Not in Tune with iTunes

The retail digital music business is turning up the volume, with new players are looking to take on Apple's iTunes. Wal-Mart Stores announced this morning that it will sell DRM-free songs through its website for 94 cents a track, or...

Aug 21 2007

Apple Smackdown: Content vs. Hardware

A constant stream of new iPhones and iPods means that Apple's got a ravenous appetite for all-important content. But is supply drying up? Industry insiders speculate that a new incarnation of the video iPod is about to be unveiled, after...

Aug 31 2007

Seeing the End of iPod's Hegemony

Kevin Maney explores an idea: While everyone is watching Google's Chrome, Apple today invited media to an event on September 9 in San Francisco entitled "Let's Rock." Since Apple, as usual, didn't reveal what it will announce at the event,...

Sep 03 2008

Apple No Longer Calls the Tune

Sick of all the recent iPhone iHype? You're in luck. EMI and Universal Music Group are providing some much-needed Apple schadenfreude. Just as the computing giant begins to navigate the tricky mobile phone market, there may be some clouds on...

Jul 03 2007

Four Reasons Why Studios Are Hesitant to Sell Newer Movies on iTunes

Apple is hoping its technology can revolutionize how consumers watch entertainment, the same way its iPod has changed how they listen to music. The Cupertino-based company has reportedly generated interest from studios in an online rental service, but sales...

Jun 11 2007

iTunes Subscriptions? Turn Up the Volume

An anonymous tipster seems to have contacted several Mac rumor publications with rumors about an unlimited music subscription within iTunes. According to the email, Apple will charge US-based customers $130 per year (or $100 for MobileMe subscribers) for an...

Aug 21 2008

Splitting the Apple Online

Memo to Steve Jobs: You win some, you lose some. On a day when Apple should be celebrating a its long sought-after deal to offer movie rentals from 20th Century Fox on iTunes, the company instead took a jujitsu chop...

Dec 27 2007

Digg Founder Predicts New iPod Nano

Digg founder Kevin Rose has posted a "leaked" photograph of a new iPod Nano on his blog, along with details of updates across the iPod lineup. It's kicking up a lot of dust in blog-world, but we're not so...

Aug 25 2008

Bold Strike in the Smart Phone Wars

The July launch of Apple's iPhone 3G may have faded into the summer haze as a distant memory by now, but as Research In Motion prepares to roll out the new BlackBerry Bold, the smart phone wars are about to...

Aug 20 2008

Apple Fights to Keep Calling the Tune(s)

After this summer's frenzy over the unveiling of the iPhone, today's Steve Jobs event in San Francisco, featuring upgrades to the iPod line, was bound to be somewhat less revelatory. The new iPod Touch will borrow fingers-friendly technology from...

Sep 05 2007

A Solar-Powered iPod? Puh-lease!

Much has been made this week of Apple's patent filing for solar panels embedded into the screens of gadgets. In the diagram accompanying the application, we see a layer of solar cells tucked safely behind the glass and the...

May 30 2008

Apple iSued

Sam Gustin says: Talk about bad reception.Apple has been slapped with a lawsuit over service issues plaguing its new iPhone 3G.Jessica Alena Smith, of Alabama, has sued Apple with breach of warranty and unjust enrichment, claiming that her new phone...

Aug 21 2008

What's Wrong With the 3-G in iPhone 3G?

There's something in the air in the Apple community, and this time it's not the same old buzz about a next-gen iPod, Steve Jobs's health or a Mac tablet: It's the sour topic of the iPhone 3G's poor data...

Aug 13 2008

Apple Ad Banned in the U.K.

Sam Gustin says: More bad news for Apple. A U.K. iPhone television ad has been banned by that country's Advertising Standard Authority for misleading consumers."You never know which part of the internet you'll need," the Apple ad's voiceover says, "which...

Aug 27 2008

Apple's Interesting Challenge with the Best Buy Deal

Kevin Maney writes: Apple barged its way into the cell phone business and created lust in the wireless marketplace by creating a singular, super-fidelity handset. Stretching further toward the mass market by selling Best Buy stores will create an interesting...

Aug 13 2008

Sony BMG Thinks You're a Thief

If you want to buy music, buying a CD is a good way of doing it. There's no risk that some computer error will destroy your purchase, and it's easy to transfer the songs onto your computer and iPod....

Oct 05 2007

The State of the Music Industry

The music panel featured Andy Lack, the chairman of Sony BMG, who somehow contrived to be reasonably upbeat about the recorded-music industry. It was his misfortune to be sat next to Quincy Jones, who lost no time in bursting...

Apr 29 2008

Universal Uncripples Music, Cripples Music Retailing

I'm very happy that Universal is experimenting with uncrippling its music. But I do hope it doesn't cripple online music retailing in doing so.

Aug 10 2007

Apple Trademarks the Rectangular Box

Apple has been granted a trademark for the shape of the iPod, essentially giving it exclusive rights to make a box with a screen and a wheel: [T]he design of a portable and handheld digital electronic media device comprised...

May 13 2008

The Problems of Outsourcing

In today's outsourced world, companies are more than ever at the mercy of their suppliers.

May 24 2007

iPod, the Monopoly

Yow! Outside of Microsoft's domination of PC operating systems, is there any category so dominated by one company as Apple in the "personal media player" space? Doubt it. By some measures, the iPod owns 76% of the market. Even more...

Apr 11 2007

Slacker: Latest Net Music Twist

Dennis Mudd, the ultra-cool entrepreneur behind Musicmatch, came by to show off his latest creation, called Slacker. Though it strikes me as a challenging sell because it pushes people to think differently about how they consume music. Slacker, in full,...

Apr 13 2007

Let the Games Begin. And the Gadgets. And the Robot Dog . . .

You've waited all year for it. Now it's here—and I'm not talking about the new ABC sitcom Cavemen. This weekend, about 60,000 tech geeks, gadget nuts, and the people who love them, are expected to congregate at the Jacob K....

Sep 26 2007

Wal-Mart Drives Stake Through the Heart of DRM

If Wal-Mart kills something, it often stays killed. And Wal-Mart has decided to kill digital rights management, or DRM -- the software encoded in downloadable songs that restricts where and how the song can be played. Wal-Mart has been desperate...

Aug 22 2007

A Big Thank You for Music Industry Chaos

Years from now, people will look back at this era as one of fantastic experimentation in music industry models. There surely hasn't been anything like this since the earliest days of rock and roll and car radios. Just look at...

Apr 04 2008

WiFi iPod Competitors: The Future of Portable Music

A couple of years ago, I first met the folks developing the MusicGremlin -- the first WiFi-enabled portable music player. And they posed an obvious but, at the time, often-ignored question: Why the hell would you want a PC acting...

Apr 19 2007

Best Sellers

There are ads that the creative folks at advertising agencies love: They look great. And there are ads that the business folks at consumer-products companies love: They sell great. Effie awards celebrate campaigns that are both. And last night's award show confirmed it: Ads can be great-looking and very effective.

Jun 08 2007

iPod Porn

My colleague Kevin Maney neatly summed up the entire iPhone price drop flap with the headline "Apple Hoses Its Own Best Customers", and Jack Flack posted an interesting selection of theories on the maneuver, even as Jobs was striving to...

Sep 07 2007

iPhones At $199 Today -- Cheaper In Days Ahead?

Blaise Zerega can't wait.  Today is a big-day for the iPhone, sure. Block-long lines of customers outside of Apple stores. All kinds of "man-on-the-street" reports on the evening news. Etc. Etc. And while sales of the device are probably going...

Jul 11 2008

iPhone Security Flaw Exposes All Private Data

You're a smart, safety conscious iPhone user, right? You keep the phone set to require a 4-digit passcode every time it wakes up, so if you ever lose your baby, all your personal information is safe. But if you are...

Aug 27 2008