Weblogs Inc : Tag apple

Apple Snatches Up Lala, iTunes Streaming Coming Soon?

By now you've likely heard the news that Apple has snatched up the music streaming service Lala. The service is just the latest online music portal to find itself bought out by a major corporation, with imeem and iLike recently being purchased by MySpace, and with CBS grabbing Last.FM .

Lala has never enjoyed the financial or critical success of competitors like Pandora or Rhapsody -- in part thanks to its convoluted payment system. (Users can download songs for $0.79 or $0.89, or pay $0.10 to get unlimited streaming.) It seems pretty clear that Apple doesn't expect to make a ton of money with Lala, so why is it buying the struggling streaming service? Most analysts, including those from AllThingsD and the New York Times, seem to agree that Apple is less interested in the site itself, and more interested in its technology and development team.

iPhone 3GS emulates N64, blows minds in the process

Look what we have here -- a preview of 3G4, a N64 emulator developed by NWorksDev. Compatible with the iPhone 3GS and the iPod Touch 3G, this bad boy appears to be rendering down the graphics (as one would expect) but all in all it seems to be running pretty smoothly. Of course, this is a work in progress: the developer (who claims to be 14 years old) says that he has to overcome duplicate button registers, delayed presses, and some crashing -- and he has yet to implement the L, R, and Z keys. That said, this thing is pretty sweet! Hit up the YouTube links for info on becoming a beta tester -- but not before you see the thing in action after the break.

AT&T's new iPhone app conveys your disappointment in real time

OK, so the bigwigs at AT&T and Verizon have learned to make nice (for the time being at least), but what's a hapless iPhone user to do about dropped calls and other network problems? The AT&T Mark The Spot app offers long-suffering (or even the intermittently bedeviled) customers the ability to ping their carrier in real time, with location-specific feedback, should one experience a coverage crisis. To begin registering your gripes, hit the source link and download away! [Warning: iTunes source link]

iPhone orchestra at the vanguard of smartphone music-making push

The relationship between cellphones and music has almost always been a quirky one, producing bouts of the surreal punctuated by an occasional flourish of the sublime. Latest to join the melodic fray are Georg Essl from the University of Michigan and his "mobile phone ensemble." Each of the participating students has designed a noise-making app for his or her iPhone, which is used in conjunction with the built-in accelerometer and touchscreen to make (hopefully beautiful) music. Though we may consider this a gimmick for now, Professor Essl is most enthusiastic about the future prospects of utilizing smartphones to make music with legitimate aspirations. The debut performance of this newfangled orchestra is on December 9, or you can check out a preview in the video after the break.

[Thanks, Ry]

Apple denunciada por infringir una patente... ¡sobre la cámara!

No hay duda que hay auténticos profesionales que establecen su modelo de negocio en torno a registrar patentes para luego sangrar a grandes empresas llevándolas a los tribunales. Pues bien, una diminuta firma norteamericana denominada St. Clair Intellectual Consultants y compuesta por ocho personas ha demandado a los de Cupertino por considerar que el iPhone vulnera los derechos registrados por ellos en torno a la cámara.

Como lo lees: según esta firma, su patente registra la trasformación a algún formato de una foto tomada con la cámara de un móvil y por ende, cualquier móvil que saque la foto en un formato y lo convierta a otro debería pasar por caja. Si el asunto te parece pintoresco, no le es tanto: estos broncas han conseguido ya sangrar a gigantes como Sony, Fujifilm y Canon.

[Vía Cult of Mac]

アップル、音楽ストリーミングサービス Lalaを買収

アップルが音楽ストリーミングサービスLalaを買収しました。Lalaは10月にGoogleが音楽検索サービスを発表したときもパートナーとして名前が挙がっていた企業。ウェブサイト上で800万曲以上をストリーミング提供しており、1回目の再生は無料、繰り返し再生したい場合は1曲10セントぽっきり、MP3で欲しいときは追加で79セントというビジネスを展開しています。最近はiPhone用アプリも提供。ただしストリーミングサービスの常として、日本からは利用できません。

LalaやPandora、iLike、Imeemといった音楽ストリーミングを提供するサービスは近年人気を集めていますが、AllThingsDのPeter Kafkaによればどちらも経営はなかなか苦しい状態が続いていたとのことです。そのため買収金額は不明ながら、そう大きな買い物ではなかった模様。ちなみにiLikeと（公表されていませんがおそらく）ImeemはMySpaceに買収されています。

買収はWallStreetJournalが報じたもので、「アップルはこれまでも小さな技術系企業を買収してきたし、原則として買収の目的や計画についてはコメントしない」とアップルのスポークスマン Steve Dowlingはコメントしています。Lalaからのコメントはなし。アップルがついに音楽ストリーミングに着手！　と期待したい気分もあり、他社がうまくいかなかったところにわざわざ足を踏み入れるだろうかという疑問もあり。CNetではただ人材を求めていただけという見方をしていますが、ジョブズなら何かやってくれると期待しないほうが難しいのではないでしょうか。

Read - AllThingsD、Peter Kafkaの記事
Read - WallStreetJournalの記事
Read - CNetの記事「狙いは人材か」

Mac Pro mit 3,33 GHz jetzt auch im deutschen Apple-Store

Ab sofort kann der Quadcore-Mac Pro auch in Deutschland mit einem Xeon-Prozessor mit 3,33 GHz bestellt werden, nicht mehr wie bis anhin mit maximal 2,93 GHz. Der Aufpreis gegenüber der 2,66 GHz Standardkonfiguration beträgt 1080 Euro. Ausserdem gibt es nun sowohl für den Vierkern- als auch für den Achtkern-Mac Pro 2TB-Festplatten, für die man je 495 Euro hinblättern muss. Der Aufpreis für den Austausch der ersten 640 GB-Festplatte gegen das 2TB-Modell liegt bei 315 Euro. Macht auf den Pfennig genau 5179,01 Euro für den Quadcore-Mac Pro mit 3,33 GHz und 8TB.

The World's Most Expensive iPod

Katherine Hughes, of Stuart Hughes, has designed what is likely the world's most expensive iPod. The iPod Touch SUPREME's body was re-formed using 149 grams of solid, 22-carat gold, with a rear Apple logo from 21 grams of gold that houses 53 VVS1, color F diamonds. The front outer section has been set with 300 VVS1 diamonds, also color F. The main navigation buttons has 12 diamonds of the same quality set in 16 grams of gold, all of which surround a single cut pink 2.10-carat diamond, color G-H. A true limited edition -- only three available. £139,995, or $231,776 USD at today's exchange rate.

Apple getting sued again by patent profiteers

It must be hard to be as popular as Apple. You're always fighting the competition, who sometimes come late to the dance with a wannabee product, then deliver snarky punches into the kidneys with their TV ads. Even worse are the lawyers, who circle the company like a flock of vultures, picking away at whatever juicy bits of meat they can get.

But the true bottom feeders are the "patent trolls," a specific species of law firm that has picked up patents from companies that usually never brought a product to market. They watch for other companies to come out with products that use a piece of technology that may or may not be covered under the patents they hold, and then either sue the company for patent infringement or force them to pay license fees. This document from legal firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP details the strategy used by patent trolls and how targets can fight back.

Apple's latest attack, as reported in Macworld, is coming from St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants Inc. (SCIPC), a firm made up of two lawyers who purchased patents for US$100,000 from a group of investors who failed to start up a digital camera company. The company says that its patents cover technology that allows digital cameras to save pictures in multiple formats. So far, SCIPC raked in over US$179 million from various other consumer electronics firms (Sony and Canon, to name just two), and now its leveled the sights at Apple.

SCIPC filed its lawsuit October 26th in Delaware, suing Apple for violating Patent 5,138,459, entitled "Electronic Still Video Camera with Direct Personal Computer (PC) Compatible Digital Formal Output." The suit is specifically targeting the iPhone and other devices made by Apple that include digital cameras in them. Judging from the legal precedent that has been set by previous SCIPC suits, Apple could easily be about to shell out some big bucks to a happy troll.

Apple goes gaga for Lala

Lala, an online music service, certainly has had many advantages. The team is top-notch, with veterans from companies like Yahoo! (YHOO), eBay (EBAY) and Blogger. They also have had the benefit of learning from the many failed companies in the music space. Oh, and Lala was able to raise a substantial amount of money.

But, somehow this was not enough. If anything, Lala continued to languish and as a result, agreed to sell out to Apple (AAPL). The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Apple buys Lala, 'cloud' provider of music

Consumer technology giant Apple (AAPL) has taken a big step into the Internet "cloud" by purchasing streaming music company Lala, a deal that some industry experts value at under $35 million. According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple, which already commands a big share of the music industry with its iTunes music service, "could either find a way to adapt Lala's Web song offerings or it could incorporate the startup's technology in a subscription service of some kind." Lala currently allows its customers to rent songs at $0.10 each to be streamed to their handsets.

Apple's iTunes allows customers to buy songs and download them to their computers or iPods. Once the iTunes user has the songs, and in some cases movies, he owns them forever. The model has done well, but it's incomplete. Many people want to stream music any place and any time to any connected device. That allows digital consumers to rent music, which is then sent to them over the Internet "cloud" where it is stored on remote servers.

El iPhone consigue unas ventas muy pobres en sus primeras dos semanas en China

Parece que el culebrón China-iPhone no va a abandonarnos en mucho tiempo. Tras las innumerables ocasiones en las que la compañía de telecomunicaciones Unicom ha desmentido y confirmado y vuelto a desmentir el lanzamiento del teléfono de Apple en el enorme país asiático, se cumplen ahora dos semanas desde su lanzamiento oficial. Y lo cierto es que los números no son nada buenos.

A pesar de que la compañía pretendía seducir al 10 por ciento de sus 140 millones de usuarios, lo cierto es que, por poner un ejemplo, tan sólo se han vendido cinco unidades a través de taobao.com, el mayor vendedor online de aquel país. Por su parte, Unicom -que también vende el teléfono a través de su web- no da datos de ventas, pero probablemente no sean demasiado halagüeñas ya que comentaron que habían distribuido 5.000 .

Las razones de estas bajas cifras parecen estar en la censura del país sobre el WiFi del terminal y su elevado precio, que vale 900 euros al cambio con la opción más barata.

[Vía TUAW]

Apple compra el servicio de música en streaming Lala

Ya puedes empezar a hacer cábalas al respecto y soñar con escuchar canciones en streaming en el iPhone. Según Peter Kafka en All Things Digital, Apple ha adquirido el servicio de música en streaming Lala, y Kafka no suele equivocarse en sus anuncios. Al parecer, Apple ha comprado esta empresa a precio de ganga, pero tendremos que esperar a algún posicionamiento oficial al respecto antes de sacar conclusiones. De confirmarse como cierta ¿qué intenciones tendría Apple con la compra? Pronto lo sabremos.

Leer All Things Digital, The Wall Street Journal

Apple kauft Lala Media

Laut All Things Digital hat Apple den Online-Musikdienst Lala übernommen. Bei Lala können die Nutzer per Streaming direkt übers Internet auf acht Millionen Songs zugreifen. Welche Absichten hinter diesem Deal stecken und wieviel Geld geflossen ist, weiss noch keiner so genau. Lala ist zwar kürzlich eine Partnerschaft mit Google eingegangen, ist aber nach wie vor ein keine große Firma. Wahrscheinlich ist daher, dass Apple in erster Linie an Lalas Technologie und Team Interesse hat.

Apple buys Lala music service. Could streaming iTunes be on the way?

Apple has reportedly just purchased Lala, a music service probably best known as a partner in Google's new music search results. Lala offers streaming access to its music library at a rate of 10 cents a track for unlimited replays. Does this mean a cheap streaming option will eventually come to iTunes?

Lala doesn't have a huge user base, so perhaps Apple is planning its own streaming music service to compete with the promising new generation of streaming services like Mog All Access and Spotify (which is anticipated to land in the US in 2010). Some sources are saying that Apple is very interested in Lala's payment system, which sells bulk song credits and thus requires fewer credit card transactions than Apple's current system.

Lala stores users' music in the cloud, so it wouldn't be a stretch for Apple to use this technology to provide users with streaming access to the songs in their iTunes libraries. Rebuying your library at 10 cents a song for streaming access wouldn't be horrifyingly expensive, and Apple would get to cash in again on songs it's already sold for 99 cents a pop. It's way too early to know Apple's actual plan for Lala, but it seems like a smart, forward-looking acquisition to me.

[via Wired]

WSJ confirms Apple purchase of Lala

Well that's that, apparently. Although this story has evolved quite a bit over the day, according to Peter Kafka over at All Things Digital, Apple has indeed coughed up the dough for music streaming service Lala. If you believe what you read in the report (and you probably can, Kafka tends to be a straight shooter), Apple's snapping up the company for what will amount to a bargain-basement price... possibly less than $.50 on the dollar. However, Kafka says at least one source claims his valuation of the deal is off, but we'll have to wait for some official word before we know for sure. If this turns out to all be true, the lingering question is still about Apple's reasoning behind the purchase -- is the company after a particular technology, or is there a service in the offing? Hopefully we'll know soon.

Note: If you want a little background on Lala, Ross Rubin has covered the service extensively in his Switched On column.

Apple looking to buy Lala, get into streaming music? (Update: sale confirmed)

There's no deal yet, but Bloomberg and All Things Digital are reporting "confirmed" buyouts talks between Apple and music-streaming service Lala. If it goes down, the deal would potentially bring free music streaming to Apple's iTunes empire, but we're assuming Steve's less interested in integrating Lala's current service than he is in its talent, back-end technology, and content licensing deals. We'll see where this all goes -- or if it even happens.

Update: The New York Times and Wall Street Journal are now saying this is a done deal.

El Mac Pro recibe un nuevo Xeon de 3,33 GHz y 2TB de disco duro

Si estabas pensando comprar un Mac Pro esta actualización te vendrá que ni pintada, y es que el fabricante ha dado un pequeño empujón a la gama alta de sobremesa con la incorporación de nuevos procesadores y una opción de mayor capacidad de almacenamiento. Exactamente los micros que llegan son unos Intel Xeon a 3,33 GHz, que subirán un poco más el escalón impuesto por los 2,93 GHz del modelo anterior, además del precio, que se situará 1.200 dólares (810 euros) por encima del habitual, sin olvidar los 350 dólares (235 euros) más que cuesta añadir el nuevo disco duro SATA de 2 TB a 7.200 RPM.

Aquellos que hayan estado ahorrando hasta este momento para adquirir la configuración más compleja posible, deben de saber que la opción de 8 núcleos (dos procesadores Xeon), no está disponible por el momento para la máxima configuración de 3,33 GHz. Y ahora es cuando te preguntas: ¿para eso esperé?

[Vía SlashGear]

Inside view of the iPhone Tech Talks from Daniel Jalkut

The following is a guest post from developer Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater. Daniel recently attended an Apple iPhone Tech Talk, and came away inspired. He's also been gracious enough to share his experience on TUAW. Apple's Technology Evangelists have spent the last 3 months touring the USA, Europe and Asia with advice on how to best take advantage of the iPhone's technologies. According to Daniel, it's a fantastic event. --Ed.

Apple's iPhone tech talks are incredible. The format consists of instructional presentations akin to what developers would find at the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC). But while WWDC lasts an entire week, tech talks are limited to a single day of sessions which Apple takes on the road, presenting in hotel conference rooms around the world.

On December 1, I attended the New York City tech talk, at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. The event attracted developers from all over the northeast of the United States (and beyond), because the number of cities Apple takes the tour to is pretty limited. Many folks traveling to New York City end up paying quite a bit for travel and lodging expenses, but that is greatly offset by another impressive aspect of the talks: they are completely free. Developers have to sign up early and then hope for acceptance, but if you're admitted, the entire thing is paid for including lunch, snacks and a wine reception at the end of the day. Very classy, Apple.

Apple adds 3.33GHz Xeon, 2TB hard drive options to Mac Pro

We know it can be tough scraping by with a measly 2.93GHz Xeon processor and 1TB hard drives in your Mac Pro, so you'll no doubt be pleased to know that Apple has finally seen fit to add a bit of extra horsepower to its humble little desktop. That includes a new option for a speedy 3.33GHz Xeon processor, which will add a hefty $1,200 to the base price, and a new a 2TB SATA 3Gb/s 7,200rpm hard drive option (also now available on Apple's Xserve server), which is a comparative bargain at just $350 -- though you can, of course, add four of them. Unfortunately, anyone that's thinking about doubling up on those 3.33GHz Xeon processors is still out of luck, as the 8-core rigs still top out at just 2.93Ghz.