Apple has released a maintenance update to iTunes 12.2 that addresses issues related to Apple Music, iTunes Match, and Beats 1. The release specifically mentions resolving an issue where songs from iTunes Match would become classified as songs from Apple Music, which would result in unnecessary DRM being added.
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Your own matched music re-downloaded from Apple Music gets DRM added
Since Apple appeared to have rolled the functionality of iTunes Match into Apple Music, it was looking like there wouldn’t be any point in retaining an iTunes Match subscription if you were planning to continue your streaming music subscription after the free trial. But MacWorld senior contributor Kirk McElhearn found that there is one small but crucial difference between the two: DRM …
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We may get to see the two-hour video of Steve Jobs giving pre-trial evidence in the iPod antitrust case, if the judge approves a motion jointly filed by AP, Bloomberg and CNN to make it public. CNET reported:
“Given the substantial public interest in the rare posthumous appearance of Steve Jobs in this trial, there simply is no interest that justifies restricting the public’s access to his video deposition,” attorney Thomas Burke, who is representing all three media organizations, wrote in the filing Monday
The video currently has the same status of live testimony given in the case, meaning that it can be reported on but the video cannot be broadcast …
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The videotaped deposition of Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs was played in court today as part of the ongoing antitrust lawsuit involving the iPod, iTunes, and digital rights management. As CNET reports, the video revealed new details of Apple’s deals with record labels and why the FairPlay DRM was created.
Jobs said in his statement that because the record labels were afraid that a store like iTunes could lead to music piracy, they required Apple to create and implement a digital rights management system—which would become the FairPlay system—in order to gain the rights to distribute music. DRM wasn’t something that Apple wanted to do, but had to do.
Just as it looked like the iPod-related class action suit against Apple was getting interesting, Eddy Cue arguing that competing music stores had effectively hacked the iPod, it now seems the case is in danger of collapsing.
Apple’s lawyers have written to the judge to say there is no evidence that either of the two plaintiffs owned iPods during the time affected by Apple’s action to remove non-iTunes songs from iPods …
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Apple just released the following statement on the App corruption issue we reported earlier today:
“We had a temporary issue that began yesterday with a server that generated DRM code for some apps being downloaded. It affected only a small number of users.
“The issue has been rectified and we don’t expect it to occur again,” Apple said. Those who have an affected app can re-download it from the App Store.
The “small number of users” seems to run counter to what Instapaper developer Marco Arment found as he publicized his issues with Apple (along with Good Reader) today.
Apple: This is a serious problem. It’s not isolated. Please fix this.
Sources told Macworld that Apple will be removing one-star app reviews developers earned unfairly because of the company’s server issue.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FzHzlMneaeQ]
(adult topics/language: NSFW)
There is a lot of buzz on the net right now on Louis CK’s self-promoted video which he launched this week for $5, DRM free. We love the idea and loved the 1.1GB video. One interesting note, via Reddit interview: Louis CK does his own editing on Final Cut Pro:
You’ve been listed as a video editor on most of your projects. What program do you use to edit and why have you decided to take on this role?link
I love editing. I have used Avid in the past but I exclusively use Final Cut Pro now, though I am concerned about the future… You always have to put three dots after the future… editing is part of the process. It’s how you form everything. In some ways not editing yourself would be like a sculptor dropping some clay off at a guys house and saying “Make a naked lady chasing a bull. and do it nice.”
The experiment seems to be a success…
The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10th. 12 hours later, we had over 50,000 purchases and had earned $250,000, breaking even on the cost of production and website. As of Today, we’ve sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over $500,000. Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video.
Get the video here (highly recommended).
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If you don’t know by now, Apple has officially opened up their iTunes Match service to the public, bringing with it 256-kbps AAC DRM-free copies of your non-iTunes purchased music for $25 a year. To help familiarize users with the service, Apple has posted the following chart walking us through some new iTunes Match related iCloud icons you’ll start to notice in iTunes.
In addition, they also dropped some helpful guides explaining the ins and outs of the service including Troubleshooting iTunes Match, How to subscribe to iTunes Match, How to add a computer or iOS device to iTunes Match, and How to delete songs from iCloud.
In the troubleshooting guide, we learn you can enable a column within iTunes to display the iTunes Match/iCloud status of any given song in your library. For example, whether it’s a “Matched” song or just “Uploaded”. To do this, click “View > View Options” or press “Command-J“, and click the “iCloud Status” checkbox (same place you also enable “iCloud download”).
A MacRumors forum poster also offers a few helpful hints, while noting iTunes Match keeps your meta-data (a nice touch if you tend to edit data associated with your songs), the post clears up some concerns regarding the intricacies of what happens with your local copies:
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Hardmac reports today some of Steve Jobs’ latest thoughts on BluRay.
He admitted that retrospectively he feels ashamed that Apple’s name is associated to Blu-ray, as he thinks that BD supporting associations look today more like Mafia than anything else.
Jobs famously called BluRay a ‘Bag of Hurt’ during a Q&A after a MacBook Event in 2008.
Concerning authoring on Blu-ray, it seems impossible to provide software supporting such format for consumer market. In addition to DRM, here it is the cost of licenses that slow down the entire process; one would have to start paying 3,000 USD to AACS, then 80,000 USD to Sony, 40,000 USD to Sonic, etc.
Hardmac also reports that the next version of Final Cut Pro will come in March or April 2011, which is what we’ve seen in Jobs emails.
Finally, they say that not everyone is happy with the Xserve axing but they don’t know what comes next. We’ve heard some things.
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