Apple launches ultra-thin notebook

APPLE has used the annual Macworld convention in San Francisco to lift the veil from its new Next Big Thing – the “world’s thinnest notebook” known as the MacBook Air.

And Apple chief executive Steve Jobs says the company has been able to produce the super slim-line packaging without trashing useability or performance.

The MacBook Air measures just 0.4cm (0.16-inches) at its thinnest point, while its maximum height of 1.9cm (0.76-inches) is less than the thinnest point on competing notebooks.

“We’ve built the world’s thinnest notebook – without sacrificing a full-size keyboard or a full-size 13-inch display,” Mr Jobs said.

“When you first see MacBook Air, it’s hard to believe it’s a high-performance notebook with a full-size keyboard and display. But it is.”

MacBook Air has a 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display, a full-size and backlit keyboard, a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing, and a spacious trackpad with multi-touch gesture support so users can pinch, rotate and swipe.

The machine is powered by a 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache, and includes as standard features 2GB of memory, an 80GB hard drive, and the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi technology.

The MacBook Air is positioned to bridge the gap between Apple’s entry-level notebooks and its high performance machines. It is priced in the US from about US$1800, but will be released in Australia at the somewhat higher A$2,500.

The MacBook Air will be available in Australia through regular Apple resellers in February.

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Apple scraps European iTunes policy

APPLE has sidestepped a potentially costly battle with European competition regulators, announcing it will charge the same amount for iTunes music throughout the European Union.

The company has instead set up a possible showdown with record labels in the UK over wholesale pricing.

Apple has been charging about nine US cents per song more for music on its UK iTunes store compared to the standard prices its charges for iTunes music across the rest of Europe.

The European Commission had begun an investigation of the pricing differences after it received a complaint from the UK consumer protection organisation Which?

Apple announced yesterday that within six months it will lower the prices it charges for music on its UK iTunes store to match the already standardized pricing on iTunes across Europe.

It said it would now reconsider its continuing relationship in the UK with any record label that does not lower its wholesale prices in the UK to the pan-European level within six months.

Commenting on the outcome, European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said “The Commission is very much in favour of solutions which allow consumers to benefit from a truly Single Market for music downloads.”

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Apple settles Burst patent dispute

APPLE has signed an agreement to end two years of litigation with audio software specialist Burst.com, saying it will pay Burst.com a one-time payment of US$10 million (A$11.4 million.)

The one-time payment will give Apple non-exclusive license to Burst’s patent portfolio, except four specified DVR technologies.

The $10 million patent license provides Apple with the right to use Burst’s intellectual property in its own technology and products, without further consideration. Burst, however, retains the right to enforce its patent portfolio against others.

Court costs, expenses and attorney’s fees in connection with the settlement of the litigation with Apple will reduce proceeds to the Company to approximately $4.6 million.

The Apple litigation related to audio compression software used in iPod players, iTunes, iLife and QuickTime.

Burst settled a similar dispute for US$50 million last year.

“Burst plans to continue identifying and evaluating companies who represent licensing opportunities and intends to diligently pursue those likely to yield suitable returns,” the company said in a statement.

“Burst does not plan to announce specific names of suspected infringing products or companies in advance of negotiating with them or filing litigation to enforce its patent rights.”

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Apple polishes shiny new iMacs

APPLE has freshened its line of popular iMac desktops with new models that are slimmer, more powerful and have bigger screens.

Typical of a new Apple launch, the systems are at the cutting edge of industrial design, with widescreen displays and aluminium and polished-glass cases.

In Australia the new models come with a starting price-tag of A$1,698 for the 20-inch model – about A$600 less that the previous low-end model. The 24-inch iMac model starts at A$2,599.

The new models redefine the iMac signature all-in-one design, where the entire computer system is integrated into a sleek, professional aluminium enclosure for a striking, clutter-free desktop.

“This new iMac is the most incredible desktop computer we’ve ever made,” said Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs.

“Our new design features the innovative use of materials, including professional-grade aluminium and glass that are highly recyclable.”

The machines all feature the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors running up to 2.8GHz with 4MB of shared L2 cache and up to 4GB SDRAM.

They also feature next-generation graphics from ATI. The new iMac also offers up to 1TB of internal storage to accommodate a user’s growing library of digital photos, movies and music.

The iMac includes built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi networking, delivering up to five times the performance and twice the range of 802.11g; Gigabit Ethernet; and five USB 2.0 ports – including two on the keyboard.

The machines also have one FireWire 400 and one FireWire 800 port.
The new iMac line is available immediately through Apple Store online and Apple Authorised Resellers. A new Apple Wireless Keyboard will ship by the end of August.

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Apple to deliver YouTube to TV

APPLE has signed a deal with Google’s YouTube unit that will deliver the internet video catalog to television screens via the Apple TV set-top box.

Starting this month, Apple TV will wirelessly stream videos directly from YouTube and play them on a user’s widescreen TV. Using Apple TV’s interface and Apple Remote, viewers can browse, find and watch free videos from YouTube in the comfort of their living room.

“This is the first time users can easily browse, find and watch YouTube videos right from their living room couch, and it’s really, really fun,” said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs.

“YouTube is a worldwide sensation, and Apple TV is bringing it directly from the Internet onto the widescreen TV in your living room,” Mr Jobs said.

Thousands of the current and popular YouTube videos would be available on Apple TV at launch, with YouTube adding thousands more each week until the full YouTube catalog is available.

Naturally, nothing is ever as simple as it seems, and pundits are already saying Apple may find itself in the middle of the copyright row between YouTube and a host of content providers.

In March, media giant Viacom (owners of MTV and a host of other media properties) sued YouTube for US$1 billion for alledged breaches of copyright.

Viacom’s suit complains bitterly that YouTube did not adequately police what its users uploaded to the site – and consequently it content frequently breached the copyright of others.

Apple also launched this week its iTunes Plus service, which allows music downloads that have no copy-protection that limits how consumers can use the songs. iTunes Plus features artists from EMI, which include Coldplay and The Rolling Stones.

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Without peer: Apple sells 100 millionth iPod

IT IS more than five years and 100 million iPod sales after Apple virtually created the portable digital music player market and the company still has no credible competitor in the market.

And it is not like the company is going to let anyone forget it. Apple wheeled out a truckload of celebrity spokespeople to celebrate its 100 millionth iPod sale – from hip hop chick Mary J. Blige to pushbike rider Lance Armstrong.

Apple has released 10 new models since the first iPod was launched in November 2001, including five generations of iPod, two generations of iPod mini, two generations of iPod nano and two generations of iPod shuffle.

Since 2004, the market has been flooded with other music players, all competitors to the iPod. But none of those competitors has looked like presenting a challenge to Apple’s dominance of the space.

The iPod has also sparked an ecosystem of more than 4,000 accessories made specifically for the iPod, ranging from fashionable cases to speaker systems. More than 70 percent of 2007-model US automobiles currently offer iPod connectivity.

The iPod companion, the iTunes Store features the world’s largest catalog with over five million songs and 350 TV shows. The iTunes online store has sold more than 2.5 billion songs.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs called the 100 milionth iPod sale an “historic milestone” and claimed the music player had helped rekindle a love of music in millions.

“It’s hard to remember what I did before the iPod,” said Mary J. Blige.

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EMI spells no-more-DRM

RECORD label EMI has broken from the rest of the industry and announced plans to start selling music free of software copy-protection measures through Apple’s iTunes music download service.

Analysts are already calling the announcement the beginning of the end for current copy-protection measures. Called Digital Rights Management (DRM) software, copy-protection is seen by many as an unnecessary inconvenience to consumers.

Others say DRM is anti-competitive. The DRM used on Apple’s iTunes does not work with other services, and does not work with devices other than the Apple iPod – locking customers into the iPod hardware platform.

The EMI/Apple announcement comes as European Union competition regulators said they were broadening an investigation of the iTunes service to determine whether its rights management policies were anti-competitive.

The EMI-Apple service will let customers pay a premium US.30 cents (A.37 cents) more for a copy of songs without copy-protection.

The deal, announced this week by EMI chief executive Eric Nicoli and Apple chief Steve Jobs would cover the entire EMI catalogue – except The Beatles. The Beatles back-catalogue has yet to be released to download sites in any form, although Mr Nicoli said the company was “working on it.”

But while The Beatles’ tracks won’t be on offer in the new format, all other EMI artists – from Coldplay, the Rolling Stones and Norah Jones – will be.

Mr Jobs had recently called on the record industry to change its policies on copy protection. He has said it did not make sense for the industry to sell music through CDs (which accounts for 90 per cent of global sales) without copy-protection, and then to add DRM to the sales online.

Apple said the DRM-free tracks from EMI would be offered at higher quality 256kbps AAC encoding. The current versions available today use 128kbps encoding.

IN addition to the greater convenience of the DRM-free versions, the companies said they believed customers would be prepared to pay a 30 cent premium for better quality downloads.

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Anti-competitive: EU attacks iTunes

APPLE and the world’s five major record labels have been formally accused by European regulators of anti-competitive behaviour stemming from distribution practices of the iTunes music download service.

The European Commission confirmed yesterday it had sent a statement of objection to the companies over agreements between the record companies and Apple that restricts where and how users can access the iTunes site.

The EC says the companies are artificially restricting users from one European country from accessing the iTunes service in another, restricting cross-border transactions.

It says the record labels – Vivendi's Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music – were forcing Apple to restrict users to only accessing the iTunes site in their own country, thus restricting choice and forcing prices up.

The Commission says the agreements between Apple and the record companies violates EC Treaty rules prohibiting restrictive business practices.

“The Statement of Objections alleges that distribution agreements between Apple and major record companies contain territorial sales restrictions which violate Article 81 of the EC Treaty,” the EC said in a statement.

“iTunes verifies consumers' country of residence through their credit card details. For example, in order to buy a music download from the iTunes' Belgian on-line store a consumer must use a credit card issued by a bank with an address in Belgium.”

The iTunes services charges different amounts for songs in different European countries.

The Statement of Objections does not allege that Apple is in a dominant market position and is not about Apple's use of its proprietary Digital Rights Management (DRM) to control usage rights for downloads from the iTunes on-line store.

Don’t get up: Apple TV ships with remote

APPLE has started shipping its much anticipated wireless set-top box that lets users view content from a personal computer (or Macintosh) on their widescreen television.

Priced at US$299 (A$370), the Apple TV works with users’ existing WiFi network, as well as 802.11n, the newest and fastest version of the WiFI standard.

The product will be available in stores in Australia from this week.

“Apple TV is like a DVD player for the Internet age—providing an easy and fun way to play all your favorite iTunes content from your PC or Mac on your widescreen TV,” Apple’s senior vice-president Philip Schiller said.

The Apple TV has a 40GB hard drive to store up to 50 hours of video or 9,000 songs, or a combination of each and can deliver high-definition 720p output.

The company said Apple TV is integrated with iTunes, letting users run through iTunes menus on their television screen. The unit is delivered with an Apple Remote, which the company promises has a simple, useable interface.

The unit connects to a broad range of widescreen TVs and home theatre systems and comes standard with HDMI, component video, analogue and optical audio ports.

It uses Apples standard AirPort 802.11 wireless networking technology, and can auto-sync content from one computer or stream content from up to five additional computers to your TV without any wiring.

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Cisco, Apple head to court over iPhone

NETWORKING giant Cisco Systems and Apple are taking their dispute over the ‘iPhone’ name into the eleventh hour with both companies agreeing to a deadline extension to later this week to avoid a court date.

Cisco lodged a trade mark infringement lawsuit with the US federal court in San Francisco last month to prevent Apple from using the iPhone name for its much-hyped music player/phone device.

Cisco’s Linksys division has been shipping a line of voice over IP (VoIP) devices branded iPhones since the early last year. The company has owned the iPhones since it acquired technology firm InfoGear in 2000, which had registered the name.

Apple has argued that it should be allowed to use the iPhone name because each company’s phone uses different networks and different technology – Apple’s is a cellular phone while Cisco’s is VoIP.

Cisco has previously said Apple could use the iPhone name, but had said it wanted both companies phones to be able to communicate with each other. It did not detail how the different technologies should communicate.

Cisco has now agreed to an Apple request to extend the deadline to respond to the lawsuit until February 21. Both companies say they aim to reach a “mutually beneficial” resolution outside of court.

Apple formally announced its iPhone product last month. It is due to ship in the US through the Cingular cell network in July with a staged roll-out across the globe scheduled over the next year and a half.

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