Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Freeware, Open Source, Developer
It's too bad Google hasn't gotten this working themselves sooner. Maybe they've just been too busy lately taking care of panda-obsessed AIs.
TUAWGoogle Chrome run natively (most of it, anyway) originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Labels charging iTunes more to carry the same songs
Music labels are looking to dilute Apple’s influence on the music download market by causing the media giant to charge more for songs in its music store than the competition. At least, that’s the only conclusion to draw from numbers examined by Engadget this morning.
The evidence is pretty damning: of the iTunes top 10 downloads, all but a few carry the maximum price of $1.29, while Amazon’s top 10 list (which is almost identical) holds steady at $0.99 for each and every one. Both stores sell DRM-free files, encoded at 256kbps.
The days of the $0.99-for-everything iTunes store are over. Of course, when Apple introduced the variable pricing feature into the iTunes store, they touted it as a way to get lower-priced songs — as low as $0.69, in fact. But what’s actually happened is the opposite. Thanks to the death of the album (something we can thank iTunes and other music downloading services for), labels are trying to squeeze as many dollars as possible out of the single song hits that get downloaded over and over again.
Now, Amazon has the exact same pricing structure as Apple. There are indeed songs at the $1.29 price point in the Amazon catalog — there just aren’t any at that price in the top ten downloads. The interesting thing about this, though, is that these song prices aren’t set by Amazon or Apple. They’re set by the music labels themselves.
So what’s going on here? If the labels are trying to undermine Apple’s position as market leader — and thus take away some of the company’s bargaining power — this is one place to start. Apple still has the advantage, since the iTunes store is integrated into the music playing software (and in the case of the iPhone, the device itself). People will probably pay a little extra for the convenience, but we’ll have to wait and see if this is part of a concerted effort or just a one-time blip.
New Xserve
As expected in our previous news when the AppleStore was closed, Apple released the new Nehalem-based Xserve.
Models are available in 4 or 8 core CPU as for the Mac Pro. As we were reporting it earlier, Apple offers the option to have 128 GB SSD as storage unit. The PSU is tagged as 80 + Gold, with an expected yield of 89%, top notch figures.
However, there is something strange. Apple announces 12 memory slots for a maximal capacity of 12 GB for the single CPU model and 24 GB for Dual CPU model. This is really low RAM level for a server. Even if you select the 4 GB RAM modules option, you can not take more than 6 modules... this is weird, we need to find out if there is a typo or something very limiting for those new Xserve.
Apple introduces Nehalem-based Xeon Xserves
As expected, Apple on Tuesday announced an updated family of Xserves that deliver an 89 percent improvement in performance per watt and up to twice the overall performance of the previous models by tapping Intel's "Nehalem" Xeon processors and a next generation system architecture.
Price hike hits Apple's iTunes Store
Tuesday marks the end of Apple's one-price-fits-all model at the iTunes Store, where songs will now fall into one of three pricing tiers, with many of the most popular tracks commanding a 30% increase from 99 cents to $1.29.
Apple Store down, speculation runs wild in the streets for maybe another hour
Filed under: Apple
UPDATE: And we're back with new Xserves, featuring the snazzy (and totally expected) Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processor. Check out the specs on the store.
The headline pretty much says it all. We'll pack up our crystal ball and stick with the refresh button until this clears up. Stay tuned!
Note that variable pricing hit iTunes in the wee hours of the East Coast morning.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
TUAWApple Store down, speculation runs wild in the streets for maybe another hour originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 07:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
iPhone Video Recording Interface, Digital Compass, Voice Control and Auto-Focus Camera
Since the release of Apple's iPhone 3.0 beta firmware, users have been scouring the configuration files looking for evidence of future iPhone capabilities. The possibility of video recording has seemed increasingly certain with files for video uplo...
iTunes top tracks $1.29, Amazon $0.99: thanks record labels
As promised, variable pricing has now been implemented at the iTunes music store. Already, we're seeing most of top 10 singles and 33 of the top 100 hitting the top price-point of $1.29 (encoded as DRM-free 256kbps AAC). Interesting as Amazon's uncomfortably similar top 10 list has all these tracks priced at $0.99 (encoded as DRM-free 256kbps...
Google Chrome run natively (most of it, anyway)
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Freeware, Open Source, Developer
It's too bad Google hasn't gotten this working themselves sooner. Maybe they've just been too busy lately taking care of panda-obsessed AIs.
TUAWGoogle Chrome run natively (most of it, anyway) originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Labels charging iTunes more to carry the same songs
Music labels are looking to dilute Apple’s influence on the music download market by causing the media giant to charge more for songs in its music store than the competition. At least, that’s the only conclusion to draw from numbers examined by Engadget this morning.
The evidence is pretty damning: of the iTunes top 10 downloads, all but a few carry the maximum price of $1.29, while Amazon’s top 10 list (which is almost identical) holds steady at $0.99 for each and every one. Both stores sell DRM-free files, encoded at 256kbps.
The days of the $0.99-for-everything iTunes store are over. Of course, when Apple introduced the variable pricing feature into the iTunes store, they touted it as a way to get lower-priced songs — as low as $0.69, in fact. But what’s actually happened is the opposite. Thanks to the death of the album (something we can thank iTunes and other music downloading services for), labels are trying to squeeze as many dollars as possible out of the single song hits that get downloaded over and over again.
Now, Amazon has the exact same pricing structure as Apple. There are indeed songs at the $1.29 price point in the Amazon catalog — there just aren’t any at that price in the top ten downloads. The interesting thing about this, though, is that these song prices aren’t set by Amazon or Apple. They’re set by the music labels themselves.
So what’s going on here? If the labels are trying to undermine Apple’s position as market leader — and thus take away some of the company’s bargaining power — this is one place to start. Apple still has the advantage, since the iTunes store is integrated into the music playing software (and in the case of the iPhone, the device itself). People will probably pay a little extra for the convenience, but we’ll have to wait and see if this is part of a concerted effort or just a one-time blip.
New Xserve
As expected in our previous news when the AppleStore was closed, Apple released the new Nehalem-based Xserve.
Models are available in 4 or 8 core CPU as for the Mac Pro. As we were reporting it earlier, Apple offers the option to have 128 GB SSD as storage unit. The PSU is tagged as 80 + Gold, with an expected yield of 89%, top notch figures.
However, there is something strange. Apple announces 12 memory slots for a maximal capacity of 12 GB for the single CPU model and 24 GB for Dual CPU model. This is really low RAM level for a server. Even if you select the 4 GB RAM modules option, you can not take more than 6 modules... this is weird, we need to find out if there is a typo or something very limiting for those new Xserve.
Apple introduces Nehalem-based Xeon Xserves
As expected, Apple on Tuesday announced an updated family of Xserves that deliver an 89 percent improvement in performance per watt and up to twice the overall performance of the previous models by tapping Intel's "Nehalem" Xeon processors and a next generation system architecture.
Price hike hits Apple's iTunes Store
Tuesday marks the end of Apple's one-price-fits-all model at the iTunes Store, where songs will now fall into one of three pricing tiers, with many of the most popular tracks commanding a 30% increase from 99 cents to $1.29.
Apple Store down, speculation runs wild in the streets for maybe another hour
Filed under: Apple
UPDATE: And we're back with new Xserves, featuring the snazzy (and totally expected) Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processor. Check out the specs on the store.
The headline pretty much says it all. We'll pack up our crystal ball and stick with the refresh button until this clears up. Stay tuned!
Note that variable pricing hit iTunes in the wee hours of the East Coast morning.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
TUAWApple Store down, speculation runs wild in the streets for maybe another hour originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 07:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
iPhone Video Recording Interface, Digital Compass, Voice Control and Auto-Focus Camera
Since the release of Apple's iPhone 3.0 beta firmware, users have been scouring the configuration files looking for evidence of future iPhone capabilities. The possibility of video recording has seemed increasingly certain with files for video uplo...
iTunes top tracks $1.29, Amazon $0.99: thanks record labels
As promised, variable pricing has now been implemented at the iTunes music store. Already, we're seeing most of top 10 singles and 33 of the top 100 hitting the top price-point of $1.29 (encoded as DRM-free 256kbps AAC). Interesting as Amazon's uncomfortably similar top 10 list has all these tracks priced at $0.99 (encoded as DRM-free 256kbps...
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