Apple To Provide Live Video Stream Of Tomorrow's Event

Apple has announced that they will be providing a live video stream of tomorrow's event.  The stream can be viewed on Apple.com at 10a PT / 1p ET.  To view the video, you will need to have a Mac running OS 10.6 or an iOS device with version 3.0 or higher.

USA Today Restructuring; Shifting Focus To Digital Distribution

The Associated Press reports newspaper USA Today will be restructured to focus more on digital devices like the iPad and less on physical print. 

"We have to go where the audience is," Hillkirk (John Hillkirk, USA Today Editor) said. "If people are hitting the iPad like crazy, or the iPhone or other mobile devices, we've got to be there with the content they want, when they want it."

The changes will result in the loss of 9% of USA Today's current staff, approximately 130 jobs. It will be interesting to see if this newspaper can successfully migrate its business to digital distribution.  If they are successful, others should start to follow quickly.

StreamTV Elocity A7 Android Table Coming September?

Engadget has an interesting post about a new Android based tablet they had a chance to take a look at.

Specs: 

• 7" capacitive touch screen


• 1 Ghz Tegra 2 processor


• 800 x 480 resolution


• 1.3 mp front facing camera


• SD Card slot


• USB & HDMI ports


• Android 2.2 coming in October, 2.1 in September


• HDMI cable & wireless keyboard included


• Price: $399 via Amazon

This tablet sounds interesting and might be a good product, if it actually is released.  There have been plenty of table announcements with little actually making it to market.

Rumor: Apple's New iPod Nano To A Have Major Redesign?

Image via AppleInsider

Rumors have been swirling around the Internet about the design of the iPod nano. AppleInsider published a story stating the new nano will resemble an iPod shuffle instead of a nano.  They believe the nano will loose its click wheel and the screen will be replaced with a 3cm x 3cm touch screen.  This is the same screen that appeared earlier this year and every rumor site has been trying to find product for it to go in (the previous rumor was a new remote for the AppleTV).

We'll see if this rumor is true this Wednesday, September 1st at Apple's media event.  I'm not sure how usable this form factor would be.  Keep checking Digital Copy Room for more updates.

Apple Updates Pages To Add ePub Export Feature

In a surprise move, Apple updated the current version of Pages, Apple's word processing program, to include ePub export. ePub is the format Apple uses for its iBooks application, on iOS devices such as the iPad. Pages has supported PDF document export, so with the addition of ePub, Pages becomes an increasingly important document creation tool.

Many tech sites are speculating that Apple will release the next version of its iLife and iWork software packages and this update takes some of steam out of those rumors.

MPEG LA Makes H.264 Royalty Free For End Users

In a move that should help HTML 5 adaption, MPEG LA has decided to allow H.264 video playback to be royalty free.  H.264 is one of the proposed specs for HTML 5 video for streaming online content.  Unfortunately, for-profit content providers will still need to pay licensing fees to use this technology. 

 

Press Release: 

For Immediate Release

CONTACT:

Tom O’Reilly MPEG LA, LLC Tel: 303.200.1710 Fax: 301.986.8575 toreilly@mpegla.com

MPEG LA’s AVC License Will Not Charge Royalties for Internet Video that is Free to End Users through Life of License

(DENVER, CO, US – 26 August 2010) – MPEG LA announced today that its AVC Patent Portfolio License will continue not to charge royalties for Internet Video that is free to end users (known as “Internet Broadcast AVC Video”) during the entire life of this License. MPEG LA previously announced it would not charge royalties for such video through December 31, 2015 (seehttp://www.mpegla.com/Lists/MPEG%20LA%20News%20List/Attachments/226/n-10-02-02.pdf), and today’s announcement makes clear that royalties will continue not to be charged for such video beyond that time. Products and services other than Internet Broadcast AVC Video continue to be royalty-bearing.

MPEG LA's AVC Patent Portfolio License provides access to essential patent rights for theAVC/H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10) digital video coding standard. In addition to Internet Broadcast AVCVideo, MPEG LA’s AVC Patent Portfolio License provides coverage for devices that decode and encode AVC video, AVC video sold to end users for a fee on a title or subscription basis and free television video services. AVC video is used in set-top boxes, media player and other personal computer software, mobile devices including telephones and mobile television receivers, Blu-rayDiscTM players and recorders, Blu-ray video optical discs, game machines, personal media player devices and still and video cameras.

For more information about MPEG LA’s AVC License or to request a copy of the License, please visit http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Pages/Intro.aspx .

Apple Media Event Scheduled For September 1st

Image via Engadget

Engadget reports Apple has started sending out invitations for a media event being held September 1st at 10am PT / 1pm ET.  This should be Apple's annual iPod refresh.  Will Apple give us "one more thing" by unveiling the rumored iTV or the iPad Nano?  We'll have to wait and see.  Digital Copy Room will provide a full run down and analysis of the day's announcements.