Weekend news & rumor roundup, talkcast reminder
It was a surprisingly rumor-filled Saturday, as both AppleInsider and Boy Genius Report weighed in with hints of a future iMac revision and capabilities expected for iTunes 9. Aside from finally giving users the ability to manage iPhone application order on the desktop (thank goodness), the new version of Apple's media player app is rumored to include Blu-ray playback capability; this brings the technology once referred to as a "bag of hurt" by Steve Jobs onto the Mac platform in earnest.
While AI doesn't zero in on Blu-ray as one of the two cryptically-hinted iMac features, it does seem likely. AI also suggests that one of the ways Apple is going to pay for enhanced hardware features on the iMac line is by squeezing the profit pump of the iPhone line, with margins that put the computer business to shame.
Over at TechCrunch, they've poked around in the rather surprising (from an anti-trust perspective, anyway) Google & Apple no-poaching agreement, where the two companies made efforts not to cold-call each other's engineers for job opportunities. At Fortune/BrainstormTech, there's a report from everyone's favorite financial analyst Gene Munster that points toward the 'iPod mega' style of Apple tablet, again looking like it would be available close to the holiday shopping season.
The Google story continues to percolate in other directions, as David Pogue points out the forthcoming, full-featured web app version of the Google Voice service for iPhone; like the Latitude app, it will be implemented in Safari; maybe not as good as it would have been, but certainly higher profile. Among the Google apps remaining on the store, the Google Mobile app was updated to include "did you say?" search checking for voice search.
As we do every Sunday, we'll be diving into these stories and more on the weekly talkcast, 10 pm ET on Talkshoe. You can download last week's show, featuring Christina and the gang, from Talkshoe or subscribe in iTunes.
To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, or you can try out the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VOIP lines (take advantange of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *-8. Talk with you then!
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