Apple announces iTunes movie rentals with every major studio
During his Macworld 2008 keynote Tuesday, Steve Jobs announced what everyone knew was coming: iTunes movie rentals. An update to Apple TV was also unveiled.
Jobs touted the success of iTunes, noting that the 4 billionth song was sold last week. 20 million songs were sold on Christmas day alone, which is a new 1-day record for the company.
Jobs: iPhone has 19.5% of US smartphone market
In his Macworld 2008 keynote Tuesday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs told the audience that the company has sold 4 million iPhones in the 200 days since it went on sale.
Apple is shipping an average of 20,000 iPhones each day, and in shipments for the first quarter holds 19.5 percent of the smartphone market in the United States. This puts the device behind on RIM's BlackBerry in terms of market share.
Jobs opens Macworld 2008, announces 'Time Capsule'
Opening Macworld 2008 with his annual keynote address, Apple CEO Steve Jobs told the audience "there is clearly something in the air today."
Jobs began his keynote by looking back at 2007. Apple sold five million copies of Leopard in just three months, making it the most successful Mac OS X release ever. 20 percent of the Mac OS X install base has upgraded to Leopard, said Jobs, noting that "We're really thrilled by this."
MySpace backs AG effort to strengthen online safety
The social networking site and the Attorneys General of 49 states plus the District of Columbia have agreed on key principles for the entire industry to build around.
The joint statement sets guidelines for online safety tools, technology, education, and law enforcement. Texas was the lone state to decline to sign the agreement, but so far no reasoning for their abstention has been given.
FCC opens the Comcast throttling debate to public comment
Demonstrating it's taking seriously charges that Comcast's "network management" practices for slowing down P2P traffic constitute discrimination, the government agency has asked the public to weigh in.
Comcast no longer denies that it implements certain network management techniques to help regulate its traffic, and it now clearly warns its customers -- albeit in a tucked-away location -- that it has the right to slow down certain classes of traffic. The company has argued that such management is not only within its rights, but that it works within the parameters for "reasonable network management" set forth in the Federal Communications' principles.
New video delivery system for cable promises more HDTV
Cable operators have been fighting bandwidth limits to squeeze in more high definition content. A new system aims to assist in that fight without sacrificing quality.
Imagine debuted its new video delivery system on Monday, saying it will help cable operators deliver up to 50 percent more HDTV and SDTV channels without sacrificing video quality.
Cloud platform built on Amazon adds Adobe Flex support
The developers of a Web services application environment that leverages the leased computing services of Amazon have reworked their Web functionality to incorporate Adobe's Web language for Flash applications.
In another challenge to the conventional application services model, a nearly five-year-old startup called Coghead, led by former Red Hat executive Paul McNamara, has updated its unique Web application development suite to incorporate Adobe's Flex Web development language.
Google redesigns its iPhone homepage
The company said at Macworld Monday that it will retool its all-in-one Google application for the iPhone, improving the UI and speeding up loading times.
The new UI is better suited for the touchscreen capabilities of the iPhone, Google claims, and applications such as Gmail and Calendar have been sped up.
How is Windows Vista Service Pack 1 running?
Microsoft on Friday made available to the public a pre-release version of Windows Vista SP1. We want to know what you think, assuming you're willing to install the beta.
Service Pack 1 -- due out this quarter -- is slated to bring a number of major improvements to Microsoft's flagship operating system, but mostly behind the scenes. Performance and reliability has been boosted, in addition to improved compatibility with applications and drivers. Vista users have been clamoring for SP1 since the OS debuted one year ago, so we want to know: does it live up to the hype? Leave a comment below with your experiences, both good and bad.
Windows may be coming to your shopping cart this year
What hopes to be the final form of an innovative new grocery shopping aid device using Windows CE will go into beta this spring, with a possible nationwide rollout by the end of the year.
NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - A pilot program in New Jersey testing the efficiency and viability of computers with scanners and touch-sensitive panels embedded in shopping carts, may finally draw to a close in 2008 after four years in the field. At the annual National Retail Federation conference here, the privately held MediaCart holdings unveiled what it hopes will be the final design of its in-cart computer, which features aisle-specific advertising, a wealth of convenience features for shoppers, and one more venue for Microsoft Windows.
Imation's removable HDD adds innovative USB interface
Possibly in response to the rapidly shrinking desktop PC market in the United States, Imation's Odyssey removable hard disk storage system line has expanded to include a portable USB interface.
Imation says its Odyssey line was designed for small and home offices for backup and data security, so it's no surprise that its peripherals should be pared down in size, if only to meet the shrinking footprint of the computer.
Eye-Fi to improve Mac support for wireless memory card
After announcing a deal with Lexar last week to distribute its technology, Eye-Fi moved onto Macworld Monday, announcing support for Leopard and Safari.
Eye-Fi will now be able to upload photos directly into iPhoto, which eliminates the need for manual import as users must do now. It will also support uploading to any of the 19 providers that the Windows version supports.
Another big Gemstar deal brings TV Guide to MobiTV
Long-running service MobiTV announced today that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with Gemstar-TV Guide.
The agreement includes patent licensing for the interactive program guides (IPGs) similar to those TV Guide places on set top boxes found throughout the US. However, these particular guides will be optimized for the mobile video programming made available through MobiTV.
Canadian appeals court dismisses tariffs on MP3 players
A move by that country's Copyright Board to exact a toll from the sale of personal digital audio devices was soundly defeated last week. But now, the cost of CD-Rs there could rise even further.
A three-judge panel of the Canadian Court of Appeal in Ottawa has unanimously dismissed a decision that would have enabled the country's primary collector of royalties for sound recordings to apply a tariff to the sale of MP3 players there, including Apple's iPod.
With DRM fading away from MP3s, here come the ads
Today, Amazon.com announced an advertising partnership with Pepsi that coincides with the direction of the music industry as predicted by its leaders.
Numerous music industry heads at a panel discussion at CES last week displayed favor for the ad-supported, subscription-based models of music sales as we move away from DRM. Today, a major online music store that rejected DRM since it opened -- and was not represented on the panel -- is showing similar interest.
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