Apple In The News…Again…and Again!!

It seems that in the recent past, Apple has almost had a monopoly on getting into the tech news headlines. Recently, the Cupertino computer CEO was spotted at a downtown coffee shop sharing a cup of joe with Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Even though the two companies had been throwing stones at each other, the sight of the two of them casually chatting certainly got it’s share of press coverage.

Then of course, the release of the iPad got a historical amount of coverage. So much so, that it may have even surpassed the original release of the iPhone. And the hype still continues with this, what Apple refers to as, ‘Magical’ new device. Actually, the iPad is a sweet device, but that is for a future post.

Next came Apple’s record shattering quarterly financials in which the computer company posted record profits. Although, this was overshadowed by other Apple news, it still got it’s fair share of press coverage.

Then the new iPhone conspiracy. Apparently an Apple employee, while celebrating his birthday, left behind a new iPhone prototype in a California pub, which was picked up by a patron, and then sold to the blogging site Gizmodo, which of course, had to scoop the story. The press coverage that this received was substantial and is still being talked and written about. Actually as far as I am concerned, this story means nothing to me as it will not get me a new iPhone any faster. The only benefit that this story may have is to the iPhone competitors, such as HTC, who at the same time released it’s new smart phone, the Incredible. In fact, some conspiracy theories, even speculate that Apple planted this iPhone so that it could be found and steal the limelight away from the release of the HTC Incredible. Sounds far fetched to me, but who knows.

But with all this going on in Apple Land, the story that has my attention, is the announcement of Apple’s decision to shut down the music streaming site La-La. Late last year, Apple Inc., purchased the site for $85 million, leaving many speculations as to what Steve Jobs had up his sleeve.

Well, in my mind, it has become apparent that it is inevitable that Apple is going to integrate a streaming service into it’s iTunes store, which would allow users to access their content from any internet connected device from any location. Especially, since it has been rumored that Apple is in hard negotiations with the top 4 record labels for rights to implement this feature, and could be the reason for Apple’s $1 billion server farm project, located in North Carolina. If these talks were not going favorably, then I can see no reason why Apple would decide to shut down La-La. However, with the closing of this site, which coincidentally is going to occur on May 31st, shortly before the announcement of the new iPhone is expected sometime in June. This just all seems to add up. If this turns out to be true, this could be a near death blow to other music streaming sites especially if Apple can make this competitively priced, as conquering the popularity of iTunes is a tough mountain to climb.

This has been something that I and many like me have been waiting for, from iTunes, for a long time. Streaming music, in the Cloud, appears to be the way in which we are heading, and what better way to introduce a music service like this, than at the premier showcasing of the new iPhone. Seems like a perfect match to me…..

What do you think?

Fa-La-La, La-La.com

Playing music via the “Cloud” seems to be the way that the future is heading. Streaming music from sites like Pandora and not downloading and storing the music locally on your hard drive is gaining momentum. Evidence of this is the iPod rival Zune mp3 player from Microsoft. When you visit the Zune Marketplace, similar to Apples iTunes Store, you have the option of subscribing to a music service know as the Zune Pass. This allows you to stream an unlimited amount of music directly to your computer or Zune player for a monthly fee. Once you subscribe to this service, it also allows you to download 10 free songs per month, which almost negates the monthly service fee. Even though the popularity of the iPod and iTunes music store has far exceeded the market share of the Zune Store, it still does not have the Music Service feature.  A feature that is sadly lacking. Apple must be aware of this, and today this has become evident as the New York Times has announced that Apple has purchased the online music streaming site called LaLa.com.

LaLa started out in 2006 as a music cd trading site in which account members could trade cd’s with other members for $1 plus a 75 cent shipping fee. This soon blossomed into a music streaming site in 2008, in which members could stream music directly from the site to their computer. The current model allows members to listen to a song once for free and offers an unlimited listening plan for 10 cents per song.  For an additional 79 cents, members can also purchase the DRM free songs.

Apple’s purchase of this online music company verifies that they are going to be attempting to implement a music service plan on their iTunes store. LaLa has had an agreement with the major record labels allowing them to stream this music, and according to their website, has a library of over 6 million titles. However, the agreement with the record labels states that this contract is non-transferable, meaning that the music library and the contract allowing the music to be streamed is not part of the sale.

So what is Apple buying then?

What they are apparently getting is the engineering technology as well as the engineers themselves, which includes LaLa founder and creator Bill Nyugen. With the resources that company has, coupled with the knowledge base will allow Apple to create an online music streaming service and up the ante with competitors like the Zune store, Pandora, Yahoo Music, and others.  From the NY Times article: “One person with knowledge of the deal, but who was not authorized to discuss it, said that the negotiations originated when Lala executives concluded that their prospects for turning a profit in the short term were dim and initiated discussions with Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president in charge of iTunes. This person said Apple would primarily be buying Lala’s engineers, including its energetic co-founder Bill Nguyen, and their experience with cloud-based music services.”

This makes sense based on Apple’s current business model for it’s popular iPod music player line. Allowing access to the vast amount of titles on the iTunes music store without having to download the song directly to your computer will give a user something that has not been available from Apple. The ability to simply fill up an iPod with music, and paying the monthly fee, will give users an incredible amount of flexibility in their music selections.  This is “Cloud” computing at it’s best. The downside to all of this, is that you will not actually own the content. Should you stop paying the monthly charge, all of the music will simply go away.

But as for myself and other music lovers, I anxiously await the release of this ability at the iTunes music store.

Tell me what your thoughts are about Apple acquiring LaLa as well as your views on “Cloud” computing.

iTunes….What are you doing???

I’ve mentioned in past posts about the dangers of the AutoRun feature in Windows.  I think Microsoft has finally recognized this too, as in Windows 7, it is finally disabled by default.  If you missed my earlier post, you can check it out HERE.  But now it seems other software, namely iTunes, is looking to turn this feature back on.  Hang on, I may be getting a little a head of myself.

For those of you who do not know what AutoRun is. It was implemented by Microsoft all the way back in the Windows 95 operating system.  Originally, it was not that bad of an idea.  It was a way in which software manufacturers could ensure the proper installation of their software on systems which had a user who was not very tech savvy.  When a properly formatted CD was inserted into a computer, the system would simply just start loading the information off of the disk, no questions asked.  In the day, this greatly reduced assistance calls to software manufacturers’ help lines.  So initially, it was not a bad idea.

However, like most things in this day and age, hackers found ways to exploit it.  By infecting any removable media device, such as a CD/DVD, flash (thumb) device, or external hard drive, and plugging it into a computer that is AutoRun enabled, it would simply load the malware onto the clean computer without the user’s knowledge or action.  This was the primary venue in which the Conficker Worm was started.

So now getting back to iTunes.  When an audio CD is inserted into a computer running Windows 7, iTunes will prompt you with a message that looks like this.

Do NOT turn the AutoRun functionality on. It was disabled, by default, for a very good reason.  Just click No.

After, iTunes will then present you with another pop up that looks like this….

Press F5 so that you can see the contents of the disk.  This is not 100% secure, but it is much safer than turning on AutoRun. From here you could even scan the disk with your anti-malware software if there are any questions about it’s security.

I don’t think that Apple is doing anything malicious by doing this. It may be that it simply was not prepared for this functionality being turned off in Windows 7, even though Windows 7 has been available for almost a year, in beta versions.  But that is not the issue. The issue I have, is why are the pop-ups being displayed in this order?  It seems to me that they are backwards. The first message is deceiving, at best. It gives the impression that iTunes will not be able to play the user’s CD unless the AutoRun is enabled……period. The pop-up should tell you to view the contents of the CD by pressing “F5”, and then prompt you to enable the AutoRun, if you should desire. Although I have no idea, from a security standpoint, why anyone would do that.

That is the way I see it, let me know what your views are……

Wicked Cool Site #13

For all of the concert go’ers out there, this is a must have.  It is a very small add-on to iTunes that will create a new Visualizer showing all of the concerts in your area on an iCal and Google Calender-like interface.  Like I said, if you enjoy seeing your favorite artists live, this is a must have.  It bases it’s search on songs that have been recently played as well as tunes that are in your Music Library.  It is simple to use too and even better, it is free.  iConcertCal can be downloaded HERE for both OSX and Windows. Once you download and install the add-on (note that iTunes must be closed when installing) you simply need to re-open iTunes, click on the View option, then select Visualizer and click on the iConcertCal option.  Then click on the Show Visualizer option and you will see the iCal and Google Calender-like display with artists, concert dates, options to purchase tickets, and much more.  All based on your location and iTunes selections and right in iTunes.  To return to your music playlist or library, simply click the Return option in the Now Playing display.  This is a really cool, light weight, and easy to use add-on for your iTunes.

A MUST HAVE!!!!!

Check it out and let me know what you think!!!!

AVG……oops Wrong File!!!!

This may be a little late in coming, for which I apologize, but if you are using AVG as your security software and iTunes has stopped working, then I have the fix.  Last Friday, AVG announced that it’s definition update is picking up some critical Dynamic Link Libraries, that are needed by iTunes, as a Trojan Horse.  As a result fixing this problem with AVG will cause iTunes to stop working.  AVG has apologized for this.  If iTunes has suddenly stopped working, and you are using AVG as your security choice, then updating the definitions to AVG should repair the problem.  Should iTunes continue to not work then AVG has posted a fix to the problem HERE.

This may seem like a great inconvenience, however with malware getting more and more sophisticated, this is a problem that will become more prevalent. Anti malware companies are behind the gun, as they are always trying to catch up. Kudos to AVG for admitting to the error, but as these hacks become more and more difficult to detect, expect the false positive results, from all the security suites,  to increase.

What are your thoughts???