UPDATE: The scheduled launch of News Corp.’s iPad app The Daily, referred to in the post below, has been put off — “for weeks, not months” — according to a report by All Things Digital, the Wall Street Journal‘s tech blog, which is owned by News Corp. The launch delay may be related to issues with the recurring subscription functionality of iOS 4.3 (referred to in the post), according to the All Things Digital report.
Apple may be trying to pickpocket subscription revenue from European publishers, according to separatereports issued Friday.
Under new rules regarding publishers’ apps running on iPad, print subscribers to European newspapers will no longer have access to iOS apps allowing them to read content for free on their iPads, according to the reports. By offering free apps to print subscribers, newspapers avoid giving Apple 30% of the revenue they would earn by requiring subscribers to pay for access to content through apps sold in the App Store.
The supposed restrictions come amid speculation over the kinds of subscription functionality the next iteration of iOS firmware may support. The iOS 4.3 beta was seeded to developers this week.
Some believe the next iOS build will permit recurring App Store software subscriptions, a prototype for which could be the rumored joint venture between Apple and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., The Daily , which could be the topic of an event scheduled Jan. 19, at which rumors have Murdoch and Apple CEO Steve Jobs appearing together.
Thus far, no similar complaints have issued from US publishers and it seems strange, at best, Apple would feel entitled either to a cut of publishers’ print subscription revenue or to dictate whether publishers’ had to charge for apps developed for the App Store.
UPDATE: TechCrunch is quite vociferously denying any hanky-panky in this affair. “Hey Cult Of Mac, We Didn’t Photoshop That Deleted Verizon iPhone Tweet,” they say in a new post. TechCrunch notes the original Tweet is still in Google search and that they weren’t the first or only outlet to notice. See here. With apologies for jumping the gun on a bit of a slow news day, we also note TC is likely right that “somebody at Verizon panicked.”
Given the standard pandemonium in Apple-oriented corners of the Internet whenever a special “invite-only press event” is scheduled that might have something to do with the Cupertino company’s products or personnel, it stands to reason a Verizon employee’s tweet from an iPhone on the cellular carrier’s official Twitter account days before the entire tech world expects Verizon to announce it is finally going to start selling iPhones might be seen as a newsworthy event.
But could it also be an opportunity for one of the most widely followed tech blogs on the net to indulge in a bit of traffic-ramping scammery?
The ever-lovable China-based MICgadget blog waved a red flag at everyone drooling over new and possibly never-to-be-released gadgetry on the CES showfloor in Las Vegas Thursday, teasing web surfers with a headline about leaked photos of the much-anticipated iPad2.
These are pretty clearly mock-ups but with CES in full swing and an Apple vacation black-out in place, they signal a revving of the hype machine and ramping of new-gadget lust that ought to be at a near fever pitch by the time Apple announces a “special event” sometime in late January/early February.
What do you think Apple has in store for us in 1Q11?
Those who just can’t wait to see what’s in Apple’s Mac App Store when it launches Thursday morning may be getting all a-twitter about, well, the next version of Twitter for Mac, a purported screenshot from which was leaked a while ago by the site Razorianfly.com.
TechCrunch claims to have verified the screenshot as the real deal, according to “a reliable source,” but we’ll see about that in the morning, won’t we?
Formerly known as Tweetie for Mac (and just Tweetie for iOS devices), the app was acquired by Twitter itself in 2010 and rebranded as Twitter for Mac and iPhone respectively. The new version reportedly features native ReTweet support as well as Realtime updates and Drag and drop tweets.
The screenshot posted by Razorianfly may have come from someone inside Apple, according to the report at TechCrunch, which means no one who really knows anything about the truth of all this is willing to speak until, well, Thursday morning when the Mac App Store goes live.
In just a few hours, Apple will announce a new version of OS X, and will almost certainly unveil new MacBook Airs and new versions of iLife/iWork. But we’re wondering if they won’t reveal one more thing: a social media network with the goal of creating millions of home-based Apple Genii at its core.
Take this with a pinch of salt, but we’ve been tipped that Apple’s rumored $1 TV subscription service, due to be unveiled next week, is technically correct but missing an important detail.
Remember the recent iPod Shuffle rumor predicting Apple will shortly launch a new version with a 3-inch multitouch screen?
Well, here’s how it might look.
Our friend Graham Bower from MacPredictions made this mockup. He has some good ideas about how it might work. Graham predicts the device is a bit bigger than the current iPod shuffle. It has two buttons on the bottom: On/Off and Shuffle. The square screen shows nothing but album art.
In shuffle mode, it transitions quickly between multiple album covers, moving in different directions to suggest shuffling.
Swiping your finger from left to right across the screen cues the next track, and in the other direction it goes back to the previous track.
Swiping your finger up and down controls the volume. Tapping on the screen toggles between pause and play. It’s that simple.
Either Steve Jobs is so ticked off with the media, he’s spending his off-hours fiendishly drilling fake holes into forthcoming iPod Touch parts and leaking them (which is…well, who knows) — or we really are about to get a FaceTime-capable iPt when iPod unveiling-time rolls around, traditionally in early September.
MacRumors is brandishing these photos, leaked to them by an iDevice repair service, as further proof of earlier whispers that the imminent next-gen iPt will have a forward-facing camera. In the photo of the bezel above, the small hole on the right would likely be where the forward-facing camera would sit.
We know what you’re asking: How the heck did a repair service get ahold of future iPt bezels, and why does their website look so sketchy ? We don’t know. We’re just giddy that the new iPt is going to have FaceTime. Probably.
MacRumors have picked up on some claims this morning by Mac4Ever that give details on Apple’s next update to the iLife suite.
It’s rumored that the update will happen on August 7th, 2010, and will introduce a whole host of new features including a new ”mystery” application:
- iLife ’11 will be sold for $79 - Release Date of 08/07/2010 - All applications will be 64-bit - Improvements in iPhoto faces & places - Improving the integration of social networks - iWeb will be totally renewed - New application (mystery!) - Disappearance of iDVD - MobileMe gallery in beta (with faces & places)
Several rumors have circulated recently regarding an update to iLife, some of which claim the new update will be labelled iLife ’10. However, as MacRumors points out, the iLife ’11 name would be more consistent with Apple’s previous behavior; iLife ’08 was introduced in August, 2007.
The new issue of Wired, featuring a futuristic Will Ferrell on the cover, includes an absolutely devastating take on the long, troubled partnership of Apple and AT&T by Fred Vogelstein. Things really couldn’t be worse. Just picture Steve Jobs at his most furious, then make him work on a near-daily basis with a company that can’t pull off basic stuff (even if some of it might be Apple’s fault). Then imagine that they ask him to wear a suit to meetings.
Apple and AT&T have bickered about how the iPhone was to be displayed in AT&T’s stores: Apple insisted the phone be presented on its own display stand, away from other models. They have even fought about wardrobe: When an AT&T representative suggested to one of Jobs’ deputies that the Apple CEO wear a suit to meet with AT&T’s board of directors, he was told, “We’re Apple. We don’t wear suits. We don’t even own suits.”
Ouch! Other revelations include the fact that Apple has long thought about leaping to Verizon (duh), and that Scott Forstall even led a team down to Qualcomm to discuss creating a CDMA iPhone as early as 2007 because AT&T demanded that Apple make YouTube WiFi-only, use low-resolution video, or limit clips to one minute. Basically, Apple has spent every day of the last three years wishing that it had a company as ambitious as itself running its network, while also being keenly aware of what a bad business proposition that would be.
In all honesty, the story is one of the best I’ve read for really considering the business complexities of the emerging connected lifestyle. The carriers all want people to use the most popular devices, but the devicemakers want more bandwidth at a lower price than any carrier is ready for. The death of the unlimited data plan might well clear the hurdles that have made AT&T act so awful when it comes to allowing new iPhone features beyond the initial set, but it’s early days yet.
This much is clear: the dreadful 3G infrastructure in the U.S. is in no way equipped to handle the rise of the App Phone, and it will be a painful several years before 4G makes up for it. But it’s always this way: computers that were powerful enough for the web were out a long time before broadband was available in the home, and now cable modem speeds are plenty fast for most users, and chokepoints have evaporated. Let’s just hope we’re only a few years away from a similar breakthrough in mobile.
![Will Apple Reveal A New ‘Genius’ Social Media Network Today? [Rumor]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/genius-bar.jpg "genius bar")
![Apple’s TV Rentals May Offer Month’s Worth Of Shows For $1 [Exclusive]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/appletvnew3-11.jpg "appletvnew3-1")
![How Rumored iPod Shuffle With Multitouch Might Work [Mockup]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/shuffle_touchscreen.jpg "shuffle_touchscreen")
![How Rumored iPod Shuffle With Multitouch Might Work [Mockup]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/shuffle-vision_small.jpg "shuffle-vision_small")
