The dust has settled, everyone has cleared out of the Guggenheim in New York City, and we all know Apple’s education plans, which include an update to iBooks and new iBooks Author and iTunes U apps. Before we switch back to gossip about the next iPad or even the iPhone 5, let’s address the rest of today’s news, which includes the unfortunate (and unsurprising) bankruptcy of photo legend Kodak. Here’s the rest of the news for this Thursday, January 19, 2012.
If you need further proof that the world has gone app crazy, look no further than Wednesday night’s Facebook pow-wow, which introduces the concept to Timeline. According to The Facebook Blog, users can now “enhance your timeline with apps that help you tell your story, whether you love to cook, eat, travel, run, or review movies.” Sure, Facebook has always had bolt-on apps, but the new initiative promises to integrate them into a user’s Timeline in a more organic way, with 60 companies providing apps at launch, including Foodspotting, Foodily, Ticketmaster, Pinterest, Rotten Tomatoes, Pose, Kobo, Gogobot and TripAdvisor. Facebook promises “there will be apps for all types of interests, as more apps will launch over time.” You have been warned…
The rumor mill has unfortunately churned up another true tale, as AllThingsD is reporting that photography legend Kodak has filed for bankruptcy protection. The news isn’t much of a surprise and “follows years of struggle by the film giant to transition to a digital imaging company.” Kodak will continue operations using 0 million in financing from Citigroup and hopes to come out of restructuring next year. “Kodak is taking a significant step toward enabling our enterprise to complete its transformation,” said Antonio M. Perez, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in a company press release. “At the same time as we have created our digital business, we have also already effectively exited certain traditional operations, closing 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs, and reducing our workforce by 47,000 since 2003. Now we must complete the transformation by further addressing our cost structure and effectively monetizing non-core IP assets. We look forward to working with our stakeholders to emerge a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company.”
The Big Apple was home to a (little) Apple media event this morning at the Guggenheim, which introduced iBooks 2, iBooks Author and iTunes U to the educational community. Along with those releases, Apple also pushed out a minor update to iTunes which is now available for download. “iTunes 10.5.3 allows you to sync interactive iBooks textbooks to your iPad,” the release notes explain. “These Multi-Touch textbooks are available for purchase from the iTunes Store on your Mac or from the iBookstore included with iBooks 2 on your iPad.” Hit the link to download the update directly or check Software Update if you prefer a smaller download.
Siri may be old news to those of us who bought iPhone 4S handsets back in October, but for patent junkies, things have just started to get interested. Patently Apple is reporting today that “the first killer patent application behind Siri was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.” Not surprisingly, Apple doesn’t plan to limit the technology to iOS devices but instead “envisions the technology playing a role in vehicles and in-vehicle entertainment systems where an Intelligent Assistant will be considered the king of user interfaces.” The website has a lengthy and detailed examination of the Siri patent filing, dating back to 1987’s “Knowledge Navigator Concept” which proves that Apple has envisioned this kind of technology well before the iPhone was even introduced. The report closes with some prospective uses for Siri which includes “the iPod touch (a personal digital assistant), iMac (desktop computer), MacBook (laptop computer), iPad (tablet computer), consumer electronic devices, consumer entertainment devices; iPod (music player); camera; television; Apple TV (set-top box); electronic gaming unit; kiosk or the like.”
Riddle us this: How can textbook publishers manage to sell a textbook for only through Apple? According to AllThingsD, it’s a matter of simple volume — or at least that’s how McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw is looking at it. But there’s more than meets the eye, because such publishers traditionally sell their printed textbooks direct to schools, which continue to use them for “an average of five years.” The new iBookstore method is only .99 (or less), but the burden of the purchase is on the student (or their parents), although many schools will provide students with codes to download their textbooks. Since the digital textbook can’t be resold or passed on to another student, McGraw views it as a win for his company because in theory, each year another student will be purchasing a copy — and in five years’ time, they’ll have netted the same amount, even after Apple takes their slice of the pie. Apple’s Eddy Cue also confirmed that .99 isn’t part of any kind of “pilot pricing,” explaining “all of our books will be .99.”
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Apple has set the stage for a textbook revolution with the new iBooks 2 and free iBooks Author software, but as it turns out, that was only the first of the company’s plans to unveil in New York City today — Cupertino is also introducing a new iTunes U app for allowing colleges and universities to share their knowledge with the world.
Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services Eddy Cue followed up the announcement of iBooks 2 and iBooks Author in New York City this morning with the introduction of a new iTunes U app. “iTunes U lets colleges and universities around the world deliver content… around the world to anyone using an iPhone, iPod touch or an iPad,” Cue explained.
Touting more than 1,000 colleges and universities that are already using iTunes U with 700 million downloads since launching four years ago, Cue calls it the number one catalog for educational content, but notes that it’s currently only used for delivering lectures. “We want to let teachers do a lot more,” Cue teased. “We want to create full online courses.”
Cue introduced Apple vice president of consumer applications Jeff Robbin to demonstrate the new iTunes U app with an online course from Duke: Core Concepts in Chemistry. The app features an overview of the course, details on the teacher (including office hours), a complete syllabus and information on credits.
Tabs on the right side of the page include Posts, Notes and Materials. Posts are updates from the teachers that can be pushed out to students, such as assignments and to-do lists — assignments, for example, will appear right in iBooks for quick and easy homework (but you’ll still have to do the hard part yourself, sorry). The Materials tab includes a list of everything you’ll need for completing the course, including books, videos, audio and documents, with the ability to buy them with a tap if you don’t already have them.
But what about signing up for courses in the first place? Yes, the iTunes U app offers this ability as well with a single tap. Cue returned to the stage to hail the long list of schools currently using the previous iTunes U, along with six who have had early access to the new app: Duke, Yale, HACC, MIT and The Open University.
The new iTunes U app isn’t just about higher education, either: K-12 schools can now join in the fun. “This means that teachers in these schools will now be able to deliver full online courses to anyone for free,” Cue explained. The new universal app is free and available now from the iOS App Store in 123 countries.
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As we all wait to see what Apple might have its sleeve for up-ending the education market on Thursday, the rumors are already swirling around the New York City media event — as if the world needs more evidence that anything related to Apple can really stir up the tech press! And that’s not all: A Japanese blog is predicting an iPad 3 media event just two or three weeks from now, if you believe that kind of stuff. So let’s put on our tinfoil hats and delve deep into what’s making news for this terrific Tuesday, January 17, 2012.
It may have seen a delayed launch here in the U.S., but iTunes Match is making up for lost time, today launching in the Netherlands as well as 18 additional countries around the world. According to MacRumors, the full list of new iTunes Match territories includes Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Guatemala, Honduras, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. These 19 countries bring the total count to 37, and the annual subscription service arrives in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Netherlands alongside iTunes in the Cloud compatibility with music and music videos, a first for those countries (the Latin American countries already had this functionality, but added iTunes Match).
We all know that current Apple CEO Tim Cook was co-founder Steve Jobs’ personal pick for his replacement, but a forthcoming book reveals that the company may already have its next chief executive officer all lined up — and he won’t have far to report for duty. AppleInsider is reporting that Apple’s senior vice president of iOS Software, Scott Forstall, is considered the company’s next “CEO-in-waiting” — that is, whenever current CEO Cook decides he’s had enough. Calling Forstall “the total package,” Inside Apple author Adam Lashinsky claims that the iOS boss is someone “who most closely resembles late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, making him the most obvious candidate to eventually succeed him.” The Fortune scribe will release his book Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired — And Secretive — Company Really Works on January 25, which is already available for preorder on Amazon in both hardcover and Kindle formats as well as an unabridged audiobook.
This just in: Yahoo Inc. has hit the news wires with word that co-founder Jerry Yang (pictured above) has “resigned from its Board of Directors and all other positions with the company, effective today. In addition, Yang resigned from the Boards of Yahoo Japan Corporation and Alibaba Group Holding Limited, effective today.” Yang’s letter to the board reads as follows: “My time at Yahoo!, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life. However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo! As I leave the company I co-founded nearly 17 years ago, I am enthusiastic about the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer and his ability, along with the entire Yahoo! leadership team, to guide Yahoo! into an exciting and successful future.” The head Yahoo! — who founded the company in 1995 with David Filo — was hailed as a “visionary and a pioneer” by chairman of the board Ray Bostock.
You might not find education to be a very exciting area for Apple to tackle, but that may all change come this Thursday. According to AppleInsider, the company’s media event in New York City this week will focus on new content creation tools for the educational market, which some have called “GarageBand for e-books.” The concept is “a simple app that makes standards-compliant e-book publishing as easy as recording a song in GarageBand,” which would certainly be music to the ears of those in the industry, including authors described as “frustrated” by the current tools. The Wall Street Journal also chimed in with their own thoughts on Thursday’s event, claiming Apple “is expected to unveil textbooks optimized for the iPad and that feature ways to interact with the content, as well as partnerships with publishers.” Stay tuned to this channel to find out the details later this week!
What news roundup would be complete without some iPad 3 rumors? According to MacRumors, Apple is planning an event in early February to introduce the next iPad and potentially launch iOS 5.1 at the same time, which is currently in beta testing with developers. “According to Asian supplier and a source in United States, Apple seems to prepare to hold Special Event in early February,” explains Japanese blog Macotakara, who broke the news earlier today. “Because Chinese factory will be in holiday of New Year, then new product is considered to be released in early March.” As MacRumors notes, one month is a “significantly longer” gap between announcement and release than the iPad 2, which was introduced on March 2 and in stores nine days later, on March 11, 2011. But we’d say one thing is for sure: There’s a new iPad coming in the next 60-90 days, so strap in and enjoy the ride until we get there…
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Well, that was fast: Another Christmas weekend is over, the presents have all been unwrapped and retailers nationwide are bracing for a throng of returns to hit this week for all those unwanted misfit toys, gadgets, clothes and other items. Since the holiday fell on a Sunday this year, many of us have the day off to get out and spend any cash we received (or cash in on those gift cards) — but when the spending is over, kick back and take a break by reading up on the day’s events for Monday, December 26, 2011.
The folks at Boxee took to their Our Team Blog today to announce version 1.5 of the media player software, which is now available for the Mac, PC and Linux. The update is now being tested by Early Access users for the Boxee Box, and will soon be available as a beta. New features include a refreshed home screen and menu, a new layout for Movies & TV Shows and new Watch Later and Friends sections. With the company’s Live TV hardware landing in January, the plan is to release version 1.5 for the Boxee Box at the same time. Unfortunately, the team has announced version 1.5 will be the final release for computers — the company is focusing their efforts purely on the Boxee Box and connected TVs, Blu-ray players and mobile apps from here on out. Kind of bummer news, but the new version 1.5 software will be available for download through the end of January, so get it now while the getting is good.
Still confused about iTunes Match and whether it’s .99 per year worth spending? Apple has updated the iTunes section of their website with a new page dedicated to the “scan and match” service, complete with a Getting Started section and a comprehensive FAQ that should answer most any question you might have about it. If the page answers your questions and makes you eager to give it a try, simply click the blue “Subscribe to iTunes Match” button and you’ll be whisked to iTunes, where your credit card will take the brunt of the damage.
There’s little doubt that Netflix and Hulu are the titans of online streaming services, but according to TechCrunch, one of them is growing while the other is faltering. You might think with this year’s missteps that Netflix would be the one suffering, but the numbers speak differently: Based on comScore data, “U.S. visitors spent one billion minutes on Netflix.com in November, 2011, versus 480 million minutes on Hulu.” Of course, that might not be an accurate metric given that Netflix is more about movies while Hulu is more about television shows and other short subjects, but a year ago the two websites “were almost neck-in-neck in time spent, with Netflix users logging 750 million total minutes versus Hulu users logging 690 million.” Part of that shift could be attributed to Hulu’s new focus on the paid Hulu Plus service, which pushes content to connected TVs, streaming boxes and mobile devices, giving subscribers much less reason to use the website for most content. We subscribe to both and get far more use out of Hulu Plus these days, but your mileage apparently must vary…
It looks like Apple users in the United States must have been naughty this year, because Cupertino has launched its annual 12 Days of Christmas app — but only in Canada and Europe. According to AppleInsider, the free app is an annual holiday promotion “that offers free songs, music videos, apps and books.” Now in its fourth year, the promotion runs from December 26 through January 6, with a new freebie each day the app is opened. In case you were wondering, today’s gift is an EP from Coldplay, a live recording from the recent iTunes Festival in London. So Apple, what did we Americans do this year to offend thee…?
Domain name registrar GoDaddy has already had a not-so-happy holiday after being piled on by internet users for its support of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Even after a half-hearted withdrawal of its support, the company has supposedly lost upwards of 72,354 domains in only five days according to The Loop. Making matters worse, Macworld is reporting that the company is being accused of delaying some of those domain transfers, with competitor Namecheap accusing GoDaddy of “returning incomplete WHOIS information” necessary to complete the transfer. If true, the move runs afoul of ICANN rules (that’s the organization in charge of the world’s domain name system). “We suspect that this competitor is thwarting efforts to transfer domains away from them,” writes Namecheap Community Manager Tamar Weinberg on the company’s blog. “We at Namecheap believe that this action speaks volumes about the impact that informed customers are having on GoDaddy’s business.” At the very least, it’s a heck of a way to end the year, that’s for sure…
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(Image courtesy of AppleInsider)
It’s been one of those busy days for tech enthusiasts: Rather than dreaming about the weekend ahead, we’ve had product launches all over the place in the mad pre-Christmas holiday rush before things start to shut down next week. If you’ve already played around with your Facebook Timeline update or nabbed that sweet new Roku iOS app and are waiting for your Apple TV to update, take a breather and see what’s new for this Thursday, December 15, 2011.
Hey, would you look at that… after teasing us nearly two months ago, Facebook has finally gone ahead and officially rolled out the red carpet for its new Timeline profile feature. According to The Facebook Blog, users will have a seven-day “review period” to review everything appearing in your Timeline before anyone else can see it, and as always, you can choose “View As” to get a preview of what it will look like to the public at large. Timeline is also rolling out to Android and the Facebook mobile site, but sadly no iOS love quite yet. So how do you get it? It will gradually appear for all users soon enough, but you can kickstart things into action right now by visiting this web page and clicking “Get Timeline.”
After repeated rumors of an imminent launch, the third Nexus-branded Android handset has finally arrived on U.S. shores with the release of the Samsung Nexus Galaxy through Verizon Wireless. According to The Verge, the flagship Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich handset with 4G LTE will cost users a cool 9.99 with two-year contract, but e-tailers such as LetsTalk.com are already offering it for nearly half that price with discounts — although it’s currently backordered and “likely to ship in one to two weeks.” According to BGR, eager early adopters have already been spotted outside a few Verizon stores nationwide to be the first to get theirs. It’s not quite the frenzy iPhone users have become accustomed to with their product launches, but clearly demand is higher than normal for these handsets on launch day.
Now here’s an odd one for Apple update fans: According to MacRumors, the company pushed out a new version of iOS 5.0.1 specifically tailored to the iPhone 4S — but those of us who have already updated receive nothing. What’s in this mysterious new Build 9A406? Beats us, but with iOS 5.1 already in beta testing, everyone will be getting a new update soon enough. Meanwhile, the second-generation Apple TV was also updated to version 4.4.4, which Apple claims “includes general performance and stability improvements, including a fix for an issue that displayed an error when playing some video content.” Fair enough.
If you own one of the Roku streaming boxes and also carry an iPhone in your pocket, there’s a little treat awaiting you in the App Store today. According to the Roku Blog, the company has finally introduced an official, free iPhone remote control app — and best of all, it works on all Roku boxes, including a first-generation model we had lying around here. Users of the newer Roku 2 or Roku LT players will need to grab the software update version 4.2 before they can use the app, but older players already received the necessary update with a recent version 3.1 update. The company is also promising an Android app, for those of you on that side of the fence, but gives no firm date for its availability.
After a premature rollout last night that early adopters were quickly refunded for, Apple’s new “scan and match” subscription service, iTunes Match, appears to be going live around the world. According to MacRumors, the service popped up again on the radar in the U.K. and was soon followed by Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Australia, France, New Zealand and Spain. Users in these countries are reporting success in subscribing to iTunes Match and matching their libraries accordingly, so it would seem as if the second time is the charm in this case. The rollout today was kicked off by Apple updating their iTunes terms and conditions in these countries, which specifically mention the iTunes Match service.
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