MacRumors

EMI Music announced today that they have launched the first 'iTunes Pass', providing automatic downloads of all releases from a given artist within a specific time period. The first artist available under this program is Depeche Mode, with the current iTunes Pass [iTunes] available at a cost of $18.99 and good through June 16th, 2009.

The first iTunes Pass debuts today in conjunction with Depeche Mode's forthcoming 12th studio album, Sounds of the Universe, to be released on April 21 in the US. Fans who sign up starting today get the alternative/dance pioneers' new single, Wrong, as well as the Black Light Odyssey Dub Remix of the new track Oh Well. They will also receive the new album on its street date plus great music and video exclusives before and after the album's release over the next fifteen weeks. The Depeche Mode iTunes Pass can be purchased starting today for $18.99.

According to Apple's information document on iTunes Pass [iTunes], all music is delivered in DRM-free iTunes Plus format, and while the contents of a given pass are not necessarily fully outlined at the time of purchase and are subject to change over time, the price of the pass will not exceed the value of the contents offered. Apple also discloses on their iTunes Store Terms of Service that, unless otherwise specified, all content must be downloaded within 90 days after the end of the pass period.

Apple announced a public beta of Safari 4 today with the "Nitro" engine that runs JavaScript 4.2 times faster than Safari 3.

"Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back into web browsers, and today it takes another big step forward," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Safari 4 is the fastest and most efficient browser for Mac and Windows, with great integration of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards that enables the next generation of interactive web applications."

The new public beta is available as a free download from Apple's website for both Mac and Windows.

Apple details the new features found in Safari 4:

- Top Sites, a display of frequently visited pages in a stunning wall of previews so users can jump to their favorite sites with a single click;
- Full History Search, where users search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages to easily return to sites they've seen before;
- Cover Flow, to make searching web history or bookmarks as fun and easy as paging through album art in iTunes;
- Tabs on Top, for better tabbed browsing with easy drag-and-drop tab management tools and an intuitive button for opening new ones;
- Smart Address Field, that automatically completes web addresses by displaying an easy-to-read list of suggestions from Top Sites, bookmarks and browsing history;
- Smart Search Field, where users fine-tune searches with recommendations from Google Suggest or a list of recent searches;
- Full Page Zoom, for a closer look at any website without degrading the quality of the site's layout and text;
- Developer Tools - built-in web developer tools to debug, tweak and optimize a website for peak performance and compatibility; and
- Windows-native look in Safari for Windows, that uses standard Windows font rendering and native title bar, borders and toolbars so Safari fits the look and feel of other Windows XP and Windows Vista applications.

Notes

- Safari 3.2.1 is available for download (Leopard, Tiger, Windows) if you want to revert back.
- Passes the Acid 3 test (screenshot)

Startup company doubleTwist has launched a public beta of their new universal media application for the Mac today. Their vision for the product is "a single, streamlined interface that connects to any device, media source or network." In many ways, they seem to have taken some cues from Apple's iTunes and iLife suite but are taking it to the next level in both functionality and ease of use.

Readers will remember that doubleTwist was co-founded by Jon Lech Johansen ("DVD Jon"). DVD Jon gained notoriety for his involvement in releasing the DeCSS software that allowed the bypassing of DVD copy protection back in 1999. Since 2007, however, he has been working on this venture capital funded project. The product was briefly released as a Windows application in early 2008 but has since evolved into today's more mainstream product.

The Mac application allows you to browse your photos, music and movies from a single interface. It also allows you to share your media to your contacts, doubleTwist friends, or seamlessly export to Flickr, YouTube or Facebook. Most notably, the application is said to support hundreds of devices including the Android, Blackberry, PSP and more. Dragging music, photos or video to and from these attached devices will seamlessly convert the media to the appropriate formats. The iPhone and iPod are not presently supported in the Mac version but support is coming in a future update. Other demo videos also available: Send Video, Device Support

The beta Mac application is available as a free download at doubleTwist (Intel Mac and Leopard required). The Windows remains in private beta but is expected for final release in March.

World of Apple publishes screenshots from the latest Snow Leopard developer seed.

[Removed at the request of Apple]

Best Buy this week is offering significant discounts on the iPhone to current members of its Reward Zone loyalty points program. Regular Reward Zone members can save $50, bringing the price to $149 for the 8 GB model or $249 for the 16 GB models. Premier Silver members can save $100, bringing the price down to $99/$199. The offers are good on new iPhones, not refurbished ones as currently available from AT&T at a discounted price.

The deals are available from today through Saturday, February 28th, and are only available to customers who were Reward Zone members as of Saturday, February 21st. The offers are also only available in-store and not at BestBuy.com. All purchases require in-store activation and a two-year contract and are limited to one per customer. Finally, the offers are not available in all stores and are not valid for "Early Upgrade" customers currently under contract with AT&T.

The original forum poster has now offered up a video of the purported next-generation Mac mini.

The video is labeled "Mac Mini 2009 Edition". We have little other information as to its legitimacy and the story sounds sketchy, but present the video for interest and followup to yesterday's story.

Greg Yardley, co-founder and CEO of mobile analytics firm Pinch Media, recently gave a presentation at the New York iPhone Developers Meetup highlighting data gathered from over 30 million App Store downloads of applications utilizing Pinch Media's analytics libraries. The presentation, entitled 'AppStore Secrets', reveals a number of interesting of statistics and conclusions.

Notably, Pinch Media's data on price changes reveals that a price cut on average results in a 130% increase in sales demand, while a price increase decreases demand to 25% of previous levels. The data, however, also suggests that while price cuts can be beneficial, developers should not initiate price cuts on apps that are already seeing a trend of increasing downloads, and that applications that have already seen broad visibility benefit less from price cuts.

Regarding the ability of applications to sustain users' interest, Pinch Media discovered that only about 1% of downloads end up being used long-term, with only about 20% of users of free applications using the application beyond the first day. While paid apps generally perform a bit better in this regard than free apps, the drop-off in usage is still steep in the vast majority of cases. Similarly, the amount of time users spend engaged with an application decreases significantly, stabilizing at approximately five minutes per day, although games do perform approximately twice as well as other applications in this regard.

Pinch Media also performed analysis on ad-supported and paid applications to determine which model is likely to perform better. Based on their data and estimates of ad pricing, they concluded that in general an ad-supported application would have to "bombard" users with ads in order to generate as much revenue as a paid version. There are, however, certain applications (less than 5%) that can either command higher ad rates due to their audience or keep users engaged for a long enough period to make an ad-supported business model worthwhile. Consequently, Pinch Media recommends that unless there is a compelling reason to launch an ad-supported application, developers should charge for their apps and only switch to an ad-supported model if usage data suggests that such a move would be successful.

A possible image of the next generation Mac Mini was first posted to a MacRumors forum discussion thread. The image depicts what could be the next Mac mini.

The original leaker also claimed the following specs:

- Intel Core 2 Duo
- 2GHz
- 3MB L2 cache
- 2GB RAM DDR III, 1066MHz
- Super Drive is SATA

The port configuration is consistent with previous rumors that the new Mac mini would bring improved specs. Specifically, the new Mini was described to have 5 USB ports, FireWire 800, and two Display ports (Mini DisplayPort and Mini DVI). All these can be found on the leaked photograph.

Apple has removed the 20" Cinema Display from the online Apple Store and has notified resellers that the product has been "end of life'd" and can no longer be ordered.

While it may be possible that Apple has simply chosen to stop offering a 20" model, it seems more likely that they are preparing to release a new LED-based 20" Display with the new Mini DisplayPort introduced in October. Apple has said that all future products will contain the Mini DisplayPort connectors. Apple's 30" Display remains available in stores at this time.

Apple is sitting on a number of possible updates which are now overdue. The Cinema Displays saw some activity in October when Apple introduced their first LED-based standalone monitor with the 24" model.

Meanwhile, we are still patiently awaiting refreshes for the Mac mini, iMac and Mac Pro. The Mac Pro will not be updated before the release of the Nehalem Xeon processor which is due at the end of March. The new iMac and Mac mini, however, could be released at any time. While at least one analyst believes that Apple may long delay these updates due to the declining economy, we find that line of reasoning to be absurd and expect the updates sooner than later.

It seems despite all the anticipation about Turn-by-Turn GPS routing for the iPhone, an App already exists in the App Store that delivers this basic functionality.

XRoad Co.'s G-Map U.S. West and G-Map U.S. East apps were released into the App Store back in October and January, respectively.

The G-Map application is the first on-board GPS navigation solution to be made available for iPhone and iPod Touch download. This cutting-edge GPS-enabled application features an intuitive user interface with functions essential to the mobile consumer. Unlike other network mobile navigation services, there is no monthly fee involved and it makes instant route guidance without interruption. No internet or wi-fi connection needed to get you to the desired destination.

The app seemed to have slipped through the radar due to some major issues with the 1.0 version and it seems the turn-by-turn aspect was only recently added. Early iTunes comments for the application consisted of 1 star reviews that indicated the app simply didn't work.

On February 7th, however, XRoad released a 1.2 version update for the app which seemed to correct the major errors and added real-time turn tracking. The most recent reviews have ranged from 3-5 stars.

We briefly tested the app, and it does indeed provide turn-by-turn directions (distance countdown to each turn) by way of GPS. Local points of interest (Food, Fuel, etc.) can be found, addresses can be searched, routes can be edited, detours added, and types of roads can be avoided (highways, toll roads, etc.). If a turn is missed, the route is recalculated. The app even is said to have 3D Images of major intersections (we were unable to verify). Notably absent, however, are voice prompts to let you know when the next turn is.

The 800-900 MB applications each cost $19.99 and carry regional maps for the Western and Eastern halves of the United States (Europe coming soon). By having actual maps stored on the device itself, it does not require the use of an active internet connection to pull mapping data (like Google Maps). While the app claims to support the iPod Touch, we are uncertain how this would be accomplished as it lacks a GPS.

This video from the developer shows how the app works:

Unfortunately, this doesn't necessarily mean that Apple has loosened the restrictions in the App Store. The notable absence of voice prompts is attributed (in XRoad's FAQ) to Apple's "strict strategy which prohibits any real time guidance". In fact, the App even warns you on launch to "not operate this device while driving". We wonder if this FAQ entry may have pre-dated the release of the 1.2 update, however, as the company seems to lump both turn-by-turn navigation and voice-prompts in the prohibition.

We will see if Apple's restrictions remain in place when Sygic submits their GPS navigation app to Apple.

Note, while we have briefly tested this application, we have not fully reviewed it and are not necessarily recommending this app for purchase.

Mobile World Congress 2009 took place this week in Barcelona, Spain bringing together the major players of the mobile phone industry. While Apple chose not to attend, a lot of the talk still surrounded Apple's iPhone. Here are a few notes of interest to come out of the conference.

- Apple's iPhone seemed to take center stage during a panel discussion with CEOs from Microsoft, Nokia and AT&T. They criticized Apple's closed vertical ecosystem. Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, specifically, had this to say:

"I agree that no single company can create all the hardware and software," he said. "Openness is central because it's the foundation of choice."

One audience question asked why these panelists were so worried about Apple when the iPhone holds only a small percentage of mobile phone marketshare. AT&T's De la Vega summed up the answer: "Because the other 99.5 percent of the industry is trying to copy the iPhone."

- Apple's investment in supporting upcoming web standards may begin to pay off with a new breed of "offline" web applications. Google demoed a version of GMail that will still work even when Airplane mode is on. Airplane mode effectively takes the iPhone offline, but by using local storage capabilities found in HTML5, users would still be able to browse and manipulate their mail. A YouTube video shows it in action. These sort of offline web applications have been discussed as possibilities in the past given Apple's investment in web-standards. Of course, these apps would work on any HTML5-compliant browser, including Android phones.

- A company called Sygic demonstrated a full featured turn-by-turn GPS application for the iPhone and is planning on submitting it to the App Store despite SDK terms that seem to specifically prohibit such applications.

- Gizmodo took a look at the new Android G2 and liked it with the exception of the typing interface.