Apple has been selling movies in iTunes 7 for a full week now. How are sales? According to The Wall Street Journal, Walt Disney says they’ve sold 125,000 movie downloads totaling $1 million in revenue. Not bad for just 1 week.

“This is just the beginning,” Disney CEO Robert Iger told Wall Street analysts at a conference Tuesday. “[iTunes] has proved [to be] a great business because there’s no marketing or other expenses involved in selling digital downloads except the cost of encoding.” Iger went on to predict that iTunes would help generate $50 million in additional revenue for Disney this year.

Walt Disney Pictures, which includes Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films, is currently the only major movie studio participating on iTunes.

75 Disney movies, including such hits as Pirates of the Caribbean, The Incredibles, Good Will Hunting and National Treasure, can currently be purchased on iTunes. The other major movie studios are exploring partnerships with iTunes competitors or have disagreements with Apple over licensing fees. Disney’s success this week will probably help convince the other studios that participation on iTunes is probably a good idea.

Disney was also the first to offer TV shows on iTunes a year ago from their American broadcast network ABC.

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Nearly everyone has an iPod these days, and it comes as no surprise that the new and revamped range of digital audio players from Apple will cause even the staunchest, most vocal of anti-iPod evangelists to pause and think of jumping on the bandwagon . Of course, purchasing a brand new iPod is one thing, but keeping it safe and sound from the rigours of everyday use could be another problem. Most of us would think twice and even more when it comes to bringing our precious iPods to poolside events or a day out at the beach, as drowning your iPod could prove to be a traumatizing experience.

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After you download and install iTunes 7, you may be a little surprised at the new user interface. It doesn’t even remotely resemble the standard Mac OS X Aqua theme set. iTunes 7 has a much flatter and darker appearance like a Windows or Java application.

The reaction to the new iTunes 7 interface is mixed at best. Most people feel iTunes 6 was prettier with its bright glossy controls gone. True. But the smoother and darker interface of iTunes 7 at least cleanly packs more features into the familiar iTunes interface. As a result, the new iTunes 7 interface makes it much easier to sort movies and TV shows from your music. Also iTunes now plays back video much better than it did before. Probably a good idea since they are selling movies now.

So why would Apple make such a drastic interface design change? Could this be a taste of things to come in Apple’s next operating system - Leopard? Has Aqua been replaced by a flat, smooth, darker appearance? If you think hard enough, you might remember that iTunes got the new improved Aqua interface before the rest of the iLife 06 apps.

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Apple saved the music business with the iPod. Can they do the same for Hollywood?

In the five years since the iPod’s rollout, Apple has locked down the online music business. 1 in 5 Americans owns or has owned an iPod and consumers have downloaded more than 1 billion songs from Apple’s iTunes music store. Riding on the heels of that success, yesterday, Apple founder Steve Jobs fired his first shots in the battle to revolutionize the movie industry. In a special event called “It’s Showtime,” Apple unloaded new gadgets like it was Christmas morning.
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Klipsch’s snazzy new iPod speaker, the Klipsch iGroove, has a couple of tricks yet to appear on other brands’ compact power speaker systems. First off, it comes with a pair of two-way speakers (woofer and tweeter), whereas most iPod-inspired alternatives rely on a single, small woofer per channel. Within the Klipsch iGroove’s compact dimensions, Klipsch engineers installed a stereo pair of 2.5-inch woofers and 1-inch horn-loaded tweeters that focus the treble sound up toward the listening position. A set of volume up/down buttons and an on/off switch are the unit’s only controls. The Klipsch iGroove is available in both matte-silver finish and high-gloss black, called the Klipsch iGroove HG.

The Klipsch iGroove comes with a handy mini-remote that adjusts the volume and your iPod’s play/pause functions, as well as changes tracks on your playlists. Like the Bose SoundDock, the Klipsch iGroove can accept any iPod with a dock connector. Full-size iPods, including the video-enabled fifth-generation iPod, fit snugly, thanks to an adjustable backrest. An adapter is included for older iPod Mini models, and Klipsch has begun bundling adapters for the iPod Nano as well. If you bought the early versions of the Klipsch iGroove that lack the Nano adapter, just call Klipsch’s customer support, who’ll ship one to you for free. Don’t own an iPod?

No problem–other similar-size MP3 players can use the included J-Cup cradle and loop the provided cable into the headphone jack. In fact, you can plug anything with a headphone or line-out jack into the Klipsch iGroove, even if it doesn’t fit the cradle. The speaker runs off the included AC power supply and charges docked iPods as well.

We started our evaluations in earnest with some Simon and Garfunkel’s tunes, and the Klipsch iGroove sounded pleasantly natural. Their soaring vocals, the guitars, and the band on the Bridge over Troubled Water album sounded great. The Klipsch iGroove is just 15 inches wide, so stereo separation isn’t its strong suit. In small bedrooms or kitchens, the Klipsch iGroove will play reasonably loud, but it’s not exactly a party animal. That said, considering its modest dimensions, the Klipsch iGroove generates surprisingly satisfying bass without exaggerated boominess or thickening.

We noted that some tunes elicited a mild buzzing sound between our iPod and the Klipsch iGroove. Most of the time, we were unaware of the noise–it happened on only a limited range of bass notes. After adjusting the Klipsch iGroove’s backrest, the buzz disappeared, and the bass noticeably improved. In other words, make sure the iPod has a solid connection with the Klipsch iGroove’s dock.

We liked the Klipsch iGroove, but it’s nowhere as impressive as the company’s three-piece iPod speaker system, the Klipsch iFi Speaker System for iPod . That set features a hunky 8-inch, 200-watt, powered subwoofer and a set of Klipsch’s superb two-way, RSX-3 satellite speakers. It takes up a lot more space than the Klipsch iGroove, but it’s far and away the best iPod speaker on the market.

Source: CNET

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For the iPod hound that has everything under the sun, including the miFlower, here’s another one to add to the collection: an iFish.

The iFish is billed as a musical pet for your iPod, as if a normal set of speakers just wouldn’t cut it. Your iFish will play just about any MP3 player, too, but the iPod is definitely its main focus, given the white body of the fish, and the whole “i” naming scheme.
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Planning on attending Apple Expo Paris? Looks like it might be a hot ticket this year. According to ThinkSecret, Apple will use a September 12 media event for Apple Expo Paris to introduce the 2G (second-generation) iPod nano, an updated 5G iPod, movies in the iTunes Store and an upgraded wall-mountable iMac.

Although the “media event” will be held in California near Apple’s Cupterino headquarters, it will be fed via satellite to a London location for members of the European press. Apple Expo Paris kicks off September 12, the same day as the media event, and these new products will supposedly be on display at the show.

iPod Nano
What does Apple have in store for the 2G iPod Nano? If ThinkSecrets sources are correct, an increased storage capacity and multiple colors. When Steve Jobs first announced the iPod Nano, he said it would replace the iPod Mini. Now that the Nano comes in multiple colors, the transformation appears complete.

iPod Video
Don’t get your hopes up too high for the new 5G iPod. The upgraded iPod will just have bigger hard drive capacities at the same price points. More storage for less money is always nice but this new iPod will probably not be the long-awaited touch-screen iPod. Most people believe that Apple will strategically release a 6G iPod at the same time as Microsoft’s new Zune player. Reports of Apple filing for a touch sensitive media player patent first surfaced back in February. If the touch-screen iPod lives up to the rumors, the Zune won’t pose much of a threat. The Zune is more of a “catch up” product than a leap forward in advanced consumer technology.

iTunes Movies
Apple is also expected to formally announce their movie store initiative at the September 12 event. Several major studios have reportedly partnered with Apple to sell movies in the iTunes Store. Both iPod and movie announcements were originally suppose to happen in August but were postponed for unknown reasons. Perhaps Wal-Mart’s recent efforts to muscle out Apple from the downloadable movie business caused the delay.

New iMac
Details surrounding the new iMac are still a little fuzzy. The new upgraded iMac will probably receive Intel’s faster Core 2 Duo processor and a 23-inch screen already used in Apple’s line of Cinema Displays. Also rumored, but not confirmed, is the introduction of an iMac mounting kit. You wanted to wall mount your new iMac above your fireplace mantle right?

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Here’s a few patent pictures Apple submitted to the US trademark website.

Is the touch sensitive iPod going to be a reality? You be the judge. After seeing these images, I must say it looks like an iPod to me. And with the increasing popularity of tablet PCs, a touch sensitive iPod would be something that would be very plausible.

However, it is still unclear if we are going to see an Apple tablet, full screen iPod or a combination of both. Nonetheless the multi point touch screen is a major revolution.

Check out the following video to see the possibilities:
http://mrl.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/multitouchreel.mpg

Also here’s a link to Apple’s Patent Application on the US trademark website:
Mode-based graphical user interfaces for touch sensitive input devices

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