Who knew Steve Case, the co-founder and former CEO and chairman of America Online, had a secret plan at one time to buy Apple and have Steve Jobs run AOL Time Warner?
In his fifth appearance at D: All Things Digital, Steve Jobs speaks with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher about his well-known issues with Flash. Let's watch:
As you remember, recently we reported about new app that allows syncing your iDevices wirelessly. It's called Wi-Fi sync and available in Cydia since Apple didn't approved it. Recently it was updated to version 1.1 to support Windows. You can download it here. Its price is $9.99.
Latest NPD report reveals that Apple increased its music market share again. Here is a current ball game (in comparison to the last year situation):
Digital music downloads: 40% (+5%) of all music sold;
Apple: 28% (+4%) share of all music sold, 70% (+1%) of digital music downloads;
Amazon: 12% (+3%) share of all music sold, 12% (+4%) share of digital music downloads.
Vice president of industry analysis at NPD Russ Crupnick says that physical media market share decreases because it becomes too effortful to look for a necessary CD in retail stores.
"Online shopping offers consumers who still want CDs more variety than they would get in a brick-and-mortar store; plus, recommendations, and other interactive features that raise the overall value proposition for music buyers."
It is interesting that though Amazon's market share is growing, the Department of Justice is looking into Apple to determine whether the company leverages its market power to prevent competition on the music market.
Last week Apple has released its iPhone Os 4.0 beta 4 and redsn0w is finally updated to support this as well as beta 1. New version of jailbreak is 0.9.5.b4 and it can be applied on iPhone 3G only(!).
Redsn0w 0.9.5.b4 is targeted at developers who make jailbroken apps, and will not work if you are already using blacksn0w, ultrasn0w or yellowsn0w.
iPhone Dev-Team warns:
"You should stay clear of this beta software if you rely on a carrier unlock."
To use the jailbreak, follow the guide below:
Download redsn0w 0.9.5.b4 here. (Only Mac OS X version since app are developed on this OS).
Make sure you have already activated your iPhone 3G with iTunes and your own developer ID.
Launch the jailbreak.
Select your stock iPhone1,2_4.0_8A274b_Restore.ipsw (beta4) or iPhone1,2_4.0_8A230m_Restore.ipsw (beta1) file that you used to update your firmware.
Choose "Install Cydia" and then click "Next". Use DFU mode to install the redsn0w.
When your iPhone 3G comes back up, you will notice Cydia has a blank white icon. It also has no sources so you should go to the Sources panel and add this repo: http://apt.saurik.com/cydia-3.7 (make sure you are connected to the Internet before). When Cydia restarts, you should see its real logo now, and the standard sources should be ready to use.
Yesterday Apple officially presented its new back-to-school promotion. This is an annual sale, when school faculty and students can purchase a Mac and get a 8GB iPod touch for free. Apple claims on its website:
"Take a free 8GB iPod touch to school. Along with tons of other great features, iPod touch has built-in Wi-Fi for downloading thousands of games, movies, songs, apps, and amazing, free educational content from iTunes U."
If you have an education discount, along with acquiring new iPod touch you can save $50 on a low-end MacBook, $100 on a MacBook Air and iMac desktop and $200 on a MacBook Pro. Such educational discounts are available to staff and faculty of K-12 schools, and to students, professors and staff of any college.
The deal applies between May 25 and Sept. 7, 2010. Those who doesn't want to get free iPod touch can receive a $199 discount for purchasing 160GB iPod classic or a higher-capacity iPod touch, a $179 discount for a 16GB iPod nano, $149 discount for a 8GB iPod nano, $99 discount for a stainless steel 4Gb iPod shuffle, and $79 discount for a regular 4GB iPod shuffle.
Customers can use their educational discounts in an Apple online store, retail stores, authorized campus stores or call 1-800-MY-APPLE.
For those who doesn't like iTunes for its restrictions and lockdown on music and files a new solution has been delivered to the BigBoss repository and it’s called PwnTunes.
PwnTunes allows copying files from iPhone or iPod touch to PC just after plugging the sync cable. There is no tethering for only one PC, so you can use your device anywhere you want. Other features include:
Music files are normally named after the original filenames on the PC and without gibberish encoding.
Deleting songs and any other type of files directly via USB (iDevice works as USB device)
Loading cover.jpg/folder.jpg from same folder as cover
Album name is taken from folder's name if no album ID3 tag found, artist name is taken from parent folder's name if no artist ID3 tag found
The app currently is currently compatible only with Windows (XP/Vista/7), but the developers promise the Mac support to be delivered soon. The price is €9.99. No additional software on PC is required, you just need to launch Cydia on your jailbroken iDevice and install PwnTunes from Data Storage Section. When installed, connect you iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad via USB and the app will ask you to buy License or download it if you have already purchased one.