Well, that’s disappointing: Apple’s killed off TV show rentals, claiming that “iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows.” That’s probably true, especially since Apple’s prices aren’t competitive to the likes of a la carte subscription services like Netflix and Hulu Plus. Could this be in preparation for their own streaming TV service, though?
There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that Apple intends to replace the whole cable TV industry with Internet-delivered subscription television. But the best predictor is the fact that replacing broken content consumption is just what Apple does.
Apple will kill cable TV. Here’s how.
UPDATE 3: And the images were fake.
UPDATE 2: Leander here. I go to pick up my kids after school and all hell breaks loose. Two things:
1. TMZ’s pictures are very upsetting but there is clearly news here. Unfortunately, the images make abundantly clear why Jobs just resigned. If these images are real, they graphically demonstrate what we all suspected — that Jobs is very ill, and has resigned because of it.
The question is how we should have handled it. Posting the pictures is a no no. We had this debate when the National Enquirer posted pictures of Jobs earlier this year. We decided they were ghoulish and stayed away. News editors face these decisions all the time when reporting terrorist strikes, famines, disasters or other events that generate upsetting images. Usually they don’t show the most horrific, graphic pictures, but they don’t shy away from reporting the news either.
We work in a highly-competitve, realtime news environment. Decisions about what to post and how is almost always immediate, on-the-fly. It’s impossible to make the right call every time. That’s why news outlets with more resources than we have employ several layers of editors. On this blog, everyone is encouraged to post as quickly as possible — it’s the only way to stay competitive — but that means the editorial process is sometimes post-publication, as it is now.
2. As for the “staff writer” byline, I’m not going to throw the blogger here under the bus, but there is a good reason they post anonymously. In the past, they’ve been the victim of persistent trolls. We decided — with my full blessing — that some of their posts were better posted anonymously to deflect the knee-jerk negative attention they were attracting. That didn’t mean that all posts by this writer should be anonymous, but the system defaults to the settings that were last used, which may be the case here.
Lastly, I regret that we posted the pictures, and I apologize for it. I’m sorry we caused offense. We hold Steve Jobs in the highest regard and affection. We sincerely wish him the best.
UPDATE 3: There are a lot of calls to take this post down. It is very tempting to delete mistakes — just disappear them — but it’s crucial to maintain the integrity of the editorial archive. If we disappear stuff without explanation or notice, how can anyone trust what we write? In fact, we try to be rigorous about making changes to posts after they’ve been published, using strikethroughs to correct mistakes and editorial notes (‘updated’) to add new material. When we make mistakes, we need to correct them, not delete them.
UPDATE: Editor’s note: We have pulled the TMZ photo. We had posted it because we felt it had clear news value, but we understand they are upsetting pictures. Apologies if we offended anyone.
TMZ has a pair of paparazzo pics posted today showing a very gaunt, frail Steve Jobs being helped — or almost held up — in what looks like a parking lot. They are incredibly hard to look at.
We’re holding out hope that they are fakes.
The pictures are here. Warning, they are very upsetting.
Hurricane Irene is shutting down Apple stores in New York, in contrast to the 24/7, 365-day a year store hours listed on the site Apple has issued a warning that the stores will be closed. The Fifth Avenue, Upper West Side, West 14th, Soho stores are all bracing for the storm and will be open again on Monday.
The official message: “Due to weather conditions, we will be closed beginning Saturday, August 27. We look forward to reopening Monday.”
The desperate may want to consider a trek to the Garden State, as of this the writing the Parmus, New Jersey store is still scheduled to be open over the weekend.
We’ll keep you posted.
Apple has removed the ability to rent TV shows from iTunes. You can no longer rent shows on the Apple TV, and all traces of TV show rentals have been erased.
It was only a year ago that Apple announced TV show rentals in iTunes, and the service has already been pulled. Now you can only download individual shows or purchase season passes.
Reuters blogger Felix Salmon wrote a provocative post about Tim Cook and his personal life.
“Tim Cook now the most powerful gay man in the world. This is newsworthy, no? But you won’t find it reported in any legacy/mainstream outlet.”
A particularly nasty phishing scam is making the rounds, according to MacRumors. Why is it so nasty, you ask? Because the email is designed to trick you into upgrading your existing MobileMe account to iCloud.
Rumors of Apple releasing an iPad 3 in early 2012, or even later this year, have been circulating recently, and now a new report suggests that Apple won’t be able to ship a new iPad based on the A6 processor until June of 2012.
A week after the last iOS 5 beta, Apple has just released some new developer builds of OS X Lion 10.7.2, iCloud and iPhoto.
The major area of change and focus in OS X Lion 10.7.2 include AirPort, AppKit, Graphics, iCal, iChat, the Mac App Store, Mail, Spotlight and Time Machine.
iCloud will continue to allow developers to test iCloud compatibility with their apps, while the next version of iPhoto is expected to introduce Photo Stream, a new way of syncing photos between your iPhone’s camera roll and iCloud.
Remember that Android-based Kindle tablet Amazon’s been working on? According to reports citing an anonymous source, and when it launches, it’ll cost as little as $299.
Allen Paltrow was a 10 year old boy when he was invited to attent the grand opening of Apple’s flagship retail store in New York City. He was invited by Apple’s co-founder and then-CEO, Steve Jobs.
How did Allen earn such an invitation? He showed his enthusiasm for Apple by shaving the Apple logo into the back of his head. A chain of events led to him having one of the most amazing experiences of his life.
There’s been no shortage of opinions and letters of thanks to Steve Jobs since he announced his resignation as Apple CEO yesterday afternoon, and it can be easy to get caught in the news whirlwind around Jobs and his effect on the identity of Apple.
A wonderful infographic has been put together by the folks at Column Five Media titled “An Ode to Steve Jobs.” For a quick walkthrough of Steve’s accomplishments over the years, make sure you check this out.
Apple co-founders Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne popped on over for an interview with Bloomberg to discuss Steve Jobs’ resignation as CEO from Apple. It’s a wonderfully fond and illuminating interview, but there’s one big surprise: Woz was skeptical that Steve could turn Apple around when he came back to the company in 1997.
Forget draping yourself in the flag: in hopes of gaining votes, a politician in Taiwan dressed up like Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
Here’s an idea: let’s cut Apple in half. Sure, the company is the most profitable on the planet and grabs more headlines than the U.S. President. The trouble, according to some on Wall Street, is Apple isn’t acquiring and selling enough to earn financial wizards hefty commission checks.
Earlier this week, a report surfaced claiming that Apple is currently working on a more affordable model of its iPhone 4, which is set to launch alongside the iPhone 5 later this year. The device will reportedly be aimed at those looking to purchase an iPhone with a tight budget, and will have just 8GB of storage in order to keep costs down.
This got us thinking: how would Apple bring down the price of an iPhone 4 to appeal to low-cost subscribers? How exactly would they make an iPhone 4 that would cost $50 or so with a two year contract? We’ve been speaking to Miroslav Djuric of iFixit — a popular online repair shop that produces how-to repair guides and tear-downs — to try and find out, and we think we know how Apple would do it. Here’s how.
In a move as lame as it is inexplicable, Google has killed off its photosharing service Photovine just days after releasing the well-reviewed official iOS app. WHAT?
Even as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs exits as CEO, talk of a TV from the tech giant is still thriving. A new report suggests the Cupertino, Calif. company is working on a new way to stream video (aka Netflix) to televisions and mulling a “subscription TV service.”
Following those pictures of a supposed iPhone 4S frame we published earlier today, we now have photographs of what appears to be the rear casing of Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5.
Oftentimes the most useful clues about the future come from the past. Few questions are as important to ask as, What happened last time?
When attempting to decipher the changes that Steve Jobs’ transition away from leading Apple will bring, it’s essential to examine a surprisingly analogous case: Pixar.
Mac OS X Lion has a lot of hidden features tied to the keyboard that are easy to miss. There are all kinds of key sequences that act as shortcuts to various system features. The tip for today will show you how to quickly access the System Preferences panes related to the function keys at the top of the keyboard on your Mac.
Recent speculation suggests Apple is currently working on a cheaper model of its iPhone 4 that is set to launch alongside the iPhone 5 in the coming months. Expected to be named the iPhone 4S, the new device could feature a redesigned antenna and home button, according to the latest leaked components.
Comex, the hacker behind the latest JailbreakMe exploit — the first hack to support the iPad 2 — will soon be joining the Apple gang in Cupertino — waving goodbye to his days as an iOS jailbreaker.
While OS X Lion is an excellent operating system, it may not be perfect for some people. Since some applications haven’t been updated to run on Lion yet, some users may need to downgrade to Snow Leopard in order to keep using the applications they need on a regular basis. In this video, I’ll show the best ways to downgrade from Lion to Snow Leopard.
In all the hubbub with HP killing the TouchPad and spinning off its PC division, one might forget that HP still has a strong connection with Apple: They’re the only printer manufacturer with printers that fully integrate prinitng from iOS, thanks to HP’s inclusion of AirPrint on many of its printers.
The HP Officejet 6500A Plus ($200), with its all-in-one features, automatic document feeder, wifi connectivity and removable duplexer for double-sided printing, is already an attractively spec’d printer. Toss in AirPrint capability and you’ve got a strong contender to fill any iDevice-toting home/small office manager’s priniting needs.