By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Apple has been adamant about pricing of videos on iTunes, and in fact that’s one of the reasons that NBC left the iTunes store and eventually wound up at the Zune Marketplace. But now it appears they have become more flexible, as HBO and Apple announced on Tuesday that HBO shows are now available on iTunes - and some are priced above the $1.99 price Apple had previously set as a ceiling.

In a press release, Apple said:

Television shows purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Store can be viewed on a Mac or PC, iPod nano with video, iPod classic, iPod touch, fifth generation iPod, iPhone or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV. “Sex and the City,” “The Wire” and “Flight of the Conchords” are $1.99 per episode, and “The Sopranos,” “Deadwood” and “Rome” are priced at $2.99 per episode. iTunes customers can also choose to purchase entire seasons of their favorite programs.

So, Apple has broken their glass ceiling of $1.99. Hey, NBC, are you watching all this drama?

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

When we last visited Wal-Mart’s attempt at DRM-free music, they had only managed to get EMI and Universal Music Group signed up for the DRM-free portion of their store. They’ve now decided to go all-MP3, but they’re still stuck without Warner Music Group and Sony BMG, which are unfortunately the top two record labels.

Most likely they will eventually match Amazon MP3, which has all four major record labels signed, but it’s surprising that Wal-Mart made this move without working out deals - and that they haven’t been able to work out a deal since August. When Amazon MP3 launched it was understandable that they were missing labels, as they vowed to be all MP3 from the start, but Wal-Mart?

The store redesign means that only those with IE can use the new store; others using, for example, Firefox are greeted with the following message:

We notice you’re not using Internet Explorer. Other browsers may be able to access our original Music Downloads store which has fewer user features than our latest version but offers the same music. We will be making enhancements to our updated version in the future to support the Firefox browser. If you want to take advantage of all the features in our updated design now, please get the latest version of Internet Explorer.

Of course, since Firefox is my browser of choice, I fell back on IE Tab.

No Mac or Linux support for their download app; in fact, Linux isn’t even mentioned, and for Mac their site says:

At this time, it isn’t possible to shop and download songs directly from Wal-Mart Music Downloads to a Macintosh computer. However, you can transfer the MP3 files from a Windows computer to a Macintosh using a CD or other storage device.

How convenient for end users!

We Say: I suppose Wal-Mart isn’t all that worried about the challenge presented by iTunes; if they were, they might have pushed the store out when it was fully formed, instead of rushing it out; the lack of a) two major labels, b) alternate browser support, c) Mac and Linux support is pretty behind-the-times in this day and age (all right, all right, I know lack of Mac / Linux support is pretty common).

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Reports are circulating that iTunes has surpassed Wal-Mart in music sales, closely following a February report which showed them passing Best Buy to reach #2 in music sales. According to Ars Technica, they have received a copy of an internal Apple email which trumpeted the news to employees, sent yesterday.

The email contains a screenshot of NPD data (above) which shows iTunes in first with 19%, Wal-Mart in second with 15%, Best Buy in third with 13% and Amazon.com fourth at 6%.

However, others questioned the validity of the data, or rather, the staying power of iTunes. A couple of assertions led to the questions.

• Gift cards. There were probably a ton of iTunes gift cards sent around during the Christmas season. While it was pointed out by Ars in a rebuttal that everyone else had gift cards as well, it’s a lot easier to send electronic gift cards (and redeem them) than physical ones.

• Why no press release? This is big news; you would expect a huge Apple press release.

Unfortunately, all that “evidence” is circumstantial and conjecture, and wouldn’t stand up in court, as Gil Grissom would say.

My take?

Yes, the gift cards had something to do with it. If there’s no press release forthcoming, it’s because Apple realizes that fact and is waiting for the February numbers. Of course, who knows; we could see a press release later today.

At any rate, even if it’s a temporary bump, there’s no denying two facts:

1. A permanent changing of the guard is going to happen eventually, anyway.
2. It’s a great feat, no matter what.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Is Apple ready to jump on the music subscription bandwagon? It seems out of character, since they won’t (at least so far) even go so far as to consider tiered pricing, but the reports are there. More to the point: does it make sense for Apple and the music industry?

According to FT, Apple is in discussion with the industry over an “all you can listen to” plan. The service would either be offered with a premium paid up-front (building the cost into the device, much like Nokia’s “Comes With Music” offering), or via subscription. According to the report, an industry exec indicated studies have shown consumers would be willing to pay as much as $100 for an “up-front” deal or $7- $8 per month.

$100 is a lot to add onto the price of an iPod or iPhone. Additionally, the report goes on to say that the subscription model is only being considered for the iPhone, where “it has a monthly billing relationship with customers through the mobile phone operators.”

Questions emerge:

• iTunes is pretty simple now. $0.99 per track, easy to understand. Not just that, iTunes is currently the #2 music retailer. Would Apple want to muck with success? Of course, despite the numbers, it’s been said Apple makes very little off each iTunes purchase.

• What about owners of older iPods? Can they opt-in by paying the same or similar fee?

• Is this really a one-time fee forever? I could see it being an up-front fee and then yearly renewals, but forever?

One sticking point right now: Nokia is said to be offering almost $80 per handset to music industry partners, to be divided per market share. Apple, being the dominant tough guy (anyone who can get carriers to give them a share of monthly fees is a tough guy) has so far offered only about $20 per device, two executives said to FT.

“It’s who blinks first, and whether or not anyone does blink,” one executive said.

We Say: What do you readers think? Good idea? Bad idea? Or do you have a Zune?

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

Anyone who travels a lot will simply look at this device and sigh with relief. Why? Hotels are awful about providing enough power outlets near the desk - and with more and more gadgets hitting the road, it means a room strewn with charging cell phones and laptops and headsets, etc. One room I had not long ago sported a whole free outlet behind the bed - picture groping around behind that disgusting headboard.

Spec-wise, not much to say that you can’t see here. It boasts three surge protected AC outlet plugs, and will also charge two USB devices. Price: $24.99.

Product Page
Source: Belkin

Our Take: True, it means hauling along one more device and it isn’t exactly cheap, but if you really, really travel, this one is no-brainer, especially if you can expense it.

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

Happy Birthday Mr. MP3 player! 10 years old and look how far you have come. From the first player shown here - the all but forgotten MPMan F10 from Korean manufacturer Saehan Information Systems, to today’s iPod-dominated array of colorful video/audio players, things have certainly evolved.

The MP3Man F10 boasted a whopping 32MBs of flash-based storage to hold about 8 songs sampled at 128Kb/s. Songs were loaded onto the player via the parallel port (anyone remember configuring ports and getting COM and IRQ conflicts?) Retail price $250.

When Diamond brought the Rio PMP300 to market at $200, the player race was on. Many think that the Rio PMP300 was the first MP3 player, but a lawsuit wit the the RIAA gave it enough press to leave the F10 in the dust. (Until Apple came calling.) Sony meanwhile was focused on the doomed MiniDisc, and the rest as they say, was history. Source: The Register

We Say: Check out those tiny LCD displays!
Update: Want more Rio pics? Check out RioWorld. (I have owned 3 models myself.)

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

If nothing else, it appears that the contentious divorce between Paul McCartney and Heather Mills has led to one good result - well, not for either of them, but for music fans. McCartney has authorized the release of the Beatles’ back catalog on iTunes in a deal that is valued at $400 million, according to a Daily Mail report.

The deal will be exclusive to iTunes, which is unfortunate, as I would much rather see it on the all-MP3 (and DRM-free) Amazon Mp3 service. Despite the music being on the EMI label, McCartney can choose who to deal with; however, since it is on EMI it would be available on iTunes in DRM-free format.

The majority of the money will go to McCartney, Ringo Starr and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison. Some of it will go to the EMI (as I mentioned) Sony recording groups, who each own certain Beatles recording or publishing rights.

Additionally, some will go to Michael Jackson, who owns some of the rights as well. Based on reports of late mortgage payments on Neverland Ranch, he could probably use a rapid infusion of cash.

Although McCartney could use the funds for his settlement, the Daily Mail also says that it’s possible Heather Mills might ask for a larger amount, somewhat of a pyrrhic result.

It’s unclear yet as to just when iTunes will have the music for sale, but you can be sure I’ll keep you posted.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Well, they only missed it by a little more than a week. Wednesday Apple started emailing invitations to a special media event to be held March 6th. While Apple is generally close-mouthed about these events, this time they were pretty open, saying in an email sent to members of the media:

“Please join us to learn about the iPhone software roadmap, including the iPhone SDK and some exciting new enterprise features.”

The invitation-only event will be held on Thursday, March 6 at 10 a.m. on the Apple campus in Cupertino.

Announced in October of last year, the SDK was expected on Tuesday, but what’s a week between friends? The iPhone was birthed as a very closed platform, with no easy way to add application - except through web applications, and of course hacking.

The SDK would mean native applications could be written without “jailbreaking” the phone.

Perhaps even more interesting is the part about “new enterprise features.” Could this be Exchange server support?

You’ll recall that although the iPhone was launched as a consumer phone, earlier this year it was reclassified by AT&T as an Enterprise-class device. I can see CEOs salivating over possibly trading in their Blackberry devices for iPhones.