News

Apple Unveils Logic Studio

www.apple.com—12logicstudio.html

Apple today unveiled Logic Studio, a suite of professional audio editing tools for $499. Logic Studio features Logic Pro 8 featuring a new interface. There's a new application called MainStage, new live performance application that turns the Mac® into a streamlined live rig with controls link software plug-ins to hardware knobs, faders and buttons, so musicians can use their favorite gear while performing live. Logic Studio also includes Soundtrack Pro 2, Apple’s professional audio post production software; Studio Instruments, made up of 40 instruments; Studio Effects, with 80 professional effect plug-ins; a vast Studio Sound Library; and a powerful set of production utilities. Registered Logic Pro 7 users can upgrade to Logic Studio for $199 (US). Customers who purchased Logic Pro 7 on or after August 1, 2007 are eligible for a free upgrade to Logic Studio ($9.95 shipping & handling)

Logic Express 8 is also available for $199 or a $99 upgrade from Logic Express 7, Logic Express 6, Logic Audio 6, or Logic Audio 5.

store.apple.com—RSLID

Apple Sells 1 Millionth iPhone

Apple today announced that it sold its one millionth iPhone yesterday, 74 days after the product’s introduction on June 29. “One million iPhones in 74 days-it took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We can’t wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season.” Apple last week announced a $200 price drop on the iPhone, bringing its price down to $399.

Analyst Predicts that Price Cut Will Triple Sales

www.ipodobserver.com—32951

Analyst Gene Munster has reported that the iPhone price cut has tripled the daily sales from 9,000 per day to 27,000 per day.The analyst believes that the final number will settle down to about half of that leading up to the holiday period.
At that rate, Apple could sell an additional 1.4 million phones this year

A Free iPhone Unlock Utility Sufaces

gizmodo.com—iphone-free-software-unlock-confirmed-death-star-explodes-298825.php

The Developers over at iPhone Dev Wiki posted a free SIM unlock tool for the iPhone. This is a software-only solution should allow you to SIM unlock your iPhone, allowing you to use any GSM cell phone carrier. At this time the instructions are not very user-friendly, so casual users may want to wait until a more automated solution is published. A few commercial solutions had previously been made available, ranging from $50-$100 per unlock.

Ringtone Drama

Shortly after the release of iTunes 7.4, people quickly realized that you could create your own Ringtones simply by by renaming the extensions of files and importing the new files into iTunes.

www.iphonealley.com—use-itunes-7-4-to-import-almost-anything-as-a-ringtone

Within 24 hours, Apple released iTunes 7.4.1 which broke this work around and also broke Rogue Amoeba's iToner software for installing ring-tones on the iPhone

www.tuaw.com—itunes-7-4-obsolete-after-48-hours-7-4-1-breaks-homebrew-ringto

iToner has been updated and now works again. And Rogue Amoeba has released a free utility called MakeiPhoneRingtone which will transfer AAC files to your iPhone and make them a ringtone. Rogue Amoeba does not gurantee that Apple won't break the hack, but say that they will try to keep up with updates.

www.rogueamoeba.com—MakeiPhoneRingtone-2007-09-11-09-00.html

NBC and iTunes Drama

www.appleinsider.com—ipod_hi_fi_flops_its_way_off_apples_online_store.html

Apple issued a press release stating it would not be selling NBC television shows for the upcoming television season on iTunes . The move follows NBC’s decision to not renew its agreement with iTunes after Apple declined to allegedly pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 “We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers.”
Apple’s agreement with NBC ends in December. Since NBC would withdraw their shows in the middle of the television season, Apple has decided to not offer NBC TV shows for the upcoming television season beginning in September. NBC supplied iTunes with three of its 10 best selling TV shows last season, accounting for 30 percent of iTunes TV show sales.

www.apple.com—31itunes.html

Now NBC is back saying that isn't true, that they only wanted "flexibility in wholesale pricing, including the ability to package shows together in ways that could make our content even more attractive for consumers." Further they complain that Apple is more interested in making money on hardware than money for content provider

www.tuaw.com—nbc-responds-nuh-uh

In a statement, NBC disputes Apple’s characterization of the companies’ contract renegotiation and says that its TV programs will be available on iTunes through early December. NBC said that all returning series including new episodes would be available on iTunes through the end of the contract. NBC also has started selling programs on Amazon.com for $1.99 per episode and sates it to start offering its shows and others for free on Hulu.com, a joint venture company with News Corp.

playlistmag.com—index.php

Apple Pushing for $0.99 TV Downloads

www.ipodobserver.com—32898

iPodObserver reports that Apple may be looking to drop the price of TV Show downloads to $0.99. Apple expects studios to make more money from cheaper downloads because consumers will buy more episodes. Networks, however, appear to be skeptical.he networks may also be concerned that less expensive show downloads would diminish the perceived value of DVD box sets. Under the current pricing scheme, downloading a complete TV show season at the iTunes Store can cost about the same as a season on DVD. Even though consumers get extra content with DVDs, studios fear that cheaper downloads could make the discs seem less enticing.

iTunes Glitch shows Movie Rental Service may be coming

www.appleinsider.com—apple_itunes_glitch_reveals_movie_rental_preparations.html

While attempting to notify Apple of a problem with its iTunes Store, one user stumbled upon evidence that suggests the company may be gearing up to offer movie rentals through the digital download service. The user states he was trying to report a problem via iTunes and a Pop-up menu for selecting the menu appears which noted several entries regarding movie rentals.

New iPods Not Compatible with 10.3.9

www.macfixit.com—article.php

Apple's newly released iPods are the first iPods to be incompatible with Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Panther). This means that a music library can't be synced from a Panther machine to one of the new iPods. Apparently you can move your iTUnes library over to a tiger machine and sync it, but then future syncs with your 10.3 machine will be a problem.

New iPods Lock Out Many Video Add-Ons

ilounge.com—apple-locks-tv-out-in-new-ipods-breaks-video-add-ons

iLounge reports that you can only get video off your new iPod if you connect it to a device with an Apple authentication chip built in. These chips are only available in Apple products, and in a few products made by licensed third=party developers.

Apple Will Leave iPhone Hackers Alone (For Now)

www.gearlog.com—apples_joswiak_we_dont_hate_ip.php

According to Apple's Vice President of Marketing Greg Joswiak. "Apple takes a neutral stance - they're not going to stop anyone from writing apps, and they're not going to maliciously design software updates to break the native apps, but they're not going to care if their software updates accidentally break the native apps either." This position could change, but Joswiak notes that it would require a re-evaluation by Apple

iTunes 7.4 breaks some hacked iPhones

According iPhone Atlas, users who have restored their iPhone with iTunes 7.4 should not attempt to jailbreak the device with anything other than the newly released versions of installers that are compatible with the update. A number of people have reported that their iPhones have become non-functional (entering an endless rebooting cycle) after restoring the iPhone using iTunes 7.4, then attempting jailbreak with Installer.app 2.4 or earlier or other older jailbreaking utilities.Apparently iTunes 7.4 uploads changes to the iPhone that can cause serious issues when those units undergo a subsequent jailbreak process. In particular, users are experiencing a problem where the iPhone persistently reboots. One possible fix is to force your iPhone into recovery mode (hold the sleep/wake button and home button for 30 seconds) and then restore it.

Crazy Rumor This Week: Apple to Bid on FCC Wireless Auction?

www.businessweek.com—tc20070910_014733.htm

Businessweek reports that Apple has studied the implications of joining the FCC Wireless auction to be held on January 16th.
The winners will get rights to use the spectrum that analog TV broadcasters are handing back to the government in 2009, given their mandated move to digital television. Signals at the 700Mhz spectrum, for example, could provide far faster Internet access than today's cellular or even Wi-Fi networks, and the signals can easily pass through buildings and work glitch-free, even in lousy weather.

According to their sources, however, Apple is currently "leaning against participating" in the auction. With $14 billion in cash reserves, while Apple could easily afford participating in the auction, the logistics of running a "low-margin .... massive-scale network" could prove to be detrimental to Apple. This negative impact on Apple's margins and focus are seen as major reasons for Apple's reluctance to participate.

Software Updates

Compatibility Update for Quicktime 7.2

www.apple.com—compatibilityupdateforquicktime72.html

This update delivers increased compatibility with iLife.

Keyboard Software Update 1.2

www.apple.com—keyboardsoftwareupdate12.html

Install this software to take advantage of your aluminum Apple Keyboard's special features.

Feature: Apple Special Event Reaction

iTunes Update

Will you be able to download Podcasts over WiFi Store?

What do you think about Ringtones and Price?

iPod Shuffle

iPod Nano

New Design Looks Better In Person

iPod Classic

Will this Cannibalize the iPod Nano Sales- currently the best selling iPod

What to you think of the name? "Classic?"

iPod Touch

Ships by September 28th

Guided Tour Now Available Online

Looks "unfinished" with all those blank spaces?

Will this cannibalize iPhone Sales, even with the new Price Drop?

Will this create a problem with 3rd party accessories, like the iPhone? (Katie's doesn't work in her car)

iPhone Price Drops and Features

Fury over $200 price drop among early Adopters

Steve first says: "That's technology. If they bought it this morning, they should go back to where they bought it and talk to them. If they bought it a month ago, well, that's what happens in technology."

Then Wednesday afternoon releases an open letter on Apple.com offering a $100 credit

4GB models available for $299 while Supplies Last

Where's the 16GB Version?

Keynote Now Available for Download on Apple.com

events.apple.com.edgesuite.net—index.html

If Time Allows: Katie and Corey's Review of the iPhone

Audio Comment from Gary- Followup on YouTube not working on Apple TV. China Censors YouTube on AppleTV

Knut on Mozy

Lately you've been talking about Mozy and I thought I'd share my experience which has not been so good and maybe see if somebody else has had the same problems and found a solution to them. I am in constant contact with Mozy, they are nice, they say they try hard to fix the problems and have given me a 1month free subscription while we try to find a solution but so far they have not been able to do anything about it.

My main problem is that Mozy constantly loses the connection to the servers and stops the backup which I then have to restart manually. At times this happens constantly during the day. Often I have had to restart it 10 times during a day. The error messages I get are ConnectionError0, ConnectionError1, ConnectionError2 and ConnectionError3.

Sometimes Mozy throws up a dialog box in the background saying "Mozy has not yet successfully backed up". Until I find and dismiss this dialog all the items in the menu are disabled.

I also had a problem where the menu icon used to disappear and I would have to switch it off and on again to make it reappear.

At times it has also been painfully slow showing no progress at all for days.

I am backing up 125 GBs so I realise it is going to take some time but at the current pace I don't think it will ever finish.

I am pretty frustrated with Mozy which is after all in beta but it seems you have had none of these problems.

Take care. By the way don't try to pronounce my name ;-)

Bronson on iPod Touch Compatibility

I heard you on the Typical Mac User podcast last week after the iPod
announcement and you mentioned that your iPhone would not play through
the dock connection hook up in your car. You had wondered if the new
iPod Touch would suffer from the same problem.

This concerns me because I have a Neo Ion connection in my car that I
connect to the dock connector of my 5.5G iPod. That's my primary mode
of listening to my iPod. I am VERY excited to purchase the new iPod
Touch but if it won't work with my car setup then I'm kind of sunk.

Have you never been able to listen to music through your iPhone in
your car? Can you listen to music off the iPhone using the dock
connector through your computer or a set of external speakers? Has
*no one* been able to get this type of connection to work in their car
or do you feel it's something specific to your setup/iPhone?

I'm just trying to learn a little more about this problem. I'm still
anxiously waiting for the iPod Touch to come out but this news makes
me a little worried that I won't be able to listen to my iPod in my
car.

Courtland on iPhone Price Drop and Ringtones

so i just watched the keynote and am horrified at the new price of the iPhone!! i waited in line for five hours to be the ninth person in north seattle to get that phone and now i want my two hundred dollars back. oh well, at least we're getting a new application button (the wifi itunes store).
also, doesn't apple realize that you can make FREE RINGTONES by importing/exporting tracks from itunes? i mean i know theyre not going to promote using audio tracks downloaded for free via limewire or some other p2p application but they could have mentioned something. an rough example would be to create your own ringtone using that music application that comes in iLife '08 (the one where you pick the instruments) and save/export to itunes and then sync with the Phone!! i guess the average user can figure this out on their own but i am sure that apple could have found a way to advertise this. greedy greedy...

but wait, what about tracks that you download/import from somewhere other than itunes. like limewire or a BURNED CD (both purchased cd's and/or burned/copied cd's)? will i be able to make ringtones out of music that did not come from itunes but that i did legally purchase on a CD? will the new itunes ringtone application only support tracks that were bought via itunes? and is this where and why there are "bells" next to some tracks and not others as depicted in the keynote video?

Ted on iPhone Price Drop

I have mixed feelings about this, but I'm amazed at the number of
"whiners" out there. Looking through the Apple discussion forums,
people somehow felt tricked, abused, devalued, etc.

American consumers seem to have this "entitlement" attitude. Somehow
it's not their fault that they purchased something overpriced, but you
know what, Apple is a business. They're not your friend, not your
buddy and not your mother. They didn't put a gun to your head and
force you to purchase the iPhone. You're supposed to be an adult and a
careful consumer, and people should take responsibility for their own
actions.

I wanted one also, but I didn't let an "impulse buy" or the RDF cloud
my judgement. I carefully did my homework and decided I work very hard
for my money, and the iPhone just did not justify the $600 price. It's
called "Buyer Beware" and being a smart consumer.

Somehow, you can be assured, Apple will make up for this "handout".
Probably in form of tacking on a few more dollars to other items. So
people like me will end up paying more for items because a bunch of
crybabies demanded a refund. It's not fair that i should have to pay
for other's people desire to be "cool".

I'm not trying to be mean about it, or unsympathetic, after all I've
done the same thing in the past and paid more for being an early
adopter of technology, and I accepted from the beginning that the
price would drop, and of course, it did drop. But you do know most
cell phone companies GIVE away phones. Anyone willing to spend that
kind of money for an iPhone, (unless they could truly justify NEEDING
it, not wanting it, two different things), should have known they were
paying too much to begin with.

I've heard arguments that Apple priced it too high to begin with. I
agree they did, but people still lined up to buy it. No one forced
them to. Companies do this all the time, but if people are willing to
pay for it, how are they at fault? I'm definitely not
pro-corporation, but in fact, just the opposite. I'm old enough to
understand every company out there wants your money, that's why it's
up to you to protect yourself. Companies are not looking after your
welfare. Apple was extremely generous to give back what they did, and
hopefully this won't set a precedent for every whiner out there when
they have buyer's remorse.

Another argument I've heard is these people expect something because
they "supported" Apple, or was a devoted early adopter. I'll bet if
you asked all those people standing in line, if they were there to
"support" Apple, or buy an iPhone because they were "cool". By far
the largest response would've been "BECAUSE ITS SO COOL!!!". I can't
imagine anyone saying they were there to support Apple and felt they
needed to give them $600.00. Pretty lame...