Category: Apple Stuff

Apple plans announcement; some see new music player
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Computer Inc. on Monday said it will announce a new product in early September and fanned expectations it will introduce an updated iPod Shuffle music player with much more capacity.
Apple is known for its marketing prowess and keeps new products under tight wraps before unveiling them at carefully staged events.
The company is widely expected to introduce a relatively roomy four-gigabyte iPod which uses sticks of flash memory, the type of storage used in digital cameras, rather than a hard disk drive. That would hold about 1,000 songs.
In an email invitation showing a picture of a jeans pocket, Apple alluded to its original 2001 announcement for the portable iPod, saying, “1,000 songs in your pocket changed everything. Here we go again.”
Apple plans a San Francisco news conference on September 7 at 10 a.m. PDT (1700 GMT). Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris declined to comment further.
Apple introduced its portable music player in late 2001 with the promise that it could hold 1,000 songs. The first iPod was powered by a hard disk drive, but this year Apple introduced the “Shuffle” with flash memory to hold data.
Industry analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies Inc. in Campbell, California, said the news could be a new 4-gigabyte Shuffle, which would have four times the memory of the current model.
“The obvious news may be the higher density iPod Shuffle,” he said. “But (Apple CEO Steve Jobs) may have something else up his sleeve. Steve loves surprises,” he said.
Recent analyst reports out of Asia have noted that Apple plans to buy as much as 40 percent of the flash memory chips produced by South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., the world’s second largest chip maker and the largest maker of flash memory used in music players.
Apple currently sells three types of iPods: the classic high-capacity hard-disk iPod capable of storing up to 15,000 songs on 60 gigabytes; the iPod Mini, which comes in two versions, either four- or six-gigabyte hard disk models; and the Shuffle.
Cupertino, California-based Apple has come to dominate the digital music player market, accounting for some three-quarters of industry sales this year, according to analysts estimates.
Apple shipped 6.2 million iPods in its latest quarter.

Microsoft beats Apple, files iPod patents
There are likely some red faces at Apple Computer.
Apple took too long to file a patent on part of its blockbuster iPod music players, so Microsoft jumped in and beat Apple to it.
Tech pundits are snickering at the prospect of Apple having to pay Bill Gates big royalties on the hugely popular iPods, which account for more than a third of Apple’s revenue.
On Tuesday, technology lawyer John Ferrell said Apple still has a lot of options, and this isn’t a knockout blow. He said Apple could file a declaration stating it invented the technology before Microsoft filed its patent request.
The company could also alter the patent claims so they don’t overlap Microsoft’s. Ferrell estimates it could be at least another six months before it’s all sorted out.

Apple to give levy back to iPod owners
Music lovers who paid extra for their iPods because of a levy will soon be able to get their money back, Apple Canada announced Monday.
“Apple is pleased that the Supreme Court of Canada let stand a lower court ruling that blank media levies on iPods are invalid, and will shortly announce a claims process so consumers can request a refund for the levies they paid,” the company said in a release.
In July, the Supreme Court refused to overturn a Federal Court of Canada ruling that quashed the levy, which was applied to iPods and similar digital music players.
The tax had been passed on to consumers by companies like Apple and was collected by the Canadian Private Copying Collective, a non-profit agency that works on behalf of musicians and record companies.
The levy was in effect from December 2003 until a year later, when the Federal Court overturned it.
The Canadian Coalition for Fair Digital Access, which represents retailers and manufactures like Future Shop, Wal-Mart Canada, Apple Canada, Sony Canada and Dell Computer Corporation of Canada, had lobbied to have it abolished.
The tariff was $2 for non-removable memory capacity of up to one gigabyte, $15 for one to 10 GB, and $25 for more than 10 GB.
About $4 million was collected by the CPCC from sales of iPods and the like during the tariff’s one-year life.
The CPCC got the levy instituted in the first place because it successfully argued that iPod users were making illegal copies of songs, so money should be collected on behalf of the copyright holders.
Details of how to apply for the refund from Apple were not announced on Monday.

No levy on IPods, court rules
TORONTO (CP) – The fight over a levy on IPods and other digital music devices ended Thursday when the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear any further arguments on the matter.
That means there will be no levy applied to digital audio recorders such as Apple’s popular IPod and IPod Shuffle as well as other MP3 players like IRiver.
“Obviously we’re disappointed. We felt it was self-evident that those products are sold for the purpose of copying music,” said David Basskin, of the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC), the non-profit agency which collects tariffs on behalf of musicians and record companies.
The group had wanted the high court to overturn last year’s Federal Court of Appeal decision which quashed the levy on the popular gadgets.
The non-profit agency had been collecting the tariff – $2 for non-removable memory capacity of up to one GB, $15 for one to 10 GBs, $25 for more than 10 GB – since December 2003 through a tax built into the price of the devices.
It stopped in December 2004 when the Federal Court overturned the policy at the urging of retailers and manufacturers such as Future Shop, Apple Canada and Dell Computer Corporation of Canada.
The CPCC argued that since the new technology opened yet another avenue to make illegal copies of songs, a levy should be collected on behalf of music creators.
The group said Thursday that approximately $4 million was collected between December 2003 and December 2004.
The money is sitting in an account and will be returned to the importers and manufacturers of the products, said Basskin.
The CPCC is an non-profit agency which collects and distributes tariffs on behalf of performers, songwriters, music producers and record companies. It also collects a levy on blank audio such as CDs and mini-discs.

Apple says iTunes music downloads top 500 million
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Apple Computer Inc. on Monday said its iTunes online music service has sold more than 500 million songs since its inception over two years ago.
While iTunes by itself is not viewed as a money maker for Apple, it has helped drive sales of the company’s iPod, by far the most widely used digital music player which has helped boost profits.

Music Videos May Be Coming to iPods
NEW YORK – An iPod with video? Apple Computer Inc. has been talking to several major recording companies, looking to license the sale of music videos through the popular iTunes music site, The Wall Street Journal reported in Monday’s editions.
Negotiations are an indication that Apple is moving to release a device that plays video files, possibly by September, The Journal said. Analysts see the development as likely because of Apple’s strength in video software, including the Quicktime movie format and video-editing software, such as Final Cut Pro and iMovie.
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
The Journal notes that so far, commercial movie download services have not met with much success, nor have devices already on the market allowing users to transfer video files from their PCs.

IPod Battery Life May Get a Boost – [General]
Apple Computer may soon be able to demolish criticisms of the battery life of its IPod family, thanks to PortalPlayer. PortalPlayer has begun shipping a new processor, the PP5022 System-on-chip (SoC). This is the next generation of the processor IPods use today–and needs a lot less power to run. PortalPlayer claims devices using the new processor could benefit from three times their current battery life.
PortalPlayer’s vice president of sales and marketing Michael Maia says: “Our goal with the PP5022 was to offer a solution that balances lowest operating power while continuing to increase system performance. “We achieved this goal and will continue to deliver the lowest operational power during playback and encoding of rich media content-the PP5022 is our most innovative SoC to date, resulting in best-in-class battery life in hard drive jukebox systems.”
Additional features include integrated USB 2.0 support–to the extent that designers could enable devices built using the processor to be compatible with peripherals, such as digital cameras. The company also introduced its first processor for the flash-based music player market, the PP5024 System-in-Package. This fully-integrated solution is designed to meet the need for high-capacity flash memory-based personal media players. It combines the media processor, peripheral input/output (I/O) controllers, and analogue audio and power management functions on one processor. “This enables high-performance audio jukebox features such as subscription music services and database caching support in a low-power flash platform,” the company explains.

Apple releases cheaper photo IPods, more roomy IPod mini
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) – Apple Computer Inc. on Wednesday released new versions of its popular IPod digital music player, cutting prices and expanding memory capacities.
The price of the four-gigabyte IPod mini was cut $50 to $199 US. A new six-gigabyte version will sell for $249.
The 60-gigabyte IPod Photo, which can display photos on its small colour screen or when connected to a TV set, was cut from $599 to $449. A new 30-gigabyte model for $349 replaces a 40-gigabyte version for $499.
Apple also said it expects to start selling a cable that allows the transfer of photos straight from a digital camera to an IPod photo, eliminating the need for a computer. The IPod Camera Connector is expected to be available in late March for $29.

Apple iTunes sells 250 million songs
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – With its music downloads selling at a rate of more than a million per day, Apple Computer Inc. said Monday customers have purchased more than 250 million songs from its online iTunes Music Store.
The store, now available in 15 countries, is selling 1.25 million songs at 99 cents apiece per day, the computer and multimedia company said.
Apple helped invigorate the market for legal music downloads when it launched the iTunes store in April 2003. Its robust sales far outpace rival services.
The success is due in part to Apple’s wildly popular IPod portable music players, which do not play songs purchased from competing online music stores.
The Cupertino-based company sold 4.5 million IPods in the fourth quarter and more than 10 million since its debut in October 2001.
Shares of Apple rose 65 cents to $71.14 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $21.70 to $74.42.

Apple Enters Value Market with Cheap iPod, Mac
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Computer Inc. on Tuesday moved to make its products more affordable for the masses, unveiling its cheapest Macintosh computer ever and a version of its iPod digital music player for under $100.
Apple co-founder and Chief Executive Steve Jobs, announcing the new products at the Macworld show in San Francisco, also said Apple had sold 4.5 million units of the various models of its blockbuster iPod in the 2004 holiday quarter.
Apple has traditionally aimed for high-end markets both for its Mac computers and the iPod, eschewing discount models. But the company reversed that course in one fell swoop Tuesday with the $99 “iPod shuffle” and the $499 “Mac mini.”
The new products expand Apple’s four-year-old “digital hub” and could broaden Apple’s market considerably, analysts said.
But rumor sites had anticipated the new products, and Apple shares fell nearly 4 percent.
“I think that the expectations were about as high as they could get for it,” said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.
The iPod sales were also in the range of Wall Street expectations.
SMALLER THAN A PACK OF GUM
The “iPod shuffle,” is shaped like a pack of gum with no display screen. The smaller one, with 512 megabyte of memory, holds about 120 songs and costs $99. The larger one holds 1 gigabyte, or about 240 songs, and costs $149.
The lack of a screen may discourage some consumers, but it is too soon to tell, said Tim Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies. “It’s designed for use with the PC and the assumption that people will use their personal computer to manage their music anyway.”
The new iPod falls into a category of music players that use “flash memory,” chips like those found in digital cameras and some portable media players, rather than the hard drives used in current iPods.
Jobs said the iPod holds a 65 percent share of the entire market for portable digital music players, up from only 31 percent a year earlier.
Given that sort of consumer support, Jobs said a number of car companies like Mercedes-Benz USA, Volvo and Ferrari would integrate the iPod line into their car stereo systems.
DISCOUNT COMPUTER
The “Mac mini” will come in $499 and $599 models, depending on processor speed and hard-drive size. Weighing less than 3 pounds and under 2 inches tall, the mini connects to televisions as well as PC monitors.
Financial analysts, alerted to the mini by rumor sites now being sued by Apple, have said it would appeal to iPod users on the Windows operating system.
“It’s very clear that these were designed to make the Mac platform more accessible to a broader audience,” Bajarin said. “They want to entice more people either to switch, or, which is even more intriguing, to convince traditional PC users to make the Mac the center of their creative, digital work.”
Some had doubted Apple, which has less than 5 percent of the worldwide PC market, would go the lower-end route.
“What we are doing is adding a product that reaches even more people,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of worldwide marketing. “Consideration of the Mac is a lot higher than it has been in some time.”
Apple also unveiled iLife 05, its suite of software to manage music, create movies, DVDs and manage and edit digital photographs; and iWork, which contains an updated version of its Keynote presentation software; and a new word processing software program called Pages.
The news appeared to have gone over well, as Apple’s online store was briefly unavailable after the news broke.
Shares of Apple fell $4.40, or 6.4 percent, to close at $64.56 on Nasdaq. The stock more than tripled in 2004.