Apple

Starting next week, a DVD you buy off the shelf could end up coming with a free or markedly discounted digital copy from the iTunes Media Store. The Unofficial Apple Weblog got the scoop from a reader who got an early delivery of the upcoming Family Guy DVD, which comes bundled with a digital download that can be transferred to your iTunes library. When a copy of the digital file to iTunes was attempted, the user got an error message noting that the process requires version 7.6 of iTunes, which is currently at 7.5.

Like movies purchased on … Read more

Correction 5:30 p.m. PST: This blog initially mischaracterized the nature of the unlimited client license for Mac OS X Server Leopard that comes with a new Apple Xserve. It allows purchasers to connect an unlimited number of clients to that server.

Apple got a little business out of the way before next week's Macworld extravaganza, announcing new versions of the Mac Pro and Xserve to go along with new Intel chips.

These systems are very high-end computers, designed for heavy work rather than organizing photos of your latest trip to St. Louis. Both the Mac Pro and … Read more

Seen more as a prank than an actual threat, a Trojan horse for the Apple iPhone, first reported on Saturday, has already come and gone. Still, users should be on the look out for a package called "iPhone firmware 1.1.3 prep," described as something you need to install before updating to the new 1.1.3 firmware. Billed as an "important system update," the code does little more than cause annoyance. According to various sources, once the Trojan is installed it simply displays the word "shoes."

However, the Trojan also overwrites several … Read more

As Greg Sandoval pointed out over at News.com, Apple may be close to winning over even more movie studios to make iTunes rentals a reality. And while I'll be the first to admit that this is a major victory for Apple, considering the possibility of its service being relegated to irrelevance in the video space, how big of a victory is it for Steve Jobs?

As one BusinessWeek column points out, Steve Jobs was only able to win the studios over by increasing the amount he's willing to pay for films. According to the report, Jobs had once capped the amount he would pay for each movie sold at $14, but has agreed to the $17 fee larger retailers like Wal-Mart are currently paying.

To make matters worse, the music industry has stood up to Jobs for the first time and has offered DRM-free music to Amazon even though Jobs and Company have been asking for such a deal for quite some time.

So what's really going on? Has Steve Jobs -- one of the world's most powerful CEOs -- lost his power? You better believe it.… Read more

Avon Products CEO Andrea Jung will become Apple's eighth member of its board of directors, the company announced Monday.

Jung gives Apple an expert on direct sales strategies and the buying habits of women--at least a certain demographic of women--which could be enormously helpful to the company in helping grow its various businesses. She has been with Avon since 1996, and before that was executive vice president of high-end retailer Nieman-Marcus.

An informal poll of women in the News.com office suggested that Avon's brand name doesn't exactly resonate with the typical under-40 San Francisco female (believe … Read more

Apparently, Apple is willing to make concessions to the film industry to bolster iTunes' lackluster movie offerings.

BusinessWeek is reporting that Apple is close to signing distribution deals with most of the top movie studios that would give Apple access to newly released films.

The Financial Times reported last month that Apple has already signed an agreement with Twentieth Century Fox. BusinessWeek now says the company is nearing deals with Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, and Lionsgate. The magazine suggested that some of the deals may be announced at the Macworld conference, which starts January 14.

While Apple has dominated music, … Read more

Warner Bros. Entertainment may have cast the deciding vote in the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD format war, announcing yesterday-- just before the big Consumer Electronics Show opens in Las Vegas-- that Warner will support Blu-ray exclusively starting in June 2008.

I'm at CES, where I've just left the CES Unveiled press event. Although there was a lot of cool stuff in the various booths providing a sneak peek of the CES show floor (all 1.8 million square feet of it)--and I'll be covering some of this cool stuff in future blog posts-- the topic of … Read more

To everyone who has ever griped about music locked up in copy-protection software, it appears that the technology is on its way out.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment, one of the top four music labels, is preparing to offer part of its catalogue without Digital Rights Management software, according to a story in BusinessWeek.com, the online publication of BusinessWeek magazine.

According to BusinessWeek, Sony BMG plans to reveal its plans sometime in the first quarter. Citing an unnamed source, the magazine reported that Sony BMG, a joint venture between Sony and Bertelsmann, will participate in a song giveaway as part … Read more