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- Royalty rate stays the same, iTunes Store still open
Filed under: Apple Corporate, iTS
The U.S. Copyright Royalty Board decided today to keep rates the same for digital music stores, kneecapping Apple's threat to shut down the iTunes Store rather than operate at a loss.
The three-member board kept the royalty rate at 9.1 cents, and mandated a 24-cent rate for ringtones. The board has never before established mechanical rates for digital files.
"We're pleased with the CRB's decision to keep royalty rates stable," said an unnamed Apple spokesman.
The popularity of Eddy Cue's statement that Apple would shutter the iTunes Store apparently had an effect on the board. "Sure it was posturing," said a music industry source, according to CNET. "I don't think Apple would have gone out of business but a statement like that from the biggest music retailer is going to carry some weight."
[Via CNET.]
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Official iPhone app for Obama '08 now in App Store
Filed under: iPhone, App Store
We're officially a nonpartisan bunch here at TUAW (actually, quite partisan, but only for the Mac) but the announcement of an official iPhone application from the Obama campaign is still worthy of mention. Several high-profile iPhone devs & designers were involved in the project, including formerly-of-Tapulous Mike Lee, Louie Mantia and Tristan O'Tierney. Raven Zachary led the team that included Jonathan Wight and more, all volunteering to rush the app to completion.
In addition to the obvious-but-cool features of the app (download news from the campaign, watch YouTube videos of speeches and endorsements), there is quite a bit of iPhone special sauce. Location awareness means you can see local events or find your nearest campaign office; a 'Call Friends' tool sorts your address book by priority, putting your contacts living in battleground states at the top of the list and letting you reach out to them with a single tap. Very sleek!
Even though there isn't an official McCain campaign application for the iPhone, the App Store has plenty of election-themed apps for voters of either the red or blue persuasion. However you plan to make your voice heard this year, let us give you a gentle reminder that if you're an American citizen over 18, you need to make certain that you're registered to vote.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - No Blu-ray on Macs... and no one cares
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Multimedia, Apple, MacBook, Mac Pro
Danny Gorog at APC Magazine has written a really nice analysis of something that's rather strange when you think about it -- why aren't there any high definition DVD drives on Macs yet? It has been asked for by a few folks, but by and large, Apple has pretty much ignored the whole high definition debate. And even now, when we supposedly have a winner in Blu-ray, Apple hasn't pulled the trigger, and consumers, as Gorog notes, haven't even really cared much.
In fact, across the entire PC market there's not a lot of wholehearted support for Blu-ray or any major high definition formats. It's not that DVDs are "good enough" -- HDTVs are selling by the truckloads -- it's more that consumers, apparently, just don't want to settle on another format. And that may be the key to this whole thing -- Apple has a vested interest in selling content, and implementing some other content producer's format into their machines will take away from their best HD content channel yet: iTunes.
And customers, happy to not have to buy yet another permanent format of their favorite movies, may be satisfied with having no next-generation disc format. I, like many users, have already watched tons of HD video without ever having bought a Blu-ray disc. If Apple doesn't need the drives to deliver the same quality content, why should they bother?Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Ballmer channels 1985, suggests Apple split iPhone hardware and OS
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, iPhone
Steve Ballmer is imitating his CEO predecessor by suggesting that Apple separate its iPhone hardware from OS X, according to Ars Technica.
Nokia leads the smartphone market today with about a 30 percent share, he said. "If you want to reach more than that, you have to separate the hardware and software in the platform," he said in an discussion forum with the Churchill Club, a Silicon Valley business and technology group.
In 1985, Bill Gates approached Apple (and its then-CEO, John Sculley) with prospects in hand to convince it to license Mac OS to third-party vendors. As we all know, that didn't happen (at least not with Microsoft as a partner), keeping the bond tight between Apple hardware and software. Microsoft wound up doing it themselves with Windows.
The idea that Ballmer thinks other companies should be more like Microsoft isn't shocking at all; in fact, what else was the man supposed to say? Like Jobs with Apple, Ballmer's talks and interviews wield a great deal of influence on Microsoft's stock price. If he said anything other than what he did, MSFT would have taken a hit. As CEO, that's unconscionable.
Continue reading Ballmer channels 1985, suggests Apple split iPhone hardware and OS
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - GTS World Racing on sale
Filed under: Gaming, Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
One of my favorite racing games for iPhone / iPod touch is GTS World Racing from Handmark and Astraware. If you haven't loaded this fun app on your pocket pal, you might want to race over to the App Store before October 19th since GTS World Racing is on sale (click opens iTunes) for $2.99.
This action-filled race game features a number of different cars, countries, and tracks, and uses the accelerometer to control the speed and direction of the car. It's a much more realistic racing game than Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D or Cro-Mag Rally
For more info about the app, including a movie showing the game in action, check out our August preview of GTS World Racing.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - First Look: Spreadsheet for iPhone
Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store
Softalk, a UK development firm known for their messaging and productivity solutions, has released the first iPhone spreadsheet application. The application has the really original name Spreadsheet, costs US$7.99, and is available now from the App Store (click opens iTunes).
The first release features over 50 functions and the ability to email spreadsheets created on the iPhone to Mac or PC for further editing. The function list includes:Date/time functions -- DATE, DATEADD, DAY, DAYABBREV, DAYNAME, HOUR, LASTDAY, MINUTE, MONTH, MONTHABBREV, MONTHNAME, NOW, SECOND, TIME, TODAY, YEAR
General functions -- COL, COUNT, ROW
Math function -- ABS, CEILING, EVEN, EXP, FACTORIAL, FLOOR, LOG, LOG10, MAX, MIN, ODD, POWER, ROUND, SQRT, SUM
Statistical functions -- AVE, MEDIAN, MODE
String functions -- CONCATENATE, LEFT, LOWER, MID, RIGHT, UPPER
Trignometry functions -- ACOS, ASIN, ATAN, COS, COSH, PI, SIN, SINH, TAN, TANH
The initial App Store reviews of Spreadsheet aren't exactly glowing, which is why TUAW will be doing a detailed review in the near future.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Ask TUAW: Apple TV, Blu-ray on the Mac, solving SIMBL problems, and more
Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW
For this Ask TUAW we'll be considering questions about the Apple TV, MobileMe from addresses, Blu-ray on the Mac, automatically converting video formats, SIMBL plugin problems and more.
As always, your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we'll assume you're running Leopard if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!Continue reading Ask TUAW: Apple TV, Blu-ray on the Mac, solving SIMBL problems, and more
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Surfin' Safari, ignoring IE
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Internet
Bloggin' buddy Jeff Gamet over at The Mac Observer provided an analysis of Web browser market share today that showed Apple's Safari gaining while Microsoft Internet Explorer's piece of the proverbial pie is still getting smaller.
The numbers, reported from Market Share, show a slight increase for Safari from 6.37% of the browser world in August to 6.65% in September. On the other hand, Internet Explorer started with 72.15% of the market, and ended September at 71.52%. While that change seems infinitesimal, readers should note that IE's share has been steadily dropping over time.
Firefox actually dropped in market share during September, down from 19.75% to 19.46%. Google's Chrome browser, which first appeared in September, has only grabbed 0.78% of the market so far.
What does this all mean? Not much, when looking at just one month of data. However, the long-term trend is indicating that Safari and Firefox continue to gain market share steadily at Internet Explorer's expense.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Apple asks for lawsuit dismissal with 'prejudice'
Apple is asking the judge presiding over the company's lawsuit against Psystar to dismiss the cloner's antitrust lawsuit "with prejudice."
IGM notes that a motion to dismiss is a very normal part of the lawsuit process. Asking to dismiss "with prejudice" is a little more severe, but not necessarily uncommon, and if the motion is granted it would make it impossible for Psystar to re-file the case in the future.
"Defendant Psystar Corporation is knowingly infringing Apple's copyrights and trademarks, and inducing others to do the same. ... In an obvious attempt to divert attention from its unlawful actions, Psystar asserts deeply flawed antitrust counterclaims designed to have this Court force Apple to license its software to Psystar, a direct competitor. The Court should reject Psystar's efforts to excuse its copyright infringement, and dismiss these Counterclaims with prejudice," Apple's lawyers wrote in a court filing September 30.
The next hearing in the trial is schedule for November 6, when judge William Alsup will hear the motion for dismissal.
[Via ZDNet and MacsimumNews.]
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Mac 101: Stop drives from showing on desktop
Filed under: Mac 101
Some people hate having any icons showing on their desktop. If you are one of those people, then you might not want icons showing for attached disks, hard drives, or iPods. Here's how to get rid of these annoying icons.
Open Finder preferences by clicking "Finder" in the menu bar and selecting preferences (or by pressing command + , while in a Finder window or first clicking on the desktop). Once there, click the General tab. Under the "Show these items on the Desktop:" area, use the check-boxes to select which items you want/don't want to show on the desktop.
Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - First Look: Vocalia English speech recognition tool for iPhone
Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store
I want my iPhone to have voice dialing. Belgian developers Creaceed are moving in the right direction by introducing the Vocalia English speech recognition tool for iPhone. This app just does one thing right now -- displaying contacts from your Address Book when you say names. You still need to tap on the name that appears to open the contact, then tap on a number to dial it. Creaceed is working on adding new functionality to future versions.
How well does Vocalia recognize names? I tested it by reading the first 100 names in Contacts. Without training Vocalia, it was able to correctly recognize 98 of the names -- that is, it put them on a screen with three of the closest sounding names. For 83 of the names, the correct name was at the top of the list. The two names that weren't recognized properly were Guilherme and Guiseppe. You can also add nicknames or other pronunciations to any name to further improve accuracy.
Between now and October 18th, Vocalia is on sale for US$3.99 in the App Store (click opens iTunes). The regular price of Vocalia is $7.99.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Despite slow economy, Mac market share booms
Filed under: Apple Corporate, Apple Financial
If you've been paying attention to the news lately, then you know that the U.S. economy is in a bit of a slump. Even so, Apple's market share continues to prosper, according to Register Hardware. Their site is reporting that Apple's market share is now 35% if you look at revenue garnered -- largely due to notebook sales. In addition, Windows-based notebook sales are down 1.5% and at the same time, Mac notebook sales are up 35% (by units).
In other news, ComputerWorld is reporting that Mac OS X's market share is currently at 8.2%. This means that 8.2% of all the computers accessing over 40,000 websites that are monitored by Net Applications. This is a huge milestone for Apple as this is the first time their market share has gone above 8%. Microsoft still leads the monopoly on the operating system front -- Windows garnered 90.3% of computers accessing websites using Net Applications site monitoring. Windows Vista currently holds 18.3% of the market share.
On the iPhone front, Net Applications reported that 0.3% of the Internet market share was owned by the iPhone -- quite a feat for such a small device. However, it does have the hype machine working for it!
[via ComputerWorld and Register Hardware]Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Stainless: Another attempt at Chrome for OS X
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Freeware, Internet Tools, Developer
At this rate, Google won't even have to release Chrome for Mac OS X -- our devs will have done it all already themselves. We've already reported about CrossOver putting their own port of Google's web browser together just to show they could do it, and now word has come in about Stainless, another attempt to bring Google's Chromium kit over to our favorite operating system.
Unfortunately, it's still just a tech demo and not really a full-fledged browser (and the guys behind it, Mesa Dynamics, say that they didn't even try doing the cool stuff that the real OS X Chromium team is working on). But they did create a multi-process browser (one per tab), and they used some of the tech from their other app, Hypercube (Edit: NOT HyperCard, sorry -- I would have been more excited about that, too) to do it. I haven't tried it (I haven't tried the real Chrome on Windows either, Firefox is good enough for me so far), but like the other OS X Chrome, this app really only exists just so it can.
And it shows just how desperate OS X users are to get their hands on Google's browser. Just how much longer do we have to wait?Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Freeverse has a 30% off sale, cuts prices of iPhone apps
Filed under: Gaming, Software, Video, Odds and ends, iPhone, iPod touch
Our good friends at Freeverse are having a 30% off sale, one of their biggest lately, this week on almost everything in their catalog, from the tower defense game Horde of Orcs to the award-winning Lineform. The sale lasts through October 7th, and to get the discount, just put "MONTYMAIL" in as a coupon code during checkout. If you've been thinking about picking up one of their apps or games, now's the time.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Unfortunately, none of the discounts work for any of their iPhone apps, but they did just drop the price on MotoChaser, one of the best accelerometer racing games available (and featured in the commercial above, on the "funnest" iPod ever), down to $4.99. It's too bad that there's no demo available, but I can tell you that as these accelerometer racers go, it's a good time.Переслать - Install Boxee or XBMC on an Apple TV
Filed under: Multimedia, Hacks, Apple TV
We've been expecting something interesting to happen to the Apple TV, but with nary a peep out of Cupertino it seems that atv-bootloader creator Scott Davilla has been busy. We've posted about Boxee before: it's a media center application based on XBMC with a social networking spin. Previously it was limited to Intel Macs running Leopard (and Ubuntu Linux), but it's now been ported to Tiger. That means that it's compatible with the Apple TV, which runs a modified version of Mac OS X 10.4.
So what does this mean? Simply that you can now install the Tiger versions of Boxee or XBMC (for Mac) on your Apple TV. First you use need to use Davilla's handy atvusb-creator on your Mac to convert a USB flash drive into a patchstick. Then you just need to plug it into your Apple TV, wait for the patch process to complete, and install either Boxee or XBMC from within the plugin. In the end you get an Apple TV with all the extra functions of XBMC or Boxee including much broader codec support, the social networking features, etc.
The atvusb-creator is a free download from Google Code for Intel Macs. To use Boxee, however, you'll need to request an account at their site.
[via Engadget]Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - VP: Apple would rather close iTunes Store than pay additional royalties
Filed under: Apple Corporate, iTS
If a ruling expected tomorrow by the Copyright Royalty Board raises royalties for online music sales from 9 to 15 cents per track, Apple would rather shut the iTunes store down than operate it at a loss.
Them's fightin' words.
Eddy Cue, Apple's iTunes VP, wrote in a statement to the Times of London, "If [iTunes] was forced to absorb any increase in the ... royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss -- which is no alternative at all. Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [iTunes] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably."
Of course, this is the "nuclear" option. Apple is most likely trying to gain aggressive leverage before the CRB decision is made. Apple is essentially asking music publishers, "do you want all the revenue you've earned through iTunes, or another measly 6 cents per track?" Shrewd, but is it shrewd enough?
Some analysts speculate that Apple is more likely to pass the additional cost on to the consumer, rather than demolish a key slice of their business. What that will do to sales in the U.S. is hard to say.
If the CRB raises royalties, what do you think will happen? Will you continue to buy music online? Sound off in comments.
[Via IGM.]
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Mac 101: Change fields for creating a new Mail message
Filed under: Mac 101
If you usually CC/BCC someone in Mail, then why not add it to the default Mail message window? Start by creating a new mail message and click the small box that appears next to the subject line. When you do this, a drop-down menu will appear. Click on the "Customize" button.
The window will morph into a full size window showing all the available options. Clicking the check boxes beside each item will allow them to appear each time you compose a new message. When you are done, click the "OK" button to save the changes.
Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section today!Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать
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