News Archive for 07/04/05

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Apple, MS standards war?

04/05, 5:30pm

Apple igniting digital music standards war?

Apple's move to embrace DRM-free tracks from EMI via its iTunes Store has begun a digital music standards war, according to BusinessWeek columnist Arik Hesseldahl. "If I were an employee of Microsoft and involved with its confusing digital-music efforts, built around its highly DRM-protected WMA format, I'd be sweating right now," Hesseldahl said. Apple boss Steve Jobs was likely purposely ambiguous about his preferred file format in is open letter titled 'Thoughts on Music.' "[Jobs] didn't mean selling unprotected MP3s, but unprotected AAC songs," the columnist noted. "The decision will have important long-term effects, especially as more labels follow EMI's lead." Microsoft, which initiated a 'PlaysForSure' branding program to ensure widespread compatibility of players and DRM-protected musical tracks, quickly abandoned its own program in favor of launching its own Zune player and Zune Marketplace. That move, coupled with Microsoft's WMA format -- which is expensive to license -- will make the open AAC format much more attractive to device makers, according to Hesseldahl.

Limited Apple TV at IFF

04/05, 2:20pm

IFF to offer limited edition Apple TV

Tech Superpowers has teamed up with the Independent Film Festival of Boston to provide "The Titanium Package," a festival package that includes a new Apple TV combined with the all-access Chrome Pass that allows access to all film screenings and parties. The Apple TV set top box device streams content wirelessly from a home computer into the living room, displaying photos or playing music and video on a modern TV. The device is priced at $299 from Apple, and ships with a 40GB hard drive that stores up to 50 hours of video. The IFF Boston 5th Anniversary Limited Edition Apple TV comes pre-loaded with 17 full-length films and shorts from the past five years of the festival, and will be available for individual purchase at the festival for $350.

Ubercaster 1.0 released

04/05, 10:15am

Ubercaster podcast production suite released

E.R.S "Pleasant software for the people" has released Übercaster 1.0 after a lengthy period of private beta testing. Übercaster is designed as a complete production suite for podcasting on Mac systems that allows podcasters to prepare, record, cut, and release shows without overloaded and bulky recording environments. The software supports live audio recording, auto ducking, effects, chapters for enhanced podcasts, ID3 tags, album cover art, and MP3/AAC/AIFF encoding. Übercaster 1.0 is available for $80, and requires Mac OS X 10.4.4 or later.