Apple and Google tell the FCC different stories about Google Voice

Google's logo at its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images.

Google Inc. and Apple Inc. can’t seem to agree on why the new Google Voice application for the iPhone doesn’t appear in Apple's App Store.

The Federal Communications Commission posted a previously confidential letter today by Google that said the Google Voice app was rejected.

"Apple's representatives informed Google that the Google Voice application was rejected because Apple believed the application duplicated the core dialer functionality of the iPhone,” the letter said.

In the letter, Google says that Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, told Google's senior vice president, Alan Eustace, that Apple declined the application during a July 7 phone conversation.

But Apple maintains that it never rejected Google Voice for the iPhone and that the two Silicon Valley companies are still in talks about the service. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said Apple was studying Google Voice and, as of today, it hasn’t been approved for the App Store.

“We do not agree with all of the statements made by Google in their FCC letter,” Kerris said in a statement. “Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application and we continue to discuss it with Google.”

Google Voice centralizes people’s mobile and land-line numbers and their messaging to one number. Some industry observers have said that the service could potentially compete with AT&T Inc., the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. carrier.

Apple answered FCC questions about Google Voice in a filing last month. In it, Apple maintained that it was still looking at the application, but said that the service "appears to alter the iPhone's distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone's core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface."

-- W.J. Hennigan

Albums aren't dead yet, at least on EMusic

Not long after Napster's song-swapping software arrived in 1999, CD sales started what now appears to be an inexorable slide toward zero. It's not just the fact that Napster helped people copy songs free from other Internet users; it freed consumers from having to buy whole albums in order to get the one or two tracks they really wanted. The iTunes Store did the same thing for music buyers.

But is the album dead (for more than just Radiohead, that is)? Today, EMusic -- a subscription service that offers bulk discounts on MP3s -- announced that full-album downloads made up 72% of its sales over the last year. That's up from 69% since 2006. The music industry as a whole is headed the other way, with digital track sales climbing and albums dwindling. Twice as many singles were sold in 2008 than CDs and digital albums (although if you assume the average album had 12 songs, albums still accounted for about 80% of all tracks sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan's numbers). Meanwhile, Apple says the split on iTunes is about 50-50, with half the tracks sold as individual downloads and the other half in albums. So EMusic is clearly doing something better when it comes to moving albums than Apple, despite the absence of liner notes or special packaging.

EMusic suggests, and Billboard's Glenn Peoples agrees, that the site's album-centric layout and editorial content make the difference:

EMusic encourages complete album purchases with editorial features that place albums in context, including career surveys of leading artist's catalogues ("Icons”), examining an artist's peers and influencers ("Six Degrees”), and overviews of genres, labels and favorites ("eMusic Dozens”). Additionally, eMusic's album and artist pages include related artist information from YouTube, Flickr and Wikipedia.

More important, I think, are two other factors. First, EMusic subscribers are avid music fans. They commit to spending $12 or more a month to buy MP3s that, until July, came exclusively from independent labels and artists. (The company added older Sony releases in July, around the same time it announced the latest price hike for new subscribers.) Fans are less likely than casual listeners to be satisfied with one or two tracks from an album -- they want to hear the whole mix. And second, the significant discounts provided at EMusic encourage people to spend more freely. An album on EMusic costs the equivalent of $4 to $5, depending on the user's subscription plan, and that price isn't much of a leap from two 99-cent downloads on iTunes.

I wonder, though, if EMusic's last few price increases will eventually make people much more particular about their downloads. The company is eliminating the generous annual plans that allowed music fiends such as myself to download 65 songs for about $14 a month. Instead, the plans will have lower monthly rations, and per-track prices will average 40 to 50 cents. When you only have 24 tracks, you're much less likely to download a full LP on a whim. EMusic tried to soften the blow of the lower monthly allotments by announcing that some albums would be offered as bundles, enabling people to, for example, use only 12 credits to download all 16 tracks of Sloan's excellent "A sides win" LP. And full-album downloads have actually increased since then as a percentage of EMusic's sales, to 75%. Unfortunately, some labels (cough cough Sony cough cough) are using the bundling tool to charge more for full LPs than they would have been able to without it. For example, six of the nine tracks of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" are available only with a full album download, which costs 12 credits. You can probably guess the six tracks.

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division.

Nano a Nano -- the new player from Apple, with video, is a swell upgrade

With the iPod getting to be old hat, Apple has frantically piled on extras in an attempt to make the player seem fresh again.

The new version of the iPod Nano, unveiled earlier this week at a company event, crams into the little player a video camera, FM radio, microphone, speaker and even a pedometer.

Is this a sign of desperation?

Well, if it is, bring it on. The new Nano is an astonishing triumph of engineering and design that has managed to pack all these new features — along with the old ones — into a sleek, elegant device that’s a pleasure to use.

None of the new features — with the exception of the dorky pedometer — seem like gratuitous add-ons. They’re quality instruments that perform dauntingly well, considering that the player is not much bigger than a couple sticks of gum, side by side.

Indeed, this fifth rendition of the Nano (first introduced in 2005) is wrapped in an aluminum case that is essentially the same size as its predecessor.

Almost alarmingly so. As one colleague noted, it would be easy to lose in the laundry.

Or in an unmade bed. This morning, with the Nano having charged up overnight, I shot my first video, with the help of a lovely demonstration model.

The new Nano is not perfect.

The controls on the new features don’t all work seamlessly. There’s a possible glitch for the company to solve having to do with processing the video clips after downloading to a Mac. And it would not be a surprise if there are more.

Apple is known for taking big leaps forward, and sometimes that means it has to run damage control on the first release of a new or upgraded item.

If you really want one of the new Nanos, it might be wise to wait until possible bugs are ironed out. (Of course, if this thing is a hit, it might end up being in short supply for the holidays).

The prices for the fifth-generation Nanos are $149 for the 8GB model and $179 for the 16GB. Given that you’ll be tempted to take a lot of off-the-cuff videos — and video takes up considerably more memory than audio — you’re probably better off going for the 16GB model.

That is, if iPod players are still for you. For not too much more money, you can move up to an iPod Touch (starting at $199), which is a sophisticated mini-computer in addition to being an audio/video player.

The Touch has Wi-Fi capability for e-mail and the Web, sophisticated apps and it can play serious games.

Then there’s the granddaddy of the portables: the iPhone (starting at $99, plus two-year telecommunications plan), that adds phone capability. The iPhone 3GS model ($199, plus plan) also has a video camera.

It’s a good bet that the Touch will eventually get a video camera too. And with their Wi-Fi abilities, they’ll be able to send those video clips directly to friends, family or Facebook, without having to download them to a computer.

Even so, the stylish Nano deserves to be thought of not as a lesser device, at least for the time being, but one that serves its own niche. It’s so small that it’s great for the gym, hiking trails or a run.

Its shape and on-screen graphics (which on the FM mode are delightfully retro), humanize the technology.

And those videos — well, they’re a gas.  

-- David Colker

Photo: The new iPod Nano, first in the model line to shoot video. Credit: Associated Press

New iPod Nano shoots video -- first look!

There's a review coming later today of the new iPod Nano from Apple that shoots video and has a built-in FM radio tuner.

But here's a quick taste of the video function, right out of the box. It's my personal, morning wake-up call.

-- David Colker

Photo: The new iPod Nano from Apple. Credit: Monica M. Davey / EPA

Why developers love Apple's Snow Leopard

Now that many Mac users have had a couple of weeks to install the new Apple Inc. operating system, Snow Leopard, and explore its new features, some aren't so enthused with the update.

There just aren't that many new features.

The additions are a far cry from the usual operating system updates that add new toys, like Spaces and Dashboards and new designs. The running joke is to call Snow Leopard a "service pack" -- the incremental Windows updates that Microsoft distributes as a free download.

To find just a handful of new gizmos, you'll need to dig through settings menus and really know what to look for. (For example, did you know the new operating system is HDTV-ready?)

Apple marketed the software that way from the start, quipping during its unveiling that it adds "zero new features." The goal, it seems, is to get Snow Leopard deployed on as many machines as possible with its affordable $29 price tag.

Why is Snow Leopard so important? To quote a sweaty, excited Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, "developers, developers, developers." (We're quoting him out of context, but he makes our point: developers!)

"Snow Leopard's developer tools in particular have improved tremendously," wrote Steven Frank, whose company Panic builds software for website designers. "All Mac software, from Apple or otherwise, will improve as a direct result."

A lot of the additions, developers say, sit "under the hood" and provide the potential to build ...

Rhapsody and the iPhone meet without drama

So much for the Apple-as-monopolist meme: Rhapsody, the music-subscription service co-owned by RealNetworks and Viacom, is now available on the iPhone, where it can compete with the iTunes store for a share of music fans' wallets. Last month Real announced that it had submitted the Rhapsody app to Apple for approval, and some observers darkly warned that Apple would give it the Google Voice treatment rather than facing the competition. But it zipped through the approval process, winding up in the iPhone App store last night. According to PaidContent.org's Staci Kramer, who gave it a quick test Wedneaday, the new app integrates seamlessly with the Rhapsody mothership. It's so good, Kramer says, she'll probably hang on to her Rhapsody subscription for a while longer.

As Kramer's comments suggest, my guess is that this app will have more value to Real as a customer-retention tool than as a recruiter of new subscribers. It was silly to think that Apple would be frightened of Rhapsody, despite the high quality of Rhapsody's library, its online jukebox and the tools it offers to help users find and play unfamiliar tracks and artists. That's because Rhapsody is an audio entertainment service, not a music-collection-building tool like iTunes. The $15 monthly fee buys users access to a fantastic set of titles, but it doesn't let them keep any. And Steve Jobs has repeatedly argued that music fans want to own, not just listen. (The numbers seem to bear him out; except for Naxos' classical music offering on college campuses, it's hard to discern much growth in the total number of customers for music subscription services past the few million they've had for several years.) Apple is so comfortable with that assessment, it previously approved two music-listening apps at least as powerful as Rhapsody: Sirius XM, which offers scores of radio channels, and Spotify, a free, advertiser-supported music-on-demand service available in England and Europe. 

In fact, if Jobs is right about music fans, Rhapsody will help Apple by introducing users to more songs that they'll want to buy. And unlike the PC version, the click-to-buy button on Rhapsody's iPhone app leads directly to ... the iTunes store. (That's probably why Apple finally included FM tuners on its iPods -- it developed a song-tagging feature that makes it easy for people to buy songs they hear on the radio.)

iPhone 3GS image courtesy of Apple

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division.

Apple's big event [Updated]

Updated at 11:15: It's over. The updated iPod Nano will be $149 for the 8GB model, and $179 for the 16GB.

Not the big hardware announcement folks were hoping for.

And no sign of the Beatles, whose songs are still not in the iTunes catalog.

Updated at 11:12: More on the new Nano: It will also have an FM radio, microphone and speaker, and a pedometer.

Looks like that's it. No hint of the rumored Tablet or other products.

Updated at 11:02: The iPod Nano will not just be adding a camera, as rumored, but also a video camera. You can send a video clip back to your camera or, with a click, send it right to YouTube (get ready for YouTube overload of videos!)

Updated at 10:58: As leaked earlier today, there will be price reductions on iPod Touch. The 8GB model will now be $199, the 32GB will be $299. And a 64 GB model will be $399.

Updated at 10:54: Games, games, games. Jumping on the popularity of games on the iPod Touch, several new titles have been announced for the platform, including Madden NFL 2010.

Update: In a nod to the past, iTunes will offer much more in the way of graphics and information on artists, like in the days of album covers. There will be photos, lyrics and videos. Same with DVDs, there will be exclusive additional content on downloads.

Update: Additional features for iTunes announced: the Genius feature that chooses related content can be programmed to play tunes from the library in a steady stream. And apps can be managed from iTunes. If you like ring tones, Apple's now got 30,000 of  them for $1.29 a pop.

Update: It just started and the crowd is going wild. Steve Jobs just took the stage. He had not been seen publicly for some time because of illness.

Prior to the event, some news leaked out:

IPod Touch and iPod prices have been reduced and the Cocktail feature, which gives additional digital info for albums on iTunes, has appeared on the Apple UK site.

-- David Colker and Dan Fost

Photo: Steve Jobs makes an appearance at Apple's big event in San Francisco. Credit: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press

Apple's Steve Jobs is in the house

The Apple product announcement is about to begin, and some news has slipped out already.

Bloomberg News says that Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief guru, showed up in advance of the event in San Francisco, slipping through the back door. He has not made a public appearance in many months because of illness.

Also, iPod Touch and iPod prices have already been reduced (see earlier post) and the Cocktail feature, which gives additional digital info for albums on iTunes, has appeared on the Apple UK site.

-- David Colker

Photo: Steve Jobs speaks at Apple's big event after slipping in a back door. Credit: Jeff Chiu / Associated Press

Apple drops prices on iPods, iPod Touches

The long-awaited Apple product announcements are still a couple hours away, but the company has let slip out a change in its portable player lineup -- lower prices. In one case, dramatically lower.

As reported on the Macworld site and in other spots, Apple quietly this morning cut the price of its iPod Touch with 32 GB of storage space from $399 to $279. This puts the price of the unit about $10 less than Microsoft's Zune HD 32GB player, which comes out Sept. 15.

In other Apple slices: the iPod Nano 16GB went from $199 to $149, and the 8GB model that was $149 is now $129.

Also, the iPod Classic 120GB has dropped from $249 to $229.

You can't order these items at the reduced prices yet. Shortly after the price reductions appeared, Apple took its online store offline, replacing it with a sign that says: "We are busy updating the store."

As for what new products might be coming from Apple: the announcement event begins at 10 a.m., Pacific time.

-- David Colker

Apple: Only Rock And Roll -- not a new computer

"It's only rock and roll, but we like it," Apple says in its invitation to the media for its announcement tomorrow of something new and unspecified. So we probably shouldn’t expect something other than rock and roll, like the tablet computer Apple is said to be working on.

And considering that “It’s Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)” is a Rolling Stones hit, we probably shouldn’t get our hopes up that Apple is ready to put the Beatles’ catalog on iTunes. Those hopes are already fairly high, considering that the complete Beatles catalog at long last came out today, and The Beatles: Rock Band game comes out tomorrow.

The same Beatles fans who thought the song "Revolution No. 9" offered clues to Paul McCartney's death see some significance that tomorrow's event falls on 09/09/09. But Apple (the computer/iPod/iPhone company) never has particularly gotten along with Apple Records (the Beatles’ label), and iTunes has never offered Beatles songs. If tomorrow’s announcement promised a “Magical Mystery Tour,” I might be a little more optimistic. Then again, it would be just like Apple to throw us a red herring.

The "rock star" that the Apple faithful really hope to see is Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who has not appeared publicly since he returned to the company this summer after a reported liver transplant. If he's coming, Apple is -- surprise! -- not saying.

Online speculation (sometimes referencing sources inside the notoriously closed-mouth company) offers a wide menu of options. Mashable says Apple could be unveiling iPod Touches with cameras for photos and videos, and an iTunes store with Facebook and Twitter integration. TechCrunch predicts the demise of the iPod Classic, as well as moves to expand iTunes offerings to "the cloud," and the release of the reported "Cocktail" effort to induce people to buy music in full albums again.

The fun starts at 10 a.m. Stay tuned.

--Dan Fost