The Inquisitr » ipod

iPodRip Gets Direct Response From Steve Jobs, Immediately Changes Name

James Allen Johnson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:49:32 +0000

John Devor, co-owner of the Apple software company “The Little App Factory” received an email from Apple Lawyers telling him to change the name of his iPodRip program or face trademark infringement over the iPod name. In response to that letter Mr. Devor sent a message directly to Steve Jobs pleading his case.

Here’s Johns letter to Jobs and the response he received back:

Dear Mr. Jobs,

My name is John Devor and I’m the co-owner of a small Mac shareware company named The Little App Factory and a long-term Apple customer and shareholder. I doubt you’re aware but we recently received a letter from a law firm working on Apple’s behalf instructing us that we had violated several of Apple’s trademarks in our application iPodRip and asking us to cease using the name and Apple trademarks in our icons.

We have been distributing iPodRip since 2003 with the aim of providing a method to recover music, movies and photos from iPods and iPhones in the event of a serious hardware failure on their Mac which leads to data loss. Our goal has been to provide the highest quality product coupled with the highest quality service in a bid to resolve some of the angst that is generated by such an ordeal; service befitting of an Apple product. In this department we think we have succeeded as we have approximately 6 million customers, many Apple employees, music artists and other notable people in society. In fact I’d argue that our customer service is the best of all competing applications in our niche as many of them are scams and frauds that leave Apple customers with a terrible taste in their collective mouths. We fear very much that tens of thousands of Apple customers looking to recover their own music and having heard of our product via word-of-mouth or otherwise, will instead find a product produced by one of our competitors, and will wind up the victim of a scam (one closely-named competitor charges a hidden monthly fee, for instance).

It is quite obvious that we mean Apple no harm with the use of the name iPodRip, or of the inclusion of trademarked items in our icons, and in fact I believe that we have been providing an excellent secondary service to Apple customers that has potentially caused you many repeat clients. In fact, we are quite aware that Apple support and store staff have recommended our software on numerous occasions as far back as 2004 so we have felt that we were doing something right!

With this in mind, we are in desperate need of some assistance and we beseech you to help us to protect our product and our shareware company, both of which we have put thousands upon thousands of hours of work into. Our company goal is to create Mac software of the highest quality with the best user experience possible. I myself dropped out of school recently to pursue a path in the Mac software industry, and you yourself have been a consistent inspiration for me.

If there is anything at all you can do with regards to this matter, we would be most grateful.

Best,

John Devor

After receiving the letter here’s the response Steve Jobs sent back to Denver:

Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal.

Steve

Sent from my iPhone

The App is now called iRip, just don’t read too much into the tone of Jobs response, his point was clear, concise and simple. [Gizmodo]

Sesame Street iPod Parody

Duncan Riley — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:02:06 +0000

First it was the Sesame Street MadMen Parody, now Apple gets the treatment in conjunction with the letter D…for dance naturally.

Who really needs to fear Apple? Hint: It’s not Microsoft

Steven Hodson — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:08:01 +0000

So today was all Apple. It didn’t matter where you turned in the tech blogosphere, all you read was Apple news. Stevie boy is back from the near dead and the acolytes breathe a sigh of relieve as they bow to the alter of Apple. For all of the talk about iPods, Nanos, video and storage space to stuff even more music that you’ve bought through the new shiny iTunes there was one thing that caught my eye and it had nothing to do with rock ‘n’ roll.

A couple of other tech bloggers mentioned it as well but more in passing than anything else but it is something that I think should be having the boardrooms of the gaming console makers shaking.

Dean Takahashi at VentureBeat writes

Schiller says the iPod Touch is also a great gaming machine. He notes the multitouch user interface is great, the games are cheap, the App Store allows for great choice of games, and the buying experience is easy.

Harry McCracken at Technologizer says

I think it’s the evolution of the iPod brand. It used to be about music. Then music and video playback. Now Apple is pitching the Touch as a computer that plays games,

By targeting the casual gamer looking just to past some time while commuting to and from work not to mention the number of parents who use it to keep antsy kids pacified Apple is setting itself up as the go to store where you can easily buy and download good games. At this point none of the other handheld console makers have anything that comes close and don’t seem to be in any rush to jump into the market that Apple is very quickly sewing up.

Sure everyone might think that Apple’s big competitor is Microsoft but Jobs knows that as much as Microsoft might want the Zune HD to challenge Apple that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. So rather than worry about Microsoft Apple is going after the one market that will keep coming back with open wallets – the casual gamer. By making the iPod a premier gaming console and the Apps Store the only place to buy good games Apple plans on being the same 800 pound gorilla in the gaming market as it is in the music market place.

Right now if I was in charge of a company making and marketing of handheld consoles I’d be worrying – a lot.

New Apple iPod Nano 5th Generation Features Video Camera Capabilities

James Allen Johnson — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:24:55 +0000

The 5th generation Apple iPod will indeed feature a video camera as many earlier sources had revealed. The Apple “It’s Only Rock and Roll” event today also revealed that the device will feature a pedometer and a radio plus voice recorder. Not bad for a device that starts at a mere $150.

Gizmodo also highlighted some of the other main features:

• Video camera (640×480)
• Integrated mic
• Integrated speaker
• FM Radio!!!!!
• One-click YouTube uploads
• Voice Over like Shuffle
• Pedometer with Nike+ syncing online
• Voice Recorder
• 2.2-inch screen is possibly larger than last model

As we mentioned above the 8GB iPod Nano will sell for a respectable $150. While 16GB comes in only $30 higher at $180.

It’s your turn Flip, what are you going to offer in your next digital camcorder, a high tech MP3 player perhaps?

Update: We’ve got some more official specs for the device:

The FM Tuner includes Live Pause and iTunes Tagging, while the screen display is larger than past Nano devices at 2.2 inches. The video is also far off from Flip HD recorders with VGA support up to 640 x 480 and 30fps with AAC audio, while also offering H.264 support.

The camera also offers a bunch of realtime effects that include sepia, security camera, bulge, cyborg and others. While the 5th Gen is also lighter by 0.02 ounces coming in at 1.28 ounces, which is a bit odd considering it now has a camera and is the exact same size dimensions wise when compared to the Nano 4th generation.

The Nano 5th Gen according to Apple can also playback music for 24 hours, while that number is dramatically decreased to 5 hours for video playback.

iPod Classic Jumps To 160GB, Keeps Classic Pricing

James Allen Johnson — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:09:36 +0000

The iPod Classic just received a nice upgrade today, 160GB to be exact. Apple announced today during their “It’s Only Rock and Roll” event that the 120GB has been stuffed with an additional 40GB, bringing it to an impressive 160GB.

They’ve also announced that the price will remain at the same $249. [via Engadget]

Now if only they would spread their price dropping love to their notebooks we’d be in business.

iPods Get Huge Price Cuts As Apple Kicks Off “It’s Only Rock And Roll” Event

James Allen Johnson — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:04:32 +0000

With the Apple event today we expecting to see a great deal of price cuts coming from the software/hardware company, what we weren’t expecting was for those price cuts on the iPod Touch, Nano and Classic units to come before the event even officially kicked off.

The iPod Touch series has cut the 8GB model from $229 down to $189, while the 16GB model falls from $299 to $249 and the 32GB models takes the biggest jump from $399 down to an impressive $279.

On the classic front the price took a smaller dive from $249 to $229 while the Nano 8GB goes from $149 to $239 or for 16GB buyers a $50 price cut brings the unit to a respectable $199.

With the rather large price cuts it makes us think a bigger announcement is coming at some point today during the Apple event, we’ll keep you posted.

iPod Feature Request: Intelligent Listening Transference

Kyle Brady — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 07:20:59 +0000

Over the last few months, I’ve become a fan and supporter of NPR, a not-for-profit organization in America dedicated to the production and distribution of “noncommercial news, talk and entertainment programming”, distributed nationally via public radio member stations. This came about because typical news sources in America are increasingly focused in advertising dollars rather than informing their audience, and cater more to sensationalism and faux-news than unfiltered, unbiased news – I have no interest in supporting the “infotainment”-ization of CNN.

The problem with NPR, I discovered, is that they have wonderful daily programming that spans a range of interests and topics (read: NPR is not talk radio, but actually closer to a real-time History Channel on the radio) and that the programs can be up to two hours in length. This becomes a problem when:

you’re a busy person
you don’t have a portable radio
you don’t spend a significant and consistent amount of time in the car

But imagine my surprise this week when I discovered that NPR offers podcasts of almost all of their shows, free of charge, that are easily integrated with iTunes – self-updating news and entertainment programs that automatically transfer to your iPod according to rules you create.

This discovery was wonderful – now I could listen to what I wanted on a regular basis without being dependent on the car’s radio! NPR’s Talk of the Nation and Marketplace (via American Public Media), along with assorted programs from the BBC’s World Service suite and PBS’ NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, have now become a daily staple for my travels. Sadly, though, All Things Considered does not have a subscription process, and a query to NPR has been submitted.

Although the podcast process is a great modern innovation for on-demand quality programming, and the television industry would do well to take note, there remains a problem: if a podcast is started on an iPod, but not finished, the only way to continue later is to either not listen to anything else or memorize its time position.

So, Apple, here’s a two-fold feature request:

have a default option to remember the listening position of podcasts, and allow it to be restarted where the user left off – similar to a DVD player’s “resume stop” feature, except with persistent memory during other content.
have “intelligent listening transference” from an iPod to a computer’s installation of iTunes, allowing a user to start the podcast on their iPod and finish listening in iTunes.

These two small, but important, new features would make the iTunes method of podcast delivery quite possibly the default distribution method for future “radio” shows and other audio-based programming. But for a media revolution to be successful, the tools in use must first attain a level of usability, in combination with appropriate market/social timing: FM radio and cable television saw this in previous decades, and the “blogging revolution” is currently experiencing this as tools mature and newspapers fail.

NPR, I love you, but Apple could take our relationship to the next level – why don’t you give them a ring?

— — —

Update (8/27/2009 11:50am PST): Word is coming in that most iPods already do this. Mine doesn’t, but possibly because it’s too old. So if this was a new idea to you, try it out – it probably already works for you!

Kyle Brady is a contributing columnist for the Inquisitr, an entrepreneur, and has a future in science fiction. He can be found at his blog, via email, or on Twitter.

Apple is a girlie girl company

Steven Hodson — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:45:00 +0000

If there is one thing that Apple is famous for is the overall simplification of technology as evidenced by the success of the iPod and iPhone. Even today you take a look at any consumer electronics product such as televisions, stereos and even our required remote controls, every one of them comes with an instruction manual in multiple languages and big enough ins some cases to choke a horse.

Now look at the iPod and iPhone – they just work. They are designed to let the consumer get right to using them rather than having to spend an ungodly amount of time trying to figure out the instructions and then actually applying them. Apple gets that women are driving nearly 80% of all consumer purchases and have tilted their product design in their direction through simplicity and ease of use.

As Bridget Brennan points out in her Forbes post

Is it too much to attribute at least some of Apple’s success to its female-friendly approach to product design? If women are indeed influencing nearly two-thirds of consumer electronics sales, surely that says something.

Here’s how Apple does it:

Apple has feminized the formerly dude-driven world of stereo equipment. Consider the iPod; small, elegant and curvy, it’s everything that stereo equipment never was. Traditional stereo shops seem as out of date as vinyl, and stand in contrast to Apple stores, which are light, bright and bursting with women. Though pink is offered as one of many color choices, women buy iPods because of their performance.

This might be the case but I don’t think it would be a really good idea to suggest to some of those guys out there – especially the ones bigger than you – that they are turning girlie girl because they use Apple products.

Whippersnapper trades iPod for Walkman, shame

Kim LaCapria — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:04:48 +0000

The BBC has profiled a charmingly articulate 13-year-old boy’s assessment of the Walkman vs. his trusty iPod.

Obvious “mommy totally wrote this for me” aside, it was an interesting article. Reading the piece, I recalled about a decade ago when my mother was driving a cousin somewhere when he started frantically smacking the window crank in the car. It took her a second to realize that the kid, now 19, had never seen a manual open/close window doodad. He had no idea what to do with the crank-thingy.

So Scott Campbell, hailing from Aberdeenshire, gamely traded his iPod for a Walkman for a whole week. Scotty starts his review:

So it’s not exactly the most aesthetically pleasing choice of music player. If I was browsing in a shop maybe I would have chosen something else.

From a practical point of view, the Walkman is rather cumbersome, and it is certainly not pocket-sized, unless you have large pockets. It comes with a handy belt clip screwed on to the back, yet the weight of the unit is enough to haul down a low-slung pair of combats.

“Aesthetics” aside (did I mention this kid is very frickin’ eloquent?), Scott has a bit to learn about the technical limitations of his new old device. After taking two days to realize that the tape actually has two sides, he then “mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser.” In another “man I’m old” moment, you can read about his surprise at the lack of a shuffle option. I’m still impressed by the inclusion of one. Campbell craftily uses the rewind function to create an ad hoc shuffle feature.

Dad comes in all buzzkilly here and tells the kid about the Walkman’s “tape munching” feature. Even I’d forgotten about that, despite having spent hours at the age of thirteen myself tearfully untangling my beloved Doors cassettes. Also mentioned is the Walkman’s insatiable thirst for batteries, all but forgotten to us now as our toys charge mainly via USB or in a wall socket.

The kid isn’t all unimpressed though, he liked the two headphone jacks to share music with a friend. But his overall impression is that of horror- each tape only held about twelve tracks!

[Image: Flickr]

We should be thankful for Apple (but don’t tell anyone I said that)

Steven Hodson — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:43:07 +0000

I have been known to rag on Apple every once in awhile for various reasons but have always tried to keep any fanboy attitudes out of the discussion. I don’t own any Apple products and chances are I probably never will manly because of their pricing structure which I consider to be too onerous for what you are getting.

Today though I was reading my morning RSS feeds when I ran across a post by felix on his blog #comments where he was ruminating over a discussion that had happened on FriendFeed about Apple. The discussion was centered mainly around the hardware aspect of the Apple product line but it got felix thinking about Apple as a whole and its effect on the technology landscape.

What felix saw was how Apple didn’t follow in markets but rather created them or changed the landscape of the market

As I was thinking about this I thought about the iMac which I believe to be the best of breed all-in-one computer, but really what competition does it have? I moved on to thinking about the iPod Touch, I think it’s probably the best of breed PDA, but again where’s the competition? The App Store? Competition? As I started thinking about these I realized that Apple makes markets. It sees opportunity where everyone else has failed.

As I thought about felix’s post I realized that he was absolutely correct but to carry it one point further I would also suggest that Apple has in its rebound managed to have a real impact on our perception of what our technological tools should look like. Anyone who has been around long enough in this business will be among the first to tell you how ugly much of our computers, cell phones, music devices, and assorted other devices were.

Apple has shaken all that up. Where once beige boxes ruled the desktop in business and home suddenly we saw that the machines we used on a daily basis could actually look beautiful; and yes even – sexy. They didn’t have to be dull bland looking boxes and monitors sitting there. They could be conversation pieces that we didn’t want to hide away in a corner.

Then we had our MP3 players that were either cheap plastic hunks of crap or overpriced plastic pieces of crap. Bluntly, they were fugly looking so it was no wonder we were willing to hide them away in our pockets. What does Apple do? they made it a piece of handheld art that we strutted around like proud peacocks showing whoever would look in our direction how cool our music player looked.

When it came to laptops we found ourselves back in the utilitarian world of blah. They were for the most part just hunks of plainness wrapped around some electronics. We would hide them away in briefcases only pulling them out when we really needed to. Apple on the other hand showed that they could be something that we were proud to display to the world. They could be sharp looking and take their place predominately in our lives. They set Dell, HP, and other laptop makers back on their asses as people lined up at the Apple store to have a piece of art.

Apple let us be proud of our electronic toys. It doesn’t matter if there are questionable hardware problems with them. It doesn’t matter if we actually never even own and Apple product because we are all benefitting from the road they have travelled. Dell, HP, Acer, and other laptop makers are busting their asses to bring art and sexy to their offerings. Mobile phone manufacturers are beating each other up in order to bring cool looking products to market. The MP3 player market is all about function and form instead of being something shoved in a pocket.

For all this we should be thankful to both Steve Jobs and Apple. Now if we could just get all these Web 2.0 developers to learn the same lesson; and yes FriendFeed I’m looking at you.

iPod cut in half by water

Steven Hodson — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:06:48 +0000

Everyone knows of the old fashioned Will It Blend guys and their videos of stuff getting tossed into a blender and whipped into itty bitty pieces but have you heard about Can Water Cut It yet?

No? Well it’s true and you can see how they saw their way though an iPod using nothing more than a handy dandy Flow Waterjet

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[hat tip to Hacked Gadgets]

That Shuffle sound you hear – it’s Apple in your wallet

Steven Hodson — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:16:50 +0000

There was a point where I was seriously considering the idea of hooking myself up with one of these fancy Apple iPod Shuffle MP3 players. So it was with some interest that followed the news yesterday about Apple releasing a new and cooler version of the Shuffle player; but now that the dust has settled I gotta say I’m definitely not going to be buying one of the new Shuffle’s.

First off who was the bright one who thought that the idea of having some voice speak the artist name and song title aloud?

Seriously this is just a dumb idea that in all practicality would be a major irritant after the first or second time you heard it. The last thing I need is some dude that sounds like he’s on Quaaludes whispering in my ear as I’m going about my business.

Then there’s this size thing. As someone who can lose a Bic lighter at the drop of a hat the idea of something that is as small as a AA battery won’t go missing is pretty flimsy. There comes a point when small can be too small and this is such a case. Aesthetics is one thing but I think this time Apple has done a little too much shrinking.

Now I’ve always felt that Apple – as great a company as it might be – believed that it’s vision of hardware meeting life was the only one. In this instance Apple has made the design decision to remove the controls from the body of the player and put them on the earbud cable. Excuse me but didn’t this just complicate the whole idea?

Now we either have to use the Shuffle ear bud or spend extra money for some adapter that isn’t out yet. Then of course there is always the option for 3rd party companies like Klipsch who are already working on a set of earphones for the new Shuffle. The problem is that now our original $80.00 cost for the new Shuffle could easily double all because Apple decides that this is the new cool.

What’s interesting though has been the reaction from typically Apple friendly tech sites. Over on the Crave cnet blog we have David Carnoy calling the new iPod Shuffle a disaster while my good friend Jason Kaneshiro, an Apple fan, considers it a rather expensive snack for his cat. On the whole the reaction has been less than positive and confirms my feelings that this newest refresh of the iPod shuffle is nothing more than a cash grab by apple against their faithful customer base.

Maybe they’ve gone just a tad to far this time.

Meet Apple’s New iPod Shuffle (It Talks!)

JR — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:35:17 +0000

Apple has unveiled its new iPod Shuffle. The updated Shuffle is smaller than its predecessor, and it boasts a new “VoiceOver” feature that actually speaks song and artist names aloud as you listen.

(Click to enlarge image)

Apple’s New iPod Shuffle

The third-generation iPod Shuffle is nearly half the size of the previous model, but it’s the player’s new VoiceOver feature that has everyone talking. With the added functionality, you just press a button to have the Shuffle speak aloud the name of a song, artist, or playlist. The iPod’s voice can even tell you how much life is left in your battery. It speaks 14 different languages, too: English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

The new Apple iPod Shuffle has an updated aluminum look, available in either silver or black, along with a built-in stainless steel clip. It has a 4GB capacity (about 1,000 songs) and an estimated battery life of about 10 hours. The new iPod Shuffle is selling for $79 and is available now.

(Click to enlarge images)

Make an Apple fanboy both cringe and drool at the same time

Steven Hodson — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:09:48 +0000

I really admire folks that are willing to go right to the edge with an idea and them jump into the abyss with their expensive piece of hardware while riding on nothing but a wing and a prayer that everything will work in the end. such is the case of Billy Chasen from the [An Error Occurred While Processing This Directive] blog (yes folks that is the name – gotta love it) when he decided to explode his iPod, encase it in a resin block and still have it work.

I might think he’s nuts but I sure respect the guts and the ability it took to pull it off because that is exactly what he did. Even though the iPod looks like it is in pieces and wrapped in resin it does apparent still work.

Wow.

View Full Album

Psstt.. don’t let Louis Gray hear about this .. kthxbai

Steven Hodson — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:50:17 +0000

Knowing that Louis and his lovely wife are the proud parents of a set of twins is kind of helpful in setting up this piece of news. As well anyone who knows Louis also knows he is a die hard Apple fan so when I saw this product announcement he was the first person I thought of. You see over on ThinkGeek that they have a new product listing for something called a Combi IPod Bouncer which as you can tell from the picture involves a pretty fancy child seat.

It turns out that this nifty seat can bounce to the music supplied by your plugged in IPod; which given Louis proclivity for techno music would make any child’s time spent in the chair resemble something of a carnival ride. Now if you have a young child and think this might be just the coolest geek accessory then here are the rest of the specs for it

For Ages 6 months and up

Weight capacity 25 lbs.

Removable toy bar with three wooden toys

Removable and adjustable canopy to help control light exposure

Rear storage pouch for canopy and other necessities to keep with you

3 point padded harness

Hammock style seat design with 2 position recline

lockable bounce feature

Unique bouncing leg design uses child’s movement or parents input for comforting bouncing motion

MP3 input for customized musical experience

Built in sound and vibration unit

Electronic controls accessible in the back so child is not disturbed when making adjustments

This product can be used with a 5 lb (newborn) in the fully reclined position. With a child weighing less than 5lbs. (preemie) the caregiver should consult their pediatrician.

Dimensions: 7.5" tall x 9" wide x 5" deep

Weight: 5.8 lbs

Not bad though for $80.00 since you can look cool at all those geek get together and let your child think their are on some cool new ride at the same time.

[hat tip to Random Good Stuffhttp://www.random-good-stuff.com/2009/02/04/ipod-baby-bouncer/]

Just how much is that iPod worth? Your life maybe?

Steven Hodson — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 04:26:18 +0000

Recently a young girl by the name of Ashley Roberts was out and about using an iPod she had borrowed from a friend when she found herself surrounded by three other teens in Scarborough; a part of the city of Toronto, Ontario. One of the girls demanded to see the iPod and then helping herself to it out of Ashley’s pocket. As she pulled hard enough to yank the earbuds out of Ashley’s ears she said, “I think I’m going to take this.”

The 17 year old Ashley didn’t put up a fight because as she put it “I would have ended up in the hospital.” However the person who Ashely had borrowed the iPod from was of a different mind when she said that under no circumstances would she have given up the iPod even it it meant her being mugged. This young girl Christina McPherson said she would rather be stabbed than give up her iPod.

This is all in light of a trial starting in Ottawa of a youth who is charged with the stabbing death of 22 year old Michael Oatway. Oatway was a fellow Ottawa citizen who was allegedly killed for his girlfriend’s iPod on a city bus.

Police are calling these iPod assaults an epidemic; much like the swarmings we saw happening in malls in the 1990s where the targets were expensive running shoes and jackets. Now those things have been replaced by the ubiquitous Apple iPod.

In an interview with Zosia Bielski and Jand Armstrong from the Globe and Mail Vancouver Police Constanble Tim Fanning said

Nearly every young person has one or wants one. Users are easy to spot, sporting the white ear buds, often referred to as “mug me” earphones.

“For a thief, it’s like a crow seeing something shiny,”

Police blotters across the country are filled with reports of people being swarmed and mugged for their iPods and cellphones

Hot iPods are bought and sold at a deep discount on schoolyards.

Outside Toronto’s Central Technical Institute recently, some students boast that their iPods cost them between $10 and $30.

Many are stolen, in some cases from classmates.

As sad as this might be to say but none of this surprises me in the least. I still remember the story of the child in the US many years back who was killed in the playground for nothing more than his brand new pair of Nikes. It is a sad commentary though on how little value we place on human life over the value of a product.

Apple not going to close iTunes store [obvious]

Duncan Riley — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 03:32:14 +0000

The Copyright Royalty Board has voted to maintain the existing rate of the royalty payments paid to music publishers and songwriters.

The National Music Publishers Association had asked the board to increase the royalty payment to 15c per song from the existing 9.1c per song, a rise Apple claimed in a submission could force it to close the iTunes music store.

The board didn’t deliver good news exclusively however, setting a rate of 24c for ringtones, the first time ringtones have had a mandate rate, and an amount significantly higher than asked for by all parties.

The good news from the decision is that Apple is not going to close the iTunes music store, which many sites have reported was a strong possibility because that’s what Apple argued in its submission. It’s a great line, but it was bollocks: Apple was never going to close the store, it was simply a tactic used to pressure the decision.

Apple was not going to cut off a music store that has been an integral part of its domination of the MP3 music player space, certainly not due to a 9c rise, or even more. They may have protested that the market would only have accepted 99c singles, but they weren’t about to damage a product line (the iPod) that accounted for 42% of Apple’s revenue in the first quarter of 2008. Apple would have worn the cost, by increasing the price of music sold, or absorbing the hike as a subsidy towards maintaining its 75% market share.

(via WSJ)

Apple Announces New iTunes, Nano, Touch, & iPhone Fix

JR — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:37:55 +0000

Three new products are taking center stage from Apple’s music announcement in San Francisco so far today: a new version of iTunes, and new iPod Nano, and a new iPod Touch. Plans have also been confirmed for a long-awaited OS fix for the iPhone, one that promises to repair the host of problems users have seen since the 3G phone’s debut.

ITunes 8

Steve Jobs’ first revelation was the new iTunes 8. The updated program will make songs more accessible with tiled browsing platform that lets you see each track’s album cover. It also introduces an option called “Genius,” a tool that groups similar songs together into playlists. iTunes 8 will also mark the return of NBC content to the platform.

The New Nano

Next, Jobs showed off the new iPod Nano, which — as expected — will be the thinnest model ever made by Apple. It boasts a newly curved screen, a new voice recording function, and an updated interface modeled after the iPhone and iPod Touch. The next-generation Nano can also be flipped onto its side for better video viewing. One of the coolest additions, though, is the “shake to shuffle” ability: You literally shake the thing to advance to the next track, courtesy of its built-in accelerometer.

The new Nanos will be available in eight colors. The 8GB version will be $149 and the 16GB version $199. Both should be available within the next week. Apple is also prepping a new line of headphones to go with the players. They’ll offer controls right on the cord. The headphones will sell for about $80 and will be available next month.

The New Touch

Third, the updated iPod Touch, which cuts back on size and scales up on power. The thinner model, now available, offers integrated volume controls and a built-in speaker. It also has the same Genius playlist option as the new Nano and is now being touted for audiobook usage as well. The Touch will have access to the App Store, with games such as Spore and Real Soccer 2009 being prepared for release. The touch will run $229 for the 8GB, $299 for the 16GB, and $399 for the 32GB model.

OS X 2.1

Apple also announced the release of OS X 2.1 for both the iPhone and iPod Touch. The update is said to fix the bulk of iPhone problems — dropped calls, reception issues, and app-related crashes. The 2.1 release will be available free to any users already on 2.0 and will cost $9.99 for anyone on an earlier version.

Introducing the Best Buy Vending Machine

JR — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:34:31 +0000

Next time you forget your headphones on travel day, you may be able to just stop by the vending machine. The Best Buy vending machine, that is.

Amidst the overpriced snacks and beverages, Best Buy has rolled out this automated electronics dispenser at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, the Dallas Morning News discovered. Inside everything from blank discs to headphones and even a full-fledged iPod awaits you — if you don’t mind, of course, paying the presumably inflated price.

Wonder if there’s a button to get an unhelpful store associate, too.

(Image: Dallas/Fort Worth Airport via Dallas Morning News)

Australian Government considering iPod searches

Duncan Riley — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:19:44 +0000

The Australian Government is considering searching iPods at airports for pirated music as part of a secret international treaty.

Under the proposal, customs officials would search iPods or other music devices, and those found with large amounts of pirated music would face fines, and even jail time.

The details of the treaty were not disclosed, but some reports indicate that it is coming from the RIAA in the United States, and if implemented globally could see iPod searches in the United States, Australia, and presumably any other country who signs up.

The million dollar question is how do you identify pirated music? It’s legal in Australia to rip a CD for personal use (ie, for an iPod), so how do you prove, at the airport (Australia doesn’t have any land boundaries) that the music on your iPod was legally purchased if the CD’s are in your home? Are they seriously suggesting that thousands of people should then be forced to prove the legality of their music, every time they travel?

Is it reasonable that the time of customs officials be allocated to searching iPods when serious criminal activity could be slipping by? It’s an administrative nightmare waiting to happen.

Yet another infringement on our rights from an industry hell bent on criminalizing the entire population for its own greed.