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.
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According to The Next Web, Apple has added yet another service to its Apple TV device, a movie streaming and TV service called Watchever. Watchever is a Hulu Plus type streaming service that requires a subscription and allows users to log into the application on their Apple TV and stream movies and TV shows on their HD televisions. The service costs €8.99 a month and carries both international and local television series and movies.
Key features include the ability to choose between a German dubbed version of international movies, or the original. There is also a personal recommendation algorithm à la Netflix.
Apple has also updated its second and third generation Apple TV support page which shows all of the services currently available for use on the device. Watchever is the latest addition and mentions Germany on the bottom to note that it is only available in that country. Watchever announced during its launch that it would be compatible with the Apple TV and has now officially released it.
With more services being added to the Apple TV, the Cupertino company is continuously building relationships with different companies that may also hash out deals if Apple was to release a television set in the near future.
{Via MacRumors}
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Apple offers its employees a number of perks, for keeping the company’s retail stores operating smoothly on a daily basis. The latest perk Apple is offering is slightly odd, to say the least. The Cupertino company is offering their retail employees an upgrade to 50GB of free iCloud storage as opposed to the 5GB offered on a standard account.
The free storage is reportedly $100/a month value and is similar to the free MobileMe subscription employees received until it was scrapped for iCloud. According to MacRumors, Apple employees were given a $500 discount on any Mac except the Mini and $250 off of an iPad.
Apple continues to offer its retail employees free services and discounts on products, likely to keep morale high and keep the employees up to date. Some who don’t use the products, aside from the required training may not know as much about the product as an employee who use it regularly.
{via MacRumors}
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Early Wednesday, Amazon released an iPad app for its Instant Video service, Amazon Prime Instant Video. The service allows subscribers to rent and buy movies and television shows for offline viewing and competes with other major streaming giants such as Netflix. Amazon’s streaming also gives users the option to stream Prime Instant Video titles when connected to the internet.
Currently, other services such as Netflix only allow users to stream on the internet and do not provide an offline option. Now, these services will be available on the iPad, allowing Amazon to not only keep many of the customers they have but lure in new customers with the offerings on Apple’s popular tablet. With content on Amazon’s Prime Instant Video now available on iPad, users can stop streaming on one device, and resume on numerous others such as TV’s, a Mac or PC, and Amazon’s own Kindle Fire.
With Amazon Instant Video, you can:
– Stream thousands of titles available from Prime Instant Video at no additional cost with a Prime membership, or watch over 120,000 videos available from the Amazon Instant Video store
– Download purchased and rented videos from Your Video Library
– Shop over 120,000 videos available from the Amazon Instant Video store by visiting Amazon
– Add videos to your Watchlist from a PC, Mac, or Kindle Fire for later viewing on your iPad
– Subscribe to a TV Season Pass by visiting Amazon and episodes will automatically be available on your iPad the day after they air
– Start watching on your iPad, and resume watching right where you left off on a Kindle Fire, PS3, PC, Mac, or hundreds of models of connected TVs and Blu-ray players with Amazon Whispersync.
With this new service, it seems that Amazon is trying to get a leg up on Netflix and build a similar service but is using its Kindle Fire device to grab market share. Amazon Prime is available for $79 a year and also offers its customers free two day shipping and discounted overnight shipping.
Overall, this comes out to be a much cheaper and more convenient option when considering Netflix’s $7 a month charge which adds up to be more money and does not offer discounts on other products.
Amazon Instant Video is currently free {Direct Link} in the App Store and requires a subscription for log in.
{via MacRumors}
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Hulu Plus, the popular streaming television service was introduced a little more than two years ago, making primetime television shows from popular US channels available for streaming on a number of mobile devices, including game systems and Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
On Tuesday, the streaming giant brought their service over to the Apple TV, for users to stream on their HDTV. Hulu made an official announcement of the arrival of the service on the Apple TV on their Hulu Blog.
Keeping up with the latest episode of Family Guy, MasterChef and New Girl on Hulu Plus just got a little easier. And my living room just got a whole lot happier.
Hulu Plus arrives on Apple TV today.
Hulu Plus is available for $7.99 / month subscription and requires an account for use on the Apple TV. It has numerous categories for movies and TV shows such as popular, favorite, and recent which can be navigated with the physical Apple TV remote or the Apple Remote app.
For those of you who are new to the service, Hulu Plus is the only online premium video subscription that streams current and classic TV programming on demand from hundreds of content partners, including top broadcast networks ABC, NBC, FOX, The CW and Univision. Hulu Plus subscribers can watch on any enabled devices for $7.99/month with limited advertising. For many popular shows on our service, Hulu Plus offers every episode of the current season.
Hulu Plus on Apple TV is currently only available in the United States and is subscription based with limited ads.
{via iMore}
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The London 2012 Olympics are under one week away now and if you’re not able to take the time off of work and sit down to watch 1,000’s of hours worth of sport spread over the two weeks then you may want to look into some of the iPhone and iPad offerings that are available to you to consume the games while you are out and about.
First up is the official results app which is a free app for both the iPhone and iPad which will enable you to keep track all the events as they happen.
The schedule page promises to keep you up to date with what’s happening and when including what’s coming up next. If you have a specific sport that you want to follow you can to and even set yourself reminders to be alerted before they start.
Full medal stats will be available here too and you can view the overall count, individuals and by specific sports. Also included is an extensive athlete database where you can view your favorite athletes, although if you are a fan of some of the smaller countries their teams are not currently updated, hopefully this will get updated. [App Store]
If you are more interested in competing, virtually, in some of the games yourself then the Official Mobile game may be for you. There are two versions of the the game a free version that allows you to progress using in-app purchase of a paid version where stars and stamina are pre-included, although you may still need to purchase more.
9 events are covered and as with many games of this type a combination of repeated tapping and timing is required to succeed in all of the events. You build up your athletes stats across 6 different categories and these in turn help improve your athletes results.
The game is fun and has its own built social aspect so that you can compare your best results with your friends, however it doesn’t use GameCenter so you’ll have to find and add your friends again.
The London 2012 Offical Mobile Game can be a little sluggish at times and the use of stamina will prevent you from playing the game as much as you would like, unless you are willing to purchase more via in-app purchase. [App Store]
If you are one of the lucky ones that will be attending the London 2012 games then the London 2012: Official Join In App for the Olympics and Paralympic Games app for the iPhone and iPad is a companion app for you.
This app will show you what is going on and where and not only includes the sports but also other events that are taking place in each area for when you aren’t watching the sports.
There is a lot of information in this app including information of travelling, safety, tickets and much more. If you’re going to be in and around London for the 2012 Olympics then this is a must have app. [App Store]
For our readers that want to follow Team USA you have an app just for you. 2012 Team USA Road to the London Olympics for the iPhone and iPad is the one stop shop for everything you need to know about your athletes.
With a frequently updated news stream you’ll always be up to date with what’s going on in all the sports that Team USA are taking part in helping you to keep you patriotic fever at a maximum level at all times.
The app is a little sluggish due to the frequent refreshing of data but the benefit of that is that it’s always up to date. You have access to the Team USA shop and in-depth biographies of all the athletes. [App Store]
Talking of the USA, if you are in the USA then NBC and their family of TV stations will be televising the London 2012 Olympics and they have a couple of apps for you to consume their coverage.
NBC Olympics is a app for everything about the olympics and including news, videos, photos, athletes and sports with a USA focus. There’s no live coverage in this app though, for live coverage you need to use the separate NBC Olympics Live Extra app.
The NBC Olympics Live Extra app allows you to watch the the events as they happen providing that you have cable or satellite at your home which includes the NBC family of channels.
Only time will tell how well the the app works when the live events start but one of the great looking features is the ability to set reminders to the live events so that you won’t miss out on them wherever you are especially as the video will stream over the cellular network but will obviously use a lot of data! [App Store]
For those of you in the UK you can download the BBC app which will include up to 24 live video streams of all the events as well as news, live text updates and details on all the sports.
The app is beautifully presented but at this moment is only available for the iPhone and not the iPad which considering that it includes live video streams is a little disappointing.
No separate TV subscription is required for this app but you will need to be based in the UK to watch the live streaming. [App Store]
If you want to enjoy the London 2012 Olympics along with the sports stars themselves then SportsStars is the app for you as it contains all of the social savvy athletes who are active of Facebook or Twitter.
As well as direct links to their social pages you can also view current news on each specific athlete and view the timetables for their events so that you know when to tune in to watch them. However, with around only 40 of the athletes being included in the app there’s no guarantee that your favorite athlete is going to be included. [App Store]
There are many iconic moments that happen in global events and the full impact of these moments can’t always be fully appreciated in video. However, photojournalists continue capture beautiful moments which can speak a 1000 words.
The Reuters Olympics London 2012 app collates these pictures into a single application for the iPad which groups these photographs by day and event and is visually stunning.
The pictures also have additional information alongside them and can also be shared via your social networks. [App Store]
It’s no surprise that there are multiple ways to get involved with the London 2012 Olympics and with this handful of iPhone and iPad apps you are never going to be too far away from the action.
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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}
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In a blunt tone, BeamItDown’s Phillip Huber summarized what he concluded as the end of his life’s hard work and the result of millions. Huber’s company as well as their iFlow Reader application will cease to exist, come May 31st which is the official date when BeamItDown is expected to shut down.
Five of us spent nearly a year and a half of our lives and over a million dollars in cash and sweat equity developing the iFlowReader app with its unique AutoScrolling approach to reading that many of you really like. … We put our faith in Apple and they screwed us.
BeamItDown is the first company to shut down after Apple Inc. (AAPL) made a change to it’s in-app subscription rules and just before it released it’s new subscription model. This shut down is drawing attentiom across the web, with developers fearing that their apps might be on danger as well. While many cases may not be as serious as BeamItDown’s, it is still a matter of great concern within the developer community. This is something that could possibly cost developer’s lots of money, time and hard work as the subscription model eats into developers already thin profit margin. Apple has yet to make a statement on any further changes to the new subscription rules they may present with the developer’s release of iOS 5.
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