Amazon is beating Apple in the eBooks racket by using Apple’s own pricing strategy for music.
But Apple can still clobber Amazon by out-Appling not the iTunes pricing strategy, but the Apple marketing strategy: Create a vastly better user experience for both content creators and content consumers! Oh, and focus on audio.
Here’s how.
Tim Cook isn’t the only one attending the Sun Valley Media Conference this week, a private gathering of over 300 industry leaders in which some of the big media inks get privately worked out. Eddy Cue — Apple’s savvy media dealmaker — is also there, according to Bloomberg reporter Jon Erlichman.
Is an Apple TV deal in the works? Asked if it was shaping up to a big week, Cook would only comment, “We’ll see.”
Via: TUAW
Apple CEO Tim Cook is on the list of guests expected to attend the annual Sun Valley conference in Idaho this week.
The conference is held by New York-based investment bank Allen & Co., and hosts over 300 industry leaders participate in panels on politics, business, tech and more over a four day period. It’s basically a place for some of the most powerful business people in the U.S. to figure out how to become more powerful as they hangout and try to strike up business deals.
Apple is close to securing a deal that will bring Time Warner Cable subscribers access to their cable television service through the Apple TV, according to sources with knowledge of the company’s plans, who have been speaking to Bloomberg.
The two companies are expected to announce the deal “within a few months.”
Apple is starting to give more attention to the Apple TV, as the recent additions of content like HBO Go and WatchESPN prove. Negotiations to stream cable content via the Apple TV have been underway, and Apple is almost ready to close a deal with Time Warner Cable. Former Hulu executive Pete Distad has also been hired by Apple to handle negotiations with content companies for the Apple TV, according to a new report from Bloomberg.
Earlier this month it was discovered that Plex can be added to Apple TV without jailbreaking the device, and now a Russian blog has discovered how to add Russia’s UnliMovie digital TV service to the Apple TV by using the device’s Trailers app.
HBO Go and ESPN recently got added to the Apple TV, but only if you pay a hefty, monthly sum to a cable or satellite company for a bunch of other channels you never watch. The TV industry is evidently broken. You can have unlimited access to stream HD content for the price of a couple cups of coffee each month, but you can’t pay for HBO a la carte.
The Apple TV is slowly but surely becoming a more formidable media player with the addition of apps like HBO Go. But developers still can’t create apps and submit them to an Apple TV App Store; Apple handpicks partners to work with.
Apple just rolled out a new software update for the Apple TV that adds new channels for HBO GO and WatchESPN, as well as Sky News, Crunchyroll, and Qello. The iOS 5.3 release is compatible with both the second- and third-generation Apple TVs, and is available to download now.
iTunes Radio won’t just be available on your iOS devices, but also on your Apple TV, according to a new beta release now available to registered developers. The update also adds some other minor features, and makes improvements to Home Sharing to make it more reliable.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Brad Smith wants to encourage developers to explore the final frontier: making apps for Apple TV.
Smith, director of engineering at RadiumOne, spoke at AltWWDC about facing the challenges for this new territory.
“I like to think of it as the forgotten iOS device,” Smith said, showing a slide of Tom Dickson, who has blended every device from the Cupertino company — with the exception of the Apple TV.
By far the best way to keep up with an Apple keynote when you’re not attending is to watch it live, but that’s a treat Apple doesn’t offer all that often. Fortunately, it will be at WWDC 2013 today. You can watch the company’s grand unveiling of iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 live through your Apple TV.
The popular Plex media player that allows users to stream content from their computer to another device is now available on the Apple TV. The new app called PlexConnect is compatible with second- and third-generation devices, and it does not require a jailbreak for installation.
Time Warner Cable is in talks with Apple to sign a video streaming deal for some of its content. After the successful launch of its TWC TV app on Roku devices this past March, Time Warner Cable announced that it’s trying to get ink more deals.
Speaking at an investors conference in London on June 4, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt told investors that the company wants to strike deals with Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung:
Want to give your Apple TV more power? Want to open a whole new world of capabilities? Then aTV Flash from FireCore is the solution!
This hugely popular software package gives you a ton of functionality that will make your Apple TV more powerful than you could imagine. And Cult of Mac Deals has it for only $19.99 for a limited time.
Southern gentleman and Apple Chief Tim Cook fielded a barrage of questions at this week’s D11, the big tech conference that puts top CEOs on stage for long chats. And on this week’s CultCast, we analyze and scrutinize Mr. Cook’s thoughts and statements on an Apple television, iWatch, wearable tech like Google Glass, and just when we can all expect Apple’s next big thing.
All that and more on this week’s CultCast. Stream or download our new or past shows on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing now on iTunes, or hit play below and let the anarchy begin.
This week on The CultCast: Apple Chief Tim Cook brings his Southern charm to Washington, hints at an iHologram; we break down the Apple tax debacle and say why their overseas billions are too legit to quit; and Xbox One vs. Apple TV, should Apple be worried?
All that and more on this week’s CultCast. Stream or download new and past episodes on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing now on iTunes, or hit play below and let the good times roll.
Show notes up next.
Ok, so if you’ve been paying attention to the gaming space today, you’ll know that Microsoft unveiled its new gaming console, the Xbox One. This next generation console is going to play video games, control your TV (sort of), and act as a DVD/Blue-Ray player. It’s got a Kinect motion sensor box on top, which can not be disconnected, and the console won’t play Xbox 360 discs.
This is all well and good, and represents a step forward in Microsoft’s quest to own the living room, even though a lot of us don’t have the time, space, or extra cash to spend on a huge entertainment hub these days, anyway. That’s really not what bothers me, though.
The Xbox One is just uglier than anything I could have imagined.
Heck, my ten year-old son, not a maven of design in any way, saw pictures of the new Xbox, and chuckled. “Why is it bigger than the Xbox 360?” he asked. “It looks the same, just more square.”
Which really made it all hit home for me: design matters. The case design of the Xbox One is firmly rooted in the past. Which makes a lot of sense if you consider the reveal today, full of the same games and the same brands with better graphics.
Today Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One at its Redmond, Washington campus. As the battle for the living room rages on, Microsoft has won a decisive victory that puts it well ahead of the competition.
The Xbox One is just as much for all-around entertainment as it is for gaming, perhaps even more so. It’s designed to be the one box that sits below your TV and does everything: games, movies, live TV, music, surfing the web, messaging, and even video calling. Minority Report-style gestures control the experience, it can recognize your face when you walk in the room, and you can talk to it like Siri on steroids.
Should Apple be worried? The answer is no, at least not yet.
This morning Microsoft unveiled its newest console, the Xbox One. Unlike previous Xbox models though, Xbox One isn’t just about games, it’s about becoming the one system your living room needs, and it probably means trouble for the Apple TV.
Not only can Microsoft’s latest box play video games with the best of them, but Microsoft has added features to make it the only box your TV really needs by recognizing who you are, what you movies and shows you like, and allowing you to control it all with just your voice.
We’ve shown you plenty of iTV/Apple TV concepts in the past. There are a lot of ideas to improve the TV experience out there, and Apple is working on a solution (if you put some level of faith in the rumor mill, that is).
How would you interact with an Apple TV that replaced your cable box? The above concept video suggests an interface that is controlled entirely with an iOS device. Gestures would be used to swipe through channels and navigate menus. You could use Siri to control the experience and ask questions, which is something that Apple has apparently been experimenting with for years.
These kinds of concepts tend to serve the purpose of getting people thinking, not laying out some detailed model that Apple absolutely needs to follow. There are parts of this video that are well executed, and parts that aren’t. The biggest thing that stands out is the total reliance on software. There’s nothing about the above concept that suggests Apple needing to build a physical television.
Via: iDownloadBlog
Well, that’s some positive news. The CW television network is bringing its television content to the Apple TV, the first network to do so directly, instead of via Netflix or Hulu. Even better, you won’t have to have a cable subscription to access the CW programming on Apple’s set top box, like many other content providers require.
The CW plans on launching an app to bring shows like Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, and 90210 sometime in the next few weeks, according to a report at Deadline, though no release date has been reported.
Apple has confirmed it will seek to add Samsung’s new Galaxy S4 to its ongoing patent-infringement lawsuit against the Korean electronics giant.
In a statement filed in the U.S. District Court in California on Monday, Apple said it has analyzed the Galaxy S4 and “concluded that it is an infringing device and accordingly intends to move for leave to add the Galaxy S4 as an infringing product.”
Speaking of Microsoft, they’re the latest company said to be eyeing the living room, designing a new set-top box to go head-to-head with the Apple TV. But Microsoft might have an ace up their sleeves.
Foxconn has been forced to make preparations for life after Apple following reduced demand for the iPhone and other iOS devices which has caused the company’s revenue to nosedive, The New York Times reports.
The manufacturer has been doing well off the back of Apple’s hugely successful devices in recent years, which have been contributing at least 40% of its revenue, according to analyst estimates. But after suffering a 19.2% drop in revenue during the first quarter of the year, thanks to declining iPhone and iPad orders, Foxconn is now looking at ways in which it can be less reliant on Apple.
Amazon is reportedly ready to take on the likes of the Apple TV and Roku with a set-top box of its own, presumably some sort of Kindle Box.