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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Can Adobe and Apple Play Nicely When–And If–The Tablet Shows Up?

kid fight

Adobe is preparing to put magazines on Apple’s purported wondertablet. But what if that device, like Apple’s iPhone, doesn’t want to work with Adobe?

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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Condé Nast’s Offering for Apple’s Mystery Tablet: Wired Magazine

cover_wired_190Here’s yet another content creator that’s convinced Apple has a tablet device in the works: Condé Nast says it will have a digital version of Wired magazine ready for the purported gadget by the middle of next year and will eventually create similar versions for all of its 18 titles.

But Condé, like other publishers, says Apple won’t actually talk to the company about its plans for the device–or even acknowledge that it has plans.

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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

What Does the New York Times Really Know About Apple’s Tablet? “I Ain’t Sayin’,” Says Editor Bill Keller.

bill-kellerAll the news we can’t tell you about? Most publishers can’t even get Apple to acknowledge that it’s working on a tablet, but maybe the newspaper of record has more pull. In any event, its top editor is staying mostly mum.

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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

We Are The World! Sony, Michael Jackson’s Estate Working With iTunes, After All.

michael-jacksonAfter Michael Jackson died, fans flooded iTunes to snap up his music. And contrary to an earlier report, “This Is It,” the singer’s final work, will also be sold by Apple this month.

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Monday, September 28, 2009

Apple’s Apps Flying Off the Virtual Shelves: 6.6 Million Downloads Per Day

apple-app-storeIt took Apple a year to move its first 1.5 billion apps from its iTunes store. It took a mere 76 days to move the next 500 million.

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Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Let It Be: Beatles Still Not Coming to iTunes Tomorrow

beatlesforsaleiPods with cameras? Maybe. iTunes with new features? For sure. iTunes with Beatles? Nope.

I’m sure that Apple will indeed sell the Fab Four’s music via its digital music store one day. But it’s not happening at Apple’s keynote presentation tomorrow.

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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Not Dead Yet! The CD Still Rules Music (But iTunes Is Closing the Gap).

victrola_ladyReady to toss dirt on the old, unloved CD? You’re going to have to wait a while. Compact discs are increasingly hard to find (at least in physical stores), but someone out there keeps buying them: The ancient format still makes up the majority of music sales in the U.S. And since album-length CDs are a whole lot more lucrative for the industry than iTunes singles, expect to see the industry cling to them as long it can get away with it.

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Thursday, August 13, 2009

Here It Comes. But What Is It, Exactly? Apple Plans Keynote Event for September.

jobsTime to get the rumor mill kicked into high gear: Multiple music industry sources say Apple executives have told them the company is planning one of its famed keynote events for the week of Sept. 7. But in true Apple fashion, the company has been noncommittal about the exact date of the event and what it will be showing off.

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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

RealNetworks Still Barred From the DVD Backup Business. Why Does RealNetworks Want to Be in the DVD Backup Business?

piratesmoviejackrunningSo now that the RealNetworks attempt to get into the movie-copying business has been rebuffed by a federal court once again, I’ve got a question: Why, exactly does RealNetworks want to be in the movie-copying business?

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

CNN: We Don’t Need YouTube and Twitter to Tell Us What’s Going on in Iran–We’ve Got iReport

iran-ireport-cnnThe “Iran is Twitter’s defining moment” meme is losing momentum to the “Iran is YouTube’s defining moment” meme. But CNN has a different spin. Time Warner’s cable news channel wants us to know that it isn’t dependent on either the micromessaging service or Google’s video site to report on what’s happening in Iran–it has iReport.

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Thursday, June 18, 2009

Just How Much Search Share Does Twitter Really Have?

Twitter notched yet another milestone yesterday when it finally showed up on comScore’s index of Web search milestones. The catch: It barely registered, pulling down a search share of just 0.001 percent. But I’m sure that comScore is missing the majority of Twitter’s searches. So what’s the real number?

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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Another Ad Network? Yes, and This One’s for iPhone Apps: Medialets Raises $4 Million.

medialets-logoApple iPhone and iPod Touch users have downloaded one billion apps for their devices in nine months. Someone other than Steve Jobs and co. ought to be able to make money from that, right? That’s more or less the logic behind Medialets, a start-up that serves up ads on Apple’s mobile applications, and to a lesser degree, programs designed for Google’s Android mobile platform. The New York-based company, founded last June, is announcing a $4 million Series A round led by Foundry Group. DFJ Gotham and angel investor Bobby Yazdani also participated.

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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Apple: Steve Jobs Is Still Fine, and We Still Hate Netbooks

Next to no news from the Apple earnings call this afternoon, which is just the way Apple execs like their earnings calls. Once again, the company provided no information about CEO Steve Jobs’s health except to note that he is still scheduled to come back to work in June. And the company continued to pooh-pooh the concept of netbooks–supercheap, supersmall laptops with very little horsepower that are the hottest part of the PC business right now.

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Apple Beats the Street; Guidance a Bit Light

First quick look at Apple’s earnings: Tim Cook and company have beaten the Street’s expectations. Apple earned $1.33 per share on revenues of $8.16 billion, beating the consensus of $1.09 and $8 billion. It also outperformed estimates for sales of the Mac, iPod and iPhone. At first glance, a strong quarter. But guidance for the next quarter may be a bit less than what Wall Street was looking for.

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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

That Was Fast: Kindle, Meet the iPhone

kindle-for-iphoneRemember last month, when Amazon said it planned to make its Kindle e-book titles available on other devices, but wouldn’t say what devices, or when?

Now we know. As of today, you can now read Kindle titles on your Apple iPhone.

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About Peter

Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »

Ethics Statement

Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

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