MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.
Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/898
36 MacDirectory DEPARTMENT APPLE NEWS + CELEBS WHEN IT COMES TO APPLE NEWS, GO TO MACDIRECTORY.COM AND SUBSCRIBE TO EMACDAILY. EMACDAILY DELIVERS THE TOP APPLE NEWS, PRODUCT RELEASES, INDUSTRY TRENDS, SPECIAL DEALS AND MORE. THIS IS A FREE E-NEWS SERVICE TO MAC USERS. New York's Ginormous Apple Store The third and largest Apple Store opened in Manhattan, in a former Western Beef supermarket in the historic Meatpacking District. Three floors of goodies are featured, including a 46-foot "Genius Bar" on the top floor that hosts free photo, video and music application training. iPods and iPhones are featured one floor below, with the first floor being "Mac Central" with free Wi-Fi and all manner of PCs. Wal-Mart Pulls the Plug Apple, through its iTunes online store, continues to be the only retailer having any success selling movies in that format. Retailing giant Wal-Mart, without fanfare or barely an official announcement, ended its foray into the movie download business by posting a message on its Web site. Hewlett-Packard had been Wal-Mart's partner in the movie download project, but stopped its infrastructure that had been necessary for the service. Wal-Mart's digital movies, containing digital rights management service, could only be played on devices that used Microsoft's Windows Media Player program, and could not be viewed on iPods. Apple, Fox Team Up Apple, meantime, was set to announce a deal with Twentieth Century Fox allowing customers to rent Fox movies through the iTunes store. Fox's latest DVD releases can be rented by downloading a copy from the iTunes store for a limited time. With the U.S. movie rental business in a slump in 2007, thanks to declines in in-store rentals and slower growth online, the agreement could have an impact on the movie business, though analysts initially were divided on how much. Reuters quoted one analyst saying that the deal was another example of Hollywood studios "cutting out the middleman" by marketing directly to consumers. ThinkSecret.com vs. Apple Apple reached a settlement with ThinkSecret.com, a popular Web site that published company secrets about the computer giant, for the site to shut down. Apple had filed a suit in January 2005 when the site published details of the Mac mini computer two weeks before its launch, and college student Nick Ciarielli, who founded the site at age 13, said he plans to move on. In a statement he said, "I'm pleased to have reached this amicable settlement, and will now be able to move forward with my college studies and broader journalistic pursuits." James Hansen Writer and physicist Mark Bowen published a new book about climatologist and NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen, who was featured in MacDirectory's environmental issue last fall. The book, "Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming," published by Dutton, details Hansen's efforts through the years to bring attention to the growing problem of global warming, beginning with his 1988 testimony to a Senate committee that first revealed the threat to the world. It also tells the story of Hansen's battles with the Bush administration, which has tried to suppress and censor his message on the environmental threat. Feist Has Grammy on Her Mind Canadian up-and-comer Leslie Feist, featured in this space on our last issue, was nominated for several Grammys: Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Best Pop Album and Best Short Form Music Video. Her album, "The Reminder," which includes the iPod-buzz worthy tune "1234," was voted as one of the top albums of 2007 by, among others, Time, Spin, Rolling Stone, Blender and Billboard magazines. iPhone Rules Google The annual "Google Zeitgeist" was released, and was topped by the new iPhone. The device was the fastest-rising search term both in the United States and globally. The iPhone, Facebook and YouTube were among other fast-rising tech terms to make the list, according to tech.co.uk.