Seth Weintraub

Albums from world chart-topping UK act, Pink Floyd, have been removed from iTunes. Some of the best albums, including the ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, ‘The Wall’, or ‘Wish You Were Here’ have been removed from all online digital music sales as the group’s contract with EMI has ended.

Pink Floyd did circulate in an attempt to secure a fresh contract earlier this year, but as yet no contract is in place, meaning music from the band can’t legitimately be sold online.

The band are a rare story in the digitsl music era – they sell records. Since 1991, the group has sold more than 36 million albums in the US. In recent years, digital downloads have accounted for about 40 percent of the band

Asustek’s Pegatron division has suspended the head of a Chinese unit in response to Apple’s accusations that a high level Apple employee took payments from company’s for confidential insider information on iPod and iPhone products.

It is kind of amazing that after all of these years of building an OS and productivity suites, the best thing going for Microsoft’s as yet unreleased platform is games.

http://www.viddler.com/simple/

Sony is also taking aim at mobile gaming.  More below

http://www.viddler.com/simple/

Yes boys, and girls that is Lady Gaga you are looking at and she’s standing with some Apple employees at the Cupertino campus. Sweeeeeet. Maybe they’re getting another private concert? Or, maybe Lady Gaga is putting the final ink down on that marketing contract with Jobs and company?

The block of code above shows that future iPhones and/or iPads are in field testing and don’t need to be activated via iTunes. Essentially, this code bypasses the need for the usual iOS device activation in iTunes for unreleased products so testers can get to their job quicker. Activations are a pain!

The tipster said this code has been inserted ahead of product launches for the past few years.  That means a device which requires activation is being tested right about now and should be heading our way soon.  What do you think?  Smaller iPad?  iPod 3G?  or CDMA iPhone?

via BGR

MacStories links us up with an modder who seems to have an affinity for the EEE Keyboard, but retains his love for the Mac (and a sweet trakpad).  

Would it be so hard to see Apple doing something like this?  We’d at least like the see the keyboard-trackpad combo…but maybe in a top-bottom fashion, more like a laptop.  Magic?

final below

We know from last year, that case manufacturers can be wrong on their iPod form factor guesses.  No less than five or six were making iPod touch cases with holes in the center for cameras in a design which Apple chose not to follow (though plenty of prototypes have turned up with this design – it is easy to speculate that the rogue Apple employee might have leaked these?)

Fast forward to today, where we are seeing the first such iPod 4G cases.  These seem to have a camera in the same general area as the iPhone.

There has been some concern about whether or not the thickness of the iPod would allow for cameras as good as the iPhone 4’s 5-megapixel beauty.

We’re pretty sure Apple’s going to find a way to squeeze something good in there.  But, will it fit in this case?  From last year, we know you have to wait until Jobs makes an announcement to find out.  Another shot below.  (Thanks Dhobbs!)

Get it?

Would you believe me if I told you the screenshot below was taken on a PC running Windows 7?  (OK the top bar gives it away)

For you PC users out there (anyone?) who want the Snow Leopard look and feel, the Snow Transformation Pack is now golden. Hit this page up for an installation tutorial and click here for the download. 

This might be fun to install on a friend/roommate/family member’s PC.  Just for fun.

via Giz

Known Issues

– UI elements in Web Views (e.g. iTunes Store) may require double clicks to respond

– Connecting to Exchange may fail with HTTP Error 400

Focus Areas include:

– iCal

– Mail

– Printing

– 3D graphics

– QuickTime

– X11

Paul Shin Devine, 37, of Sunnyvale, California is being held on accusations that he accepted more than $1 million in kickbacks from Asian suppliers of iPhone and iPod accessories.  Also named was  Andrew Ang, of Singapore, in a 23-count federal grand jury indictment for wire fraud, money laundering and kickbacks.

Devine was a Sr. Operations Manager, iPod at Apple Computer for five years.  He worked at Teradyne from 1998-2005 and got a degree from MIT’s Sloan School of Management in 2005.  He graduated from the Merchant Marine Academy in 1996.

“Apple is committed to the highest ethical standards in the way we do business,” Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said in a statement. “We have zero tolerance for dishonest behavior inside or outside the company.”

The indictment describes a scheme in which Devine used his position at Apple to obtain confidential information, which he transmitted to Apple suppliers, including Ang. In return, the suppliers and manufacturers paid Devine kickbacks, which he shared with Ang. The information enabled the suppliers to negotiate favorable contracts with Apple, according to the indictment. The companies were not named in the indictment, but they were described as suppliers of materials designed for Apple’s iPhone and iPod products. They are located in “various countries in Asia,” the indictment said, including China, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.

Apple is seperately suing Devine and claimed he received more than $1 million in “payments, kickbacks and bribes” over several years.

How come we are still waiting for bumpers?

Kokatu caught iPhone 4 Retina Display graphics at its best today at QuakeCon:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeXe_G0xmY0&w=700&h=418]

id Co-Founder and lead programmer John Carmack is the presenter.  More crazy below:

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/22881388001?isVid=1

They took start-up funding from Apple’s ‘iFund’, now it appears iPhone game developer ngmoco’s flirting with the other side — Google Ventures (The VC arm of the search giant) has invested in the developer.

TechCrunch tells us the profitable company took up to $5 million in Google cash. While Google’s ‘don’t be evil’ boss, Eric Schmidt, has in the past stressed that Google Ventures is not Google, but independent…

However, I surely wouldn’t be surprised to see ngmoco begin to port its titles to Android devics.

ngmoco competitor SGN recently began offering titles on Android. “SGN closed a bridge round led by Eric Schmidt

The developers behind Camera +, taptaptap, recently announced their premier camera application netted over $500,000 in sales during its two first months on sale, and today it’s gone from the App Store. Over the last few days, there has been some buzz over Apple rejecting an update to the app. This update included the ability to take photographs using the iPhone’s volume keys (OK that is kinda cool). 

After being rejected, taptaptap stealthily revealed that the rejected function can be enabled via a simple Mobile Safari URL. Many thought the app wouldn’t last long after this was revealed and tonight, it’s gone.  

Moral of this story: no matter how prolific of a developer you are, you shouldn’t go behind Apple’s back and mess with Jobs’ lovely App Store review team. Taptaptap is yet to issue a statement, and who knows, maybe Apple didn’t pull it after all. 

More… We thought it would be interesting to share Apple’s official policy on “easter eggs,” like the one hidden in Camera+, so we dug it up:

I think a new low may have just been hit, knockoff iPhone 4s are now being sold by knockoff Apple.coms. They even go as far to compare the knockoff to the legit. That is all. 

Apple today updated its iOS devices to close the nasty PDF security hole that can be exploited by a malformed file or website.  But Apple didn’t issue an update for all of its products.  The original iPhone or iPod touch were left at 3.1.3.  I’m not sure they’ll se an update either.  Maybe it is a lower priority and it will come out in upcoming weeks?

Or, are those folks with original iOS devices stuck?  Is three years too long to expect security updates?   Ironically, the only way for them to secure themselves at this point is to Jailbreak.

device
current version
date found
iPhone (iPhone1,1)
3.1.3 (7E18)
04/08/2010 21:05:48
iPhone 3G (iPhone1,2)
4.0.2 (8A400)
08/11/2010 14:58:02
iPhone 3GS (iPhone2,1)
4.0.2 (8A400)
08/11/2010 14:58:02
iPod Touch (2G) (iPod2,1)
4.0 (8A293)
06/21/2010 13:03:04
iPod Touch (3G) (iPod3,1)
4.0.2 (8A400)
08/11/2010 14:58:02
iPad (iPad1,1)
3.2.2 (7B500)
08/11/2010 14:58:03
iPhone 4 (iPhone3,1)
4.0.2 (8A400)
08/11/2010 14:58:03
last updated: 08/11/2010 19:45:02 EDT

AllthingsD is reporting that Apple’s Fall iEvent will be happening toward the middle of the month this year rather than the beginning of September like year’s past.

According to several sources and as has been widely expected, Apple will once again be holding its annual special event, possibly closer to mid-September this time.

Having a glance at the calendar, it appears that Tuesday, September 14th would appear to be a pretty good time for an event, though Apple has been known to do them on Wednesdays as well.

So what will we see?  iTunes in the Cloud?  Micro-Nanos?  No More iPod Classic and Shuffle?  iTV?  iPod touch with Retina and cameras?  What else?

Engadget’s got another Apple…er iTV scoop on their hands.  According to their source, Apple is changing the name of the AppleTV to iTV and, with it, will forgo the use of 1080P video.  Perhaps Apple’s A4 ARM Chip isn’t yet powerful enough to handle 1080P reliably (even though the specs on ARM Cortex A8 Processors will tell us otherwise).  They reiterate it will be a small, $99 box with specs similar to other iOS devices and cloud storage.

On the iTV name, Apple originally codenamed the AppleTV iTV but balked at the anme at the time because of trademark issues.  They could have worked those out in the same way they worked out the iOS and iPhone trademarks with Cisco.

In exchange for 1080P, the iTV will get Apps from the iOS App Store (it is ‘iTV’ after all) and will run a variant of iOS.  There was no word on the $.99 rentals or TV shows however.

So how does the lack of 1080P sit with you? GoogleTV, which will be based on higher powered Intel Chips and run Android with marketplace apps, will run 1080P.

As we mentioned earlier, today is iOS security update day.  Get your iOS 4.0.2 updates (3.2.2 for iPad) by plugging in your devices, or direct links, below:

(Obviously, if you want to stay jailbroken (Hotspot/3G Facetime/Frash), don’t accept this update!)

Apple’s next-generation iPad seems set to make a blushing appearance next year, and will include a three-axis gyroscope, just like the iPhone 4, a report claims.

UBM TechInsights believes that Apple tested a three-axis gyroscope manufactured by InvenSense in its iPad prototypes, but is likely to adopt a similar component from STMicroelectronics. The same one used in the iPhone.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jTro-BK2xY&w=700&h=400]

It took almost five years, but Apple Japan has finally agreed to replace first-generation iPod nano players in the event of their overheating. (Video above is a few years old).

This applies only in Japan, where, under pressure from local government, Apple has confirmed “very rare cases of overheating” in the battery of iPod nanos sold between Sep 2005 and Dec 2006. The company has published a note to its website admitting the problem.

The overheating had the effect of distorting the shape of the music player, or otherwise making it unusable. The fault came from a particular battery supplier.

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said the recharging problems caused 27 overheating incidents, including six fires, which left four people with minor burns.

Apple waited until last week before it admitted knowledge of another 34 such incidents. A delay in data-sharing Japan’s authorities see as “truly regrettable”.

What hasn’t been revealed is just how Apple will handle similar complaints at the overheating iPod nano in other nations.