World of Apple

In episode episode 7 of Season 20 of The Simpsons the family visit the brand new Mapple store which has been built in the Springfield mall. In the episode entitled “MyPods and Boomsticks” Mapple is subject to 6 minutes of mockery. Videos after the jump.

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According to a report from the BBC today Beatles guitarist Sir Paul McCartney is keen to see The Beatles make an appearance on the iTunes Store but former “heavy negotiations” between Apple Corps and former record label EMI have since “stalled.”

The BBC writes that EMI still owns rights to the Beatles back catalogue and therefore must make an agreement with Apple Corps before digital distribution can begin.

“EMI want something we’re not prepared to give ‘em. It’s between EMI and The Beatles I think - what else is new?,” McCartney stated to the BBC. “Last word I got back was it’s stalled at the moment. But I really hope it will happen because I think it should.”

AppleInsider has received word from EMI who said that the company is “working hard to secure [an] agreement with Apple Corps to make the Beatles’ catalogue available in digital form” but added “the various parties involved have been unable to reach agreement.”

EMI hopes to make progress “soon.”

Mac Rumors is reporting that a prototype MacBook Air from mid-2007 has been sold on eBay for $730. The MacBook Air which according to AppleInsider was sold by a California Apple Reseller was listed on the auction site as an “as is” MacBook Air. But when the machine arrived at its destination it certainly was not what the purchaser was expecting.

According to the Mac Rumors forum member the listing for the MacBook Air cautioned buyers stating that the system had a malfunctioning hinge and minor blemishes on the outer shell. But the listing did not allude to its pre-production status.

The MacBook Air differs from models that shipped in early-2008 as it only features a 60GB hard drive with Mac OS X Tiger pre-installed and more prominently the lower enclosure is made from black plastic.

The serial number of the machine would indicate that it was manufactured in May 2007 a full seven months before Apple even announced the MacBook Air.

MacBook Air has no identifying label and has a plastic bottom enclosure | Image courtesy of Mac Rumors

System Profiler Identified the Machine as an M82 | Image Courtesy of Mac Rumors

CNet is reporting that LG Display, Sharp, and Chunghwa Picture Tubes have pleaded guilty to charges of pricing fixing LCD display and have agreed to pay a fine of $585 million.

The report states that the three companies held meetings about setting prices of TFT-LCD displays.

They agreed to charge predetermined prices for the displays, issued price quotes based on those agreements, and exchanged sales information on the display panels, in order to monitor and enforce the agreement, the Justice Department said.

Apple, Dell and Motorola were among the larger companies affected by the price fixing.

Sharp was the company who affected Apple directly as between September 2005 to December 2006 the company used Sharp displays in all iPods sold at the time.

UK based publication Stuff have recently had a chance to speak with Greg Joswiak Apple’s Vice President of iPod marketing. The interview with Joswiak focuses purely on the position of the iPod touch and iPhone in the gaming market.

Joswiak states that over 1,500 games are already available on the App Store for the iPod touch and iPhone and added that there is no need to buy discs or cartridges.

When asked if Apple could compete with the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP Joswiak explained that Apple had “tremendous strengths” and considers Apple to be a “big competitor in this market.”

CNET is reporting that a former IBM employee by the name of Mark Papermaster has accepted a job at Apple. The article is mainly targeted at a lawsuit which IBM has started against the former employer for joining Apple. Papermaster was IBM’s Vice President of Microprocessor technology but recently left his job and will start at Apple in November.

IBM is claiming that Papermaster is violating an employment agreement by joining Apple and that the ex-employee could divulge the companies trade secrets. Papermaster is considered a “top expert in Power architecture and technology”.

It is unknown why Apple has pursued Papermaster but CNET speculates that he could be vital to Apple’s plans to develop processors for the iPod touch and iPhone.

In an article from the New York Times on the Opera Software company it is revealed that Apple is not allowing the company to distribute a version of its web browser for the iPhone.

Mr. von Tetzchner said that Opera’s engineers have developed a version of Opera Mini that can run on an Apple iPhone, but Apple won’t let the company release it because it competes with Apple’s own Safari browser.

It is speculated that the decision has been made by Apple because the company doesn’t want applications available that compete with the pre-loaded apps.

Editors note: This article contains the opinions of the author

The blogs are a-buzz with the news that Psystar has incorporated Blu-Ray players into their OpenComputer line. Is this a big deal? Yes and no. Bottomline? Yawn.

First, commenters on various articles, such as one I wrote a few days ago, speak in somewhat misleading terms, though unintentionally so. The claim is made that Psystar has “integrated” Blu-Ray drives, or alternatively the claim is that the new model is Blu-Ray compatible. When we get down to brass tacks, this hinges on what is meant by “integrated” and “compatible.”

Integrated

Integrated into what? The actual hardware? Okay, yes, Psystar has produced a tower that has a Blu-Ray drive contained within it, but I would bet my biscuits that the Hackintosh community has already done this months ago. This frankly is not a huge deal. Why? It is not integrated where it counts: in the operating system itself. OS X does not support Blu-Ray. So while consumers may be able to use a product such as Toast 9 Titanium (please see my prior review here at World of Apple), to create Blu-Ray disks; they won’t be able to watch them on their Psystar computer. Doh!

Compatible

The question once again must be asked: compatible with what? It certainly isn’t compatible for playing Blu-Ray content on the operating system.

The Facts

Precisely two weeks ago, The Mac Observer announced that a Blu-Ray burner that can perform any task that the low-end Psystar can was already available from AMEX. It is not “integrated” into the tower but with its very attractive design and low profile, I doubt that matters much, particularly when Apple has the power to make whatever “integrated” players in Psystar machines difficult to operate if and when they offer Blu-Ray support. If Psystar wants to play hard-ball with Apple, the smart money is on Apple. Further, the fact that the AMEX player is not “integrated” means that not only can it be used with a user’s desktop system but also their laptop (including the MacBook Air). There is a reason that Apple has not yet put Blu-Ray drives into its machines, and I don’t know precisely why, but I am going to go out on a limb and venture a guess that Apple might know a teensy-weensy bit more than a couple of punks in Miami about why such a move is not yet ideal for their products. But hey, that’s just me.

So basically this is a tactical psychological move by Psystar that means very little to the market. Gullible people might be persuaded to purchase this system believing that it will do something that it cannot without realizing that they will need to have, at a minimum, $100.00 of additional software that still won’t even allow them to watch the content on their computer. Psystar is at the mercy of Apple for the operating system support, unless they intend upon modifying OS X code which might not be the most intelligent move for them to make. My personal opinion is that posturing that seems to be intentionally obnoxious and provocative are not particularly well-received by the courts when done during a pending case, so one part of me is pleased to see Psystar behave this way. Consumers may chuckle, but courts look at whether or not the parties are acting in good-faith to resolve their disputes. Obviously, I cannot know how this will be perceived by the Court in question, but I believe that Psystar is making a childish mistake and making unnecessary enemies. I am not only speaking of Apple but also many within the Apple community who might be potential future consumers but could be provoked to go out their way to attack the product. The Windows v. Macintosh wars are already legendary and the zeal with which Apple fans defend their beloved company goes above and beyond that of nearly any other company. Whether this defense is rational or not, a few trash-talking points is not worth waking that sleeping giant. Speaking as one unabashedly open Apple fangirl, they have earned my loathing, and I have not hidden that fact. Despite that, I believe when it comes to facts, rather than my own editorial opinion, I have been as accurate and unbiased as possible.

In short, this is about as exciting as Psystar announcing that it added a floppy drive. It is a barnyard cock-strutting move that at best does little to nothing to help consumers and at worst harms them by what is not obvious. Oops.

Apple has used its Hot News feed to publicly oppose proposition 8 which seeks to eliminate same-sex marriage in the state of California. Apple has also donated $100,000 to the “No on Prop 8″ campaign.

Apple is publicly opposing Proposition 8 and making a donation of $100,000 to the No on 8 campaign. Apple was among the first California companies to offer equal rights and benefits to our employees’ same-sex partners, and we strongly believe that a person’s fundamental rights — including the right to marry — should not be affected by their sexual orientation. Apple views this as a civil rights issue, rather than just a political issue, and is therefore speaking out publicly against Proposition 8.