Cupertino now has three out of the four big music labels signed, but even so, could Apple’s iCloud music locker and streaming service be delayed even later than its rumored WWDC launch? The music business is a tricky one, and although Apple’s got most of the labels signed, the negotiations with publishers are still in their early stages.
Intel was quick to clarify reports yesterday that Apple had secretly filed for the Thunderbolt trademark in Jamaica a year before the chipmaker unveiled their next-gen technology, and in doing so, have put some fears to ease: Thunderbolt is not another FireWire.
Apple’s plans to bring music streaming to the upcoming iCloud service are coming together swiftly this week as the company signs up a third major record label.
Although Apple was the first company to debut Thunderbolt with the 2011 MacBook Pro refresh, Intel and Apple’s next-gen, one-port-to-rule-them-all is open to all takers. Already, though, one of Apple’s biggest competitors is rocking the Thunderboat, and threatening to fragment the Thunderbolt standard before it even has a chance to clear port.
Sony surprised visitors to the Consumer Electronics Show back in January when the company announced its intentions to take second place in the tablet market within a year, despite not having a tablet under its name. But at a media launch in Tokyo on Tuesday, the company announced two new devices that will be coming to take on the iPad this fall.
Identified, for now, by the code names S1 and S2, the new Sony tablets will be powered by the latest Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system, and will both feature Wi-Fi and 3G/4G capabilities. The S1 will feature a 9.4-inch display and a Tegra 2 processor, with an “off-centre of gravity design.” It will also boast an IR port for controlling Sony’s line of Bravia televisions.
The S2 has two 5.5-inch displays with a foldable design; which can be used independently to display different functions, or together for browsing websites and other tasks.
Sony chose not to reveal any further details about either tablet, disclaiming that “design and specifications are subject to change without notice.” Both devices will be compatible with selected PlayStation games, and are scheduled for a worldwide launch this coming fall.
The S1 certainly looks like a pretty swanky tablet in the picture above, but I’m sure I like the foldable design that comes with the S2. Until we know more details about each device’s technical specifications, it’s hard to determine whether these Sony tablets will worthy adversaries for the iPad 2. However, I can’t imagine Sony would release them if they weren’t strong contenders.
[via AppleInsider]
Crackle is one of the fastest-growing digital entertainment networks, offering hundreds of high quality Hollywood movies and TV series from Columbia Pictures, Tri-Star, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics and more.
Fans of the service couldn’t previously enjoy this content on their iOS device due to its Flash-based website, however, the official Crackle application is now available to download in the App Store.
The application is free and supports all iOS devices, while the content is ad-supported and free to watch. It lets you enjoy high quality content over Wi-Fi and 3G and build your own queue of content for viewing online or on your iOS device.
Crackle currently features movies such as The Da Vinci Code, Big Daddy, Ghostbusters, and Snatch, while its TV series collection boasts Seinfeld, Spider-Man, Married With Children, and The Three Stooges, amongst hundreds of other great titles.
Although Amazon’s Kindle platform seemed to stumble a bit in the wake of the iPad’s debut, mostly from surprise, they’ve since rallied and continued to increase their lead as the biggest e-bookstore on Earth. In fact, according to Amazon’s own metrics, they now sell more Kindle e-books than they do paperbacks.
How’d Amazon compete with iBooks? Ubiquity: Kindle software is available on almost every modern OS out there, and a Kindle book purchased on one can be read on another. Amazon managed to achieve this feat by cutting middlemen out of the transaction entirely: if you purchase a book in-app, you simply are directed to an Amazon webpage. It’s all done on the Internet.
If a new report coming from The New York Times is anything to go by, though, Apple may be ready to strike Kindle on iOS down for the count unless it agrees to utilize iTunes’ own in-app purchase system, though.
Pop some acid and the above video above will look chromatically normal to you, but as some owners of Sony and Philips brand televisions are discovering, dropping some lysergic bliss is about the only way to get the new AppleTV to play nice with their sets.
Usually when we write about jailbreaking iPods here at Cult of Mac, we’re specifically talking about hacking your iPhone or iPod Touch to be able to run unsigned code… not iPods that are actually able to perform jailbreaks on other devices. That makes this story somewhat unique, because if you have an iPod Classic and a PlayStation 3, you can now use the former to perform a jailbreak on the latter.
The first PlayStation 3 jailbreaking solution was discovered earlier this month, and allows devices that can connect to a PS3 through the console’s USB port to permanently hack the device to run unsigned code. What’s so interesting about this jailbreak solution is that a wide range of devices can perform the hack, from a USB stick to an official controller to a Ti-84 calculator.
The latest variation of this jailbreak uses the iPod Classic family combined with the Rockbox open source media firmware. Right now, the jailbreak only works using select generations of the iPod Nano and iPod Classic, but given Rockbox’s expandable nature, we wouldn’t be surprised to see support creep to other clickwheel iPods — and media players support by Rockbox — sooner rather than later.
Startled by the rumors that Apple intends to launch its own streaming television today the rest of the industry is already reacting: Sony intends on launching its own music and video subscription service tonight.
According to a report by the Financial Times, Sony’s new service will launch on its PlayStation 3 video game console at first, and then gradually creep out to other Sony-brand, internet-connected devices like Sony Walkman players, Vaio computers, Bravia TVs and even Sony Ericsson mobile phones.
Sony’s not the only one setting up shop with a streaming media subscription service: Amazon is also apparently inking some deals right now to allow it to stream television shows and movies, speaking with NBC Universal, Time Warner, News Corp and Viacom.
It certainly seems like other companies think Apple’s got a big announcement up their sleeves for later today, and are scrambling to catch up.
[via 9to5Mac]