Apple Inc. - page 134

Apple’s iCloud music locker will not require users to laboriously upload all the music in their iTunes libraries, but will instead rely on “scan and match.”

When Steve Jobs unveils iCloud at next week’s WWDC, we know that all four major music labels will be onboard Apple’s streaming music service… but what about Hollywood?

Up until now, it looked as if iCloud would launch as a music-only affair without the proper deals inked with video content providers, but in a surprise development, it looks like Cupertino may be scrambling around Tinseltown trying to round up signatures after all.

The iPad has already killed netbooks, and now it’s starting to do the same to laptops. Within five years, the iPad might even kill off the Mac, says NVIDIA… replacing it with ARM-based machines that can outperform even the speediest Intel processors.

Where will you get the fastest streaming speeds once iCloud launches? Most likely at the new retail location Apple is opening up a stone’s throw from its North Carolina data super center.

Apple’s announcement that iCloud should appear June 6 couldn’t be better timed. Owners of iOS devices are heavy music and video users, streaming more media than Android or any mobile operating system… and with iCloud’s debut, it’s only going to get more lopsided.

Apple has launched a new replacement program for customers with white MacBooks who have seen their rubber base separate itself from the plastic casing and leave their notebooks with an exposed undercarriage.

We knew this was going to happen. Stung by a judge’s recent decision to allow Apple to look through Samsung’s upcoming phones to look for IP violations, Samsung has just asked a judge in their own patent infringement case against Apple to make Cupertino fork over the prototypes of the iPhone 5 and iPad 3.

Apple’s one-year standard warranty is a pretty good deal for U.S. consumers, but for their European counterparts the glass is half empty.

The standard warranty in the E.U. for consumer goods is two years and that’s what is getting the Cupertino company into trouble with AppleCare, the paid extended warranty program.

Cult of Mac talked to Carlo Piana, a lawyer who worked on the EU anti-trust case against Microsoft, about why Italian regulators are after Apple now. 

Remember the gnashing of teeth from the television industry when the DVR was first introduced – it would kill TV ads. Well, the real threat to TV advertising is your iPhone.

The iPhone and other smartphones account for 60 percent of the distractions from TV ads, according to a behavioral survey. The study participants reported turning away from the TV – and the advertising – whenever they received a text or a call.

With the DVR, even if you hit the ‘fast forward’ button, the advertising message registers with you.

How will Hollywood react to the findings? Will we see campaigns similar to that against distracted driving? Perhaps the industry will create an iPhone app that disables your phone when ads appear?

U.S. record labels are dragging their feet in negotiations to bring music streaming service Spotify to American shores, a move reportedly aimed at give Apple a first crack at a similar subscription plan.

You know the drill. Every year, Apple gives students a special incentive to buy a new Mac in the form of a cheap iPod.

This year, though, the deal might be a lot spicier: students might get a couple bills off a new iPad instead of an entry-level iPod Touch. And Cupertino might just be so excited about this that Back to School will prominently be mentioned at next week’s WWDC.

RIM never did shake its button-down image in attempts to expand into the consumer market dominated by Apple. Realizing its failure, the handset maker is ready to surrender to Apple in the consumer ring, and focus on its business roots… an arena which iPhone is also increasingly dominating.

Remember yesterday’s sketchy report that Apple was looking to get Samsung to supply an AMOLED display for the iPad 3? So that’s not going to be happening, and it’s all because of the same problems that have plagued the tech from the start: the difficulty of ramping up large scale production on AMOLED displays.

Prepare to get buckets of blood splattered all over your new white iPhone as you exit the Apple Store next week. A group that feels that Apple tries to weasel its way out of too many taxes will be protesting Apple’s retail locations around the country.

Good things come to those who wait. While Google and Amazon rushed to offer simple cloud storage services, Apple apparently was working on something bigger. Much bigger. Get ready for iCloud, a full-featured service streaming your iTunes collection to your iPhone, iPad – eventually even your car.

Counter to the perception that Android is closing the gap with Apple, a new report shows the iPhone maker’s App Store is miles ahead when it comes to making money for developers.

If you’ve ever had your iPhone stolen, you can understand the urge to become an angel of crippling, throat-crushing, eye-gouging vengeance to the no-good perp who stole your precious.

Here’s a cautionary tale reminding you to resist that temptation: that guy you you’re beating down in a parking lot for swiping your iPhone might be as innocent of the crime as a babe on Christmas.

Business mag Fast Company had funnyman Conan O’Brien pose as eight of history’s greatest innovators for its latest issue on the 100 most creative people in business.

For the cover, Conan dressed as Ben Franklin, Albert Einstein, Frida Kahlo, Steve Jobs, Madonna, Moses, Socrates and Teddy Roosevelt. Weirdly, Jobs doesn’t make Fast Company‘s 2011 list, but his software lieutenant Scott Forstall does.

Here’s a bigger version of the cover:

Never one to shy away for “Me-Too”-isms, Amazon has just launched their own analogue to the popular Mac App Store.

Don’t bank on BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion owning the enterprise. RIM devices are being hurled into the trash at financial institutions as more and more bankers turn to the iPhone.

Apple employees at its Upper West Side store in New York City are being charged for racial discrimination after an incident during which they allegedly told two black men they were not welcome in the store and asked them to leave. Thankfully, the whole occurrence was recorded on a cell phone.

If you thought Apple was good at pushing its tech gadgets to consumers, that’s nothing compared to some government deals. What’s great about federal contracts, if $1M mistake is made, agencies will cover it up, a government watchdog reports.

When it came time to test the CDMA iPhone 4 on Verizon’s networks, Apple had learned a few things about security from the infamous Gizmodo early iPhone 4 leak. They weren’t about to make the same mistakes twice.

Good news for AT&T iPhone owners envious of Verizon’s next-generation LTE network: Apple’s original U.S. carrier Wednesday announced the faster transmission technique will become available this summer, setting the stage for iPhones and iPad’s based on the 150Mbps technology in 2012.

The placement of the cellular and WiFi antennas between the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 couldn’t be more different, but that’s not stopping a small but vocal minority of iPad 2 owners to cry about an Antennagate of their own.