Apple- It's business, it's business time

Apple: It's business, it's business time
It's not hard to imagine that a wide variety of previously skeptical iPhone customers would take a second look at the product if they realized they could use it for both work and play. The first people who widely adopted smartphones were business executives, who wanted products like Research In Motion's BlackBerry so they could have access to corporate e-mail while traveling. Phones based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile, with its ties to the Exchange e-mail software, the Office suites, and the Windows desktop, were also able to exploit the business community's need for a mobile office.Apple's first attempt at a smartphone came from a totally different place. The company swung for the fences, and connected, with its focus on consumer-friendly features like the touch-screen user interface and videos. People who had never even considered a smartphone were drawn to the iPhone, and they made the iPhone the third-best selling smartphone in the world during the fourth quarter, only the second full quarter it was available.So now, after demonstrating that people like its iPhone, Apple has a chance to show how practical a device it can be as well. The release of a few influential enterprise applications could provide a reason for holdouts to take the iPhone plunge, or a reason for current iPhone users to upgrade once the 3G iPhone arrives.Most notably, the iPhone currently doesn't fully support widely used e-mail software such as Microsoft's Exchange or IBM's Lotus Notes, making it much more difficult to get the IT department to support push e-mail to your iPhone the way they would a BlackBerry or a Treo. The iPhone can work with Exchange servers with some configuration changes, but that's not something that is widely supported inside IT departments that aren't located at One Infinite Loop, Cupertino, Calif.In an interview with News.com's Ina Fried on Wednesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said licensing the Exchange protocol to Apple would be consistent with the company's practices but declined to say if in fact Apple was a licensee. Earlier this year, IBM denied several reports that it was about to announce a deal with Apple for licensing the Lotus Notes software, saying it wasn't ready to release the software. Perhaps one or both of those stances are about to change.Peter Burrows over at BusinessWeek notes Apple could be firing a shot across RIM's bow next week if it announces full support for corporate e-mail software. RIM's BlackBerry handhelds are the second-leading smartphones in the world, and the leading product in the U.S., largely on the strength of corporate sales. Apple, however, sits just behind RIM in both markets after less than a year, almost completely on the strength of consumer sales.RIM has been trying to break into the consumer market with products like the BlackBerry Curve, but now it might have to defend its own territory if Apple suddenly starts cuddling up to business customers. RIM has had this market largely to itself for a while, now that Palm has really fallen off the map and is focusing on getting back to basics.Still, RIM might be able to deflect Apple's inroads into its own business by striking a deal with Apple to license the BlackBerry Connect software for iPhones. It already does this with Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola, among others.Apple could have other enterprise features in mind for next week. It could have been working with Salesforce.com, for example, on a version of Salesforce To Go--the company's smartphone product--for the iPhone. Maybe the iPhone will soon support reading and creating Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, adding to its read-only support for Word and Excel.The feature perhaps most coveted by iPhone-using professionals is support for Microsoft ActiveSync, which would allow iPhone users to wirelessly sync their Outlook e-mail, contacts, and calendars with their Windows PCs, rather having to sync Outlook calendar and contacts by physically connecting your iPhone to your computer through iTunes. This would let you create a calendar appointment on the iPhone and have it automatically show up the next time you fire up Outlook on your desktop without having to mess with any cables.There are ways to do wireless syncing between the iPhone and Outlook with unofficial third-party applications like Funambol, but IT departments don't like to support hacked software, and that version only supports contacts right now, not calendars or e-mail. Likewise, Synchronica's Web application only supports "pull" e-mail, not "push" e-mail that automatically delivers e-mail to your handset when received by your corporate e-mail server.Until today, the details of the iPhone software development kit were the hot topic in the iPhone world. That will still be a very important development, and next week's event will provide a telling look at how Apple views the importance of third-party application development to the future of the iPhone.But announcing deals with big third-party application developers--names like Microsoft, RIM, Adobe, Salesforce.com, or countless other possibilities--would signal that Apple is ready to pitch the iPhone as more than just a toy. Some of the earliest criticisms of the iPhone were that it didn't support the needs of the enterprise. Those might quickly go away by the end of next Thursday.CNET News.com's Ina Fried contributed to this report.

Jango Airplay- Pay-for-play isn't effective

Jango Airplay: Pay-for-play isn't effective
There's a slippery slope between these necessary expenses and one of the oldest scams in the music industry: pay-for-play. The idea's been around ever since there have been kids in garages who want a quick and easy path to rock stardom, and there are many variations on the theme: meaningless "showcases" or "battles of the bands" that are open to anybody who pays an entry fee, requirements for the performer to buy a big block of tickets to resell, services that place your songs on "compilation" CDs that are supposedly sent to record labels or radio stations, complicated online multilevel marketing schemes...if you can think of it, it's been done.Earlier this week, Jango introduced a new program called Artist Airplay that offers a very straightforward proposition: the more you pay, the more you'll get played on Jango's Web radio stations. If enough listeners vote that they like you, you'll get placed into regular rotation. Forget for a moment whether payola is fair to music listeners. Payola--like other forms of pay-for-play--is bad for artists. Even if your music's great, the conflict of interest makes you suspect. If you were any good, couldn't you get noticed some other way? (Of course, the original payola was conducted in secret, which eliminated listeners' ability to make this distinction. That's why it's illegal.)The inherent conflict in pay-for-play is why the audience at those gigs consists of the band's friends, people bribed with cheap drinks, and the other bands who are also waiting to play--not music fans who actually buy music and go to lots of shows. That's why those "compilation" CDs go immediately from the envelope to the trash can--not into heavy rotation or an artist and repertoire agent's office. In the case of Jango, listeners now know that some portion of the music they're hearing was selected not because an editor liked it, not because some algorithm calculated its similarity with other songs, not because it was popular with other listeners who have similar tastes, but simply because the artist paid for it. This tarnishes the entire service with a distinct air of "suck"--which is too bad, since I actually liked Jango when I tried it a little more than a year ago. Who'd pay for that kind of exposure? I know that times are hard, and Web radio needs new sources of revenue, but asking musicians to pony up for plays is no way to build a serious, long-lasting business. Here's the deal, musicians: if you want to make a living playing music, somebody should be paying you for your music. Not the other way around. If nobody's buying, consider it a hobby, not a career.

Apple TV plays hooky again at iPad event, all eyes turn to 2014

Apple TV plays hooky again at iPad event, all eyes turn to 2014
With most eyes trained on 2014 as the year of Apple HDTV news, another Apple presentation has come and gone without word about the Cupertino, Calif. computer maker's ambitions for the living room. As expected, Apple unveiled updated MacBook Pro laptops and next generation of its tablet, the iPad Air and iPad Air Mini, at an event Tuesday. But the company didn't have anything to say about Apple TV. The latest discussion around Apple's television aspirations -- as it has been for more than a year -- is that late 2014 will be the time for a launch of an ultra-high definition Apple TV with 65-inch and 55-inch frameless screens at a price anywhere from $1,500 to $2,500. That's according to Advanced Research Japan analyst Masahiko Ishino, who spoke with The Wall Street Journal in a blog post Tuesday.Related stories:Apple to release OS X Mavericks for freeApple announces new, faster MacBook Pros with Haswell chips, Thunderbolt 2, starting at $1,299Apple iTunes Radio notches 20M listeners, 1 billion songsApple shows off revamped iPad Air, iPad Mini with Retina displayMac Pro available by end of year, starting at $2,999Apple's Cook on competitors: 'They're confused'Amazon listings stoke Apple TV hopesApple likely to launch 65-inch TV by late 2014, says analystApple TV adds Major League Soccer, Disney Junior channels Speculation about some Apple TV news to come at Tuesday's presentation limply got out of bed Friday after Amazon France and Amazon Germany both indicated thatApple TV units were unavailable and would not be replenished until the day after the anticipated iPad and MacBook event. Amazon US still had Apple TV units available, as did Apple's own online store. Hype about an Apple flat-panel television stretches as far back as 2009. Despite Steve Jobs and later Tim Cook's stated passion for producing a revolutionary device to supplant the typical living-room centerpiece, in recent years the extent of Apple's progress has been limited to minor updates to the Apple TV set top box.After starting out as a glorified Netflix streaming box, Apple TV has bulked up with some desirable channels, this year adding Hulu Plus, HBO Go, Watch ESPN, and Major League Soccer. Though the addition of HBO Go in June made good on one content stream that was rumored to be in the offing, Apple has also been said to be working on a deal for Time Warner Cable channels, and CW President Mark Pedowitz earlier this year said the network would be on Apple TV imminently -- but an app for the channel had yet to materialize.Apple unveils new iPads, MacBooks, and releases...See full gallery1 - 4 / 30NextPrevSee CNET's complete coverage of all of today's Apple iPad and Mac news.