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?

Live from GDC 2010 Rene talks to Tezuka-san, Street Fighter IV [$9.99 - iTunes link] iPhone producer for Capcom (via translator) about making Street Fighter for the iPhone and iPod touch, getting the controls right, and whether or not we might see Street Fighter for the iPad.

Tezuka-san points out how Capcom decided to make the controls very customizable, allowing users to choose whether they want the button low down, in the middle, or high up, and set the level of transparency. This means you can hold the iPhone or iPod touch anyway you like and set up the controls just the way you like.

I had a chance to play it just before release and while I got my butt kicked in multiplayer, the game looked gorgeous and handled very well. I could pull off what few moves I remembered from my childhood in the arcade, and I could resort to button (er… screen) mashing when all else failed. (Yes, just like my childhood in the arcade.)

For the iPad, they’re going to sit down and figure out how the controls work and what the experience is like on that screen with that form factor. If it makes sense, they’ll do it. If not, there are other Capcom games that certainly might. It’s all about the quality of the end product for them.

Watch along after the break! Read the rest of this entry »

Verizon is looking to turn no-iPad 3G lemons in iPad Wi-Fi + MiFi lemonade by craftily counter-programming the official AT&T data plans with their own potent portable internet and router combo, says Engadget.

You’ll save $130 off the price of the iPad 3G, but a 5GB Verizon MiFi plan will run you $60 vs. “unlimited” AT&T data for $30. Then again, you can use the MiFi for more than one device (and more than one at a time).

So, is Verizon’s plan a good one? Would you consider iPad Wi-Fi + Verizon MiFi on April 3rd rather than iPad 3G on AT&T in late April?

Another week, another chance to win a great accessory from the TiPb store, and at the same time enter to win our big iPad give-away!

This week it’s a Griffin PowerJolt Battery for iPhone [$34.95 - TiPb store link]. You plug it into your car, you charge your iPhone with it, and if you need to know more check out Jeremy’s excellent review.

1. Head on over to Twitter.com
2. Follow @TiPb (so we can DM you if you win)
3. Tweet this: Hey, @TiPb is giving away an iPad (and more!) http://bit.ly/9bygNY
4. There is no step 4!

You need a US shipping address to enter, and while you’re free to tweet (and re-tweet!) as often as you like, we’ll only count 1 tweet per day. We’ll choose one tweeter at random to get the PowerJolt.

The give-away starts now and ends Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 12pm PT.

iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch developers: get yourself over to Apple’s developer center, as iPhone SDK 3.2 Beta 4 is ready for you to download, a mere two weeks after Beta three was unleashed for your coding pleasure. As MacRumors and Engadget note, it’s too early to say what magical new capabilities are to be found here – but don’t let that stop you.

Fortune quotes Oppenheimer’s Yair Reiner, who thinks Apple’s patent infringement suit against Google Android and Microsoft Windows Phone manufacturer HTC was a warning shot meant to disrupt competitors’ roadmaps:

“Starting in January, Apple launched a series of C-Level discussions with tier-1 handset makers to underscore its growing displeasure at seeing its iPhone-related IP [intellectual property] infringed. The lawsuit filed against HTC thus appears to be Apple’s way of putting a public, lawyered-up exclamation point on a series of blunt conversations that have been occurring behind closed doors.

“Our checks also suggest that these warning shots are meaningfully disrupting the development roadmaps for would-be iPhone killers. Rival software and hardware teams are going back to the drawing board to look for work-arounds. Lawyers are redoubling efforts to gauge potential defensive and offensive responses. And strategy teams are working to chart OS strategies that are better hedged.”

What changed?

“Top-tier handset makers continued to avoid implementing multi-touch, but Apple could safely assume that they were hanging back to gauge Apple’s response to Motorola and HTC. If there wasn’t one, the OEMs would likely read the silence as a green light, especially after Google also moved to enable multi-touch on its Nexus One phone.

It was likely in order to counter that perception that Apple began reaching out to handset OEMs in January and explaining in no uncertain terms that it was now ready to do battle–and not just on multi-touch. It was ready to press its case along a number of axes that had made the iPhone experience unique, from the interpretation of touch gestures, to object-oriented OS design, to the nuts and bolts of how hardware elements were built and configured.”

He believes it’s working, and might end up driving people away from Android and… towards Windows Phone.

Nice.

Spring is in the air and March is a perfect time for all you sports fans out there to get your daily fix with the release of CBS Sports March Madness [iTunes Link - $9.99] and MLB.com At Bat 2010 [iTunes Link - $14.99].

For the full list of features to both of these great sport applications, follow us after the break!

Read the rest of this entry »

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: Read the rest of this entry »

Following on Daring Fireball’s suggestion that iPhone 4.0 might bring the Calculator, Clock, Stocks, Weather, and Voice Memo to the iPad, The Loop Insight argues that it might just be iPhone 4.1 instead:

Phone OS 4.0 will include lots of new features, just like you would expect to see from Apple. However, It doesn’t make sense for Apple to unify the two operating systems for 4.0 with the timeline they are working with.

Rather, I expect Apple to release OS 4.1 in September or October. It will not only address issues with the 4.0 release, but also unify the operating systems.

iPhone 4.0 would presumably hit with the 4th generation iPhone (not to be confused with an iPhone 4G for LTE which is likely 2012). For the last two years, new iPhone software has been released as beta at SDK preview events in March while new iPhone hardware has been debuted at WWDC in June. New iPod touch hardware has followed in September, typically with updated software.

If Apple sticks to this pattern, the above does indeed make sense as getting as many users — iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch alike — on the same version of the OS is better for Apple, better for developers, and better for users.

For us, we’ll take it one step at a time and wait for that iPhone 4.0 sneak preview…

Live from Macworld 2010, Rene and Leanna talk to Sean Lindo, Marketing Manager for Box.net about their iPhone app [Free - iTunes link], integration into QuickOffice, and the power of the cloud.

Watch along after the break and let us know your thoughts!

Read the rest of this entry »