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Beatles music not yet on iTunes
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Apple, Corporate News, Music, Portable Audio / Video, Rumors,
Update: Turns out, Apple is saying this is an unsubstantiated rumor.
“This is not news nor is it a scoop,” says an Apple Inc. spokesman, declining further comment.
In a USA Today interview, Steve Jobs said that:
It will happen — I hope by the first half of next year. As soon as they’re ready, we’re ready.
The original story:
Get ready to welcome Sgt. Pepper to your iPod. Sir Paul has finally reached an agreement with Apple and the iTunes store. For $400 million, they will receive the Beatles’ back catalog. Proceeds will be divided between McCartney, Ringo Starr, the families of John Lennon and George Harrison, and no doubt will trickle down to Heather Mills. Michael Jackson, EMI, and Sony, who also own part of the Beatles music, will also receive stipends as part of the deal.
Read More 
| Crave
Gallery: Beatles music not yet on iTunes
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iPhone SDK released, available for download
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Corporate News, Handhelds, Software,
Apple has officially announced the iPhone SDK, and it is amazing. In fact, the SDK gives third-party developers access to the exact same tools, APIs, and Cocoa Touch framework that Apple has been using to design their own iPhone apps. This includes features like location-aware applications, hardware-accelerated 3D graphics, the 3-axis accelerometer, and complete access to the media features available on the iPhone. The SDK is built right in to Xcode, which includes an iPhone emulator, called iPhone Simulator. This let’s you test your applications without having to load them onto an actual iPhone, where you might end up with a bricked device. When you are ready to test on your actual phone, it is simple to send your app over to the iPhone for real-world testing.
Exciting, right? If you want to give it a shot, the SDK toolset is available for all to download - free of charge. You won’t be able to send your apps to your iPhone unless you are selected to participate in the iPhone 2.0 firmware update beta program, but hey, that’s what iPhone Simulator is for.
Read More | iPhone SDK
Gallery: iPhone SDK released, available for download
ActiveSync licensed for iPhone by Apple
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Corporate News, Handhelds, Software, Wireless / WiFi,
Many, many people have been waiting for official iPhone Exchange support, and Apple has finally responded. The company has licensed ActiveSync from Microsoft, which will make the iPhone fully compatible with Exchange. That means:
- Push email
- Push contact syncing
- Push calendar syncing
- Remote wipe to clear data off device if lost
All of this ActiveSync goodness will be available with the iPhone 2.0 software update, which Apple says will be released in June.
Gallery: ActiveSync licensed for iPhone by Apple
Apple Time Capsule vs. Airport Extreme size comparison
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Features, PC / Laptop, Storage, Wireless / WiFi,
If our Time Capsule unboxing gallery wasn’t enough for you, we’ve got a bit more for you in term of images of Apple‘s new NAS wireless router. We know that images can be deceiving, so we thought we’d put the current Airport Express router up against the Time Capsule and snap some photos so that you can see the size difference. The Time Capsule is definitely larger - understandable, since it has to pack in a 500 GB or 1 TB hard drive. Aside from size, the only other really obvious difference between the two is that the Airport Extreme has a white Apple logo, while Time Capsule’s is silver. Check out the rest of the shots in our Time Capsule vs. Airport Extreme size comparison gallery.
Read More | Time Capsule vs. Airport Extreme
Gallery: Apple Time Capsule vs. Airport Extreme size comparison
When Apple announced Time Capsule, Steve Jobs promised that it would ship in February. Well, in similar fashion to the launch of both the iPhone and Leopard, Apple waited until just about the very last moment to get the product out the door. In any event, we ordered our Time Capsule as soon as it hit the Apple Store Online, and it just got out the door today. Looks like we can expect it to arrive around March 4th.
If you ordered yours after we ordered ours, let us know if you are also seeing that yours has shipped as well.
Gallery: Time Capsule finally shipping
Apple must be positively giddy at hearing the news that the iTunes Store is now the #2 retailer of music, second only to Wally World. The company claims that it sold 20 million tunes on Christmas Day alone. Based on an NPD Group survey, the top four also included Best Buy and Target. The study also concluded that about 29 million consumers, ages 36 to 50, acquired music legally. They were those that had recently purchased (or received) MP3 players. That was an increase of 5 mill over the year before. That’s a lot of assuaged guilt.
Read More | NPD Group
Gallery: Apple is Second in Music Sales
FMJ Earbuds Complement iPhones
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Accessories, Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Portable Audio / Video,
Another company catering to the iPhone crowd is Skullcandy with their FMJ Earphones. They feature a coiled metal cable at a length of 1.1 meters and an in-line mic. The 11mm buds have a frequency range of 16Hz to 20KHz and an impedance of 500mW. Although they are after Apple devotees, the 3.5mm gold plated plug will work with Blackberry Curves and other handhelds and phones. In a choice of black, chrome, or silver, expect availability around the first two weeks of March with a price of $79.95.
Read More | Skullcandy
Gallery: FMJ Earbuds Complement iPhones
iPhone SDK Apple Event on March 6
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Corporate News, Handhelds, Software,
Amidst all the excitement about the new Apple announcements yesterday (Penryn Macbooks and MacBook Pros, plus iPhone 1.1.4 firmware), many were left wondering just where the heck the promised iPhone SDK had gone. After all, we’d been promised by Steve Jobs himself that it would appear in late February. As it turns out, Apple will be holding another of their Town Hall-type events on March 6, which will specifically deal with both the iPhone SDK as well as “some exciting new enterprise features.” On the invitation itself, you see a Software Update sign, an SDK sign, and an Enterprise sign. Yeah, fairly vague, we know. Still, it is a promising sign. Now we just wait for March 6.
Gallery: iPhone SDK Apple Event on March 6
iPhone 1.1.4 Firmware Update now available, already jailbroken
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Software,
Looks like we have new iPhone firmware as well this morning! In addition to refreshing their MacBook and MacBook Pro lines to Penryn processors, Apple has also released the new iPhone 1.1.4 firmware. Go ahead and check for a new update after connecting your iPhone to iTunes. Of course, if you are
unlocked, you may want to wait for a bit while everything gets figured out. Apple is saying this release is all about bug fixes - but we are hoping there is also some iPhone SDK magic in there somewhere.
EDIT: Okay, if you are jailbroken, go ahead and update. ZiPhone still works, and will jailbreak the just-released 1.1.4 firmware update…although the developer recommends waiting until he can fully test. Your call.
Gallery: iPhone 1.1.4 Firmware Update now available, already jailbroken
Apple bumps MacBook and MacBook Pro to Penryn
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop,
Ever since Penryn chips started making their way into mobile computers, we all knew it was just a matter of time before Apple bumped their mobiles to the latest chips from Intel as well. This morning, in their Tuesday update, they did just that. Both the MacBook and MacBook Pro are now rocking the Penryn Core 2 Duo chipset. If you are eyeing the MacBook Pro, those have the added bonus of a 6 MB L2 cache if you choose a 2.5 or 2.6 GHz chip, and Multi-Touch trackpads are now standard . That’s hot.
For the MacBook, pricing starts at $1099 for the base model, which includes a Combo drive instead of a SuperDrive, a 2.1 GHz chip, a 120GB hard drive, and 1 GB of RAM. For $200 more, you get a 2.4 GHz chip, an additional gig of RAM, a SuperDrive, and a 160 GB drive. If you need more hard drive space than that, you can get the Black MacBook, which hooks you up with 250 GB of storage.
Over on the MacBook Pro side of things, $1,999 gets you a 2.4 GHz chip, 2 GB of RAM, a 200 GB hard drive, double-layer SuperDrive, and a 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT. If you move up to the $2,499 model, you are bumped up to a 2.5 GHz chip (with 6 MB L2 cache!), a 250 GB hard drive, and a 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT. For $2,799, you get all the same specs, but you are bumped up to a 17-inch screen, if that’s your thing.
All in all, we’d say this is a worthy upgrade if your mobile computer is looking a bit long in the tooth.
Read More | Apple Press Release
