Warner begins selling DRM-free music through Amazon
In a potentially significant move, Warner Music Group today said it has licensed its catalog to Amazon for use with its Amazon MP3 music store.
The deal is not fully explained by the music label but will include "album bundles" with tracks unavailable anywhere else, according to the two companies. Like all Amazon MP3 tracks, the songs go without digital rights management and can be copied an unlimited number of times and played back on nearly any device, including iPods.
Securing the Warner deal represents the latest in a series of victories for Amazon against Apple. Although launching only in September of this year, Amazon's store has already licensed
MP3 music from Universal and forced Apple to
lower iTunes Plus pricing to remain competitive. The iPod maker, in turn, has seen both
Warner and
Universal potentially opt out of long-term contracts for iTunes on a permanent basis. With today's announcement, both have also excluded Apple from their unprotected music offerings.
The agreement to offer MP3s also represents a dramatic shift in policy for Warner. The label's chief Edgar Bronfman began the year by
lashing out at Steve Jobs for even suggesting that labels should drop copy protection, accusing the Apple executive of abandoning logic. Since then, three of the four major labels -- EMI, Universal, and Bronfman's own imprint -- have all offered unprotected songs to varying degrees. Only Sony BMG has so far maintained a requirement for copy protection on all its direct downloads.
Report: iPhone to boost Apple stock to $600
While Apple shares have only just
flirted with the $200 mark this week, the company is poised to as much as triple that amount in 18 months, says Daedalus Capital chief investment officer Stephen Coleman in an
update on his company's outlook.
The financial expert bases this largely on predicted success for the iPhone, which he believes will not only benefit Apple through sales of the phone itself but through revenue-sharing deals. In a more aggressive estimate than some analysts, Coleman estimates as much as 30 percent of subscription revenues for carriers are sent directly to the Cupertino firm.
"There's so much growth to look forward to," he says.
Mossberg credits Dell all-in-one as true iMac rival
Dell's new XPS One desktop is the only Windows PC that can 'match or exceed' the iMac in some areas, according to a new
review by the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg.
The technology columnist justifies the response by noting that the Dell all-in-one maintains a clever industrial design while incorporating features absent from the iMac, such as a memory card reader, a TV tuner, and side-mounted USB ports.
The iMac still wins through software, Mossberg adds: Mac OS X is both faster and more valuable than Vista, and is not burdened by trial versions or ad-based software, nicknamed "craplets" by the journalist. And in a reversal of stereotypes, Apple's systems are also less expensive while offering better overall performance and more screen options. Nonetheless, the system may prove viable for Windows users, he writes.
"If you want a stylish Windows Vista machine that runs well and won�t cost a fortune, the XPS One fits the bill, despite its unlikely heritage," Mossberg says.
Just when you've gotten to the point where you can type on your BlackBerry upside down in the dark, they're thinking about changing the keyboard.  Would you want to type on an angled Blackberry keyboard?(Credit: PTO [via ZDnet]) A patent application filed on behalf of Research in Motion was recently revealed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and it describes an "angular keyboard" where the keys are set at a 45-degree angle to the base of the unit.
Looking across Apple's entire hardware line, Apple TV sticks out as the product Apple devoted little attention to in 2007. Rumor sites, insiders, and analysts are all predicting major changes for Apple TV in 2008. There are several directions Apple could pursue with Apple TV from a stronger focus on high definition video downloads to an integrated HD-DVD or Blu-ray drive or even PVR functionality. WHICH APPLE TV UPGRADE WOULD MOST INFLUENCE THE PURCHASING OF APPLE TV FOR YOUR HOME? * The addition of a Blu-ray or HD-DVD drive * Offering higher quality iTunes Movie and TV downloads (720p or better) * Launching an iTunes video rental service * The introduction of basic PVR functionality (think TiVo) * None of the features above would warrant my consideration of AppleTV View Results  Loading If you have any comments about Apple TV please comment below.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iTS, iTunes  You'll be hard pressed to find anyone outside of the Music Industry who thinks that DRM is a good thing, and today it looks like more people in the Music Industry are seeing the error of their ways. Warner Music Group has announced that starting today people can buy their entire digital catalog via Amazon MP3 (see our review of Amazon's digital music store front here). The unique thing about Amazon MP3 is, as you might have guessed , they only sell music in the MP3 format sans DRM. That's right, all those lovely Warner Music Group tracks are yours to have without DRM and, generally, for less than what you'll pay in the iTunes Store (Amazon MP3 has a sliding scale of prices but most tracks cost $.89 or $.99). Some might say, 'Why should I care about this? I'm on a Mac!' The beauty of this is that these MP3 files will play on your Mac, your iPod, your iPhone, and even that Zune you got in a box of cereal. No DRM means more flexibility in how you can consume your media, and we all like that. [via Engadget] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Popular Mechanics' ranking of " The Top 10 Worst Gadgets of 2007" puts Microsoft's Zune at #8 while Apple's Apple TV finishes second only to the Palm Foleo. What did it take to make the list? Rather than going for the most obscure or ludicrous gadgets, we based our choices on missed opportunities, hype gone awry and some mysterious fumbles. And while we tried to bash constructively the gizmos we've tested so extensively in the lab, sometimes the most useful response is, in fact, a complete rejection. Popular Mechanics cites Apple TV's failure to rise to the challenge being posed by its rivals (specifically DVRs and video-on-demand), noting that the only way Apple TV could have moved into the living room in force would have been by way of a all-you-can-eat subscription model. What's your take on Apple TV's shortcomings? Take our Apple TV feature poll!  THE TOP 10 WORST GADGETS OF ALL TIME (POPULAR MECHANICS) * Palm Foleo * Apple TV * LG Chocolate VX8550 * Ugobe Pleo * Black & Decker SPT100 Specialty Performance Hand Tool * Violet Nabaztag * Husky 5-in-1 Drywall Tool * Microsoft Zune * 3001 AD Trimersion HMD * Ironman Resolution Vibration Trainer
Filed under: Humor, Hacks, Odds and ends, iPhone  So you're the groom at a wedding this last Saturday. You realize, 10 minutes before the ceremony, that you forgot to print out your vows. You try to get an HP printer to plug and play with a Windows Vista laptop, but no dice-- they're playing "Here Comes the Bride," and Windows is only telling you " Found New Hardware." So what do you do? If you're bob.blog, you just email the document to your iPhone, and voila-- the groom reads his vows right off of the gadget of the year for 2007. Pretty darn nifty. No word, however, on if the bride sent her "I do" via SMS. Now, it's not the first time an iPhone has made a wedding possible, but it is, from what we can tell, the very first actual iPhone-assisted wedding ceremony ( Update: Not true-- see below). Just think what we'll be able to do with wedding software when the SDK hits. With this ringtone, iTheeWed! Thanks, Ben!
Update: It's not the first time this has happened-- TUAW's own Mike Rose tells me that he can personally attest to this having been done before. He attended a wedding where the groom read his vows right off of the iPhone. Looks like a burgeoning market of vow-reading software to me. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Software, Beta Beat  Psst. Perian is about to enter a private beta for version 1.1. If you recall, last time Perian went into beta mode the software leaked. This was generally a bad thing as a buggy and unstable version made the rounds, hitting Mac Update at one point, before the team was ready for it to go public. This time, they're reacting by limiting the beta list to users who have made donations and help support development. If you've donated to Perian, keep your eyes open for an invitation email. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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