Steve Jobs appeared in court to answer about iTunes Music Store monopoly

On March 21, 2011, Magistrate Judge Howard R. Loyd in San Jose ordered Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, to appear in court and answer questions related to a class-action lawsuit accusing iTunes Music Store of monopoly.

Court documents revealed that the Judge ordered “limited question” for not more than two hours. Loyd wrote:

“The court finds that Jobs has unique, non-repetitive, firsthand knowledge about the issues at the center of the dispute over RealNetworks software,”

In 2005, iTunes customer, Thomas Slattery, filed a case against Apple. He claimed that Apple intentionally limited consumer choice by linking the iPod to its iTunes music store.

Slattery, on behalf of the consumers, sought class action status for the fact that Apple encoded its music files with a proprietary software called FairPlay which would allow the files to be played only on iPods, not other music products. FairPlay also prevented users from buying music from other online stores and play on iPod.

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Bloomberg

iPods, MP3 players and Earphones are responsible for hearing loss?

The increasing popularity of entertainment devices like iPods, MP3 players and earphones are being responsible for hearing loss of teenagers.

Study reveals that 30% of American teenagers have some level of hearing loss. The amount of slight hearing loss has increased more than the late 80s and early 90s in the past 15 years. Researchers also said that the number of mild or worse hearing loss has increased by 70%.

Out of every five teens, one suffers by slight hearing loss. It affects their ability of learning, speech perception, social skills development and self-image. Out of twenty youths, one, who is aged between the ages of 12 and 19, has to suffer more several losses. It may affect the youth to listen and learn.

This report was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston did the study of hearing loss. Nearly 5000 adolescents’, who are aged between 12 and 19, had been observed with their hearing screened as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, in 1988-94 and 2005-06.

According to a study in Australia, the use of headphones in portable music player increased the risk of hearing loss 70%. It is believed by many experts is that the use of such headphones is the primary cause of hearing loss in teens.

What is noted is that it can take years or decades to develop the hearing loss from noise exposure.

Now, readers should feel interest to know how they can keep themselves safe from hearing loss. However, they do not need to give up their MP3 players or iPods. What they need to do is to keep the volume neither in loud voice nor in low.

However, teenagers can lost their hearing ability for other reasons too. It may be genetics, medicines, head trauma and loud noises. On the other hand, anyone can lose his or her hearing ability because of ear infection too.

New version of iPod may unveil at the Apple’s Music Event

It is needless to say anything about Apple. This brand company is known to all technology lovers. When it comes to entertainment then the name of iPod comes to our mind. Apple’s iPod has become the popular music player that will allow its users to listen to music as well as taking photos and record voice.

Apple has sent out the email invitation to media people ahead of its music event that is to happen on September 1 in California. In this email invitation there had a picture of a guitar with Apple logo. With this email invitation, it can be said that at the event, Apple would unveil something that will be music-related.

It is thought that Apple will unveil its new version of iPod, as historically it has always updated its music player range in September.

Rumors also spread out that Apple would unveil its new cloud-based version of iTunes. With the updated iTunes, users will be able to stream content from a computer to an Apple device.

It is also speculated that would consider launching a cloud-based version of its iTunes software. It is also speculated that Apple would new version of Apple TV dubbed as iTV.

The event will occur at 10 am Californian time and 6pm UK time. The event will be broadcast live by satellite for British journalist t The Brewery in East London.

To know the truth, people will wait to wait until September 1 when Apple Music Event will be held.