Nov 12

ITunes Movies, AppleTV Launch Internationally

Posted in: itunes, Media Players, Movies, Today's Chili

Apple has at last begun a proper international roll-out of its iTunes Movie Store, and with it the Apple TV. Just five years after video was first available in iTunes, non-US customers can buy and rent films.

The extent of this new wave is not entirely clear. Spain has movies to buy and rent, and the rumors says that Taiwan, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Portugal, and Belgium are also on the list. There are a few non-US countries, like the UK and Germany, which already have access to video.

The AppleTV is also showing up in online Apple Stores. Here in Spain, it is going for a too-expensive €119, or $163, way above the $99 charged back at home. As for movies, they cost €10 ($14) to buy in SD, €17 ($23) in HD and €4 ($5.50) to rent. Ouch.

To check if your country is included, just head over to the iTunes Store, where a new top-level category has been added. You can also buy movies from your iOS device. While the iPad version of the store has not yet gotten the new section, the movies can be found, previewed and bought by searching.

There’s one giant piece of bad news, though. The movies are dubbed, not subtitled. This is fine for the multiplex blockbuster crowd, but the demographic which will buy and rent movies from iTunes is surely the demographic which would prefer the original soundtrack with subs.

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Nov 10

iHome’s iW1 AirPlay dock gets detailed

Posted in: airplay, Apple, ios, ipad, iPhone, ipod dock, ipod touch, IpodDock, IpodTouch, itunes, Today's Chili

We’re all expecting iOS 4.2 to hit sometime this week and bring AirPlay streaming with it, and it looks like iHome is getting prepared — the company just updated its AirPlay speaker dock page with more info. The iW1, as it’s been named, is much slicker than its minimalist looks would suggest: the portable speaker system features a built-in lithium-ion battery with an inductive charging base so you can just grab and go, Bongiovi Accoustics audio, capacitive touch controls and support for iHome’s iOS configuration apps, and a USB port for charging and local audio playback. Oh, and it can stream music from iOS devices and iTunes using AirPlay, of course. Sadly, there’s still no price or ship date, but if this thing is priced anywhere close to earth we’d say the Sonos S5 has got itself some serious competition.

iHome’s iW1 AirPlay dock gets detailed originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Nov 2010 17:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 10

iOS 4.2 coming Friday with iTunes and Mac OS X updates, sans AirPrint? (update)

Posted in: airplay, Apple, ios, ipad, iPhone, ipod touch, IpodTouch, itunes, mac os x, MacOsX, os, os x, OsX, rumor, speculation, Today's Chili
We knew it was coming, and now we’re hearing from MacStories (and their source at AT&T, who was probably wearing a trench coat and fedora) that iOS 4.2 for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad will roll out beginning this Friday, November 12, at 10AM PST. Of course, in order to take advantage AirPlay we’ll have to see an update to iTunes as well, which is good because iTunes 10.1 is rumored to be coming tomorrow today at some point. But that ain’t all! It seems that the website of note for Mac stories has been hearing from devs that references to AirPrint have been disappearing from online documentation in the iOS developer center, leading to speculation that Mac OS X 10.6.5 (also rumored to hit tomorrow today) will not have the ability to print wirelessly after all. We can’t speak to the veracity of all these claims, but we’re pretty sure we can look forward to a new OS for our Apple handhelds before the week is over.

Update: Of course, as Benedict Murray pointed out in the comments, if there really were a conspiracy afoot to disappear AirPrint, Apple certainly would have dropped it from the product page. So we’ll see.

iOS 4.2 coming Friday with iTunes and Mac OS X updates, sans AirPrint? (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Nov 2010 10:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 09

Apple Announces iPod Touch and $399 8GB iPhone

Posted in: Apple, Gadgets, iPhone, ipod, itunes, Today's Chili

This article was written on September 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

applelineup

It’s a big day for Apple at their “And the Beat Goes on” gathering today in San Francisco. The two biggest announcements are the launch of the iPod Touch which looks extremely similar to the iPhone, and a huge price drop for the 8GB iPhone. There were also a handful of other announcements which I’ll include at the end in brief. Without further ado, let’s talk about the iPod Touch!

–iPod Touch–

Offered in an 8GB and a 16GB model starting at $299, the iPod Touch is for all of your music, videos, and photos. Just like the iPhone, it has the multi-touch interface, a 3.5 inch widescreen display, Wi-Fi browsing, and now music downloads from iTunes!

Coming in at only 8mm thick, it’s slick and thin! The Wi-Fi feature with Safari is sure to be a big hit because now users will have access to YouTube videos and the iTunes Wi-Fi music store. The only downside, like the iPhone, is that it doesn’t have a hard-drive.

–$399 8GB iPhone–

Oh boy, am I feeling for all those “early-adopters” who just had to have the iPhone at launch! Not only is Apple discontinuing the 4GB iPhone, they’re dropping the price of the 8GB from $599 to $399! And to think, it’s only been 2 months since it launched…

For those of you who just bought an 8GB iPhone within the last 14 days, it’s rumored that Apple is willing to price-match. For those of you who stood in line on June 30th, so sorry… you’re out of luck!

Just an afterthought, I wonder what the refurb price will be? My guess is $299.

–Other News–

I said it was a big day, didn’t I? While the iPod Touch and the “overgrown” Nano were expected, a $200 price-drop for the iPhone definitely wasn’t! Oh, and did you hear? The Zune received a price-drop today too. Nice timing, huh? It’s now $199. No matter what Microsoft comes up with for the Zune, I don’t think they’ll be able to top what Apple just put out on the table.

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Nov 03

Apple Bumps iTunes Song Samples Up to 90 Seconds

Posted in: Apple, itunes, MP3 Digital Audio, Today's Chili

itunes_samples.jpg

Apple last night confirmed long rumored plans to extend the length of song preview offered through its iTunes music store. The long standing 30 second preview length will be tripled to 90 seconds for songs longer than two and half minutes (those falling below that mark will still be 30–sorry Minutemen fans).

Apple alerted record labels about the change with a form letter stating, “we believe that giving potential customers more time to listen to your music will lead to more purchases.”

Apple failed to negotiate the longer songs with the National Music Publishers Association, back in September. Since then, the company has spoke to music licensing groups like BMI. From the sound of it, however, this may well be the first time the company has spoken directly to labels about its plan to move forward.

“All you have to do is continue making your content available on the iTunes Store,” Apple wrote in the letter, “which will confirm your acceptance to the following terms.”

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Nov 02

Apple informs labels that iTunes song previews will be 90 seconds long, hopes they don’t mind?

Posted in: Apple, itunes, Music, preview, rumor, rumors, Today's Chili

It’s all up there in black and white, but we’ll be happy to spell it out again here — it seems that Apple has decided to extend the length of iTunes song previews from 30 seconds to 90 seconds. Sounds just fine to us, but not to the recipients of this letter, who are told the change is happening whether they like it or not and it’s for their own good. “We believe that giving potential customers more time to listen to your music will lead to more purchases,” the document reads, but without giving the music labels any way to say no. We don’t actually know the origin of this particular document, so we’re not saying this is a done deal by any means, but if the letter’s legit you’re looking at the world’s largest online music store telling the labels to put up and shut up — or else peddle their tunes somewhere else.

Update: It’s worth noting that CNET reported that iTunes song previews might double in length about two months ago.

Apple informs labels that iTunes song previews will be 90 seconds long, hopes they don’t mind? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 12

NBC to Offer Free TV Show Downloads

Posted in: Apple, itunes, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on September 20, 2007 by CyberNet.

nbc logo It was just a couple of weeks ago that NBC announced that it didn’t intend to renew their contract with iTunes once their current contract runs out in December. Some people thought the little argument between Apple and NBC would soon be over, and NBC shows would remain on iTunes come December. Unfortunately for iTunes users, there’s no kissing and making up here. NBC is moving on and starting in October, they’ll be offering free downloads of their shows via NBC Direct.

After a show airs on NBC, it’ll be available for a week to be downloaded.  When someone downloads the show, they will then have 7 days to watch the content. Each show will include ads that can’t be skipped, thus the reason these downloads are free. The list of shows that will be available at launch is pretty impressive too.  The list includes: The Office, 30 Rock, Bionic Woman, Heroes, Friday Night Lights, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

NBC said that they wanted to get rid of the middle-man (think Apple) which they’ve done.  They also said that they hope to eventually turn NBC Direct into a service that could compete with iTunes. As it stands, the movie downloads are only available for those using Windows. So trying to compete with iTunes is out of the question for now until they provide a client for those using Mac computers and portable devices.

This is just the beginning for NBC’s download service. According to Ars, "a closed P2P network is planned to eventually provide higher-resolution programming, with paid download-to-own, rental, and subscription business models on track for late 2008." It’ll be interesting to see how well this model will work for NBC. I’m skeptical that it will be as successful as they’re anticipating it to be, especially because they don’t have a client available for both Mac computers and other portable devices. Many of the people who download shows and movies from iTunes do it so that they can watch them on portable devices.

I’d say this is bad news for Apple, and hopefully other media companies won’t follow in the footsteps of NBC and eliminate the middle-man. It’s understandable that they want control over their content, but in the end, will they be able to lure in enough people to make it a success? Or will they turn back to iTunes?

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Oct 08

Apple in talks to launch iTunes subscription music service?

Posted in: Apple, itunes, rumor, rumors, Today's Chili

Rumors of an iTunes subscription service are nothing new, but it’s not every day they pop up in Reuters and the New York Post and CNET all at once, so here we go again. The Reuters and NYP reports claim Apple’s Eddy Cue has been meeting with record execs to pitch a new $10-$15 monthly service that would offer unlimited access to music — the pricing would be tiered depending on the amount of music consumed and how long you’d get access to it. That goes hand in hand with the CNET piece, which says Apple’s trying to keep Spotify from getting US deals in place by telling the labels they’ll never make any money from the service — not the most chivalrous of moves, but no one ever said the music business was a friendly place. Of course, we’ve been hearing versions of these rumors for ages now and we’re sure there are always talks ongoing, so this could all be nothing, but we’d bet Apple’s trying to work something out ahead of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 launch and renewed Zune marketing push. We’ll see, we’ll see.

Apple in talks to launch iTunes subscription music service? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Oct 2010 11:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 05

Netflix brings video out support to iPhone 4, fourth gen iPod touch

Posted in: app, Apple, iPhone, IphoneApp, ipod touch, IpodTouch, itunes, netflix, Today's Chili
Netflix already added video out support to its iPad app a few months ago, and it’s now finally brought the same functionality to iPhone and iPod touch users as well. Unfortunately, it’s not quite bringing all iPhone and iPod touch users up to speed, as the app will only support video out on the iPhone 4 and fourth generation iPod touch. If that doesn’t pose a problem for you, however, you can grab the updated app for free right now from your favorite source of iPhone apps.

Netflix brings video out support to iPhone 4, fourth gen iPod touch originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 13:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 04

Spotify launches on Windows Mobile, coming soon for Windows Phone 7

Posted in: itunes, Microsoft, Music, smartphone, Software, stream, streaming, Today's Chili, video, Windows Mobile, windows mobile 6.5, windows phone 7, WindowsMobile, WindowsMobile6.5, WindowsPhone7

There. That feels better, doesn’t it? Windows Mobile loyalists (yeah, all eight of you) who have been holding off on switching for inexplicable reasons now have a reason to celebrate: Spotify’s live on Windows Mobile 6.x. That sweet, sweet music streaming action that other mobile platforms have been enjoying for months is finally on Microsoft’s now-ancient smartphone OS, but the real news is that the team already has a build ready to go for the forthcoming Windows Phone 7. As you’d expect, these versions will allow users to search, browse and play back millions of tracks, stream over WiFi / 3G / 2.5G, play music sans an internet connection (offline playlists) and wirelessly sync between a local computer and a mobile. Windows Phone users should point their browser to m.spotify.com to get their download on (or hold off for it to hit the Windows Marketplace), and those who are still feeling timid can catch a beautifully narrated promotional video just past the break.

Continue reading Spotify launches on Windows Mobile, coming soon for Windows Phone 7

Spotify launches on Windows Mobile, coming soon for Windows Phone 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Oct 2010 09:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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