Last year, Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and came up with a plan to sell off its collection of imaging patents to pay off its debts. It wanted more than $2 billion for the IP, but ended up settling on a $525 million offer from a consortium of companies led by Apple and Google. And today, Bankruptcy Court Judge Allan Gropper has green-lighted the deal...
And the plot continues to thicken. After two major news outlets ran stories earlier this week claiming that Apple was working on a less-expensive iPhone, Reuters reported that the company had no such plans, citing comments made to a Chinese newspaper by Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller.
But as most of you know, Reuters retracted the report earlier today. It was unclear at the time why it had chosen to remove the story, but it's attempting to clear things up this afternoon with a new report called "Apple won't blindly pursue market share" that helps shed some light on what happened...
Apple today added a brand new streaming option for Apple TV owners in Germany, the new Watchever video service. No firmware update is needed: the service appears as a new app on the user's home screen. Watchever just launched in the country yesterday as the first premium, monthly fee-based video-on-demand provider. The Vivendi-owned streaming service requires a monthly subscription of €8.99, or about ten bucks.
And just like Netflix over in the United States, it provides access to television shows and movies on a number of compatible devices. It is only available on Apple TVs in Germany, indicating Eddy Cue & Co. are now pushing deals with local content owners outside the United States...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzdiezrSg0U
Famous iOS hacker pod2g, the brains behind a ton of jailbreak releases, including the untethered Absinth 2.0 for iOS 5.1.1, is releasing podDJ tomorrow, his very first App Store submission. Akin to Algoriddim's dj apps, podDJ is basically a DJing software that lets you mix and scratch music tracks from the iTunes library on your iPad tablet.
It has a gorgeous user interface and pod2g claims it will be the snappiest iOS DJing app, thanks to a sound output latency of just five milliseconds, OpenGL refresh rate of 60Hz and literally zero latency cue points and zero latency key locks, resulting in unique touch to sound reactivity...
UPDATE: PodDJ is now in the App Store in the US too. Download it now!
Despite Apple's absence from this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the company has remained in the headlines. Yesterday, we reported that Apple is evaluating Retina screens for the next iPad mini, with Foxconn’s subsidiary Shenzhen Century Science & Technology allegedly having sent its high-resolution panels based on One Glass Solution to Apple for testing. This indicates that Apple is slowly but surely aligning its supply chain partners ahead of upcoming iPad refreshes. Today, one analyst notes that some evidence now points to the official launch for the iPad 5 and iPad mini 2 in March...
Here's something for naysayers to chew on: Reuters, the respectable news gathering organization, Friday morning issued a clarification stating it had withdrawn the story that was originally published under the headline "Apple exec dismisses cheaper iPhone as a market share grab — report". It's not clear what prompted Reuters to rescind its report sourced from an interview Apple's marketing honcho Phil Schiller gave to the Shanghai Evening News.
iDB also cited that Chinese newspaper interview, in which Schiller reportedly claims that “despite the popularity of cheap smartphones”, a so-called budget “will never be the future of Apple’s products”. It's unclear why Reuters has now distanced itself from Schiller's denial concerning the so-called iPhone mini project.
Managing Editor Matthew Panzarino of The Next Web has verified with Apple that it’s an official interview and Reuters relayed his claim. Later yesterday, however, the news organization updated its original interview story after the Shanghai Evening News made "substantial changes to its content", but didn't give the specifics.
Friday morning, Reuters retracts its story altogether. It's an interesting turn of events no matter how you look at it, one that raises new questions. Like, why would Reuters risk its credibility by pulling the Phil Schiller budget iPhone story, despite the supposed confirmation from Apple? So... What do you make of this?
Red hot UK developer Chillingo has refreshed its popular physics-based puzzler, Cut the Rope, with a brand new Steam Box containing 25 levels. The charming game invites you to feed candy to your little monster.
Released two years ago, it's been downloaded 250 million times across platforms. With this new update, which is free to those who've purchased the game, Cut the Rope now sports a whopping 325 levels spread across thirteen boxes and Chillingo is promising more to come. Just like Angry Birds, Chillingo has been constantly adding new content to Cut the Rope with free content packs.
Rovio also yesterday updated its Angry Birds Space game with 30 new aquatic levels and while I'm a huge fan of the series, I must admit I've been feeling a little Angry Birds fatigue lately so this Cut the Rope update should keep me busy. It's very entertaining and I love its charming characters and crisp graphics. If you haven't already, I urge you to at least check out a out free demo version...
Cue Karl Malden. Stuck abroad without your emergency contact information. What will you do? Instead of turning to the local American Express office, you could consult your iPhone, according to a newly-discovered emergency application by Apple. In a patent application filed when the first-generation iPhone hit shelves, an app could hold local emergency phone numbers and addresses. The proposed app suggests Apple already envisioned its smartphone becoming a storehouse for vital information...
Apple was presented with a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award last night during a special reception in Las Vegas. The annual event honors innovation in broadcast technology and recognizes companies and individuals whose breakthroughs have a significant effect on TV engineering...
Apple is more focused on China now than it's ever been before. Tim Cook is actually in the country this week, meeting with high-level government officials and the chairman of the world's largest carrier, China Mobile.
The company also just published its new Chinese New Year Gift Guide. It features Apple's top picks for products and accessories, and can be seen in its China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia web stores...
This is pretty interesting. Former chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M and Beats Audio CEO Jimmy Iovine recently sat down for an interview to discuss the popular headphone-maker's upcoming streaming music service, Project Daisy.
During the conversation, Iovine talked about his relationship with Apple, and more specifically Steve Jobs. And he said that he spent at least three years trying to convince the then-CEO to do a subscription-based streaming music service...
Apple TV owners in Germany are in for a little surprise the next time they boot up their set top boxes. It appears that Apple has added a new app to the home screen for Watchever, a new video subscription service.
Similar to Netflix, Watchever gives users unlimited access to local, European and international movies and TV shows for €8.99 a month (or about $12 USD). And now, German users can access it on their ATVs...