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Rhapsody 25 is a free service that allows anyone who downloads the jukebox software to listen to 25 tracks from the Rhapsody library each month. Real said that it will offset the cost of paying music labels for the songs with its new Chrysler sponsorship. The company is also in a business relationship with Google…

I n an editorial for the BBC published Thursday, Stephen Evans examined the culture of Mac owners and Apple fans. Dredging up the controversial "cult" word, the article compared the Manhattan Apple Store to a church, Macworld keynotes to church event, and even considered the idea that Mac users were comparable to Catholics, while Windows…

I n its annual shareholder meeting Thursday, Apple Computer shareholders approved all of the proposals sponsored by the companyis board of directors, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the opportunity to blasts environmentalists that have been protesting against the company. According to a report on the meeting by MacCentral, Mr. Jobs denied all of the…

L AS VEGAS — Attendees at the 2005 National Association of Broadcasters trade show in Las Vegas voted Apple products among the top five in two different categories, the NAB trade group announced late on Wednesday. Appleis Final Cut Pro 5, which was announced Sunday, April 17th, and QuickTime Broadcaster were each selected as one…

L AS VEGAS — Nestled within the halls of every trade show lie the overlooked: product releases and other announcements that donit generate as much coverage as the news made by the big companies. The Mac Observer was on hand, however, to bring you three announcements that were overlooked during this yearis National Association of…

104,427 attendees were registered for the event, including 23,401 international visitors. Those numbers compare to 97,544 in 2004, plus 22,320 international attendees. NAB 2005 is being held at the Las Vegas Convention center between now and April 21. It is the worldis largest electronic media show covering the development, delivery and management of professional video…

The new study showed buyers prefer the pay-per download model. 24% of current downloaders indicated a preference for obtaining music through a fee-based online offering, with an a la carte pay-per-download method most preferred at 19%. 5% preferred an on-demand PC-tethered streaming subscription service. Downloaders who have experience paying for online music are most pronounced…

Under the terms of the merger, which has already been approved by both boards, San Jose, California-based Adobe Systems will pay 0.69 of its own shares for each Macromedia share. After the deal, Macromedia?s stockholders will own approximately 18% of the combined company on a pro forma basis. The deal values Macromedia?s share at $41.86,…

< A href="https://www.apple.com">Apple Computer announced Sunday Shake 4, an upgrade to the companyis compositing solution for film editing. The new version features 3D multi-plane compositing, cutting-edge optical flow image processing, and what Apple called “unprecedented integration with Final Cut Pro 5.” The announcement was made in advance of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade…

< A href="https://www.apple.com">Apple Computer announced Sunday a new version of Soundtrack, the companyis editing software solution for film soundtracks. Soundtrack Pro brings new editing options and features, new features for fixing problems in a soundtrack, plugins from Logic Pro 7, and tighter integration with Final Cut Pro HD. The announcement was made in advance of…

Using Appleis own data, Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster came to his conclusion based on the total number of flat panel iMacs, eMacs and Mac miniis sold, the total revenue of the group and the approximate average selling price of each model. With only 69 days to sell the Mac mini in the…

During the audio interview, Mr. Card noted that “Apple is in great shape [in the MP3 player market]. Theyive built two or three great products and continue to innovate. Theyive also been aggressive on pricing and have really nailed the sweet spot of the market.” Mr. OiDay compared the iPod phenomenon with the success Sony…

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) said Tuesday students at colleges and universities have been using the high-speed Internet2 research and academic network to illegally share music and movies with others worldwide. Calling the trend an “emerging epidemic” that is hurting sales and revenues, RIAA President…

In a prepared statement provided to The Mac Observer, the company said Office 2004 will work with Appleis Spotlight search feature and will index Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats. The company did not provide additional details of other features that will work with Tiger. “Support for additional features such as sync services will be enabled…

During a hearing to discuss mandating interoperability standards between competing music platforms, the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property heard from a variety of industry experts, all of whom concluded that legislation would not be the answer and that the industry needs to find an answer that still furthers competition. Representatives of…

< A href="https://www.sony.com">Sonyis biggest priority in Japan is rebuilding its brand, thanks to the smash success of iPod in that country, according to an article published by Marketwatch. The company has begun a marketing campaign to achieve this, and company executives see 2005 as the turning point around which the market will continue to evolve.…

< A href="https://www.near-time.com/">Near-Time announced Wednesday the commercial availability of Current, an all-in-one tool for creating text documents, browsing Web sites, managing and reading RSS feeds, archiving content, and publishing information back out to blog or other Web server. Included in Current is a WYSIWG editor, an RSS feed reader and manager, an organizer, a Web…

T he Mac community has lashed out at one of its own for what was perceived as a lackadaisical approach to supporting Macs at his own company. In a follow-up to another column at InfoWorld, an IT-oriented print and online magazine, CTO Chad Dickerson said he came under a Mac attack for telling a sales…

The analysis concern In-Stat reported Tuesday that digital still cameras, USB flash drives, the growing digital music player market, and the promise of a large mobile phone market will continue to dominate the non-Flash card based demand, with USB memory being the largest of the group with revenues of a little over $2 Billion in…

T hough Apple is leading the digital media device market with the iPod, there are a host of companies offering iPod alternatives, and Time magazine has published a roundup featuring Sonyis NW-HD3 Network Walkman, Toshibais Gigabeat MEG F20, the iRiver H10, and the Zen Micro. Time positions all four units as a different way to…

< A href="https://www.apple.com/powermac/">Apple Computeris product availability has improved across the board, with the exception of the iPod U2 Special Edition, according to a Wall Street analyst. In a research note obtained by The Mac Observer, Piper Jaffrayis Gene Munster told clients Thursday that Apple had reduced lead times, particularly for the Mac mini and iPod…