Some speculation exists claiming Apple may be migrating its iTunes services to services hosted at its growing North Carolina data center this Thanksgiving.
This speculation is based on information provided to Apple developers in which the company warns that its traditional Christmas period shut down of the iTunes Connect service will this year also see a similar shut down happen at Thanksgiving. Expand Expanding Close
Despite ramped-up competition, Apple should achieve at least 22.5 million iPad sales in 2011 — and that’s not analyst bluster or wishful thinking but the conservative estimate of Apple competitor, ViewSonic.
According to TechCrunch, Apple is in early discussions to buy music streaming service Spotify. Spotify is an incredibly hot music service in Europe but hasn’t been able to get a footing in the US. (They haven’t been able to sign one label).
Some put the blame on Apple for that and accuse Cupertino of threatening lost wages from iTunes if the labels sign up for the streaming service. Apple approved Spotify for use on the iPhone in Europe in April of last year so Apple probably has some definitive proof of lost revenue, if that is the case.
A $1 billion Spotify deal with Google was apparently close to completion last year but the deal fell through because Google was “demanding that all label deals be grandfathered in. And Spotify wanted a $800 million+ walk away fee if the deal faltered (Google had a similar provision in their Admob acquisition)”.
Apple bought streaming music service Lala at the same time as Google flirt with Spotify but all of Lala’s label deals disintegrated when they got purchased (as per their contracts) and Apple was left with the engineering talent and technology. Spotify’s label deals are likely of the same nature so, to me, it is surprising that Apple would be after another set of streaming engineers, another set of technology and some more people with music industry experience. They clearly have some plans for all of that space in North Carolina.
Update: Spotify contactedCNET to let them know they have no intention to sell the company.
COMPUTERWORLD: Apple’s new Lion OS will be leaner, keener and meaner than ever; it will teach Mac users a whole new touch-based way to interface with their computer, and borrows heavily from elements of Apple’s also NeXT-based iOS system for mobile devices. So, what do we know about the new operating system?
Steve Jobs went ballistic, giving Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer an earful for stealing the most important games developer then on the Mac, Bungie Software, way back in 2000.
As a result of Jobs’ angry call to Ballmer, Ed Fries, the former vice president of game publishing at Microsoft, and the man central to Microsoft’s acquisition of Rare and Bungie, was told to broker a deal with Apple to appease Jobs.
As the video above shows, Jobs was particularly annoyed at the Microsoft deal because he’d hosted a public preview of Halo at a Macworld Apple event just months before. The loss of the game to the platform was a personal blow. Expand Expanding Close
Looks like you won’t have to wait too much longer if you’ve been hoping/praying/wishing for a nice white iPhone 4 — as these have begun showing up as available to reserve if you’re using Apple’s freshly-updated Apple Store iPhone app….reserve your white iPhone today.
Remember last week’s story which claimed 32 percent of iPad owners never ever downloaded an app? Please ignore the claim, as Nielsen has released a terse statement which basically says it got this one completely wrong. So shred the thought from your memory immediately. Expand Expanding Close
When it comes to Christmas/Holiday shopping this year, its advantage Apple with kids abandoning traditional gifts and toys in favor of an iPad or some other slice of Cupertino-designed tech gladness.
The most recent Duracell Toy Report claims two-thirds of teens (13-16-year-olds) want Apple products, such as the iPhone 4, iPad and iPod touch. Expand Expanding Close
A little tidbit from the Microsoft gathering this evening. While demonstrating Outlook for Mac and the HTML rendering engine, Microsoft employees revealed that instead of using the Word HTML rendering that previous versions of Mac Office used (and the PC version as well), Microsoft has moved over to Apple’s Webkit rendering engine to render HTML mails. Outlook 2011 also uses WebKit to create HTML mail.
For those of you who didn’t like Entourage’s HTML mail, Outlook’s WebKit mail, you are in for a pleasant surprise.
Why is this a big deal? This is the first time that Microsoft has used Apple’s Open Source Webkit framework in their products. It will be interesting to see if Webkit spreads to other areas.
Apple Inc., maker of the iPhone and Macintosh computer, has enlisted Unisys Corp. to help it sell more to businesses and U.S. government agencies, expanding beyond a customer base made mostly of consumers. Unisys will provide maintenance and other services to companies and government agencies that purchase Apple devices, Gene Zapfel, a managing partner at Unisys, said in an interview. One of the first of its kind for Apple, the contract was signed this month, Zapfel said. He didn’t discuss terms of the deal.
The deal is one of the first of its kind for Apple according to Businessweek. Expand Expanding Close
Here’s a poll going on at the Wall St. Journal right now of reader opinions on who makes the best mobile OS. Who is winning?
That’s right. Microsoft who just released its Windows phone 7 without multi-tasking and about 30 apps. Their old OS is by their own admission a dead end steaming pile. Maybe they like the Kin? Can anyone explain this?
I’m taking this with a pinch of salt at this time, but speculation that Apple may be on the verge of making a hugely important acquisition are just beginning to cross financial market news wires this morning.
There’s yet another player offering converged solutions for mobile devices, tablets — even TVs — Adobe has entered the fray with the release of Adobe AIR 2.5.
It’s the second piece of information from our tipster that really piqued our interest, though. Leading the potential round will be Digital Sky Technologies (an existing investor) and Apple. Yes, Apple. The funding is part of a partnership between the two companies that will eventually result in deep Facebook integration into Apple’s suite of products, including Ping, iTunes, iLife and iWork.
Digital Sky is a somewhat shady Russian Venture capital group funded by Oliarchs that lists Goldman Sachs as part owners. It would seem a bit out of character for Apple to participate in a funding round with Digital Sky.
Also, Microsoft owns 5% of Facebook so it would seem a little strange for both Apple and Microsoft to join in as owners.
Those new MacBook Air models are being torn apart, poked and prodded, but just how many will Apple sell? A fair few it seems, with analysts at Concord Securities claiming we’ll see 700,000 of them flying off the shelves in the current quarter alone.
Here’s interesting, buried deep inside the new beta FaceTime for Mac is code which alerts you when you receive an incoming FaceTime call — even when you haven’t got the software active on your Mac. Apple says as much on their Website:
The theory seems sound enough — it is, after all, no more than the same alerts you are already used to receiving from some non-open apps on your iOS device. Through Push Notifications… Expand Expanding Close
Google is already hitting major hurdles in its quest to transform the TV industry, with major US broadcasters blocking their Web shows from being broadcast via Google TV. Google meanwhile is in negotiation to agree rights, but is likely to face similar rectitude from some broadcasters as faced by Apple with Apple TV.
ABC, CBS and NBC have all blocked access to their shows from Google TV. These problems come just weeks since Logitech and Sony began selling devices running Google’s software. Hulu this week also moved to block Google TV from acccessing its service. Expand Expanding Close
Chicago Now got a sneak peak and a chat with Apple Retail chief, Ron Johnson, about the new Lincoln Park, Chicago Apple Store. Apple is calling their latest retail store “significant.” They’re placing it in the same category as their recent London, Shanghai, and Paris stores.
The design of the store is gorgeous and very innovative for the neighborhood that it is located in. According to Chicago Now this particular area of Lincoln Park used to be very old looking as well as “dingy, dark, smelly.” Now, Apple is transforming it.
In terms of the actual retail store it has three entrances, for very significant reasons. The northern part of the store has a retail focus, the southern portion covers Apple’s one-to-one program, and the center entrance is something new to Apple’s retail chain.
It’s a public area with benches, tables, chairs, WiFi and all that good stuff. Apple’s Lincoln Park, Chicago store opens this Saturday 10/23/2010 at 10 AM. There will be special t-shirts for the first 4000 people visiting the store on opening day. A few more pics after the break:
I’ve talked before about Apple’s moves to get its iPhones used as payment systems — and it seems there’s a willing market for such things, despite the fact that iPhone 4 is not compatible with Square’s famed credit card processing system (which is why Square began shipping new card readers today). The latest news? Giant UK supermarket Tesco is trialling a scheme in which customers will be able to scan products they buy in store using their iPhone and iPad, for later payment and verification at checkout. Expand Expanding Close
COMPUTERWORLD: Scant months since beginning a public spat with Adobe over its decision not to support Flash on iOS devices, Apple now also appears ready to abandon Java in Mac OS X.
