What Disney-Hulu Means for Apple
Would You Pay For YouTube Videos?
secmartin writes “A couple of weeks ago, Google’s CEO mentioned to investors that they might start charging YouTube’s users for viewing content: ‘With respect to how it will get monetized, our first priority, as you pointed out, is on the advertising side. We do expect over time to see micro payments and other forms of subscription models coming as well. But our initial focus is on advertising. We will be announcing additional things in that area literally very, very soon.’ With the recent Disney-Hulu deal, Google is under increasing pressure to generate more revenue and at the same time attract more premium content. That means we might see payment options coming even sooner than expected, with control over the pricing models being handed over to the studios providing that content, like the way Apple caved in over variable pricing on iTunes. This raises an important question: would you actually pay for premium content on YouTube and other sites, or will this draw viewers away to other video sites?”
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Apple Rejects Nine Inch Nails iPhone App
jarrettwold2002 writes “Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails announced via his Twitter account today, ‘Apple rejects the NIN iPhone update because it contains objectionable content. The objectionable content referenced is “The Downward Spiral.”‘ The initial NIN Access iPhone app garnered much fanfare (Wired article, Guardian article) and was approved by Apple. The update has been rejected due to an album reference. If Nine Inch Nails is having problems with censorship and approval what kind of problems are you having with the iPhone app approval process?”
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Microchips That Shook the World
wjousts writes “IEEE Spectrum has an interesting article on ’25 Microchips That Shook the World,’ including such classics as the Signetics NE555 Timer, MOS Technology 6502 Microprocessor (Apple II, Commodore PET and the brain of Bender) and the Intel 8088 Microprocessor. Quoting: ‘Among the many great chips that have emerged from fabs during the half-century reign of the integrated circuit, a small group stands out. Their designs proved so cutting-edge, so out of the box, so ahead of their time, that we are left groping for more technology clichés to describe them. Suffice it to say that they gave us the technology that made our brief, otherwise tedious existence in this universe worth living.'”
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Want The Biggest iPod In The World?
Like many consumers, John Mayberry was looking to upgrade his iPod. The IT technician had 50,000 songs stored on his computer, but his 60-gigabyte iPod maxed out at 12,000 songs. And Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) wasn’t helping. Last year the company discontinued its largest iPod, a 160GB model, citing concerns about its design.
Reports Say Apple May Manufacture Its Own Chips
afabbro writes “There are scattered reports today that Apple is building a team to design its own chips, with an eye towards reducing power consumption on iPods and iPhones.”
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In Major Shift, Apple Builds Its Own Team to Design Chips
Apple Inc. is building a significant capability to design its own computer chips, a strategy shift that the company hopes will create exclusive features for its gadgets and shield Apple’s work from rivals. The Silicon Valley trend-setter has been hiring people from many different segments of the semiconductor industry, including engineers to…