Apple has lost one of its leading iTunes execs to UK major, EMI, which has announced that Alex Luke – content lead for Apple’s iTunes – has been appointed to a senior A&R position at EMI Music’s Capitol & Virgin Label Group.
During his seven years at iTunes, Luke has been responsible for the digital platform’s music programming, music content acquisition, and artist and industry relationships.
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Starting December 18, Walmart retail stores will offer the Apple iPhone 4 16GB Smartphone for AT&T Wireless bundled with a $50 Walmart Gift Card for $197 with activation of a new 2-year plan. (This offer will not be available online.) Provided you use the credit, it’s the best price we’ve seen on this phone, outside of promotion from RadioShack two weeks ago. (RadioShack stores offered this model for as low as $24 upon trading in an older iPhone, since expired.) Sales tax is added where applicable. It features an Apple A4 processor, 326-ppi (pixel per inch) Retina 3.5″ display running at 960×640, gyroscope, front- and rear-facing cameras, 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, 720p video capture at 30 fps, 802.11n wireless networking, dual microphones, and more.
COMPUTERWORLD: Apple is making Macs more touch-friendly when touch makes sense. Magic Trackpad is the touch interface for desktops, but how long will it be until we see the Mac keyboard replaced by a touch-sensitive, intelligent device? What would it do?
Apple this morning confirmed it intends opening its Mac App Store on Thursday, January 6.
The store will be available in 90 countries at launch and will feature both paid and free apps in various categories.
“The App Store revolutionized mobile apps,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC apps easy and fun. We can’t wait to get started on January 6.”
Oh and Devs? You need to submit apps by Dec 31 to be in the grand opening.
Press Release follows:
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Apple generates more column inches of coverage than any other firm on the planet. Love or loathe, millions worldwide are fascinated by what happens in Cupertino — and that’s probably why the company is now one of the biggest in the world dominating the smartphone and tablet industries.
What follows are some of the most essential titles any Apple watcher should read and own if they really want to build up their understanding of the company.
We’ve been watching Apple at work and play for a long, long time. We consider these to be the key titles to help boost understanding of the history and philosophy of the company.
We know that Mac website editors across the planet have a few books forever in the shelf behind their desk, and we figured it would be of some interest if told you which books they are.
So, whether it’s to satisfy your own curiousity, or for a Christmas or birthday present for an Apple fan, we think you really can’t go wrong with any one or all of these titles. Read on…
Good morning, while I apologize to our US readers as Spotify isn’t available in your area yet, for European 9to5Mac visitors news that Spotify has updated its applications for OS X, iPhone (and Windows) could be interesting.
The new version introduces the customary bug fixes, but also adds support for Mac media keys without interfering with iTunes. The new version also supports auto-play for all track links when clicked on from Twitter, Facebook, feed, etc. Existing users will see their install automatically updated in the coming days.
The big news is for iPhone users,
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Apple has introduced a software update designed to fix intermittent audio loss issue experienced by some users of the 27-inch LED Cinema Displays.
A previous tech note describes the problem:
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COMPUTERWORLD: Today we’ve learned internal politics have hindered Google in its cloud music plans while Apple isn’t yet ready to make us all go ‘lala’. Meanwhile, as most of us prepare for long drives to visit family and friends: here’s some great apps for drivers.
As expected, Apple has updated its iBooks app to version 1.2. The new version has just made its quiet debut on the AAPL servers.
What’s new?
Yep, as we exclusively revealed hereand here: better organization and printing and emailing of PDF’s. And that’s only part of the mix.
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Google is about to change the music economy, preparing to hand over huge amounts of cash to win rights to offer the music locker service it has been trying to build for Google Music. However, confused internal politics and music licensing complexity mean Google, just like Spotify and Apple, isn’t set to launch its service before the end of the year.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVeKbsFL_tM&w=670&h=527]
While we wait for iTunes in the cloud, we may as well begin using an iTunes in the cloud service that isn’t from Apple, a free service for iPhones from mSpot, the app for which is now available via the iTunes App Store.
What’s it do? Essentially it is like a music locker service to which you upload your music in order to then enjoy streaming access to that music via your mSpot app.
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Here’s an iPad clone from China, a full 9.7-inch affair based on the Freescale iMX515 hardware. It is powered by a 800MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, 512MB DDRII memory and 4GB Flash. Oh yes, and it is Android-powred with 3G, Wi-Fi and a camera. Cost? Around $277 (in China). See? Same Same
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Some may recall Unilever to be one of the big brand names to first jump onto the iAds mobile ads bandwagone way back in June, now Europe’s about to see the first Unilever iAds make their appearance as Apple’s ad system hits Europes this month — and the ads will feature the “Lynx effect”.
Unilever is launching a new campaign for Lynx’s Excite range, with a major push through Apple’s iAds, as part of a £8.3m marketing spend. The “Falling Angels” campaign launches next week and will be supported by print, TV, digital and other activity.
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COMPUTERWORLD: If you thought Apple had a busy year in 2010, expect even more in 2011, when at least one analyst is expecting significant acquisitions, a move into 3D, the introduction of its connected TV set and the emergence of multi-core processors in the iPhone and other mobile devices.
Apple will engage in what it is calling ‘scheduled maintenance’ of its MobileMe service beginning at 10pm tonight (PT). The maintenance will affect users attempting to access their accounts, and will also impact against those trying to sync data between devices.
Good news, bad news in Japan, where Apple climbed from seventh to fifth place in Japan’s cellphone market for the first time, boosted by its well-received iPhone 4 in the July-September period, local reports claim.
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olHpaFESFkk&fs=1&hl=en_GB]
Apple owns 9.3 percent of Imagination Technologies and uses its PowerVR SGX graphics chip inside its iPad — now the smaller firm has seen profits climb 131 percent and also made a critical $27 million investment in 3D technology for mobile devices.
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COMPUTERWORLD: Apple is already evolving a unified user experience. In future, there will be ever less difference when controlling an Apple device, whether it be a phone, a tablet or a Mac. The experience will feel the same.
Apple’s next edition of iWork may set a landmark as being among the first major Apple software releases to ship first online, as it seems books explaining how to use the productivity suite have been delayed for release in January 2011 — around the time Apple opens its Mac App Store.
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Asymco has an interesting report today in which analyst Horace Dediu argues that Verizon may need the iPhone more than its letting on, and suggests Google Android may not be as big a business as many think it to be.
To be fair, while Dediu makes a good argument for his points, critics are already pointing out that they are based on data which may not be 100 per cent accurate, and that Verizon’s best month was in August, two months after iPhone 4 shipped. (Though it was only a slightly better month on back of hype around new product from Samsung).
We’ve had an update from the sources of the orginal data, which is posted at the foot of this article:
Google Latitude has finally arrived on Apple’s iOS, nearly two years since Google first revealed its technology.
Latitude lets you see friends on the map, share your own location (or not), or even hide your location should you feel uncomfortable. Apple blocked the app initially in order to avoid confusion with Maps on the iPhone,” said Google.
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Apple is the key name in tech as iPad beats Android in this year’s Twitter Trends chart, reports the Twitter Blog, where the company today revealed its list of the top trends of 2010.
Apple’s iPad was the sixth biggest overall top trend,just ahead of Google Android at number 7. iPhone never made the overall list, which is headed by Golf Oil Spill and the FIFA World Cup.
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Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s patent trolling lawsuit filed against Apple, Facebook, Google, YouTube and others has been dismissed by the courts.
“Plaintiff has failed to identify the infringing products or devices with any specificity,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman in her order to dismiss. “The Court and Defendants are left to guess what devices infringe on the four patents.
Allen was claiming that the companies had violated four patents developed by Internal Research (a research firm he funded).
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COMPUTERWORLD: Fresh research from the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) offers us a few insights into the behavior of iPad users, suggesting the device may well diminish newspaper print sales in future. Overnight reports also confirm weve been on track with our predictions for the iPad 2.0, which, it appears, will indeed host cameras front and rear.
