Apple buys Beats Music for $3 billion dollars

After a considerable amount of rumours, Apple has finally bought Beats Musiciphone 5 eb version for $3 billion dollars.

From Apple’s press release:

“Apple® today announced it has agreed to acquire the critically acclaimed subscription streaming music service Beats Music, and Beats Electronics, which makes the popular Beats headphones, speakers and audio software. As part of the acquisition, Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will join Apple. Apple is acquiring the two companies for a total of $3 billion, consisting of a purchase price of approximately $2.6 billion and approximately $400 million that will vest over time.

“Music is such an important part of all of our lives and holds a special place within our hearts at Apple,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “That’s why we have kept investing in music and are bringing together these extraordinary teams so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world.”

“I’ve always known in my heart that Beats belonged with Apple,” said Jimmy Iovine. “The idea when we started the company was inspired by Apple’s unmatched ability to marry culture and technology. Apple’s deep commitment to music fans, artists, songwriters and the music industry is something special.”

Tim Cook also sent an email to staff saying:

“Apple’s history in music began with selling Macs to musicians. That remains important to us today, but we also bring music to hundreds of millions of customers with iTunes, which is at the forefront of the digital music revolution. Music holds a special place in our hearts at Apple, and we know that we can make an even bigger contribution to something that is so important to our society. That’s why we have kept investing in music and why we’re bringing together these extraordinary teams — so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world.

Beats co-founders and music industry pioneers Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will join Apple, along with their team of employees. Jimmy has been on the cutting edge of innovation in the music industry for decades, including as a key partner for Apple in the launch of the iTunes Music Store more than ten years ago. He has produced or collaborated with some of the most popular artists in history, and been an important contributor to the success of the iTunes Store.

Beats Music was built with deep respect for both artists and fans. We think it’s the first subscription service to really get it right. Both Apple and Beats believe that a great music service requires a strong editorial and curation team, and we will continue to expand what we do in those areas. The addition of Beats will make our incredible iTunes lineup even better, extending the emotional connection our customers have with music.”

It will be interesting to see how Apple is going to integrate the streaming service into its iTunes.

(Source:Apple,9to5mac

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is rumoured to be dropping Amoled screen technology

Galaxy 3As the  Samsung Galaxy S4 release date is getting closer, more and more leaked images and details of the device seem to be hitting the web.

 The rumours indicate that the release of the Samsung Galaxy S4  is getting really close, in fact according to Reuters the release could be as early as next month. 

According to a recent post on the SamMobile website, the S4 will not be coming with a AMOLED display and a Exynos processor. Instead it will be powered by a Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor with 1.9 GHz clock speed. This is the same processor that is currently being used in the HTC One. The reason they are not using the next generation Exynos 5 Octo processor is due to over heating issues. The AMOLED display that is currently being used in the S3 model is going to be  replaced with a display based on SoLux display technology.

Other rumours state that the phone is most likely to come with 4.99 inch full-HD display which will be almost edge to edge, 2GB RAM, 13 megapixel camera. The phone is also expected to be offered in three storage sizes, such as 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.

If all these rumours are true then this will be the ultimate smart phone ever made like its predecessor the Galaxy S3 and Samsung will continue to hold the crown of  having the best smart phone ever made.  The competition such as Apple will have to bring out something special in order to top this. However according to the website slashgear Apple are considering bringing out an iPhone with a larger 4.8 display to fight off the competition.  Another website called apple24seven also claims that  iO7 is likely to also get a major update  in order to further fight off the competition.

 

Windows tablets will only have 10.3% of the market in 2016

A recent IDC report about tablets concludes that Windows tablet sales will only command 10.3% of the market in the next three years. But on the lighter note the market will see an explosion of tablets sold in 3 years time, according to report by 2016. The IDC expects a whopping 282.7 million tablets to be sold. This explosion in the use sage of tablets could be attributed to the cheaper availability of tablets and the improved performance and capabilities of tablets.

However they go on to state that Windows tablets are only expected to grow from a mere 2.9% market share which it has now to 10.3% in 2016. But in terms of actual shipments, Windows tablets will see a 69.2% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), while Apple will see a 20.9% CAGR and Android a 21% CAGR.

While that 69.2% CAGR appears to be impressive on paper, but you need to  keep in mind that Microsoft has just started shipping tablets, so it’s very easy for them to be able to rack up these high numbers. In real terms Apple’s 20.9% and Android’s 21% is much more impressive.

Apple will continue to be the dominant player in the field rule for years to come, but their market share will continue to see a gradual erosion in the coming years according to the IDC report. For example Apple in 2012 had around 53.8% of the market, and by 2016 it will have 49.7% of the market according to the report. Interestingly they also state that Android’s market share is likely to suffer from erosion too. For example their market share is expected to fall from 42.7% to 39.7% in 2016.

In conclusion  it is not surprising that Apples market share is slowly being eroded, which is largely due to the  market becoming an ever more crowded place.  However if these 2016 figures turn out to be true for Microsoft then it not good news for Microsoft. It would have clearly demonstrated that the Windows 8 experiment of designing a tablet operating system for PCs as a way to get people used to the tablet interface in order for them to purchase tablets has been a failure.

 

More rumours emerge about the release dates of the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini

According to the tech website iMore apple is planning to announce the iPhone 5 at a press event on the 12th of September. The device will then be launched on Friday the 21 st of September. In the past iMore have been very accurate, so expect this to most likely happen. However its worth pointing out that it seems unlikely that the iPad mini will be announced at the same event, because  rumours have emerged from a website called ilounge that suggests that the actual launch date of that device will most likely be in November, due to apple not being able to have the device ready in time for a September launch. 

Apples new iOS 6 software is also expected  to be launched  at the iPhones 5’s press event . It worth noting that the iPhone 5 will most likely be launched with the new iOS 6 software. iOS 6 is expected to have up to 200 new features that includes Apples new maps,a further upgrade of Siri and deeper Facebook integration.   

 

Rumours emerge that hints of an iPod with a 4” screen which further gives credence to the iphone 5 4” screen rumours

Rumours have emerged from a Japanese tech blog Macotakara that hints of a fifth generation iPod with a Lcd 4” screen is coming in the Autumn. This will further add credence to the iPhone 5 4” screen rumours, because apple will need to keep to the same screen size for all new devices that they intend to launch, because it will keep the fragmentation issues to the minimum which seems to plague the Android platform . 

The new iPod will be getting a design change and it will also feature the same duel core A5 processor what is used in the  current iPhone 4S phone according to Macotakara, which will be an upgrade from the A4 chip that is used in the current generation of the iPod. The A5 processor will deliver up to two times more power and seven times faster graphics, this will ensure what ever demanding tasks you throw at it it will handle them with ease and smoothness. The new iPod will also most likely feature the smaller doc connector that is rumoured to be included in the up and coming iPhone 5. No news as of yet have been released concerning the camera specifications, but it will most likely be getting the same camera that came with the new iPad , which was a 5 mp camera.  

The fifth generation of the iPod will probably be released the same time as the Iphone 5, that will most likely be either September or October. These devices are likely to come with the new iOS 6 software that will also come with the new apple map software.

 

 

Apple users in the UK and some other countries can now store their itunes movies in Apples iCloud

Apple have announced that Apple users in the UK, Australia,New Zealand and Canada, along with several in Latin America and the Asia Pacific region, can now store their movies that they have previously purchased from iTunes in the iCloud. Previously iOS users in these countries have only been able to back up books and music, TV content and app purchases to Apples iCloud.

This  service is ideal for those who don’t want to rely on their pcs to backup their content. This service has also the added advantage of allowing  you to download your content across all your iOS devices. The only disadvantage is that there will be a yearly cost involved. Users will most likely need to purchase more than the free 5GB of storage what Apple gives you for free.   

Apples iClould has been rolled out to many as 37 countries around the world. But due to licensing agreements not being initialised or finalised in some of these countries, iOS users will not have the opportunity to backup up movies music and TV content in the iClould. 

 

Apple fixes a glitch that causes apps to crash after they have been updated

Apple has apparently fixed a glitch that has caused apps to crash after they have been updated. This problem was raised last week by Apple users and developers.

Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller says that ”only a “small number” of users had been affected by the problem, which was caused by wrongly-applied digital rights management (DRM) code.

“We had a temporary issue that began yesterday with a server that generated DRM code for some apps being downloaded,” Apple said. 

“The issue has been rectified and we don’t expect it to occur again. 

“Users who experienced an issue launching an app caused by this server bug can delete the affected app and re-download it.”

 

Muller goes on to say that the problem was first raised on the 4th of July, by an app developer called Marco Arment, who is the creator of an app called Instapaper. Who blogged and tweeted that he started receiving lots of complaints of his app crashing from angry customers who had just updated to the latest version of his app, which was version 4.2.3. He went on to state that even totally removing the app and reinstalling it did not fix the problem. Arment goes on to claim that this then quickly totalled up to over 20, 000 complaints over a short period of time.  He also documented that this problem seems to have effected over 120 of other iOS apps including “Angry Birds,” Huffington and GoodReader.

This raises suggestions that Apple has appeared to have downplayed the incident, who really knows what was the exact magnitude of the problem with the exception of Apple. 

 

Apple announces a new Podcasts app for iOS

Apple on Tuesday announces a new Podcast application which is simply called ”Podcasts”. 

This app will make it so easy to simply search, view and manage all your Podcasts on your iOS device. Apple users will be able to browse through all their Podcasts within their iTunes catalogue and library with simplicity and with ease. There will also be a Top Stations feature that will be also appealing, where the user will have access to a unique interface which will allow the user to quickly browse the most popular Podcasts through various categories such as, arts, business, comedy, news and sports etc. This app will also provide the user with the option of subscribing to an entire series of a Podcasts too. The user will also have the ability to fully sync their iOS devices with their Podcasts. There will also be an option to download a particular Podcast, after the user has downloaded the Podcast the user will be able to either listen to the Podcast offline or by streaming it. The app will also have a radio-like “Now Playing” screen which will allow the user to have access to simple playback controls that will allow the user to easily skip forward and back, which will prove to be popular. Lastly this app will make sharing Podcasts so easy by giving the user the option of sharing your favourite Podcast through Twitter, Messages and Mail.

This app can now be downloaded free from the App store. But it seems likely that this app will soon become a feature within the soon to be launched iOS 6. Evidence to back this claim up comes from developers who have already had their hands on a beta released of iOS 6. 

 

Samsung Galaxy S3 is on course to sell almost 10 million phones next month

Samsung has made a statement on Monday claiming that the 

Samsung Galaxy S3 is on course to sell  10 million or more phones by July.

Samsung’s mobile business president Shin Jong-kyun says if the momentum of sales continues it could become one of the most successful phones that has ever been sold.

He goes on to say in an article in The Guardian on Monday that ”the Galaxy S3 would reach the milestone two months after its launch, and be on sale from nearly 300 mobile carriers around the world by the end of July”.

Reaching the 10 million mark will be unprecedented, considering that the phone was only launched back in May in Europe. It seems like  the phones revolutionary technology has proven to be irresistible. Who could resist the allure of the amazingly fast quad-core processor or the fantastic large Super Amoled 4.8-inch screen, which all comes in a lighter form factor than the iPhone 4S. 

However it worth pointing out that Samsung figures are not based on activations but rather on the amount of devices that have been shipped, but there should not be a large difference in the figures.

When Apple releases the iPhone 5 sometime later this year. It will be interesting to see if Apple can top the impressive sales of this device. All this will depend on how revolutionary Apples new iPhone is, going by the current rumours it is certainly going to prove to be a good match for the Samsung Galaxy S3.

The iphone 5 is to come with a smaller 19-Pin “Mini” Connector

 The technology website called techcrunch confirms  that the  iphone 5 is to get a smaller 19-Pin “Mini” Connector. The website claims that they have “independently verified” this. They state that three independent manufacturers have varied that it is currently work in progress. This is further backed up by another website  called mobilefun, that claims to have leaked drawings of the iPhone 5 that clearly indicates that the iPhone has the smaller 19-Pin “Mini” Connector. Mobilefun says they contacted a manufacturer to confirm the authenticity of the drawings and they confirmed that these drawings were accurate.   

This will replace the current 30-Pin Connector that has been used amongst all Apple products since the third generation iPod, which was released in 2003. It’s thought that the reason behind Apple switching to a small connector was because they wanted to free up more space within the iPhone 5 to add additional technology such as NFC technology, 4G LTE etc.

This announcement has upset many people, due to the fact it will make all iPhone accessories, such as speakers obsolete with one blow. Lets hope Apple will come up with an adaptor to resolve this problem.