With only 2 millions Zunes sold to date since they went on sale in November 2006 it looks like Microsoft’s plan has “no bragging rights.” The plan? The plan that was to take on the iPod and Apple head to head instead of the PlaysForSure partnership.

In fact it appears that the Zune is mostly taking sales from Creative a former PlaysForSure partner, not Apple or second-place SanDisk.

Zune sales look like a total flatline. Apple sold more iPods in on month last quarter than Microsoft sold Zune since it was introduced in 2006.

Continue reading Zune Sales Unimpressive and Flat…

O2 iPhones are now sold out: “Please note: 8GB and 16GB iPhone are no longer available.”

According to Reuters, Vodafone has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten countries around the world.

“Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network,” Britain-based Vodafone said in a statement.

Also see Fortune’s iPhone graphic: Apple’s new map of the world

Yesterday, I posted a story from a NY Times blog, where it was reported that, as part of Microsoft’s deal to get NBC TV shows, J. B. Perrette, the president of digital distribution for NBC Universal, said Microsoft had agreed to adding technology into the Zune that would scan a user’s collection for unauthorized content. I copyright cop filtering system.

Today Microsoft denies there is any agreement to filter a users’ content.

“Microsoft has no plans or commitments to implement content filtering features in the Zune family of devices as part of our content distribution deal with NBC,” the software maker said in a statement.

Adam Sohn, a spokesman for Microsoft now says, “We’ve agreed to work with these guys on a number of issues, but we have no plans or commitment to put filtering technology as part of this arrangement with NBC.”

So there you have it crystal clear, I think. Seems then NBC shows are on the Zune, that is not selling and has few users, at the same prices that they where on U.S. iTunes for. By the way iTunes in Europe still sells NBC shows. I am getting pretty curious who is running NBC these days.

Microsoft’s official Zune blog claims that the company has “no plans to add content blocking features in Zune,” and suggested that NBC was “expressing hopes.”

OpenOffice.org has released OpenOffice 3 beta, the free open-source alternative to Microsoft Office. The new version now supports Mac OS X natively without the need to install X11. They have added a slew of new features. Looks like this project is coming along nicely. Check it out here. Remember this is still beta.

According to a NY Times blog post, NBC is pressing Microsoft to add an ant-pirate filter into the Zune. Now this should should gain them market share against the iPod and the iPhone, don’t think?

I think making a better user experience could help. Which the Zune and its related software has suffered from. Adding filters and the problems that will surely come about from this will not make the user experience better and surely will not stop people who will pirate at all.

I can see it now you load your own recorded material that the Zune cop thinks is copyrighted and will not play back. Microsoft’s way of saying “welcome to the social?”

Continue reading Microsoft May Build a Copyright Cop Into Every Zune…

NBC pulled shows from iTunes (that were hardly missed) with the non-sense about pricing and pirating issues. Now they are launching the same shows on Microsoft’s Zune at the same price where few will care.

The Zune is so far behind the iPod and iTunes it is not funny. Microsoft is finally bring video content in the form of TV shows at the same pricing as the iTunes Store. There are no movies, no rentals, still no audiobooks yet, and limited ability and choice of podcasts.

With the new features Microsoft is adding to the Zune they find themselves still playing catch up. At this point I see little chance of the Zune ever touching the iPod.

Continue reading NBC Bring Shows to Zune Where Few Will See Them…

IOSpirit’s Remote Buddy, € 19.99 version 1.10 has added AJAX Remote, which is a virtual remote control for iPhones or iPod touch users. The AJAX Remote integrated into Remote Buddy now supports the streaming of all files organized in iTunes, so that they can be played back directly on the iPhone or iPod touch.

With a little tweaking of ports and port forwarding I was easily able to get this working over the Internet instead of just my home network. Listening to your iTunes library at home on your Mac streamed to your iPhone or iPod touch can free you from the storage limitations on these devices.

Continue reading Remote Buddy Brings iTunes to iPhone/iPod Streaming…

Apple’s stock [AAPL] is certainly on a tear the last few sessions re-gaining a lot of the loses since the market pull back. With sales up and almost $20 billion in the bank it should be.

Note that as of this writing APPL is trading at $184.73 up $3.79 with a market value of $162.83 billion higher than Cisco’s market value of $156.66 billion and more than 4 times Dell’s market value now at $39.01 billion. Bet Michael Dell wished he was running Apple now!

Disclaimer: the writer owns a small amount of Apple stock.

The Associated Press (AP) has launched a nice Mobile News Network website that is optimized for Safari and the iPhone and iPod touch. Be sure to check out the settings page, which allows you configure the stories that appear on the home page as well as for your local news.

If Jerry Yang at Yahoo wanted to kill the Microsoft deal, he has been successful. His strategy to hold out for a lot more money and making deals to outsource paid search to Microsoft’s nemesis, Google seemed to have worked, at least for now.

Steve Ballmer has taken his ball and is going home. Ballmer also says he is ruling out a direct offer to Yahoo shareholders saying a direct proxy battle is not worth it. This has me asking, what next?

Continue reading Microsoft Takes their Ball and Goes Home? Yahoo Deal Withdrawn…

Apple has released iPod classic Software Version 1.1.2, an update to the full-size iPod’s firmware. According to the release notes provided by Apple, the release simply contains bug fixes, and does not appear to add any new features or cause any other significant changes. iPod classic Software Version 1.1.2 is available now through the Update feature in iTunes. Some users are reporting that after the update cover flow became image and scrolling became faster, clickwheel sensivity improved and a crisper sound.

UPDATE: There is also an update for the current iPod nano.

A full-fledged version of Google News is now available to iPhone and iPod touch users in over 30 countries.

With your iPhone or iPod touch, go to www.google.com, click on the “more” tab and follow the link to Google News or go directly to Google News at http://news.google.com.

Apple’s iPhone is now the most popular phone for uploading pictures according to Flickr, the world’s largest gallery of online pictures.

Flickr tracks the number of pictures uploaded by each type of camera phone and the iPhone comes out on top.

Apple announced that several movie studios will now be releasing digital versions of their movies for sale on the same day as the DVD. Now Apple TV users have the option of buying movies directly from the Apple TV, under a new section called “Top Sellers.” Before today you could only rent movies from Apple TV.