Price cuts coming for iPhone and iPod Touch?
According to 9to5mac, Apple is preparing to drop the prices on its very popular iPhone and iPod Touch models, possibly as soon as next week.
The rumored price cut will be $100 USD for both the Touch and the iPhone and the smaller capacity 8 GB Touch will be completely dropped from the line just as the 4 GB iPhone was last year.
If proven true the price cuts will mean the new 16 GB iPhone will cost $399 USD and the 32 GB Touch will cost the same, a very reasonable price considering models touting half the memory capacity sell for that same price currently.
The price drops should make way for “pricing space” for the upcoming 3G iPhone slated for release later this year.
Rapidshare to fight against German court ruling
Rapidshare has announced that it will indeed be appealing a recent German court ruling which has the potential to have the gigantic file hosting site shut down.
Last month the court ruled that Rapidshare must block access to any musical works that are represented by the German music rights group GEMA. The ruling even went as far as to say that the courts can “take measures that might have the risk of making Rapidshare’s service substantially less attractive or even close it down completely.”
A company representative has now said that “Rapidshare wants to clarify the legal situation for hosters”, and will be appealing the ruling. The representative also argued that it would be next to impossible to filter its uploads because users can rename files, split them in pieces, or save them as different formats before uploading. Continuing on, the spokesperson added that not all uploads can be considered illegal or unauthorized as music fans can be using the host to have backups of their own MP3 collection without sharing the links.
GEMA, from the other side of the spectrum, has said that it is in settlement negotiations with Rapidshare but refused to comment on any of the particulars.
We will keep you updated.
Toshiba denies it is dropping HD DVD
Despite rampant speculation and rumor, it seems that Toshiba is not dropping HD DVD, or at least not for the time being.
The corporation has released a brief press release this morning in an effort to put a damper on the rumors that have been spreading since the giant retailer Wal-Mart decided to go Blu-ray exclusive beginning in June.
“The media reported that Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD business. Toshiba has not made any announcement concerning this. Although Toshiba is currently assessing its business strategies, no decision has been made at this moment,” read the complete statement.
This latest statement could simply be a way to stall before the decision to drop the failing format is officially made, but for now HD DVD fans still have some hope.
Motorola acquires largest Asian music download provider
Motorola has announced that it will be completing its previously announced acquisition of Soundbuzz, the Singapore-based provider of digital music downloads. In fact, Soundbuzz is the leading provider for the entire Asian continent.
The companies did not disclose any of the financial terms of the deal but did say it had been in the works for a few months.
“Clearly, this marks a major milestone, as it positions Soundbuzz and Motorola to better participate in the ongoing growth in Asia’s booming mobile music download market,” Soundbuzz CEO Sudhanshu Sarronwala said.
The company’s MotoMusic platform will now have 750,000 songs available for download in India, Southeast Asia, and Greater China.
Flash coming to Windows Mobile, Android
At the Adobe MAX developer’s conference yesterday, Adobe showed off their latest Flash player, one that works on both Windows Mobile phones as well as the new Android-based phone, the T-Mobile G1.
“We are excited to be working alongside Adobe to bring Flash technology to Android,” said Andy Rubin, director of mobile platforms at Google. “Adobe Flash is crucial to a rich Internet and content experience on mobile devices and we are thrilled that Google will be one of the first companies along with the Open Handset Alliance to bring Flash technology to the smartphone market.”
Notably absent from the presentation was the popular Apple smartphone, the iPhone. Although Adobe has said they have a Flash player that will work on the iPhone OS, Apple’s strict TOS will not allow it into the App Store. I mean, why would Apple let consumers play free Flash based games or watch movies from sites like Hulu when they can instead be locked into iTunes, the App Store and other Apple run platforms?
Adobe notes that 98 percent of computers have Flash installed, and it is becoming crucial to have it to enjoy the Internet. That is of course, unless you own an iPhone.
Hong Kong pirates selling bootleg Blu-rays on DVDs
According to a new Wall Street Journal article, Hong Kong based movie pirates have begun selling bootleg Blu-ray films on standard DVDs, using the AVCHD format to fit a 720p film onto a cheap DVD-5.
Although AVCHD only offers 720p and not the full HD 1080p, most consumers cannot tell the difference, and just see it as an upgrade from standard DVD anyways.
The MPA warns that because blank DVDs can be had for, on average, 30 cents a unit, the pirates are making a huge profit on every bootleg sold.
“We are concerned and are assigning priority to this issue,” said Mike Ellis, the Asia-Pacific managing director for the MPA.
The industry only first began taking notice last month when a large stash of the bootleg Blu-rays were found during a raid in China. Some of the 800 discs seized included popular titles such as “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”, “Transformers”, and “X-Men 3.” The bootleg discs were packaged in blue cases and even included holograms to make them look like the originals.
“Pirated DVDs from this region…have been exported all over the world in the last few years. These syndicates are very quick to spot market opportunities,” said Mr. Ellis.
The MPA added that while retail Blu-ray discs retail for $25 or so, the pirated AVCHD discs sell for $7. Fortunately for the industry, the MPA says, the discs have not yet appeared outside of Asia.
“When we created the specifications for Blu-ray, we were very serious about trying to stem the tide of pirate discs regardless of where they were in the world,” noted Andy Parsons, a senior vice president at Pioneer Electronics Inc.’s Home Entertainment Group and the U.S. chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association Promotions Committee.
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Apple adds more DRM to MacBooks
According to Crunchgear, Apple has begun building HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) into their new MacBooks in order to protect iTunes Store purchased media.
Although most content are not protected, there are some newer videos that are and will not play at all unless you have connected an HDCP compliant TV or monitor.
Users trying to connect to a TV via HDMI or DVI should be fine, but users with VGA or component/composite ports only may have issues.
To understand more about what exactly HDCP is, please read our glossary entry here: High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection.
Pic via source:
14 million active PSN accounts now, says Sony
Sony Computer Entertainment America has proudly announced that there are now 14 million active PSN accounts worldwide, matching the 14 million active users Xbox Live currently has. It is important to note however that XBL originally launched in 2002 but also costs money for a subscription. PSN is free.
As of July, Sony only had 10 million registered users who had downloaded 170 million pieces of content. That has now grown to 14 million and 273 million pieces of content.
“With 14 million active accounts and 273 million pieces of content downloaded, we know that you’re thirsting for this digital entertainment,” said John Koller, director of hardware marketing for SCEA.
“PlayStation Network has truly hit its stride with unique downloadable games and a video delivery service featuring movies, TV shows, and original programming that you can watch in HD with your PS3, or bring with you on your PSP.”
Hungry? Order Domino’s through TiVo
The popular DVR company TiVo has announced that it has teamed up with Domino’s Pizza to allow subscribers to order pizza right from their TV sets, free of charge. (You will still have to pay for the food obviously).
“This is the first time in history that the ‘on-demand’ generation will be able to fully experience couch commerce by ordering pizza directly through their television set,” said Rob Weisberg, vice president of precision and print marketing at Domino’s.
Weisberg added that TiVo users will see a Domino’s ad and be able to click on “I want it” from their TV remote.
Consumers can enter their delivery address as well as crust type and sauce through the TV and expect their food within 30 minutes.
Domino’s added that subscribers can set up a user-name and password for Dominos.com and use it place orders faster.
Pirate Bay smashes through new milestone
The infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay has smashed through another new milestone, reaching 25 million unique peers. It has been estimated that the site tracks over 50 percent of all BitTorrent users that are on at any point.
In 2006 the site tracked 3 million peers which moved up to 6 million peers by November 2007. In April of this year, TPB admin and founder Brokep noted that they had hit 12 million peers. The growth has been exponential and does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
Admin Peter Sunde added that there was previously limits on how many peers the site could track but those have been lifted thanks to new changes. “I wish we had lots and lots of money so we could just buy like 10 servers and another gigabit,” he jokingly added.
Just earlier this month the site hit 20 million peers and has been exploding ever since.
