apple

Apple's price cut on the new iPhone is causing some confusion among existing iPhone users about who is entitled to a price adjustment and who isn't.

Apple's CEO Steve Jobs announced Wednesday the company is slashing the price of the iPhone by $200. The 8-gigabyte version of the iPhone was $599 but now sells for $399.

Apple and AT&T have said they will give $200 credits or refunds to customers who bought the iPhone in the past two weeks. So what about the thousands of people who waited in line all night for their iPhones … Read more

Early adopters of the iPhone who are miffed about the $200 price cut announced Wednesday should know that's the way this industry works, according to Apple's CEO.

"That's technology," said Steve Jobs in an interview with USA Today posted Wednesday. "If they bought it this morning, they should go back to where they bought it and talk to them. If they bought it a month ago, well, that's what happens in technology," Jobs said, in response to a question about what he would say to iPhone customers who paid $599 for the … Read more

Apple on Thursday morning issued a security update for iTunes. The update is for users of Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X v10.4.7 or later and Windows XP and Vista. It addresses a vulnerability identified in CVE-2007-3752.

According to Apple, opening a maliciously crafted music file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. Specifically, a buffer overflow exists in the way that iTunes processes album cover art. By enticing a user to open a maliciously crafted music file, an attacker may trigger the overflow, which may lead to an unexpected application … Read more

Vudu won't be shipping for another few weeks, but I was fortunate enough to get one of the first review units of the device--and my gadget-jaded eyes were somewhat impressed. The Vudu box aims to deliver a wide variety of on-demand movies to your TV (no PC required) via a broadband Internet connection--think Netflix or Blockbuster, but with immediate gratification. The idea of a dedicated video-on-demand box has been tried before (Akimbo, MovieBeam), but the Vudu sidesteps many of the issues that made those previous boxes hard to recommend. It's got actual content that you want to see--all … Read more

Wednesday's Apple announcements included some significant market advances, particularly the iPod Touch and the iTunes Wi-Fi Store. The new lineup of devices should keep the company clearly in the digital-media drivers' seat through the end of 2007, at least, and the pricing strategy is rock-solid. (Microsoft tried to pre-empt Apple's announcement with a $50 price cut on the 30GB Zune to $199, but with an 80GB iPod available for only $249, Microsoft's going to have to cut the price further.)

Even so, a few things that Apple didn't announce might leave some room for other innovators. … Read more

I didn't attend the Apple event yesterday, but I watched the liveblogging by Tom Krazit here on CNET and by Ryan Block on Engadget. Not the same as being there, but still fun.

As everyone knows by now, Apple introduced three completely new iPods along with minor updates for the iPod Shuffle and iPhone:

While the rest of the blogosphere is looking forward at the new iPods launched Wednesday, I want to take a look back and say goodbye to the now-outmoded version of the iPod Nano.… Read more

Again, the video here tells most of the story for this new sixth-generation version of the iPod, now called the iPod Classic. Still, there are a few specific details worth focusing some extra attention on.

Capacity

The iPod Classic is now the only iPod Apple makes with a storage capacity over 16GB. In fact, the base model ($249) starts with a whopping 80GB of storage, and the next model up ($349) jumps to 160GB. These are serious numbers that are bound to excite those of us who carry huge music and/or video libraries. Many people were worried that Apple would ditch high-capacity players altogether with their latest line of iPods, but maintaining a high-capacity legacy MP3 player makes sense. After all, the iPod at this point has become an icon of industrial design and a symbol (for better or for worse) of our current digital music economy.… Read more

The video here sums it all up quite nicely, if I dare say, but here's a few key points worth noting about the iPod Touch.

Standard headphone jack

It may seem like an insignificant detail, but after the iPhone threw us for a loop with its recessed headphone jack, everybody wants to know if the iPod Touch has the same issue. The answer is no. Despite the fact that the iPod Touch looks nearly identical to the iPhone, the headphone jack is a standard plug that accepts any 3.5mm stereo headphone connection. The jack also distinguishes itself from … Read more