Apple Inc. was sued Wednesday over allegations its iTunes online music store and iPod music players are illegally using a patented method for distributing digital media over the Internet.

Atlanta-based ZapMedia Services Inc. sued Apple in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, accusing the Cupertino-based company of violating two ZapMedia patents.

ZapMedia wants royalties on Apple's sales of iPods and iTunes music, which reached nearly $11 billion last year. The success of iTunes has helped make Apple the No. 2 music retailer in the U.S. behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc., according to market researcher NPD Group.

The patents in question cover a way of sending music and other digital content from servers to multiple media players, a broad description that could also apply to a wide swath of other companies selling digital media and the devices to play it.

ZapMedia applied for the patents in 1999. One was granted in March 2006, the other on Tuesday.

ZapMedia said it met with Apple to discuss licensing, but Apple rebuffed the offer.

"When someone takes our vision and our intellectual property without a license after several attempts, we have no option but to protect it through every means available to us," Robert Frohwein, ZapMedia's general counsel, said in a statement.

An Apple spokeswoman said the company doesn't comment on pending lawsuits.

[Learn: LATimes]

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Labels: apple, patents

According to Macinstein & TVTechnoogy, Apple is pulling out of NAB this year. In years past Apple has always had one of the largest booths at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) trade show. Actually the last time I was at NAB, Apple's booth was the best part of the show.

"Apple is participating in fewer trade shows this year. Often there are better ways to reach our customers. The increasing popularity of our retail stores and Apple.com Web site allows us to directly reach more than 100 million customers around the world in innovative new ways." ~ Anuj Nayar, Senior Manager of PR at Apple

Adding insult to ingury, Apple's main competitor in the broadcast industry, Avid, also pulled out of NAB. Looks like CES was the trade show to be at this year, not NAB.



Dennis Wharton, from the NAB, confirmed Apple’s pullout on TVTechnoogy, but adds this confusing comment: "We’re talking about some on-site business opportunities with Apple." I'm not exactly sure what that is suppose to mean.


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Labels: apple

Last week Apple announced they needed another couple of weeks to finish updating the Apple TV software that will finally allow users to rent movies directly from the TV rather than having to download on the computer and sync or stream the video to the Apple TV device.

This anticipated software upgrade will be available as a free software download to existing Apple TV users sometime in February. By the end of February, Apple’s iTunes online music store should have more than 1,000 movie titles available including more than 100 high-definition titles. The DVD-quality movies will be available to rent for $2.99 for older titles and $3.99 for newer titles while high-definition costs a buck more.



Also last week, Apple announced the MacBook Air has started shipping. Hopefully Apple packages the MacBook Air in something a little more sturdy than the envelopes featured in the ads!

Here's a video of the old Apple TV software:




Source: Gizmos for Geeks.

Labels: apple, apple tv, itunes, macbook, tv

This morning at Macworld 2008, Steve Jobs announced a new hardware companion product called Time Capsule for Apple's Time Machine backup software. Time Machine is part of the newest Apple operating system OS X Leopard 10.5.

If you are already familiar with Apple's current products, Time Capsule is basically an Airport Extreme with a hard drive.

Time Machine can now backup multiple Macs on the same network wirelessly to the same Time Capsule hard drive.

The Time Capsule hard drives come in 2 sizes: 500GB ($299) and 1TB ($499). Pretty aggressive pricing. Apple must be serious about helping people backup their computers.

Time Capsule starts shipping in February. You can read more about Time Capsule here on Apple.com


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Labels: apple, macworld

Here it is... video evidence of the new unreleased iPhone 1.1.3 software improvements. The embedded video below is a nice and thorough walk-through of the unreleased iPhone 1.1.3 firmware updates hosted by Andru from GearLive.com. Watch it fast before Apple's lawyers take it down.

Anyone still think it's fake?





If the embedded video above doesn't load, then click here.

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Labels: apple, iphone

ReplayTV is not the first to introduce a USB dongle for DVR use, however, they are the first to integrate a format easily playable on Apple hand-held devices like iPhone and iPod touch.

The Personal HD system bundles both digital ATSC and analog NTSC technology and play over-the-air HDTV signals or old school analog TV source. So now you TV junkies can overload on adictively pathetic reality TV shows (well, except Survivor).

The real joy of the USB tuner is the software. The Personal HD specifically supports transfer of video to a format playable on widescreen hand-held devices made by Apple. Not to leave anyone out in the cold, the software can preserve multiple shows at once and even support USB devices from rival companies, such as ATI (AMD) and Pinnacle.

The ReplayTV goodie bag for the Personal HD system include direct encoding in a 4:3 ratio, intelligent keyword filter system to find shows by cast member names, show IDs or genre. Although the reply system isn't out just yet, it will be later this fall at the tune of $100.

Source: GetUSBinfo

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Labels: apple, iphone, ipod, replaytv, usb-dvr

Were you one of the thousands of people who bought an iPhone (US) before Apple lowered the price by $200? Steve Jobs announced the iPhone price drop after he introduced the iPod Touch and angered a lot of customers. To placate iPhone owners, Jobs published an open letter on Apple.com where he offered a $100 rebate.

As of last Friday, you can go to Apple.com and apply for the $100 credit but there's a catch... Much to the dismay of iPhone owners, Apple has released several restrictions on how you can use the credit, who qualifies for it and how long it's available.



SPENDING RESTRICTIONS
I hope you didn't already have a spending plan for your $100 iPhone credit. The credit can only be used to buy items from Apple's retail stores or Apple.com. The credit cannot be used to buy Apple gift cards, content on iTunes, or be redeemed for cash.

WHO QUALIFIES FOR THE CREDIT
Not every iPhone owner qualifies for the credit. Any iPhone registered with an address outside the U.S. won't be eligible. iPhones bought between Aug. 22 and Sept. 4, also aren't eligible but fall under Apple's price-protection program until Sept. 19. If you qualify for the credit, go to the iPhone section on Apple.com and click on the $100 credit link on the left side of the page. After you fill out the form, you'll get a text message coupon on your iPhone that you can redeem.

TIME LIMIT
If you do qualify for the credit, use it fast. The credit offer expires on November 30th.


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Labels: apple, iphone

This week Apple announced new iPods and lowered the iPhone price by $200. But what if you were one of the millions of people who bought an iPhone 2 months ago? You'd probably be a little pissed off right? Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, got so many emails from angry customers that he wrote an open letter on the Apple website today. The letter says that every customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T will receive a $100 Apple store credit.



It's a brilliant move by Apple. This rebate will placate the angry early iPhone adopters who are feeling cheated, still keep the money in Apple's pocket and generate lots of press (like this article).


Here's the open letter from Jobs:

To all iPhone customers:

I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale. After reading every one of these emails, I have some observations and conclusions.

First, I am sure that we are making the correct decision to lower the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399, and that now is the right time to do it. iPhone is a breakthrough product, and we have the chance to 'go for it' this holiday season. iPhone is so far ahead of the competition, and now it will be affordable by even more customers. It benefits both Apple and every iPhone user to get as many new customers as possible in the iPhone 'tent'. We strongly believe the $399 price will help us do just that this holiday season.

Second, being in technology for 30+ years I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy. There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever. This is life in the technology lane. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you'll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon. The good news is that if you buy products from companies that support them well, like Apple tries to do, you will receive years of useful and satisfying service from them even as newer models are introduced.

Third, even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.

Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple's website next week. Stay tuned.

We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.

Steve Jobs
Apple CEO

Once again Apple has proven why they are so loved by their fan base. But, hey Steve, shouldn't it be a $200 store credit?

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Labels: apple, iphone

Apple unveiled its new line of iPods yesterday including a model with an iPhone-like touchscreen interface and Zune-like WiFi access. The "iPod Touch" sports a 3.5-inch widescreen and a Safari browser, creating a mobile YouTube delivery device that essentially replicates the iPhone browsing experience for non-AT&T subscribers. It's going to run $299 for an 8 GB model and $399 for a 16 GB version, scheduled to ship later this month. You can pre-order the new iPods from Apple.com.

The former Video iPod has been renamed the "iPod Classic" with a slimmer design and a bigger hard drive.

Although the new iPod Touch is very impressive with its Wi-Fi and touch-screen, the fact that it only has a 16GBs sucks big time. I like to keep my current iPod Video full of movies and TV shows that I ripped from DVD for my morning commute. The new smaller hard drive is a major sticking point for me. The reason the new iPods have smaller hard drives is because they are Flash memory based (no moving parts) and are able to withstand an occasional bump or drop better than traditional hard drives.



Apple is also teaming with Starbucks to allow customers to browse a new WiFi iTunes store for free inside of its coffee shops. Go near a Starbucks and an icon pops up. Click on it and you can buy Starbucks' current music selections.

Steve Jobs also announced he was phasing out the entry level iPhone and cutting the price of the upper-end model from $599 to $399.

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Labels: apple, iphone, ipod

Did Microsoft steal Apple's Universal logo? Now, granted it's just a yin yang symbol, but M$ just flipped the image horizontally. They even used the exact same colors. WTF?!



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Labels: apple

The iPhone was one of the most anticipated product launches of 2007. So how did it do? According to Blackfriars, an analyst firm that has been monitoring Apple's stores, iPhone sales topped 500,000 last weekend. Here's a quote from the Blackfriars daily blog:

"The bottom line: some analysts claimed that the iPhone launch would be a failure if Apple failed to sell 100,000 iPhones during the first weekend. Based upon the limited data we have, we believe that number was exceeded in just the first two to three hours. Blackfriars’ prediction is that Apple will sell 500,000 iPhones this weekend, and based upon limited sales rates reported, that number now looks quite achievable. The only question is whether the demand and iPhone supply is great enough that they might push past the million unit mark this weekend."

Apple must be pleased with such strong sales over the first weekend, it will be interesting to see if they can keep the sales up, over the coming weeks and months.

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Labels: apple, gadgets, iphone

It's been an interesting few days for Apple and their Safari web browser. On Monday, Apple released a PC version of Safari 3 (beta) at the 2007 Worldwide Developers Conference. But within a few hours, Internet security specialists and hackers had uncovered several bugs capable of crashing the Windows operating system as well as a major security flaw making it possible to remotely take control a PC without the owners knowledge.

Just hours after Apple made Safari 3 available for Windows, David Maynor from Errata Security and independent expert Aviv Raff both blogged about the Safari security bugs they found.

"I can't speak for anybody else, but the bugs [I] found in the beta copy of Safari on Windows work on the production copy on OS X as well... The exploit is robust mostly thanks to the lack of any kind of advanced security features in [Mac] OS X." erratasec.blogspot.com

"A first glance at the debugger showed me that this memory corruption might be exploitable. Although, I'll have to dig more to be sure of that. Again, this is just a beta version. But, don't you hate those pathetic claims?" net-security.org

At last count, 6 total bugs in Safari have been recorded despite this claim on the Safari 3 download page: "Apple engineers designed Safari to be secure from day one."

But hell, Safari 3 is just a beta version, it's supposed to have bugs, right?


So why did Apple decide to make their Safari web browser Windows compatible in the first place? Three reasons come to mind:

• A cross platform web browser will encourage web developers to create web-based programs for the iPhone and make their sites more compatible for existing Safari (Mac) users.
  
  
• A PC version of Safari is an opportunity to expose Windows users to another Apple product. Apple hopes PC users will enjoy their Safari experience and think about getting a Mac the next time they get a new computer. So far, they are off to a pretty bad start.
  
  
• Search dollars. The little search box in the upper right corner of the Firefox web browser is a major revenue generator. Every time you use that little search box, the browser manufacturer makes money off the search ads you are exposed to when you are taken to the results page. I've seen reports that Firefox (an open source project) made around over $50 million dollars from that little search box in 2006 alone.
  

You can download Safari 3 (beta) from Apple.com.

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Labels: apple, internet

Want to make it big as a music video director/editor? The band Modest Mouse wants help making a video for their new song "Missed the Boat." With the help of Apple, Modest Mouse posted 12 high quality videos (each shot at a different angle) of them performing in front of a green screen.

The public is encouraged to download these video clips and edit them together into one final music video. Feel free to use your own footage and experiment the green screen.



Why is Apple generously providing massive amounts of bandwidth for people to download these giant high resolution video clips? Apple would like you to use their new editing and sound mixing software Final Cut Studio and Logic, of course.

Once you're finished with your video, upload it to Apple for judging and cross your fingers. The contest ends May 22, 2007. Good luck. More info can be found on the official contest page.

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Labels: apple

Recently Bob Garfield, from AdAge, got to interview Bill Gates during the Corbis Creativity 2.0 panel in Manhattan. Garfield asked Gates about a number of topics from Vista to IPTV. He also tried to get Gates to comment on a very sensitive topic... Apple's "Get a Mac" advertising campaign. The campaign features actor/author John Hodgman who looks like Bill Gates and personifies a PC.



As you can imagine, Bill Gates is not amused by the ads. Here's the portion of the interview transcript where Garfield asks Gates about the ads. Enjoy:

GARFIELD: I want to ask you one more thing: Those Mac ads -- how do you feel about the John Hodgman character?

GATES: I can't comment on someone else's ad.

GARFIELD: OK ... but he's you.

GATES: Yeah, I'm not gonna comment on someone else's ad.

GARFIELD: OK, well, Bill Gates, thank you so much for joining us.

(Silence)

GARFIELD: Can I just have a clean goodbye?

(Silence)

GARFIELD: OK, can you just say goodbye? Thank you or goodbye or something like that?

GATES: Goodbye.

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Labels: apple, video

If you went to Apple.com last week, then you might have seen an article written by Steve Jobs about DRM and the music industry called Thoughts on Music. In the article Job talks about the history of DRM (digital rights management) and how companies, including Apple, who sell music online have to change in order to survive.

In case you haven't read the article yet, the bottom line is Jobs doesn't like digital rights management and thinks it has been ineffective at stopping music piracy. The root of his argument is how music companies failed to come together and create an audio CD format with built in copy-protection.

Here's a quote from the article:

"Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player."

In contrast, the movie industry was able to set aside their differences and DVDs were invented with copy-protection built in. So since the music industry can't get their act together, what should happen now?

If Steve Jobs has his way, DRM would be abolished entirely:

"Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music."

So why would Jobs write this letter and why now? Recently there's been a lot of pressure coming from Europe, including consumer groups in Germany and France. The Europeans claim that Apple's iTunes Store violates consumer laws because iTunes songs can only be played on iPods. Since the iPod has about 80% of the portable media player market, the Europeans believe that Apple is stifling competition.

The other option would be for Apple to license their DRM technology, called FairPlay, to other companies. Licensing FairPlay could end up making Apple a lot more money in the long run, but Jobs doesn't want Apple's secrets behind the FairPlay technology leaked, copied or modified by hackers. He'd rather just do away with DRM altogether. That would be the easiest solution for everyone... especially the consumer.

I give Jobs a lot of credit. Who knows, years from now people may look back at this article as the Emancipation Proclamation for digital music.

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Labels: apple

How do you know you are a true geek? Well, when someone bakes you a gadget themed birthday cake, you might as well admit your chosen place in life. In a weird coincidence (or was there a gadget cake bake off recently) I found both an iPhone and Mac Mini cake on Digg's front page this past weekend.


A flickr user named icruise was surprised with this iPhone cake for their birthday. It looks like a sweet cake with a multitouch interface you can lick. Can you hear me now? No? Must be all the frosting in your ear.

The other photo is from 123macmini.com. Miles, the birthday boy, got this Mac Mini cake from his loving mom for his 15th birthday. Hopefully not too many people at his high school saw this online. He might get the frosting kicked out him after school. Just don't try to eat the disc. It looks like Miles' mom used an actual CD and covered it with frosting. Good luck trying to upgrade the RAM.

If you want to look for more Apple themed birthday cakes, try searching flickr for icake. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a black MacBook tray of brownies for my next birthday. I didn't find any Zune cakes on flickr for some reason. Poor Bill. :(

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