Official Google Blog: Attention all Pearl Jam fans

Google changes their upload procedure to better compete with YouTube. They seem to be trying to improve their competitiveness with iTunes as well, they are currently noting on their blog that they have Pearl Jams new music video for free. It should be interesting to see how Urge will affect the current market for downloadable music. I think in the same way Google kept MS at bay by making a deal with AOL. Apple should have made a deal with MTV to push iTunes. MTV has the audience that Apple is looking for, why not work with them and have Urge promote iTunes on MTV?

iTWire - Apple's iPhone: it's for real!

More confirmation of Apple working with Softbank on iPhone. Softbank will sell the iPhone as well as iPod in its new cell phone stores.

AppleInsider | Report: Softbank and Apple to co-develop iPod phones

Apple looks like it will partner with Japan's Softbank to market Apple iPod cell phones there. These will be the same cell phones that Apple introduces in the U.S. Speculation was that Apple would partner with Helio in the U.S. to release their cell phones here.

AppleInsider | Fox delivers 16 series to iTunes Music Store

Fox has announced 16 series are now available on iTunes. They cover a broad range of Fox content, including hit shows (24 & Prison Break) as well as classics (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly). As part of the Fox lineup, shows from Fox's Speed channel will also be avaible. With the addition of Fox there are over 90 series available for purchase on iTunes.

FOX Shows Added to iTunes Music Store

Despite reports stating it wasn't going to happen any time soon, FOX has put up several of their shows on iTunes Music Store. You can now purchase episodes for $1.99 of 24, Prison Break, Unan1mous, Stacked, and several "Fox Television Classics" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and Lost in Space). (link opens in iTunes)

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Steve Jobs invites Beatles to iTunes

Apple CEO Steve Jobs invited the Beatles to join iTunes after winning a lawsuit against Apple Corps. Yoko Ono allowed the John Lennon collection to go online to other music services but for Apple's iTunes. Hopefully once the Beatles have new digital masters they will go on iTunes.

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Beatles lose Apple court battle!

The Beatles have lost their court battle with Apple Computer over its iTunes download service. While the Beatles were probably hoping for a large payday, or at least some financial settlement it looks like they are out of luck. Whereas before they could have negotiated and gotten the Beatles onto Apple's iTunes it looks like they don't have much of a negotiating position anymore. Previously Steve Jobs had offered to buy Apple Corp. for $1 million, perhaps Apple will extend the same offer.

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AppleInsider | Apple's top legal exec quietly departs

Apples top legal exec departs, making three top executives that have left in the past 3 months. Previously the co-creator of the Mach microkernel, Avie Tevanian left, as well as Sr. VP of the iPod division, Jon Rubenstein.

Analyst predicts upcoming Apple video and phone products

In a compehensive report, a financial analyst covers the future of Apple. In it they cover the likelihood of movies on iTunes, a video iPod, expected timeframe for the iPhone as well as covering iTunes music sales rates.

Itunes seems to be selling music at 21 million downloads per week. This shows that music downloads from iTunes is not slowing as the music industry had tried to use this as an argument to raise prices.

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AppleInsider | PortalPlayer chip still destined for new video iPod?

It seems that everyone is expecting a video iPod to come out. It seems that PortalPlayer is the frontrunner to supply their system-on-a-chip for the device even they lost their Nano business to Samsung recently.

iPodNN | iPod leads growing MP3 player market

140 million MP3 players were sold in 2005, Apple sold ~40 million iPods in 2005. 50% of MP3 owners surveyed had an iPod. Apple had 80% marketshare in March. Apple sold 5 million iPods in the year ago quarter which is about how many MP3 players Sony sold for all of last year.

The numbers are rather confusing, previously Apple's 80% number was for HDD based players. The numbers touted after the Shuffle came out were lower (~70%) but were for the entire market. As the shuffle came out last year, it seems like there is a large gap between 30% of MP3 players sold last year being iPods and 50% off MP3 owners having an iPod. If after the shuffle came out they had 70%+ of the market why did they only sell 30% of the MP3 players? Perhaps MP3 phones were counted in the worldwide total number of MP3 players sold and the 80% is for the US MP3 only device market.

Apple to double iPod nano storage capacity

Apple is planning a new iPod nano with twice the storage for its September quarter, reports AppleInsider. An analyst said, "Our most recent checks indicate the current 2GB and 4GB nano models will see their storage doubled to 4GB and 8GB capacities."

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