Well, here’s a nice data point to consider in advance of Palm’s earnings tomorrow. The company’s Pre App Catalog, which has been widely criticized for its paltry selection, just reached one million downloads.
YouTube may be losing money, but it’s not losing nearly as much as some claim. Certainly not the $470 million that Credit Suisse projected in April, citing massive infrastructure costs. According to IT research outfit RampRate, a more realistic assessment of YouTube’s operating loss for 2009 is $174 million, nearly $300 million less than Credit Suisse’s estimate.
Palm’s Pre is the first non-Apple device to successfully link with iTunes in years. And it may also be the last. On Tuesday, Apple issued an advisory warning that it does not support iTunes integration with third-party digital media players.
Apple claims that Safari 4 is “the world’s fastest” Web browser. That may or may not be true, but certainly its speedy market share gains are impressive, particularly among Windows users. Apple said Friday that more than 11 million copies of the new browser have been downloaded in the first three days of its release, including more than six million downloads by Windows users.
Palm picked a hell of a day to launch the Pre. Two days before Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference. Two days before the unveiling of the iPhone 3G S, a new version of Apple’s iconic handset that runs twice as fast as its predecessor, shoots video with an improved three megapixel camera and boasts longer battery life and greater storage. And worst of all, two days prior to the announcement of a new $99 price point for the iPhone 3G, a disruptive move that puts the device in reach of far more consumers.
Apple rolled out updates to QuickTime and iTunes on Monday, presumably as preface to iPhone 3.0. Included in iTunes 8.2 are “many accessibility improvements and bug fixes.” Just what Apple means by that is unclear, although one wonders if it might be a clever euphemism for the Palm Pre’s recently disclosed Media Sync feature, which allows the device to synchronize seamlessly with iTunes, essentially by masquerading as an iPod.
View the iTunes Video Store on Your iPhone 
It’s 4:00 PM on the Friday before a long weekend, so I’ll make this short.
This URL, or or this one, will take you to the skeleton version of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone iTunes Video store. It appears to work in iPhone 2.2 and the 3.0 beta.
UPDATE: That was fast. Apple’s disabled access via both URLs.
(Thanks Boctor)
Welcome back to Weekend Update, where we showcase some of the highlights from this site over the past week. In the umpteenth round of the old versus new media match, the Associated Press in its annual meeting this week played into the stereotype of the grizzled no-nonsense editor who shakes his fist at the new interweb thing (or was it intertube?) and its feisty friend, Google News, who are running amok on his lawn.
April 7. That’s when the 99-cent-per-song rate that iTunes first set in 2003 will finally end, says the LA Times. On that day–and not April 1 as Apple originally claimed–the company will introduce a new tiered-pricing plan that will see it peddling songs for 69 cents, 99 cents, and $1.29, according to popularity.
Reports that Apple is developing a new touchscreen device are picking up traction and credibility. In the past few days, claims made in a Chinese-language financial newspaper have been reinforced first by Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal and now by Reuters as well. Consensus seems to be that Apple has ordered 10-inch touchscreens from Wintek and that those screens are destined for an entirely new device. Netbook is the word most often bandied about for it. But might it be an e-book reader?
A song purchased from iTunes or Amazon is no different from one bought from a brick-and-mortar retail outlet, despite the vast differences in the economies of distribution between the two. That, in a nutshell, was the jury verdict handed down in a case brought by rapper Eminem’s former production company, FBT Productions, against Universal Music Group.
A two-year-old lawsuit against Universal Music Group over digital music royalties finally landed in court this week and its outcome could have a profound effect on the digital music business. Filed by rapper Eminem’s former production company, FBT Productions, the suit accuses Universal of underpaying artists for sales of their work through online services like iTunes, and seeks about $1.3 million in unpaid royalties.
They believe they created MTV, and will say they revived Apple.”
– Dave Goldberg, former general manager of Yahoo Music, on music industry hubris
Super Bowl XLIII is nearly upon us with ads in tow, and since there’s never been as much video, connectivity or interactivity as there is right now, the whole thing is shaping up to be quite the Web 2.0 extravaganza. From YouTube to Twitter to Facebook and beyond, here’s your guide to all the digital venues available to view, vote on and even interact with this year’s lineup of ad campaigns.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
Includes “Pigs in a Polka,” “Rabbit of Seville” and, of course, “What’s Opera, Doc?”
Take the famous ballads and duets of West Side Story, insert a dozen mentions of famous social media sites like twitter and facebook, and this is what you get.
An iPod mini rebuilt with a wooden case
Star Wars meets Magnum, P.I.
Music videos recreated with new lyrics based on what’s actually happening in them. Daydream Believer and Total Eclipse of the Heart are particularly good.
In response to numerous e-mails, I have no idea what planet the giant alien creature is from. Judging from its enormous gills, I’d have to guess it’s from a watery planet. Reminder: please let me know if you plan to be in the office on Memorial Day so I can request HVAC for your floor.
For those of you who mock the wolf shirt beware. There is an old Navajo story about a young man who made fun of another man for wearing a wolf trio shirt. Legend has it that in his sleep, the wolves on the other man’s shirt came to life and tore his body to shreds. They never found any part of that man’s body. The Wolf is something to be respected and feared, not treated like a novelty.
Hands down the most inexplicably bizarre game for Wii I’ve ever seen
Yo mama is so attractive she could be on the cover of Prevention.
The inspiration for this project was to determine who could generate the worst flatulence measurable in a personally unbiased manner.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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