Apple briefs: Beatles ‘08, roadmap video, BBC iPlayer on iPhone U.K.
Catching up on late week Apple (AAPL) news…
Beatles on iTunes in 2008. We’ve heard stories like it before, but this one has a twist. The London Evening Standard reported Saturday that Paul McCartney, who is said to be worth more than $1.65 billion, will begin releasing the Beatles catalog on iTunes in the coming months to help defray the $40 to $60 million it may cost him to get out of his four-year marriage to Heather Mills. A final divorce hearing is set for March 17. But the Standard goes on to say that Mills could could argue that the deal, said to be worth an estimated $400 million, should be included in her settlement. So Sir Paul is going to release a 40-year-old catalog to raise money to pay a settlement that gets bigger as a result of the sale? (link)
iPhone Software Roadmap video. For those who couldn’t make it to Cupertino for the March 6 event, Apple has made the entire presentation — all 1 hour and 18 minutes — available in Quicktime and HD. See Steve Jobs present U.S. smartphone market shares in a pie chart tilted to make the iPhone’s slice look bigger. See Phil Schiller demo push e-mail and remote wipe. Watch EA’s Travis Boatman play a preliminary iPhone version of Will (The Sims) Wright’s Spore. (link)
iPlayer on iPhone. As promised (after getting pressured by Mac fans), the BBC has introduced an iPhone and iPod touch version of its iPlayer, which makes BBC shows available for download over the Internet. (link) It’s still in beta and is only for British residents and for programs within seven days of broadcast. As Saul Hansel points out in Bits, the Beeb got around the fact that the iPhone doesn’t support Flash by reformatting its video into the QuickTime version of H.264 — which is what Google does to put YouTube videos on the device.
hey Tbeard…
are you an iTard too??
16 thousand million is not what he has….as it clearly states, he has 1.65 billion….
now lets figure it out together in retardAmatics so you can understand it, shall we:
1.65 billion = 1.6 thousand million
wow. that was pretty hard math for you i’m sure but aren’t you glad you were finally able to understand it?
and another FYI, just because a persons net worth is 1.65 billion, DOES NOT mean that person has 1.65 billion dollars.
what type of these simple math and finances can’t you comprehend??
look for ‘mathmatics for dummies’ and ‘finances for dummies’ in your local book store…these should be great starts for you!!
PS….screw the old money hungry, gold digging hag-of-a-bag mills… she should get what she deserves…NOTHING!
of course, if she had a dollar for every wrinkle on her face, wow would she be rich then…she woulnd’t have to go gold digging! :)
16 thousand million dollars equal 16 billion. 1.6 thousand million dollars equals 1.6 billion. But you are right, its stupid to say he’s raising money for the settlement. That’s just typical tabloid conjecture.
It has already been announced that the Beatles catalog would be available on iTunes in 08′.
It’s silly to think he has to “raise money” to pay Heather Mills. Someone doesn’t know how much a billion is, it’s a thousand million. So he has 16 thousand million dollars. 40 to 60 million is chump change.
Hasn’t McCartney already said he expects the catalog to be available for download this year?
And my guess is that when that happens it’ll be part of a huge worldwide event involving a rerelease of the catalog on CD with improved sound and packaging, giving download-averse boomers the chance to buy the whole thing over again.
That kind of thing has lots of moving parts. Lawyers of many lands will be involved. It’s not going to happen at whim.
Slightly off topic but the HD version of the iPhone Software Roadmap video represents an amazing shift in display quality. Furthermore, I watched the whole event in the UK with immediate start and without a hiccup during the peak Internet hour for consumer ISPs.
This further demonstrates the strong technical capabilities of Apple.
May dear Steve Jobs continue to shine as he (literally) does in the HD version.
When was it exactly that conjecture became news? CNN has become masters of this unfortunate art. To be fair, so have the other 24 hour “news” services. I realize that in this case, this is reporting someone who has already “reported” a story, but at it’s core the Beatles portion of this headline is pure speculation. Those keywords “Beatles” and “iPhone” must be so hard to resist when living in a world of clicks for cash. What’s ludicrous here is your column subtitle. You guys have never seen life outside of a reality distortion field.
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Silicon Valley veterans like to joke that Steve Jobs must be surrounded by a reality distortion field; if you get too close to him, you start to believe what he's saying. Thanks to the success of the iPod, the launch of the iPhone and the renewed interest in the Mac, Apple has made believers out of millions of customers - and made a lot of investors rich. But Philip Elmer-DeWitt believes that an ounce of skepticism never hurts when writing about the company. He should know. He's been covering Apple - and watching Steve Jobs operate - since 1982, first for Time Magazine, then for Business 2.0, and now for Fortune.
Big PED fan! Apple is a heavy American Idol advertiser. They are singing Beatle tunes for the first time ever on the show. Idol performances are available on iTunes the next day! Therefore I predict Beatles on iTunes at or around May sweeps. Would not be surprised to see McCartney appear on the show, Ringo for sure promoting iTunes. McCartney’s divorce is not a factor. Too many other parties involved.