Apple dramatically chops iPhone cost
SAN FRANCISCO — Apple slashed the price of its popular iPhone to $399 Wednesday and introduced a new line of iPod media players aimed at dramatically boosting its holiday business.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs told USA TODAY that he expects finally to have digital music from the Beatles available via Apple's iTunes Store by the middle of 2008. And he announced an alliance with coffee retailer Starbucks to sell music.
Jobs said Apple (AAPL) expects to ship the 1 millionth iPhone — which just launched in June — by the end of the month. "We want to put the pedal to the metal," he said. "A holiday season is approaching."
The heavily hyped iPhone originally sold for $499 and $599 with 4 or 8 gigabytes. Apple is eliminating the smaller model. The quick price cut angered some early buyers who paid that price.
But it "will really accelerate sales," says Van Baker, an analyst with market tracker Gartner. "Apple skimmed the cream from the market in the initial months, and now they're getting really aggressive."
The new iPod Touch is a direct clone of the iPhone, minus the phone and built-in camera. The unit sells for $299 with 8 GB or $399 with 16 GB, and has the acclaimed 3.5-inch touchscreen from the iPhone and Wi-Fi wireless Internet capability.
Jobs also introduced a new version of the small Nano with added video functionality, multiple colors and more capacity. In refreshing the iPod line, Apple has either dramatically lowered prices or given products substantially more storage. The 80 GB iPod was $349; now a similar model is $249. The iPod Nano with 2 GB was $149, now it has 4 GB.
When iPhone and iPod Touch customers enter a Starbucks, they will be able to access iTunes from the in-store Wi-Fi network for free. Stores in Seattle, New York and San Francisco will get it this year. Starbucks expects most of the USA's major markets to have it by the end of 2008. "The No. 1 question we get from our customers is, 'What song is that?' " Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz said.
Apple introduced a new version of its iTunes software Wednesday that lets customers make custom ring tones for the iPhone with songs they've purchased. The tones are available for 99 cents on top of the 99-cent song purchase. The company also said it has sold 3 billion songs, 95 million TV shows and 110 million iPods to date.
Apple competitor Microsoft, which has been struggling to get a foothold in digital music, said Wednesday it would cut the price of its underperforming Zune music player by $50, to $199 from $249. The Zune has 30 GB of storage.
"Yuma" vs. "Halloween" at weekend box office
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The surprisingly strong box office hit "Halloween" could score a second weekend as the top movie in North America, despite an onslaught of violent pictures that will siphon off male moviegoers.
"3:10 to Yuma," a remake of the classic Western, and "Shoot 'Em Up," a campy action thriller, will both open in theaters on Friday, as will the sex farce, "The Brothers Solomon."
Lionsgate's "Yuma" is skewing older, as Westerns always do, but the solid pairing of Russell Crowe and Christian Bale could draw nicely across a broader range of demos. "Yuma" has been something of a critics' darling, with early reviews calling the film a well-executed remake of the 1957 original.
Gunning for up to $12 million in prerelease tracking forecasts, "Yuma" could capture the weekend crown. That's unless "Halloween" manages a better-than-average hold.
Director Rob Zombie's reimagining of the horror classic grossed $30.6 million for distributor MGM during the four-day weekend, a record opening for the Labor Day period. If "Halloween" were to hold its Friday-Sunday drop to a relatively modest 40%, that would shape a second-weekend haul of about $16 million.
Tracking data show keenest interest in "Shoot 'Em Up" limited to younger males, for whom star Clive Owen has been something of a rock star since his ace turn in the edgy thriller "Sin City." And the fanboys won't exactly hate seeing Monica Bellucci's name atop one-sheets, either.
Still, word-of-mouth could swing positive or negative, depending on how early audiences react to the film's quirky mix of cartoonish violence and dark humor. Anything in the teen millions would represent a solid outing for the New Line Cinema release.
"Brothers Solomon" might fetch a bit of date-movie business, but its humor is more of the gross-out variety, meaning that core appeal will be narrow. The Sony Pictures release is likely to open in the single-digit millions.
"In the Shadow of the Moon" honors human endeavor
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The nostalgic, bittersweet tone of "In the Shadow of the Moon," an acclaimed documentary about the Apollo space program, aims to remind viewers that even at its most destructive, humankind is capable of feats of breathtaking splendor.
The film, which opens commercially on Friday, brings together for the first time crew members of each of the nine U.S. spacecraft that voyaged to the moon between 1968 and 1972, as the Vietnam War raged a quarter-million miles away on Earth.
"Even though it did start to beat the Soviets, we did try to do it for the right reasons," Alan Bean, Apollo 12 lunar module pilot, recalled of the moon program. "I think people need a dose that America can do these things. Human beings can do amazing things if they get together and put their egos aside."
"Shadow" features familiar images from the Apollo era, including the famed "Earth rise" photo taken from Apollo 8 and footage of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the lunar surface, but also weaves in never-seen archival footage the filmmakers found in extensive searches through NASA's film library.
Moreover, the documentary marries, also for the first time, silent 16mm films of Mission Control during the Apollo flights with audio recordings of the controllers' voices.
There is no narration other than that provided by the 10 astronauts who agreed to be interviewed, and the digitally remastered NASA film footage is surprisingly vivid.
But the film also intersperses footage of ticker tape parades for the astronauts with combat scenes from Vietnam.
Most of the Apollo astronauts were recruited from the military, and several talked in the film of feelings of guilt that they had done little to deserve their hero status while their friends were fighting and dying in Vietnam.
The film won an audience award for world documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, and reviews have so far been positive.
Director David Sington, who is British, said he was surprised that many in the festival audience drew a parallel between Vietnam and the Iraq war.
"It wasn't really until we got to Sundance that I began to sense in some mysterious and serendipitous way that the film was very timely," Sington said. "One can't help compare how proud the world was of America during the space race."
"Shadow" was not without moments of levity, as when Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin claimed the distinction of being the first human to fill a urine bag on the moon.
"There are not many of us left, and (we're) maybe mellower, and now is the time to revisit the human-ness of feelings that we have," Aldrin, now 77, said. "Its time has come."
Italian tenor Pavarotti dies at 71
ROME - Luciano Pavarotti, opera's biggest superstar of the late 20th century, died Thursday. He was 71. He was the son of a singing baker and became the king of the high C's.
Pavarotti, who had been diagnosed last year with pancreatic cancer and underwent treatment last month, died at his home in his native Modena at 5 a.m., his manager told The Associated Press in an e-mailed statement.
His wife, Nicoletta, four daughters and sister were among family at friends at his side, manager Terri Robson said.
"The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer," Robson said. "In fitting with the approach that characterised his life and work, he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness."
Pavarotti's charismatic personna and ebullient showmanship — but most of all his creamy and powerful voice — made him the most beloved and celebrated tenor since the great Caruso and one of the few opera singers to win crossover fame as a popular superstar.
For serious fans, the unforced beauty and thrilling urgency of Pavarotti's voice made him the ideal interpreter of the Italian lyric repertory, especially in the 1960s and '70s when he first achieved stardom. For millions more, his thrilling performances of standards like "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's "Turandot" came to represent what opera is all about.
"Nessun Dorma" turned out to be Pavarotti's last aria, sung at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin in February 2006. His last full-scale concert was at Taipei in December 2005, and his farewell to opera was in Puccini's "Tosca" at New York's Metropolitan in March 2004.
Instantly recognizable from his charcoal black beard and tuxedo-busting girth, Pavarotti radiated an intangible magic that helped him win hearts in a way Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras — his partners in the "Three Tenors" concerts — never quite could.
"I always admired the God-given glory of his voice — that unmistakable special timbre from the bottom up to the very top of the tenor range," Domingo said in a statement from Los Angeles.
Pavarotti, who seemed equally at ease singing with soprano Joan Sutherland as with the Spice Girls, scoffed at accusations that he was sacrificing his art in favor of commercialism.
"The word 'commercial' is exactly what we want," he said after appearing in the "Three Tenors" concerts. "We've reached 1.5 billion people with opera. If you want to use the word 'commercial,' or something more derogatory, we don't care. Use whatever you want."
In the annals of that rare and coddled breed, the operatic tenor, it may well be said the 20th century began with Enrico Caruso and ended with Pavarotti. Other tenors — Domingo included — may have drawn more praise from critics for their artistic range and insights, but none could equal the combination of natural talent and personal charm that so endeared Pavarotti to audiences.
"Pavarotti is the biggest superstar of all," the late New York Times music critic Harold Schonberg once said. "He's correspondingly more spoiled than anybody else. They think they can get away with anything. Thanks to the glory of his voice, he probably can."
In his heyday, he was known as the "King of the High C's" for the ease with which he tossed off difficult top notes. In fact it was his ability to hit nine glorious high C's in quick succession that turned him into an international superstar singing Tonio's aria "Ah! Mes amis," in Donizetti's "La Fille du Regiment" at the Met in 1972.
From Beijing to Buenos Aires, people immediately recognized his incandescent smile and lumbering bulk, clutching a white handkerchief as he sang arias and Neapolitan folk songs, pop numbers and Christmas carols for hundreds of thousands in outdoor concerts.
His name seemed to show up as much in gossip columns as serious music reviews, particularly after he split with Adua Veroni, his wife of 35 years and mother of their three daughters, and then took up with his 26-year-old secretary in 1996.
In late 2003, he married Nicoletta Mantovani in a lavish, star-studded ceremony. Pavarotti said their daughter, Alice, nearly a year old at the time of the wedding, was the main reason they finally wed after years together.
In the latter part of his career, he came under fire for canceling performances or pandering to the lowest common denominator in his choice of programs, or for the Three Tenors tours and their millions of dollars in fees.
He was criticized for lip-synching at a concert in Modena. An artist accused him of copying her works from a how-to-draw book and selling the paintings.
The son of a baker who was an amateur singer, Pavarotti was born Oct. 12, 1935. He had a meager upbringing, though he said it was rich with happiness.
"Our family had very little, but I couldn't imagine one could have any more," Pavarotti said.
As a boy, Pavarotti showed more interest in soccer than his studies, but he also was fond of listening to his father's recordings of tenor greats like Beniamino Gigli, Tito Schipa, Jussi Bjoerling and Giuseppe Di Stefano, his favorite.
Among his close childhood friends was Mirella Freni, who would eventually become a soprano and an opera great herself. The two studied singing together and years later ended up making records and concerts together.
In his teens, Pavarotti joined his father, also a tenor, in the church choir and local opera chorus. He was influenced by the American movie actor-singer Mario Lanza.
"In my teens I used to go to Mario Lanza movies and then come home and imitate him in the mirror," Pavarotti said.
Singing was still nothing more than a passion while Pavarotti trained to become a teacher and began working in a school.
But at 20, he traveled with his chorus to an international music competition in Wales. The Modena group won first place, and Pavarotti began to dedicate himself to singing.
With the encouragement of his then-fiancee, Adua, he started lessons, selling insurance to pay for them. He studied with Arrigo Pola and later Ettore Campogalliani.
In 1961, Pavarotti won a local competition and with it a debut as Rodolfo in Puccini's "La Boheme."
He followed with a series of successes in small opera houses throughout Europe before his 1963 debut at Covent Garden in London, where he stood in for Di Stefano as Rodolfo.
Having impressed conductor Richard Bonynge, Pavarotti was given a role opposite Bonynge's wife, Sutherland, in a Miami production of "Lucia di Lamermoor." They subsequently signed him for a 14-week tour of Australia.
It was the recognition Pavarotti needed to launch his career. He also credited Sutherland with teaching him how to breathe correctly.
Pavarotti's major debuts followed — at La Scala in Milan in 1965, San Francisco in 1967 and New York's Metropolitan Opera House in 1968.
Throughout his career, Pavarotti struggled with a much-publicized weight problem. His love of food caused him to balloon to a reported 396 pounds in 1978.
"Maybe this time I'll really do it and keep it up," he said during one of his constant attempts at dieting.
Pavarotti, who had been trained as a lyric tenor, began taking on heavier dramatic roles, such as Manrico in Verdi's "Trovatore" and the title role in "Otello."
In the mid-1970s, Pavarotti became a true media star. He appeared in television commercials and began singing in hugely lucrative mega-concerts outdoors and in stadiums around the world. Soon came joint concerts with pop stars. A concert in New York's Central Park in 1993 drew 500,000 fans.
Pavarotti's recording of "Volare" went platinum in 1988.
In 1990, he appeared with Domingo and Carreras in a concert at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome for the end of soccer's World Cup. The concert was a huge success, and the record known as "The Three Tenors" was a best-seller and was nominated for two Grammy awards. The video sold over 750,000 copies.
The three-tenor extravaganza became a mini-industry and widely imitated. With a follow-up album recorded at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in 1994, the three have outsold every other performer of classical music. A 1996 tour earned each tenor an estimated $10 million.
Pavarotti liked to mingle with pop stars in his series of charity concerts, "Pavarotti & Friends," held annually in Modena. He performed with artists as varied as Ricky Martin, James Brown and the Spice Girls.
The performances raised some eyebrows but he always shrugged off the criticism.
Some say the "word 'pop' is a derogatory word to say 'not important' — I do not accept that," Pavarotti said in a 2004 interview with the AP. "If the word 'classic' is the word to say 'boring,' I do not accept. There is good and bad music."
It was not just his annual extravaganza that saw Pavarotti involved in humanitarian work.
During the 1992-95 Bosnia war, he collected humanitarian aid along with U2 lead singer Bono, and after the war he financed and established the Pavarotti Music Center in the southern city of Mostar to offer Bosnia's artists the opportunity to develop their skills.
He performed at benefit concerts to raise money for victims of tragedies such as an earthquake in December 1988 that killed 25,000 people in northern Armenia.
Pavarotti was also dogged by accusations of tax evasion, and in 2000 he agreed to pay nearly roughly $12 million to the Italian state after he had unsuccessfully claimed that the tax haven of Monte Carlo rather than Italy was his official residence.
He had been accused in 1996 of filing false tax returns for 1989-91.
Pavarotti always denied wrongdoing, saying he paid taxes wherever he performed. But, upon agreeing to the settlement, he said: "I cannot live being thought not a good person."
Pavarotti was preparing to leave New York in July 2006 to resume a farewell tour when doctors discovered a malignant pancreatic mass. He underwent surgery in a New York hospital, and all his remaining 2006 concerts were canceled.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most dangerous forms of the disease, though doctors said the surgery offered improved hopes for survival.
"I was a fortunate and happy man," Pavarotti told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published about a month after the surgery. "After that, this blow arrived."
"And now I am paying the penalty for this fortune and happiness," he told the newspaper.
Fans were still waiting for a public appearance a year after his surgery. In the summer, Pavarotti taught a group of selected students and worked on a recording of sacred songs, a work expected to be released in early 2008, according to his manager. He mostly divided his time between Modena and his villa in the Adriatic seaside resort of Pesaro.
Just this week, the Italian government honored him with an award for "excellence in Italian culture," and La Scala and Modena's theater announced a joint Luciano Pavarotti award.
In his final statement, Pavarotti said the awards gave him "the opportunity to continue to celebrate the magic of a life dedicated to the arts and it fills me with pride and joy to have been able to promote my magnificent country abroad."
He will be remembered in Italy as "the last great Italian voice able to move the world," said Bruno Cagli, president of the Santa Cecilia National Academy in Rome.
The funeral will be held Saturday inside Modena's cathedral, Mayor Giorgio Pighi told SkyTG24.
World mourns Italian tenor Pavarotti
ROME - Friends and admirers of Luciano Pavarotti joined in a chorus of grief as the world paid homage to the thrilling voice and exuberant personality of the great Italian tenor who died Thursday.
Amid an outpouring of tributes, the Vienna State Opera raised a black flag in mourning and his northern Italian hometown of Modena, where he died at age 71 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, said it would name the city's theater after its native son.
Newscasts and Web sites across the globe, from Israel to the U.S. to Europe, led with news of his death. Radio stations aired his unmistakable recordings in tribute to his memory.
"The whole world will be listening today to his voice on every radio and television station. And that will continue. And that is his legacy. He will never stop," said conductor Zubin Mehta, who directed Pavarotti in Rome and Los Angeles for his "Three Tenors" concerts with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras.
"I always admired the God-given glory of his voice — that unmistakable special timbre from the bottom up to the very top of the tenor range," Domingo said in a statement from Los Angeles. "They threw away the mold when they made Luciano. He will always be remembered as a truly unique performer in the annals of classical music."
Carreras told reporters in Karlstad, Sweden, that "there is no doubt that he has been one of the most important tenors of all times."
"I remember that last time I was visiting him in his town in Modena, at his home, he was preparing some special bread and tomato for me together with prosciutto. He was entertaining also in the gastronomic aspect that he liked very much," Carreras said. "We have to remember him as the great artist that he was, the man with such a wonderful charismatic personality, very good friend and a great poker player."
Mirella Freni, an opera great and one of Pavarotti's close childhood friends, told The Associated Press: "The world has lost a great tenor, but I've lost a great friend, a brother. We grew up together, studied singing and God blessed us with great careers. I've lost a brother."
For fans and colleagues, the beauty of Pavarotti's voice and his charismatic performances made him the ideal interpreter of the Italian lyric repertory, especially in the 1960s and '70s when he first achieved stardom.
"It was incredible to stand next to it and sing along with it," soprano Joan Sutherland said of Pavarotti's voice at the time.
A 14-week tour of Australia with Sutherland and her husband, conductor Richard Bonynge, gave Pavarotti the recognition he needed to launch his career. He also credited Sutherland with teaching him how to breathe correctly.
"My husband ... and I had great joy working with him. The quality of the sound was so different. You knew immediately it was Luciano singing," Sutherland told BBC radio.
Soprano Renee Fleming, preparing for a performance in Matsumoto, Japan, remembered singing with Pavarotti during a telecast at Lincoln Center.
"He had the most perfect technique in the history of recorded music," she said in an e-mail to the AP. "He also captured the hearts of the larger public in a way which rivaled only Enrico Caruso in the 20th century."
But Pavarotti's voice was just the beginning. He was credited with bringing opera to millions through his showmanship and his outdoor concerts.
"He brought arts performance to people who don't go to opera house. None of the classical singers have had the ability and courage to do that," said Hong Kong tenor Warren Mok.
The Royal Opera House in London said in a statement that Pavarotti was "one of those rare artists who affected the lives of people across the globe in all walks of life.
"Through his countless broadcasts, recordings and concerts he introduced the extraordinary power of opera to people who perhaps would never have encountered opera and classical singing, in doing so he enriched their lives."