MacRumors

The ongoing spat between Apple and Adobe over Flash technology took another interesting turn over the past month as the new MacBook Air became Apple's first Mac to ship without Flash Player pre-installed. A review from Ars Technica noted that the battery life of the small notebook took a significant hit when browsing the Web with Flash Player installed, leading Adobe Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch to observe that it takes more power to display Flash content than it does to not display it, and claim that HTML5 content of a similar nature to that presented in Flash would use just as much or more power.

According to Engadget, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen yesterday noted that the key to conserving battery life lies in hardware acceleration, and reported that the company currently has a version of Flash Player optimized for the new MacBook Air in testing.

He said it's really all about optimizing for silicon: "When we have access to hardware acceleration, we've proven that Flash has equal or better performance on every platform." You wouldn't be blamed for thinking that sentence a cop-out, but that's actually not the case -- the chief executive says they've presently got a Macbook Air in the labs and have an optimized beta of Flash for the device presently in testing.

Apple revised its policies earlier this year to allow for hardware-accelerated decoding of H.264 video by third-party developers on select graphics cards, including the NVIDIA GeForce 320M that is included in the new MacBook Air. Following a period of beta testing, Adobe released an updated version of Flash Player 10.1 in mid-August to officially bring hardware acceleration to a number of Mac models.

Back in September, Google announced that it would be bringing the ability to edit Google Docs on the iPad and Android platforms.

Today, the company announced that it has followed through on that promise and even included support for the iPhone and iPod touch, bringing Google Docs editing to iOS devices running iOS 3.0 or later, as well as Android 2.2+ devices.

With Google Docs, we're always trying to make you more productive - and part of that means making it possible for you to get things done from anywhere, at anytime. That's why we're excited that the new documents editor now supports editing on your mobile browser. We're rolling this out over the next few days.

Google has also posted a video showing off how the mobile editing feature works. The feature will be English-only during the initial rollout, but support for other languages will be coming in the future.

A pair of reports issued yesterday and today are shedding some light on the behind-the-scenes negotiations that finally led to The Beatles' catalog finally coming to the iTunes Store yesterday.

Billboard reports that the multi-year holdup in bringing The Beatles to iTunes was in large part a result of squabbling between record label EMI and Beatles holding company Apple Corps, neither of which had the sole power to reach a deal for digital distribution of Beatles content.

Much of the impasse was between Apple Corps and EMI. Although EMI has the rights to exploit the Beatles catalog under an existing agreement with Apple Corps, there was enough ambiguity in the deal that EMI was not free to fully negotiate in the digital realm as it would have liked.

"Apple Corp and EMI had some major issues to work through with respect to the granting of rights to exploit the master recordings that the Beatles gave EMI," a source with knowledge of the relationship says. "EMI would never be in the business of doing something against the wishes of the Beatles."

The stalemate was reportedly broken by EMI's new head of recorded music Roger Faxon, who made bringing The Beatles to iTunes one of his top priorities. On the other side, Apple Corps' Jeff Jones, who took over the reigns of the company in 2007, has also been credited with bringing a fresh willingness to negotiate to the table.

While Billboard's report notes that Apple is assumed to have paid a "substantial" advance to EMI to obtain The Beatles' catalog, a report from The New York Post claims that no such such upfront payment was made to EMI as part of the deal.

The New York Post's article also reports that Google and Amazon were pitching to obtain the digital distribution rights for The Beatles' catalog, but that Apple offered the other parties involved the best deal.

Google and Amazon were also pitching to secure the Beatles rights for their own digital music stores, according to industry sources.

In the end, Apple's iTunes, which remains the dominant digital music store, offered the Beatles the best deal despite the previous bad blood between the two entities, sources said.

The Beatles are currently making a strong showing in Apple's lists of top iTunes Store sellers, with over 60 of the group's songs currently ranked on the Top 200 Songs list and all 17 of the album/box set releases ranking among the top 50 albums.

When the iPad was first announced, one of the most exciting aspects of the device was that developers now had a large multi-touch platform to develop cool new apps. In particular, the possibility of DJ applications with multi-touch scratching and mixing captured some people's imaginations, but for a number of reasons those full-fledged apps never really arrived.

The primary reason is that the iPad has been stuck on iOS 3.2 which offers far fewer audio-related options than the 4.x build. But with the imminent release of iOS 4.2, at least one developer is going to finally deliver a full featured iPad DJ app. We've learned that Algoriddim, the makers of the popular djay application for Mac, has ported djay over to the iPad, taking full advantage of the new iOS 4.2 audio features.

These iOS 4.2-specific features coming in djay for iPad include:

- Full access to iPod library
- Multi-tasking: you can run djay in Automix mode and listen to a continuous, seamless mix running in the background while you surf the web, play games, etc.
- AirPlay: you can wirelessly stream your mix to your Apple TV or AirPort Express station in real-time.
- Fully leverages accelerated CPU extensions (SSE-like) for high-quality audio processing and analysis
- Very low latency (< 3 msec)
- Background audio playback (multi-tasking support)
- Pre-Cueing (via mono/stereo adapter)

The following exclusive video shows the iPad app in action:

Algoriddim describes the video:

As you can see, djay for iPad analyzes 2 tracks in parallel (BPM detection, beat grids, etc), *while* drawing the waveforms *and* playing / processing 2 tracks in real-time (minimal latency) *and* smoothly rendering graphics (*and* possibly recording the output to storage memory) *and* possibly sharing via AirPlay!

djay for iPad will be carrying over most of the features from the Mac version including BPM syncing, Automix, Automatic transitions, Speed and Pitch changes, and EQ / Gain settings. In fact, Algoriddim tells us that the iPad version will be technically superior to the Mac version in many ways and currently performs better in some aspects. The iPad version is expected to be available in the App Store shortly after iOS 4.2 becomes available. iOS 4.2 is expected by the end of November and they've set up a teaser page to sign up for a notification of the release.

Apple today announced that it has added Ronald Sugar, former Chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman, to its Board of Directors, where he will also serve as Chair of the Audit and Finance Committee.

"Ron is an engineer at heart, who then became a very successful business leader. We are very excited to welcome him to Apples Board," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "In addition to having been the CEO of a high-tech Fortune 100 company, Ron has a Ph.D. in engineering and has been involved in the development of some very sophisticated technology."

"I have always had enormous admiration for the people of Apple," said Sugar. "It is a special privilege to serve on the board of such an amazing company."

Sugar also currently serves as a director at Chevron, Amgen, and Air Lease Corporation.

Apple had been operating with only six directors since March 2010 after Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple's board in August 2009 and Jerry York passed away earlier this year.

NVIDIA today announced the release of the Quadro 4000 for Mac graphics card, bringing the company's cutting-edge Fermi architecture to Apple's Mac Pro professional workstation hardware.

NVIDIA announced today the expansion of its award-winning line of NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics solutions to the Mac platform, bringing the computational and visualization breakthroughs enabled by NVIDIA Fermi architecture to Mac Pro users.

For professional users operating on Mac OS X Snow Leopard, this means the wait is over. The NVIDIA Quadro 4000 graphics processing unit (GPU) for Mac is optimized to accelerate workflows and drive a range of top professional applications.

Offering 256 CUDA processing cores and 2 GB of GDDR5 memory, the Quadro 4000 for Mac is capable of processing 890 million triangles per second. System requirements include Mac OS X 10.6.5 running on a 2008, 2009, or 2010 Mac Pro, and the card carries a suggested retail price of $1,199. It will be available beginning "this month" from Apple and other authorized retailers.

Google today announced that its official Google Voice [App Store] application for the iPhone is now available.

With this native app, you'll continue to have access to all the major Google Voice features on your iPhone, like:

- Cheap rates for international calls
- Free text messaging to U.S. numbers
- Voicemail transcription
- Display your Google Voice number as caller ID when making calls

In addition to these benefits, the app provides some features that make using Google Voice on your iPhone a much better experience:

- With push notifications, the app will alert you instantly when you receive a new voicemail or text message
- Most of your calls will be placed via Direct Access Numbers, making them connect just as quickly as regular phone calls

After Apple tweaked its review guidelines for the App Store back in September, it began accepting Google Voice-related applications, and the company reportedly approved the official Google application late that month, but it has not been available until today.

Google and Apple famously squared off over the Google Voice application, with Google claiming that Apple had rejected the application, citing duplication of the core functionality of the iPhone, while Apple claimed that it had merely not made a decision on the application, leaving it limbo for over a year.

Ahead of Apple's planned announcement scheduled for about half an hour from now that has been expected to see content from The Beatles finally come to the iTunes Store, that content has already gone live. The offerings are headed by The Beatles Box Set, offering a total of 256 songs and other items, including iTunes LP mini-documentary features and a video of the band's first U.S. concert, all for $149.00.

Individual albums featuring enhanced iTunes LP content are also available, with the majority of them priced at $12.99 and a few others including "The White Album" and several greatest hits collections available for $19.99. Songs are generally also available on a per-track basis priced at $1.29 each.

Update: Apple has now updated its homepage to reflect availability of The Beatles' catalog on iTunes, and issued a press release about the release.

Apple Corps, EMI and Apple today announced that the Beatles, the most influential and beloved rock band in music history, are now available for the first time on the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com). Starting today, the group's 13 legendary remastered studio albums with iTunes LPs, the two-volume "Past Masters" compilation and the classic "Red" and "Blue" collections are available for purchase and download on iTunes worldwide as either albums or individual songs. Fans can also get a special digital "Beatles Box Set" featuring the "Live at the Washington Coliseum, 1964" concert film, a worldwide iTunes exclusive which captures the Beatles' very first US concert.

Apple has also posted a dedicated page on its site highlighting The Beatles and offering video streams of new ads promoting the release and footage of the Washington Coliseum concert.

Update 2: According to All Things Digital, Apple has exclusivity on digital distribution of The Beatles' catalog "into 2011".

The big news of the day has been Apple's iTunes-related announcement scheduled for tomorrow, and one of the rumors that has been gaining traction in the hours since the news broke is that Apple may finally have struck a deal to bring The Beatles to the iTunes Store.

For starters, the sources in the past that quashed any rumors of an impending Beatles launch are today very quiet, and strangely so. Next is the wording of the teaser on Apple's website. The first line is, "Tomorrow is just another day." As noted earlier, "Another Day" is a Paul McCartney song released on his solo record "Ram," but written during the Beatles' "Let it Be" sessions.

Also, for those into hunting for more clues, Apple's teaser page features four clocks, each with the arms in different positions, (denoting the time of the announcement in California, New York, London and Tokyo time zones). Pretty unnecessary unless you compare it to the cover of the Beatles' "Help!" album, featuring all four members side by side with their arms also in different positions.

The report from Billboard hints at other reasons may finally be the day that The Beatles come to iTunes, although it is unable to share all of its information.

The rumor of course leads some to question whether such an announcement would be worthy of a hype-filled front-page teaser on Apple.com, but there is no special media event accompanying tomorrow's announcement, and it is unclear if any other news besides The Beatles would be included if it is indeed in the works.

On one final note, MacRumors yesterday did receive an unconfirmed tip that The Beatles would be coming to the iTunes Store on Wednesday, November 17th. Such unconfirmed rumors are not uncommon (although things have been relatively quiet with regards to The Beatles since the lead-up to Apple's September 1st music-focused media event) and this one included no details we could use to follow-up or verify, but perhaps is worth noting in light of today's events.

Update: The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times are now confirming that Apple has in fact finally struck a deal with The Beatles and their rights owners and is preparing to announce that The Beatles' music will soon be available in the iTunes Store.

Speculation and rumors regarding tomorrow's iTunes-related announcement are continuing to come in from all directions, and the latest bit of speculation relies on some bits of information pulled out of the iTunes 10.1 release from last Friday to suggest that Apple might be looking to launch some kind of "iTunes Live Stream" service. Details on what exactly the service might be, however, remain sketchy.

The Apple Lounge reports [Google translation] that translation entries in a property list file included with iTunes 10.1 contain references to an "iTunes Live Stream URL" that appears to be a type of file or service that could be handled by iTunes. This reference is new in iTunes 10.1.

Meanwhile, as noted in a series of Tweets from @dustinrue, other references to "iTunes Live Stream URL" in iTunes 10.1 files suggest the ability to handle "itls" as a URI scheme in much the same way that iTunes uses "itms" to handle requests to connect to the iTunes Store.

As noted, however, it is unclear what iTunes Live Stream actually is, with speculation ranging from live streaming of existing television content to something more along the lines of user-generated streams of live video or audio content.

Apple has been testing some aspects of live video streaming in recent months, rolling out its own HTTP Live Streaming technology based on open standards to deliver live video of its September and October media events. And with the company's new data center in North Carolina set to open by the end of the year, the company would seem to have ample backend capacity for such technology to be deployed on a broader scale.

The speculation remains, however, merely guesses about whether the new hints included in iTunes 10.1 are related to Apple's announcement tomorrow and what exactly those hints might mean.

Update: It appears that the localization translation evidence may have been first published by Consomac.

With Apple's teaser posted today regarding an "exciting" iTunes-related announcement scheduled for tomorrow, there has been a considerable amount of speculation about what exactly the company is planning to reveal.

One of the most popular topics of discussion for some time now has been a cloud-based iTunes that would allow users to have their purchased iTunes Store content hosted on Apple's servers and streamed to Internet-connected devices rather than having to manage local content libraries on each machine or on a user's home network. Another popular rumor dating back many years is a subscription-based music service that would allow users to pay a monthly fee to be able to listen to an entire catalog of music.

But according to All Things Digital, both of these possibilities appear unlikely given the lack of any inside reports of new contracts with major music labels that would be required for such plans.

But the music industry sources I've talked to so far today don't know of any new deals between Apple and the big music labels. So that would rule out a new subscription service, which would definitely require a new rights deal.

And that also makes it very unlikely that Apple does the next best thing: Letting users upload their iTunes catalog to the cloud, and letting them access it anywhere they want.

The report notes that Apple could try to announce such services without deals in place, but that Apple would likely not be interested in antagonizing content providers with such a move as it continues to try bring them on board with its digital initiatives.

Apple today updated its homepage with an announcement teasing a major iTunes-related announcement to be made tomorrow at 10:00 AM Eastern time.

Tomorrow is just another day.
That you'll never forget.

Check back here tomorrow for an exciting announcement from iTunes.

There have been no specific hints as to what the announcement might entail, but Apple has of course long been rumored to be moving to a cloud-based iTunes where users' music would be stored on Apple's servers and streamed to a variety of Internet-connected devices. Apple has also been rumored to be working on a subscription-based music service that would complement the existing pay-per-download service.

Either of those services could be supported by Apple's massive new data center in North Carolina that is set to go online by the end of the year.

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is taking a close look at the proposed deal between cable giant Comcast and film and television company NBC Universal, reportedly looking to impose restrictions on what would be a Comcast-controlled NBC company that would prevent it from favoring Comcast's online video distribution services over those of third parties such as Apple's iTunes Store and Netflix.

Few observers expect either the Justice Department or the Federal Communications Commission to block outright the roughly $13.75 billion deal to purchase 51% of NBC Universal from General Electric Co. One reason: Because the two companies aren't direct competitors, it's harder to mount an antitrust challenge.

Both agencies, however, are likely to impose significant conditions to prevent Comcast from withholding, or threatening to withhold, NBC Universal's programming from competitors, including companies that distribute TV shows and movies over the Internet, such as Apple Inc. and Netflix Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

NBC and Apple have had a rocky relationship in the past, with the two companies facing off in a pricing dispute that saw the iTunes Store stop offering downloads of new NBC shows in the fall 2007 season and not resume offering new content until a year later.

More recently, NBC declined to join Apple's pilot program to allow TV show rentals for 99 cents, with NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker claiming that such a move would "devalue" the network's content.