Hasta La Gadget!

Take this for whatever it’s worth (which isn’t a whole heck of a lot without any official confirmation from any of the parties involved), but the New York Post has it that the Justice Department’s inquiry into Apple‘s iTunes practices may in fact be growing. ‘Course, it’s not exactly surprising to hear that authorities are now investigating every nook and cranny of Apple’s tactics thanks to Steve Jobs’ public thrashing of Flash and his sly insistence that the world shun Adobe while hugging HTML5, but we’ve still yet to hear from the DoJ and Apple about what exactly is going on within Cupertino. At any rate, the Post notes that a number of “sources” have confirmed that the inquiry is growing, most notably to include “how the iPhone and iPad maker does business with media outfits in areas beyond music.” We’d heard whispers that things may be getting just a bit too dictator-ish in the developers Ts and Cs, and now it seems that the DoJ is “asking questions about the terms that Apple lays out for computer programmers who want to develop apps for the iPad.” It’ll be interesting to see how all of this plays out, but we can bet devs (and end-users, frankly) are hoping and praying for less restrictions in the future.

DoJ’s inquiry at Apple purportedly expanding beyond iTunes practices originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 May 2010 07:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For its next Apple TV, Apple may ditch the set-top box form factor and instead cram a media player into a tiny device running the iPhone OS, according to Engadget.

The blog cites an anonymous tipster who claims the next Apple TV has been described as “an iPhone without a screen,” containing only two ports — the power socket and the video-out — and the same internal architecture as an iPhone (A4 CPU). The next Apple TV is also rumored to feature 16GB of Flash storage and support for 1080P HD.

The device will cost only $100, according to the tipster — significantly lower than the current $230 system. Engadget did not provide a time frame of when to expect the device.

Most interestingly, Engadget claims the device will have a strong focus on cloud-based media, meaning most video you view will be streamed from the internet. That’s plausible, given that Apple is building a gigantic data center and the company recently acquired streaming-music service Lala. Some sources have also said that Apple is planning to reboot iTunes into a streaming media center.

In conference calls with investors, Apple has repeatedly referred to its Apple TV as a “hobby,” implying it’s still a niche product that has yet to be a blockbuster hit. If the rumor turns out to be true (and we find it to be very plausible), then this certainly sounds like a compelling revamp of the Apple TV.

Engadget’s rumor follows Google’s announcement of Google TV, a web TV platform based on the Android operating system. Recent moves reveal that Apple and Google are becoming fierce rivals, competing in the mobility space, maps, and advertising. The next battle could be for streaming media.

See Also:

• Apple TV Prototype Sells on eBay for 46 Bucks
• 5 Reasons Why Apple TV Rules, 5 Reasons Why it Sucks
• Why Apple TV Must Evolve to Avoid Extinction
• What We Want in an Apple TV

Image of a current Apple TV menu: Apple

Sure sure, Froyo is great and all, but Google just blew our minds with two previews of upcoming Android features at I/O: OTA application installation and remote music streaming. OTA installation is just as simple as you’d expect — after browsing to an app on your desktop, you can push it to your phone and install it with just a single click, all done over the air. Interestingly, Google also showed music being purchased and transferred from Android Marketplace in the same way, which could indicate a deeper push towards music integration, or just be a nice demo. Either way, it’s pretty slick stuff — the fewer wires we have to carry, the better.

The remote music streaming is a little crazier: Google bought a company called Simplify Media, which makes a bit of desktop software that can stream all your music directly from iTunes to your phone. The demo was quite slick — you just open the app and push “all,” and all your music is instantly available. Whether or not this’ll work over 3G or be limited to the local network is still up in the air, but we’re dying to try it out.

Google adding over-the-air app installation and iTunes streaming to Android originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 12:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just got our hands on Wi-FI Sync and guess what? It actually works — fancy that! For those of you out of the loop, Apple recently rejected this gem of an app (go figure), but thanks to the magic of jailbreaking, that was hardly the end of the road. Days later, Wi-Fi Sync ended up on Cydia (Mac-only, for now) with a completely-affordable price tag of $9.99, promising iPhone and iPod touch users the ability to sync their device with iTunes sans any cabling whatsoever. Since we’re notoriously lazy when it comes to actually plugging in our phones and syncing, we fired up the program on our jailbroken 3GS in order to see exactly what the law-abiders in attendance were missing out on.

Installation couldn’t have been easier. We parted ways with our Hamilton, downloaded the necessary companion software for our laptop, and fired up the application. The iPhone was immediately recognized, and after a few prompts we were ready for action. Syncing was just as easy as it normally is (with “easy” being a relative term here), just without that iPod wire hanging around and bumming everyone out. We will say, however, that things weren’t as snappy OTA as a standard hardwired connection. It was a bit sluggish on the first couple of runs, and although iTunes crashed a few times (boo), we’re fairly confident in saying that a poor WiFi connection was to blame for the jankiness. Once we migrated closer to the router, things went much smoother. Still unsure if it’s worth the investment? Then give the video past the break a look.

Continue reading Wi-Fi Sync for iPhone video hands-on: it works!

Wi-Fi Sync for iPhone video hands-on: it works! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 May 2010 10:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sync music, sync photos, sync too much money into a mediocre phone. Now that we’ve gotten the amateur comedy hour out of the way, it’s time to bring you the news that Kins and Macs will henceforth play very nicely together thanks to the just released Media Sync software from Mark/Space. Chosen by Microsoft as the exclusive provider of Mac syncing capabilities for Kin, the company is offering iTunes and iPhoto integration, whereby you’ll able to transfer playlists and image albums both to and from your Kin device, as well as a neat transcoding feature to make videos playable on it. The software’s free and can be found at the source link below, while the press announcement awaits after the break.

Continue reading Kin Media Sync for Mac syncs Kin media with Mac

Kin Media Sync for Mac syncs Kin media with Mac originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 May 2010 03:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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