Blu-Ray wins high-def fight, all studios to offer format support

The war between HD DVD and Blu-Ray is over, with Paramount and Universal joining Blu-Ray camp

Paramount Home Entertainment and Universal Studios have joined other major film studios, abandoning support for HD DVD in favour of Blu-Ray.

Paramount Home Entertainment revealed its plans within an exclusive statement sent to The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday: "We are pleased that the industry is moving to a single high-definition format, as we believe it is in the best interest of the consumer," the statement reads. "As we look to (begin) releasing our titles on Blu-ray, we will monitor consumer adoption and determine our release plans accordingly."

Universal Studios on Tuesday also abandoned support for HD DVD in favour of the competing Blu-Ray format.

The studio's moves to abandon the failed high definition video format followed Warner's shock dismissal of support for it in January, and Toshiba's recent revelation that it is to cease manufacture of HD DVD players.

Moves by major DVD retailers, Wal-Mart in the US and Woolworths in the UK also witness the industry finally settling the long - and confusing - battle to define the future high definition format. Both retailers have confirmed plans to cease sales of titles in HD DVD in order to focus on Blu-Ray.

The end of the fight is likely to spur sales of Blu-Ray players and films, as consumers have been shy to invest in either format while the battle for supremacy takes place.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (along with MGM Home Entertainment), Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video (including distributed labels New Line Home Entertainment, BBC Video and HBO Video) and Lionsgate already support Blu-ray.

Ambrosia updates iPhone ringtone tool

Latest version of iToner ships, with iPhone 1.1.3 support

Ambrosia Software last night introduced iToner 1.0.6, offering up support for iPhone OS 1.1.3.

The update the iPhone custom ringtone transfer tool offers improved support for iPhone, along with other bug fixes and improvements.

Exempt from per-ringtone fees, iToner lets you drag-&-drop MP3, AAC, WAVE, and AIFF audio files you own to your iPhone for use as custom ringtones.

The iToner 1.0.6 update is free for all registered users, and may be downloaded here.

iToner costs $15, requires Mac OS X 10.4.10 or later, and is a Universal Binary application.


Tag: Ambrosia, Apple, iPhone, iPhone OS 1.1.3., Software, Ringtone

Apple's US website grabs 48m visits

Apple continues to be a big player online
Jonny Evans

Apple's was the twelfth most-visited US website in January, the latest internet audience figures from comScore Media Metrix claim.

Apple attracted 48,413,000 visits in January, that's higher than Facebook (33,861,000) and Viacom (42,011,000) and only slightly behind the New York Times (48,471,000).

The top three sites (or, to be accurate, groups of sites) visited by US internet users were; in first place, Yahoo! sites, 138,059,000; second place, Google sites, 134,886,000; and Microsoft sites, 119,297,000.

The differences in traffic between the top three contenders offers stern reinforcement of what's at stake in Microsoft's current hostile takeover attempt of Yahoo!.

Reflecting the company's continued growth in both market and mind-share, Apple's website entered comScore Media Metrix' top 50 list at number 44 with 11,133,000 visitors in November 2003.

Apple: No Time Machine-AirPort Extreme fix

Disgruntled AirPort Extreme owners unhappy that Time Machine won't see an AirPort disc

Disappointed Mac users confirmed on Wednesday that Apple's latest Leopard update does not let them back up with Time Machine to drives plugged into an Airport Extreme router.

"On 10.5.2, my [AirPort] Disk is NOT available to Time Machine," reported a user named Jespes on an Apple support forum. "I can access the [disk] from the Finder, but Time Machine doesn't see it." Others on that thread, and elsewhere on Apple's forums, echoed Jespes' findings.

Last month, some users had held out hope that Apple would make Leopard's Time Machine backup application compatible with the AirPort Extreme's AirPort Disk, a feature that lets users attach an external USB drive to the router and access that disk via the wireless network. The hope had been fueled by rumours on several Apple enthusiast sites that a fix was among the scores slated for the 10.5.2 upgrade.

People who bought AirPort Extreme Base Stations before Leopard's October 2007 release were particularly incensed when CEO Steve Jobs introduced the Time Capsule backup appliance at Macworld Expo last month. Before Leopard's launch, Apple had said that Time Machine would work with AirPort drives.

Time Capsule, essentially an AirPort Extreme wedded to a 500GB or 1TB drive, fills the niche that Apple originally said would be served by the Time Machine-AirPort Extreme combination. Time Capsule is scheduled to ship this month.

After Time Capsule's introduction, users rued their purchases of AirPort Extreme, calling themselves "one of the suckers" and saying "I feel like I been had."

Firmware hopes

Some still hope for an eventual fix that would make their AirPort Extreme-USB drive setups the equivalent of Time Capsule, and noted that a patch might come in the form of a firmware update to the router. On a different support thread, for example, someone using the alias "dchao99" said, "10.5.2 OS X update is not going to fix all the bugs between the Mac and AEBS [AirPort Extreme Base Station]. Because the 7.2.1 firmware on AEBS is also buggy. And we are still waiting for the AEBS update."

The Leopard update did, however, include several other improvements to Time Machine, the most visible of which added a menu bar option for the backup application. Apple's list of 10.5.2 enhancements also spelled out multiple changes to the AirPort wireless technology, including improved connection reliability.

MWC: Symbian shrugs off iPhone and Android

The Symbian operating system grew 50 per cent over 2007, and is well placed to grow in future, according to the Symbian chief executive Nigel Clifford - who shrugged off Google Android, Apple iPhone and Microsoft Windows phones at Mobile World Congress.

22.4 million Symbian phones shipped in the fourth quarter of 2007, making a total of 77 million in the year, and bringing in £179 million in royalties for the year - but Symbian is making its operating system cheaper, in order to reach beyond the smartphone sector to lower-cost phones, which are expected to grow much faster than any other kind of device in the next few years.

"We've established a base camp at the top of the pyramid," said Clifford, coining what is surely MWC's best mixed metaphor so far. "The mid-range is key to our growth - that's where we'll get our next 300 million subscribers." The operating system has kept its lead in the smartphone market, and now makes up a respectable seven percent of all phones, including low cost devices, said Clifford.

Clifford countered Sony Ericsson's announcement of a Windows Mobile phone with news of two new Sony Ericsson Symbian devices, and a promise to keep competing with all platforms, in all parts of the world - including the Far East where its competitors are Linux phones, and the US, where other handset makers are emerging.

"The entry of Apple is good news," said Clifford. "It shows the subscriber land-grab is over and the US is moving on to real data revenues." Presenting a new version of the company's market share chart, he revealed Apple now has a major slice of the US smartphone market, but as the US part of the world's smartphone markets has grown, Symbian has kept its share of the sector.

As on previous occasions, he noted that Google's Android is only one of several Linux devices, which contribute to a fragmentation of the market. Linux phones remain a competitor in the Far East, but they are losing share to Symbian, he said.

While Android might produce a phone operating system that is effectively free to operators, Clifford said this attraction was "spurious". "The Linux code is a fraction of what you need on a phone," he said, pointing out that the price of the Symbian operating system is being steadily reduced to other operating systems.

Apple launches corporate gift scheme

Apple has introduced a corporate gifts and rewards scheme for UK businesses.

The scheme offers firms Macs, iPods, iTunes Gift Cards and iPod accessories at special bulk prices. A business can order at least 50 iPods and also enjoy free engraving of the company logo for a one-off fee.

Apple is also offering to pre-load special content, such as training materials, product information, speeches or promotional videos onto iPods purchased through the scheme, though this costs $10 per unit and requires at least 250 iPod orders.

The company is also offering the (PRODUCT) RED iPods under the scheme.

More information on the new scheme is available on Apple's website.

MacBook Air vs. Thinkpad X300

Engadget compares Lenovo's Thinkpad with the MacBook Air. Although there are some similarities, the Thinkpad costs almost $1000 more and is much thicker and uglier. It does offer an optical drive, more USB ports, Ethernet, and a removable battery, though.

Malaysia MacBook with Lower Prices

The recently updated MacBooks are available at all local Apple resellers beginning today at new, lower prices.

These MacBooks deliver a bigger bang for your buck with upgraded specs at the following prices:

• MB061ZP/B (White, 2.0GHz, 80GB, Combo drive): RM3,999
• MB062ZP/B (White, 2.2GHz, 120GB, SuperDrive): RM4,759
• MB063ZP/B (Black, 2.2GHz, 160GB, SuperDrive): RM5,459

These MacBooks come pre-loaded with Leopard, have a better motherboard (Santa Rosa), much better graphics card and now, lower prices.

MacBook Air

MacBook Air was released about 20 minutes ago at MacWorld 2008 by Steve Jobs.

Dubbed the thinnest notebook in the world at only 0.4cm - 1.94cm in thickness, the MacBook Air is set to take portability into new heights.

Specifications are as follows:

Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz or 1.8Ghz
2GB RAM standard
80GB hard drive, 64GB SSD hard drive optional
13.3 inches wide screen with LED backlighting
MultiTouch trackpad
iSight
Full sized keyboard with backlight illumination
Wireless 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1
Built in mono speakers
o.4 - 1.94 x 32.5 x 22.7 (cm, H x W x L)
1.36kg

The standard configuration will cost USD$1,799 and another USD$99 add on if you want to add on an external SuperDrive.

My take on the MacBook Air? It’s AWESOME. I don’t know how they built the thing in such a thin chassis, but they did it nevertheless. It could even fit in an envelope, as demonstrated by Steve Jobs. The inclusion of the MultiTouch technology, as seen on iPhones and iPod Touch, is great as well. The trackpad works like the touchscreens on iPhones and iPod Touch now.

However, the price of USD$1,799 is a bit pricey. It’s only slightly cheaper than the MacBook Pro, a full fledge notebook.

Google confirms huge search traffic from iPhones

iPhone users generate 50 times the search traffic of other devices
Jonny Evans

Google has confirmed it has seen 50 times more searches from the iPhone than from any other mobile handset.

“We thought it was a mistake and made our engineers check the logs again,” Vic Gundotra, head of Google’s mobile operations told the Financial Times at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The Google executive observed that if other mobile manufacturers begin to implement full web browsing capabilities in their devices then that should drive mobile search to overtake search activity from computers within the next few years - driving the company's success in the mobile ads market.

AT&T recently confirmed that the average revenue it sees from iPhone users is double that of average users because the of top up data packages.

And in the UK O2 recently confirmed the iPhone to be driving "unheard of data traffic" on the mobile network.

INFO : Apple releases fixes for OS X security issues

by Jim Dalrymple

In addition to updating Mac OS X Leopard earlier today, Apple also released a security update for PowerPC and Intel users of Mac OS X Tiger. Leopard users that updated to 10.5.2 do not need to install this separate update — all of the fixes in this update were included in 10.5.2.

Fixed for Tiger users in this update is a buffer overflow in Directory Services that could allow a local user to execute arbitrary code with system privileges. Another arbitrary code execution problem was addressed in Safari’s handling of URLs. Mail no longer allows arbitrary applications to be launched when clicking “file:// URLs” in a message.

For OS X 10.5 users who install the security patch via the 10.5.2 update, an interesting issue involving Time Machine has been found. If an application was removed from the system, it could still be launched from a Time Machine backup. With this update, applications cannot be launched directly from Time Machine.

If you use Parental Controls to manage web content, Parental Controls will inadvertently contact www.apple.com when a website is unblocked. According to Apple, this allows a remote user to detect the machines running Parental Controls. This update addresses the issue by removing the outgoing network traffic when a website is unblocked.

A full list of security issues fixed in this update is available from Apple’s Web site.

The patches include fixes for Safari, Mail, Launch Services, the Mac OS Directory Services, Open Directory and Parental Controls. There are also patches for several Unix components that ship with Apple’s software, including a recently patched flaw in the Samba file-and-print software.

“The Samba bug was expected, since all the open-source distributions released fixes a while ago,” said Andrew Storms, nCircle’s director of security operations, via instant message.

In all, the security updates fix 11 bugs, including eight specific to Mac OS X 10.5.

Robert McMillan of IDG News Service contributed to this report.

iPhone: iPhone grey market booming

Global trade in unlocked iPhones is booming, report claims
Jonny Evans

A Business Week report claims the iPhone has generated a huge grey market for unlocked units - and that insiders involved at some point in the production cycle for the machines may be involved in the burgeoning industry.

The report claims as many as one million unlocked iPhones may be in circulation across the world, with a particular heavy trade in the devices taking place in the Far East.

The news means 25 per cent of iPhone purchases have gone to users who then unlock the device for use on their chosen network, or for sale to others anxious to use iPhone.

The report also reveals that Czech firm Bladox and its Turbo SIM card may have hit a home run when it introduced a variant of its product last year which was capable of fooling an iPhone into thinking itself to be running an officially-sanctioned SIM card, even when it wasn't.

The report also explains the existence of at least one distributor who claims knwledge of a supplier with access to diagrams and repair guides that Apple would not release outside the company.

Business Week notes that Apple and its partners don't appear to have worked hard enough to end the scourge, but points out that the popularity of unlocked iPhones proves the popularity of the device, and could be good omen for when iPhone ships in as yet unsupported countries.

BusinessWeek readers report iPhone sales in Brazil, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Israel, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Rumour: Flash for iPhone within weeks

A report claims iPhone will soon offer support for Adobe Flash
Jonny Evans

Apple's iPhone may soon gain support for Adobe Flash, presumably enabling users to access more media, including TV shows through the BBC iPlayer.

A report from Gear Live makes these claims, given extra veracity by Adobe's move to introduce improved versions of Flash for mobile devices at Barcelona's World Mobile Congress this week.

"Well, we’ve just got word from a reliable source that Flash support is on its way to the iPhone, and it should be coming very, very soon," Gear Live claims, revealing that the reason for the absence of support for the standard in the first place was "solely due to business negotiations."

The report also speculates support for Flash will be introduced at the same time as the iPhone software development kit, which is meant to debut this month.

Apple posts Apple TV ‘Take Two’

As promised by Steve Jobs at Macworld Expo, Apple has released “Apple TV Take Two” via the units Software Update from the settings menu. “The major upgrade to the software that controls Apple’s TV convergence device offers a host of new features, such as the ability to purchase and download video and music directly from iTunes instead of having to use a Mac or PC first,” reports Macworld. “ Also new in this release is access to photostreams hosted on the popular photo blogging service Flickr, as well as photostreams hosted as .Mac Web Galleries (which can be produced using iPhoto ‘08 or Aperture 2).”

Apple Aperture 2 announced

Today introduced Aperture 2, a major update to its photo editing and management software. The new version bosts over 100 new features and the promise of being faster, easier to use and more powerful. The UI has been streamlined, the image processing engine has been revamped, and Aperture 2 now includes new imaging tools for highlight recovery, color vibrancy, local contrast definition, soft-edged retouching, vignetting and RAW fine-tuning. All this lets users directly post their portfolios on a .Mac Web Gallery for viewing on the web, iPhone , iPod touch and Apple TV. The new reduced price of USD$199 is probably the most user-friendly new feature of all.