Thursday, April 29, 2004
Top Stories
Analysts: Apple Safeguards Online Music Lead
Industry analysts feel the new iTunes Music Store release will not only increase the pressure on Microsoft, but also safeguard Apple's lead.
News
Panic Releases Newest Li'l App
Stattoo is the newest piece of software from Panic, designed to unobtrusively display a variety of information on your desktop.
Beeb Under Apple's Sway
The independence of the state-run BBC has come into question after stories that gush so much about Apple, that they could have been penned by Job's Mob spinners have been appearing.
Adobe's Microsoft Strategy
In recent years Adobe has refocused its brand from the warm and fuzzy creative pro's best friend, to a repositioned network publishing and document systems giant.
Jobs On Video Players
"Music is a wonderful thing because A, it's music, and B, because it can be listened to as a background activity. And a lot of these other things that people are talking about building in, such as video and things like that, are foreground activities."
Ad Guru Opens iPod To The World
The Dot-Pod software lets user share tracks from their iPod with others via the Internet.
A Year On, iTunes Stays A U.S.-Only Service
A year after its launch, despite sales of 70 million songs, Apple is yet to offer music sales through its iTunes service outside the US.
Jobs: iTMS To Have 1 Million Songs By End Of Year
One million songs for sale by end of 2004.
Apple's iTunes Records Small Profit
iTunes recorded a small profit in the current quarter, according to Steve Jobs.
Pepsi's iTunes Promotion Goes Flat
Apple said Wednesday that about 5 million free songs have been given away through a Pepsi promotion, far fewer than the 100 million tracks that could have been redeemed.
Apple Disables iTunes Song-Swapping Tool
Among other additions Apple made to its iTunes software, the Mac maker has plugged a hole that allowed some people to download music being played off another computer.
BBEdit Update Enhances Features, Fixes Bugs
Opinion
Publishing To The iTunes Music Store
Uh Oh — Insiders Are Selling At Apple
Does the cashing in mean Apple's execs believe the company's stock has peaked? A look at past insider selling gives cause for concern.
Word Myths And Feedback
I have no problem at all if people want to disagree with me.
Review
Focus On The iPod: Apple Makes The Difficult Seem Easy
Making the difficult seem easy is one of Apple's strengths. Take iTunes, the iTunes Music Store, and the iPod. Their intuitive interfaces let us organize, buy, and play music effortlessly. Yet each of these products has hidden powers.
Monster iCharger
We like the iCarCharger's style, and if the price was just a little lower, there wouldn't be any question as to which adapter we'd recommend.
iTunes 4.5: Updates Good And Bad
iTunes 4.5 does indeed introduce lossless compression to iTunes and the iPod. In typical Apple fashion, the company has apparently decided to invent their own format, Apple Lossless Encoder.
AOL's Open Mail Access Isn't
You can access and open AOL messages with any IMAP client, but outbound mail support is officially available only to Eudora and the mail apps from Microsoft.
Sidetrack
It's My Party And I'll Cry If I Want To
I'm trying out the Party Shuffle feature in the new iTunes, and I'd have to say it's a major improvement over the regular shuffle play. Even when I am not throwing a party. (Okay, I'd admit it. I seldom throw parties.) The user-interface is great.
What I like, especially, is the ability to add tunes to my party shuffle from the library.
Of course, I suspect there may be ever a slight decrease in my productivity when I am party-ing with iTunes while working... :-)
Disclaimer: I'm trying out iTunes on my Windows XP machine, but I suspect there will not be any difference on iTunes for Mac.
Wintel
RealNetworks Seeks Microsoft's Help In Portable Music Foray
RealNetworks, which is suing rival Microsoft for $1 billion, said it wants to use Microsoft's software to help it sell music over the Internet for play on portable devices.
Microsoft Pushes Back XP Update
The release is now likely to come later in the summer.