News for Wednesday, 2 August 2006

After the campaign initiated in USA, Coca-cola and Apple have launched their music partnership in Europe:

Coca-Cola and Apple today announced a music partnership in Europe that includes major promotions in the UK and Germany and the launch of a new Coke branded music website across Europe, including the UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. As part of the promotion, Coke and Apple will be giving away 70 million free songs from the iTunes Music Store in the UK and thousands of iPods in Germany.
The new www.Coca-Cola.com/music website is a Coke branded music destination launching next week that features iTunes integration throughout, providing fans with links to music and information focused on giving fresh talent new exposure. In the UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland unsigned artists will have a venue to upload songs, giving them potential for broad exposure on the site through artist highlights, European podcasts available on iTunes, and invitations to play at Coke sponsored European festivals.
To kick-off the partnership, live concerts will be held in the UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with selected live songs and video podcasts from the performances available on iTunes and www.Coca-Cola.com/music.

It remains unclear why France, or other major European countries, are not included in this event. Is it directly link to the percentage of market share owned by Coca-Cola in those countries. In France, Coca-Cola has almost a monopoly for soda-type drinks.
The very exciting point of this announcement is the possibility for local bands to upload their music on the www.Coca-Cola.com/music website. Is it the first sign of Apple's answer to some criticisms from Music majors or the upcoming Microsoft "Zune"?

The website hdforindies claims to have obtained information from reliable source that the future Apple Pro desktop models, aka Mac Pro, will feature the Radeon X1900.
If this information turns out to be true, it would signal ATI's comeback in Apple Pro hardware models.
In addition, hdforindies reports that this high-end graphics card could also be installed in current PMG5. This could confirm information related to a possible double Pro hardware offer for some weeks or months from the Apple (PPC-based PMG5 AND Intel-based MacPro). It would not be new, since Apple also maintained the PMG4 able to boot on OS9 for months after the transition to "nothing but OSX".

JCJ

The RefurbStore is open. You can find iPod nanos with 31 to 19% discount, as well as black MB and all the MB Pro models. In addition to yesterdays offer, PMG5 Quad G5s are available for 2380€, a good deal for Adobe users, since the UB version of Adobe applications will not be available before 12 months.
JCJ

NeoOffice 2.0 Aqua Beta was released yesterday.

New features:

• * based on OpenOffice.org 2.0.3


• * faster launching time


• * Intel and PowerPC version simultaneously available


• * new splashscreen icons


• * Aqua


• * native dialog boxes for file opening and saving

As usual, to support development costs, the new version can be downloaded here via the NeoOffice Early Access Program.

The NeoOffice Early Access Program allows people to download a NeoOffice release before the official release date. The NeoOffice 2.0 Aqua Beta Early Access Program will start on 1 August 2006 and will end on 29 August 2006. Please note that your membership will expire at the end of the NeoOffice 2.0 Aqua Beta Early Access Program.
We also sell NeoOffice 2.x Early Access subscriptions. For US$60, NeoOffice Early Access subscribers will automatically be members in the Early Access Program for every NeoOffice 2.x release.

The source code is available for free (here) but you will have to compile it yourself.
OpenOffice.org/X11 is also available in version 2.0.3.
Links:
NeoOffice
OpenOffice.org
JCJ

Apple has released a security update for OSX.3 and X.4 (client and server), both PPC and Intel based Macs.

Security Update 2006-004 is recommended for all users and improves the security of the following components.
AFP Server
Bluetooth
Bom
DHCP
dyld
fetchmail
gnuzip
ImageIO
LaunchServices
OpenSSH
telnet
WebKit
For detailed information on Security Updates, please visit this website:http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798