Apple in Negotiations With Labels to Allow Unlimited Downloads of Purchases

Friday, 4th March 2011, 02:03 am
This entry needs translation. To help us and submit a translation please click here Apple is reportedly in negotiations with music labels to allow for unlimited downloading of purchased tracks, according to Bloomberg. Apple is negotiating with music companies including Vivendi SA (VIV)’s Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group Corp. (WMG) and EMI Group Ltd., said the people, who asked for anonymity because the talks are private. An agreement may be announced by midyear, two of the people said. This would give iTunes customers a permanent backup of their music purchases and let them download purchases directly to their other devices without the need to sync. The new download policy is reportedly one of several service changes Apple is exploring. Improvements to the capabilities of Apple's MobileMe service and reductions in its pricing are also being considered. Read More

Get a $100 Refund on iPads Purchased Less Than Two Weeks Ago

Thursday, 3rd March 2011, 12:03 pm
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If you purchased a first generation iPad within the last two weeks be sure to call Apple and get a $100 refund.

Should Apple reduce its price on any shipped product within 14 calendar days of shipment, you may contact Apple Store Customer Service at 1-800-676-2775 to request a refund or credit of the difference between the price you were charged and the current selling price. To receive the refund or credit you must contact Apple within 14 calendar days of the price change.

If you don't have an iPad and are interested in one at the new lower price of $399. You can get one here.

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iPad 2's A5 Processor Has 512MB LPDDR2 RAM?

Thursday, 3rd March 2011, 01:03 pm
This entry needs translation. To help us and submit a translation please click here The iPad 2's A5 processor reportedly has 512MB of RAM and uses LPDDR2 memory which is faster than the LPDDR1 RAM used in the first generation iPad, according to Korean semiconductor analyst Kakeun Lee. AppleInsider reports that Lee made the statements when questioned about the new iPad on Twitter. The site also notes that analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of Concord Securities also told them that the RAM in the iPad 2 would run at a higher clock speed of 1,066MHz for greater memory bandwidth than the 800MHz memory in the iPhone 4. Apple for some reason has refused to detail the amount of RAM in the device. Once its released on March 11th a teardown will reveal all its specifications. Read More

Apple Posts iOS 4.3 GM Seed for Developers to Download

Apple has posted iOS 4.3 GM Seed for developers to download and test with their applications.

The build number is 8F190 and it can be downloaded from the iOS Developer Center.

You can learn more about the features in iOS 4.3 here.

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Mac App Store Very Promising But With Restrictions

The most surprising news coming out of today's media event was the revelation that Apple would be launching a Mac App Store for Mac OS X. From the short preview that was given, the Mac App Store appears to be structured similarly to the popular iOS App Store. App sales and upgrades are all managed through the App Store, itself. Like the iOS App Store, Apple splits revenues with the developers in the same 70/30 ratio.

Given the massive success of the iOS App Store, Mac developers are understandably interested, but may run into hurdles with Apple's approval process. Andrew Welch of AmbrosiaSW told Informationweek that many of his company's existing apps would not be allowed in:

"Ambrosia is certainly interested in the idea of a centralized Mac application store," he said in an e-mail. "However the restrictions imposed by Apple on the applications may make it impossible for a number of our applications to be submitted."

Presumably, these apps would include their system utilities such as WireTap, Snapz Pro X and Soundboard.

We've heard that Mac App Store Apps are restricted from installing kernel extensions (kexts) that are frequently used to provide system level functions in these utilities. Apps, as well, must be self contained and avoid use of undocumented APIs.

Developers, of course, aren't required to distribute Mac apps through Apple's App Store. Developers can still distribute their software on their own, but the centralized access and publicity of the App Store model has been well proven on iOS. The Mac App Store also raises additional questions whether or not the so-called "race to the bottom" in prices will be duplicated on the Mac software side as well, and whether or not it will encourage simpler, more casual apps.

Mac App Store to Offer Unbundled iLife and iWork Applications?

Several MacRumors readers have pointed out that Apple's promotional materials for its forthcoming Mac App Store show that the company may be planning to offer applications from its iLife and iWork suites on an individual basis. Supporting that notion is the demo offered by Apple's Craig Federighi during yesterday's media event in which he showed how a user could purchase and install Pages from the Mac App Store.


Based on Mac App Store screenshots posted on Apple's pages, it appears that the company is planning to offer portions of its iLife suite (iPhoto, GarageBand, and iMovie) for $14.99 each. It is unclear whether it will also offer iWeb and iDVD, the other two components of the suite that now retails for $49, as standalone purchases.

Apple similarly lists individual components of iWork (Pages, Keynote, and Numbers) for $19.99 each. Interestingly, this would result in a total price of $59.97 for the three applications purchased individually, below Apple's $79 price for the entire suite.

In addition, Steve Jobs noted during the media event that applications purchased through the Mac App Store would be licensed for use on all of a purchaser's personal Macs. This would appear to represent a middle ground between Apple's current single-user software packages, which allow for installation on only one machine at a time, and family packs, which permit installation on up to five computers but for multiple persons in a single household.

Apple already offers its iPad versions of Pages, Keynote and Numbers as standalone purchases on the iOS App Store, priced at $9.99 each with no bundled suite even available. The same may be true for the Mac App Store, as Apple's promotional screenshots offer no indication that iLife and iWork suites will be available for download in bundled form. Presumably Apple will continue to offer the bundled suites on physical media, but it is unclear how long this distribution method will continue to be supported by Apple once the Mac App Store begins to take hold.

Apple Announces New 13.3-Inch and 11.6-Inch MacBook Air Models with Flash Storage

At the close of Apple's Back to the Mac event today, Steve Jobs announced two new MacBook Air models feature 13.3-inch and 11.6-inch displays.

As rumored, the new MacBook Air models do not have traditional hard drives, featuring only flash storage. Both models have Core 2 Duo processors, 2 GB of RAM, and NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics cards. The new MacBook Air models have unibody chassis like the latest MacBook Pro models, full keyboards, stereo speakers, FaceTime cameras and glass multi-touch trackpads. Both models can have their RAM upgraded to 4GB from Apple's online store.

Battery life is claimed to be 7 hours for wireless web browsing on the 13.3-inch model and 5 hours on the 11.6-inch model, with a standby time of 30 days for both sizes

Both new MacBook Air models have high-resolution LED-backlit displays, with the 13.3 inch-model offering 1440 x 900 pixels and the 11.6-inch model carrying 1366 x 768 pixels.



Pricing begins at $999 for the 11.6-inch MacBook Air with 64 GB of storage and goes up to $1,599 for the 13.3-inch model with 256 GB of storage. Both MacBook Air models are available starting today.


MacBook Air Software Reinstall Drive
With the new MacBook Air lacking an internal optical drive, Apple has included a"Software Reinstall Drive" USB stick carrying a unique Apple design to be used to restore Mac OS X and iLife. iWork is also included on the drive if the machine has been custom-configured to include the software. As it did with the original MacBook Air, Apple is continuing to offer an external MacBook Air Superdrive, now priced at $79. The MacBook Air can also wirelessly take advantage of the optical drive on a nearby Mac or PC for software installation purposes.