In Japan, iTunes gains ringtones, 3G purchasing, iTunes Plus, Complete My Album, iTunes in the Cloud
Following yesterday’s story by the usually accurate Japanese blog Macotakara on Apple’s Japan arm rolling out iTunes in the Cloud for music, Japanese music journal AV Watch reported this morning that the California-based iPod maker has its sights set high on the 130 million people market. According to the report, customers in Japan are now finally able to purchase and download music on iOS devices through 3G cellular networks rather than just wireless hotspots, as before. The story also quoted Apple’s Senior iTunes Director for the Asia, Pacific, and Canada region Peter Lowe, who confirmed that iTunes Match would roll out to iTunes Japan in the second half of this year.
“We are keeping good relationship with Japanese music publishers,” said Lowe as he highlighted that iTunes Japan’s catalog now includes Sony Music’s Western artists, such as Beyonce, Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, and Sade. Interestingly, Apple did not allow the music journal to publish Lowe’s mug shot. In case you were wondering, iTunes in the Cloud files as the first-ever music re-downloading service in Japan. The iTunes Store launched in Japan in 2005…
Steve Jobs’ favorite band just released 27 ringtones
Today The Beatles announced the band’s 27 United States and United Kingdom No. 1 hits are available as ringtones exclusively through iTunes (iTunes Link). The 30-second ringtones are downloadable now through iTunes on your iOS device and include hits such as “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “All You Need Is Love,” “Yesterday,” “Eleanor Rigby,” and 23 others. A full list of all 27 ringtones is after the break. If Steve were alive, these would undoubtedly be his ringtones of choice for his iPhone.
Jobs’ love for The Beatles is documented in Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography where we learned Jobs kept seven different albums from the band on his iPad. He even compared his creative process and business model to The Beatles describing the total being “greater than the sum of the parts.” That is probably a big part of the reason Apple fought so hard to ultimately secure exclusive rights to the band’s music that has lasted since Nov. 2010.
Apple’s Cook invited to talk cancer and corporate America at NCCN Annual Conference
Apple’s Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook was invited to take part in a roundtable discussion at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s annual conference on clinical practice guidelines and quality cancer care. This year’s agenda centers around the topic of “Cancer and Corporate America: Business as Usual?” The five-day discussion begins March 15 in Hollywood, Fla., and ABC News anchor Sam Donaldson will moderate it. The NCNN website listed Cook as an invitee, but there is no guarantee that Apple’s CEO will participate. The fact that a reputable organization invited him means Cook was informed of the conference in advance. A history of late Steve Jobs’ illness gives some hope that Cook will contribute to the discussion. Other invites include doctors, cancer survivors, and other corporate figures, including IBM’s Senior Vice President of Human Resources J. Randall MacDonald.
Whether Cook will take part as a private person or as the CEO of Apple remains unknown, though it is possible he will discuss how Apple can give to medical research. The executive revealed at a recent internal meeting with employees that Apple donated $50 million to Stanford University hospitals, split into $25 million for a new main building and $25 million for a new children’s hospital.
(via The TechBlock)
Fighting Proview in Shanghai Showdown, Apple highlights iPad’s benefits to China’s economy
An important update as a Shanghai court hearing this morning confronted Shenzhen, China-based LCD display maker Proview and Apple of California, the maker of the widely popular iPad tablet. The high-profile hearing drew more than a hundred reporters. As you know, Proview is dreaming of a multi-billion dollar settlement for rights to the iPad name in China where Apple pushes aggressively with claims it acquired the iPad trademark in 2009 from Proview’s Taiwanese affiliate for about $55,000. Associated Press this morning described a heated exchange between cash-strapped Proview, which recently filed for bankruptcy, and the Silicon Valley giant. At stake: A countrywide import and export ban on the iPad that enjoys a 76 percent share in China.
If enforced, the ban could easily disrupt worldwide iPad availability, because the world’s largest contract manufacturer Foxconn at its plants in the Chinese province of Shenzhen manufactures the tablet. Worse, it could disrupt a future iPad 3 launch allegedly scheduled for March 7 unveiling. So yeah, it is all about money.
Proview representatives presented as court evidence the company’s 2000 iMac-lookalike named IPAD (pictured on the right). The lawyers came down with all guns blazing on Apple, and said: “Apple has no right to sell iPads under that name.” The company’s CEO told reporters “both sides have willingness to negotiate,” and asserted, “both sides will submit their plans before the talks,” because an out-of-court settlement “is quite possible.”
To this, Apple responded:
They have no market, no sales, no customers. They have nothing. The iPad is so popular that it is in short supply. We have to consider the public good.
Reuters followed up with another quote attributed to Apple’s legal team:
Apple has huge sales in China. Its fans line up to buy Apple products. The ban, if executed, would not only hurt Apple sales but it would also hurt China’s national interest.
Explaining Proview has not sold or marketed its IPAD computer system in years while Apple only began selling the iPad tablet in 2010, the company said the fact essentially invalidates Proview’s trademark. Lawyers for Proview cried foul, and claimed any public good achieved through the creation of iPad manufacturing jobs in China and tax revenues should not be confused with trademark infringement:
Twitter for iPhone update brings back swipe, copy and paste shortcuts
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Twitter updated its iOS app with long overdue usability enhancements and a host of little improvements and bug fixes. Twitter for iOS version 4.1, a free download from the App Store, brought back the handy swipe shortcut. Just swipe a tweet in your home timeline to reply, retweet, favorite or share it, or view the Twitter user’s profile without leaving your timeline. You can also copy and paste tweets and profiles, press and hold links to get more options, including opening the link in Safari, tweet, copy or mail that link, or read it later.
When checking someone’s profile, the app will finally tell you whether that person is following you and people search results has gained verified badges. The Direct Message feature now lets you mark all DMs as read by tapping the check mark in the lower right corner. Other nice-to-haves: Font size settings, confirmation alert for Find Friends, and improved image quality in tweet detail.
Sadly, the app still does not support sending long tweets, and all these new features and improvements are for iPhone only. Release notes are after the break.
ABC’s Foxconn iFactory special [Video]. ‘We didn’t find any egregious violations’
Update: ABC has the full video up here (Flash, US only). Also available on the ABC App.
As a preview: It does not look like ABC found anything too damaging. You can hear anchor Bill Weir say at 3:40:
“Although we didn’t find any egregious violations, if the Fair Labor Association finds any violations, we’ll report those going forward.”
Another set of YouTube videos and some factoids from the show are below:
On Facebook’s recommendation, Apple purchases 160 acres in Prineville Oregon for a “green” data center
As Apple ramped up its Maiden, N.C. data center over the past few years, it was clear that it was looking to expand even further. Late last year there was a report that Apple was looking near Prineville Oregon, just a quarter-mile from Facebook’s massive datacenter, for a plot of land. The plan was called, “Project Maverick.”
Today, local station KTVZ, confirmated (via Macrumors) that Apple purchased a 160-acre parcel in Prineville from Crook County for $5.6 million just a stone’s throw from the huge facility built by Facebook. (Pictured, right.)
Apple’s Kristin Huguet confirmed the deal:
Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet confirmed Tuesday that “we purchased the land and it’s for a data center,” but could not speak to details beyond that, other than to say it will be a “green” facility.
She noted the company this week launched a new Website, www.apple.com/environment, which covers a wide variety of its “green” efforts, including LEED energy-efficiency certification for its new Maiden, North Carolina data center. Huguet noted it will have the largest solar array and largest fuel cell in the U.S.
County commissioners signed the deed on Feb. 15— the day that Oregon passed a tax break for corporations wanting to build data centers (including Facebook).
Microsoft might be in denial, but the Daily sure thinks it saw the Office iPad App [updated]
Update: And one more:
Great respect for The Daily but regrettably someone is giving them bad info, and that’ll be clear in the “coming weeks.”
—
Microsoft News (@MSFTnews) February 21, 2012Microsoft attempted to kibosh the news surrounding its Microsoft Office app for the iPad started by The Daily earlier today. It told The New York Times:
“The Daily story is based on inaccurate rumors and speculation. We have no further comment.”
It also told Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet:
A Microsoft spokesperson said the screen shot accompanying The Daily’s story is not a picture of a real Microsoft software product. But the spokesperson also said Microsoft is declining to comment as to whether or not the company has developed a version of Office for the iPad and/or when such a product may come to market.
She later added this communication from Hickey:
“Right now, someone with a mid-level job at Microsoft is being yelled at. To that person: I’m sorry, I owe you a beer. But say it however you want to, we both know that Office for iPad is on its way. And if it’s as cool as the version I’ve seen, you’ve got a winner.”
A Microsoft employee released a third statement to the MacObserver:
Danell Arvberger, Sr. Category Manager – Office for Mac, said, “Interesting, this is the first I’ve heard of it. Thanks for sharing the article. If I find anything out and able to share I will let you know.”
It sounds like Microsoft is doing a non-denial denial. But wait, Hickey has more:
Apple extends deadline for sandboxing Mac App Store apps to Jun. 1
Apple announced today the deadline for developers’ sandboxing their Mac App Store apps was extended from March 1 to June. The restriction coupled with the introduction of Apple’s Gatekeeper feature in Mountain Lion, which automatically prevents apps not signed by Apple recognized developers from running in 10.8, creates a much more controlled ecosystem for apps on OS X. Of course, Gatekeeper can at this point be easily bypassed to run non-Apple approved apps, and sandboxing is simply meant to limit an application’s control within the OS to prevent malicious activity. With tighter control over how apps run on Macs, some devs fear a more iOS-like environment for apps on OS X is on the way.
Related articles
- Mountain Lion isn’t a walled garden (yet), but it has a Gatekeeper (9to5mac.com)
- Mountain Lion available for download (9to5mac.com)
Qualcomm just announced the chip that would be a one-stop shop for Apple’s mobile needs
Chipmaker Qualcomm today took the wraps off a new piece of silicon—a fifth iteration of its Gobi reference platform. It packs comprehensive support for TD-SCDMA, TD-LTE, LTE on FDD and TDD networks worldwide and embedded GPS capability. Of course, it also supports the usual HSPA+ and EV-DO for backwards compatibility and unlike current 6000 series chips, it supports voice. Such a powerful combo in theory allows Gobi products to connect to the faster LTE network locally and stay connected to the Internet globally on 3G networks worldwide.
Now, Qualcomm noted in a press release (included after the break) that the chip works with Windows 8 and Android devices plus x86 and Qualcomm’s own dual- and quad-core Snapdragon system-on-a-chip solutions. For all we know, this could be the chip inside the iPhone 5. The yet-to-be-announced iPhone 5 running this new Gobi chip would theoretically enable Apple to tap a single hardware in targeting a variety of carriers that often use different and incompatible radio technologies.
This includes the world’s biggest carrier China Mobile whose infrastructure revolves around TD-LTE radio technology. Put simply: The new Gobi chip could allow for true world-phone compatibility. It is worth noting that almost every 3G iOS device since the Verizon iPhone uses Qualcomm’s Gobi platform, the only exception is the AT&T iPad that still runs an older Infineon chip. One thing is certain: Apple will soon ship its first 4G LTE mobile device…
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