So yet another rumor this week that the Beatles catalog will finally be available in downloadable format, on iTunes. But it seems to be another false rumor. There seems to have been hundreds of such stories since the launch of iTunes, and yet still no Beatles. Meanwhile, other bands go online without so much as a mention.
So, why the obsession with the Beatles?
Well, there are many reasons. When the Beatles released their music, vinyl records were the format. So it was a major shift when compact discs came out. It only took a few years for the Beatles catalog to be remastered and released on CD, and that event really marked the arrival of CDs and the death of vinyl. So I guess some people think it will finally mark the moment where downloads will be the major distribution method.
Another reason for the hype is the history between Apple and Apple Corps. The later is the company that owns and controls the Beatles recordings. In the 80s, they sued Apple over the trademark of Apple. They settled as long as Apple (then Apple Computer) agreed not to enter the music business. But with the iPod and iTunes, it certainly seemed to Apple Corps that Apple Computer was in the music business. So another lawsuit, and another settlement.
Then, of course, there is the simple popularity of the Beatles and their songs. They have 200+ songs, of which about 150+ can be heard on classic rock or oldies stations at any time. From She Loves You to Let It Be, from Yesterday to Hey Jude, from Love Me Do to Revolution. They have so many recognizable songs, that it must be the most valuable catalog from any one single band.
But there are many reasons not to care whether the Beatles are on iTunes. First, all of their music has been digitally remastered and on CD for decades. So, there is no lack of availability. I won’t be buying any Beatles downloads, as I already have all the CDs. Are there really that many people out there that want Beatles music, but are waiting for slightly-lower-quality compressed files?
Second, Apple Corps will probably opt for heavy DRM (digital rights management). So it would be available on iTunes, but as protected files. I’d love to be wrong about this. Releasing the Beatles catalog DRM-free would surely be another nail in the coffin of DRM.
In the end it still would be nice to have the Beatles up there on iTunes, maybe just to see some of the youngest generation discovering their music through an iTunes wander.
At yesterday’s press conference, developers from Electronic Arts demoed Spore on the iPhone. But was it really Spore? No. It was a game using Spore elements, yes. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this won’t actually become a real game. We’ll never see it again.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think there will be all sorts of cool games coming out for the iPhone in June. Just Spore won’t be one of them.
The applications we saw yesterday were developed in two weeks by teams of developers sent to Apple. They were testing the SDK, and giving Apple something to show at the press conference. I’m sure that Apple was thrilled when the EA guys decided to take some art from Spore to make a quick game. It looked great at the press conference and made headlines.
But Spore is going to be one of the most advanced games ever made when it comes out. It will probably take a pretty decent computer or console to run it. The real Spore just isn’t going to work on the little iPhone. A dumbed-down version of Spore, or a Spore mini-game would be the only option. But with EA trying hard to make its September release date for Spore, I don’t see them dedicating resources to make a Spore mini-game for the iPhone.
And for those of us who can’t wait for Spore to come out, we’re not going to be getting it on the iPhone. We’re going to want it for our PCs and consoles. Why play a mini-game when we can play the real thing? And why settle for a mini-game and spend our time playing a mini-game when we can be spending our time on the real thing?
So, in the end, a Spore game for the iPhone just doesn’t make sense. But there will be some great games for the iPhone no doubt. So don’t worry.
Today Apple announced it will be releasing their internal SDK (Software Development Kit) for 3rd parties to use to build iPhone applications.
This SDK includes similar pieces to the Mac SDK, but replaces the top level Cocoa used on Macs, with Cocoa Touch, specifically designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
The SDK includes many core services, like the ability to exchange data with the iPhone contacts application, get the physical location of the phone, mix and record audio, access the camera, play back video, and even including an embedded version of OpenGL, the 3D rendering service on Macs.
Developers will also have access to an iPhone simulator on their Mac that will help them test iPhone software before testing on a live iPhone.
At the press conference, several demonstration applications were shown, including a mini version of the upcoming Electronic Arts game Spore, a Super Monkey Ball game from Sega, an application from SalesForce.com, another from Epocrates, and an AOL Instant Messenger client.
For distribution, there will be a new “App Store” application on the iPhone that will allow users to browse and select applications to download. Similar functionality will be available via iTunes on your computer, with the application pushed to your iPhone during the next sync.
The App Store will be the ONLY way for developers to distribute content. Developers will pick the price, and Apple will keep 30% of the revenue, paid monthly. Developers can also choose to distribute their applications for free.
This will be version 2.0 of the iPhone software, shipping to iPhone users in late June as a free update to iPhone users, but iPod Touch users will have to pay for the update.
The iPhone SDK will be available from the Apple site later today. It will cost $99 to join the developer program.
Interesting facts from the Q&A Following the press conference:
The first announcement at today’s special press conference concerns using the iPhone for enterprise. So, basically, it means a new way to connect to a Microsoft Exchange server. Apple has licensed ActiveSync, the technology that allows mobile devices to do all sorts of things with Exchange. So, soon iPhone users will be able to get Exchange email pushed to their iPhone, and also sync other data including contacts and calendars.
Also implemented will be the all-important “wipe” feature. This means if your phone gets lost or stolen, the mail, contacts and calendar data from Exchange can be remotely wiped from it to protect your information.
I received some sort of keyboard firmware update today. I was restarting my MacBook Pro and was in a rush, so when I saw a message about a keyboard update, I just accepted. I have a MacBook Pro, 15 inch, 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, for those keeping score at home.
To my surprise, when I rebooted, my trackpad and keyboard were dead! Dead dead. Not even available for a PRAM reset during boot.
So I borrowed a USB keyboard and mouse, which worked fine. I tried several things, for two hours, until I found another MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update.app from Sept. 27, 2007. I installed that, which rolled me back, I guess. Then I got my keyboard and trackpad back.
But I was minutes away from giving up and driving to the Apple Store.
Of course, without the external USB mouse and keyboard, it would have been impossible to do this. At one point I only had an external mouse, and was unable to enter my password to allow the install. I suppose it is funny in retrospect. I wish there was a on-screen keyboard of some sort.
When Steve Jobs announced movie rentals for iTunes and Apple TV, he promised 1,000 titles in the first month. We’re at less than 400 and it is easily apparent to anyone with an Apple TV that you need probably more like 10,000 to make it a decent service.
The whole idea of being able to have a library on demand in your living room is great. I love it. I can’t wait. But it has to really be a library. I really need to be able to have a good chance of finding a movie that I want to watch. As it is, I’ve only watched three movies, and only one of those three was something I really wanted to see. The other two were opportunities to use the service. Now it has been 2 weeks and I have no interest (or have already seen or own on DVD) the rest of the catalog. Meanwhile, my wife and I have thrown out dozens of ideas on various evenings of movies we’d like to see. Things from the 70s, 80s and 90s. Nothing too unusual, really. But we didn’t find them on Apple TV, so on the Tivo wish-list they went.
Apple should really work at getting the back catalogs of the major studios online. As it is, any new buzz from Apple TV take 2 is already fading. It may be too late to save Apple TV, after a brief moment where it looked like it might succeed.
With Apple’s release of iPhone update 1.1.4 we get exciting new, um, well, nothing. Looks like it is just a bug fix release. I wish I knew what the bugs were, but they don’t say.
But anyway, it is a free release, so no big deal, right? But even though the release is free to us, doesn’t make it free to Apple. Consider just the bandwidth costs. Everyone that downloads the update is requesting 160MB from Apple. If there are 4 million iPhones out there, then that is 160MB x 4 million, or 640 million MB, which is the same as 640TB (terabyte) of data transfered. Looking around, I see that $100 per TB is “discount” bandwidth, so that totals $64,000.
That’s a nice salary for an engineer. Well, in northern California, a salary for a starting engineer.
Now, Apple probably gets even better rates on bandwidth than I can imagine. Plus, the needs of the iTunes music store probably dwarfs this 640TB distribution anyway. But the idea is that this does cost them something, so it is unlikely it is just superficial bug fixes. More likely it is something dealing with DRM, communication with AT&T’s network, hooks for the upcoming SDK or something like that. I’m sure they don’t release a set of “bug fixes” without a very good reason.
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The MacMost Guide to the iPhone is a collection of articles and blog posts that will help you get the most from your iPhone. With each article, we’ve included some helpful tips and things you may not have known about.
We’ll be adding to the guide to cover updates, new applications and features. You can also leave comments with each article to share your own tips and ticks with others.
Select a topic below:
Third Party Applicatons:
Check out the MacMost iPhone Apps Directory.
Standard Applicatons:
Guide to iPhone SMS Text Application
Guide to the iPhone Calendar Application
Guide to the iPhone Photo Albums Application
Guide to the iPhone Camera
Guide to YouTube on the iPhone
Guide to the iPhone Stocks
Guide to iPhone Maps Application
Guide to the iPhone Weather Application
Guide to the iPhone Clock
Guide to the iPhone Calculator
Guide to the iPhone Notes
Guide to the iPhone iTunes Store
Guide to the iPhone Phone Application
Guide to the iPhone Contacts Application
Guide to the iPhone Mail Application
Guide to the iPhone Safari
Guide to the iPhone iPod Application
More Articles:
Setting Up an iPhone Email Account
iPhone Games
Guide to iPhone Cases
The iPod application on the iPhone offers you dozens of ways to browse your audio and video files and play them. You can list your content by Playlist, Artist, Composer, Album, Song or Genre. There are also ways to view only Videos, Compilations and Audiobooks.
You can also turn your iPhone sideways to look at your music in Coverflow, the album-cover-clipping mode also used in iTunes and on iPods.
When the iPod is playing a song, you will get a screen with the album artwork and controls on the top and bottom.
At the bottom, you have a volume slider, a back, pause/play and forward button. Press the pause play button in the middle to pause the song.
At the top of the screen, you will see the name of the artist, song and album. You have buttons to take you back to the previous screen, or to an album song listing.
If you tap near the top of the screen you will get more controls: a repeat/loop button, a time scrub control, the current time into the track and time remaining, and a shuffle control. The time scrubber is particularly useful for moving to a section in a long podcast.
The Web browser in the iPhone is a version of Safari found on both Mac and Windows. In fact, it is almost the same browser, right down to obscure features such as a JavaScript drawing canvas and drop-shadow effects not found in other browsers.
What is missing from the iPhone version are a lot of interface elements. Instead of dozens of menu items and settings, we’ve only got a handful of buttons on the iPhone version of Safari. Plus, we lose features like multiple windows and tabs, which are replaced with something in-between.
When viewing a Web page in Safari, you get A search button (magnifying glass) at the upper left, the current URL in a field, and a refresh button (circle arrow) to the upper right. At the bottom, you have left and right arrows, a + button to add the page to your bookmarks, a bookmarks button and a page button.
If you tap on the URL address field at the top of the screen, you can enter any URL using a keyboard. You will also get a second field for searching using Google. You can also switch to use Yahoo search in the iPhone settings for Safari.
The pages button puts Safari into Pages mode, where you can flip to the left and right to view multiple windows. Use the New Button at the bottom of the page to create a new window. You can tap the red X button at the upper left of a page to remove that window.
When viewing a Web page, you can pinch and stretch the screen with two fingers to zoom in on areas. You can tap and move your finger to move around on the page. However, Web designers can set their pages to not allow this if the page is already formatted nicely for the screen. You can also turn your iPhone horizontally to get a wide-screen view.
When you tap on a data entry field, a keyboard appears to allow you to enter in data. If the field is a pop-up list of items, you will get a scrolling wheel of choices.
The bookmarks in Safari include a History listing that shows you recently visited Web pages. The rest should sync with the Bookmarks on you Mac’s Safari browser.
To edit bookmarks, click on the Edit button at the bottom. Then you can tap the bookmark to edit its name, location or move it to another bookmark folder.
With the Edit button depressed, you can also tap and drag items by the right right to move them up or down in the list. Tapping on the red circle on the left will allow you to delete the bookmark.
Lets take a look at the new features:
Prices are $2,799 for the 17-inch Pro, $2,499 for the high-end 15-inch Pro, $1,999 for the low-end Pro, $1,099 and $1,299 for the MacBooks and $1,499 for the black MacBook. All of the models, except the lowest-end MacBook have a superdrive (Writes CDs and DVDs). The lowest-end only writes CDs, but can read DVDs.
The Apple Store online appears to have all models in stock, listed as shipping in either 24 hours for MacBooks, or 1-3 days and 2-4 days for MacBook Pros.
At the center of rumors about new MacBook Pros this week is the Penryn processor, a new Intel processor. What this will mean is a smaller, cooler, slightly faster processor that is a little easier on battery life as well.
The Penryn processor is already in other machines, such as the HP Pavilion.
There is something new in the Penryn, something called “SSE4”. This is a set of instructions built to improve performance when encoding audio, video and images. There is also a speed boost for the Level 2 cache.
There is also a mode where the processor almost completely shuts down an requires almost no power while sleeping, though we don’t know how well new MacBooks would take advantage of this.
For most of us, this just means that the MacBooks will get a little faster, and maybe the battery will last a little longer.
Note that you can go to GadgetTrak.com for more information on the Verery security software.
To create an iPhone email account, go to the iPhone Settings, tap the Mail item. This will take you to the main Mail preference. Under a list of current accounts, you will also see categories for Message and Sending. Probably best to set those up first.
There are also some choices under the Sending category.
To create a new email account, tap the “Add Account…” item that is at the bottom of the Accounts category. You will then be given a number of choices: Y! Mail (Yahoo Mail), Gmail (Google Mail), .Mac, AOL, and Other.
The first four allow you to quickly and easily add email accounts from four of the major Web-based email providers. When you select one of these, all you need to do is your name used in the account, your email address associated with the account, the account password, and a description to display on the iPhone to identify the account.
Selecting Other is how you would go about setting up an email account to any other email service. You get three choices: IMAP, POP, Exchange. Most email accounts would be POP (Post Office Protocol). Some more advanced new servers may offer IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). The difference between them is basically that POP email stores email on the server until you retrieve it. IMAP stores and manages email on the server, and you view it and take actions by accessing the server directly. So IMAP email is easier to share between two computers, like a desktop and a laptop, or a computer and a device like the iPhone. With IMAP, you can read, reply and move an email and all devices accessing the account will show these actions. With POP, all of hat takes place on your local computer, so other devices won’t even know the email existed.
When creating a POP or IMAP email account on your iPhone, you will need to enter a lot of information that should be available from your Internet service provider. However, if you already have this account set up on your Mac, you can simply go to Mail on your Mac, and look at the Preferences for that Account. Everything except your password will be visible, and you can simply copy your settings.
You can also access email using Exchange server. To do this, you must have IMAP access turned on on the Exchange server. Then create an account and enter the information required.
Once you have set up an account, you can edit its settings. An “Advanced” option is at the bottom of these settings and should be set up immediately.
There are also some Outgoing Settings. You can set Use SSL, AUthentication and Server Port for outgoing mail as well.
