On the other hand, iOS 9 and iOS 8.4 also take on challenging third-party developers who currently offer apps in 5 thriving app store categories. Many developers behind the apps in these categories are venture-backed and now Apple has become their competitor.

Here are the 5 categories that will be deeply impacted by iOS 9 and iOS 8.4.

Music

Apple Music will be available on June 30 as a part of iOS 8.4 update. The revamped music app on iOS will feature Apple’s latest music streaming service. There are three parts to the new service from Apple.

• It will allow subscribed users to stream and download unlimited songs from iTunes music catalog which boasts more than 30 million songs.
• Beats 1 Radio will be available to all users. No subscription is required to access the live 24/7 global radio.
• Connect will allow users to follow their favourite artists, watch acoustic versions, video rehearsals, music videos, lyrics, photos and much more.

The service will be priced at $9.99 per month and $14.99 per month for family plan.

Apple Music will directly compete with streaming giants like Spotify, SoundCloud, Rdio, iHeart Radio, Pandora Radio, TuneIn Radio, and even Vevo to name a few.

News

iOS 9 will replace Newsstand with all new Apple News app. It allows publishers to create unique experiences by providing engaging content with brilliant typography, animated objects, transitions and more.

Users will be able to find articles and stories relevant to their interest, bookmark and view recommended content. The new app will support iAd advertising for publishers.

News app in iOS 9 will directly compete with Flipboard.

Productivity

In iOS 9 Apple is going after productivity apps that let you take rich notes with the all new Notes app.

The updated app allows you to add photos, scribble on your note, insert checklists, embed links and maps. It also has a new Attachments Browser that “organizes all the items attached to your notes in one simple view, so it’s easy to find what you’re looking for.”

It will also support a share extension so that you can take notes within apps like Safari, Maps, and many more.

Notes in iOS 9 will compete with Evernote, Google News, Feedly, and many more.

Navigation

Apple has been working on transit direction for iOS since a long time. The company is now ready to launch its own transit directions in iOS 9 Maps app. It will feature public transit information with routes and directions.

Since the Maps app works on both iOS and OS X, you’ll be able to plan your trip on the Mac and follow in on the way on your iPhone or iPad. It’s worth noting that Transit will be available only in select cities in the US for the time being,

The new Maps app in iOS 9 with transit information will compete with Moovit.

Health & Fitness

Apple announced its Health app as a part of iOS 8 last year. In iOS 9 the Health is receiving an update to track “Sexual Activity”. In the updated Health app users will be able to record the date and time you had sex and whether you used contraception or not.

With a special focus on women, the Health app will now be able to track menstrual cycles and help in monitoring physical changes.

This update will now put many third-party apps on alert. Some of the apps that help in tracking mensural cycles include Glow, Ovia Fertility, Clue and many more.

{via CB Insights}

Just like most Apple products, Apple Music isn’t the first of its kind in the market. Apps like Pandora, Spotify, iHeart Radio and many more have been dominating the music streaming market.

Jimmy Iovine took the stage for the first time as an Apple employee during the WWDC keynote event and shared details about Apple’s upcoming music streaming service. Apple Music will allow users to stream unlimited music, offer 24×7 global radio station and include social media integration for artists to connect with their fans.

Apple Music will recommend songs based on the music you own and offer hand-picked playlists that match your taste in music. This will allow users to discover great tracks that otherwise could go undiscovered.

Beats 1 will be integrated into the default Music app on iOS 9 and will mark Apple’s entry into the world of radio stations as it will offer a global 24×7 channel for the latest music, interviews and culture.

Another feature as a part of the new music streaming service is Connect. It’s where artists will be able to share unreleased demo tracks, acoustic version of the latest hit, video shot in the studio and much more.

Apple Music will be publicly available on June 30 on iOS and Android. The service will offer a generous three-month trial and post that it will cost $9.99 a month for an individual user and $14.99 a month for family plan.

Apple will unveil the new music streaming service rumored to be called iRadio at WWDC 2013 keynote event according to a new report published by The Wall Street Journal.

Apple has been long rumoured to enter the music streaming business, since they acquired an online music company, LaLa in 2010.  iRadio is expected to be a free to use service supported by iAds that will display image ads and stream audio ads. The music streaming service will support options to buy tracks that users wish to download from the iTunes music store.

The service will launch for customers in the US. Details about international rollout remain unclear at this point. Offering a free streaming service as opposed to offering a paid subscription is quite interesting since Apple has always refrained from the ad supported model.

The company has taken quite long to enter the music streaming business even as other services that began by offering apps on the App Store have become hugely popular. Many believe that establishing deals with the record labels was the biggest hurdle in rolling out the service and the company waited until the terms were favorable. Eddy Cue, Apple’s SVP of Internet and Software services, is believed to have played a major role in getting all major record labels. One of the major points of differences in negotiating the deal had been been compensation for songs skipped by users, according to the report.

The highly anticipated new service—expected to be available only in the U.S.—will allow users to stream a radio-like channel of music based on their interests. It will be supported by text and audio ads from Apple’s iAd service, people familiar with the matter said. It will feature “Buy” buttons to drive downloads, they added.

The WSJ also reported on sources confirming the rumors about iOS 7 redesign featuring a new “flat” look. Apple is also looking at introducing new ways to share photos and videos.

The new iOS will also include new ways to share photos and videos with other iPhone users and other enhancements, these people said.

WWDC 2013 keynote event goes live today at 10 AM (Pacific Time) where the Cupertino, Calif. based company will unveil the future of software for iOS and OS X.

On Thursday, Twitter launched the music app that was nothing but a rumor for the past several weeks. Twitter released the app early Thursday, and called it Twitter #music, with a hashtag in the title to reflect the popular feature from the social networking site. The app integrates a number of other music streaming services such as Rdio and Spotify and also shows previews from iTunes.

All of the music in the app will give users a preview until they log into their Spotify Premium or Rdio account. Twitter also introduced the service on the web for users who stream music on their computers and for those who use Spotify or Rdio on the web on a regular basis. Twitter #music uses Twitter as its main source of music and aggregates the most popular emerging artists and songs and also utilizes a user’s follow lists to recommend other music that the user may like.

Twitter #music is very similar to something such as Apple’s Genius suggestions in iTunes, but uses other music streaming services and Twitter to aggregate and recommend new music. ABC News released more specific details on the Twitter #music app:

The Popular page shows you new music that’s trending across Twitter while the Emerging tab shows “hidden talent found in tweets.” While those two parts feed you information about what the collective Twitterverse is jamming to, the last two focus on who you follow and your personal music taste.

The Suggested tab shows artists you might like based on the artists you follow on the service and who they follow. And finally the #NowPlaying tab shows songs your friends are listening to or tweeting about. For instance, if your friend tweets that they are listening to a song by Justin Bieber, that song will show up on that page.

Twitter #music is now available as a free download on the App Store {Direct Link} and on the web.

{Via MacRumors}

Rumors about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) launching a music streaming service, similar to Pandora have been around for several months now. However, these reports have become more solid in recent weeks, as more sources begin to back claims that the service may be arriving as early as this summer. According to a report from The Verge, negotiations between AAPL and record companies are moving forward, allowing for the company to begin shaping its new ‘iRadio’ music service.

Much has been written about Apple’s plan to launch a Pandora-esque service this year. Now multiple music industry insiders have told The Verge that significant progress has been made in the talks with two of the top labels: Universal and Warner. One of the sources said “iRadio is coming. There’s no doubt about it anymore.” Apple is pushing hard for a summertime launch.

Earlier in March, Apple was reportedly trying to compete with other services by offering half the royalty rate paid by Pandora. While Apple would normally control all aspects of the service, in this case, they need the record companies to allow them to use music.

If it weren’t for the record companies, Apple could have possibly launched the service much earlier, perhaps even at the end of last year. The two record companies that are reportedly making the most progress with negotiations are Warner and Universal. Apple is expected to launch new iPhone 5S / 6 this summer, so it is possible that both will launch in the same event, especially if the iPhone 5S refresh is incremental and not a major redesign.

{Via MacRumors}

According to a report from Bloomberg, popular social networking and microblogging service, Twitter is planning to introduce a standalone music app, being called ‘Twitter Music’. The app will bring streaming music capabilities to iOS users, similar to other services such as Pandora and Spotify.

The report does note, however, that streaming will rely on Berlin, Germany based SoundCloud. SoundCloud allows for artists to upload their music via a web URL, which can then be embedded on blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Users can then leave comments on the music and interact with one another, which is likely what is attracting Twitter to creating such a service.

News of Twitter’s new venture has been relatively recent, with music labels hearing about it earlier this week and a report from CNet noting that Twitter had acquired music discovery service, We Are Hunted last year. We Are Hunted is a San Francisco based company that allows users to discover music from blogs, social networks, and BitTorrents and organizes them in a tile-based format for easy access.

With the new ‘Twitter Music’ app, Twitter would be competing with other social networks such as Facebook and Instagram which have been making a number of changes to their services. This includes Facebook’s new Graph Search feature and News Feed. Twitter appears to be targeting iOS specifically, having also introduced video sharing app, Vine to the platform.

{Via AppleInsider}

Apple has been widely rumored to be working on subscription based music streaming service for iOS devices. When Apple purchased LaLa, many believed that the company would introduce a streaming service. However, the purchase turned out to be to acquire talent to develop iTunes Match service.

Evad3rs released their ‘evasi0n’ unthethered jailbreak for iPhone5 on Tuesday and now 9to5Mac points us to hidden radio icons in iOS 6.1 release. Jailbreaking the iPad with evasi0n and then going through the files in Music.app revealed references to “radio button” with icons bearing resemblance to radio streaming icon in iTunes. Further, it was found that the button files are labeled with “buy” in the filename.

Many news publications like Bloomberg and WSJ previously reported on rumors about Apple working on Pandora competitor and cited music label licensing deals as being one of the hurdles being faced by the company. If those rumors are to be believed and with the hidden radio icons being revealed in iOS 6.1 is any indication then we could be seeing Apple announcing a new music subscription service soon.

Apple could be looking at allowing users to stream music tailored to their taste using the genius data and then integrating it with the iTunes store to allow purchase of favourite tracks. iTunes music store was recently made available in 56 new countries and the Cupertino, Calif. based company could now be looking at launching a music streaming service.

Online music streaming services such as Spotify, rdio, and Pandora are dominating streaming music space, Apple has been rumored to be working on its own radio service similar to Pandora’s, now being called “iRadio” for lack of a better name. These rumors have been circulating around the web for some weeks now. Now in an interview with AllThingsD, Beats CEO and Interscope Chairman, Jimmy Iovine revealed that he had pitched the idea of a music subscription service to Steve Jobs in 2003.

Iovine was close friends with Jobs, having worked with him on multiple products and promotions with artists such as 50 Cent, Bono of U2, Mick Jagger, and even launching a special iPod for U2. Iovine says he is currently working on a music subscription service, not revealing any specific details about the project or what it is going to consist of.

In 2002, 2003, Doug [Morris, former Universal Music head] asked me to go up to Apple and see Steve. So I met him and we hit it off right away. We were really close. We did some great marketing stuff together: 50 Cent, Bono, Jagger, stuff for the iPod — we did a lot of stuff together.

But I was always trying to push Steve into subscription. And he wasn’t keen on it right away. [Beats co-founder] Luke Wood and I spent about three years trying to talk him into it. He was there, not there … he didn’t want to pay the record companies enough. He felt that they would come down, eventually.

I don’t know what [Apple media head] Eddy Cue would say — I’m seeing him soon — but I think in the end Steve was feeling it, but the economics…he wanted to pay the labels [for subscriptions], but [the fees were] not going to be acceptable to them.

Iovine did reveal that his service would be similar to Pandora, in that it would not provide users access to entire albums and artists as Spotify does and would aggregate music based on user’s preferences. Apple’s “iRadio” is expected to be similar to Iovine’s approach, although it could be possible that Iovine is working with Apple to help create the company’s music subscription service as the two have worked together in the past. Iovine was mentioned several times in Job’s biography, “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson in which Jobs himself talks about his friendship with the Beats Electronics chief.

{Via MacRumors}

Pandora, the popular music recommendation service, may soon have a competing service from Apple Inc. (AAPL) new report claims. On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that AAPL is looking to introduce its own music streaming service, similar to Pandora, adding on to the iTunes structure in both OS X and iOS.

WSJ claims that “people familiar with the matter” suggest that the service would be integrated into Macs, the iPhone and the iPad and perhaps Windows PCs. This would give Apple continuing dominance in the music distribution industry and would help boost iTunes music sales.

Apple only recently initiated licensing negotiations with record labels for its putative service, and even if it does complete deals, it could be a matter of months when such a service might launch, according to these people.

The company has in the past contemplated and abandoned other interactive features, including a Spotify-like service that would have let users rent unlimited amounts of music for a fixed monthly fee. But people familiar with the current talks say they appear to be more serious than those previous tentative inquiries.

As on Pandora, the music would be interspersed with ads, in this case carried by Apple’s iAd platform, which syndicates ads to iPhone and iPad apps.

As with all of Apple’s deals with record labels and movie studios, the Cupertino company would be negotiating all licensing deals with the record labels. According to the report, Apple is still negotiating and likely won’t be unveiling the new service at the iPhone 5 media media event. Following WSJs report on the music service, the NYTimes also published its own report suggesting that there is, in fact, a music service for Apple in the works.

Apple’s service would likely take the form of a pre-installed app on Apple’s devices like iPhones and iPads and might be able to connect to a user’s iTunes account to judge his or her tastes.

A music service tailored specifically to iOS users, and one capable of obtaining a user’s preferences from their music libraries could potentially affect Pandora’s influence in the music market. With a music service, two powerful OS’ and the millions of iOS and Mac products out on the market, this could turn out to be a huge success for Apple.

{via MacRumors, Image Credit: CallingAllGeeks.org}

Music streaming service, Spotify, gained popularity in Europe before debuting in the United States last July, allowing users to stream music from major music labels on their Macs, PC’s, and portable devices. Spotify is one of the first streaming services to combine users music libraries, as well as online streaming and allow them to sync their devices.

Today we’re extremely proud to present our native iPad app in all its green-hued glory. Features include:

– Retina graphics for iPad – dazzling display, razor sharp images, richer colors
– Even easier to browse and explore Spotify’s entire 18 million* song catalogue
– New ‘Now Playing’ full-screen view with high-definition cover art
– Search for playlists, users and music – all from the same view
– Check out what’s hot and find trending playlists & songs amongst your friends
– Inbox grouped by user for easy searching
– Gapless playback and crossfade
– AirPlay integration

Spotify has long been available on the iPhone since its release, operating on a pricing model, as opposed to the free model on the desktop computer. On Tuesday, Spotify announced that their new iPad application is now available in the App Store, utilizing the iPad’s 9.7 inch screen. The app is available via an upgrade to the existing app, which will be downloadable as both an iPad and iPhone app.

Spotify Premium is currently offering a free 48-hour trial for new users , allowing them to extend for up to 30 days if they sign up on the website. Premium users who use the service on the iPad, iPhone, and other mobile devices are the option to sign up for a subscription for $9.99 per month.

{via MacRumors}

One of the largest music streaming giants, Spotify, announced today that they would be debuting their services in the United States. The launch is currently in beat phase and is available as an invite only Free service along-with two paid versions: Unlimited at $4.99/month and Premium at $9.99/month.

Spotify has also released an iPhone app in the App Store for users to take advantage of Spotify’s offerings on their iOS device. However, mobile users must be subscribed to the Premium service in order to use the iPhone app.

During our invite-only beta phase, we’ll be offering three great services – from absolutely free to paid subscriptions. The services we’re launching today are:

– Spotify Free – the unsurpassed free music service. With an invite, enjoy on-demand, buffer-free access to over 15 million songs on your computer and great social features. Manage your own music files through Spotify, and sync with your cellphone or iPod. Features occasional advertising.

– Spotify Unlimited – all the special features of our free service, but with uninterrupted, ad-free access to Spotify on your computer. All for only $4.99 a month.

– Spotify Premium – the top-of-the-range Spotify experience. Premium gives you access to all the music, all the time. Listen online or offline, on your computer, your cellphone and a whole heap of other devices. Enjoy enhanced sound quality and access to exclusive content, competitions and special offers. Premium costs just $9.99 a month. (That’s the equivalent of a couple of fancy coffees.)

Spotify’s debut in the United States is backed by ad partners including Coca-Cola/Sprite, Chevrolet, Motorola, Reebok and Sonos who are developing specific ads for the service. Spotify has seen much success in Europe and is going to get the chance to establish itself in the US and possibly compete with other music giants such as Napster, iTunes, and Pandora.

{via MacRumors}

Apple has cut a licensing deal with Universal Music Group according to the latest report published by CNET. This will enable Apple’s iCloud music store to offer songs from the largest of the four top record companies. It is widely believed that Apple has now signed deals with all the top four record companies as well as major music publishers, giving Apple’s iCloud streaming service a major head start.

The Cupertino outfit on Tuesday announced that it would unveil the highly anticipated cloud based service called iCloud on June 6 at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. However, Apple did not mention whether iCloud will have any music streaming features or any aspects of the rumored TV shows and movies.

Sources at CNET have reported that revenue from iCloud song sales will be split, where the labels will get 58 percent, and publishers will receive 12 percent. Apple will take 30 percent as they do with all other services they currently offer. The sources also reported that streaming will not be available on Monday but will be offered soon and that the Apple digital locker will store only music purchased from iTunes in the beginning.

Apple is said to have plans to store songs purchased from outside iTunes sometime in the future, perhaps after Apple solidifies it’s servers and expands the North Carolina data center.

Apple has started decorating the Moscone West conference center in San Francisco as it does before every event, and even went a step further by setting up a banner of the “iCloud” service in clear daylight. The picture above, which appears to have been taken by someone looking into the conference center, shows the words ‘iCloud’ in Apple’s classic font, and what appears to be the iCloud logo.

Apple has announced that it will be discussing iOS 5, Mac OS X Lion and iCloud at next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs will be making an appearance in order to deliver the keynote presentation on Monday, June 6th at 10AM PST.

Apple has been wrapping up deals with music labels and publishers to allow users to stream purchased music to their computers and other devices through the service, which will likely be integrated into iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion. Apple is all about integration, taking one service and assimilating it into all of their products (eg. iBooks). AppleInsider released a clearer shot of the banner (seen below), highlighting iOS 5, iCloud and Mac OS X Lion.

It’s increasingly becoming clear that iPhone 5 / 4S won’t be a part of this years conference. However, if Apple restricts iOS 5 to just iPhone 4 and drops support for iPhone 3GS then we can be sure that fifth gen iPhone could be available in September during the annual music event.

Apple on Wednesday took ownership of the domain “iCloud.com”. The domain name was earlier believed to be obtained by Apple Inc., however, now Apple has already confirmed that they will be announcing their upcoming cloud based services during WWDC keynote presentation.

iCloud.com was rumoured to have been sold to the Cupertino outfit for $4.5 million.

This change in ownership now gives Apple complete control over the domain name and will be able to redirect it to Apple.com and other internal pages. Currently, iCloud.com redirects to Xcerion’s own service that has been renamed to CloudMe.com. Apple is now listed as admin contact for iCloud.org as well, possibly claiming any domains related to their streaming service, so as not to cause any diluting of it’s brand and service prior to trademark which is already underway.

Apple has already confirmed that its cloud based services called “iCloud” will be introduced at WWDC 2011, alongside a preview for Mac OS X Lion and iOS 5. Apple is expected to reveal iCloud as a subscription based service integrated into it’s mobile and desktop software, which could be the reason behind the announcement being made during an event where Apple will discussing only software related updates. Until Apple’s WWDC announcements on Monday, stay tuned, we’ll keep you in the loop.

We have been discussing Apple’s upcoming cloud services called “iCloud” for a while and now just before the WWDC keynote event its showing all signs of coming to life. Patently Apple recently reported that Apple Inc. has applied for “iCloud” trademark in Europe under “12 distinct international classes” which cover a wide range of services the company could offer. In its application Apple mentions services like delivering digital music by telecommunications, electronic storage, online social networking services, multimedia content for a fee or pre-paid subscription, computer software, electronic books and magazines, entertainment, photographic services, business management and advertising services, games, headgear and digital devices/computers.

Google and Amazon already have a head start over Apple in cloud based services however, only Apple is believed to have secured license deals with major music labels which include Sony, Warner Music and EMI. This will give Apple an edge over its competitors. iCloud could simply scan the computer and automatically sync songs, movies and TV shows to the cloud giving access to the content you own anytime and anywhere.

Worldwide Developers Conference will kick off with a keynote event by Steve Jobs and other Apple executives. Unlike, previous WWDC this year the primary focus will be software where the “next generation software” will be unveiled. Mac OS X Lion is believed to have reached final stages of testing and could be made available after the event on June 06. The latest developer build of Snow Leopard updates Mac App Store so that your Mac is ready for the upgrade.

With a constant flow of news and reports Apple certainly has been successful in building up the excitement as the event is now just 4 days away. On Tuesday, iWork suite of productivity apps were updated to a universal binary which means that now you can install Pages, Keynote and Numbers on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Are you excited about iCloud and iOS 5? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

We recently reported that Apple has closed licensing deals with three out of the four major music labels for their soon to be announced digital music locker service. This gives Apple great advantage over its competitors, Google and Amazon, who launched similar service without the license deals.

Music labels are always looking for new revenue streams and it’s possible that Apple probably had to pay a huge amount in-order to secure the rights for its new music streaming service. Apple’s iCloud service is widely believed to be tied to MobileMe ($99/year) which already allows users to keep their Mail, Safari Bookmarks, Documents etc. on their Macs and iOS devices in Sync.

BusinessWeek recently published a report in which they detailed Apple’s iCloud service:

Apple will be able to scan customers’ digital music libraries in iTunes and quickly mirror their collections on its own servers, say three people briefed on the talks. If the sound quality of a particular song on a user’s hard drive isn’t good enough, Apple will be able to replace it with a higher-quality version. Users of the service will then be able to stream, whenever they want, their songs and albums directly to PCs, iPhones, iPads, and perhaps one day even cars.

A patent application recently published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office also revealed some features about iCloud service which the Cupertino Calif. based company could be looking into. The patent basically explains that any song you want to access from the cloud would require your device to store a minimum of 30 seconds preview. This would allow the user to skip songs without any lag as the preview could be used for the first 30 seconds while the track stored on the cloud can buffer and offer seamless experience.

During WWDC 2011 Apple is expected to share details about the future of iOS and preview Mac OS X Lion. iOS 5 is believed to finally introduce cloud based services which Apple has been preparing for since a long time.

A new patent application published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office could reveal the user interface for Apple’s upcoming iCloud service, in addition to a feature for “partial song syncing.” Entitled “Local Storage of a Portion of Streamed Media Items,” the application depicts an iTunes-like user interface and describes a feature that would store a sample of each of your songs locally on your device to ensure you get a seamless iCloud experience.

The idea behind a cloud-based music service is that you store your songs in a ‘digital locker’ online to save precious storage space on your device, and then access them from internet-connected devices such as the iPhone or iPad. So, surely storing previews of all of your songs locally defeats the object? Well, it does a little bit, but it will take up significantly less space than storing complete tracks and will ensure you get the smoothest possible experience.

The idea is that by storing a sample of each song on your device, when you skip between songs your device will begin by playing the preview while the rest of the song buffers in the background. This means that if you change the track and iCloud isn’t expecting it, you won’t have to wait a few seconds in between tracks for each song to load.

It’s a simple idea that I’m sure will make a huge difference to our user experience, and will be one the little details that makes iCloud better than its rivals from Amazon and Google.

Apple’s patent application describes the problem with these rival services:

When the electronic device is unaware of the next media item to play back, the electronic device can require undesired pauses between media items. Similarly, when a user skips to a different media item for playback, the electronic device can require a long pause during which no media item is played back as the new media item is streamed to the device.

I think you’ll agree that this sounds like another one of Apple’s simple but fantastic ideas. The only thing that I think does need work is that user interface. I know that it’s only a black & white patent image, but it looks like it needs a bit of work.

The information in the report is said to come from an “inside source” at EMC – a company which intended to buy Isilon in late 2010 for $2.25 billion – and planned to use the storage infrastructure technology to support cloud computing services.

Although the report made no mention of cloud services, the 12 petabytes of storage could well be just what Apple needs to launch a cloud-based streaming service, allowing users to access their movies, music, and photos on their iOS device from a digital storage locker. Reports have been speculating for some time that the Cupertino company would launch a service to compete with music streaming services like Spotify, Rhapsody, and the new Amazon Cloud Player.

In 2009 Apple acquired a company called Lala which previously provided a similar service. Lala subscribers could buy music downloads, listen to online content, and upload their own music library to the cloud for remote playback on various devices. However, Apple closed the company soon after its purchase sparking rumors that it would build the Lala model into iTunes and relaunch the service, but we’re yet to see that happen.

The new MobileMe service will apparently allow you to store music, TV shows, and movies purchased from the iTunes Store in the cloud, allowing you to then stream this content to your iOS device saving that valuable storage space for apps, games, photos, and everything else. Whether or not this will be a free service is yet to be confirmed.

This new streaming service sounds very similar to the one offered by LaLa before Apple purchased and then closed the company back in 2009. It enabled users to upload music to an online locker and then stream that content to a device of their choice. Since Apple purchased the company, there has understandably been speculation that it would one day become a part of iTunes and continue to offer a streaming service, however, we’re yet to see anything take shape.

Content streaming to iOS devices is certainly something I think we can expect to see from Apple soon, whether it’s integrated into MobileMe or part of iTunes. As a leader in the digital music industry and a company famous for being at the forefront of incredible new products and services, I’m quite surprised they haven’t already made a streaming service available.

Sony Music as I understand it has no intention of withdrawing from iTunes. They’re one of our biggest partners in the digital domain. I think those words were either taken out of context or the person who spoke them was unclear on the circumstances.

Despite Layden’s justification of these comments, and of Sony’s intentions, the launch of the company’s “Music Unlimited” streaming service this week has only fuelled speculation that Sony is looking for an alternative to iTunes. The service provides users with access to a catalog of millions of songs from major record labels when they sign up to one of two music plans.

The ‘basic’ plan starts at $3.99 USD and allows users to listen to a ad-free radio stations based on genre, era, and mood. While the $9.99 USD ‘premium’ plan enables a user to listen to any song on demand as well as 100 channels featuring the latest hits. Music Unlimited will initially launch in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand before the service rolls out worldwide, and it will be available through numerous internet-connected Sony devices including the PlayStation 3, Bravia TVs, and the Vaio line of computers.

Sony’s president of Networked Products & Services Group, Kazuo Hirai, said:

“As we expand ‘Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity’ around the globe, it signifies a paradigm shift which redefines the existing music listening experience by revolutionizing music access, discovery, integration and personalization. Through Sony’s high quality network-enabled devices, we are focused on delivering dynamic services ‘powered by Qriocity’ to offer global customers with compelling digital entertainment propositions.”

It seems unlikely that Sony will ever withdraw its products from iTunes and end its partnership with Apple, no matter how successful Music Unlimited proves to be. For that to happen, the company would have to make Music Unlimited available to Macs and iOS devices, the latter of which I’m sure Apple would make incredibly difficult. With the ever increasing popularity of Apple’s products and services, I think Sony would be shooting itself in the foot if it was to pull out now.

{via AppleInsider}

Apple updated their MobileMe app in early July, and included in the update was a revision to the MobileMe service which adds the ability to “Play audio from your iDisk while using another app”.

The feature is very basic at the moment, as it doesn’t allow traditional iTunes syncing, cover art or playlists. But if you stop and think for a minute it kind of gives us a hint to Apple’s future plans.

It also kind of means that MobileMe is not going to be free anytime soon…

Have you tried playing music from your iDisk? Let us know about it in the comments…

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• 8:22 AM: Touch_Reviews We will be doing a round up after the event is over. You can follow us on Facebook and make sure you don’t miss any news today. facebook.com
• 8:26 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 8:34 AM: Touch_Reviews @daimonck We are sure Steve Jobs will unveil the new iPhone 4G / HD today. He replied to an email saying “You won’t be disappointed”
• 8:35 AM: Touch_Reviews Apple CEO says ‘You Won’t Be Disappointed’ by WWDC Announcements
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• 8:39 AM: Touch_Reviews More banners
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• 8:40 AM: Touch_Reviews Do you think Apple will make the iPhone OS 4 available today?
• 8:43 AM: Touch_Reviews latest photo
• 8:44 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 8:50 AM: Touch_Reviews On iPhone, iPod touch or iPad? Visit scribblelive://17117
• 8:54 AM: Touch_Reviews New photos:
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• 8:58 AM: Touch_Reviews Use the Retweet and Facebook recommend option on the top to share this live feed with your followers and friends
• 9:02 AM: Touch_Reviews Closeup
• 9:02 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 9:04 AM: thescratt Good Evening / Morning / Lunch Time all. Wherever you are. I’ll be around during the Live Blog to help out with as much insight as I can.
• 9:04 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 9:06 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 9:08 AM: Touch_Reviews WWDC 2010 New iPhone Keynote Event: Sure Things and Long Shots: touchreviews.net
• 9:10 AM: Touch_Reviews Latest rumor: PC Guy to Open WWDC Keynote today? touchreviews.net
• 9:14 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 9:20 AM: thescratt @Tony A short keynote would be an hour. A long one two. So probably somewhere inbetween.
• 9:23 AM: Touch_Reviews Check your time zone for the WWDC 2010 keynote event:
  07:00AM – Hawaii
  10:00AM – Pacific
  11:00AM – Mountain
  12:00PM – Central
  01:00PM – Eastern
  06:00PM – London
  07:00PM – Paris
  09:00PM – Moscow
  02:00AM – Tokyo (June 8th)
• 9:25 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 9:26 AM: Touch_Reviews The keynote is due to start in 34 minutes
• 9:29 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 9:29 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 9:33 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 9:35 AM: Touch_Reviews Apple has setup their wall of app store icons across 30 Apple displays
• 9:36 AM: Touch_Reviews @ralph Audio feed will not be available.
• 9:39 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 9:39 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 9:40 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 9:43 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 9:43 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 9:44 AM: Touch_Reviews @Joe Seph Live video feed will not be available.
• 9:45 AM: Touch_Reviews If you guys want to share the link to this live feed use the retweet and facebook recommend option above
• 9:51 AM: Touch_Reviews “The room is filling up rather quickly. Certainly the media folks have gotten settled by now, but lots of attendees are streaming in.”
• 9:54 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 9:55 AM: Touch_Reviews The keynote is due to start in 5 minutes.
• 9:56 AM: thescratt @iphone user If you already have unlimited you can keep it. But you are correct that they have killed it for new customers.
• 9:57 AM: thescratt I think a record number of people have crossed fingers today!
• 9:57 AM: Touch_Reviews “Welcome to WWDC 2010 — please turn off your cellphones and PDAs.”
• 9:58 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 9:58 AM: Touch_Reviews ” Everyone is cheering at the back of the hall, again for seemingly no reason”
• 9:59 AM: thescratt Last chance for outlandish predictions everyone…. I am keeping score!
• 10:02 AM: thescratt Steve is on stage…
• 10:02 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:03 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:03 AM: Touch_Reviews “We apologize to folks who couldn’t be here… this is the biggest place we can get, so… anyway.”
• 10:06 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:06 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:06 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:06 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:06 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:06 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:06 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:06 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:07 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:07 AM: thescratt I am gonna report on what Steve is saying from now on….
• 10:07 AM: thescratt Sold over 2 million iPads, that’s one every 3 seconds.
• 10:07 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:07 AM: thescratt Shipping in 10 countries today
• 10:08 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:08 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:08 AM: thescratt There are now 8500 native iPad apps in the app store, which is really great. iPad can run over 200,000 iPhone apps there as well.
• 10:08 AM: thescratt Apps have been downloaded over 35 million times.
• 10:08 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:09 AM: thescratt This is an app that’s really cool called Elements, and you can just perouse the periodic table.
• 10:09 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:09 AM: thescratt In the first 65 days, users have downloaded over 5 million books
• 10:10 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:10 AM: thescratt Five of the six biggest publishers in the US say the share of eBooks now going through the iBookstore is about 22%.
• 10:10 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:10 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:10 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:11 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:11 AM: thescratt Adding Bookmark page feature for eBooks.
• 10:11 AM: thescratt You can now view PDFs in iBooks. We put a little selector right at the top so you can select between books and PDFs. Whole new bookshelf for just PDFs.
• 10:12 AM: thescratt An update for the iPad will be out a little later this month…
• 10:12 AM: thescratt Update, as in for iBook. Not a new iPad.
• 10:12 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:12 AM: thescratt Second platform is App Store. App Store is curated platform with over 225,000 apps.
• 10:12 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:13 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:13 AM: thescratt Now, you’ve read a lot about our process of approving apps. Let me give you some of the facts
• 10:13 AM: thescratt We get about 15,000 apps submitted every week. New apps, updates, everything
• 10:13 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:13 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:13 AM: thescratt They come in in up to 30 different languages
• 10:13 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:13 AM: thescratt 95% of all the apps are approved within 7 days.
• 10:14 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:14 AM: thescratt What about the 5% that aren’t? Why don’t we approve those?
• 10:14 AM: thescratt 3 top reasons: 1) App doesn’t function as advertised.
• 10:14 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:14 AM: thescratt 2) Use of private APIs. Very clear on this. Developers can’t use private APIs. When we change the OS, those private APIs are not guaranteed not to change
• 10:15 AM: thescratt 3) we reject apps that crash
• 10:15 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:15 AM: thescratt Now eBay for a moment…. eBay came out with great app on the iPhone last year. CEO John Donahoe really loves the iPhone platform. Expected to do $1.5 to $2 billion this year
• 10:16 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:16 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:16 AM: thescratt Netflix: CEO Reed Hastings is coming on stage to talk…
• 10:16 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:16 AM: thescratt I am now going to pretend to be Reed Hastings, everyone. With me so far!
• 10:17 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:17 AM: thescratt There is however one feature requests we have consistently gotten: happy to announce the Netflix app for the iPhone coming this summer for free…
• 10:17 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:17 AM: thescratt The same service you get on your HDTV, Laptop, and on your iPad…
• 10:17 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:18 AM: thescratt You can start a film on your TV and pick up on your iPhone whenever you’d like (Me : Cool!)
• 10:18 AM: thescratt Access all of Netflix’s movie and TV genres, your complete queue…
• 10:18 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:18 AM: thescratt There’s a search feature, so you can start typing what you’re looking for and bring it up, add to your instant queue.
• 10:18 AM: thescratt Just like on iPad, the iPhone takes advantage of Apple’s http adaptive streaming tech
• 10:19 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:19 AM: thescratt Steve introduces CEO Mark Pingus from zynga
• 10:19 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:19 AM: thescratt Today we’ll be introducing farming for the iPhone (Me : *sigh*)
• 10:20 AM: thescratt Farmville (Me: I feel a little ill!)
• 10:20 AM: thescratt In the year since we launched Farmville, it has grown to over 70 million monthly active users. Proud that they’ve raised over $2 million to help haiti. But anyway, turning over to colleague to show “Farming on the fly”
• 10:20 AM: thescratt App can bring up the same farm you’ve spent hours and hours curating on Facebook.
• 10:20 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:21 AM: thescratt There are push notifications for withering crops. (Me : Wow! Now I am excited. Not.)
• 10:21 AM: thescratt Millions of farmville players set their alarm clocks for 2am just so they won’t miss a key harvest. With Farmville on the iPhone, they can farm anytime, anywhere.
• 10:22 AM: thescratt @LibSol I am emailing Steve right now!
• 10:22 AM: thescratt Farmville is all about being social. You can see your same friends from Facebook. You can fertilize their crops, send them gifts, etc.
• 10:23 AM: thescratt @IKE No need to shout, dude.
• 10:23 AM: Touch_Reviews Closeup
• 10:23 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:23 AM: thescratt Phew. That’s over… Now Activision…
• 10:24 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:24 AM: thescratt I am channelling Karthik Bala now.. and guess what… We’re talking about Guitar Hero!
• 10:24 AM: thescratt With over 40 million units sold worldwide, Guitar Hero is a “pop culture phenomenon”
• 10:24 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:24 AM: thescratt Guitar Hero is about being connected to your rock star persona
• 10:25 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:25 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:25 AM: thescratt Customize the look of yoru rockstar any way you want, hop into photo booth to share that look with your friends
• 10:25 AM: thescratt Connect with your favorite rock music: comes with classic rock like Queen, Rolling Stones, also Vampire Weekend, etc.
• 10:25 AM: thescratt Tapping mechanics, richer guitar experience, new strumming system
• 10:26 AM: thescratt Playing music really loud on stage now with this guitar hero app
• 10:26 AM: thescratt This is just the beginning. You guys can all start rockin’ out today, go download it for $2.99
• 10:26 AM: thescratt I am Steve again!
• 10:27 AM: thescratt Three great apps, they’re gonna join the over 225,000 apps on the App Store
• 10:27 AM: thescratt Downloads from the App Store crossed 5 billion downloads.
• 10:27 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:27 AM: thescratt This next thing is my favorite stat of the whole show. When we get revenue from App Store, 70% goes to the developer. How much ave we paid developers?
• 10:27 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:27 AM: thescratt Just a few days ago, we crossed $1 billion
• 10:28 AM: thescratt That’s what makes the App Store the most vibrant app community on the planet. (Me : Pretty amazing figure!)
• 10:28 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:28 AM: thescratt Ok Guys… Now I’d like to talk about the iPhone…
• 10:29 AM: thescratt RIM is number one with 35%, iPhone number two with 28%
• 10:29 AM: thescratt Windows Mobile #3 with 19%, Android #4 at 9% and “other” at 9%
• 10:29 AM: thescratt Nielsen said the iPhone’s market share was 3x that of Android as of Q1 2010
• 10:29 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:30 AM: thescratt Second thing is US Mobile Browser Usage from Net Applications
• 10:30 AM: thescratt iPhone has 58.2% of the entire mobile browser usage in the country. Over 2.5x as much as number two, which is Android, at 22.7%
• 10:30 AM: thescratt In 2007, iPhone reinvented the phone
• 10:30 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:30 AM: thescratt The iPhone started to change all that in 2007, it was a revolution
• 10:31 AM: thescratt In 2008, we added 3G networking and the App Store
• 10:31 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:31 AM: thescratt In 2009, iPhone 3GS was twice as fast
• 10:31 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:31 AM: thescratt For 2010, we’re taking the biggest leap since the original iPhone….. Drumroll…
• 10:31 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:31 AM: thescratt There are well over 100 new features…
• 10:32 AM: thescratt The first one is an all new design, looks just like the leaked prototype
• 10:32 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:32 AM: thescratt Some of you have already seen this… LOL
• 10:32 AM: thescratt Trust me, you ain’t seen it. You gotta see it in person. It’s one of the most beautiful designs you have ever seen
• 10:32 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:32 AM: thescratt Stainless steel all around, glass on the front.
• 10:32 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:33 AM: thescratt It’s really thin!
• 10:33 AM: thescratt It’s 9.3mm thick, 24% thinner than the 3GS.
• 10:33 AM: thescratt Volume controls are on the side, mute button. Front has a front facing camera and the receiver and the home button.
• 10:33 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:33 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:33 AM: thescratt @CL Radio signals.
• 10:33 AM: thescratt Microsim tray on the side
• 10:33 AM: thescratt Camera and LED flash on the back
• 10:34 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:34 AM: thescratt On the bottom, microphone, 30pin connector, speaker
• 10:34 AM: thescratt On the top, headset, a second mic, and a sleep/wake button
• 10:34 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:34 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:34 AM: thescratt Because there have been a few photos of this around, people have asked “What’s THIS?” (line on the side of the casing)
• 10:34 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:34 AM: thescratt The stainless steel band is part of the antenna system
• 10:34 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:35 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:35 AM: thescratt Integrated antennas for Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, all the cell stuff
• 10:35 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:35 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:35 AM: thescratt Thinnest smartphone ever, stainless steel for strength, glass for optical quality and scratch resistance (on front and back)
• 10:35 AM: thescratt All new design for the iPhone 4
• 10:35 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:36 AM: thescratt People going a bit crazy.. Steve pausing before moving onto feature 2!
• 10:36 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:36 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:36 AM: thescratt Retina Display!!
• 10:37 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:37 AM: thescratt In any display there are pixels. Retina display increases pixel density to 4x the pixels in the same amount of space
• 10:37 AM: thescratt If you wanted to draw the letter “A”, as you can see, we turn on pixels inside that stroke and get more precision the more pixels we have
• 10:37 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:37 AM: thescratt When we zoom out of this, because we have 4x as many pixels, we get really, really sharp text
• 10:37 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:37 AM: thescratt Retina display has 326 pixels per inch
• 10:37 AM: thescratt Text looks like you’ve seen it in a fine printed book, unlke you’ve ever seen in an electronic display
• 10:38 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:38 AM: thescratt It turns out there’s a “magic number” right around 300 pixels per inch. When you hold something about 10-12 inches away from your eye, there’s a limit in the human retina to differentiate the pixels
• 10:38 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:39 AM: thescratt Showing comparison view of old v new display on screen.
• 10:39 AM: thescratt Now live demo of 3GS v 4G
• 10:39 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:39 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:40 AM: thescratt Zoomed in difference looking at home screen is remarkable. Apple had to get special projectors to show just how good this screen is.
• 10:40 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:40 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:40 AM: thescratt Steve asks everyone to get off WiFi to help him out, audience laughs. (Demo is loading slowly!)
• 10:41 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:42 AM: thescratt Apple is having technical problems. Switching to backup network. People chuckling.
• 10:42 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:42 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:42 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:42 AM: thescratt Aborting internet demo. Showing images from camera roll instead. (Someone is in trouble!)
• 10:43 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:43 AM: thescratt Someone shouts, “Try Verizon.” <- LOL
• 10:43 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:43 AM: thescratt So: retinal display. 3.5″, same size as 3GS, but at 960×640 pixels (4x more pixels)
• 10:44 AM: thescratt Me : So not HD then.
• 10:44 AM: thescratt IPS technology for superb color and wide viewing angle
• 10:44 AM: thescratt Quite a bit better than OLED technology
• 10:44 AM: thescratt The retinal display has 78% of the pixels fo the iPad
• 10:44 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:45 AM: thescratt iPhone OS 4 makes it so your apps automatically run on the retinal display <- Me : Pixel doubling
• 10:45 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:45 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:45 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:45 AM: thescratt but they look even better, because iPhone OS automatically renders your text in the higher res, as well as controls <- Me : UI stuff does smoothing then. Nice.
• 10:46 AM: thescratt If you do a little bit of work and open up the hood of your app to put in higher res artwork, they will look stunning
• 10:46 AM: thescratt This is gonna set the standard for displays for the next several years
• 10:46 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:46 AM: thescratt iPhone 4 is powered by the A4 chip
• 10:46 AM: thescratt So the same as the iPad.
• 10:47 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:47 AM: thescratt You have to hunt to find the A4 chip, but it’s right there in the middle. Also the Micro SIM tray underneath, 3G radios, speaker
• 10:47 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:47 AM: thescratt Li-ion battery on the right
• 10:47 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:47 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:47 AM: thescratt Me : iFixit will be upset. Steve is doing a Teardown!
• 10:48 AM: thescratt Mic on the bottom and top
• 10:48 AM: thescratt Because we made the battery bigger and because A4 is so good with power managment, 40% more talk time on 3G from 5 to 7 hours, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi browsing
• 10:48 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:48 AM: thescratt @jellybean.. Right now…
• 10:48 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:48 AM: thescratt 40 hours of music
• 10:48 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:48 AM: thescratt 300 hours of standby
• 10:48 AM: thescratt 10 hours of video
• 10:48 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:49 AM: thescratt also arsenic free, BFR free, Mercury free, PVC free, highly recyclable
• 10:49 AM: thescratt Adding a gyroscope in iPhone 4 <- Wow! I just fainted! Excited!
• 10:49 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:49 AM: thescratt Adding a 3 axis gyro, pitch roll & yaw, rotation about gravity
• 10:49 AM: thescratt 6 axis motion sensing
• 10:49 AM: thescratt Me : Very excited!
• 10:50 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:50 AM: thescratt New CoreMotion APIs
• 10:50 AM: thescratt Perfect for gaming
• 10:50 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:50 AM: thescratt Built into every iPhone 4, so you know it’s there.
• 10:50 AM: thescratt Demo : And since this demo does not require the network, I should be OK!
• 10:51 AM: thescratt When you use the gyro, you get very precise movement and can rotate things around in ways you can’t with the accelerometer.
• 10:51 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:51 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:51 AM: thescratt Steve is turning around on stage and the app on the screen is rotating
• 10:51 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:52 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:52 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:52 AM: thescratt Me : We like gyroscopes!
• 10:52 AM: thescratt Steve : Some of our amazing engineers cobbled that together, but I can’t wait to see what you guys are gonna do
• 10:52 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:52 AM: thescratt Gyro joins 4 other sensors, accelerometer, compass, proximity and ambient light sensors.
• 10:53 AM: thescratt 5 : Whole new camera system.
• 10:53 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:53 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:53 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:53 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:53 AM: thescratt 5 MP
• 10:53 AM: thescratt But we’re using something that has been shipping for a while in larger cameras, a backside illuminated sensor
• 10:54 AM: thescratt A way to get more photons to the sensor.
• 10:54 AM: thescratt When most people increase their megapixels, they make those pixels smaller
• 10:54 AM: thescratt What we’ve done is, when we went from 3 to 5MP, we kept the pixels the same size
• 10:54 AM: thescratt 5x digital zoom built into camera app
• 10:54 AM: thescratt Tap to focus, LED flash built in
• 10:54 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:55 AM: thescratt Me : Any more than 5 MP at that size is overkill anyway. 5MP is a recognised sweet spot. Apple’s upgrades to that make it even better IMO.
• 10:55 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:55 AM: thescratt The camera also records HD video
• 10:55 AM: thescratt A full 720p at 30 frames per second.
• 10:56 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:56 AM: thescratt Me : Maybe they will call it “HD”.
• 10:56 AM: thescratt Pioneered tap to focus, now we have that for video
• 10:56 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:56 AM: thescratt Built-in video editing for trimming your clips on the phone, one-click sharing.
• 10:57 AM: thescratt iMovie for iPhone!!!
• 10:57 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:57 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:57 AM: thescratt Can record HD video right on your phone, edit it right there, and then e-mail, MMS, send to MobileMe, send to YouTube.
• 10:57 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:58 AM: thescratt Demoing the app now
• 10:58 AM: thescratt 15 years ago it was Final Cut Pro, 3 years ago it was the new iMovie. Now iMovie for iPhone is one of the most exciting things I’ve ever worked on
• 10:58 AM: Touch_Reviews @wick You can download the scribble live app from the App Store
• 10:58 AM: thescratt Once we bring up the app, get a list of all the projects you have. Tap on a project to get your editing environment
• 10:58 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:59 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:59 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:59 AM: thescratt See your clips along the bottom.
• 10:59 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:59 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:59 AM: thescratt Rotate the phone to landscape: you can record directly into the timeline if you want, or you can choose from existing clips on the device..
• 10:59 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 10:59 AM: thescratt Choose clips to drag them in, pinch to change the scale of the timeline
• 10:59 AM: thescratt Now let’s add a photo. Go to the bin and go to photos, can choose photos to add to the timeline
• 10:59 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:00 AM: thescratt Change your transitions with a nice scroll box.
• 11:00 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:01 AM: thescratt Photos automatically get the ken burns effect.
• 11:02 AM: thescratt The camera records geolocation information into the video, gets picked up automatically by iMovie and put into the screen
• 11:02 AM: thescratt Can add music tracks to your video
• 11:02 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:02 AM: thescratt Just made a completed movie in only a few minutes.
• 11:03 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:03 AM: thescratt Me : Does this thing make Pizza and vend beer also?
• 11:03 AM: thescratt Can select a theme for the video, and this particular theme has a pin on a map based on the geolocation data.
• 11:03 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:03 AM: thescratt Showing a video he made now.
• 11:04 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:04 AM: thescratt @ady LOL
• 11:04 AM: thescratt iMovie for iPhone will be available for $4.99
• 11:05 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:05 AM: thescratt Apple want Wifi turned off for the next demo.. Say too many people online…
• 11:06 AM: thescratt Bear with us…..
• 11:07 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:07 AM: thescratt iPhone OS 4, is being renamed
• 11:08 AM: thescratt Me : Makes sense.
• 11:08 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:08 AM: thescratt 1500 developer API
• 11:08 AM: thescratt 100 new user features
• 11:09 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:09 AM: thescratt Me : This is the unification of the iPhone / iPad OS I expected.
• 11:10 AM: thescratt @A People are hiding under seats and blogging. Apple minders keep coming round and shouting!
• 11:10 AM: Touch_Reviews @A 3G card
• 11:10 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:10 AM: thescratt Pandora demo..
• 11:10 AM: thescratt And Safari.. Ok.. So multitasking demo…
• 11:11 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:11 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:12 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:12 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:12 AM: thescratt Showing that you can control audio apps in multitasking bar by swiping left or right. showing unified inbox and threading in mail. Audience claps for both.
• 11:13 AM: thescratt @sarah For sure. It’s got a gyro! But srsly, yes.
• 11:13 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:14 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:14 AM: thescratt Running through iPhone OS4.0 (iOS4.0) features. Enterprise stuff, folders, etc.
• 11:14 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:14 AM: thescratt On the consumer side, today we have Google search as well as Yahoo as an option, and Bing
• 11:14 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:14 AM: thescratt iOS 4 and we’re gonna put a Golden Master Candidate in developers’ hands today
• 11:15 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:15 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:15 AM: thescratt Me : I will be interested to see the Simulator for the new screen resolution…
• 11:15 AM: thescratt Another major milestone we’re about to hit with iOS this month. 100 millionth iOS device
• 11:15 AM: thescratt That’s iPhones, iPod touches, iPads
• 11:16 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:16 AM: thescratt Number 7: iBooks
• 11:16 AM: thescratt We talked about iBooks and its enhancements on the iPad, and we’re bringing it to the iPhone with iPhone 4
• 11:16 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:17 AM: thescratt PDF in a mail message goes right to iBooks in your PDF shelf.
• 11:17 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:17 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:17 AM: thescratt Now, we’ve got iBooks now and we’ll have it on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch
• 11:18 AM: thescratt Wireless to iPhone, iPad & iPod features purchase and download a book, download the same book to all your devices at no extra charge
• 11:18 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:18 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:18 AM: thescratt @CL Do you mean the SDK?
• 11:19 AM: Touch_Reviews Be prepared iAd announcements will be coming up soon
• 11:19 AM: thescratt Demonstrating iBooks now on the retina display of the iPhone.
• 11:19 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:19 AM: thescratt @jellybean I expect so, yes.
• 11:19 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:20 AM: thescratt @sarah Yes. No more unlimited for new customers on AT&T.
• 11:20 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:20 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:20 AM: thescratt Demonstrating PDF, annotating, navigating etc.
• 11:20 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:20 AM: thescratt Pinch and zoom into text any way you want to
• 11:21 AM: thescratt iBookstore joins the iTunes Store and the App Store as the third store on the iPhone
• 11:21 AM: thescratt We have over 150 million accounts on the store with credit cards, ready to buy your apps
• 11:21 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:21 AM: thescratt And these stores have had over 16 billion downloads, again, number one on the web
• 11:21 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:21 AM: thescratt Number 8: iAds (Surpise!)
• 11:22 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:22 AM: thescratt Why are we doing this? We’re doing it for one reason: to help our developers earn money so that they can continue to make free and low-cost apps…
• 11:22 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:22 AM: thescratt Demo of iAds
• 11:22 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:23 AM: thescratt iAds keep you in your app
• 11:23 AM: thescratt The worst thing you want as a user is to tap on a banner and be hijacked out to the browser. (Me : Worst thing ever is ads. Period.)
• 11:24 AM: thescratt Apple sells and hosts the ads so all you have to do is tell us where to put them, and then make money.
• 11:24 AM: thescratt You get 60% of the revenues, and you get paid via iTunes Connect the same way you get paid for your apps.
• 11:24 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:24 AM: thescratt Here are the brands advertising with Apple. Expect big names…
• 11:25 AM: thescratt Nissan, citi, Unilever, AT&T (Suprise!), Chanel, GE, Liberty Mutual, State Farm
• 11:25 AM: thescratt Geico, Campbell’s, Sears, JC Penney
• 11:25 AM: thescratt Target, Best Buy
• 11:25 AM: thescratt DirecTV, TBS network, Disney
• 11:25 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:25 AM: thescratt Me : How do people feel about paying AT&T for bandwidth so they can advertise to you?
• 11:26 AM: thescratt Those are just some of the brands, we couldn’t be happier
• 11:26 AM: Touch_Reviews list of brands: Nissan, Citi, Unilever, AT&T, Chanel, GE, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, Geico — they want you guys to have insurance! — Sears, JCPenny, Target, Best Buy, DirecTV, TBS network, and Disney
• 11:26 AM: thescratt I pulled all of these folks who are working on their iAds, they’re not quite done yet, but I pulled the Nissan one advertising their fully electric car…
• 11:26 AM: thescratt They were a little hesitant to let me show you, but I wanted to show you…
• 11:26 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:26 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:27 AM: thescratt Newsreader app, the banner comes up on the bottom, if you tap on the ad, it’ll just come up on the screen but you can escape back to the app instantly
• 11:27 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:27 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:27 AM: thescratt Showing video in app…
• 11:27 AM: thescratt Initially if you want to buy a Nissan leaf, you have to register through the ad on the iPhone
• 11:27 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:28 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:28 AM: thescratt Can close at any time by tapping X in top left corner to resume whatever you were doing before.
• 11:28 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:28 AM: thescratt After video concludes, a little navigator shows up with the car over it that looks/works just like an iPhone app.
• 11:29 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:29 AM: thescratt iAds are turning on July 1
• 11:30 AM: thescratt ow successful are we gonna be? We don’t know what we’re doing, but we’ve attracted some pretty exciting brands and they’ve committed over $60 million for the second half of this year
• 11:30 AM: thescratt JP morgan just revised their study of US mobile display advertising in 2010, and they think the mobile space for the whole year is $250 million
• 11:30 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:31 AM: thescratt JP morgan just revised their study of US mobile display advertising in 2010, and they think the mobile space for the whole year is $250 million
• 11:31 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:31 AM: thescratt So those are the 8 things I wanted to share with you on iPhone 4….
• 11:32 AM: thescratt Ooo! Ooo! One more thing!
• 11:32 AM: thescratt Steve is yelling at us to turn off wifi
• 11:32 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:32 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:32 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:32 AM: thescratt So, in 2007 when we launched the iPhone, it was my priviledge to make the first public call on stage to one of my best friends in the whole world, Jonny Ive
• 11:32 AM: thescratt Me : Video chat?
• 11:33 AM: thescratt Steve is video chatting with Jonny Ive
• 11:33 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:33 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:33 AM: thescratt Quality looks great.
• 11:33 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:33 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:34 AM: thescratt Steve says “I’m doing great except for these guys who aren’t turning their WiFi off” to Jonny Ive
• 11:34 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:34 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:34 AM: thescratt Steve: I grew up here in the US with the Jetsons and Star Trek and communicators, dreaming about video calling, and it’s real now!
• 11:34 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:35 AM: thescratt Ive: It’s pretty odd isn’t it? The idea of communicating this way, it’s an old idea that we’re familiar with. We’ve had to wait an awfully long time for it to become real haven’t we
• 11:35 AM: thescratt Jobs: Hey let’s have lunch later on!
  Then he hung up!
• 11:35 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:35 AM: thescratt We call this FaceTime video calling
• 11:35 AM: thescratt Wifi only.
• 11:36 AM: thescratt You can switch to the rear camera so the other person can see what you’re seeing, can use it in portrait or landscape
• 11:36 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:36 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:37 AM: thescratt FaceTime is gonna be WiFi only in 2010, gotta work a little bit with the cellular providers to get ready for the future.. Me : Right!
• 11:37 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:37 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:37 AM: thescratt Showing video of babies and mums and stuff chatting over FaceTime. Me : Ahh!
• 11:38 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:38 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:38 AM: Touch_Reviews Face time: iPhone 4 to iPhone 4
• 11:38 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:39 AM: thescratt Sign language chat with other signers
• 11:39 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:39 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:39 AM: thescratt FaceTime : Guy in a locker room watching an ultrasound.
• 11:39 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:40 AM: thescratt FaceTime is becoming an open industry standard
• 11:40 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:40 AM: thescratt So that’s the iPhone 4….
• 11:40 AM: thescratt We think it’s the biggest leap we’ve taken since the original iPhone
• 11:40 AM: thescratt Price and availability
• 11:40 AM: thescratt Drumroll!
• 11:40 AM: thescratt Two colors: black and white
• 11:40 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:40 AM: thescratt And price (with normal qualifications, contracts) $199 for 16GB model, same price as 3GS
• 11:41 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:41 AM: thescratt $299 for 32GB model
• 11:41 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:41 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:41 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:41 AM: thescratt AT&T doing upgrades. Audience grumbles!
• 11:41 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:41 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:41 AM: thescratt If your contract expires anytime in 2010, you are immediately eligible for a new iPhone 4 at the same $199 or $299 prices if you top up your contract for 2 years
• 11:41 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:42 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:42 AM: thescratt Yesterday, it was the iPhone 3G at 8GB for $99 and the 3GS 16GB for $199
• 11:42 AM: thescratt Now we’re adding iPhone 4 to the 3GS and slide the 3G off
• 11:42 AM: thescratt Now 3GS for $99 at 8GB
• 11:42 AM: thescratt Go on sale June 24th
• 11:42 AM: thescratt Preorders start June 15
• 11:42 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:43 AM: thescratt Shipping in 5 countries: US France, Germany, UK, Japan
• 11:43 AM: thescratt In July, shipping in 18 more countries
• 11:43 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:43 AM: thescratt 24 more countries in August
• 11:43 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:43 AM: thescratt September 40 more
• 11:43 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:43 AM: thescratt The dock for iPhone 4 is $29
• 11:44 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:44 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:44 AM: thescratt @Brent July.
• 11:44 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:44 AM: thescratt Talk for a minute about iOS 4 upgrades: will be offering them for 3GS, iPhone 3G (with limitations, some features aren’t supported)
• 11:45 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:45 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:45 AM: thescratt OS Upgrades for iPod free also. June 21st.
• 11:46 AM: thescratt Showing a mumbling Jonny Ive video with summary of iPhone 4 / iOS4.0 features.
• 11:46 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:46 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:47 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:47 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:47 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:48 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:48 AM: thescratt @IKE np. Thanks for playing.
• 11:48 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:48 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:49 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:49 AM: thescratt @alicia Glad you enjoyed it.
• 11:50 AM: Touch_Reviews “And now… the A4 part!”
• 11:50 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:50 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:50 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:50 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:51 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:51 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:51 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:51 AM: thescratt To all of you. No problem. Was fun. Same time next year? Those that are still here.. Not sure if this is the very end yet…. So we’ll still be here until they confirm that.
• 11:52 AM: thescratt Steve is back
• 11:52 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:52 AM: thescratt Apple is not just a technology company: it’s more than that. It’s the marriage of that plus the humanities that distinguishes Apple
• 11:52 AM: thescratt It’s the hardware and software working together, coming up with A4 chips that work with the software and give us incredible battery lives…
• 11:52 AM: thescratt It’s not just a front facing camera, it’s a front facing camera and 18 months’ worth of work to come up with software that you’ll never even notice when you want to place a video call
• 11:53 AM: Touch_Reviews @Jongsu Glad you enjoyed the live feed
• 11:53 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:53 AM: thescratt I am so proud of the teams that have made this product. It’s really extraordinary and I urge you to get your hands on one to see for yourself
• 11:53 AM: thescratt I want to say thanks to the teams who have worked their tails off for the last 18 months
• 11:53 AM: thescratt Steve asking Mark Papermaster to stand up… and his hardware team..
• 11:53 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:54 AM: thescratt Jonny Ive standing up
• 11:54 AM: thescratt The iOS 4 software team. Me : Some old friends of mine there.
• 11:54 AM: thescratt Tim Cook and the operations team standing up
• 11:54 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:54 AM: thescratt Steve : Thanking all the rest of the Apple family that supports us in a thousand ways.
• 11:55 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:55 AM: thescratt Thank you very much, this is our new baby, I hope you love it as much as we do.
• 11:55 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:55 AM: Touch_Reviews
• 11:55 AM: thescratt Steve is going. It’s all over.
• 11:56 AM: Touch_Reviews Follow Touch Reviews on Twitter for more updates and round up twitter.com
• 11:57 AM: thescratt Thanks again all.
• 11:59 AM: Touch_Reviews @guest No
• 12:01 PM: Touch_Reviews Thanks for following our live feed. Join us on facebook too facebook.com

Steve Jobs will kick off the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2010 on Monday, June 7th at 10 am Pacific with a live keynote presentation.

Apple is widely rumored to unveil the new iPhone 4G, provide iPhone OS 4 update, announce Safari 5 and introduce new cloud based music streaming and storage services.

We will bring you the all-in-one live feed from all popular news sources (Engadget, CNET, MacRumors, ArsTechnica, Wired, GDGT and more) and update you with the latest information. We will be updating you with the latest images and features of new iPhone (4G / HD), iPhone OS 4.0 and all other announcements. Live audio/video feed is unlikely to be available however, we will update this page if we find one.

We will also allow live comments and our team will be live a bit early to discuss the event. As soon as the download link to the WWDC 2010 keynote event is available we will update this page.

Don’t miss this event, bookmark and share this page today!

Check your time zone:

07:00AM – Hawaii
10:00AM – Pacific
11:00AM – Mountain
12:00PM – Central
01:00PM – Eastern
06:00PM – London
07:00PM – Paris

Sometimes those synergies are less positive, with respect to the two companies relationships. If you cast your mind back to Apple’s attempted purchase of AdMob, and Google’s tactical move to snap it up from under them you should see what I mean.

At Google’s own developer conference, called Google I/O, they recently announced a music service of sorts, which allowed users to stream their music content from their desktop computer to any Android device. This service seemed to include iTunes as a source for DRM free music.

This service basically allows you to share any copyright free music from any desktop client, on any personal computer, with any Android device. All you have to do is install a small piece of software to enable this.

Google’s purchase of Simplify Media is what has given them the technology to do this. Simplify Media has had this message on their website since March :

We are unable to share our future plans at this time but hope to be able to announce the re-launch of the technology soon. In the meantime, we will continue to operate the existing service for at least the next 3 months. Many thanks to those of you who have supported us and helped us improve Simplify over the last few years! We hope you will enjoy its future incarnations as well.

In some ways the state of Simplify Media is somewhat similar to that of LaLa. A streaming music service that Apple bought, and has now effectively shut down, just prior to their own developer conference WWDC. This has sparked any number of rumors and counter rumors from bloggers and tech sites about Apple’s plans for a music service in some way based in the cloud.

Today Google revealed the logo for their “music service”. It’s certainly a Google logo!

I wonder how much that cost them? Or how long it took to design?

At the moment the Google Music service is set to take on iTunes in the US only. And basically it functions in a fairly similar fashion to that of iTunes. You can buy a piece of music in the Android Market, download it to your device, and then play it.

When coupled with Google streaming service you will then presumably be able to stream from your desktop machine also, over the internet to anywhere you have a connection on your Android phone, or tablet.

One has to wonder what Apple’s reply will be to this. For me it lends more credence to the rumors that Apple will perhaps be announcing something along these lines at WWDC next week. Or perhaps at a special event booked roughly a week after WWDC 2010.

What are you thoughts on Google Music, Apple’s iTunes, and the possibility of a streaming audio service from Apple?
Let us know in the comments.

Google Music at Google I/O :

]]> https://touchreviews.net/google-music-logo-revealed/feed/ 1 https://touchreviews.net/lala-service-discontinued-itunes-streaming-coming/ https://touchreviews.net/lala-service-discontinued-itunes-streaming-coming/#comments Tue, 01 Jun 2010 23:27:09 +0000 https://touchreviews.net/?p=7013 Read More]]> Apple acquired the popular music streaming service LaLa.com as they were interested in their experience with cloud-based music services. Recent news reports and patent filings indicate that Apple is all set to launch its cloud-based music streaming service.

Last month we reported that LaLa would be shutting down their service and today the service was finally discontinued. This has lead to further speculation that Apple might introduce its new music subscription service during WWDC 2010. Millions of users already use iTunes to purchase music which makes it very easy for Apple to market their subscription based service.

Apple could also be looking at improving the iTunes experience by allowing users to stream the full song and then decide if they would like to buy it. The new iTunes music streaming service could also use the data from genius playlist and recommendations and stream music from an endless collection of artists you like.

The DOJ is currently investigating Apple’s music services but we could still see a demo of this new streaming service during the WWDC keynote.

But what does this all mean? Why, as Apple news site AppleInsider reports, has Apple engaged a Goldman Sachs investment banker to help in its mergers and acquisitions work? The types and rate of acquisitions point to three areas.

AppleInsider notes one of the main reasons Apple has gone on such a purchasing spree is to engage in a type of arms race with Google. Apple understands its main competition is not Microsoft any more, it’s Google. With Google aggressively moving into the mobile space with Android, the Nexus One, and a rumored upcoming tablet; Apple understands they are quickly coming into direct conflict with a company that has the money and will to compete with it on any field of battle. Apple also understands that passing on a company they might only be mildly interested in would leave them open to purchase by Google. Better to buy a company, acquire its human resources and intellectual property, and let it go fallow then leave it open to development by Google. It’s conventional wisdom that Apple bought LaLa to develop an “iTunes in the cloud” type of product. It’s equally as probably they just bought to deny Google the property.

The second reason for the recent acquisition spree centers around money and Apple’s ability to spend it. It’s widely regarded the two companies in Silicon Valley with the largest war chests are Google and Apple. The twin factors of Apple’s previously cautious nature and the wild success of their iTunes-iPhone ecosystem has left them with a large pile of cash to play with. It has been reported Apple has a portfolio of liquid investments worth approximately $41 billion USD. At no other point in its corporate history has Apple had the raw ability to buy companies that enhance its product lines. No longer relegated to picking and choosing who it acquires, Apple now has the cash to quickly expand and capitalize on its success. Apple finds itself in the enviable position of having cash and a popular product line that is ripe for expansion and market dominance.

And that leads to the last point. Apple has never had the need to quickly acquire companies before now. All of the internal moves Apple has made since the 2007 introduction of the iPhone have led to this moment. Now that Apple has built their move into mobile into the twin pronged success of the iPhone and iPad, they’re moving quickly to cement that move into long term success. That means taking over the means of hardware design and production (Intrinsity), developing in-house applications that replace the competitors on your platform (Placebase), and further extending your current ecosystem into new spaces without drastically changing its profit model (LaLa). It will be interesting to see what further acquisitions Apple has up its sleeve. While they may not indicate immediate changes to what Apple is doing, they certainly indicate a future direction.

What do you think of Apple’s recent acquisition spree? Are they buying companies to expand and increase their reach or simply to deny Google? Let us know what you think in the comments section.