Apple has begun preparing the Yerba Buena Center for its iPhone 5 introduction. The entrance of the Center is wrapped with colorful banners, suggesting that new multicolored iPods will be part of the event. The new banners evoke the imagery the company used to launch new iPods in 2010.
People familiar with Apple's plans said Apple is looking to create a streaming radio service to rival current offerings like Pandora, according to Wall Street Journal sources. The purported internet-based service will focus on virtual stations to play music on a web browser or dedicated apps. One source said Apple considered competing in the internet radio market in the past as a way to help users discover new music, but ultimately scrapped the plans due to high licensing costs.
The well-known Japanese blog Macotakara has recently reported that Apple will indeed release a smaller iPad, which has been referred to in the media as the "iPad mini," and will in fact use that name when the product launches in October just weeks after Apple introduces its next-generation iPhone on September 12.
Jim Dalrymple, the well-known Apple journalist, reported in his blog on Thursday that Apple may be preparing to debut a next-gen iPhone and 'iPad mini' at two separate media events. Apple is widely expected to debut the sixth-generation iPhone at a special event on September 12, at which time pre-orders are said to begin. Further rumors point to a U.S. rollout starting September 21. Almost nothing is known of the iPad mini. Different report suggests that the smaller iPad will debut at either the same iPhone event or at a later date.
According to sources close to the matter Apple will reportedly kill off the Ping iTunes service when the next iteration of iTunes rolls out alongside iOS 6 this fall, reports All Things D. The social music network has suffered waning participation since its introduction in 2010.
Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed these rumors partly when he said at the D10 conference in May that the company might kill off Ping but vowed to add more social integration into its products. Ping is still active, but sources say that the social network will be redacted this fall and replaced by deeper Twitter and Facebook integration.
Piper Jaffray’s analyst Gene Munster suggests that Apple's full-fledged television set with screen sizes between 42 inches and 55 inches will be retailing between $1,500 and $2,000. Such product will be unveiled later this year and will hit the market about six months after it is announced and will be sold in the amount of approximately 110 million units, he believes.
Apple doesn't support its new iPhoto app, as well as iMovie, on the original iPad. The reason is obvious - the original iPad doesn’t have a camera. But the apps can be installed manually using Apple's iPhone Configuration Utility. iPhoto and iMovie seem to work well enough on the original iPad, although it lacks speed of the iPad 2 and memory of the newest iPad.
To install iMovie and iPhoto to the original iPad you need:
1. to install Apple's free iPhone Configuration Utility, available at http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/enterprise/
2. to buy the apps in iTunes, they'll be within your Music folder under iTunes/iTunes Media/Mobile Applications.
Apple opened its Amsterdam Store to press members on March 1st. For everybody else the store will open March 3rd.
This is the first retail location in The Netherlands and it is very beautiful. OneMoreThing has posted some pictures and a description of the day's events.
In a press release Apple confirms our message that the Amsterdam Apple Store Genius Bar is the longest in the world. 300 employees, 90% from Amsterdam and surrounding areas, assist and advise clients in 14 languages. In addition to generalists the team consists of experienced musicians, filmmakers, photographers and designers.
Apple is reportedly working on a new audio file format for iCloud service. The new audio format will offer improved streaming and "high-definition" quality of music allowing users to access music they obtained from sources outside of iTunes over the iCloud service.
"A source with inside knowledge of the process says Apple has asked a London studio to prepare audio files for a new streaming format that will adapt to bandwidth or hardware capabilities," the report said. It quoted an unnamed person who said users' libraries would "improve in an instant," and nothing would need to be done to upgrade files from the current AAC format to high definition.
On Saturday, Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs was awarded a Grammy Trustees Award to his significant contributions to music and music industry, and his part in creating the iPod and iTunes music store, and the effect that both had on a whole music industry. That Jobs was awarded the Grammy was first announced in December, but the statue was not officially handed over until Saturday. A formal acknowledgement was made during the Grammy Awards telecast Sunday evening. The award is the second Grammy given to Jobs. Apple won a technical Grammy award in 2002.
Apple senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue, accepted the award on his behalf.
The president of TuneCore Jeff Price published a blog post praising iTunes Match service for generating money "out of thin air" for owners of copyrights. Apple’s iTunes Match launched in partnership with all major recording studios, but some small studios refused to cooperate over concerns that the iTunes Match was legitimizing music piracy. He says:
Apple today announced that it would support Paul McCartney's new album release. The company plans to steam a special free video of the live concert on Thursday, February 9 via iTunes on Mac and PC. The video will also be available directly on users' Apple TVs, signalling new efforts by Apple to increase the utility of its set-top box.
To celebrate the release of Paul McCartney's latest album — available now — we're streaming his exclusive performance at Capitol Studios on February 9 at 7 p.m. (PST). Watch the concert on iTunes on your computer, or stream it on your TV using your Apple TV — just choose iTunes Live from the Internet menu.
Best Buy has decided to carry out a survey related to the rumored Apple’s HDTV powered by iOS that, noteworthy to say, has not been released yet. The questionnaire notes that the 42-inch Apple HDTV "finally reinvents what a TV can do," with a 1080p LED flat panel display, connectivity with iCloud, and the ability to use an iPhone or an iPad as a remote control, and "iSight" camera. Such details, however, look like speculations on the part of Best Buy. Since introducing FaceTime video chat, Apple has referred to its forward-facing cameras as FaceTime cameras, not iSight.
Last April, Apple.pro posted a photo of what appeared to be an iPod nano with a hole in the rear casing that was said to be for a camera. A second photo showing a clipless design casing for the device and claiming that it would carry a 1.3-megapixel camera.
Apple ultimately made no changes to the design of the iPod nano in September of last year, instead opting to update the software and lower pricing on the 8 GB and 16 GB models. But the idea of a camera-equipped iPod nano was revived in November with the publication of a May 2010 patent application on speaker design that appeared to show a hole in the iPod nano's clip in the same location as the rumored camera hole seen in the leaked photos.