Michael Adberg of WeaKnees, a company known for its TiVo upgrades, wrote in to say his company just started shipping a self-install upgrade kit for the AppleTV. For $200, you get a 160 Gbyte hard drive pre-formatted for the AppleTV. “The installation process only takes a few minutes and then the AppleTV will re-synchronize with your iTunes to download all of your music, videos, and photos,” WeaKnees promises.
Link.
Ingrid Ebeling, an analyst at JMP Securities, believes 500 million MP3 players will be sold before the market becomes saturated. Apple will easily sell 350 million of those, besting Sony’s record for Walkman sales.
“During Sony’s 15-year reign with the Walkman, the company sold over 350 million units, and we believe that Apple’s addressable market over time will exceed this number given the upgrade and replaceable nature of iPods as well as the overriding trend of consumers’ increasing use of digital media,” she wrote. “The net takeaway is that this is a product category that is far from saturated, and we believe well over 500 million units will be sold before the product category hits maturation.”
Apple has long had Sony’s benchmark in sight. Last year, Jon Rubenstein, the now-retired head of Apple hardware who oversaw development of the iPod, told me that he was pretty confident Apple would beat Sony’s 350 million record.
Acoustic guitarist Kate Walsh has knocked Take That off the top of the iTunes download album chart – but does not even own an iPod.
The 23-year-old guitarist recorded her album in a friend’s bedroom and named it Tim’s House in his honour.
The homemade album has proved a unexpected hit with iPod fans who had downloaded it from the iTunes website in their thousands – knocking Take That and Kaiser Chiefs from the top spots.
Miss Walsh said: “You end up looking at it every day to see if you’re still number one. I think I’m ahead of Elton.
“I don’t actually have an iPod yet. I hear they are quite good for ten hour flights.
“I set up my own record label called Blueberry Pie and just got the music out there. It’s pretty easy. Anyone can do it.”
The classically trained pianist from Brighton said she built up a fan base by putting her music onto her MySpace page and eventually persuaded iTunes to sell it.
AppleInsider | MGM flicks arrive on Apple’s iTunes Store:
MGM flicks arrive on Apple’s iTunes Store By AppleInsider Staff Published: 09:00 AM EST Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) and Apple announced Wednesday that MGM is now offering titles from its catalog of feature films for purchase and download on the iTunes Store.
TUAW : AppleTV Commercial Follow-up:
Apple TV Commercial Follow-Up by Erica Sadun, The Unofficial Apple Weblog Eagle-eyed TUAW reader Klemens noticed that the Apple TV in the commercial had only a power-cord and no connections to a TV. Here are a few other things you may (or may not) have noticed.
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs:
We’re havng a diner 2 celebrate at John Bentley’s in Wooodside tonght. and Ill be honorst, were getting a little buzzed om super expnsive wine. But itsgood blow ff steam once on a while. ths is relly a special time 4 a[ple. Jon Ive just told us that if you put 100 million iPoods end 2 end, they wd encricle the globebe 13 xtimes. Amazing. Speaking of amazing, i type ths whlala whow whole massage on my iphone usissins using its touchchcscreen keypayd and adaptiona adaptiv typeing and it worksss greeeat.
Phillip Torrone of Make magazine and Adafruit Laser Services, a laser-etching etching service for iPods and MacBooks, has kindly offered to etch OxyContin pills for free onto any Rush Limbaugh iPod. If you recall, Limbaugh is offering eight free iPods engraved with his signature as an incentive for his email newsletter (see here).
Phil writes: “If any of your readers wins one, I’ll etch pills all over it for free with my laser. We can then auction it off and give the $ to a group Rush hates.”
Send mail to Pete or I at the email addresses listed at right. Also include suggestions for a suitable charitable organization.
Apple on Monday triumphantly announced it has sold 100 million iPods in five years with a big splashy ad in the New York Times and across the front page of its website. Apple claims the iPod is the “fastest selling music player in history.” That may be so, but it’s not yet the biggest seller: Sony sold 340 million Walkmans (and others sold countless millions of knockoffs).
But Apple watchers are actually more interested in the growth of iTunes. Carl Howe at Blackfriars Marketing notes that iTunes has now sold 2.5 billion songs — 1 billion more songs than 6 months ago. These numbers are only semi-official (Jobs mentioned them casually in an interview), but if Apple is now selling 1 billion songs every six months, that’s a very sharp growth curve.
Also, Howe points out that Apple is also beginning to dominate online sales of movies and TV shows. Wal-Mart revealed on Monday that its online movie store sold just 3,000 movies in the first month. By contrast, Apple sold 125,000 movies in the first week.
“Once you’ve bested the largest American retailer, the sky is the limit,” Howe writes.
If you can’t wait until June for the real iPhone, buy this $3 paper iPhone cutout on eBay instead. The seller, who has has 96.9 % positive feedback, claims it’s the “most accurate” paper model on the market today. It boasts advanced features like:
1. Real Rounded Corners
2. Images of the top and bottom of the iPhone
3. Cingular icon has been replaced with AT&T
The seller has even made a high-quaility, pre-assembled paper iPhone for an extra $3. It even includes a thich cardboard insert for extra rigidity. Link to the assembled Paper iPhone auction.
Drug-addled nutjob Rush Limbaugh is giving away eight, 80-gig video iPods, one a week for eight weeks. The bad news: you have to sign up for his email newsletter “Rush in a Hurry.” Even worse, he’s vandalized the iPod with an engraving of his signature. How about a handful of painkillers instead?
About 4,000 dancers reveled to the sounds of their own iPods at an impromptu flash mob at London’s Victoria train station on Friday, according to the Evening Standard.
A deafening 10-second countdown startled station staff and commuters before the concourse erupted in whoops and cheers. MP3 players and iPods emerged and the crowd danced wildly to their soundtracks in silence – for two hours.
University of London student Lucy Dent, 20, was among the flash mobbers. She said: “It was my first flash mob and I’m hooked. I’ve been dancing non-stop since we began.
“I didn’t even notice the commuters. When you get into the dancing you’re oblivious to them and forget you’re at a railway station.”
Says Flickr user vandanger: “It lasted almost two hours before the police intervened. It was great.”
The Wall Street Journal is reporting: EU Music Complaint Focuses on Record Firms:
The true focus of a new European Union complaint alleging unfair online-sales practices by Apple Inc. isn’t the company’s iTunes Store, but the recording industry, an EU spokesman said. The European Commission on Friday sent Apple and four record companies “statements of objections,” accusing them of harming consumers in the United Kingdom and Denmark by charging them more to download songs than residents in other parts of the 27-nation bloc. Regulators want Europeans to be able to shop for better prices and obtain a more varied selection by going to iTunes Web sites outside their home country. (Paid subscription required)
Look who Apple’s in bed with: the record company that fired the Sex Pistols.
But The Pistols had the last word:
There’s an ulimited supply
And there is no reason why
I tell you it was all a frame
They only did it cos the fame!
Who?
E.M.I.
Too many people had the suss
Too many people support us
An unlimited amount
Too many outlets in and out
Who?
E.M.I.
And sir and friends are crucified
A day they wish that we had died
We are an addition
We are ruled by none
Never ever neverrrrrraaa
And you thought that we were faking
That we were all just money making
You do not believe we’re for real
Or you would lose your cheap appeal ?
Don’t judge a book by the cover
Unless you cover just another
And blind acceptance is a sign
Of stupid fools who stand in line
Like
E.M.I.
Unlimited edition with an unlimited supply
That was the only reason we all had to say goodbye !
Unlimited supply
There is no reason why
I tell you it was all a frame
They only did it cos the fame !
I do not need the pressure
I can’t stand the useless fools !
Unlimited supply
Hallo E.M.I.
Goodbye A & M
The Mac Pro has been updated to 8-core Intel Xeon chips — and can cost up to $16,000.
The new machines, available immediately, can be configured with several different chip combinations, from two Dual-Core Intel Xeons to two Quad-Core Intel Xeons. The top of the line runs two Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Clovertown” processors running at 3.0GHz.
The monsters can be configured in every way imaginable, and have options for four internal hard drives and four video cards. But pricing is not for the feint of heart.
The entry level model — which has two dual-core processors — starts at $2,500 for the base configuration.
The top-end beast starts at $4,000, and that’s with only $1 Gbyte of RAM.
Bump the RAM to 2GBytes and the internal drive to 500Gbytes, and the price jumps to $4,500 — this should be considered the base price.
Add a pair of 30-inch high-def monitors, and it costs $8,200.
A model with all the bells and whistles (16Gbytes of RAM, 4x750Gbyte drives, 4 graphic cards, two displays, airport+bluetooth, fibre channel, etc. etc.) and of course, an Applecare protection plan but no extra software — costs $15,900.
The European Union has launched a price probe into Apple’s iTunes.
European regulators are investigating prices Apple charges for tunes in different countries and is accusing it of restricting choice.
European regulators say Apple and the record companies are violating rules that allow EU citizens to buy goods and services in other memeber countries without restriction. The iTunes store uses credit card details to check country of residence, which is used to determine prices and what music catalog is offered.
“Consumers can only buy music from the iTunes online stores in their country of residence and are therefore restricted in their choice of where to buy music,” EU competition spokesman Jonathan Todd told BBC News.
Apple said it had always wanted to offer a fully pan-European service, but was restricted by the demands of its music partners.
“We were advised by the music labels and publishers that there were certain legal limits to the rights they could grant us,” it said in a statement.
Australian Simon Clement had the back of his PowerBook laser etched with the specs of the original Mac and the signatures from inside the case.
The case of the original Macintosh was embossed on the inside with the names of the development team, led by Steve Jobs. “Artists sign their work,” he said at the time.
Here’s the details. And a Flickr set.
More pix after the jump
“Apple Unveils Higher Quality DRM-Free Music on the iTunes Store: DRM-Free Songs from EMI Available on iTunes for $1.29 in May” Apple
“We are going to give iTunes customers a choice–the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more,’ said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. ‘We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.”
The Wall Street Journal says Jobs is joining EMI to announce the company is completely abondoning DRM copy protection, just as Steve Jobs urged in an open letter in February.
Others concur, including:
Guardian’s Online Blog
Image courtesy of Seeking Alpha
Steve Jobs will go onstage at a special EMI press conference in London on Monday, sparking speculation that iTunes will finally sell Beatles songs.
Beatles and iTunes talk growing Steve Jobs launches the iPhone Steve jobs teased fans with a Beatles song at the iPhone launch EMI is to hold a media event on Monday with Apple boss Steve Jobs as special guest, prompting speculation that Beatles songs will finally go online.
…
In an invite to media sent out on Sunday, EMI said it was announcing an “exciting new digital offering”.
There will also be a “special live performance” at the London event by an unnamed artist or band.
Photo: Denver Post / Helen H. Richardson
A Colorado teenager was struck by lightning while mowing the lawn and listening to his iPod, according to the Denver Post. It appears the lightning struck his iPod and fried the earbud wires, severely burning the inside of his ears. Ouch. The paper reports:
Jason Bunch was listening to Metallica on his iPod while mowing the lawn outside his Castle Rock home Sunday afternoon when lightning hit him.
The last thing the 17-year-old remembers was that a storm was coming from the north and he had only about 15 minutes before he should go inside.
Next thing he knew, he was in his bed, bleeding from his ears and vomiting. He was barefoot and had taken off his burned T-shirt and gym shorts. He doesn’t know how he got back in the house.
…
Bunch’s ears were burned on the inside, and he’s lost some hearing, mostly on the right side. His hair was singed.
His face, chest, hands and right leg have freckle-size welts on them as if buckshot had come from inside his body out.
The wounds follow the line of his iPod, from his ears down his right side to his hip, where he was carrying the device. The iPod has a hole in the back, and the earbuds dissolved into green threads.
It’s a global mega-brand mashup!
Apple is teaming up with Nike to cross-promote sneakers and iPods. The footwear and earwear giants are soon launching a new line of iPod-compatible sneakers, plus a wireless pedometer-cum-connection-kit that pumps exercise feedback into runners’ ears. “Faster, fat ass!”
The Nike+iPod cross promotion encourages runners to buy a new pair of Nike+ sneakers, which have a little pocket for a wireless sensor. The wireless sensor is part of a $30 Nike+iPod Sport Kit from Apple, which is expected to ship within 60 days.
The Nike+iPod Sport Kit also includes a small receiver that plugs into the dock connector on the bottom of the iPod. Out on the road, the sensor sends data about time, distance, and pace to the iPod, which provides unspecified “workout-based voice feedback” while you run. Presumably, it’s encouraging.
Back at home, the iPod uploads the exercise data to the Mac or PC, and syncs with iTunes and the NikePlus website which records runs and sets goals. In addition, the site will allow runners to challenge each other to “virtual races” and download time- or distance-based workout routines. It will also offer sporty iMixes “chosen and introduced by top athletes.”
SanDisk has launched a new advertising campaign that portrays iPod users as mindless sheep or robots.
The iDon’t campaign asks listeners to “Think for yourself” and “resist the monotony of the white earbuds.”
“Now is the time to break free from restrictive formats and a single source of music,” it says. “It’s time for choice, for freedom, for self-expression — and for all independent spirits to stand up and say “iDont.” You don’t need to follow. Now there is an alternative.”
The alternative is SanDisk’s own Sansa e200 (there’s a memorable name), which looks like an iPod knockoff with a pseudo-scroll wheel.
The campaign is reminiscent of Apple’s ill-fated 1985 Lemmings commercial, which portrayed potential customers as lemmings walking off a cliff. The spot is judged to be Apple’s biggest advertising blunder. It’s never a good idea to insult potential customers.
Metafilter’s Matt Haughey recreated the Star Wars Kid video with a MacBook and software called MacSaber, which makes lightsaber sounds as the motion-sensor-equipped notebook is swung around.
The result is hilarious. Writes Matt: “I went for accuracy, combing my hair down, putting on tight khakis and a striped tight shirt, and following his first set of movements.”
Boingboing has an aeriel shot of the staircase at Apple’s new Fifth Avenue store. Link to a larger version of the picture.
Garry Allen of IFOApplestore has the first pictures of the fabulous glass entrance to Apple’s new store on Fifth Avenue. He snapped the picture after workers removed protective cladding in the wee hours of the morning.
Allen also reports that the obligatory line of visitors has already started forming. Stormy Shippy from Texas — who was first inside Apple’s London store when it opened in 2004 — arrived just after midnight on Thursday and is camping out to be the first inside when the store opens on Friday.
The store is below ground. Visitors enter the glass cube and descend via a cylindrical glass elevator that Allen describes as a “giant syringe.” There’s also one of Apple’s signature glass staircases, which curves down around the elevator.
Allen reports:
“… the cube has another interesting feature — it’s all open to the lower floor. That is, you can walk up to the outside glass of the cube, look through and see right down into the store itself. Anyone who sees the cube, notices the Apple logo, and who then comes over to the outside of the cube to investigate will see the store and activity below, and be drawn right into the door and down the stairs. It’s another innovative and guaranteed crowd attractor.”
