Category: Apple Stuff

The Beatles catalog comes to Apple’s iTunes
Legendary music group The Beatles finally arrived on iTunes Tuesday, with tracks from all of the band’s albums available for purchase individually or as complete iTunes LPs.
The tracks went on sale just after 9:30 a.m. Eastern, before Apple’s planned announcement of 10 a.m. All of the band’s classic albums are now available for download, including “Abbey Road,” “Revolver” and “Rubber Soul.”
Full albums run $12.99 for an iTunes LP, and individual tracks are available for $1.29 each. The entire Beatles box set can also be purchased for $149.
Media outlets first reported on Monday that Apple would announce the debut of the entire catalog of The Beatles on iTunes Tuesday. Apple had teased an “exciting announcement” for 10 a.m. Eastern, 7 a.m. Pacific.
The arrival of The Beatles on iTunes was a long and difficult road, completed more than 7 years after the iTunes Store first began selling music. Apple and the Beatles’ parent company, Apple Corp, were engaged in a trademark dispute for years, before it was finally settled in 2007.

Apple promises ‘exciting’ iTunes update Tuesday
CUPERTINO, Calif. ñ Apple Inc. replaced its regular home page Monday with a note promising an “exciting” iTunes announcement.
“Tomorrow is just another day. That you’ll never forget,” the gadget maker posted online. The webpage instructs people to check back at 7 a.m. PST Tuesday to learn more.
Apple would not give any further details about the nature of the announcement, but The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has finally snagged the rights to sell Beatles albums on iTunes. Relying on unnamed sources, the report also said there was a chance Apple could change its plans at the last minute.
Representatives from the Beatles’ label, EMI, and Apple Corps Ltd., which manages the band’s affairs, did not respond to messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.
EMI has acted as the distributor for the Beatles since the early 1960s, but Apple Corps has so far declined to allow the Fab Four’s music on any Internet music services, including iTunes. The situation was exacerbated by a long-running trademark dispute between Apple Inc. and Apple Corps that was finally resolved in early 2007 when the companies agreed on joint use of the apple logo and name, a deal many saw as paving the way for an agreement for online access to the songs of the group, which broke up 40 years ago.
Rumors of the Beatles’ online debut have cropped up tied to past Apple events. In 2009, Apple scheduled a music-themed event on the same day a digitally remastered collection of the Beatles’ oeuvre was due out on CD. However, the event came and went without an announcement.
Apple is also thought to be working on some sort of music streaming service tied to Apple’s acquisition of startup Lala.com in 2009. Lala let people pay a small fee to stream music over the Internet instead of buying tracks for download. Some analysts believe Apple will eventually offer iPhone and other gadget users Web access to their iTunes libraries. Apple would need to have new deals in place with music labels first, and it’s unclear that such agreements have been forged.

Apple likely to show off new iPods Sept 1
SEATTLE/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ñ Apple Inc is expected to show off a snazzier line of iPods on September 1, as speculation mounts the consumer electronics giant may also unveil plans to reinvigorate its long-neglected TV project.
Analysts expect the makers of the iPhone and the iPad, which has always labeled Apple TV a hobby, to showcase a new iPod Touch with dual cameras in time for the holidays.
Its shares climbed 1.2 percent. The company has in recent years used splashy September events to showcase new iPod models for the year-end spending spree. It typically also describes tweaks and new features for its iTunes online media store.
Last year’s event marked the return of Steve Jobs to the public eye after a long hiatus, during which he underwent a liver transplant. This year, blogs are afire with talk about a souped-up Apple TV, though analysts deem unlikely a major announcement on that front next week.
Sources have told Reuters Apple is in the throes of negotiations with the major U.S. TV networks from Walt Disney Co’s ABC to General Electric Co’s NBC, hoping to offer TV shows for rent via iTunes for 99 cents per episode.
But those sources also said it was not a done deal. Apple and the media companies have declined to comment.
“From our checks with supply chain and industry sources, we believe potential changes could turn Apple TV into a bigger hobby and a multimillion unit seller,” Shaw Wu of Kaufman Bros wrote.
Apple will hold the event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where it introduced the iPad in April. This year’s invitation carried a prominent picture of a guitar’s front, with an Apple logo standing in for the sound hole.
The company’s iPods dominate the music- and media-player market, but growth there has moderated in past years and it has turned its attention toward the iPhone and iPad. In the June quarter, Apple said it sold 9.41 million iPods in the June quarter, down from 10.2 million a year earlier.
In contrast, analysts estimate the company sells about 1 million Apple TV units annually.
Still, some analysts expect Apple to eventually revamp — and enhance — its long-neglected TV device as the electronics maker continues to merge content with gadgets and ensconce itself in the home.
Wu expects to revamped Apple TVs in stores as early as this holiday, or the first half of 2011.
“In the grander scheme of things, it takes them a step closer” in that effort,” Wu said. The device is “perhaps a precursor into a bigger effort to address the home entertainment space down the road.”

Beatles and iTunes deal still at impasse: Yoko Ono
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ñ Don’t hold your breath waiting for Beatles songs to go on sale at iTunes or other online retailers, Yoko Ono said on Thursday.
The Fab Four have long resisted the allure of digital downloads, instead selling millions of old-fashioned compact discs last year after remastering the catalog.
Apple Corps, the group’s holding company has been unable to agree on terms with EMI Group, which licenses the Beatles’ recordings. And then there’s the unrelated Apple Inc, owner of iTunes, the world’s largest music retailer.
Apple and Apple have had a difficult history over rights to the name. But that trademark dispute was settled in 2007, and speculation has regularly popped up ever since that the two companies would strike an iTunes deal.
“(Apple CEO) Steve Jobs has his own idea and he’s a brilliant guy,” Ono, the 77-year-old widow of John Lennon, told Reuters. “There’s just an element that we’re not very happy about, as people. We are holding out.
“Don’t hold your breath … for anything,” she said with a laugh.
NEW LENNON DOCUMENTARY
Ono, who was promoting an upcoming public television documentary about her husband, “LENNONYC,” declined to go into detail. Former member Paul McCartney was similarly vague in 2008 when he said there were “a couple of sticking points.”
Ono said her comments did not necessarily reflect the opinions of the three other equal shareholders in Apple Corps — McCartney, bandmate Ringo Starr and Olivia Harrison, the widow of George Harrison. But she added that the infamous rancor of the past has been replaced by smooth consensus because “we’re older and more experienced.”
Apple Corps may be reluctant to enter the digital age, but the company is far more open to new ideas that it was in the past, Ono said. The company’s day-to-day operations are run from London by Jeff Jones, a former Sony Music executive who took over as CEO in 2007.
She said Jones was an “action person,” while his late predecessor Neil Aspinall — who worked with the Beatles for 40 years — kept the Beatles “elite and closed-off,” which served its purpose at the time.
Jones has overseen not only the reissue of the Beatles catalog, but also a “Beatles: Rock Band” videogame. The band’s music has also been getting a new life in a Cirque du Soleil “Love” stage show that has been running in Las Vegas since 2006.
Ono was reluctant to discuss upcoming Beatle-related activities, but has plenty of projects in the works to commemorate Lennon’s 70th birthday on October 9, and the 30th anniversary of his murder on December 8.
“LENNONYC” will premiere nationally on November 22, as part of PBS’ “American Masters” series. It focuses on the couple’s time together in New York from 1971 to 1980, boasting previously unseen video footage and unheard studio recordings from sessions for his final album, “Double Fantasy.”
That album will be reissued on October 5 (a day earlier internationally), along with seven other studio releases, such as 1971’s Imagine.” “Double Fantasy” will also be available in a newly remixed “stripped down” version that enhances Lennon’s vocals on such songs as “Starting Over” and “Woman.”
Ono said she was putting a lot of care into the projects, because of her increasing age.
“I’m 77, so I think this could be my last effort, so I’m really trying very hard,” she said.
Ono will once again oppose parole for Lennon’s killer Mark David Chapman when his case comes up for review later this month. She said Chapman, now 55, posed a risk not only to her and to Lennon’s two sons, but to the public and even to himself.

Apple Unveils ‘iPad’ Tablet Device
Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs took the wraps off the “iPad” tablet on Wednesday, looking to define a new category of wireless device that will play video, games and all sorts of other media.
Jobs, who returned to the helm last year after a much-scrutinized liver transplant, is hoping to sell consumers on the value of tablet computing after numerous technology companies had failed to do so in recent years.
Called the “iPad,” the device is Apple’s biggest product launch since the iPhone three years ago, and arguably rivals the smartphone as the most anticipated in Apple’s history.
After months of feverish speculation on the Internet and among investors, Jobs took the stage at a jam-packed theater in San Francisco and, with his famed showman’s flair, began detailing the device’s basic features.
The iPad has a near life-sized touch keyboard and supports Web browsing. It comes with a built-in calendar and address book, Jobs said.
Technology enthusiasts had expected to see a sleek, full-color, 10-inch gadget with a touchscreen interface and wireless connectivity, designed for snacking on all sorts of media from videos to games to electronic books and newspapers.
Despite the buzz surrounding the launch and Apple’s storied golden touch on consumer electronics, the tablet is not necessarily an easy sell, analysts say.
Consumer appetite for a gadget that sits somewhere between a smartphone and a laptop has yet to be proven, though plenty of devices such as Amazon.com’s Kindle e-reader are vying for that market.
Apple had been mum, so the market had been rife with speculation about the device.
Shares of Apple have generally risen ahead of Wednesday’s event. The stock slipped on Nasdaq to about $201.67, still within reach of its all-time high of $215.59 logged on January 5.
As iPod sales wane, Apple is looking for another growth engine and hopes to find one in the tablet. But the move is not without risk. Consumers have never warmed to tablet computers, despite many previous attempts by other companies.
In an online poll on reuters.com, 37 percent of more than 1,000 respondents said they would pay $500-$699 for the tablet. Nearly 30 percent weren’t interested, while 20 percent said they would pay $700-$899. (For more details, see here)
Analysts’ sales predictions for the tablet vary widely, with many believing Apple can sell 2 million to 5 million units in the first year.

NFB’s iPhone app showcases Canada
MONTREALñThe National Film Board of Canada’s new iPhone application has proven to be a hit beyond this country’s borders, with 40 per cent more people downloading NFB content from abroad than in Canada.
Since its launch on Oct. 21, there have been nearly 80,000 downloads internationally and just over 56,000 in Canada from people seeking out the NFB’s documentaries and animation.
Among the top five plays on the iPhone are The Cat Came Back, Canada Vignettes: Log Driver’s Waltz and HA-Aki.
The iPhone app is just one of the international successes recorded in the 70th anniversary year of the NFB, the national producer and distributor of films, documentaries, animation and shorts.
Besides looking back at its fabled past, chair Tom Perlmutter said the NFB continued its efforts to position itself solidly in the future by exploring new markets.
“The international response was extraordinary,” Perlmutter said in an interview. “We’ve been tremendously well received.”
Besides making the rounds of international festivals, Perlmutter sat down with decision-makers in a number of countries to craft deals.
Among those was the president of China’s national educational broadcaster.
“We’re just starting discussions,” Perlmutter said. “They’re interested in looking at a wide range of things.” Some of those include science-based productions. The NFB is also working with Cirque du soleil on the film for the Canadian pavillion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
China was just one of a slew of high-profile showcases for the NFB this year. Others included the screening of The Strangest Dream, a documentary on the threat of nuclear weapons, at the United Nations and European parliament.
Perlmutter, NFB commissioner since 2007, says forging new partnerships domestically and internationally is key to doing business in this increasingly wired world.
“The world is changing,” he said. “We’ve got to think about new ways of doing things.”
And he adds that when the film board goes knocking on foreign doors, it’s giving taxpayers a good bang for the $65 million the government kicks into its coffers.
The board’s political bosses agree that the NFB is an effective salesman for Canada abroad.
“The National Film Board, especially with their online offerings, is a really easy and accessible way to tell our stories not only to Canadians but internationally as well,” said Stephanie Rea, a spokeswoman for Heritage Minister James Moore.
NFB.ca, the board’s retooled website, has had almost three million views since it launched a year ago. About 1,700 of the NFB’s 13,000 productions are online and more are constantly being added.

Changes take effect in Apple’s iTunes prices
NEW YORK ñ The dominant seller of music on the Internet has a new look: Pricing changes to Apple Inc.’s iTunes Store have gone into effect, with some popular songs now $1.29 apiece.
Apple said in January that it would end its practice of selling all songs for 99 cents a piece and begin offering three tiers: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. Record companies can pick the prices.
In exchange for the ability to set prices, record labels agreed to sell all songs on iTunes without “digital rights management” technology that hampers users’ abilities to copy tracks or play them on multiple computers.

Apple disappoints–no Jobs or big news at Macworld
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) ñ Apple Inc said on Tuesday said it was dropping copy protection from songs sold on the Internet and debuted its slimmest 17-inch laptop yet, but with no dramatic products or master pitchman Steve Jobs, the company’s final Macworld performance disappointed Wall Street.
Apple shares slid 0.7 percent, lagging by far the Nasdaq’s 1.7 percent gain, reflecting frustration over the lack of news from the trade conference that had previously introduced the iPhone to the world.
“There were some innovative products, but no true blockbusters,” said Robert Francello, head of equity trading for Apex Capital hedge fund in San Francisco. “People were bullish going into it, and now they’re kind of taking money off the table.”
Apple said its iTunes music store, which has sold 6 billion songs thus far, will offer its 10-million-song library free of digital rights management — or copy-protection — by the end of the quarter, for between 69 cents and $1.29 a song.
Songs will also be available straight to iPhones over the air, instead of through a computer.
The company decided not use Macworld to launch any major new product, as it had in past years, when it introduced such industry-changing devices as the iPhone.
In years past, the company’s Macworld product launches had produced so much buzz that they managed to overshadow events at the far larger Consumer Electronics Show. The 2009 CES show kicks off this week in Las Vegas.
Tuesday’s event produced few surprises. Apple announced a $2,799 17-inch laptop that is the company’s lightest and slimmest ever, as well as tweaks to software for home movies and photographs.
The event culminated with singer Tony Bennett crooning “The Best is Yet to Come” and “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” in a farewell of sorts to Apple, which will no longer attend the cultural event thronged annually by Mac-faithful.
Jobs, a fixture at past events, was nowhere in sight, despite some hopes for a cameo. Last month, the company said its chief executive and salesman extraordinaire would not deliver the Macworld address. That raised fresh concerns about the cancer survivor’s health and signaled to many Apple-watchers that the company had no plans to launch a major product at Macworld.

New Seinfeld ad draws negative reviews online
NEW YORK – No soup for Microsoft?
The software giant’s new ad starring Jerry Seinfeld has drawn largely negative reviews online after premiering Thursday night during NBC’s broadcast of the National Football League’s season kickoff game.
The ad was the start of a highly anticipated $300 million advertising campaign that Microsoft is launching in attempt to rebuff Apple’s popular TV commercials, which have portrayed Microsoft and PCs as uncool.
In the commercial ó which can be found at Microsoft.com and on video sharing sites ó Seinfeld is walking through a mall when he spots Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates at a “Shoe Circus” store. The comedian then helps Gates pick out a new pair of shoes while the jokes come quick: showering with clothes on, Gates being a “10,” platinum credit cards for a fictional shoe store.
It’s a zany ad that packs a lot of quirkiness into 90 seconds. With no direct mention of Microsoft or its operating system, Vista, the commercial concludes with the slogan: “The future, delicious.”
The ad was created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky ó a firm with a reputation for oddness. Many technology and advertising blogs have turned to Seinfeld’s trademark comedy description ó “nothing” ó to describe the ad.
“Huh?” wrote Abbey Klaassen for Ad Age. “You could be forgiven for not knowing what the heck Microsoft’s new TV ad … was about.”
Dan Frommer, writing for the Silicon Alley Insider, pronounced the ad “not funny” and added that the mall shoe store setting “is not going to help Microsoft look any cooler.”
For the blog Techcrunch.com, Michael Arrington noted that the “tech and geek crowd is a little underwhelmed” by the ad, which he said is “a far cry from the brilliant Microsoft v. Mac ads.”
Brad Brooks, vice president of Windows consumer product marketing, said in a video posted on the Windows press Web site, that the ad is a “teaser” meant to “engage customers in a conversation … to get the conversation going again about what Windows means in people’s everyday lives.”
Even if the reaction was mostly negative, Microsoft’s ad has clearly succeeded in getting people talking.

It’s presto, change-o as new iPhone is unveiled
LOS ANGELES ó Wouldn’t it be cool if you could use your cellphone to monitor activities in your home, say, to zoom in for an audio/video check of the baby’s room while you were at work, or even adjust the heat?
Or how about going to a theme park and checking your phone to discover if other friends are there, and arrange a meeting place?
Consumers and reviewers alike gushed about its compact, futuristic design and sensitive touch-screen. But even its biggest fans have had one persistent chief complaint: The iPhone’s Internet network from partner AT&T was too slow.
So get ready for iPhone 2.0: On Monday Apple (AAPL) is widely expected to introduce a zippier version that will operate on both a faster AT&T network, and speedier networks internationally. The price also will rock: $199, according to people with knowledge of the matter, down from the current $399 and $499.
Sources declined to be cited by name or affiliation because Apple and AT&T haven’t authorized anybody to speak publicly about pricing until after Monday’s announcement. The $199 price is being subsidized, though USA TODAY could not confirm details.
According to sources, the new Apple device will be available in Apple and AT&T stores beginning this summer.
For consumers, the shift to 3G will be akin to going “from dial-up to broadband,” says Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray.
A new iPhone could go a long way toward fulfilling Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ prediction that he’d sell 10 million iPhones in its first 18 months. So far, Apple has sold just over 5 million phones. Analysts who follow the company think a lower price and new international markets make it a sure bet that another 5 million will be snapped up this year.
Apple stopped taking orders for the iPhone in May, presumably to make way for the new model. Sales could substantially beef up Apple’s bottom line, Munster says. Apple reported revenue of $24.0 billion in 2007. Munster sees sales growing to $34 billion this year, and $46.9 billion in 2009, thanks to the iPhone.
Beyond the new hardware, the biggest buzz around the iPhone this week will be the new uses being dreamed up for it. The software add-ons have the potential to turn the iPhone into the pocket computer of the future, as essential, Apple hopes, as the keys in your pocket or purse.
The iPhone economy
Apple’s sold-out Worldwide Developer’s Conference in San Francisco is the setting for Monday’s iPhone lovefest, where software developers will convene to hear about the new iPhone. They’re eager to hear CEO Jobs talk about how they can participate in what independent analyst Richard Doherty calls the “iPhone economy.”
Earlier this year, instead of controlling everything that went on the iPhone, Apple released what’s called an SDK ó for “software developer’s kit” ó a road map that allows programmers to create applications for the iPhone. The first of those outside programs is expected to be released Monday, and made available on the iPhone and iPod Touch ó the iPod that’s just like the iPhone, except without a phone.
“Opening the pot of gold to developers is as important as the iPhone itself,” Doherty says.
Once Apple approves a piece of software from an independent developer, it provides distribution ó via a new “App” store on the iPhone and iPod Touch ó and takes a 30% cut of revenue. “This means that anyone, whether you’re 14 years old or 40, if you’re a large company with 300 employees or a guy in a garage, has access to Apple’s customers,” Doherty says. “You don’t have to make a presentation to a series of different handset manufacturers or wireless carriers. This is unheard of in software.”
Access to the iPhone App store means that “we have a way to reach millions of consumers,” says Darren Vengroff, the co-founder of Pelago, which developed Whrrl, a social network application.
Whrrl takes the online review phenomenon and marries it to the iPhone. The idea is that if you’re searching for a restaurant, with a few clicks you can see which ones your friends ó who are also Whrrl members ó recommend. Whrrl is currently available for two BlackBerry phones and the Nokia N95.
The iPhone App store will “get so much traffic,” adds Paul Dawes, CEO of iControl Networks, another iPhone developer. “It’s not random traffic, but consumers who are actively looking for our types of applications.”
The iControl application is the aforementioned home-monitoring system, or as Dawes calls it, “next-generation home security.” With iControl, a device is plugged into your home network and connects to security panels, webcams and home-automation devices, allowing the homeowner control away from home. You can keep up with the action while at work on your desktop, or with the iPhone out in the field.
The iControl monitoring system is sold via home-security companies and a monthly subscription, but the iPhone application will be available for free.
Video game company Sega, best known for the old Sonic the Hedgehog video game, wowed attendees at a March meeting for developers when it showed off the Super Monkey Ball game for the iPhone.
There’s no joystick controller for the iPhone to move the characters from left to right, so developer Ethan Einhorn came up with a novel idea: Just move the phone up or down, left or right, and the characters respond to the movement.
“What’s great for a company like ours is that Apple has already defined the iPhone as a place to acquire and enjoy entertainment,” Sega’s Einhorn says. “Video games are the next natural step.”
Earlier this year, legendary Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (which had a role in funding Google, Amazon and AOL) started what it calls the “iFund,” a $100 million pot looking to invest in iPhone application start-ups.
Kleiner Perkins invested in both iControl and Pelago, and is actively looking at 50 other start-ups, partner Matt Murphy says.
“We received about 2,000 proposals so far, and that’s more than a factor of 20 of what we would have received from the general mobile sector,” Murphy says. “What Apple has done is brought a lot of entrepreneurs off the sidelines. They feel ‘open mobile’ is here.”
Historically, if you had an idea you wanted to sell to the mobile industry, you had to pay a visit to Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon. All have huge customer bases, but their phones work on different wireless systems. This requires a programmer to construct the program in different ways.
Apple isn’t the only company pushing open mobile. To great fanfare earlier this year, Google introduced “Android,” which it describes as a new wireless operating system that can be used with multiple carriers.
Google has been shy about releasing much Android information, but says we’ll see phones in the second half of the year.
Unlike Apple, which produces its phone and has AT&T as the wireless network customers have to work with in the USA, Google is reaching out to many. Wireless manufacturers HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung are all participating in Google’s “Open Handset Alliance,” along with carriers Sprint, T-Mobile and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo.
A home run?
When the iPhone was released last year, eager consumers waited on line for days to get a crack at buying one of the first ones. A year later, Apple says it’s sold over 5 million iPhones.
That pales in comparison with competitors. Windows Mobile, which provides software for phones from HTC, Samsung, Palm and others, says it will sell 20 million phones this year.
About 1 billion cellphones are sold every year. No. 1 manufacturer Nokia, for instance, sells more cellphones in a week than Apple has shipped to date. According to researcher Gartner, Nokia sold 435 million cellphones in 2007. Munster says the “real verdict” on the iPhone’s success hasn’t been reached. “The numbers are too small to call a home run.”
Charles Golvin, an analyst at market tracker Forrester Research, says iPhone’s impact has been felt by the entire wireless industry, which has been trying in vain for several years to sell lucrative add-on data plans.
“They have done a very poor job marketing these services,” he says. “What Apple and the iPhone did was really communicate in a very simple way what the data plan could do for you. It’s the Internet, but on your phone.”
With a data plan, consumers pay an additional monthly charge ó usually $15 to $25 ó for access to the Internet on their phones, adding greatly to the carrier’s bottom line.
Golvin says handset competitors such as LG, Sony Ericsson and Nokia are “really blatant” about how their new phones are clones of the iPhone. “The iPhone has raised awareness of what’s possible.”