Apple announced it has agreed to acquire the critically acclaimed subscription streaming music service Beats Music, and Beats Electronics, which makes the popular Beats headphones, speakers, and audio software. As part of the acquisition, Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will join Apple. Apple is acquiring the two companies for a total of $3 billion, consisting of a purchase price of approximately $2.6 billion and approximately $400 million that will vest over time. “Music is such an important part of all of our lives and holds a special place within our hearts at Apple,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “That’s why we have kept investing in music and are bringing together these extraordinary teams so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world.” Iovine added, “I’ve always known in my heart that Beats belonged with Apple. The idea when we started the company was inspired by Apple’s unmatched ability to marry culture and technology. Apple’s deep commitment to music fans, artists, songwriters and the music industry is something special.”
Showing posts with label May 28. Show all posts
Showing posts with label May 28. Show all posts
Apple's Acquisition of Beats Electronics to End Several Third-Party Partnerships [iOS Blog]
Posted by Unknown on 5:32 PM
Apple's acquisition of Beats Electronics will include the severing of several deals and partnerships that the headphone and music company has with other designers and vendors, including HP.According to Hewlett-Packard (via CNET ), which sells laptops with "Beats Audio" branded speakers, the company will cease to develop products with new Beats Audio technologies at the end of 2014. Under the terms of its deal with Beats, HP will continue to sell devices though 2015, however, with the licensing agreement terminating after that period.
A company spokesman said in an email that HP is allowed to continue developing products with new Beats Audio technologies through 2014. But it's allowed to continue selling devices with the Beats Audio logo and technology through 2015. HP says it's planning an aggressive lineup of new products that includes the Beats branding through 2014.
Beats will also be ending an ongoing partnership with design firm Ammunition (via TechCrunch ), which has created the company's lineup of headphones and speakers, including the Beats Studio, Beats Pro, and Beats Pill. The transition away from Ammunition will happen over the next few months as Apple takes over designing new Beats hardware, under the leadership of Apple marketing head Phil Schiller.
Apple first announced its $3 billion Beats purchase earlier this afternoon, with Tim Cook suggesting Beats was the first music subscription to "get it right," as both Apple and Beats believe that a "great music service requires a strong editorial and curation team."
Beats' co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will both take on roles with Apple, with the entire Beats team serving under iTunes chief Eddy Cue.
Apple’s new iPads are cheaper than ever – if you’re a student
Posted by Unknown on 4:27 PM
Apple has included its iPads in the Apple Store for Education section, 9to5Mac reports, meaning that buyers who are either working or studying in higher education can purchase a new iPad Air or iPad mini for less than their regular prices.
Chen explains why he became BlackBerry CEO: ‘I’m the only one they could find’
Posted by Unknown on 3:14 PM
John Chen is the only man who's up to the job of running BlackBerry... literally. In an interview at Re/code's massive tech conference this week, Chen was asked why he, of all the people out there, became the new CEO of BlackBerry. His answer, as relayed to us by USA Today reporter Jessica Guynn, was hilariously honest: "I'm the only one they could find and stupid enough to take it." Chen has often in the past been blunt about the condition of the company he inherited from former CEO Thorsten Heins late last year and he has described it as a "sick patient" that needs immediate medical attention. He also pointed to the company's reputation for being unable to meet deadlines as a major obstacle that he's been trying to overcome to convince businesses that BlackBerry will be a trustworthy partner.
References to New iMac Models Appear in OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 Beta [Mac Blog]
Posted by Unknown on 2:55 PM
Mentions of new iMac models are buried inside the OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 beta that was seeded earlier today.
There are three new resource files for power management that mention three new iMacs with model numbers beginning with 15, according to some digging done by Pike's Universum. The current iMac line is made up of models 14,1 and 14,2.
Rumors have suggested that new iMac models could make an appearance at WWDC next week after shipping estimates for the machine began to slip on the Apple Online Store.
There are three new resource files for power management that mention three new iMacs with model numbers beginning with 15, according to some digging done by Pike's Universum. The current iMac line is made up of models 14,1 and 14,2.
The most interesting part is the addition of three new resources (plist) files for power management:
Mac-81E3E92DD6088272.plist / iMac15,1 (IGPU only)
Mac-42FD25EABCABB274.plist / iMac15,n (IGPU/GFX0/Apple display with id 0xAE03)
Mac-FA842E06C61E91C5.plist / iMac15,n (IGPU/GFX0/Apple display with id 0xAE03)
Rumors have suggested that new iMac models could make an appearance at WWDC next week after shipping estimates for the machine began to slip on the Apple Online Store.
NTT DOCOMO and Apple to Offer iPad in Japan Starting June 10
Posted by Unknown on 2:05 PM
NTT DOCOMO and Apple have announced that iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display will be available on the DOCOMO network beginning on Tuesday, June 10. “With the addition of iPad alongside iPhone, we now offer the complete lineup of Japan’s most popular mobile devices on the nation’s most reliable LTE network,” said Kaoru Kato, President and CEO of NTT DOCOMO, INC. Apple CEO Tim Cook added, “We are extremely happy for iPad to join iPhone on NTT DOCOMO’s network. The results on iPhone have been tremendous, and we look forward to delivering iPad to NTT DOCOMO customers.”
Apple Announces $3 Billion Beats Acquisition, Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre Joining the Company
Posted by Unknown on 1:46 PM
Apple is buying Beats Electronics and the Beats Music streaming service for a total of $3 billion. The acquisition is the largest in Apple's history and is the largest move by CEO Tim Cook since he took the reigns from Steve Jobs several years ago.
Apple expects the transaction to close sometime next quarter.
“Music is such an important part of all of our lives and holds a special place within our hearts at Apple,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “That’s why we have kept investing in music and are bringing together these extraordinary teams so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world.”
“I’ve always known in my heart that Beats belonged with Apple,” said Jimmy Iovine. “The idea when we started the company was inspired by Apple’s unmatched ability to marry culture and technology. Apple’s deep commitment to music fans, artists, songwriters and the music industry is something special.”
Apple expects the transaction to close sometime next quarter.
The ultimate list of Mac shortcuts for all your favorite Internet services
Posted by Unknown on 12:59 PM
Mac users looking to get around faster while dealing with various popular online services and apps including Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Wordpress, Pocket, Feedly, Google+, Google Docs, Dropbox, Evernote, Spotify, Soundcloud and Tumbler should check out BufferApp’s extensive list of keyboard shortcuts for OS X devices, which offers users more than 111 shortcuts for these online tools.
Now we know why companies are spending insane money to buy mobile apps
Posted by Unknown on 12:39 PM
Facebook's $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp is not going to be the last jaw-dropping deal in the mobile app industry. If you're looking for reasons why, search no further than Mary Meeker's epic, 164-slide "Internet Trends" mammoth presentation.
Samsung Debuts Open Modular Health-Tracking Band and Cloud Platform
Posted by Unknown on 12:20 PM
Ahead of the upcoming debut of iOS 8, which is expected to include Apple's "Healthbook" health aggregating platform, Samsung has announced its own health tracking platform that envelops both open modular hardware and a cloud storage solution.
Called SAMI (Samsung Architecture Multimodal Interactions), the company's cloud-based sensor data platform is designed to be entirely open to developers and "complementary" with Samsung's S Health initiative.
Alongside SAMI, Samsung showed off its Simband, a reference device that includes a multitude of wearable sensors with several different health-tracking functions. Designed to be an open reference sensor module, Simband offers the standard accelerometers to measure movement along with an ECG sensor and a sensor that measures skin temperature.
The device, which offers miniaturized electronics along with Bluetooth and WiFi, also shows off a removable "shuttle battery" that clips into the band to charge it while it's being worn. As described, the battery allows the device to be worn 24/7, snapping in to charge it during sleep. The open device is multimodal and designed to be customized with interchangeable components, allowing hardware developers to create their own hardware able to be attached to the band.
Samsung's cloud platform SAMI is designed to collect "any kind of data" from a range of devices. On stage, the platform was likened to a bank, storing and securing data privately.
Samsung president Young Sohn compared the company's health efforts to a car dashboard for the human body, aimed at giving consumers an overall picture of their wellbeing. Simband and SAMI are both open and available to developers, and Samsung has paired with early partners like PhysIQ and UCSF to develop new wearable hardware. Developers will be given access to the SAMI SDK later this year.
The company also announced a $50 million digital health challenge aimed at creating new sensors and new health-related technology.
Called SAMI (Samsung Architecture Multimodal Interactions), the company's cloud-based sensor data platform is designed to be entirely open to developers and "complementary" with Samsung's S Health initiative.
Alongside SAMI, Samsung showed off its Simband, a reference device that includes a multitude of wearable sensors with several different health-tracking functions. Designed to be an open reference sensor module, Simband offers the standard accelerometers to measure movement along with an ECG sensor and a sensor that measures skin temperature.
The device, which offers miniaturized electronics along with Bluetooth and WiFi, also shows off a removable "shuttle battery" that clips into the band to charge it while it's being worn. As described, the battery allows the device to be worn 24/7, snapping in to charge it during sleep. The open device is multimodal and designed to be customized with interchangeable components, allowing hardware developers to create their own hardware able to be attached to the band.
Samsung's cloud platform SAMI is designed to collect "any kind of data" from a range of devices. On stage, the platform was likened to a bank, storing and securing data privately.
Samsung president Young Sohn compared the company's health efforts to a car dashboard for the human body, aimed at giving consumers an overall picture of their wellbeing. Simband and SAMI are both open and available to developers, and Samsung has paired with early partners like PhysIQ and UCSF to develop new wearable hardware. Developers will be given access to the SAMI SDK later this year.
The company also announced a $50 million digital health challenge aimed at creating new sensors and new health-related technology.
Comcast CEO has a ridiculous explanation for why everyone hates his company
Posted by Unknown on 11:44 AM
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts faced some tough questions at Re/code's big conference on Wednesday, as one audience member actually asked him why his company and potential merger partner Time Warner Cable are the two most hated companies in America. As Business Insider's Nicholas Carlson tells it, Roberts started off by saying that Comcast executives "don't wake up everyday and go to work and say we want to be hated," which is a fairly sensible thing to say. Then, however, things got weird.
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Apple to Acquire Beats Music and Beats Electronics