In a ‘that’s so obvious why didn’t we see it coming’ move, Amazon has acquired audio book seller, Audible for $300m. Given that the company sells paper books, and has recently made a huge leap into the eBook market with Kindle, adding the world’s biggest library of audio books to its portfolio would seem like [...]

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Amongst the flurry of publicity surrounding the launch of free, legal, peer-to-peer music service, Qtrax, one or two things were easy to miss.

Such as:
The Mac version won’t be available til March 18
Despite QTrax’s claims, so far the only major label to have actually signed up is Sony BMG.
Tracks feature DRM which limits their usage, specifically, [...]

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Virgin Galactic has launched the final design of the SpaceShipTwo, its passenger carrying rocket spaceliner. The image above shows SpaceShipTwo being carried by White Kinight Two, the plane which will carry it upwards before it is launched into space.
Passengers paying $200,000 a head will be taken to an altitude of 110km where they will be [...]

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Another quarter, another set of stellar financials from Apple.
Here are the important bits

The only slight disappointment from the company’s point of view is the rather flat iPod sales. But it’s possible (probable?) that many people who would have bought an iPod bought an iPhone instead.
From a personal point of view, I’m delighted to see [...]

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From my inbox today:
‘Your unborn baby on your iPhone
Proud dads-to-be can now carry moving 4D baby scans of their unborn child everywhere they go on their iPhone or video iPod.
4D pregnancy scanning service Cocoon4D in central London has the technology to download images from 4D scans onto the portable devices for parents to view whenever [...]

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Two comments from The Guardian’s Jack Schofield about the MacBook Air that, try as I might, I couldn’t let pass without comment:
‘If you can’t carry a second battery then Apple has screwed up bigtime in the main market for these things, which is people like me’
Er no, Jack. I’m not privy, sadly, to the inner [...]

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Back in August 2005, I wrote in MacUser that
‘Apple has so many of the pieces of the jigsaw already in place – iTunes, QuickTime 7, the Mac – that it would seem almost a no-brainer for it to become the premiere conduit through which Internet TV is delivered to our homes.’
Three announcements this week make [...]

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If you want a minty sweet, don’t buy a packet of Starburst.
If you want an in-depth analysis of how George Bush’s latest comments on Iran will affect the ’special relationship’, don’t look for it in The Star.
And if you want the most powerful and upgradeable laptop that your £1200 can buy, don’t pre-order a MacBook [...]

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Apple yesterday updated the software for the iPod Touch and its AppleTV. The Touch update adds five new applications; Mail, Maps, Weather, Notes, and Stocks. At least two of these, Mail and Notes should have been on the original, yet Apple is charging $20 for the update.

Meanwhile, the AppleTV software has been completely overhauled and [...]

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1. It’s a stunning feat of engineering.
2. It would never have been possible had Apple not moved to Intel.
3. Apple clearly has some clout in the Intel boardroom.
4. The lack of an optical drive, Ethernet port and Firewire port don’t matter to most people.
5. The SSD version will become the standard inside two years. Goodbye [...]

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