Apple announced today that market research from NPD indicates that the iTunes Store is now the number two music retailer in the US, trailing only Wal-Mart. With over 50 million customers the iTunes Store has sold over 4 billion songs.
iTunes has been the number three music retailer since last June when it surpassed Amazon.com.
Via: AppleInsider
Mac Rumors celebrates it’s eighth birthday today February 24th. According to Quantcast Mac Rumors is the top-ranked Apple News site on the web.
Steve Jobs turns 53 today. Born on February 24, 1955 Steve co-founded Apple, founded NeXt and purchased Pixar Animation in 1986 before ultimately selling it to Disney. Happy Birthday.
The Byte of the Apple blog (Businessweek) reports that that Apple’s iPhone SDK may not be ready in time for Apple’s self-imposed deadline of February 29th. According to their source the SDK may be delayed by up to three weeks and that the situation is fluid. Apple might opt to release selective information next week instead of a full-fledged SDK.
Steve Jobs announced in October 2007 that Apple would release an SDK (software developer kit) for the iPhone and iPod touch in February 2008. It is believed that Steve Jobs announced the SDK in response from developers who were frustrated that third-party development for the iPhone was limited to web-only applications.
Via: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/byteoftheapple/blog/
AT&T’s recently announced $99.99 unlimited calling plan is available today. This plan offers unlimited mobile phone calls for a flat rate of $99.99 a month and existing customers can sign up without having to extend their service contract. The unlimited calling plan can be combined with the various data offerings that AT&T has.
This plan is similar to one recently announced by Verizon.
Apple has dropped the price on the 1 GB iPod shuffle which can now be had for a mere $49. Apple also introduced a 2 GB version which will sell for $69 and should be hitting shelves later this month. The 2 GB version will be capable of holding up to 500 songs on a battery that should keep you rocking for up to 12 hours.
“At just $49, the iPod shuffle is the most affordable iPod ever,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing. “The new 2GB model lets music lovers bring even more songs everywhere they go in the impossibly small iPod shuffle.”
The $49 1 GB iPod Shuffle can be purchased immediately at the Apple Store.
Apple announces that they have partnered with American Idol as a signature sponser acquiring exclusive rights to audio and video performances to television’s most popular show. This partnership will bring music fans all of the contestant performances from Season Seven exclusively on the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com). Beginning this week, fans will be able to purchase music peformances for 99 centers per song. Additionally, viewers will be able to purchase the full video of Top 12 finalist performances fro $1.99 beginning March 11th.
“We’ve created a special section on the iTunes Store for ‘Idol’ fans with an incredible array of music and video performances from television’s most popular show,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We think ‘American Idol’ viewers are going to love the ability to purchase and download ‘Idol’ performances from iTunes.
The iPod becomes the official digital music player for Idol while the iPhone becomes the show’s official handset.
Think Secret has posted on their website that today (Feb. 14th 2008) will be their final day of publication. Founded in 1998 Think Secret published reports and rumors about Apple. The website name was a play on Apples slogan one-time slogan “Think Different”. Think Secret was published by Nick dePlum.
Think Secret was sued by Apple after being unmasked by bloggers at blackvortex.net. As part of a settlement reached with Apple it was agreed that Think Secret would shut down.
RIP
This morning Apple released new versions of the iPhone and iPod touch with each receiving double the memory. The iPhone now comes in a 16 GB model for $499 while the iPod touch now comes in a new 32 GB model for $499. The existing 8 GB iPhone remains at $399 while the iPod touch will continue to sell a 16 GB model for $399 and an 8 GB $299, respectively. 