of premium music videos, too!

How to update Kinoma Play

To update immediately, go to Kinoma Play’s main screen, show the menu pod and select Player > Check for Updates. Otherwise, you’ll be notified about the update automatically.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

We’d love to hear them. Come talk to us in our community forum.

Since the launch of the original Kinoma Player in 2002, Kinoma has led the way in mobile media technology. The platform first established in Kinoma Player lives on not only in Kinoma’s flagship product — Kinoma Play — but also in products from companies including Sony and Sling Media.

As Palm OS fades into the sunset, we’ve had a lot of folks ask what our plans are. Today we’re announcing that we’ll be ending sales and support for Palm OS products in order to focus completely on current phone OSs.

If you’re a Palm OS user, here’s what you need to know: Kinoma will be ending sales of Kinoma Player 4 EX on 8/1/2010. We’ll continue to offer support, including any necessary security and critical fixes, until 10/1/2010. Effective 10/1/2010, Kinoma will offer only community-based support Kinoma Player 4 EX via our forum at forum.kinoma.com.

We’re also ending sales and support for Kinoma Producer for Windows and Mac OS on the same schedule.

We’d like to thank everyone who’s supported these products, and helped pioneer the now-common sight of people enjoying music, movies, podcasts and audiobooks on phones. You were ahead of your time, and when you upgrade your phone we hope you’ll choose Kinoma Play.