The government is to scale back a new multi-billion pound NHS IT system in what the Conservatives are calling a “massive U-turn”. [From NHS IT system to be scaled back]
I’ve lost track of the number of government IT projects which have gone way over budget and failed to deliver so it’s nice to see one canned for a change. It would be even better if they sorted out the tendering process so that the same culprits don’t keep getting the jobs.
Earlier today we covered rumors that Apple was in talks to acquire streaming music service Lala. Now New York Times tech reporter Brad Stone has tweeted that it’s a done deal. He writes, “Apple has acquired digital music startup Lala. Now updating our story”. You can find the NYT story here. This could be bad news for Lala users. It’s unlikely that the innovative deals negotiated by Lala will survive through the acquisition. For over a year, Lala users have been purchasing the rights to stream their music an unlimited number of times for ten cents per song. If the deals with the music labels go up in smoke, Lala may lose the right to stream those songs. In other words, all the money users have been spending on web songs may go down the drain. If the deals are nullified, hopefully Apple will renegotiate them to at least cover existing purchases until it releases its own streaming music service. We’ve reached out to Lala but have yet to hear back. Likewise, this may well affect the Lala music gifts that have been recently offered by Facebook, and it could also harm the Music OneBox service Google recently launched (though Google can still rely on MySpace/iLike for its song streams). Stone writes that Apple is interested in Lala because of its engineering talent and technology, and that it was Lala that initiated the discussions. From the Times: One person with knowledge of the deal, but who was not authorized to discuss it, said that the negotiations originated when Lala executives concluded that their prospects for turning a profit in the short term were dim and initiated discussions with Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president in charge of iTunes. This person said Apple would primarily be buying Lala’s engineers, including its energetic co-founder Bill Nguyen, and their experience with cloud-based music services. The deal makes sense. It seems inevitable that Apple will eventually launch its own cloud-based streaming music service. And that’s exactly what Lala is — an iTunes in the cloud, with some interesting pricing mechanics. A few other interesting things to note. This acquisition comes a little more than a month after Lala was integrated into Google’s OneBox and Facebook’s gift store. Lala may well have been viewing these launches as last-chance efforts to find a path to profitability. Given these reports that Lala’s “prospects for turning a profit in the short term were dim”, it looks like those launches may not have gone as well as Lala hoped. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors [From Apple Has Acquired Lala]
Apple really doesn’t stand still and let the competition catch up.
New Google Tools Help Speed Up Your Website: “Google releases a new, experimental set of webmaster tools for testing webpage load times. Now that nearly everyone has a blog or a website, site owners should pay attention to tools like these, as they are insightful and easy to use.
“
(Via Wired Top Stories.)
I’ll have to give these a try.
The Incredible Shrinking Dell [Charts]: “Not too long ago, Dell was one of the fastest growing companies in the world. Now, it’s the only major PC manufacturer actually getting smaller. iSuppli’s quarterly report on computer shipments is a little dry, but today’s report that Dell’s shipments declined 5.9% caught our eye. It’s easy enough to blame the economy, but not when your major competitors are all growing, and especially not when Acer knocks you out of the number two spot. It’s true that netbooks and pricing are big factors in Acer’s success, and that Dell’s still second—barely—to HP in total shipments. But someone in Round Rock needs to realize that what’s true for plants and populations is also true for computer companies: if you don’t grow, you die. [iSuppli via Electronista]
“
(Via Gizmodo.)
I’m enjoying my schadenfreude.
I see Män som hatar kvinnor (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) is released in March 2010 in the UK. The whole trilogy has already been filmed and released in Sweden. I recently finished reading the books so I’m looking forward to this.
Top 5 Assclowns Laughing at the iPhone Back in 2007 [Retromodo]: “I wonder how many times Steve Ballmer laughed about the iPhone after pooping all over it in this 2007 interview. My guess: Not many. Don’t worry Steve, here’s the rest of the top 5 assclowns who dug their own grave: gawkerGallery(5416781,6,’Top 5 iPhone Assclowns’);
“
(Via Gizmodo.)
Nothing like lame punditry to raise a laugh.
MarsEdit 2.4 – Weblog editor. (Shareware): “MarsEdit 2.4MarsEdit is a weblog editor for Mac OS X that makes weblog writing like writing email, with spell-checking, drafts, multiple windows, and even AppleScript support.
It works with with most blog services including WordPress, Blogger, Drupal, Movable Type, TypePad, and many others.WHAT’S NEWVersion 2.4:
Improved Squarespace support
Support for server drafts
Support for tags
Support for adding new categories
Improved error handlingPost editor windows now automatically remember size and screen position
Avoid accidental post publishing by disabling the send button when document is not frontmost
Improved error messages for misconfigured Tumblr blogs
Bug fixesFixed Flickr image links so they produce valid HTML when align-centered.
Fix a Snow Leopard problem that prevented the Save button from enabling immediately when document is edited
Fix a rare bug that could cause locked up dialogs on the second launch
Fix a crash that could occur when configuring a blog with an extremely weird URL
Fix a bug that occurred when an invalid URL was specified for a blog home page
Fix a bug that caused duplication of tags on a previously published draft
Fix a bug that prevented existing open document from being located when opening a local draft.REQUIREMENTSMac OS X 10.4 or later. Supports 10.6.PRICE$29.95DEVELOPERRed Sweater SoftwareDOWNLOADS24524DOWNLOAD NOW (3.6 MB)More information”
(Via MacUpdate – Mac OS X.)
This release fixes most of the things that made me like MarsEdit less than ecto. So I guess I’ll have to keep trying both of them for a bit longer. (Posted using MarsEDit 2.4)
Tech-savvy South Koreans began getting their coveted iPhones on Saturday amid fanfare and expectations they will shake up a local market dominated by domestic giants Samsung and LG. Hundreds of iPhone fans lined up to get the phones at an official launch event in Seoul, some waiting overnight. [From Apple’s iPhone Finally Arrives in Tech-Savvy South Korea]
Despite local market peculiarities the iPhone ended up doing well in Japan. It will be interesting to see what happens in South Korea which also has some odd local preferences.
Provision profile expiration time: does it leave you wondering?: “Filed under: Bad Apple, Developer, SDKBack when the iPhone Developer Program was first announced, developer provisions (the ‘permission slips’ that allow developers to distribute pre-release builds of apps in progress) lasted one year. It seemed natural to have a one year expiration, as our developer memberships also lasted one year.
Everything was all fine, developers created new provision profiles as they grew, and each lasted one year. However, sometime in May of this year, provision profiles seemed to start expiring after 90 days. At first, many thought this was linked to the expiration time of their iPhone developer memberships, which would decrease the time to use a provision.
However, it seems that it’s been set that provisions are only going to last 90 days. Also, distribution provision profiles, which are needed to submit applications to the App Store or distribute applications via ad-hoc, now only last about six months instead of one year.
If your provisions are expiring, your iPhone will remind you to renew your provision, and will state when that provision will expire.
If this is the way it’s going to be, we may have to live with it — it’s just something that I would like to stay consistent, rather than wondering every time I renew a provision whether Apple has swapped out its stopwatch again.TUAWProvision profile expiration time: does it leave you wondering? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments”
Just long enough for me to forget how to do it all over again every time. I’ve started getting reminders and it’s still 29 days till the profile expires.
It appears the hubbub over iTunes LP production fees was indeed unfounded. As promised last month, Apple has released the complete specifications for its Cocktail extended digital content format, aka iTunes LP for music and iTunes Extras for video content.
Along with the relevant specifications, Apple has released a series of guides explaining development, design, navigation, and asset delivery best practices, as well as how to test an iTunes LP or Extras package before submitting it to Apple. There are also special instructions to make sure your content will work on an Apple TV using the standard Apple remote.
[From Apple releases iTunes LP and Extras specs, TuneKit SDK]
I haven’t bought a complete album off iTunes yet.
Powered by WordPress