Beats hit some high notes, but the purchase doesn't measure up
The appearance of Apple's Eddy Cue and Beats' Jimmy Iovine at the first Code Conference answered some of the questions that were raised when whispers first spread that the Apple and Beats would now seek to make beautiful money together.Beats' electronics products, on which the company made its name, will live on. The music service, complete with its support for Android and Windows Phone, would also live on. And, answering a question no one had any doubt about, Beats' licensing deal with HP, which Iovine described as "a marriage of convenience," will end when its contract expires.Other questions, though, continue to go unanswered. In confirming the continuation of many of the things that made Beats Beats, Apple didn't really say much about what led it to make Beats into part of Apple. We have heard that the Beats acquisition was "about music" (obviously) and that most of the value it would bring to Apple would be revealed in its future plans.Indeed, when one looks at the four fundamental assets Beats brings to Apple today, there's not a compelling case for any single thing the company offered. These included:An audio accessories business. Beats' pricey headphones both stole share in the airline lounge and attracted new category customers in the dance lounge. But Apple had already incidentally created a major presence in the headphone market via customers ordering replacements for their iPhones. Surely, with a bit of effort, it could have either gone upstream itself or purchased a less expensive company with a great reputation for headphone quality.A music service. Here again, Apple had built the fundamentals of a streaming subscription service with iTunes Radio and it sure didn't need Beats to broker a billing relationship with AT&T (or any other carrier). In fact, it wouldn't need the carriers at all given the tens of millions of credit card companies that It has racked up via the iTunes store. And speaking of iTunes, Beats also gives Apple...RELATED STORIESApple finally confirms it's buying Beats for $3BiTunes head Cue and Beats' Iovine: Apple will put Beats on steroidsAnalysts mixed about Apple's prospects for BeatsA new brand. Some have accused Apple of "buying cool" with its purchase of Beats, a charge that was levied against Beats partners HP and HTC as well. The Beats brand may well skew younger, cooler, and more toward music than Apple's. But compared to, say, HTC, the Apple brand is already pretty cool. iTunes has been Apple's audio subbrand for over 13 years and was already on its way to becoming a service brand with iTunes Radio. On the other hand, Apple's never really had a subbrand for the audio systems and processing inside its products (as it has for its cameras with FaceTime), and Beats may well provide that.Talent. People are often cited as a reason for acquisitions that don't add up and Apple will now have some unknown services for some unknown time from Beats founders Iovine and Dr. Dre. But again, it's hard to imagine that Apple couldn't enlist the services of many visionary music producers or legendary artists. One would think that Apple buying Beats would lead to a more substantive celebrity association than the short-lived spokesperson affiliations of Alicia Keys (BlackBerry) and Jessica Alba (Microsoft). However, for Dre, at least, one gets the impression that it just might have been about the money.One of the most interesting revelations about the talks between the two companies came when Cue noted that Apple had passed on buying Beats back when it did the deal with HTC simply because the timing wasn't right. But now that it is, the companies will have to go beyond simple moves such as integrating the Beats sound into Apple products to make the deal worthwhile.
Paul Allen revises patent suit against 11 tech firms
Paul Allen revises patent suit against 11 tech firms
In his revised complaint filed yesterday, Allen alleges that 11 tech companies and retailers--Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, YouTube, eBay, Netflix, OfficeMax, Office Depot, and Staples--are violating patents granted to him when he headed Interval Research, a small R&D firm that he started in 1992 and ran until it went out of business in 2000.Allen initially filed the suit in August in U.S. District Court in Seattle. At the time, Allen's Interval Licensing company--which holds the patents of Interval Research--said in a press release that the "patents in the lawsuit cover fundamental web technologies first developed at Interval Research in the 1990s, which the company believes are being infringed by major e-commerce and web search companies."The lawsuit was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman on December 13 on grounds that the charges were too vague. In her ruling, Pechman gave Allen until December 28 to revise the suit with the necessary specifics. Allen's legal team labeled the judge's ruling a "procedural issue" and said it would meet the deadline, which it did just in time.The revised complaint details specific products, services, and technologies offered or used by the defendants, according to a Wall Street Journal article.As one example, the suit claims that Apple uses a function developed at and patented by Interval Research that compares content items to determine whether they are related. This function is used in a variety of Apple products, including iTunes, Apple's App Store, and Apple TV, the Journal said. The claim against Google cites a violation of the same patented technology, which the search giant uses in Google Search, Gmail, Google Maps, and other features. The four patents that Allen alleges have been violated are: • No. 6,263,507, "Browser for use in navigating a body of information, with particular application to browsing information represented by audiovisual data."• No. 6,034,652, "Attention manager for occupying the peripheral attention of a person in the vicinity of a display device."• No. 6,788,314, "Attention manager for occupying the peripheral attention of a person in the vicinity of a display device e."• No. 6,757,682, "Alerting users to items of current interest."Below is a copy of the amended suit:Paul Allen vs. Apple, Google, Facebook, eBay, AOL, Netflix, Yahoo, Google's YouTube, OfficeMax, Office Depo...
In his revised complaint filed yesterday, Allen alleges that 11 tech companies and retailers--Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, YouTube, eBay, Netflix, OfficeMax, Office Depot, and Staples--are violating patents granted to him when he headed Interval Research, a small R&D firm that he started in 1992 and ran until it went out of business in 2000.Allen initially filed the suit in August in U.S. District Court in Seattle. At the time, Allen's Interval Licensing company--which holds the patents of Interval Research--said in a press release that the "patents in the lawsuit cover fundamental web technologies first developed at Interval Research in the 1990s, which the company believes are being infringed by major e-commerce and web search companies."The lawsuit was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman on December 13 on grounds that the charges were too vague. In her ruling, Pechman gave Allen until December 28 to revise the suit with the necessary specifics. Allen's legal team labeled the judge's ruling a "procedural issue" and said it would meet the deadline, which it did just in time.The revised complaint details specific products, services, and technologies offered or used by the defendants, according to a Wall Street Journal article.As one example, the suit claims that Apple uses a function developed at and patented by Interval Research that compares content items to determine whether they are related. This function is used in a variety of Apple products, including iTunes, Apple's App Store, and Apple TV, the Journal said. The claim against Google cites a violation of the same patented technology, which the search giant uses in Google Search, Gmail, Google Maps, and other features. The four patents that Allen alleges have been violated are: • No. 6,263,507, "Browser for use in navigating a body of information, with particular application to browsing information represented by audiovisual data."• No. 6,034,652, "Attention manager for occupying the peripheral attention of a person in the vicinity of a display device."• No. 6,788,314, "Attention manager for occupying the peripheral attention of a person in the vicinity of a display device e."• No. 6,757,682, "Alerting users to items of current interest."Below is a copy of the amended suit:Paul Allen vs. Apple, Google, Facebook, eBay, AOL, Netflix, Yahoo, Google's YouTube, OfficeMax, Office Depo...
Create ringtones right on your iPhone
Create ringtones right on your iPhone
Editor's note: This story was originally published on Feb. 2, 2011. It has been updated with new information.Ever wish you could turn a certain Grammy-nominated Daft Punk song -- you know the one I mean -- into a ringtone for your iPhone?There are apps for that -- lots of them, in fact, all capable of converting virtually any track in your song library (not just those hilariously parodied on "The Colbert Report") into a ringtone or calendar/alarm/text tone.To keep things as simple as possible, start with Ringtone Designer. It's a free tool that makes the process painless. (It's also ad-supported; if you want more features and no ads, Ringtone Designer Pro costs 99 cents, 69p or AU$1.29.) Here's how:Step 1: The first time you run the app, you'll be prompted to choose a song. This can be any DRM-free track stored on your iPhone. Don't worry: Turning it into a ringtone won't modify the original in any way. Instead, the copy is merely copying a section of the song.Use sliding selectors to choose the song snippet you want for your 'tone.Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNETStep 2: After making your choice, you'll see an audio waveform of the song, along with a pair of sliding selectors for choosing the snippet you want. The left selector indicates where the ringtone will begin; the right, where it will end. (Remember that ringtones repeat themselves, so it doesn't have to be long.)Step 3: If you're having trouble getting exactly the starting/stopping point you want, you can pinch out to zoom in on the waveform. Tap the Play icon to listen to your selection, then make adjustments as needed.Step 4: Tap the Save icon, which will result in an an iTunes-friendly M4R file. Now you need to fire up iTunes and use the File Sharing feature to add that file to your Ringtones library. (The app has a link to a tutorial video that walks you through each step of that process. If you've never done it before, I highly recommend watching it.)Step 5: Once you've added your newly created ringtone(s) to your library and synced your iPhone, simply venture into Settings > Sounds > Ringtone to start using it.In an ideal world, ringtone apps wouldn't require this iTunes hoop-jumping, but would instead make your song snippets instantly available. At least the creation part is easy. If you have a few minutes to spare and want a potentially limitless supply of new ringtones, Ringtone Designer gets the job done.Is there a ringtone maker you like better? If so, hit the comments and make with the name!
Editor's note: This story was originally published on Feb. 2, 2011. It has been updated with new information.Ever wish you could turn a certain Grammy-nominated Daft Punk song -- you know the one I mean -- into a ringtone for your iPhone?There are apps for that -- lots of them, in fact, all capable of converting virtually any track in your song library (not just those hilariously parodied on "The Colbert Report") into a ringtone or calendar/alarm/text tone.To keep things as simple as possible, start with Ringtone Designer. It's a free tool that makes the process painless. (It's also ad-supported; if you want more features and no ads, Ringtone Designer Pro costs 99 cents, 69p or AU$1.29.) Here's how:Step 1: The first time you run the app, you'll be prompted to choose a song. This can be any DRM-free track stored on your iPhone. Don't worry: Turning it into a ringtone won't modify the original in any way. Instead, the copy is merely copying a section of the song.Use sliding selectors to choose the song snippet you want for your 'tone.Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNETStep 2: After making your choice, you'll see an audio waveform of the song, along with a pair of sliding selectors for choosing the snippet you want. The left selector indicates where the ringtone will begin; the right, where it will end. (Remember that ringtones repeat themselves, so it doesn't have to be long.)Step 3: If you're having trouble getting exactly the starting/stopping point you want, you can pinch out to zoom in on the waveform. Tap the Play icon to listen to your selection, then make adjustments as needed.Step 4: Tap the Save icon, which will result in an an iTunes-friendly M4R file. Now you need to fire up iTunes and use the File Sharing feature to add that file to your Ringtones library. (The app has a link to a tutorial video that walks you through each step of that process. If you've never done it before, I highly recommend watching it.)Step 5: Once you've added your newly created ringtone(s) to your library and synced your iPhone, simply venture into Settings > Sounds > Ringtone to start using it.In an ideal world, ringtone apps wouldn't require this iTunes hoop-jumping, but would instead make your song snippets instantly available. At least the creation part is easy. If you have a few minutes to spare and want a potentially limitless supply of new ringtones, Ringtone Designer gets the job done.Is there a ringtone maker you like better? If so, hit the comments and make with the name!
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