MacRumors

Apple has added frameworks for a number of new shows from different networks on the iTunes Music Store. At the time of this posting, most of listings did not have shows available for download, but the following pages have appeared in iTunes:

The N - South of Nowhere (Season 1)
SOAPnet - Soapography (Season 1)
Nickelodeon - SpongeBob SquarePants (Season 1), Dora the Explorer (Season 1), Zoey 101
MTV - Beavis and Butt-Head, Laguna Beach, Wonder Showzen, Gauntlet 2, My Super Sweet 16 (Season 1-2), Jackass, Punk'd (Season 1-3)
Comedy Central - South Park (Season 1-2), Drawn Together (Season 1-2), Best of Comedy Central Stand-Up
ABC Family - Wildfire (Season 1-2)

As previously noted, Disney has also included a number of new short films as well.

Update: The Munsters and The A-Team were also recently added.

Intel announced today that they had made a 45nm chip using new techniques:

The fingernail-sized memory chip is etched with 1 billion transistors that are only 45 nanometers wide -- about 1,000 times smaller than a red blood cell, said Mark Bohr, a leading Intel engineer.

Intel's recent release of the Core Duo processors feature processors made with a 65nm process. The smaller chip making process typically increases clock speeds and decreases costs and power consumption. Plans for the production of the 45nm chips are targeted for the second half of 2007.

Meanwhile, Apple's former chip-partner, IBM, had previously announced a partnership with Toppan Printing Co Ltd to jointly develop a 45-nm chip making process for production by mid-2007.

ThinkSecret claims that sales of Apple's new Intel iMac are "lower than Apple expected". Meanwhile, sales of PowerPC-based iMacs and PowerBooks have reportedly dropped off considerably.

This is in contrast to comments made by Apple during the Q1 2006 Financial Results webcast. At that time they noted an "extraordinary response" to their announcements of the new iMac and MacBook Pro.

The rumor site also notes that several developers were displeased at the early transition. Meanwhile, major vendors such as Adobe and Microsoft have been silent about the timeframe that their applications will be transitioned to the new architecture. The work required to transition Carbon applications such as Photoshop and Office is reportedly substantial.[Update] AppleInsider begs to differ, based on American Technology Research analyst notes reporting that Apple's new Intel Mac models are selling well, in contrast to lagging sales of PowerPC-based Macs. Strong video iPod sales are reported as well.

Appleinsider posts some excerpts from a CNBC interview with both Steve Jobs and Disney CEO Bob Iger.

Jobs of course promises "a pretty exciting next five years", but also makes an interesting comment on animation films:

"You may watch your favorite live action film three, four, or five times in your life," said Jobs. "But for a great animation film, your kids may watch it a dozen or a hundred times."

Jobs opinion may be evolving. In the past he did not distinguish animation films from other films, and used a similar argument against the utility of portable video players:

But how many times in your life do you watch a movie? Most people probably wouldnt watch even their favorite movies ten times in their lives, and therefore are dont buy nearly as many movies as they do songs or CDs.

This time, he states that he expects movies on these portable devices may play an important role in the future. Recent rumors/speculation has claimed that Apple may release an "actual" Video iPod this year.

Incidentally, of note, Bob Iger states that he has seen "Cars" and said it was one of the best films he'd ever seen.

Meanwhile, Disney has added many Short Films for sale on the iTunes music store (itunes link).

Forbes reports on an interesting service called Stanford on iTunes (http://itunes.stanford.edu/) which made its debut in October 2005.

In an unprecedented move, Stanford University is collaborating with Apple Computer to allow public access a wide range of lectures, speeches, debates and other university content through iTunes.

There are presently 500 tracks available for free to all iTunes users. The Stanford iTunes section is only available from a direct link on the Stanford iTunes site.

Of interest to Mac users, they have recently added the full video (iTunes Link) of the Steve Jobs 2005 Commencement Speech at Stanford. A transcript of the speech was previously posted in June 2005.

The Stanford service appears to be a part of a larger initiative by Apple called iTunes U. The service from Apple offers universities the ability to deliver educational content for free.

Its the most powerful way to manage a broad range of audio or video content and make it available quickly and easily to students, faculty, and staff.

Disney issued a press release today announcing that they were acquiring Pixar in an all-stock transaction valued at $7.4 billion. According to the press release:

Pixar President Ed Catmull will serve as President of the new Pixar and Disney animation studios, reporting to Iger and Dick Cook, Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. Pixar Executive Vice President John Lasseter will be Chief Creative Officer of the animation studios, as well as Principal Creative Advisor at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he will provide his expertise in the design of new attractions for Disney theme parks around the world, reporting directly to Iger.

Meanwhile, Pixar Chairman and CEO Steve Jobs will be appointed to Disney's Board of Directors.

Steve Jobs is the present CEO of Apple Computer and there has been speculation about what consequences his new ties to Disney may have. Indeed, bringing Apple and Disney closer together with Jobs' involvement may cause some friction in future potential deals between Apple and other studios.

News.com cites data from NPD which reports that Apple's iWork has achieved a 2.7% unit share in 2005 "Office Suite" U.S. Retail Sales. This edges out Corel's WordPerfect Office which has as 1.6% share.

Apple's share is particularly impressive considering that iWork runs only on Macs, which account for a small fraction of computers, said NPD analyst Chris Swenson. "Apple's success for iWork has been pretty surprising," he said.

Microsoft Office, of course, carries approximately 95% of the remaining unit sales. When limiting the data to Mac sales only, Apple's iWork carries a 17.4% share compared to 82% for Microsoft.

As with all statistics, these numbers must be taken in context. Corel notes that these sales do not take into account commercial sales and distributor bundles which would likely rival iWork total sales. Regardless, it represents a notable accomplishment.

Apple updated iWork earlier this year and has been rumored to add a spreadsheet component.

While rumors have been stirring for some time now, The Telegraph claims that Disney indeed will buy Pixar pending a Pixar board approval meeting tomorrow.

The buy-out would be an "all-share deal" which would make Steve Jobs the single largest shareholder of Disney (approximately 6-7% of total shares).

Businessweek speculates that Jobs may try to become more actively involved in the Disney board of directors. Steve Jobs, of course, also keeps busy as the CEO of Apple Computer.

TimesOnline reports on talks of a Disney buyout of Pixar... but also curiously mentions rumors of a wireless iPod:

Apple is also understood to be working on the next generation of iPods, which would have the ability to connect wirelessly to the internet.

There has long been rumors/speculation on Bluetooth enabled iPods to wireless connect to Speakers/Headphones, however the concept of a true wireless Internet iPod has not been frequently discussed.

We made one previous mention of it in September 2003. At that time, an author was discussing the concept of "Everywhere Internet Audio":

Imagine, if you will, an iPod as a wireless digital ladle. It would dip into a nearly bottomless stream of continual music, scooping up any song you wanted, when you wanted, where you wanted.

It's unclear if The Times is actually aware of such plans or simply has inadvertently misinterpreted circulating rumors, but does make for an interesting concept.

Update: Readers point out Apple's recent "Mobile Me" trademark that may be related. Also MobileMag claims that Apple has been looking for RF engineers, "specifically looking for people with EDGE experience". EDGE offers national wireless data network.

Appleinsider reports that Apple did indeed have plans to introduce more at Macworld San Francisco earlier this month, but pulled those products at the last minute.

According to the rumor site, Apple had iPod and music-related announcements originally scheduled for the event. The exact reason for the termination of the plans is unclear, but Apple is reportedly planning to make the announcement at an event in the near future.

Appleinsider maintains that Apple was planning an iPod Boombox which was previously reported. They expand with a description of a "sleek, single-faced speaker with a rounded grill" delivering stereo sound, complete with wireless iTunes integration.

The term "iPod Boombox" as well as "iPod Hi-Fi" were recently trademarked by Apple.

Meanwhile, one rumor had indeed claimed that some announcements were eliminated from Macworld at the last moment. These rumors, however, implied the announcements were Mac related.

Businessweek reports on a breakdown on the costs of components in the new Intel iMac.

They cite a company called iSuppli which took apart the Intel iMac and calculated the total cost of materials it takes to assemble.

According to the company, the 17" Intel iMac which retails for $1299 costs Apple $898 before adding software and boxing it. They estimate that the most expensive component is the new Intel Core Duo chip which is estimated to cost Apple $265 a piece.

The exact cost of the PowerPC that was in the G5 iMac is unknown, but the company estimates that it was significantly cheaper - closer to $100. That cost is a bit deceptive by itself, however, as Apple also had to develop their own custom chips to integrate the G5 into the rest of the motherboard. With the Core Duo, Apple simply uses Intel-provided chips at much lower cost.

Analyst Charles Wolf reports that he expects new product introductions by Apple to accelerate in 2006 and the Intel-transition will "materially" increase Mac sales.

Also expected is an "actual" video iPod in the first half of this year, along with "major content deals" alongside a revamped Mac mini.

We would not be surprised to see the Mac mini assume its rightful place in the living room as a digital entertainment server.

Its unclear if these expectations represent actual knowledge, it may more simply represent educated speculation based on previous rumors.

MacCentral reviews and benchmarks the new Intel iMacs released at Macworld Expo.

MacCentral's tested both Universal applications as well as PowerPC applications on the new 2.0GHz Intel iMac and compared them to the 2.1GHz iMac G5.

Of the Universal Applications tested, they focused on iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, iDVD, iSquint, BBEdit and Zip Archiving. In these native applications, the Intel iMac was up to 1.82x as fast. Average increase however was closer to 1.2-1.3x, with one test coming in slightly slower (.91x) than the G5 iMac.

Meanwhile, PowerPC applications were tested using Rosetta emulation. They tested iTunes (PowerPC), Photoshop CS2 and Word. The tests showed the Intel iMac to be running .34-.48x as fast as the iMac G5. The performance penalty is expected due to the Rosetta emulation layer allowing PowerPC instructions to be run on the Intel processor.

In an audio webcast conference call today, Apple is announcing its 2006 Q1 financial results, covering the last 14 weeks of 2005.

Apple reported its highest-ever revenue and earnings.

Highlights, with 2005 Q1 for comparison:

- Macs shipped: 1,254,000 (20% growth over 2005 Q1)
-- 587,000 iBooks and Powerbooks shipped
-- 667,000 desktop systems shipped
- iPods shipped: 14,043,000 (207% growth over 2005 Q1)
- Revenue: $5.75 billion, 40% from international sales ($3.49 billion in 2005 Q1)
- Music: 59% of total revenue
- Net quarterly profit: $565 million ($295 million in 2005 Q1)
- Retail profits were $90 million.
- Gross margin: 27.2% (28.5% in 2005 Q1)


- PowerBook G4 and iMac G5 will be sold while supplies last.

From Steve Jobs, Apple CEO:

We are thrilled to report the best quarter in Apple's history. Two highlights of an incredible quarter were selling 14 million iPods and getting ready to launch our new Macs with Intel processors five to six months ahead of expectations. We are working on more wonderful products for 2006, and I can't wait to see what our customers think of them.

From Peter Oppenheimer, Apple CFO:

We're very pleased to report year-over-year revenue growth of 65 percent and net income that was nearly twice the year-ago level. Looking ahead to the second quarter of fiscal 2006, we expect revenue of about $4.3 billion.

Many believe that booting Windows on the new Intel Macs will become an eventuality, and the efforts are ongoing...

OpenOSX announced they are achieving "nearly native" performance on Intel Macs with OpenOSX WinTel 2.0 - a PC emulator. This appears to be a re-brand of the open source Bochs emulation project. This sort of commercialization has been met with some controversy. User experience with this particular product is limited at this stage, but one comment claimed "It does seem to be working, but I am pretty positive that it is working nowhere near native speeds on this brand new Intel iMac."

Meanwhile, one user reports on his experience booting into the EFI menu on an Intel Mac. This is of limited use at the moment, and of course, proceed at your own risk.