iPhone Daily News Digest

GigaOm is reporting that, contrary to speculation that Steve Jobs wanted to return us to a more analog time when we bought new albums and sank back for ours drinking in every liner note and detail, iTunes LP was actually the record labels’ idea:

I’m told by an industry source who preferred to remain anonymous that iTunes LP wasn’t Apple’s idea in the first place. Rather, it’s the result of the same renegotiations between Apple and the major record labels that yielded DRM-free songs and flexible pricing early last year, a concession by Cupertino to make a gesture in favor of album sales as consumers increasingly show a preference for digital singles.

It’s further said that Apple subsidized the first batch of iTunes LPs, whose production costs were an unbelievable $60,000. The more recent release of developer tools is seen as reducing that cost, and rumors persist of an iDVD-like replacement application from Apple that would work to make iTunes LP and iTunes Extra.

Either way, enthusiasm among artists and Apple itself seems to be low, though just over double the amount of iTunes LPs are available now than were at launch. GigaOm suggests artists are also interested in the App Store as a way to provide extra content to consumers, which might split focus for iTunes LP.

In terms of pushing the format forward, it’s now supported by Apple TV (stuttering though it may be), but there’s been no sign of support for the 75 million iPhone and iPod touch devices on the market. It will be supported by the iPad, however, though Apple hasn’t been pushing iTunes LP as a selling point so far.

Have you bought an iTunes LP? Are you interested in the format going forward?

iTunes LP was Record Labels’ Idea? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

GigaOm is reporting that, contrary to speculation that Steve Jobs wanted to return us to a more analog time when we bought new albums and sank back for ours drinking in every liner note and detail, iTunes LP was actually the record labels’ idea:

I’m told by an industry source who preferred to remain anonymous that iTunes LP wasn’t Apple’s idea in the first place. Rather, it’s the result of the same renegotiations between Apple and the major record labels that yielded DRM-free songs and flexible pricing early last year, a concession by Cupertino to make a gesture in favor of album sales as consumers increasingly show a preference for digital singles.

It’s further said that Apple subsidized the first batch of iTunes LPs, whose production costs were an unbelievable $60,000. The more recent release of developer tools is seen as reducing that cost, and rumors persist of an iDVD-like replacement application from Apple that would work to make iTunes LP and iTunes Extra.

Either way, enthusiasm among artists and Apple itself seems to be low, though just over double the amount of iTunes LPs are available now than were at launch. GigaOm suggests artists are also interested in the App Store as a way to provide extra content to consumers, which might split focus for iTunes LP.

In terms of pushing the format forward, it’s now supported by Apple TV (stuttering though it may be), but there’s been no sign of support for the 75 million iPhone and iPod touch devices on the market. It will be supported by the iPad, however, though Apple hasn’t been pushing iTunes LP as a selling point so far.

Have you bought an iTunes LP? Are you interested in the format going forward?

iTunes LP was Record Labels’ Idea? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

The Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) petitioned NASA (an iPhone developer – iTunes link) under the Freedom of Information Act to provide them with a copy of Apple’s iPhone SDK License Agreement, and have gone through and provided both a link to the agreement (an older version, provided at the time of the request) and some analysis of what it contains.

For those not familiar with the document, it contains the legal terms a developer must agree to before they can develop for the iPhone platform. Since the EFF and Apple have been duking it out over Jailbreaking for a while now — the EFF wants Jailbreaking to be made an official exception to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and Apple has opposed that move — the EFF thinks the SDK agreement is particularly interesting at the moment.

The major points brought out and up by the EFF include:

• One rule of the SDK license agreement is you can’t talk about the SDK license agreement. Despite it not being “Apple confidential information” developers are contractually prohibited from discussing it in public.
• Apps developed using the SDK can only be released through the iTunes App Store. So if Apple rejects you for any reason, according to their own guidelines or just on whim, you can’t release via Jailbreak or on a competing platform (if any were compatible).
• No reverse engineering or helping others reverse engineer, even where such actions have legal precedent as exceptions to copyright.
• No hacking or helping hack any Apple products. That means no Jailbreaking the iPhone, no putting Boxee on your AppleTV, no loading Linux on your iPod Classic.
• Kill switch is informed in the agreement. Apple can revoke your certificate at any time. (Though they’ve yet to ever do this).
• If Apple messes up and owes a developer damages, those damages will never exceed $50, so good luck suing for millions over your rejected Sexy App or RSS Template.

The EFF is none to pleased at the one-sided, gate-kept, stifling terms of the SDK Licensing agreement and good for them. And good for us as well. The way we look at it we need the opposing forces of Apple Legal and the EFF always pushing for more on both sides. Apple’s going to want to protect themselves as much as possible and the EFF is going to want to show us every way they’re doing it so if we don’t like it, we can voice our concerns as well.

We’ve used the analogy of restaurants before. The iPhone is Apple’s boutique, haut-cuisine eatery. They set the menu. You can’t go there, demand a burger, and then throw a fit when they tell you they don’t serve it. (Well you can, but you’d be nuts — Apple’s not in the business of serving burgers). Instead of Gordon Ramsey you get Steve Jobs crafting your dining experience, and if you go there, that’s what you should expect — to trade control for ease of use (as opposed to Google where you trade privacy for free service). However, the EFF making sure the ingredients are what we’re told they are, and that the kitchen is kept clean and compliant with local ordinances — that’s good for us, and ultimate it’s good for Apple.

Check out the EFF article, take a look at the agreement, and let us know what you think.

[Thanks to Fassy for the tip!]

EFF Uses NASA to Out iPhone SDK License Agreement is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Daring Fireball’s John Gruber suggests that bigger, iPad versions of the built-in iPhone Stocks, Calculator, Weather, Clock and Voice Memo were scrapped by Steve Jobs:

It’s not that Apple couldn’t just create bigger versions of these apps and have them run on the iPad. It wasn’t a technical problem, it was a design problem. There were, internally to Apple (of course), versions of these apps (or at least some of them) with upscaled iPad-sized graphics, but otherwise the same UI and layout as the iPhone versions. Ends up that just blowing up iPhone apps to fill the iPad screen looks and feels weird, even if you use higher-resolution graphics so that nothing looks pixelated. So they were scrapped by you-know-who.

Gruber was responding to theories that these apps would instead be offered as App Store downloads, or could be part of some secret widget dashboard implementation. In other words, that it’s a design issue, not a technical issue.

However, new UI that would make the iPad an amazing bedside clock (how’s that for a Lock Screen), or show Stocks with a variety of graphs and related news and data, or weather for several days and cities at once, certainly seems possible for Apple’s UI wizards. Perhaps they simply lacked time to re-do the apps for the already extended April 3 release date?

Perhaps they’ll appear on the iPad in some re-imagined form this summer with OS 4.0, but when the iPad ships next month, there won’t be versions of these apps. At least that’s the story I’ve heard from a few well-informed little birdies.

Speaking of which, any little birdies hear anything about an iPhone 4.0 sneak preview event yet? Or is everyone just focused on getting the iPad out right now?

DF: iPad Stocks, Calculator, Weather, Clock, Voice Memo Apps Scrapped by Steve Jobs is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

The first iPad commercial hit the airways last night during the Academy Awards, and seemed pretty appropriate, since Steve Jobs was in attendence.  The 30 second spot aired multiple time during the performance and was a quick, clean roundup of some of the iPad’s main features.

The 2010 addition of CBS Sports NCAA March Madness on Demand has sunk into the App Store. The app lets you stream the popular series to your device over both WiFi and 3G.

Blast Off has been ported from the PSP to the iPhone. Check it out in the App Store now!

App of the Day: The Oscars

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Reuters

March Madness For iPhone — Shelly Palmer Huffington Post (blog) HP is set to bring a new tablet called the Slate to the market. The Slate, which will compete directly with the iPad, will run on Windows 7 and, … The Pirateer: iGot A Larger iPhone?my.hsj.org No Tethering between I-Pad and IPhoneiPhone Scoop (blog) Steve Jobs says 'No' to iPhone-to-iPad tetherRegister Computerworld (blog) -Tom’s Guide -PC World all 463 news articles »

Times Online

The Pirateer: iGot A Larger iPhone? my.hsj.org I've been a Blackberry user for over five years and have never felt the tug of the iPhone. The only products that Apple has really nailed are the iPod and … Why I Will Be Getting an iPad. No, Really.ZDNet (blog) Steve Jobs says 'No' to iPhone-to-iPad tetherRegister iPad news: sexy tablet, iPhone tethering disappointmentComputerworld (blog) Wired (blog) -Tom’s Guide -tuaw.com (blog) all 477 news articles »

If like me, you’ve already jumped on iTunes to download the soundtrack from Apple’s first iPad commercial, you probably noticed by now that Apple has done some pretty interesting editing on it.

Indeed, the original song “There goes my love” by Blue Van features some quite explicit lyrics, but they got pulled from the mix. See by yourself (in red what was pulled):

Be, Be the charming type,
Take off your clothes and show what they hide,
Please, please my naked wrist,
With your hands and fingertips
And please, baby get on your knees,
Don’t bare bare bare your teeth,
I’ll let you try,
If you close your eyes,
I’ll have an answer for your wise.

There goes my love (10x or so)

[..]

Get on your knees,
Baby get on your knees,
I wanna feel feel feel your teeth!

Alright, every song featured in an ad gets remixed for obvious reasons, but isn’t quite cheeky that first of all, Apple selected (actually Steve Jobs did) such a twisted song, especially in light of their new conservative approach to the App Store, and secondly, that they just removed the dirty parts?

Anyway, it’s a great ad and an even better soundtrack, which just made my day.

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New York Times (blog)

iPad Won't Tether to iPhone Says Steve Jobs Techtree.com Among this confusion comes Apple CEO Steve Jobs statement that the iPad will not tether to iPhone. That's simply sad. Using the iPhone to connect the iPad … iPad news: sexy tablet, iPhone tethering disappointmentComputerworld (blog) Apple's iPad Won't Tether with iPhone, Report SaysPC World No iPhone Tethering For the Apple iPad Says JobsITProPortal Brighthand -TFTS (blog) -Soft Sailor (blog) all 258 news articles »

New York Times (blog)

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