Tag: real

REAL Software has announced the winners of the 2005 REALbasic Design Awards. The criteria on which the software was judged included creativity, ease of use, design, utility, and supporting information. “Judging these awards gets more challenging every year, and this year was no exception,” stated Geoff Perlman, CEO of REAL.

CNET News.com reports that Apple has quietly updated its iPod firmware so that songs purchased from the RealNetworks music store will not play on iPod photo models. “The move could render tunes purchased by many iPod owners unplayable on their music players.

by Larry Angell – RealNetworks said today that it sold more than 3 million songs during its three-week “Freedom of Choice” promotion, which slashed song pricing at the company’s music store to 49 cents and album pricing to $4.99. The company boasted that its digital music market share rose to 20 percent from 10 percent thanks to the sale, and that Apple’s 70 percent share dropped to 60 percent.

Apple should act fast if it plans to oppose RealNetwork’s Harmony technology, which allows songs purchased from Real’s online music store to be played on iPods. Real chief strategy officer Richard Wolpert told CNN/Money that his company is looking into the possibility of licensing the technology to other companies who want iPod owners to buy their music.

In an e-mail sent to Apple CEO Steve Jobs last week, RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser suggested that the two companies form a “tactical alliance” against Microsoft in the digital music business. But if an alliance with Apple could not be struck, Glaser hinted that he might form a partnership with Microsoft to pursue “very interesting opportunities,” according to the New York Times.

During a panel discussion Tuesday at PC Forum in Arizona, RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser said that Apple is creating problems for itself by using a file format (AAC with its FairPlay DRM) that forces consumers to buy legal music from Apple’s own iTunes Music Store. “Because Apple’s iPod music player does not support other proprietary music formats and does not license its own format to rivals, Real’s Rhapsody and other song sites are blocked from easily reaching iPod users,” notes CNET News.com.

RealNetworks plans Wednesday to launch a new version of RealPlayer for Windows that will play songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store. In addition, the new software will sport a built-in 99-cent digital music store that will offer downloads in Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format that will be playable on Apple’s iPod. However, it appears that Real has not licensed Apple’s FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) technology in order to play music purchased from iTunes.

Real Networks is expected to launch a digital music store later this week based on technology similar to that used in Apple’s iTunes Music Store. “The new pay-per-song service, which is expected to be announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week, will see the company playing catch-up to Apple, which has won kudos from Windows and Macintosh users for its iTunes store and jukebox software,” reports CNET News.com.

REAL Software has released REALbasic 5.2.2, a maintenance update to its cross-platform visual development environment. The free update includes Mac OS X 10.3 Panther support, an updated REALbasic Project Manager, improvements to VB Project Converter, and updated Unicode capabilities. REALbasic is available now starting at US$99.95.

REAL Software today introduced the REALbasic Developer Program. “REALbasic customers who join the REALbasic Developer Program can influence product direction through prioritized bug fixes and expedited technical response. REALbasic consultants benefit from the program through lead referrals from REAL Software.

RealNetworks today launched a new online music service that lets subscribers download songs for 79 cents each. RealOne Rhapsody, a co-branded version of Listen.com’s Rhapsody digital music subscription service, offers consumers unlimited access to more than 330,000 tracks for online listening and more than 200,000 songs for downloading and burning to CD. The Windows-only service, offered with a 14-day free trial, costs $9.95 a month.

REAL Software has announced the immediate availability of REALbasic 5.1, a free update to its easy-to-use tool for creating software for Macintosh and Windows. “The objective behind this release of REALbasic is to provide substantial performance improvements to our loyal REALbasic customers,” said Geoff Perlman, president and CEO of REAL Software. “This update dramatically reduces the time it takes the compiler to build a large application.” REALbasic 5.1 is available now starting at US$99.95.