Tech Industry

In part 3 of his interview with Techcrunch, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer laid some choice tidbits for us to dissect…like the following:

The most successful [IE competitor] by far is Firefox. Chrome is a rounding error to date. Safari is a rounding error to date. But Firefox is not. The fact that there’s a lot of competitors probably is to our advantage. Yeah, we’re right now about 74 percent overall with the browser market, roughly speaking. But we’re having to compete like heck with IE 8, with great new features. The other guys are getting more and more unanticipated competitive attack factors, the thing that Google announced yesterday where they replaced IE but they don’t tell you. I mean that’s how I would say it. For all intents and purposes of what they’re doing IE is not there. It’s their operating system. Instead of now masked as browser, it’s masked as a plug in basically to IE. So, you know, we’re going to have to compete like heck and you know, see where things go. The one thing that’s unclear is what’s the economic play for anybody else competing with us at the browser level. Is this all about kind of controlling the search box or is it about something else?

Marketshare from Aug 2009 NetApplications

Think the the IE Chrome Frame annoyed Ballmer at all? 

Other things that are around 7% of market share: Bing search engine and Mac Hardware in the US.  Two other things that Microsoft doesn’t focus on or care about. 

Would he call Bing a rounding error?  Why is he being so sensitive on browsers? Perhaps he’s a little worried that IE is heading toward the magic 50%.

Internet Explorer marketshare over the years

Speaking of Mac, Ballmer had some words for Apple’s desktop product.

Mr. BALLMER: Here’s Windows and Windows is a very successful product. How do you attack Windows? Well, you attack with the high end, and hardware. That’s an attack. That’s – I won’t call it the Snow Leopard attack. I’ll call it the Mac attack of which Snow Leopard is a piece. You could attack from the side. That’s the Chrome – Firefox attack. You can attack from cheap, from below. You’re not from the side. You’re one on one, but that’s kind of a Linux, Android, presumably Chrome OS, who knows, attack vector. You can attack through phones that grow up. You know, mama don’t let your phones grow up to be PCs or something. I don’t know. But that’s another attack vector. So, you could say how do I feel about all these attack vectors? Strong, I feel very strong here.

I mean, we’re gaining share. Apple is expensive. And in tough economic environment, people get it. Their model is, by definition, expensive. And we’ve actually held or maybe even gained just a tiny bit of share relative to the Mac in the last 12 months. And it’s not really Snow Leopard. It’s really Windows PCs versus Mac.

That’s the trade-off. We’ve done extremely well versus Linux-powered machines with the Androids or Linux and we’ve done that primarily by having a better solution and being willing to do the right thing from our pricing perspective. And Windows 7 will only make this, I think, more competitive here.

Not sure where he’s been getting his numbers.  Apple has been outperforming the overall PC market for the last 480 quarters in a row or something.  Could you call this a fib?

Rumours that Apple plans an update for its iMac and Mac mini range continue to percolate as the company’s first Q10 quarter gets set to start.

Reports claim Apple’s already informing sales channels that several of its desktop Macs are heading into short supply as the company presumably preps its new SKUs. AppleInsider claims Apple Retail is warning outlets that further orders on many models will not be met, specifically for the Mac mini and iMac range.

Amazon also appears to be out of stock, directing orders to third party resellers (such as J&R Music and Computer World, DataVision Computer Video or Techno Intelligence), rather than honouring them itself. Interestingly, current models are available through the giant retailer at a variety of discounts, up to $30 less than book price in some casesbr />
Similar availability constraints are impacting supply of the Mac mini, with orders again directed toward third-party resellers.

Apple’s own retail store, however, continues to promise new order iMacs will ship within 24-hours.

Apple last update these two products on March 3, 2009, when it reduced prices, offering the 24-inch model at the same price as the previous 20-inch iMac.

Previous claims have suggested the redesigned all–in–one could come crammed with a SD card reader, quad-core processors and even Intel’s Xeon inside, said Mac4Ever. The site also predicted an aluminium remote control and a touch-enabled mouse would make their debut with the new desktop all-in-one.

Earlier this month, Wedge Partners predicted a redesigned iMac with a “thinner, organic design, likely with smoothed or rounded edges.

The firm also expects “new, lower price points to drive demand and create a meaningful competitive threat” to coming PCs based on Windows 7 as well as to the booming netbook segment. “We believe these new designs and price points will help Apple achieve a 3 million unit quarter for Macs in [calendar] Q4,” the analysts said.

Which would make a strong start for Apple’s new financial year, as it prepares next year’s purported tablet release.

Well, here’s a natural evolution of the work Apple’s already involved in, seems the company is developing a touchscreen remote for the “upcoming Apple TV”.

This makes sense, after all, we can’t imagine every Apple TV owner is necessarily going to want to spend the cash required to pick up an iPhone or an iPod touch to use as a remote control for the media-focused device. There’s going to have to be some form or remote control, if only so you too can lose an Apple product down the back of the sofa…

So, Boy Genius Report cites this information as emanating from a source which the site rates as pretty hot, having correctly previously predicted iPhone homescreens in iTunes along with integrated social networking elements.

The site claims to have been sent an image “we’re told is a product mock-up that may coincide with the launch of a revised Apple TV.”

What’s interesting here is that you can see a Safari button on that there mocked-up screen. We wonder if the on-screen controls become a keyboard if you hold the remote in landscape mode?

In any case, Boy Genius Report warns readers to take this information on board with a high degree of caution, However, given Apple’s recent Apple TV price cut, its no great stretch of imagination to predict a new model of the device is currently wending its way out of Apple’s secretive r&d labs.

We wonder if it will have support for games?

Yet more Mac security FUD has been reported as fact, with a security researcher touting that a group of Russian hackers have been offering 43-cents per Mac as a reward to hackers subverting security on the platform.

It’s a FUD report, of course, as it fails to note that the general rate for Windows hacking is 50-55-cents, and fails to note that the website offering the bonus has since shut down, due to lack of interest.

As reported by Greg Keizer at Computerworld and repeated through numerous publications – including at least one which really should know better – it has been claimed that Russian hackers are targeting the Mac.

Naturally, all the usual suspects are involved in the info chain who bought us this ‘story’: Graham Cluley of Sophos quotes another researcher, Paul Ducklin, who himself points to a presentation given last week by Dmitry Samosseiko, himself a Russian-born researcher for – wait for it – Sophos.

CNN has the best rebuttal of the story. It takes a look at the six-page security research document and points out that the reference to Mac security occupies precisely one paragraph.

"Mac users are not immune to the scareware threat. In fact, there are ‘codec-partnerka’ dedicated to the sale and promotion of fake Mac software. One of the recent examples is Mac-codec.com. At the time of writing this article, the site is no longer available, but just a few months ago it was offering $0.43 for each install and offered various promo materials in the form of MacOS ‘video players’."

With security researchers seemingly determined to slam Mac security (potentially because they’d be out of a job if everyone switched to the platform) CNN notes that actual instances of Mac targeting groups are extremely rare. The report also points out that the site at the centre of the story has now shut down.

Once again these security warnings are pure FUD. Widely reported as fact. Doubt we’ll see a retraction by any of the publications who blindly carried the story.

Of course, we’re not saying Mac users can afford to be complacent. You can’t. It’s wise to be wary of downloaded files from sources you don’t recognise, it’s wise to be wary of opening links purporting to be from big names such as Amazon or PayPal, in case they are spoof phishing attacks.

Basically, common sense prevails, one must keep an eye on what is going on – but come on, it’s time to separate the FACT from the FUD.

Apple has taken three of the top five places in this year’s CoolBrands list, with the iPhone at top of the poll, Apple itself in third place and the iPod securing fourth place in the list, led for the last three years by Aston Martin, which fell to second place this year.

The success of the iPhone this year, which sold 5 million units between March and June, has led to it rising from second to become the most stylish brand. The shortlist for the survey is compiled by 2,500 voters. The final twenty brands are voted on by a panel.

BlackBerry saw some gains, climbing 16 places to seventh place, while the BBC’s iPlayer was the only new entry to take a top 20 slot. Google’s YouTube was recognised as the number one online brand.

Stephen Cheliotis, chief executive of the Centre for Brand Analysis, said: "The iPhone is something everyone has been talking about. There has been so such a buzz around it and people who haven’t got one, want one.”

Top 20 Coolest Brands:
    1.    iPhone
    2.    Aston Martin
    3.    Apple
    4.    iPod
    5.    Nintendo
    6.    YouTube
    7.    BlackBerry
    8.    Google
    9.    Bang & Olufsen
    10.    PlayStation 3
    11.    Xbox
    12.    Tate Modern
    13.    Dom Perignon
    14.    Virgin Atlantic
    15.    Ferrari
    16.    Sony
    17.    Mini
    18.    Vivienne Westwood
    19.    Rolex
    20.    BBC iPlayer

Ending O2’s exclusive status as sole UK iPhone supplier, France Telecom’s Orange this morning said it will begin selling the iPhone in the UK from later this year.

"Orange UK and Apple have reached an agreement to bring iPhone 3G and 3GS to Orange UK customers later this year," Orange said.

"Orange, which has the largest 3G network covering more people in the UK than any other operator, will sell iPhone in all Orange direct channels including Orange shops, the Orange webshop and Orange telesales channels, as well as selected high street partners," the carrier said.

O2 will continue selling the device, but its exclusive contract will expire. The company has attracted over one million iPhone users to its network since the device went on sale.

Orange has already published a page to its website where customers interested in getting an iPhone can register their interest.

Orange in the UK has also proposed a merger with the UK arm of T-Mobile. If approved, this will create the UK’s largest mobile network, and make the iPhone available to over 49 million UK mobile users.

Commenting on this news, O2 this morning issued the following statement: "We’re proud that we’ve been able to offer an exclusive iPhone deal to our 20 million customers for the last two years. We always knew that iPhone exclusivity was for a limited period of time, but our relationship with Apple continues and will be an ongoing success. We have over 1million iPhone customers and they remain very important to us."

Engadget has an interesting little extra information on the Light Peak 10Gb bus standard that Intel curiously demonstrated on a Hackintosh this week.  Now we know why they used a ‘Hackintosh’ – it actually wasn’t a Hackintosh but a real Apple Blue Motherboard. 

It turns out that Apple has developed the standard and was instrumental in bringing it on board over at Intel.  Instrumental in this case means Steve Jobs aguing with Intel chief Paul Paul Otellini about getting the product into new motherboards.

10Gbs is fast.  It is 10 times faster than Gigabit Ethernet (and is duplex meaning both tx and rx are 10Gb as the same time).  That is also faster than the DisplayPort connector that connects Apple’s displays.   The video below shows a video card driving an HD monitor while a 2 GB file copy transpires in a few seconds.

The good news from Engadget is that Apple machines with this technology are to debut within a year – they say around the back to school season.  A lower power version is due a year from then (in 2011) and would be a good fit for mobile devices like a tablet.  The bus standard is expected to hit 100Gbs in the future as well.

In the meantime, it might also make a good dock connector-type port.  It would allow USB/Firewire/Ethernet/DisplayPort all to run at full speed simultanously and would only require one plug.

Apple’s iPhone may be in the ascendant, but competing players continue to face problems in the space, with Research In Motion shares falling 11 per cent on the pre-market this morning and the recently-introduced Palm Pre Phone this morning discounted to just $100 on Amazon.

Palm Pre carrier, Sprint, recently cut the cost of the Pre to $150 (after rebate on a 24-month contract), but Amazon today discounted that. That’s a $400 saving on the original retail price…and probably not a pretty sign for Pre…

Palm was in the news a lot this week, with market rumours speculating Nokia may make a bid to take over the company emerging at the same time as Palm issued a major tranche of new stock options in an attempt to pull in cold, hard investment cash.

The company also took a hit this week when the USB Forum declared it in the wrong to establish iTunes syncing on the Pre, and demanded to know why it was using Apple’s USB Vendor ID number in order to achieve this without Apple’s permission. The company now has only a few days to explain itself.

Over at Research In Motion, strong device sales in the just-gone quarter couldn’t hide Wall Street’s disappointment at the company’s confession it expected to miss analyst targets in its Q3 cycle.

Net profit declined 4% from this time last year to $475.6m on sales of $3.53bn (up 4% y-o-y). But analysts weren’t convinced the company could maintain momentum, particularly as it chases the low-end markets, with Goldman Sachs, Raymond James and Deutsche Bank all issuing downgrades, driving a sell-off in company stock.

Intel offered an interesting tech preview of a new technology, Light Peak optical device interconnect, at IDF this week. The technology enables a computer to drive a greater-than-HD display while saturating an SSD RAID – all over one single cable.

This new tech seems pretty likely to interest any high-end video or graphics professional, and is the kind of interconnect we kind of anticipate will be of use in the future digital home…but what makes this demo interesting is the operating system that’s being run on the hackintosh machine – Mac OS X…

Seems like poetry to us: After all, we know that Apple had OS X running on Intel processors inside its deepest, darkest, most secret labs for many years before the Intel transition. Now it suggests PC makers may even now have OS X running on their machines, hoping always Apple will one day liberate its operating system from its hardware. And while that seems unlikely, it’s nice to know there’s always that possibility for Apple to rapidly expand its OS market share.

(Equally, of course, it could be a Mac-based development system used under license to test what the Mac excels at – graphics cabability…)

Via: Engadget

Steve Ballmer dished some device numbers to Techcrunch this evening.  Included in here was the wisdom of Microsoft not making its own branded phone because..

What does Apple sell every year of iPods: 30 million, order of magnitude, something like that. What is the whole video game market is maybe 30 or 40 million in units a year. But when you get these categories that are 300 million, 500 million, a billion, a billion-five a year, the truth of the matter is you’re gonna want multiple points of manufacture, with a lot of innovation around it whether its supply chain, for geographic diversity, and our basic play with our software is to try and be super high volume. So I think you can have an Apple in the phone business, or a RIM, and they can do very well, but when 1.3 billion phones a year are all smart, the software that’s gonna be most popular in those phones is gonna be software that’s sold by somebody who doesn’t make their own phone. And, we don’t want to cross the chasm in the short run and lose the war in the long run and that’s why we think the software play is the right play for us for high volume, even though some of the guys in the market today with vertically oriented solutions may do just fine.

Great points all, especially when Microsoft’s branded Pink phones were outed this week.  Maybe these phones are so secret that no one told Monkey Boy of their existance.  Check the video out below:

We always like these – thought we’d share.

Update: OK, this is another fake. Google Spell check didn’t catch the "Tree easy steps" part. Neither did we. And that tweet was from the Unofficial Chrome developers account.

Google’s ChomeOS was announced a few months ago as a mainstream operating system for Netbooks (and tablets?!).  Today, via unofficial Tweet, Google is showing off the first video of the operating system. 

Update: OK, this is another fake. Google Spell check didn’t catch the "Tree easy steps" part. Neither did we. And that tweet was from the Unofficial Chrome developers account.

Google’s ChomeOS was announced a few months ago as a mainstream operating system for Netbooks (and tablets?!).  Today, via unofficial Tweet, Google is showing off the first video of the operating system. 

The OS is mostly just a log on to Google services (and it looks like it has a touch screen/tablet component to it).  We also see Skype, video camera and a music applications there in that super-exposé mode as well.

Steve Jobs cited growing competition between Google and Apple as reasons why Eric Schmidt had to be removed from the Apple board of directors.  This would be that competition.

We’re beginning to warm to Microsoft’s Windows 7 marketing schema – it’s a gift that just keeps on giving, though unfortunately, unlike the XP-Vista-Win7 transition, in marketing there’s no V.2.0 upgrade. And this one’s a doozy…

Take your mind to the streets of Paris: the food, the art, the music from the rooftops, the mix of languages, the landmarks, Crazy Horse Club, Moulin Rouge, the culture and the cafes…Ask yourself, what’s a struggling software giant going to do to get tuned into the Parisian zeitgeist? Read on to find out…

Sure, we know they plan some parties; we know they’re poaching Apple staff to talk knowledgeably about the need to buy an Internet Security package with every PC; we know they plan to open their own chain of Microsoft shops…now it seems, Microsoft’s making an early stage move to diversify its business (and take on another Seattle native, Starbucks), opening its own coffee shop in Paris. Zut alors!

Techcrunch has images of the new coffee shop, situated in the city’s busy heart at 47 Boulevard Sebastopol. There tourists rub shoulders with French natives, exchange a few colloquialisms, chatter idly as they enjoy life in the clutch of cafes there.

Microsoft’s “Windows Cafe” will only be open for a few weeks starting October 22. Inside, you’ll be able to buy snacks and drinks and play on a few Microsoft products, including an Xbox – though you won’t be able to buy any Microsoft stuff. You can already sit on the street outside and enjoy free WiFi access.

We kind of wonder what the coffee will be like, it being Paris and all. Has Microsoft poached some hapless Starbucks employees to serve that hot beverage from an astonishingly confusing list of variations on the theme? Will there be a Microsoft Guru there to deal with the sundry PC systems as they fall over and require rebooting?

We know WIndows 7 is the OS Microsoft hoped Vista would be, but we’re far more curious to read user reviews of the coffee. Will that too need virus protection with every purchase??
 

The developer behind BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac has published extensive documentation for the must-have app, saying release of the software is “just around the corner”.

BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac lets BlackBerry owners sync various kinds of content with their Macs, including music in some cases.

Various improvements in this release include support for syncing with multiple computers, and the capacity to choose where to store any required music or media files (on an SD card, on the phone’s internal memory, etc).

Within the Device Options menu, users can choose whether their BlackBerry smartphone should be backed-up automatically and what data should be included in the backup file.

Users can sync their BlackBerry smartphone with the iCal application, Address Book, Apple Mail (for notes) and any other software that can talk to Apple’s Sync Services. For example, to sync with Microsoft® Entourage users simply need to check the option to sync with Sync Services in Entourage preferences.

“Because sync is one of the most important features in this release of BlackBerry Desktop Software, our focus was on making it rock solid with an intuitive set up,” the developer writes. “We wanted to ensure users have all the key options and information when setting up their sync preferences, while at the same time keeping the interface clean and simple. For this reason, all information categories are listed on the left, and the right panel reflects the settings for each category. The alternative of having everything on the same page and listed sequentially seemed a bit cluttered to us.”

If you are a Mac user with a BlackBerry, now may be a good time to sign up to be notified when the new software is released on www.blackberry.com/mac.
 

With all the talk of laptop refreshes from Apple then Mac users should digest Intel’s recent official launch of its new quad-core Core i7 chips for portable computers, with Apple expected to launch its own quad-core Mac notebooks in early 2010, if not before.

Developed under code-name Clarksfield, the new chips are available in several breeds, including one which can run at up to 3.2GHz in Turbo mode. The new chips got their public debut at Intel Developer Forum.

The quad-core processors share the same Nehalem architecture and 45 nanometer process as the desktop part but are designed to consume much less power. They support hyperthreading, which makes for performance improvements, most Core i7 models ship with 8MB L2 cache.

Features such as Turbo Boost Technology and Hyper-Threading Technology deliver performance when users need it. Turbo Boost Technology can accelerate the processor clock speed up to 75 percent to match workloads, as well as offer better performance on highly threaded applications with the power of Intel Hyper-Threading Technology.

The processors also include two-channel DDR3 1333 MHz memory support and full 1 x16 or 2 x8 PCI Express 2.0 graphics.

One beneficiary of Appe’s move to Intel processors has been that the company can now compete with other manufacturers on chip speed and time to market, which makes it interesting to reflect that systems carrying Intel’s new processors are already available from Alienware and Toshiba. However, Apple is expected to use a dual-core Arrandale Core i7 processor in its future designs, as reported by Electronista.

Below is some of the Intel-sanctioned hype, which, while it doesn’t refer to the Mac, could suggest how powerful future Apple systems will become, bearing in mind the advanced Mac OS X they will run…

var so = new FlashObject (“http://pressroom.pb.feedroom.com/intel/pressroom/showcasevert/player.swf”, “Player”, “551”, “236”, “8”, “#FFFFFF”);
so.addVariable (“Environment”, “”);
so.addVariable (“SkinName”, “showcasevert”);
so.addVariable (“SiteID”, “pressroom”);
so.addVariable (“SiteName”, “Press Room”);
so.addVariable (“ChannelID”, “0d370c771eb69593b575c6ff084e966357d45934”);
so.addVariable (“StoryID”, “0e7d145b457325438da248925a1f5f8fa173831a”);
so.addVariable (“Volume”, “.5”);
so.addVariable (“HostURL”, document.location.href);
so.addVariable (“SWF_URL”, “http://pressroom.pb.feedroom.com/intel/pressroom/showcasevert/player.swf”);
so.addVariable (“VideoPlayer.videoPlayer1.JavascriptFolderURL”, “http://static.feedroom.com/affiliate/_common/js”);
so.addVariable (“AutoPlay”, “false”);
so.addVariable (“quality”, “high”);
so.addVariable (“Org”, “intel”);
so.addParam (“quality”, “high”);
so.addParam (“allowFullScreen”, “true”);
so.addParam (“allowScriptAccess”, “always”);
so.addParam (“menu”, “false”);
so.write (“flashcontent”);

It’s not just Apple and AT&T who have problems delivering the needs of mobile users, both Google and Palm have also let the ball slip in recent days.

Strike one: Google, which yesterday introduced real time “push” Gmail sync for the iPhone. Seems too many iPhone users wanted this feature, with Dan Frommer helpfully pointing out a deluge of frustrated user comments on Google’s blog pages and Twitter.

Set-up, Frommer reports, runs smoothly, “but emails simply aren’t being pushed to our phone in real-time — we need to wait several minutes and/or manually check the mailbox before they show up, which defeats the purpose of push,” he writes. Google, presumably, is working to ramp up its infrastructure to support this new service.

Meanwhile, over at Palm (in the news a lot today as it issues millions of dollars in new shares in an attempt to put together some investment capital), there’s a similar problem – the company’s application approval team can’t keep up with the apps they’re being asked to review (remind you of anything?)

Responding to developers complaining at lengthy delays and opacity in getting their apps approved, Palm Developer Community Manager Chuq Von Rospach posted the following on Palm’s developer discussion boards:

“We got more applications than we could handle well, which is a good problem to have. Unfortunately, it means we dropped some things on the floor, and that’s bad, but with the impending "stuff" that’s coming, this is all going to get a lot easier for everyone and a lot more transparent.

“If you didn’t get a response in a timely manner, let me apologize to you. We should have done a better job on this, and I apologize for this. I’m working with the people I work with on this to try to make sure we do a better job of this moving forward. Good news is we’ve hired some people — one’s started, one starts next week, and the third starts the week after that, and that’ll give us some great people and some new resources to make sure this gets fixed and works properly.”

We wonder if Palm and Google will be pilloried quite as much as Apple and AT&T have been for similar infrastructure and approval shortcomings?

Despite trouble with the USB Forum, Palm shares are climbing this morning on market chatter claiming mobile phone giant, Nokia, may plan a takeover of its smaller rival.

Reports from financial wires suggest the potential marriage may be predicated on two twin but different needs: Nokia wants an Apple iPhone-class technology for its smartphones, while Palm needs financial clout to truly gain the chance to deliver on its own technological possibilities.

While neither company has been prepared to comment on these rumours, Palm stock climbed 10 per cent on early Nasdaq training (up $17.50) on chatter and claim.

A Palm purchase could also help Nokia strengthen its reach in the US market, where it is weak. The merger would potentially also help the surviving company compete with Apple’s iPhone.

Dollars and cents may yet undermine any potential deal. Analysts suggest Palm could cost the larger company as much as $3 billion, and at that price the inherent risk could outweigh any potential opportunity.

However, Nokia reportedly spends $3 billion a year on research and development, ten times Palm’s own R&D spend.

Whether these rumours are true or false, both firms will no doubt be considering fresh Barclay’s research released yesterday, which suggests Apple’s iPhone could grab as much as 35 per cent of the smartphone market in the enterprise and business sector within the coming years.

Barclays Capital said in a report, "Investigating Corporate Smartphones," issued yesterday, "We believe the iPhone should get its fair share of [the corporate wireless] market from consumers who want to use it for work as well as its industry-leading application marketplace and developer community that can create occupation-specific productivity  tools," the report states.

What makes these rumours all the more interesting is that they emerge as Palm prepares to issue 20 million additional shares, aiming to raise $313 million through the sale, cash which will be invested in future product development. Obviously, any increase in value of these shares pending such a sale will be of potential use to the company.

Eminem’s litigious people make the news again, on reports that talks between the rapper’s ‘people’ and Apple legal are at a critical point, if both parties want to avoid a public spat in the US courts.

It’s a complex issue of music, distribution rights and music industry lawyers. In its briefest explanation, Eminem’s people are suing Apple and the Aftermath label for selling 93 Eminem tracks through iTunes. This is because Eminem’s Eight Mile High says neither the label nor Apple had the rights to sell digital downloads.

Eight Mile High is claiming Apple may have made as much as $2.5 million from sales of the rapper’s songs through iTunes (we don’t buy that, by the way). Eminem filed suit in 2005.

In legal documents filed to the Eastern District Court in Michigan, Eight Mile – along with co-plaintiff Martin Affiliated – alleges that Aftermath only had the rights to negotiate CD sales, not online distribution.

“Apple’s reproduction and distribution of the digital transmissions via iTunes constitutes a continuing, and willful, infringement of Eight Mile’s and Martin’s copyright interests,” the allegation states.

Apple denies these claims, arguing its deal with Aftermath (which provided the tracks and permissions) is legitimate.

It’s not the first time Eminem has fought Apple. Four years ago the two settled out of court after Apple ran a much-publicised advert that featured a trademark silhouetted figure dancing to the song Lose Yourself.

However, on this new case, should a deal not be agreed by the end of today, the case will go before a federal court in Michigan in a non-jury trial set to open on Thursday.
 

We had a hunch, OK maybe two..  Turns out, it is all true.  Microsoft’s Courier concept is laid out by Gizmodo.  Will Apple blow this out of the water or is this the real deal?  Stay tuned for Tablet War 2010!

ifoAppleStore reports this morning on the new Manhattan Apple Store being built on 67th Street and Broadway.  The roof is starting to come together as you can see from the video below (music from Pixar’s Up).  

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6754816&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1

Broadway Apple Store Flyover from purnell on Vimeo.

…unique architectural designs that will put it in competition for the most spectacular store in the chain. The steel-framed building has risen from the near-total demolition of a former two-level Victoria’s Secret store, with but a single wall retained because of city permit requirements. Priced at over $37.9 million, the 75-foot wide storefront of the building will mimic the all-glass design of the Boylston Street (Boston) store, but with a twist–it will be slanted to mirror the angle of the two streets. Topping of the building will be its most-viewed feature: a slightly-domed glass roof supported by steel arches, all reminiscent of the historic St. Pancras train station in London (UK). The roof will span the rear three-quarters of the retail space, providing light and an airy atmosphere to the interior space. The store was originally reported to open by Thanksgiving, but instead will likely open before Christmas.

The building is 75-feet wide on Broadway and 45-feet tall, forming an angle that matches the intersection of the two streets. The structure fits in with the surrounding buildings, and some of the roof structure.

This unique aerial view shows the angled front section of the store, and the curved roof.

Adobe’s John Nack used his blog to promote the market share lead of his company’s Lightroom against that of Apple’s Aperture.

Adobe – developer of the industry standard Photoshop software – is publishing research findings from InfoTrends, findings which reveal Lightroom to be nearly four times more popular than Aperture.

These findings aren’t based on unit sales of either application, instead they’re based on a survey of 1,045 pro photogs in North America.

Nack also reveals that among photographic pros using the Mac, In 2007 Lightroom was nearly twice as popular as Aperture, but by 2008 it was nearly three times as popular.

Here’s the stats:

“You might notice some decline in the use of the Camera Raw plug-in inside Photoshop as more pros move to using Lightroom. Let me be clear in noting that Photoshop use among these pros remains in the 90% range, and that the decline applies only to Camera Raw usage,” Nack notes.