apple

With Microsoft's entry into the digital music industry scheduled to launch before the holidays, many are wondering how Apple's iPod will fare against the new threat. In a recent interview with Newsweek, Apple CEO Steve Jobs left nothing unclear when ... expressing his lack of concern. Mircosoft's Zune, he says, does not measure up to his company's widely popular iPod. When asked point blank if he was worried about Zune, Jobs simply replied "In a word, no." (Source: news.com ) Jobs went on to dismiss Zune's capability for sharing music wirelessly, a feature that Microsoft has touted as a key ... (view more)

Apple announced last Friday that it would be teaming up with U2 front man, Bono, in offering a special RED edition of the iPod nano to benefit the singer's charity. RED, the name of Bono's charity, supports fighting diseases in Africa, especially ... AIDS. (Source: betanews.com) The special-edition bright red iPod nano acts as a part of a large corporation-rock star campaign to raise funds and awareness for the fight against AIDS in Africa. In some Southern African countries, the national adult HIV prevalence rate has risen higher than initially thought possible. In Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, ... (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)

In recent months, it seems corporate entities have held the upper hand in the great war between big business and underground hackers. The best example of this shift in power has been in the music industry, where conglomerates of major names (i.e. ... Sony) and protectorate groups (International Federation of Phonographic Industries) have been routinely "cleaning up" the once lawless peer-to-peer landscape. However, the hackers have finally struck back, releasing two separate programs to whittle away at the digital rights management (DRM) systems put in place by Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft and ... (view more)

Recently, CNET News produced a story examining the stalled popularity of the iPod. According to the article's author, a lack of hardware updates to the iPod has led to a current state of tech purgatory, a place where Apple might see its digital ... music fanbase slowly decline. Has the iPod bottomed out? We'll look at a few angles in determining the answer to that here. The iPod has seen a few different versions, from the original massive-capacity player, to the half-gig shuffle, to the most recent "Nano." The Nano did revitalize the iPod name, despite CNET News' brushing off of the product. ... (view more)

Apple announced this past Tuesday that Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been appointed to the company's board of directors. Schmidt will still remain CEO of Google. Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO praised both Schmidt and Google saying that "Eric is obviously ... doing a terrific job as CEO of Google, and we look forward to his contributions as a member of Apple's board of directors … Like Apple, Google is very focused on innovation and we think Eric's insights and experience will be very valuable in helping to guide Apple in the years ahead." (Source: eetimes.com ) Schmidt brings to Apple 20 years of ...<a href="/news/1535/googles-ceo-joins-apples-board-directors" class="more-link">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)

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)