A long time in the making and wrestling with record companies has finally paid off for Apple.  It seems Apple has finally won the battle of DRM-free downloads on the iTunes store.  

"The deal reported by sources speaking to CNET News.com would see Apple break its longtime insistence on a fixed per-track rate for songs and give in to frequent demands from Sony, Universal and Warner that would change the pricing depending on the popularity and recentness of a given song."

An announcement will probably be made tomorrow at the MacWorld Expo as one would expect.  To go along with such a deal are sources reporting that AT&T and Apple have reached an agreement which would allow us to further use our bandwidth we pay for every month on the iPhone.  This means we will be able to download iTunes songs via 3G and hopefully podcasts larger than 10MB, which most already are.

We hope to hear more details on this news and more tomorrow at MacWorld.

[via AppleInsider]

  Thanks to TUAW we have some of the fine points of the much needed refresh to the Mac Mini.  The first thing is that the Superdrive will be SATA, so you can either keep the drive or add a second hard drive as an option.  The next detail is that the Mac Mini will look more like the Time Capsule with a lip on the side which encapsulates the optical drive and provides for cooling, which eliminates the need for the vents on the back. The new Mac Mini will also be black and aluminum, like the current lineup of Macs.  It has been a long time coming for a refresh and we assume other details such as a core 2 duo, an Nvidia 9400M and the capability for more RAM.  In a few weeks, we’ll all know for sure.

[via TUAW]

  3M has released a new LED powered projector which can easily fit in your pocket and in the palm of your hand.  The MPro110 offers a VGA projection of up to 50 inches and comes in at less than a pound.  The projector accepts various inputs from a DVD, MP3 player or Laptop.  The MPro110 is available for $359.00 at your local electronics retailer.

I had some time to play with the MPro110 and although it was very small and portable, the screen resolution was not great in lighted room.  The colors were washed out and we assume would improve with the lights off. If you bring the screen to monitor size, at 17-19 inches, you get a decent picture.  The device was considerably hot, but not hot enough to concern, but may pose long-time reliability issues.  We could recommend this projector if you need something ultra-portable, but if you are looking for something with higher definition, you will want to look elsewhere.

[3M]

  Palm has had a long following and most thought a new update was never to be seen.  Today a new OS from Palm has broken cover and comes from Access of which previously bought PalmSource after the .com crash.  ACCESS Linux Platform is the generic name of the OS and offers a lot of potential and hopefully it lives up to it. The question is, is this too little too late.  The platform may be coming to Japan this year, but don’t hold your breathe as this has been a long time coming.

[via MobileBurn]

 Askkids.com has just gone thru an overhaul.  The site is dedicated to help keep your kids away from what most people do not want their kids to have access to. Many people including myself have thought about the best ways to protect your kids from accidentally typing in or searching for that wrong term that brings them to content deemed inappropriate.  Ask.com has been around for some time and only commands 1.5-5% of the search market.  The plus side is they have been in the search market a long time and know their way round by now.  The main page of Askkids.com is a a simple search engine page with drawing ability on the page itself and a lot of clickable links for kids.  When searching, links are presented in a very fashionable, simple way, making it easy to read.  The right side bar also gives a quick definition of the word you are searching for and also lists related educational links on the left, bringing the site into an educational focus.  There are also multiple links on the main page for school, movies, images and games.  When you type something inappropriate it comes up with a page which simply says "Your Search Did Not Match Any Web Results."  The idea is a great one to point your kids to when they are using the web and you turn away for those few minutes.  Set it up as your main search engine on a kids profile and you can feel a little safer that your kids are not stumbling into a site they shouldn’t be.  You do have a kids profile right?

[Read]