Apple

Earlier last month, Universal Music Group signed a deal with Microsoft that gives Universal a percentage of the profits of each Zune sold. Now, Universal has set its sights on Apple, hoping to grab a slice of iPod sales. At a recent Reuters Media ... Summit, Universal executive Doug Morris revealed the company's desire to strike a deal with Apple that would give iPod royalties to the music company. "It would be a nice idea. We have a negotiation coming up not too far. I don't see why we wouldn't do that... but maybe not in the same way," Morris explained at the conference in New York City. ( ... (view more)

Last Thursday, Apple finally announced a fix for the irritating "MacBook Shutdown" pandemic. The shutdown problem, which the company insists has affected only a "small percentage" of MacBook owners, surfaced in July after the 13-inch widescreen ... MacBooks debuted. Since then, the problem has generated quite a bit of buzz, and has even led to the creation of the website www.macbookrandomshutdown.com . Since the website launched in August, over 1500 users have registered with the site. (Source: zdnet.com ) Previously, Apple had addressed the quandary by having the affected machines sent in for ... (view more)

Recently, Best Buy announced its alliance with SanDisk and RealNetworks to develop a music service set for release on October 15th, 2006. (Source: tgdaily.com ) The arrangement uses RealNetworks' Rhapsody service via the Best Buy Digital Music ... electronic store. The system will be available to customers of the SanDisk Sansa e200R line of Rhapsody MP3 players. (Source: technewsworld.com ) Rhapsody is currently the largest subscription-based music service, while SanDisk is the number two producer of MP3 players (falling behind Apple). The SanDisk Rhapsody MP3 players have been reported to cost $ ... (view more)

Recent reports suggest that Apple and Wal-Mart are in talks to negotiate a partnership. The deal will have iTunes movie downloads available on Wal-Mart store shelves. The arrangement may take the form of an iTunes Store "digital coupon" available ... for purchase at Wal-Mart. Customers would then use these coupons to download movies from the iTunes online store. (Source: arstechnica.com ) Such an arrangement would allow Wal-Mart to gain a foothold in the still young downloadable movie industry, while enabling Apple to increase their movie offerings to a wide audience. The potential partnership ... (view more)

Not long ago, America Online (AOL) announced that it will offer a slew of movies for download. At the time, the system wasn't much to look at, the movies were very hit and miss, and AOL had no system in place to offer users the ability to make ... copies of the flicks they acquired. Well, now Apple is trying to up the ante by offering movies on its popular iTunes website, and the potential of the company's crusade is raising eyebrows at Wal-Mart HQ (amongst others). According to sources, Apple intends to start offering movies for download from iTunes within days. Although Apple CEO Steve Jobs had ... (view more)

Next to Apple, Creative is one of the most recognizable names in the Mp3 player industry. As a result of a patent dispute between Apple and Creative over a music player interface, the two companies have settled with a number of conditions. Today, ... thanks to their competitor, Creative is $100 million richer. During August of 2005, Creative was awarded a patent for a unique digital music setup. According to a press release at the time, Creative described the patent as a tool that "enables selection of at least one track in a portable media player as a user sequentially navigates through a ... (view more)

It's getting to be an expensive day for Apple. Hours after the announcement of its $100 million settlement with digital music competitor Creative, the Cupertino, California company has also made public that it will be recalling 1.8 million batteries ... once installed in its laptop line. The recall is on the same Sony batteries found in the 4.1 million Dell systems cited as faulty by that company earlier this month. For those consumers who own a Macintosh iBook G4 or Powerbook G4, the recall affects those models sold between October 2003 and August 2006, a time window larger than that outlined by ... (view more)

Yesterday we reported on America Online's recent termination of three employees, including its Chief Technology Officer, for leaked customer web-search information. Today, the trend appears to be continuing, with a group of Apple employees being ... fired over their illegal downloading of the company's unreleased Macintosh operating system (OS) "Leopord" -- the upgrade to the curren version, "Tiger" (10.4.x). Although certainly not as popularly anticipated as Microsoft's Vista, Apple's Leopard OS uses true 64-bit technology, while still maintaining 32-bit compatibility. One of Leopard's most ... (view more)

It looks like Nike isn't the only major American corporation facing charges of sweatshop labor. Apple, creator of the massively popular iPod, recently responded to allegations that many of its workers are slaving through excessive hours for just ... dollars a week. The accusations have led to Apple's own investigation into the reportedly affected factories. Most of Apple's iPods are made in China -- perhaps the world's new hot spot for cheap tech manufacturing. The country of some 1.3 billion people is also the major supplier of wares for department store giant Wal-Mart, and is steadily growing ... (view more)

With the North American automotive industry in a tailspin at the moment, automakers are turning to the latest and most popular technology to regain appeal. And, for anyone not stuck in a cave or buried by a landslide for the last five years, the ... clearest way to catch a techie's eye is to flash an Apple iPod -- the industry's current undisputed "Golden Toy". That's exactly what Ford, General Motors, and even Mazda are doing, as they work with engineers to integrate Apple's wares into future audio systems. Isn't this technology already out there? At this time, most iPod owners are forced to ... (view more)