Apple

Apple's iTunes pricing scheme will never happen

In a report that has sent shock waves throughout the entire Apple community, the Financial Times is reporting that Steve Jobs and company may be trying to coax record labels into allowing the firm to sell an unlimited number of iTunes songs as long as consumers pay a premium on iPods and iPhones. And while that may sound great to some (myself included), it'll never happen.

Unfortunately, we are currently limping through an era where common sense is always a second thought and record labels will do anything they can to ensure consumers are kept under their thumbs.

Sure, the idea of unlimited iTunes music downloads sounds great and it would probably ensure that Amazon and other services would die a slow and agonizing death, but common sense must prevail in this discussion and as far as I can tell, there's no chance any such a deal can be struck between record labels and Apple.

And here's why.… Read more

Apple could split device sales with music labels

Updated: 8:10 a.m. PDT

Is Apple rethinking its music strategy?

As part of a deal to offer devices featuring preprogrammed music, Apple would have to agree to share sales revenue from the devices with the labels, says a source close to the deal. Cutting the labels in on iPod or iPhone revenue would mark a sharp turn in Apple's strategy.

The deal being discussed by the labels and Apple calls for the company to license the music and also "kick in a piece of the device sales," said the source. The Apple device, which hasn'… Read more

Ex-Apple trio fails to shine

Many start-ups don't have profits when they go public. Some don't even have any significant revenue to speak of. But Acquicor took things a step further. It didn't even have a business.

The company, launched by three former Apple executives, was what's known as a blank-check company. Rather than have a business plan, such firms instead ask investors to bet on their management's track record, in this case that of former Apple CEO Gil Amelio, company co-founder Steve Wozniak, and former CTO Ellen Hancock.

Still, that was enough to land the company more than $160 million in a stock offering. … Read more

Apple reportedly mulling all-you-can-eat iTunes

The Financial Times may have nailed one hell of a scoop Tuesday evening. According to the paper, Apple is considering an all-you-can-eat plan in which users would receive free access to iTunes "in exchange for paying a premium for its iPod and iPhone devices."

The company reportedly is still in discussions, according to sources speaking on background to the FT.

"The 'all you can eat' model, a replica of Nokia's 'comes with music' deal with Universal Music last December, could provide the struggling recorded music industry with a much-needed fillip, and drive demand for a new … Read more

Podcast: Yahoo's growth plan, Facebook Chat, Intel cores, and Apple patches

This week on the EIC Squared podcast, ZDNet's Larry Dignan and I discuss Yahoo's latest move to get Microsoft to cough up more cash for the company. We also talk about Facebook's new privacy options and chat service, which puts the social-networking upstart on a trajectory to collide with Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, and others who offer complete communications services.

In addition, we chat about Intel's plans to produce six-core chips in the fourth quarter, and Apple's massive security update to its operating system.

Apple releases massive security update

Apple on Tuesday released its second security update of the year--and it's a big one.

Known as APPLE-SA-2008-03-18 Security Update 2008-002, it contains more than 40 specific fixes for versions of Mac OS X. The most significant updates include Apache, ClamAV, Emacs, OpenSSH, PHP, and X11. There is no trend or theme here. The most serious vulnerabilities could lead to someone gaining remote access to a user's computer, while others may simply cause an application or service to crash. Other components mentioned in this update include AppKit, Core Foundation, Core Services, curl, CUPs, Help Viewer, ImageRaw, mDNSResponder, Podcast … Read more

Safari 3.1 update fixes 13 security flaws

Apple on Tuesday released Safari 3.1 for users on Mac OS X and Windows. Along with new features are 13 security updates for the Safari browser, WebCore, and WebKit. Most of the vulnerabilities address cross-site scripting flaws. A cross-site scripting attack can inject malicious code onto a victim's computer usually via a script tag appended to a specially formed URL. The Security Update APPLE-SA-2008-03-18 can be downloaded and installed from Apple Downloads, or you can simply download the new version of Safari 3.1 directly.

Safari--certificate validation This patch only affects users of Safari on Windows XP or … Read more

Apple offering credit for strike-shortened seasons

The Hollywood writers' strike might have shortened the television season, but iTunes customers will get some compensation for their losses.

iLounge noticed that Apple has started sending notices to iTunes Store season pass subscribers with good news: they'll be getting a two-episode credit from Apple to make up for the writers' strike.

Apple is also promising to provide partial refunds for shows that won't be delivered as a result of the strike. For example, if 20 episodes were promised when the season pass was purchased, but only 17 wind up getting made this year, it sounds like Apple … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 683: Will you marry me?

EPISODE 683

Apple snags 14 percent of U.S.-based PC retail sales in February http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/17/ apple_snags_14_percent_of_us_based_pc_retail_sales_in_february.html

Yahoo: We’ll double our cash flow http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9896609-7.html http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/ releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=300145

Justices turn down Microsoft appeal http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/S/ SCOTUS_MICROSOFT?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Amazon: Vista SP1 to ship Wednesday http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9896597-7.html

Online oligarchy: Old guard dominates Net news coverage http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080317-online-oligarchy-old-guard-dominates-net-news-coverage.html

Returns, technical problems … Read more

Web code locks up iPhones and iPod Touch

A new exploit will either lock up your iPhone or iPod Touch or crash your Safari browser on your PC or Mac OS desktop if you simply visit a maliciously coded Web site. Unlike an earlier exploit that required users to click to become infected, the new code published by iPhoneWorld requires no user interaction.

So far, Apple has had no comment.

The code was first reported in January and exhausts the memory in Safari, which in turn will cause your iPhone or iPod Touch to freeze, or your desktop Safari to crash. "Given the nature of this issue,&… Read more