computer science

Omnifone

Omnifone is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Omnifone rather than just read about it. In short: Omnifone was a UK-based company that was an independent provider of cloud-based unlimited music services to consumer electronics vendors, mobile carriers, Internet service providers and consumer brands including RIM, Sony, HP, and rara.com. Omnifone enabled legitimate cloud-based unlimited music consumption and a viable alternative to piracy across multiple in-home, in-car, mobile and PC platforms, having launched i…

Key takeaways

Omnifone belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Omnifone to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Omnifone from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Omnifone was a UK-based company that was an independent provider of cloud-based unlimited music services to consumer electronics vendors, mobile carriers, Internet service providers and consumer brands including RIM, Sony, HP, and rara.com. Omnifone enabled legitimate cloud-based unlimited music consumption and a viable alternative to piracy across multiple in-home, in-car, mobile and PC platforms, having launched its MusicStation-powered unlimited music services across five continents on a wide range of devices. On 4 May 2016 the company was placed into administration, laying off a substantial part of its staff and looking for a buyer, whereupon the company ceased its operations. Some of its assets have been acquired by Apple.

Licensing Omnifone operated licensed music services in 34 markets for its customers, which included Sony Music Unlimited, Guvera, SiriusXM and rara.com. In June 2007 Omnifone secured the first international licensing agreements for unlimited music services with all four major music labels; Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Music. In January 2011 Omnifone secured Germany's first global subscription licensing with GEMA. In July 2012 Omnifone licensed and launched Sony Entertainment Network's Music Unlimited service in Japan, the region's ever first global music subscription service.

Services MusicStation was Omnifone's multi-award-winning unlimited music service platform. The cloud-based technology platform worked across a wide range of different digital device types and was tailored specifically for each market, platform and partner. Omnifone provided a number of different variants of MusicStation: Omnifone's Desktop applications enabled consumers to stream, download, play and share music, direct to their desktop computer. The service was provided in partnership with personal computer vendors, mobile carrier networks, and broadband providers. MusicStation Desktop Edition provided a personalised user experience, which featured play-based music recommendations, connected community services and features, and an automatic back-up of private and public playlists to the cloud, plus online search and discovery capabilities. The service was able to synchronise with all other MusicStation-powered services and mobile devices via the cloud. In April 2009 Hutchison Telecom became the first Omnifone partner to introduce MusicStation Desktop Edition to users in Hong Kong on its 3 network provided 'in concert' with MusicStation Mobile Edition providing unlimited access to music across mobile and PC. In January 2010 MusicStation launched across Europe on HP desktop and laptop PCs in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Omnifone provided a range of white label and co-branded mobile apps for all major mobile platforms including Android, iOS, Symbian, Windows Mobile and Java. Omnifone partnered with mobile carriers and handset manufacturers to deliver mobile app based services which give consumers the ability to stream, download, play and share unlimited amounts of music, direct-to-mobile. MusicStation was pre-installed by partner carriers or downloaded for free from carrier portals such as Vodafone Live!. Omnifone rolled out mobile apps with partners across five continents with Vodafone UK, Australia and New Zealand, Telenor Sweden, 3 Hong Kong, Vodacom South Africa.

Funding Omnifone was privately funded by the company's founders Rob Lewis, Phil Sant and Mark Knight with additional funding from diversified alternative investment firm Sofaer Capital[link removed].

Partnership with Gracenote Omnifone announced a partnership with Gracenote in January 2009 to bring interoperable cloud based unlimited music services to multiple device platforms including in-car, in-home, PC and mobile devices. A demonstration of the Omnifone/Gracenote technology won a Best of CES award at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2009 followed a year later by an announcement at CES 2010 that Omnifone had introduced digital music services with Gracenote technology in 20 countries in 2009.

History UK entrepreneurs Rob Lewis, Phil Sant and Mark Knight established Omnifone in January 2003 after more than seven years working together in the internet space founding software development company Cromwell Media (sold to InterX for £850m in 2000) and IT industry news site Silicon.com (sold to NASDAQ-listed CNET Networks, part of CBS in 2001). The trio founded Omnifone to enable the next generation of digital content services to be delivered globally. The company spent four years developing its unlimited music service platform before announcing MusicStation in February 2007.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Omnifone

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Omnifone claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Omnifone before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Omnifone ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Omnifone

In research: Omnifone appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Omnifone in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Omnifone is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2003 establishments in England, 2016 disestablishments in England, British companies disestablished in 2016, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Omnifone outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Omnifone in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Omnifone means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Omnifone out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Omnifone in simple terms?

Why does Omnifone matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Omnifone?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Omnifone.