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A month after news of Apple Computer's start-up subscription music service, reports began circulating that the company was negotiating to buy Universal Music Group, the dominant player in the global music market. The rumored buyout, first reported April 10, was variously quoted at $5–6 billion. The discussions between Apple and UMG may have been blown out of proportion; by April 12 the New York Times was suggesting that Apple might invest in UMG, but was in no position to make an outright acquisition.

A move by RealNetworks to cut the umbilical cord between Apple's iPod and the company's iTunes Music Store has raised the ire of some execs in Cupertino. The computer pioneer is threatening legal and technical retaliation against its Seattle rival in the wake of a late July launch of a digital music technology called Harmony that enables the iPod to work with downloads from RealNetworks' music store.

Apple Computer is riding a wave that shows no sign of breaking.

The announcement went out on April 1: Apple Computers and EMI Group had scheduled a press conference for April 2 and the announcement was going to be "historic." It was April 1, after all, and there had been rumors swirling about for months that Apple Computers and Apple Corp. had settled their trademark differences as a first step to a bigger display of collaboration. I forwarded the announcement to Jon Iverson under the heading "April Fool's Joke or Genuine Press Release?"

Earlier this month, we reportedhttp://stereophile.com/news/020108apple/">reported; that iPod Classic owners were experiencing hiss and DC offset problems when they updated their firmware to v1.1 from v1.03.

After four years of virtual inactivity, new and updated Aragon and Acurus high-end amplifiers, preamplifiers, and processors are slated to return to the marketplace. The long-established brands, which have been the property of Klipsch since 2001, are now in the hands of two enthusiastic veteran Klipsch electronics engineers, Rick Santiago and Ted Moore of Indy">http://www.indyaudiolabs.com">Indy Audio Labs, LLC.

In the race for technological superiority, audio electronics companies in the United Kingdom, with a few notable exceptions, haven't often been first out of the gate. Arcamhttp://www.arcam.co.uk/">Arcam;, however, may have already lapped the field with its Alpha 10 DRT (Digital Radio Tuner).