Now that Apple dominates the music world, film studios are afraid the computer company has its eye on the film industry as well. Nonetheless, several Hollywood studios are currently in negotiations with Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Other studios, wary of dealing with a member of Disney's board, are talking with Apple VP Eddie Cue instead.

The studios are resisting Job's idea that feature films be priced at $9.99. Typically, library titles are sold to big-box chain stores for much lower prices than new releases. Right now, the studios think Apple should sell similar content at multiple price points, which has not been done previously.

According to Variety, film studios are also negotiating with other distributors such as Amazon, Movielink and BitTorrent, to head off any chance of a monopoly. Most major studios will probably have movies available through the iTunes Music Store by year's end.

We earlier reported that Apple is having some design issues with its planned Boston retail store. Recently, Apple has received the go signal to demolish an existing building in the future address of their retail store- 815 Boylston St. That's the good news, the not so good news is that the Back Bay Architectural Commission has denied the latest Apple design proposal.

The role of the Back Bay Architectural Commission (BBAC) is not just to preserve the integrity of the district's intact buildings but to restore or improve those that have suffered unsympathetic changes over time. The BBAC gave Apple a conditional blessing - the existing building can be demolished if they present an appropriate building design which apparently, the Steve Jobs camp haven't come up with up to now.

Commission members expressed concerns about the amount of light emitted from inside the store, especially with new residential neighbors moving into the planned five-star Mandarin Oriental across the street. Apple said there might be some degree of coating on the glass, but that it wants to keep the building as transparent as possible. Apple's current design also includes a spiral staircase in the center of the building and a skylight with a green roof. Apple is seeking to suspend its logo, a white apple, in the middle of the façade and have it illuminated during operating hours.

Apple was recently slapped with a $100K fine by State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler at Olympia, Washington. The reason for the hefty fine? The selling of service contracts without registering, which was, oddly enough, brought to the attention of the Commisioner by the Apple company itself.

Apparently, Apple failed to to register as a service contract provider from 2000 to 2004. In that particular timeframe, the company sold 43,080 service contracts according to the Commissioner's office. They also added that their office did not receive any complain about Apple contracts from consumers.

In the dark about service contracts? A service contract, also known as an extended warranty, is an agreement entered into for a cost that is in addition to that paid for the product. It is an agreement between the service contract provider and consumer for repair, replacement, or maintenance of a product, or for payment to repair, replace, or maintain the product for a specified period of time.

Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said the company immediately contacted the office once it discovered the problem, and that the Steve Jobs camp is now properly registered. It is back to business as usual in the Cupertino based company, but I doubt if this minor glitch affected their businesses.

You know, if Nostradamus were alive today, he would probably be a financial analyst. The closest we have, though, is Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray. A mild-mannered one, Gene is expecting Apple to sell 8 million iPods by the end of this quarter, citing a good sales report from the company in recent weeks.

According to MacObserver: "Mr. Munster noted that Apple's iPod market share in May was 76%, which was flat with April. However, he said: "The iPod number will likely be a nonevent for the June quarter. More importantly, we believe the Mac number has room for upside. We expect new versions of iPod and positive seasonality will be a catalyst for this segment of the business in the back half of 2006."

In a constantly changing battle with Apple Computers, Singapore-based Creative has filed a formal complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission. The crux of Creative's battle against Apple revolves around a copyright issue.

Creative asked the commission to consider blocking imports of the iPod for infringing on its system of accessing and organizing music on digital music players. Creative accuses Apple of downright copying their system, the suit being the result of a stalemate in discussions between the two companies earlier this year.

The agency is expected to make a ruling within 45 days. We'll be watching this one closely.

Standard & Poor's Equity Research, on Businessweek's Web site, raised its projections for Apple stock from a 'Hold' to a 'Strong Buy.' Basing their decision on a number of variables, including the company's strong performance in recent quarters, and predictions that the company will continue operating at the steady pace, the analysts are urging investors to buy.

According to the analysts: "Our upgrade comes after the recent pressure on AAPL shares. Our discounted cash-flow analysis, which assumes a weighted-average cost of capital of 11.8% and a 10% 15-year free cash flow growth forecast, remains intact but we are adjusting our price/sales analysis to include a calendarized 2007 revenue estimate."

Um. Huh? Yeah ... this just means Apple is kicking serious ass.

Information Week is reporting that the city of Boston is considering whether to allow Apple to locate one of their retail stores in one of the more prominent districts in the city. Apple is eyeing a location in Boston across from the Prudential Center.

With the possibility of attracting hordes of people to the site, the design process isn't going as smoothly as the company would have liked. To be set in an area with older brownstones, the modern design associated with most Apple stores has already met some resistance.

According to the Web site: "Earlier plans for a striking glass faade store were criticized by Boston's Back Bay Architectural Commission."

We'll just wait and see how this plays out.

Apple has pulled out its software development and support operations in India, and the only reason offered by its spokesperson was that the company has "re-evaluated our plans and have decided to put our planned support centre growth in other countries." The "re-evaluation" may have seen that doing business in India may be more costly than Apple first projected.

According to a source familiar to the situation says, "India isn't as inexpensive as it used to be. The turnover is high, and the competition for good people is strong." Apple feels it "can do [such work] more efficiently elsewhere."

Although India has a growing economy, many are questioning the sustainability of this economy. Even as India grew 9.3% last quarter and remains home to the world's largest and fastest-growing offshore outsourcing sector, its Sensex has dropped 20% in the past month. Other problems posed by the Indian economy is rising wages. According to India's software industry association McKinsey and Nasscom, entry-level pay at tech and outstanding companies climbed by as much as 13% annually from 2004 to 2005, with mid-level managers' pay jumping 30% a year during the same period.

So although India has a special place in Steve Jobs' heart - proven by his choosing the country as the place for his search of spiritual enlightenment back in the 70s - running a $14B enterprise will still be his topmost priority.

Although it will be nice seeing two of the most reliable companies joining forces to bring better services to gamers, gaming research firm DFC Intelligence says we shouldn't bank on the Apple-Nintendo merger.

According to DFC Intelligence President David Cole, in light of the upcoming Wii, now is not the best time for Nintendo to sell. Although notably the loser in the last generation console war, Nintendo will now have a chance to redeem themselves and to "restart their market share" with the advent of the next generation.

Cole also pointed out, "Obviously Nintendo has done really well in terms of their profitability and their market value has really held upÂ?if you go back and look at how their market value has held up over this past generation compared to, say Sony and Microsoft, who have seen drastic declines in their market value."

If the Wii comes out and if it flops, then talks of a merger with Apple and Nintendo may as well be more believable. Yet if this happens, one should also put into mind that "news" like these always lean on the speculative side rather than conclusive. "When you're talking about mergers of that size, there's always so many moving parts, especially when you've got an established Japanese company possibly merging with a North American companyÂ?and that's always just very speculative. Even if they start talks, it's just months and months of trying to get together and oftentimes they just clash at the last minute," explains Cole.

However, it is not unlikely that Apple is interested in Nintendo, says Cole. What made the whole talk "pure rumor" is the fact that Nintendo will most likely turn down such offer by Apple. Cole offers, "[Apple] could start reaching out to see if Nintendo is interested, and then [Nintendo] say no. That would probably be the most likely scenario that I would see. You know, companies are always talking with each other... which can lead to rumors and speculation. It just goes on all the time. The chance of something actually getting finalized is a totally different ballgame."

So although the fact that Apple may start being more active in the gaming race, considering talks that they have LucasArts' tech director Mike Lampbell onboard, they just have to do their gaming ventures without the aid of Nintendo. And Nintendo has to wage its next-gen battle without Apple.

A few days ago, UKÂ?s The Mail published a report that iPod factory workers in China were working under "sweatshop conditions." "Sweatshop" is a term used to described  companies involved in using child labor, violationg labor laws, or providing low levels of wages or workplace safety. It also implies a workplace that is physically or mentally abusive, or that crowds, confines, or compels workers, as would be the case with penal labor or slave labor.

The Mail report said the iPod plant in Longhua houses 200,000 workers who work 15 hours a day for $50 per month. The workers were allegedly staying in dormitories that house 100 people each and were not permitted to see visitors. The Mail reported that the iPod nano factory is a five-story factory secured by police officers. While workers at the iPod shuffle factory in Shanghai are housed outside the plant and earned $100 per month, they were required to pay for their housing and food totalling to $50.00.

Apple quickly responded to the report saying the company takes the allegations seriously and that it is looking into the charges.  Â?Apple is committed to ensuring that working conditions in our supply chain are safe, workers are treated with respect and dignity, and manufacturing processes are environmentally responsible. It is "currently investigating the allegations regarding working conditions in the iPod manufacturing plant in China. We do not tolerate any violations of our supplier code of conduct which are posted online.Â? 

Apple did not say what it plans to do if the investigations were true but we'll keep you posted.