iTunes: negotiations on the (re) download unlimited

Apple is in talks with record labels to allow unlimited download content already purchased from the iTunes Store. Following the Financial Times in late February, Bloomberg has obtained, from three sources, similar indications on the evolution considered.

The idea is that a client can access at any time for songs purchased on iTunes. Whether for listening on the move on their iPhone or iPad or to recover from a hard disk crash or handling unhappy.

In the latter case, the rule that prevails today is ... it is better to regularly back up their iTunes content. Videos, music or games iPod (excluding iPod touch) can be purchased in fact downloaded only once. If you lose, it's for your apple. The free re-downloading is only available for applications iOS and electronic books.

Apple is in talks with major record labels to reconsider this rule and relax. According to two Bloomberg contacts, an agreement could be announced in mid-year.

It appears on the face of such repeated and consistent rumors that we are heading towards a less iTunes competitor that would arise in Spotify or Pandora (unlimited streaming access to the catalog) and to a strengthening of the download model, where the streaming might possibly be proposed only for tracks already purchased. A shared commitment to equality by Apple and record companies wrote Bloomberg.

In addition, Bloomberg also mentioned a shift from the MobileMe offering free and store much more content.

Apple talks about the slow web apps

The controversy swells on Nitro, the JavaScript engine found in Safari Mobile from iOS 4.3. Earlier this week, we noticed that the web app were 2 to 2.5 times slower than the same site displayed in Safari.

Shortly after a study by Blaze Software said loud and clear that a Nexus S averaged 52% faster than a 4 iPhone to surf the web. However, this study was not conducted directly through Safari, but in a WebView.

These various data have not failed to create a little controversy, which once will not hurt, drove Apple to break the silence. One of his spokesmen, Trudy Miller, confirmed that the web views do not include all optimizations for Safari. Therefore, the study of Blaze Software is partly inaccurate. It is true that the iPhone's browser is slower than that of Android. By cons, running web app (thus bypassing the browser) is actually much faster on Android.

So why web apps are they deprived of Nitro and the lack of support for the HTML5 cache? For John Gruber, we must not see evil everywhere and think that the way the Californian Company focuses on native applications to web applications.

The real problem for Apple is safety. Unlike its predecessors, Nitro is a JavaScript engine that includes the time compilation (JIT). However, a JT needs to have the ability to mark pages in RAM memory as executable. However, unlike Mac OS X, Apple iOS prohibited on grounds of safety. Such a mechanism could lead to hijacked the execution of unsigned code.

In other words, if Safari 4.3 is under iOS much faster, there is a significant part-cons: if someone manages to exploit a vulnerability in its browser, then it can do much more damage than before. One can imagine that Apple has enough confidence in its browser to integrate such a possibility.

For Gruber, it is more likely that Apple will not stop there. He believes that to generalize Nitro web applications, there should be a web application to run JavaScript in a process separate and independent, a bit like Safari on Mac and PC that creates a separate process for Flash. In theory, this is what Apple is preparing for Webkit 2, whose project was announced last April: "WebKit2 is designed primarily to support the separate processes, where the Web content (JavaScript, HTML, etc.). made his living in a separate process [...] this model is comparable to Google Chrome, the chief dissimilarity that we have built straight into the structure, and it is easy to get to other browsers.

Flash 10.2 Android arrives today

Announced in early February after its release on Mac and PC, Flash 10.2 shall be offered for download today via its Android Market or updates OTA. This book is written for Android 2.2 (Froyo), 2.3 (Gingerbread) as well as some users already blessed Android 3.0 (Honeycomb).

In the latter case, it is still a beta and the audience is smaller - even if that geographically - as consisting of Xoom customers. The tablet Motorola will simultaneously receive its first revision system 3.0.1. More will follow before Flash 10.2 do it is proposed final version.

This new Flash Androphones provides video acceleration on H264, but only for Honeycomb. Another novelty reserved for shelves next Android 3.0, an improved browser integration, resulting in navigation and view more smoothly pages. Flash content embedded in Web pages should be better supported as well.

More generally, the performance should be slightly up on today's mobile. Flash applications and data on the PC that used to be used with a physical keyboard can be better managed on devices that offer a virtual keyboard. It will be displayed, for example automatically by the application when necessary. Adobe maintains a list of compatible devices with Flash.

Orange down a little price iPad and evokes the arrival of the iPad 2

In turn, Orange has timidly down the price of the iPad. It offers the tablet from Apple in its 16GB version starting at 249 €, 30 € less than previously. This price includes a reimbursement coupon of 100 €. The 32 GB is sold for its share from 329 € and 64 GB from 389 €.

By comparison, Vodafone has dropped its prices yesterday moved the 32 GB price of 16 GB, or € 279.90 and the 32GB from € 379.90. As we told you yesterday, if an iPad first generation seems you enough for your needs, rather go for a ride on the refurb.

Meanwhile, Orange has announced the imminent arrival of the iPad 2 of his shop, without giving details or on the date of availability nor its price ...

On the other hand, you are very likely to write about the release date of the iPad 2. Unofficially, the launch of the tablet from Apple is still scheduled for next Friday starting at 17 hours. These are certainly the latest information communicated received several companies responsible for disposing.

Still, it was exactly like last year before Apple decides to delay the marketing of the iPad in Europe of a month. The decision was reached directly from the United States without anyone (or almost) never have known this side of the Atlantic before. If Apple chooses to postpone the sale of its shelf internationally, stakeholders will - as always - informed of this decision at the last moment.

Anyway, we should know the end of the story early next week. Apple, which never misses an opportunity to brag after marketing a new product, is surprisingly quiet since the beginning of the week, just stating that the application for the iPad 2 is "incredible".

Thunderbolt also a great price

LaCie has announced a product but not its price, which will perhaps not trivial, especially in the SSD version of the Little Big Disk. "We will have SSD-based products with prices that will match the performance (ndr, implied, consequential, ndr). They will be adapted for video pros, and the general public as a vast majority will not buy Little Big Disk SSD. However it also provides a model 1 TB Hard Drive 7200 RPM, in order to consolidate its presence in the market, but it will not be exclusive. Being supported by Intel and Apple should see this technology become affordable or fall into the norm. "

He cites as an example the case of the USB 3 still expensive three years ago and found today in all the ads on hard drives big government "We wanted the Little Big Disk lock on that is the definition of a MacBook Pro. It does work on other products Thunderbolt. We can not say when it will arrive today, but it will happen fairly quickly. It has been said quite clearly is a technology in which we believe and what album is the first in a family to come. "

Finally, given the willingness to invest in Thunderbolt LaCie, it would almost paris for expansion cards for the Mac Pro today. The manufacturer has already exist with 3 USB, FireWire, eSata. Here too LaCie is silent, but we feel that the idea is on the table.