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The reviews called it the “must-see comedy of the summer” and as winter closes in Sony has revealed an iTunes plan for the DVD release of ‘Pineapple Express’.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has signed-up to offer an iTunes Digital Copy of the film on the DVD or Blu-ray versions of the movie sold in the US from January 6.

UK and US customers who purchase a DVD also get an additional Digital Copy of the movie which can be popped inside iTunes, and then played back on the computer or Apple’s range of digital devices.

This means iTunes, iPod, iPhone and Apple TV owners will be able to extract a legitimate copy of the film for playback on their computers and digital devices when they buy the disc. Sony will also offer versions for playback on Windows PCs and the PlayStation Portable.

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Major labels are happy now to sell DRM-free music through retailers such as Amazon and 7Digital, but Apple remains locked out, with three of the four majors denying it permission to sell tracks DRM-free through its iTunes Plus service - even though it’s the largest US music retailer. But this may soon change.

9to5Mac claims Sony Music will make moves to license its tracks for sale through iTunes Plus in the coming “weeks or months”, with some speculating a potential announcement at Macworld San Francisco.

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Way back we warned that you should expect a wave of iPhone applications from musicians promoting new albums, now Fall Out Boy has joined Snow Patrol, Pink, David Cook and the Nine Inch Nails in making a music-focused pitch at fans using the Apple device.

Fall Out Boy will introduce its own iPhone application before the December 16 release of new album “Folie a Deux”, Billboard helpfully notes.

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We’re interested to learn today that Journey’s 27-year old track, ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ has become the biggest-selling catalogue digital music track of all time.

Nielsen Soundscan informs us that there have been over two million digital downloads of the track, 2.03 million, to be precise. Sales benefited from inclusion of the track within the series finale of the hugely popular ‘Sopranos’ series (which drove sales up 482 per cent).

For comparison, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s everlasting ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ has sold 1.46 million online while Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ has shifted 1.44 million digital units, Reuters informs.

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Just as we promised you last month, the fourth series of US firefighter drama ‘Rescue Me’ made its debut exclusively on iTunes in the UK this week.

It’s a landmark of sorts, as this is the first time a major television series has debuted exclusively through iTunes, and Sony Pictures Television and UK newspaper The Telegraph teamed-up to offer the first episode of the new series for free download through iTunes this week, which could be something for the weekend.

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Keep your eyes peeled for a new multimedia sales concept in the UK with the news that Sony and Universal have teamed up to deploy a range of machines selling games, Blu-ray movies and downloadable music across the country.

The PoP “entertainment vending machine”, shown off at Stuff Magazine’s Stuff Live Expo recently, lets customers download media to their MP3/MP4 players, SD cards and USB-supporting portable devices.

These touchscreen machines will also let consumers grab a quick preview of what they’re considering. No word yet on price, supported platforms or DRM.

Via: Stuff

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Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has warned that the iPod’s days as pre-eminent music player may be numbered.

“The iPod has sort of lived a long life at number one,” he said, “Things like, that if you look back to transistor radios and Walkmans, they kind of die out after a while”, Wozniak warned.

He adds, “It’s kind of like everyone has got one or two or three. You get to a point when they are on display everywhere, they get real cheap and they are not selling as much,” he added.  

Woz was also critical of Apple’s tight control over iPhone development, warning, “Consumers aren’t getting all they want when companies are very proprietary and lock their products down. I would like to write some more powerful apps than what you’re allowed.” 

Now, there’s two clear messages here: first of all, think back to the fate of the Walkman - Sony didn’t move fast enough to embrace the digital wave, so it lost its music player leadership to Apple.

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Here’s an interesting new approach - the next series of US firefighter drama ‘Rescue Me’ will debut exclusively on iTunes in the UK, the first time a major television series has debuted exclusively on something other than a telly.

Starring Dennis Leary, the previous three series were broadcast by Sky One, but the channel didn’t pick up the chance to air number four, so Sony Pictures Television has reached the deal with iTunes, which becomes a de facto broadcaster for the premiere of the new series, which begins November 7. The previous three series will be made available on October 14, 21 and 28.

Apple hosted the show’s creative team (led by Peter Tolan) for one of its informal yet in-depth in-store briefings on September 12. Tolan and team talked about how they used Macs to create the series, which was then already available on iTunes in the US.

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Ben Folds and iTunes have teamed up for an innovative music sales scheme that combines the artist’s latest album, his tour, live recordings and an exclusive live album in a deal the partners say is a “new way music is recorded and distributed to music fans worldwide.”

It’s quite interesting: Folds calls the collection “The Sounds of Last Night…This Morning.” And that’s exactly what it is.

You see, during Folds’ current US tour one live track is being recorded in each of 10 cities and made available the next day exclusively on the iTunes Store.

The artist’s own site reveals that tracks are recorded to a Mac, previewed on an iPod, original cover art is made by Folds using Apple’s Photo Booth application and sent to iTunes for sale the next day. Read the rest of this entry »

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Short film channel Shorts TV has made a series of its short comedy films available via Sony’s PSP video-on demand service, Go!View.

“ShortsTV is very excited to bring the UK’s biggest comedy stars in the littlest films to PSP,” said Carter Pilcher, Chief Executive of Shorts International. “You’ll see some of the best - Martin Freeman and Matthew Horne, for instance - in some of the season’s funniest moments.”

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