Tag Archives | Apple. iPhone

iPhone Nano Rumor Becomes Journalistic Slapfight

The general cycle of Apple rumors tends to be pretty predictable. One mainstream publication breaks a story, and over time, the other big publications follow with slight variations on the same rumor, roughly approximating the product that Apple will announce a few months later.

But the current back-and-forth over a rumored iPhone Nano is rare. You don’t often see the New York Times directly refuting Apple rumors that appear in the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. And you definitely don’t see the kind of confrontational undertone that the Times exuded in its scoop.

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Rhapsody Isn't Rhapsodizing Over Apple's New App Store Rules

How are content providers going to react to Apple’s new App Store rules, which mandate that providers of music, video, e-books, and other stuff sell their wares using Apple’s in-app purchasing and subscriptions–at least as an option–and give Apple a 30 percent cut when they do? Music purveyor Rhapsody is the first company I’ve seen to respond in public. And it’s taking an almost-hard line–it doesn’t say it’s pulling out of the App Store, but it does call Apple’s 30 percent fee “untenable” and says it “would not be able to offer” Rhapsody under Apple’s new terms.

It issued this statement by Rhapsody’s President, Jon Irwin:

Rhapsody is the leading digital music subscription service in the U.S.,with 750,000 subscribers.  Music fans can access the service using free apps from any Internet-connected device, be it on an Android, Sonos, Tivo, BlackBerry, iOS or personal computer. Today, Rhapsody subscriptions are available for purchase exclusively via Rhapsody.com.

Rhapsody offers a content-based subscription service that makes millions of tracks available to fans pursuant to longstanding partnerships with thousands of rights holders, all of which then distribute revenues to artists and other creators.

Our philosophy is simple too – an Apple-imposed arrangement that requires us to pay 30 percent of our revenue to Apple, in addition to content fees that we pay to the music labels, publishers and artists, is economically untenable.  The bottom line is we would not be able to offer our service through the iTunes store if subjected to Apple’s 30 percent monthly fee vs. a typical 2.5 percent credit card fee.

We will continue to allow consumers to sign up at www.rhapsody.com from a smartphone or any other Internet access point, including the Safari browser on the iPhone and iPad.  In the meantime, we will be collaborating with our market peers in determining an appropriate legal and business response to this latest development.

Sounds like someone’s going to have to call someone’s bluff here: Either Apple reduces the fee, or Rhapsody pulls out (unless it chickens out and stays in). That’s assuming that the reference to “appropriate legal…response” doesn’t turn into a lawsuit.

Apple says that content companies need to abide by the new policy by June 30th. It’s going to be an interesting four and a half months…

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The Known and Unknown of Apple's New App Store Subscriptions

This is one of the more significant moments in the history of the iPhone and iPad: Apple has announced its system for selling subscription-based content through its App Store. As with apps and one-time purchases such as game content, it’ll take a 30% cut of the sale.

The company’s announcement says that content owners will be free to sell their wares outside the App Store as well–no 30% fee to Apple involved–as long as they provide the same (or better) offers within the App Store. That’s a relief. But it also says this:

In addition, publishers may no longer provide links in their apps (to a web site, for example) which allow the customer to purchase content or subscriptions outside of the app.

That means that the current content-acquisition system used by Amazon’s Kindle and numerous other apps–which all happens in the Mobile Safari browser, not the app–is now verboten. Continue Reading →

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Four Reasons Why a Cloud-based iOS is Ridiculous (For Now)

While there’s good business in posting Apple rumors, sometimes one comes along that is just so out there that you have to think, where do they get this stuff? The latest is that the newly rumored “iPhone Nano” will sport a cloud-based OS. While “to the cloud” has become a popular idea in tech, the mobile world is not ready to join it just yet.

Why wouldn’t a cloud-based OS work for the newest Apple iPhone? There’s a multitude of reasons, and all seem to indicate that Cult of Mac’s sources (the originator of this rumor) may be a little off base.

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Is the "iPhone Nano" Really an iPhone Shuffle?

As Jared reported on Thursday, rumors are back that Apple is working on an “iPhone Nano”–a smaller, cheaper phone designed to be sold without a carrier contract. (The idea dates back to at least 2008, but the media outlets writing about the latest version–including The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg–give it new credibility.)

Now Leander Kahney of Cult of Mac is reporting a new twist: The “iPhone Nano” supposedly has no storage, and instead streams entertainment from the cloud, using the technology Apple picked up when it bought (and shuttered) LaLa.

As Leander says, the notion of an iPhone having no storage doesn’t make sense. But maybe it has the bare minimum it needs to function, rather than the massive amounts–4GB, 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB–that are mandatory for phones that store music and movies locally.

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The Glorious Minimalism of the Backside of the Verizon iPhone

At the moment, I’m walking around with two iPhone 4s in my pocket: my personal AT&T phone, and a Verizon iPhone lent to me by Apple for review. (More thoughts on it coming up.)

As everyone reading this knows by now, the two flavors of iPhone are close to identical. So much so that I keep getting confused about which one is which–at least until I turn them on, whereupon I can check out the carrier identifier in the upper left-hand corner.

Without turning the phones on, I could examine the slightly different placement of the antennas and mute switches. But there’s a more obvious difference that I’ve found quite handy: The Verizon iPhone has way less fine type on its back, and is missing an entire row of regulatory logos.

By happy coincidence, I just read an Ars Technica piece by Casey Johnston that explains the stuff on the back of iPhones, and helped me figure out why there’s so much less of it on the new Verizon model.

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Verizon iPhone 4 Launch: Why the Lack of iLines?

I went to my local Apple Store yesterday night, in the wake of yesterday’s release of the Verizon iPhone 4. It was an utter mob scene.

Of course, it’s almost always an utter mob scene in there–and tonight, it was no more crazy than usual. I commented on the lack of Verizon-induced insanity to a salesguy. “We’re surprised ourselves,” he said.

When Apple releases a new iPhone, there are supposed to be hordes of folks willing to show up at the crack of dawn and wait for hours to get their hands on one. Everybody knows that. But this time, it didn’t happen–across the country, people did show up to buy Verizon iPhones, but not in droves.

Why the startling degree of normalcy? A few theories…

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And Now the iPhone Nano Rumors Return

Yesterday brought speculation that the iPod Classic was either dead or due for a refresh. Now, Bloomberg dusts off another classic Apple rumor: The iPhone Nano is coming.

Okay, Bloomberg doesn’t actually call it the “iPhone Nano.” But the reporters’ unnamed sources, who were reportedly “briefed on the plans,” say that Apple intends to release a smaller, cheaper iPhone in hopes of slowing Android’s growth.

Wait a minute. Apple already sells a cheaper iPhone, the 8 GB iPhone 3GS. A few weeks ago, Apple permanently dropped the price to $49 making it the least expensive iPhone yet. But Bloomberg suggests that the mini-iPhone will be even cheaper, selling for $200 without a carrier contract.

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