Movies coming to iTunes UK by the end of the year.
MacWorld have picked up on a Les Echoes interview with Apple's vice president for Europe, Pascal Cagni. He also said that the iPhone will come to Europe this winter.

Wine drinkers beware.
This is what happens when you spill red wine onto a display. An expensive booze mistake.

New Mitchell & Webb 'Get a Mac' ad.
The funny duo show us that MS Office also works on Macs.
Has anyone seen these on TV yet or are they just made for cinema and the Apple site?

Thanks to an online petition, the BBC will now re-engineer it's iPlayer to work with Macs. The iPlayer is Auntie's version of Channel 4's OD player (still only PC friendly). Through it you can watch the BBC's back catalogue of programmes for free. Well worth the increased TV Licence fee.

Apple have booked out a THREE HOUR slot at the WWDC keynote.
We that's what AppleInsider have said. I do hope it won't be filled with Leopard- a new iMac unveiling would go down a treat in my house. Well, I say 'house'. Really I'm the only one who gives a toss.

Apple have released their new version of Final Cut Studio. Here's what the press release says:
'Apple® today unveiled Final Cut Studio® 2, a significant upgrade to the industry’s leading video production suite that delivers new creative tools designed expressly for editors. Final Cut Studio 2 includes Final Cut Pro® 6, which introduces Apple’s ProRes 422 format for uncompressed HD quality at SD file sizes and support for mixed video formats and frame rates in a single Timeline; Motion 3 featuring an intuitive 3D environment, paint and new behaviours; Soundtrack® Pro 2 with dozens of innovative tools for multitrack editing, surround mixing and conforming sound to picture; Compressor 3 delivering powerful batch encoding for multiple formats with a single click; and DVD Studio Pro 4.2 for SD and HD DVD authoring. Final Cut Studio 2 also introduces Color, a professional colour grading and finishing application for ensuring consistent colour and creating signature looks.
The pack has a suggested retail price of £849 (inc. VAT). Registered users of the current version of Final Cut Studio can upgrade for £329 (inc. VAT) and registered users from any previous version of Final Cut Pro can upgrade for £449 (inc. VAT).

They've also introduced Final Cut® Server, a powerful new server application that works seamlessly with Final Cut Studio® 2 to provide media asset management and workflow automation for post production and broadcast professionals.

Lame Academy runner-up, Lemar will perform an exclusive acoustic set at the Apple Store Regent Street on Tuesday April 24th at 9.00 pm. The event is the next in the iTunes Live From London series. The set will include his new single Tick Tock. Prepare yourself for lots of girly screaming.

Leopard launch 'on hold' until October.
They've blamed the delay on the iPhone. And to think a few months back, Steve Jobs was laughing about Vista's delays. Foot...mouth?
The engineers that should be working on the next version of OS X have been drafted in on getting the iPhone's OS right for its launch in June.
I don't mind. It gives me a few more months before I suffer from any jealous spasms. You see, I'm hoping for a pay rise before the new iMac comes out, so I get Leopard included. I fear my G4 iMac, as beautiful as it is, will not survive the upgrade.

U.S. Get a Mac ads get a flashback.

Let me calculate how much time I have wasted posting this blog...

Apple TV ad on US screens.
We won't be seeing this 'School of Rock' ad on UK TV. We'll have to wait until iTunes UK begins selling movies. They could always re-edit to show a music video or vodcast. I don't understand the point of buying an Apple TV in this country until we can buy movies and TV programmes from iTunes. What do I know?! It's the 16th best-selling item at the Apple Store.

Who said the Nokia 6300 isn't compatible with iSync?
If you have moble that is unsupported by Apple iSync then get yourself over to MacTomster. This guy should be employed by Apple. Why isn't he? And how come Apple don't update iSync as quickly as he codes plug-ins for it? A quick 7 Euro spent and a download later I'm up and running iSync with my brand new Nokia. The ageing Motorola ROKR has been relegated to the wife. Well it is an improvement on the Nokia 6600 she was using.

8-Core MacPro Launched.
No UK prices yet but here's the lowdown:
Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
4GB (4 x 1GB)
250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB (single-link DVI/dual-link DVI)
Total in US: $4696.

Thoughts On Music - A least someone was listening.
EMI will offer DRM-free, 256kbs AAC files on iTunes this May (Hooray!)
News just in from Apple:
"Apple today announced that EMI Music's entire digital catalogue of music will be available for purchase DRM-free (without digital rights management) from the iTunes Store (www.itunes.co.uk) worldwide in May. DRM-free tracks from EMI will be offered at higher quality 256 kbps AAC encoding, resulting in audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording, for just 99 pence per song. In addition, iTunes customers will be able to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions for just 20 pence a song. iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalogue, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today —128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM — at the same price of 79 pence per song, alongside DRM-free higher quality versions when available."
More good news within news:
"iTunes will also offer customers a simple, one-click option to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free format for 20 pence a song. All EMI music videos will also be available in DRM-free format with no change in price."
Now who's on EMI? Air Traffic, Auf De Maur, badly Drawn Boy, Beth Orton, Corinne Baliey Rae, Dave Gilmour, Faith Evans, Faultline, Fischerspooner, Hot Chip, Iron Maiden, John Cale, Kate Bush, Keran Ann, Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, Radar, Radio 4, Robbie Williams, Saosin, Sigur Ros, Starsailor, Telepopmusik, The Aliens, Van Hunt and Vincent Vincent and the Villians. EMI also own the Heavenly, DFA, and Positiva labels.
I think I'll first buy one higher bit rate song to see if I can tell the difference in quality, before I go and waste a whole bag full of 20 pence pieces. Being a child of the Walkman generation, my hearing ain't that good.