Apple

Swarms of online shoppers wanting to redeem their new iPod and iTunes gift cards apparently overwhelmed the Apple iTunes music store over the holidays, prompting error messages and massive slowdowns of up to 20 minutes or more for downloads of a ... single song. (Source: technology.canoe.ca ) Users began posting urgent help messages on the store website both Christmas Day and Boxing Day. The average problem that customers encountered was that the system could not process their request to download songs and videos. Some people were not allowed into the iTunes music store altogether. It still ... (view more)

Federal investigators are reviewing Apple stock option documents that may have been falsified by company officials. Reports state that the investigation puts Apple at risk for possible criminal prosecution. (Source: cnn.com ) The allegedly falsified ... documents were uncovered during an earlier investigation on Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Although Jobs was cleared of any wrong-doing over stock options, the investigation uncovered additional problems. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver ... (view more)

"i" has been an important letter for Apple. The company literally resurrected itself when it introduced the iPod and iTunes to the world, and the quickly became the leader in digital music and digital music players. Yet, one half of the "i" team ... does not seem to be pulling its weight. A new study by Forrester Group revealed that iTunes sales have fallen by 65 percent this year. (Source: theinquirer.net ) The three month study said that 58% of the decrease was due to a fall in the number of transactions, while the remaining 17% was attributed to average size per purchase. (Source: reuters.com ... (view more)

Earlier last month, Universal Music Group signed a deal with Microsoft that gives Universal a percentage of the profits of each Zune sold. Now, Universal has set its sights on Apple, hoping to grab a slice of iPod sales. At a recent Reuters Media ... Summit, Universal executive Doug Morris revealed the company's desire to strike a deal with Apple that would give iPod royalties to the music company. "It would be a nice idea. We have a negotiation coming up not too far. I don't see why we wouldn't do that... but maybe not in the same way," Morris explained at the conference in New York City. ( ... (view more)

Last Thursday, Apple finally announced a fix for the irritating "MacBook Shutdown" pandemic. The shutdown problem, which the company insists has affected only a "small percentage" of MacBook owners, surfaced in July after the 13-inch widescreen ... MacBooks debuted. Since then, the problem has generated quite a bit of buzz, and has even led to the creation of the website www.macbookrandomshutdown.com . Since the website launched in August, over 1500 users have registered with the site. (Source: zdnet.com ) Previously, Apple had addressed the quandary by having the affected machines sent in for ... (view more)

Recently, Best Buy announced its alliance with SanDisk and RealNetworks to develop a music service set for release on October 15th, 2006. (Source: tgdaily.com ) The arrangement uses RealNetworks' Rhapsody service via the Best Buy Digital Music ... electronic store. The system will be available to customers of the SanDisk Sansa e200R line of Rhapsody MP3 players. (Source: technewsworld.com ) Rhapsody is currently the largest subscription-based music service, while SanDisk is the number two producer of MP3 players (falling behind Apple). The SanDisk Rhapsody MP3 players have been reported to cost $ ... (view more)

Recent reports suggest that Apple and Wal-Mart are in talks to negotiate a partnership. The deal will have iTunes movie downloads available on Wal-Mart store shelves. The arrangement may take the form of an iTunes Store "digital coupon" available ... for purchase at Wal-Mart. Customers would then use these coupons to download movies from the iTunes online store. (Source: arstechnica.com ) Such an arrangement would allow Wal-Mart to gain a foothold in the still young downloadable movie industry, while enabling Apple to increase their movie offerings to a wide audience. The potential partnership ... (view more)

Not long ago, America Online (AOL) announced that it will offer a slew of movies for download. At the time, the system wasn't much to look at, the movies were very hit and miss, and AOL had no system in place to offer users the ability to make ... copies of the flicks they acquired. Well, now Apple is trying to up the ante by offering movies on its popular iTunes website, and the potential of the company's crusade is raising eyebrows at Wal-Mart HQ (amongst others). According to sources, Apple intends to start offering movies for download from iTunes within days. Although Apple CEO Steve Jobs had ... (view more)

Next to Apple, Creative is one of the most recognizable names in the Mp3 player industry. As a result of a patent dispute between Apple and Creative over a music player interface, the two companies have settled with a number of conditions. Today, ... thanks to their competitor, Creative is $100 million richer. During August of 2005, Creative was awarded a patent for a unique digital music setup. According to a press release at the time, Creative described the patent as a tool that "enables selection of at least one track in a portable media player as a user sequentially navigates through a ... (view more)

It's getting to be an expensive day for Apple. Hours after the announcement of its $100 million settlement with digital music competitor Creative, the Cupertino, California company has also made public that it will be recalling 1.8 million batteries ... once installed in its laptop line. The recall is on the same Sony batteries found in the 4.1 million Dell systems cited as faulty by that company earlier this month. For those consumers who own a Macintosh iBook G4 or Powerbook G4, the recall affects those models sold between October 2003 and August 2006, a time window larger than that outlined by ... (view more)