(Image courtesy of Engadget)
iTunes may rule the roost with a whopping 28 percent of the entire music business in the United States, but that doesn’t mean the Feds have to like it.
Engadget is reporting that the U.S. Department of Justice has come sniffing at Apple’s door, having “very preliminary conversation” with Cupertino regarding their dominance in the music business with iTunes. Recent NPD research puts iTunes’ share of the music business at 28 percent, which is four percent higher than it was in the first quarter of 2009.
“According to unnamed sources familiar with the situation, DoJ staff seem most interested in whether or not Apple’s dominance in the market enabled it to unfairly prevent Amazon’s music service from exclusively debuting new songs,” the Engadget report reads, noting that further details are “few and far between.”
For their part, Amazon MP3 holds a tie with Walmart for second place in the NPD data, which is saying something since the big-box retailer tends to censor a lot of the music it sells in the first place.
Nobody knows if the DoJ will walk away and leave Apple alone, but from where we sit, it seems like a lot of blustering on the Feds’ part. After all, Amazon MP3 generally offers a little wider selection and lower prices, with tracks that are totally iTunes compatible — so at least functionality and choice wise, there’s plenty of good competition for Apple’s music behemoth.
(Image courtesy of AppleInsider)
Home theatre lovers have long lamented the absence of an HDMI port on their favorite Macs, particularly the diminutive Mac mini, which seems ready-made for inclusion in such a place. But that may be changing soon.
AppleInsider is reporting that HDMI has been spotted on a prototype of a new Mac mini, essentially replacing the DVI port on the system in favor of the popular High-Definition Multimedia Interface used on modern home theatre components, including HDTVs and even the Apple TV itself.
HDMI was built on top of the DVI (Digital Video Interface) specification, which Apple and other computer manufacturers have used for years to provide connectivity with displays. The HDMI port is more flat than DVI’s, but its backward compatibility has provided a method for Apple users to at least have the option of buying an adapter to get HDMI output for their systems in the past.
But it appears that Apple may finally have a change of heart regarding HDMI, according to at least two unnamed sources queried by AppleInsider. A new Mac mini prototype which includes the port at long last is also said to use Nvidia’s MCP89 chipset, itself the successor to the current MCP79 (aka GeForce 9400M) chipset found in tandem with Intel’s Core 2 Duo processors in most Mac products today.
Sadly, an ongoing dispute between Intel and Nvidia will probably prevent Apple (and others) from using the MCP89 chipset with Intel’s latest Nehalem-based Core i3, i5 and i7 processors. That leaves Apple with no choice but to either delay the product refresh for now, or continue using the existing Core 2 Duo processor.
And what about other Macs with HDMI connectivity? A number of companies offer adapters to convert from mini DisplayPort to HDMI, although most of them will only carry the video signal. Apple is said to have their own adapter which was intended to ship alongside the recent iMac revision — and on newer systems with an updated mini DisplayPort, both audio and video get carried over to HDMI.
AppleInsider also theorizes that such a move might finally lead to the adoption of Blu-ray on the Mac, which CEO Steve Jobs notoriously called “a bag of hurt” back in October, 2008.
A Wall Street analyst claimed that according to various sources, Apple’s tablet product will use Verizon’s wireless network to connect to the Internet when users are no longer near a Wi-Fi hotspot.
"The tablet will be supported by multiple [mobile] carriers," said Brian Marshall of BroadPoint AmTech, who cited unnamed sources who stated they were close to the situation. "Verizon and others," he continued. "Definitely Verizon. I’ve been told that’s a certainty."
On the flip side, Richard Doherty, director of technology at the consulting firm Envisioneering Group told the Wall Street Journal that he feels the tablet won’t connect to 3G due in part to AT&T’s struggles. "We don’t think the networks are up to it," he said.
Marshall disputed that. "The tablet will connect to 3G," he said, "not just wireless [hotspots]."
A Verizon spokeswoman declined to respond to Marshall’s claim, citing that it was company policy to comment "on rumors or speculation. And we won’t do that here."
via ComputerWorld
You’ve got tech vendors and unnamed sources leaking like mad various
tidbits about the hardware and software specs, while publishers and
content providers suggest a whole new market share for Apple to
conquer. Then you’ve got this.
In a recently revealed patent
application, we learn that Apple is seeking protection for touchscreen
technologies that contain "unprecedented integration of typing,
resting, pointing, scrolling, 3D
manipulation, and handwriting into a versatile, ergonomic computer
input device." The level of detail and particularity involved in what
the patent envisions goes beyond theoretical, in our opinion, and walks
right up to the door of tech specs.
For instance, note the level of specificity in the accompanying flow chart below:
Source: AppleInsider
The
document makes pretty clear that Apple envisions a device that not only
allows for the same kind of touchscreen interaction as the iPhone, but
an expanded and far more complex touch response architecture. Are two
fingers touching at the same time? What about more than two fingers?
Are the multiple fingers moving as part of a multi-finger command or is
it simply all the fingers moving at once in sync, as in pulling your
hands away from the screen or picking up the tablet with all fingers
touching it? Are the hand gestures decelerating, and if so does that
indicate a cancellation of the original command request?
While
many reports have suggested that the rumored tablet might not be
designed to compete in the netbook market, Apple clearly envisions a
device that integrates a touch screen keyboard, the patent showing
hands in clear typing position. Likewise, much of the documentation is
specifically about typing. The document also goes in to detail about
the touchscreen’s adaptability to hand gesture commands, addressing the
lack of need for a stylus or a mouse or really any kind of peripheral
device for on-screen controls.
While the patent application
gives partial credit to Fingerworks, a company Apple bought up during
the quest to deliver the iPhone, the essential two-handedness of the
patent points to newer, larger technologies than the iPhone’s screen
real estate would allow. Two-handed typing on-screen also rules out the
previously mentioned 7" screen, as such a size would involve crowding
the users’ hands together in what can only be considered a
non-ergonomic fashion. A 10.7-inch touch screen is only fractionally
smaller than the space necessary for the standard iMac keyboard.
As far as smoking guns go, we’d have to rank this pretty high up there.
With iTunes 9.0, Apple once again broke the Palm Pre-iTunes syncing, but Palm is believed to keep enabling syncing on the Pre. Electronista reports on a supposed leak about the new webOS 1.2 software. According to unnamed sources, the software will re-enable the syncing between iTunes and the Pre.
The source goes on to explain that Palm is "committed" to re-enabling the syncing functionality as long as it doesn’t take too much time. With the 1.1 webOS update, it only took 5 minutes; but the latest fix is believed to have taken as long as 2.5 hours. With the first re-enabling update Palm changed the USB vendor ID to match Apple’s, but the most recent strategy has yet to be revealed.
The rumored 1.2 software update is reported being delayed because of a change to the App Catalog that forced Sprint to test the update.
It’s great to see Palm sticking up for what they think is right, but perhaps instead of using another company’s software to accomplish something they could have built themselves, they should take the extra "hacking" time and just build a good syncing app for the Pre.
