World of Apple

iDisk

Apple has today announced that all .Mac members now have a simpler way to access iDisk Public folders, using a standard web browser. Entering the URL “idisk.mac.com/membername-Public” brings up a page with all the downloads available from that particular folder.

Friends and colleagues can also use the feature to upload files to your space, the folder can be password protected if you wish.

More info on the .Mac Blog

It appears that customers attempting to take part in Apple recent promotion of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers have been unable to receive the necessary codes to purchase tickets before pre-sales.

Some users reported today that they received codes just 30 minutes before the deadline but many others have not received there codes at all.

Apple has finally acknowledged the problem and in a support email indicated that they will be resending codes, but claimed that the codes were no guarantee for tickets.

“Tickets for the Red Hot Chili Peppers/iTunes pre-sale are available on a first-come, first-serve basis,” Apple wrote in response the ticket code problems. “Pre-sale codes are valid for only participating shows and are not a guarantee for tickets.” Apple also appeared to be deflecting any further questions to Ticketmaster.

As the problems have developed over today it appears that the problem is in hand, customers who have attempted to enter their codes have been unable to get them to work, Apple had previously said that the ticket promotion would be available until May 13.

The NBA and Apple have teamed up to bring the NBA 2006 Playoffs to the iTunes Music Store.

Inside the NBA by TNT, the awarding winning show.

15 to 20 minute recaps will be available for each of the Playoff games and during The Finals fans will be will be able to purchase complete game replays of every game the day after they air.

In addition to this TNT Sports will provide more than 15 Episodes of its Award-winning show featuring exclusive footage.

“We’re thrilled to be offering basketball fans this unique opportunity to follow NBA Playoffs on iTunes,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “With the new ‘Follow Your Team’ feature, fans automatically receive full game recaps of every game their favorite team plays from the Conference Semifinals through The Finals.”

Episodes of of “Inside the NBA on TNT” will be available for $8.99 while game recaps and The Finals replays will be available for $1.99 with 24 hours of the games conclusion.

Apple has today added Fox shows to the iTunes Music Store, 24, Prison Break, Unan1mous and Stacked have all been added to the store.

As well as the first seasons of Buffy, Slayer, Firefly and Lost in Space.

Jobs this morning spoke to the press and invited Apple Corps to join the digital music revolution.

“We are glad to put this disagreement behind us,” said Jobs. “We have always loved the Beatles, and hopefully we can now work together to get them on the iTunes Music Store.”

No one has officially spoken for Apple Corps, but the record label has guaranteed an appeal.

Apple’s senior vice president, general counsel and secretary Nancy Heinen has left the company. Heinen is the third exec to leave since March when Jon Rubenstein and Avie Tevanian left the company.

The terms of departure are unknown but the exec sold more than $7.5 million in Apple shares which she acquired in 2003. Apple have confirmed the departure but failed to name a replacement.

AppleInsider is reporting that the Intel based computers are unlikely to show up on Tuesday as reported by many other online sites.

The rumour site believes that manufacturing was ramped up over the last week but still seems to think its unlikely that Apple will release the notebook.

The site is reporting that iPods will also be updated later this month, it is unknown which line will be updated but speculation points towards the iPod shuffle, even though it has been recently reported that sales of the iPod shuffle had increased recently.

Today Mr Justice Edward Mann ruled that the computer firm used the apple logo in association with its store, not the music, so no breach was present.

The Beatles’ label had wanted the High Court to award damages and stop Apple Computer form using the logo on its iTunes Music Store.

During the case last month lawyers defending the Beatles’ record label had gone through the process of buying a song on the iTunes Music Store to show how much the logo was used.

[Update] As more details of the case are revealed it appears that Apple Corps intends to appeal the decision made today in London.

The BBC has ongoing coverage, but of interest it has now published some quotes from the Judges deliberation on the case:

The iPod and iTunes do not breach the trademark because they are merely ways of conveying music and nothing to do with the creation of the music itself, Mr Justice Edward Mann ruled at London’s High Court.

Mr Justice Mann said iTunes was “a form of electronic shop” and the presence of the Apple Computer logo on the service did not suggest “a relevant connection with the creative work”.

In considering this latest development, High Court judge Mr Justice Mann said the new clash followed shortcomings in Apple Corps and Apple Computer’s 1991 agreement.

He said: “If their intention… was to create obscurity and difficulty for lawyers to debate in future years, they have succeeded handsomely.”

[Update 2] The full judgement is now available in PDF format.

The advert was first shown last night on American TV, the Mac web has been buzzing for most of the day as no signs of the ad had appeared on Apple’s website.

iPod + iTunes Advert featuring the song Love Train by WolfMother

It appears Apple has now posted the ad to its website.

Filed back in November of 2004 and granted just yesterday the patent refers to “an audio user interface that generates audio prompts that help a user interact with a user interface of a device is disclosed. One aspect of the present invention pertains to techniques for providing the audio user interface by efficiently leveraging the computing resources of a host computer system. The relatively powerful computing resources of the host computer can convert text strings into audio files that are then transferred to the computing device. The host system performs the process intensive text-to-speech conversion so that a computing device, such as a hand-held device, only needs to perform the less intensive task of playing the audio file. The computing device can be, for example, a media player such as an MP3 player, a mobile phone, or a personal digital assistant.”

Field of Invention

illustrates a diagrammatic view of a media player and its associated set of nested menus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates generally to voice generation and, more specifically, to voice generation for computing devices.

Background and Abstracts

In order to achieve portability, many hand-held devices use user interfaces that present various display screens to the user for interaction that is predominantly visual. Users can interact with the user interfaces to manipulate a scroll wheel and/or a set of buttons to navigate display screens to thereby access functions of the hand-held devices. However, these user interfaces can be difficult to use at times for various reasons. One reason is that the display screens tend to be small in size and form factor and therefore difficult to see. Another reason is that a user may have poor reading vision or otherwise be visually impaired. Even if the display screens can be perceived, a user will have difficulty navigating the user interface in “eyes-busy” situations when a user cannot shift visual focus away from an important activity and towards the user interface. Such activities include, for example, driving an automobile, exercising, and crossing a street.

illustrates a process for creating audio files at a host computer system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

The invention is preferably implemented by software, but can also be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and software. The invention can also be embodied as computer readable code on a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium is any data storage device that can store data, which can thereafter be read by a computer system. Examples of the computer readable medium include read-only memory, random-access memory, CD-ROMs, DVDs, magnetic tape, optical data storage devices, and carrier waves. The computer readable medium can also be distributed over network-coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.