iLounge

By Charles Starrett

Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Wednesday, April 23, 2008
News Category: Mix

Apple will report its results for the second fiscal quarter 2008 later this afternoon, and will also offer a webcast of the conference call discussing the results that will begin at 5pm EDT.

A number of fifth-generation iPod users are reporting playback problems with some recently-released TV episodes from the iTunes Store. According to several users in a lengthy Apple Support discussion thread, the offending episodes transfer to other iPods correctly, and can be played in iTunes and on other video-capable Apple products, but not on fifth-generation iPod models. [via AppleInsider]

Sony Corporation of America has announced its acquisition of Gracenote, Inc. for approximately $260 million. Gracenote, formerly known as CDDB, powers iTunes’ “Get CD Track Names” feature, and also provides services to Yahoo! Music jukebox, Winamp, and products from Alpine, Panasonic, Sony, and others.

Apple has confirmed an agreement to purchase microprocessor design firm P.A. Semi. The 150-person company is known for its design of sophisticated, low-power chips, and is said to have been purchased for around $278 million in cash. Though there has been speculation that the acquisition is intended to provide a new iPhone processor, and the company’s patent and design portfolios may eventually aid in pocket-sized products, P.A. Semi’s past work has focused on chips best suited to laptops. Apple spokesman Steve Dowling told Forbes, “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not comment on our purposes and plans.”