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Apple's iCloud: The halo effect

Apple has inked its licensing pact with Universal Music Group and will reportedly charge $25 a year for an iCloud subscription. That revenue stream--once you factor in splits with the music industry--is essentially peanuts, but the value of iCloud will go well beyond the profit and loss statement.

First the news, CNET's Greg Sandoval reports that Apple has cut a licensing deal with Universal Music. That move gives Apple all the major labels and Universal brings U2 and Lady Gaga to the iCloud party. Meanwhile, the L.A. Times reports that Apple will "eventually" charge $25 a year for iCloud and sell advertising around the service.

When you factor in the revenue split with the music industry--labels 58 percent, publishers 12 percent and Apple 30 percent--Steve Jobs & Co. will get $7.50 in revenue for each iCloud subscription.

As for the rudimentary math, Apple is projected to move 184 million iPhone units in calendar 2011 and 2012, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. We'll assume that half of those iPhone subscribers will ultimately pay for iCloud with Apple getting $7.50. That's $690 million in revenue a calendar year.

Apple is also expected to sell 75 million iPad units over calendar 2011 and 2012. Again we'll assume half of those iPad users buy the iCloud subscription. Those iPad units will deliver $281 million in revenue a year in calendar 2012.

As for the iPod, Apple is expected to move 81 million units over calendar 2011 and 2012. We'll assume one third of those iPod users will get iCloud--it's unclear whether the Nano will be able to… Read more

High-res multipanel browser view

Applications that divide the desktop into separate windows are nothing new, nor is the habit of keeping multiple windows open simultaneously, especially when surfing the Web. Small, low-resolution screens and a lack of graphics power have kept such tools from catching on. Slickscreen is a new variation on the theme that capitalizes on the increasing use of widescreen monitors and gaming-quality video cards to present a clearer, more useful multiwindow view when you're browsing. It divides your screen into non-overlapping, high-resolution browser windows that let you surf multiple sites simultaneously without obscuring any content.

We installed Slickscreen on a … Read more

'The New Face of Vinyl: Youth's Digital Devolution'

Ben Meadors and Owen McCafferty are in their early twenties; both are really into LPs, and they are trying to raise $6,500 on Kickstarter to publish a book, "The New Face of Vinyl: Youth's Digital Devolution." The guys will travel to Portland, San Francisco, Chicago, Cleveland, and New York City to photograph and interview young record collectors, record store owners, and the occasional young vinyl buyer to ask them why they love records. McCafferty is a writer and will document their journey in a 180-page, full-color photo book.

Some new vinyl buyers really care about sound … Read more

Shoot video like a pro

The hardware and HD capabilities behind the iPhone's video camera are impressive, but its built-in controls for shooting video are frustratingly primitive for more-experienced filmmakers, and the iPhone isn't always smart about handling factors like exposure and white balance. Filmic Pro gives your camera a new front-end for shooting higher-quality video, with professional tools for controlling exposure, focal point, and more.

Filmic Pro offers an interface that is clean and simple, and all of its controls run along the bottom of screen, making it perfect for keeping a steady thumb grip on your camera. On the left, you … Read more

Doctors struggle with transition, but e-records appear superior

As many hospitals and health care centers across the U.S. switch from paper record-keeping to newer, electronic health record systems that qualify them for federal incentives, a team of physician-scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College has been tracking the transition for 19 physicians at an adult ambulatory clinic.

Nearly 4,000 prescriptions for more than 2,000 patients were tracked before the switch, 12 weeks after the switch, and a year after the switch. Researchers found that prescription errors dropped by two-thirds, from 36 percent to 12 percent a year after their physicians had switched to electronic record-keeping systems.… Read more

CollabraCam controls multiple iDevice cameras--from your iPhone

You've probably seen some of the video masterpieces filmmakers have created using nothing more than an iPhone. Of course, most of those clips, commercials, and shorts were shot with a single camera. Impressive as the results can be, aspiring videographers would no doubt appreciate the option of multiple cameras shooting at multiple angles.

CollabraCam is a potentially game-changing app that turns your iPhone into a multicamera control center, one that's linked in real-time to as many as four other iOS devices. This is better seen than described, so check out this info vid:

Cool, right? What's really … Read more

Music collection database

It's hard enough to keep up with a digital music collection spanning thousands of tunes over gigabytes of disk space, but what do you do if you have LP records, cassette tapes, Edison wax cylinders, and other musical media? Duck Software's Album Tracker can help music lovers get a handle on their ever-expanding libraries. It's a highly customizable music database that lets you organize your music by genre as well as title, artist, and other typical categories. It's not a music or media player and doesn't try to reorganize or convert your library; it simply … Read more

This Day in Tech: Bin Laden's sneakernet

Too busy to keep up with the tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET News for Friday, May 13.

RIP: Where our gadgets go when they die.

Bin Laden's sneakernet: How the al-Qaeda leader used e-mail off the grid.

We signed on to Tinychat: What happens when a group-oriented take on Chatroulette adds location sharing?

No surprise here: Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies receive Guinness World Records.

Freebie: Sure, it's Friday the 13th, but it could still be your lucky day to win 3D desktop speakers.

iPhone 4, App Store nab Guinness World Records

Apple's iPhone 4 and App Store have both received Guinness World Records, with the iPhone 4 becoming the fastest selling portable gaming system and the App Store getting named the most popular application marketplace.

These awards and others have been published in the Guinness World Records 2011 Gamer's Edition, which the company is promoting alongside a Guinness trivia app for iOS and Android.

Based on analyst estimates of 1.5 million units for first day sales, Guinness has dubbed the iPhone 4 to be the "fastest-selling portable gaming system," topping first day sales of Sony's … Read more

Will digital audio ultimately cause the music business' demise?

More people are listening to music than ever before, but the record companies are all in dire straits. Starting in the 1980s the CD brought booming sales and profits, and the record business fell head-over-heels in love with digital audio. CDs were selling for double the price of LPs at the time, so profits soared.

But what about the music? The 1980s wasn't such a great decade for music; it peaked early with Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in early '83, and then rock music stagnated. Rap and hip-hop, born in the digital era, were the only new … Read more