MacRumors

Guardian.co.uk reports on BBC announcements about their iPlayer streaming television service, including usage stats. Amongst the announcements, however, is also the tidbit that the BBC will be launching their iPlayer service to be available on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices in "the next few weeks".

There are surprisingly few details about this iPhone version of the BBC's iPlayer. The BBC's iPlayer currently comes in two flavors: a web streaming version as well as a Windows-only downloadable version.

TheRegister.co.uk claims that this means that the BBC will be transcoding their shows from Flash into H.264 video just as Youtube has, and also claims the iPhone iPlayer will be Wi-Fi only and that the BBC has a deal with hotspot provider The Cloud to offer free access to bbc.co.uk and iPlayer. While the "next few week" timeframe corresponds to the scheduled release of the iPhone SDK, it's never explicitly stated that this version of the iPlayer will be a dedicated player. A DigitalSpy.co.uk article even notes that it is possible only "because of the devices' good web support", suggesting it may simply be a specially designed web portal.

Meanwhile, PocketGamer.co.uk posts photos from a Gameloft keynote speech in which an iPhone game is depicted. The image may simply be a mockup, however, rather than an actual peek at an upcoming iPhone game.

Apple has posted MacBook, MacBook Pro Keyboard Firmware Update 1.0, which aims to address some keyboard issues some users may have been experiencing.

This MacBook and MacBook Pro firmware update addresses an issue where the first key press may be ignored if the computer has been sitting idle. It also addresses some other issues.

The update package will install an updater application into the Applications/Utilities folder and will launch it automatically. Please follow the instructions in the updater application to complete the update process.

Apple issued a software update for its portables that experienced different keyboard issues under Mac OS 10.5 earlier this year.

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Jon Lech Johansen ("DVD Jon") launched DoubleTwist today, a venture that was originally reported back in October 2006. DVD Jon originally gained notoriety (and his nickname) for his involvement in releasing the DeCSS software that allowed the bypassing of DVD copy protection. Since then, he has made headlines with the release of QTFairUse which decoded Apple's FairPlay digital rights system for iTunes.

The early reports about DoubleTwist suggested that DVD Jon had reverse engineered Apple's FairPlay copy protection and planned on licensing it to other companies. Today's launch, however, is a much different product.

DoubleTwist states its mission is to "enable consumers to enjoy their digital media on the widest possible range of devices." To that end, DoubleTwist has introduced a free product called doubleTwist desktop which allows users to sync and share media between different devices, handling the necessary format conversions transparently.

With digital media such as video from a friends cell phone or your own iTunes playlists, its a jungle out there. It can be an hour-long exercise in futility to convert files to the correct format and transfer them to your Sony PSP or your phone
...
Our goal is to provide a simple and well integrated solution that the average consumer can use to eliminate the headaches associated with their expanding digital universe.

CNet describes how the software works:

When a device is plugged into a PC (Windows XP and Vista only right now, Mac OS X coming soon), DoubleTwist launches and recognizes all the media files on the device. Any file can be selected, dragged, and dropped into DoubleTwist to be synched up to a separate device, or shared with other users you've "friended" who also use DoubleTwist.

According to Cnet, DoubleTwist will also import and convert protected AACs (purchased iTunes songs) into MP3s so they will be playable by other devices. The official DoubleTwist site appears to downplay this functionality, only listing mp3, aac/m4a, wma, and wav amongst supported audio formats. Statements by DoubleTwist's founder, however, confirm that the software will do this, but is only capable of converting songs that you are authorized to play.

A Mac OS X client and iPhone web-app are expected in Q2 2008, and the software is free.

Linkin Park band member Mike Shinoda posted yesterday (via AppleInsider) that the band would be participating in "a special show that were doing in NYC in conjunction with apple."

Apple has been rumored to be planning a press event to take place within the next week or so that will likely focus on the iPhone and iPod Touch's SDK.

Apple often invites performers to play at its launch events, however Shinoda does not give much information as to what the event entails so there is a possibility that the booking may be totally unrelated to the rumored press event.

Along with the announcements today of the iPod Shuffle capacity bumps and XSan 2, some users are realizing that Apple's Xserve RAID solution has completely disappeared from Apple's online store.

In addition, the Xserve RAID product page (http://www.apple.com/xserve/raid/) now redirects to http://www.apple.com/server/storage/, which promotes a 3U external RAID enclosure by Promise. Apple has added the Promise RAID solution to its store and now presents it as the external RAID choice when configuring an Xserve.

External Storage
For massive storage needs, connect a Promise VTrak E-Class Fiber Channel RAID subsystem to your Xserve. The VTrak E-Class provides high performance and high availability through 4Gb Fiber Channel and dual active/active controllers. An Apple Fibre Channel card for connectivity is required.

Apple has dropped the price of the iPod Shuffle to $49 (from $79) today. The $49 iPod Shuffle stores 1GB of songs or up to 240 songs in 128-Kbps AAC format. Meanwhile, a new 2GB model has also been introduced at $69.

"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 Shuffle is still available in the same colors: silver, blue, green, purple and red. The 2GB model won't be available until later this month.

In case there were any doubts that Apple was exploring the use of advanced multitouch gestures under Mac OS X, a recent Apple patent application authored by Wayne Westerman (of Fingerworks) shows mockups of a Mac OS X gesturing control panel with options to configure standard trackpad, basic multitouch, and advanced multitouch settings:

Apple's notebooks already contain what we presume to be "basic multitouch" with two-finger scroll, rotate, and zoom, but "advanced multitouch" has not yet been seen in shipping products.

The patent application depicts how one could customize these advanced gestures for Expose and Dashboard, by using four finger swipes up/down/left/right:

File operations, such as Open, New, Save and Close using gestures based on your Thumb and Forefinger:

And even editing operations such as Copy, Cut, Paste, Undo, Select All, Tab, and Cancel using gestures based on your Thumb and Two Fingers:

They also claim to be able to distinguish between various combinations of fingers, including adjacent and non-adjacent finger presses. In particular, they point out that the pinky finger when applied sideways to the trackpad (as in the bottom of a fist) generates a unique pattern and could be used for its own customizable functionality: such as adjusting volume or putting the computer to sleep.

Over the past few years, numerous multitouch patent applications have been revealed Apple's ongoing work on gesture computing. Apple has been making small and steady steps at introducing the multitouch interface -- first in the iPhone, and now in the MacBook Air. Apple is expected to expand this basic multitouch functionality to the remainder of their notebook product line.

With the introduction of the new iTunes rental system, the 24 hour time limit on rentals has raised concerns about the inability to rent a movie one night and finish at the same time the following night.

When you rent a movie on iTunes, you have 30 days to start watching the movie before it expires. Once you start watching it, however, you only have a 24 hour window before it expires. Tidbits' Mark Boszko explored the limits of this 24 hour rental window, and how Apple deals with this 24 hour expiration. Boszko tested various scenarios and found the following under iTunes:

- Watched a rental movie (to start the 24 hour clock), then started watching it again about 30 minutes prior to the end of the 24 hour window. The movie continued to play to the end beyond the 24 hour rental window.
- If you try to exit the movie once it has passed the 24 hour window, you will be greeted with a dialog that tells you if you don't finish watching the movie, it will be deleted.
- If you pause a movie before the 24 hour expiration arrives, you can still resume it after the window passes.*
- If you are watching past the 24 hour window, and try to pause the movie, you are told you must finish watching it or delete the movie.

While these tests were performed in iTunes, others have found the same behavior on iPods and Apple TVs. Based on these findings, it appears that a movie can be started one night and then finished the following night without concern about running into the 24hr expiration.

*The exact length of the "pause window" is not known, but it appears it may eventually timeout and expire the movie.

As predicted, the BBC has added their television programs to iTunes UK. Accessible through UK iTunes:

BBC Worldwide brings iTunes users in the UK the best of British TV programmes from the BBC. Our programmes are exciting, compelling, passionate, provocative, bold, unpredictable and moving, and include some of the best comedy -- Little Britain, The Catherine Tate Show and Two Pints of Lager & a Packet of Crisps -- and a fantastic selection of contemporary drama, including Torchwood, Spooks and Life on Mars, all available to download now. New titles will be added regularly, including top-quality documentary series and brand-new drama and comedy

Shows are priced at 1.89 per episode and are still being added to. Apple's UK Hot News also lists Robin Hood and Ashes to Ashes amongst the available shows. They also specify that the newest episodes will be available for for purchase and download eight days after they are screened on TV.

Mtron announced today that they have developed a 128GB 1.8" solid state drive (SSD) with a ZIF-type interface that is due to ship in April 2008.

Mtrons new SSD with Single Level Cell (SLC) Flash memory supports PATA (ZIF-type) interface and has a maximum reading speed of 120MB/s and writing speed of 100MB/s, which is more than 6 times faster than the current 1.8 inch HDD. Therefore when its used in laptop PC and UMPC, it delivers much faster performance than desktop. Mtron also released 1.8 Inch SSD with Multi Level Cell (MLC) Flash memory, which provides maximum memory capacity of up to 128 GB along with a maximum reading speed of 110 MB/s and writing speed of 40MB/s.

Mtron touts the ability of the SSD drive to withstand shock, vibration and consume nearly 50% less power than a conventional hard drive.

The introduction of this 1.8" SSD drive raises the maximum capacity of the MacBook Air, which is currently limited to 80GB due to physical size constraints. This SSD drive would have to come in a 5mm height to fit in the Air, but this dimension is not specified in the press release. Pricing is also not specified and SSD drives typically carry a much higher premium than traditional hard drives.

Digitimes reports that Intel is poised to launch the Montevina platform at Computex Taipei 2008, which takes place from June 3-7, 2008.

Montevina is the next revision to Intel's mobile platform and will carry the consumer brand "Centrino 2" to distiguish it from the current "Centrino" brand which has encompassed a number of revisions (Carmel, Sonoma, Napa and Santa Rosa).

Six new 45nm notebook CPUs accompanying the release will feature a 1066MHz Front Side Bus with clock speeds ranging from 2.26-3.06GHz. The recently released Penryn processors range from 2.1 to 2.8GHz and offer a 800MHz Front Side Bus. The Penryn processors have not yet been incorporated into Apple's notebook line, despite persistent rumors of an imminent release.

Meanwhile, Digitimes also notes that Intel is planning on releasing 45-nm processors similar to the MacBook Air's custom processor in the 3rd quarter of this year.

Apple announced today that they have partnered with Fox Broadcasting Company to provide performances from Season 7 of the American Idol show on iTunes one day after airing:

"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, Apples vice president of iTunes. "We think 'American Idol' viewers are going to love the ability to purchase and download 'Idol' performances from iTunes."

Music will be available for $.99 and video for $1.99. American Idol is a popular U.S. television singing competition reality series.

Reuters is relaying reports from Asia that Toshiba will cease production and development of HD DVD players, essentially abandoning the platform.

Toshiba had been the single largest proponent of HD DVD hardware. Earlier this year Warner announced it would support Blu-ray exclusively, which gave Blu-ray an overwhelming majority of studio support. With recent conversions by Netflix and Wal-Mart to Blu-ray-only stock, key elements to the end of the format war are in place: content, hardware, and distribution.

Apple has been a member of the Blu-ray consortium's board of directors since 2005, but has not publicly announced their Blu-ray plans. It is likely that Apple's hesitation about releasing any Blu-ray products has been at least partially due to the ongoing format war.