Around the Web

The Apple news web’s still reeling at the lack of any big deal announcements from the mothership Tuesday, this blackout likely reflects the company’s customary radio silence in the days before it makes its quarterly financial results public (on 23 April). 

This morning’s highlights include wide reporting of the O2 iPhone price cut we revealed earlier this month; new graphics upgrade kits for the Mac Pro; much more information on WWDC 2008 and news of the Apple Design Awards (now with added iPhone categories); iTunes user loyalty seems high; Intel’s Q1 results and AOL’s move to introduce Mobile Search for the iPhone. Read on…

O2 £100 iPhone discount

As we predicted in February, O2 and Carphone Warehouse have lopped £100 off the cost of the 8GB iPhone. The 16GB model remains the same price, and the deal’s only available while stocks last…does this mean new iPhones in June?

GeForce 8800GT for older Mac Pros

Remember the olden days when the graphics power you had in a pro Mac was all the graphics power you could ever expect, bar buying a new Mac? Yet another benefit of the new intel architecture is easier support for better graphics cards. Now Apple’s introduced the NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT upgrade kit for older Mac Pros, available now on the US store the kit costs $280.

WWDC 2008

Apple has announced an additional batch of 90 sessions for its forthcoming WWDC event, these reveal a host of interesting areas developers will be able to explore on the iPhone and the Mac; the company has also announced this year’s Apple Design Awards, with two new sections for the iPhone. More here.

Amazon up the creek

Amazon’s new music download store has been doing its best to compete with iTunes, snag is, most iTunes users are happy with what they already have. New research from the NPD Group confirms that only around one in ten people using Amazon’s store have previously shopped with iTunes. While this means the digital market’s set for growth, it also means those plotting to overthrow Apple’s music retail domination have to stop cackling and get back to the drawing board. 

Intel results

Sure, Intel’s Q1 results may have taken a hit, mainly due to weakness in the flash memory market generated as a result of economic malaise and continued weakness in consumer electronic sales, but it’s 12 per cent year-on-year income decline hides a couple of high points: demand for processors, particularly mobile processors, remains strong.

"We’re seeing PC penetration growing more rapidly," Mac user and Intel boss Paul Otellini said. Intel also confirmed new Atom processors will appear in PCs from mid-year, confirmed plans to ships a SIX-CORE Xeon chip later this year, and hinted Nehalem processors will appear in 2H2008.

AOL Mobile Search

AOL yesterday officially launched the beta version of AOL Mobile Search, a new development created for the iPhone and iPod touch. This combines results from multiple destinations. (Meanwhile, the financial world’s considering if mooted plans to merge AOL with Yahoo in an attempt to spurn that unfriendly Microsoft attempt to take Yahoo over will succeed).

We’ll be back with more as and when it happens.