Apple’s Cloud Music Service Almost Ready to Launch?

According to Reuters, Apple “has completed work” on its rumored cloud-based music service that will allow users to store their music online, and access it anywhere using a computer or an iOS device connected to the Internet.

Apple Inc has completed work on an online music storage service and is set to launch it ahead of Google Inc, whose own music efforts have stalled, according to several people familiar with both companies’ plans. Apple’s plans will allow iTunes customers to store their songs on a remote server, and then access them from wherever they have an Internet connection, said two of these people who asked not to be named as the talks are still confidential.

Reuters also claims Apple hasn’t secured any deal with music labels yet, and industry sources said several labels are hoping to close these deals before the service’s launch. Similarly to Amazon’s recently launched Cloud Drive and Cloud Player, Apple could introduce a service that works on the web and mobile devices, and offers a way for users to “digitally lock” their own media in the cloud – quite possibly without even needing the blessing of music labels to do so. Amazon, for instance, was initially rumored to be in a lot of trouble with licensing deals after the Cloud Player launch, but as of today no major music label has sued the online retailer – which basically gives its users an online space to store their DRM-free songs. Amazon, however, is reportedly in talks with labels anyway to come up with a more “advanced” plan that meets the music industry’s expectations and requirements.

Apple, on the other hand, might launch a service that acts as a remote backup location for a user’s iTunes library, and it could be part of the rumored new MobileMe – a complete revamp of the suite of online sync tools that’s also expected to be free, and deeply integrated into future versions of iOS. A number of reports in the past months indicated Apple was building an online iTunes backup solution with built-in streaming capabilities, although others claimed the company was also focusing on a subscription-based model for streaming the entire iTunes Store catalogue – similarly to how music service Spotify requires a premium subscription to stream music you don’t own.

Last, Reuters reports:

Apple and Google are keen to offer services that give music fans more flexibility to access their media wherever they are rather than tying them to a particular computer or mobile device.

In late 2009, Apple bought Lala, a cloud-based music company, but closed it down in April 2010, leading to speculation that it would launch an Apple-branded cloud service.

Interestingly enough, a series of downtimes and errors in iTunes and the App Store during the past 2 days lead many to believe Apple moved its iTunes servers to the new data center in North Carolina, which was set to become fully operative in Spring 2011. Read more

The Ottawa Hospital Orders 1,800 iPads

We’ve seen Apple show off medical applications for the iPad in keynotes and commercials, and now we have some news about implementation into large public health facilities.

CBC News is reporting that the Ottawa Hospital in Canada recently ordered 1,800 iPads in addition to the 500 that are already being used by health-care providers. The iPads will replace traditional paper medical charts.

Staff at the hospital are saying that the shift to iPad usage instead of paper charts is putting the Ottawa Hospital at the forefront of all hospitals in North America. Doctors will be able to examine and show X-rays, make notes and prescribe treatments all with the iPad. Read more

Conan O’Brien Introduces The Apple iDea

Brought to you by the minds of Conan O’Brien and TeamCoco, the iDea is the latest product in Apple’s multitouch line-up – except it’s not clear what it is, yet. Clearly inspired by Apple’s latest iPad 2 promo videos and ads, the iDea commercial touches some key parts of Apple’s marketing machine: gestures, voiceover, higher price point for bigger model, thinner design in the second-gen version. It’s got everything the Apple marketing team would be proud of.

Check out the video below. [via TUAW]
Read more

“Select Developers” Testing iPhone 4 Prototypes Running A5 Chip?

According to a report by 9to5mac, Apple has begun testing a prototype version of the iPhone running the A5 chip with “select developers.” The units, carrying the usual Apple model numbers for prototypes, are apparently based on the iPhone 4 hardware, with the only exception of the Apple A5 processor – clearly aimed at enhancing speed and graphics performances on the next-generation device. The report goes on to say these modified iPhones featuring the A5 CPU have been given to “high-level gaming outfits” in order to start writing gaming applications for the iPhone 5 that will, allegedly, be announced in September. As with the first-generation iPad, Apple is forcing these developers to keep the prototypes in a safe in the company’s offices at night – likely under strict surveillance from Apple employees or security staff.

Apple isn’t taking the next iPhone’s A5-power lightly. They already have select developers working on versions of their iPhone applications that take full advantage of the next-generation iPhone’s speedier and much more powerful hardware. These developers, seemingly from high-level gaming outfits, have been given what is essentially an iPhone 4 but with an A5 processor instead of an A4. The device itself is virtually identical to the iPhone 4, and there is no way anyone can tell it’s not an iPhone 4 based on the phone’s exterior.

According to the report, these early units are nothing but modified iPhone 4s with an A5 chip inside – even the OS is the same iOS 4 that’s currently shipping to customers, only slightly tweaked to work with the new processor. As far as the design goes, these developers haven’t seen anything about the next-generation iPhone that’s not already available to the public with the iPhone 4. From a software perspective, it makes sense to start giving prototypes of a device that’s going to be very similar to the final version away to developers now: the A5 processor will surely find its way in the iPhone 5, and game developers will have plenty of time to test their improved graphics. And as soon as iOS will be previewed at the WWDC ‘11 and released in beta form, these same developers will have a chance to test an A5-enabled iPhone running the new OS.

If the iPhone 5 is really going to be a minor refresh of the existing iPhone hardware, being able to test the A5 – which will likely be the most important addition – five months ahead of the rumored release date must sound like a great plan to these developers.

ListBook: A Simple List App for iPhone

ListBook, a new iPhone app from the developers of MoneyBook, wants to be the simplest solution to create lists on an iPhone, and check off completed items with ease. The App Store is full of apps that enable you to create lists: just think about Simplenote, the popular note-taking application for iPhone and iPad (and the web) that, among other things, also allows you to convert notes to lists. Not to mention the hundreds – if not thousands – of Dropbox-enabled apps that you can use to set up quick shopping lists, todos and reminders and have them always available anywhere you go. The ListBook’s developers, though, recognize that setting up a Dropbox account and having to mess with plain text files, folders and, why not, Markdown support might be a pattern average iPhone users aren’t ready to learn. We, as geeks, love to fiddle with OTA sync, filenames and tags: the majority of iPhone users, however, might not want to do that. And that’s why ListBook doesn’t come with any of these features, but still enables you to create lists, with a beautiful interface and a clever use of gestures.

In ListBook, you create lists and assign new items to them. There are no due dates or tags – you just check off an item once it’s been taken care of. Every list can have a name, as well as a badge on the homescreen to tell you how many tasks you still have to complete. There is no sync or iPad version, no web app or Dropbox integration. You can navigate between lists in a Safari-like UI that displays lists as “pages” in the browser; you can also pinch & zoom to reveal a list and close it.

ListBook won’t satisfy the geeks, but it should be a good alternative to Apple’s Notes app for most iPhone users. Get it in the App Store at $0.99.

iCade iPad Arcade Cabinet Now Available, But Backordered

What began as an April Fools’ joke based off the concept of enabling iPad users to turn their device into an old-style arcade cabinet – the iCade – eventually became a real product with Atari’s official backing and a slew of games built specifically for the cabinet’s Bluetooth-based controls. When the product was “unveiled”, many thought that, in spite of the actual quality of the joke, it would never see the light of day. However, as we saw in January, ThinkGeek announced that the iCade made it after the design and pre-production stage and was set to go on sale this Spring.

And indeed, the iCade became available at $100 earlier today, only to be backordered until May within a few hours of online sales. If you were looking to buy an iCade before Easter: I’m sorry, you’ll have to wait. But of course, there’s always the DIY way to come to the rescue. [ThinkGeek via Engadget]

Kickstarter Project: “Full Metal Jacket Diary” - The iPad App

This Kickstarter Project isn’t about an iDevice accessory or a social networking game but something a little more serious and just as interactive - a book. Well, not exactly a book, but an iPad app based off the book “Matthew Modine’s Full Metal Jacket Diary.”

Back in 1985 actor Matthew Modine starred in a little movie called “Full Metal Jacket,” directed by the legendary Stanley Kubrick. The movie was an instant classic. Modine decided to keep a detailed diary of his experiences and Kubrick also gave Modine permission to photograph the film-making process as well, something he never allowed. Modine captured hundreds of behind-the-scenes moments in the two years it took to finish the film. Modine made a series of 10 x 10-inch prints from the movie and gave them to Kubrick and the others as gifts. When he returned to his home in New York City he put his diary, negatives, and extra prints in a box. In the mid-90s, Modine turned his documented writings and pictures into a hardcover book called Full Metal Jacket Diary. The first edition was limited to only 20,000 laser-etched numbered copies. A paperback edition was never released and many fans of Kubrick have been waiting for something.

Video after the break. Read more

iPhone Location Tracking A Bug To Be Fixed In Next iOS Update?

Following yesterday’s debate on a file discovered by two security researchers that keeps track of your entire location history in the form of cellular triangulation data stored unencrypted in the iPhone’s backup, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber weighed in to suggest this might be a simple bug or “an oversight” on Apple’s part. He claims that a “little-birdie” told him the consolidated.db file acts as a cache for your location, and it’s not meant in any way to be used by Apple to track your location history and moves; the file is never sent to Apple’s servers, but is kept locally on your 3G device and on your computer – if you decided to back up an iPhone or iPad using iTunes. Moreover, the location data doesn’t rely on accurate GPS information – instead, it uses antennas’ triangulation, meaning that in most cases data can be miles off your actual location on a specific day.

The big question of course, is why Apple is storing this information. I don’t have a definitive answer, but my little-birdie-informed understanding is that consolidated.db acts as a cache for location data, and that historical data should be getting culled but isn’t, either due to a bug or, more likely, an oversight. I.e. someone wrote the code to cache location data but never wrote code to cull non-recent entries from the cache, so that a database that’s meant to serve as a cache of your recent location data is instead a persistent log of your location history. I’d wager this gets fixed in the next iOS update.

iOS 4.3.2 was released last week, and Apple might push a 4.3.3 software update relatively soon to “improve overall stability” and introduce “bug fixes” – as they usually write in their changelogs for this kind of updates. Apple PR hasn’t issued a statement about the discovery of this location tracking system for iPhones and iPads 3G, but the story has quickly made the rounds of the Internet and ended up on mainstream media as well. If it’s really a bug, or an oversight, a software update should be the easiest solution to the problem.