Appletell

Online retailer Amazon has teamed up with the 800 lb. gorilla of search engines, Google, to announce a new online music store that will allow users to purchase MP3s from Amazon via mobile devices using Google’s new “Android” operating system. Apple immediately announced it would be discontinued, as it “replicates functionality found in iTunes.”

Okay, I made that last bit up.

From Wired:

Owners of the device will be able to browse, search, preview and purchase music on the Amazon MP3 store using the phone’s cellular connection. In order for purchased MP3s to download, the phone must be connected via Wi-Fi. (The mobile iTunes store, on the other hand, remains completely offline without WiFi.)

Oooh, burn!

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When announcing iTunes Movie Rentals, Steve Jobs said to expect 100 High Definition, 5.1 Surround Sound titles available for rent by February.  Although Apple has made this goal, they are really short in their goal of 1,000 standard definition titles.  396 short, to be exact. Although there are 197 HD titles, of which exactly 100 are 5.1 Surround Sound, there are a relatively meager 604 SD titles.  Also of note is the fact that only six (yes, only six) titles have been added to the content library since March.

This may seem very un-Apple to set a seemingly attainable goal and miss by a mile, but they managed to do so.  If Apple ever wants to be a substantial competitor for Amazon’s Unboxed or Netflix’ Instant Watch, both of which have thousands of titles (it is still pretty foggy on whether or not Apple is really actually trying to compete with those two companies). 

Via [iLounge]

Steve Jobs told John Markoff for the New York Times that “American’s don’t read.”, when he was asked what he thought of the Amazon Kindle, a device that lets you read books and buy them on a large portable device. Apple design could easily do a much better job of creating this device, but this rumor doesn’t seem likely with the SDK announcement coming up later this week. What Apple may do is sell books through the iTunes Store and make them readable on an iPod Touch, iPhone and the computer. Basically what I’m trying to say is that Apple could be creating a platform, not a device.

Via [NYTimes]

Just like those awesome guys at EMI did, Warner Music has decided to drop DRM from it’s music. iTunes Plus? You wish. Warner has decided to push their music through Amazon’s new music service, Amazon MP3. Although many see this as a bad decision, I personally cannot see the bad decision. From the user’s point of view, Amazon is cheaper, and seems to carry a larger selection of DRM-free music. So even though you won’t be able to get your favorite Warner tracks DRM-free on iTunes, you’ll be able to purchase them for even less on Amazon’s MP3 service.

Via [MacUser]

Everyone’s favorite FTP application, Transmit, received a nice update from the folks over at Panic.Version 3.6 is the largest update to the software in over 18 months, with the last release being 3.5.

The feature that stands out the most in this latest update is by far it’s new support for Amazon’s S3 service. That’s right, no longer is Transmit restricted to FTP, it can also upload and download files from Amazon, which has become a more widely used file storage tool in the last few months.

The update also includes a new “Copy URL” feature which allows you to copy a direct URL to your uploaded files if you’re connected to the remote server. This latest update also boasts oer 50 new fixes and improvements which can be viewed here.

Product [Panic] Via [TUAW]

TeleMoose is a new service that allows you to easily browse Amazon on your iPhone, or so they say. The idea behind TeleMoose is that you can browse amazon with slower load times thanks to the little amount of graphics having to load.

The biggest problem with the service though is the design. I have not tried to access it with an iPhone, but have used both Safari and iPhoney, and the site is probably the worst designed site I’ve seen for the iPhone. The developer thought they should leave the picture of the iPhone up around the actual service, so when you’re looking at it from your computer you can see how it would be displayed on the actual phone. Well, when you load that site on your iPhone, the picture will also display around it defeating the purpose of a site designed specifically for the phone. To see what I mean, hit the jump for a picture.

There is also a revenue model behind this service, as all the links are amazon associates links so the developer receives a small commission for each purchase you make.

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That’s right, according for first quarter 2007 reports, the Apple iTunes store has boosted it’s sales to become the 3rd largest music retailer in the US. Apple is now sitting ahead of Amazon at 9.8% of all music purchases, close behind Best Buy and Walmart.

The findings also show that an astonishing 86.2% of all sales were in the physical (CD) format, compared to 13.8% in digital. The music industry, more specifically the RIAA, would still like us to believe that we’re filthy pirates, but with most music still being bought in a DRM-free, CD format, it makes you wonder why our downloadable songs are still DRM’d.

Read [iLounge] Via [Digg]

Amazon.com has begun to take pre-orders for Mac OS 10.5 Leopard, scheduled to be released and shipped in October. For just $129.00 you can secure your copy of Leopard today, of course you will have to wait till October to get hands on with it but at least you can relax knowing its already ordered. Currently it is ranked as #2 in Software for sales on Amazon, but I would not be surprised to see a #1 ranking soon.

Product [Amazon.com] via [Mac Rumors]