According to MacRumors, iWeb is dead:

One concerned iWeb/MobileMe user emailed Apple CEO Steve Jobs to ask about the fate of the offering, and reportedly received confirmation that users will indeed need to find alternative hosting for their sites once MobileMe is officially discontinued. All existing MobileMe users have received free subscription extensions through June 30, 2012, at which time the service will cease to exist and the transition to iCloud will be complete.

Assuming the email is genuine, Jobs replies in typically succinct fashion; the user asks “Will I need to find an alternative website builder and someone to host my sites?” and Jobs replies: “Yep.”

Frankly, this isn’t exactly a shock. iLife was updated in 2011, and iWeb was noticeably unchanged from its 2009 incarnation. The app also didn’t make it to the Mac App Store, unlike iPhoto, GarageBand and iMovie. It’s almost certain that iDVD has also been shot in the head.

I’m in two minds as to the news itself, though. As a web designer, I always found iWeb ‘quirky’ (that’s putting it as kindly as I can) and its fixed-page means of creating sites (and, worse, blogs) seemed anachronistic in an age of WordPress and Facebook. Nonetheless, I know a lot of people who find the application easy to use and they will be disappointed to see confirmation of its demise. Still, this is a good opportunity for the likes of RapidWeaver and Sandvox to grab some users, along with enterprising developers to create iWeb-import tools for said apps.

Desperately sad news from the BBC today as it announced the first phase in the sale of Television Centre, White City, London. The BBC’s putting a brave face on this, claiming it’s all about making a smaller, fitter BBC, but the building is where many famous shows were born. More importantly, it’s a central hub for the BBC, which will now be fired in all directions across the UK, into cheaper real estate.

The real reason, of course, for the sale has nothing to do with efficiency and everything to do with successive governments trying to kill the BBC by removing chunks of its funding, causing a massive shortfall. It’s depressing to note that regardless of whether you back the Tories or Labour, both of them want the BBC dead. Rupert Murdoch must be laughing his arse off right about now.

I feared as much. According to The Telegraph (interviewing label executives and music analysts), iOS 5’s iTunes in the Cloud features won’t launch in the UK until 2012 at the earliest. The reason, as far as I can tell, is that people in charge of record labels are fucking idiots.

A music executive at one of the major record labels, who wished to remain unnamed, said: “Tentative talks have begun between the major labels and Apple in the UK. However, all talks are at the really early stages and no one expects to see the cloud music service live on this side of the pond until 2012.”

Because the one thing a new feature needs is for people to instantly hate it by being denied access; and the one thing record labels need is for people to think “screw you, then” and carry on downloading music for free, instead of paying for it. Well played, labels! After all, it’s not like you’re not making money hand-over-fist from iTunes already and therefore don’t want people to react against it by stopping them from getting iTunes in the Cloud, you utter, utter pillocks.

Mark Mulligan, vice president and research director at Forrester Research, said: “Apple’s cloud music service will not launch in the UK until at least quarter one of 2012. These types of negotiations take a long time… For one thing the UK arms of all the major record labels are biding their time and waiting to see how the service affects download sales in the US before they sign up to anything.”

Now, this isn’t the record labels talking, but if Mulligan is right on this, then I really despair. Here are some potential scenarios for someone who might like to use iTunes Match (which, presumably, would cost a typical user about £20 per year in the UK) and how it would impact on record labels.

1. Old git Craig. Craig buys all his music on CD, because he’s some kind of masochist who likes to wait for audio thrills. He rips CDs to his Mac. With iTunes Match, the labels already have money for the CD and would double-dip for the service. Winner: THE FUCKING RECORD LABELS.
2. Downloader Dave. Dave likes iTunes. Ever since it first appeared, he’s used the service, and he even ritually set fire to all of his CDs after downloading his first iTunes music track. Yeah, Dave is a bit of an idiot. Anyway, he downloads stuff from Amazon and Bleep, too, so has loads of digital music files. With iTunes Match, the labels already have money for the digital downloads and would double-dip for the service. Winner: THE FUCKING RECORD LABELS.
3. Criminal Bob. Bob is naughty. When a new album comes out he wants, he’s straight to his favourite BitTorrent tracker to download it for free, yelling slogans about freedom of information and evil record labels (but, curiously, not starving indie musicians, because, frankly, Bob is an uncaring thieving git). Bob also likes convenience, so he’s prepared to pay for iTunes Match to make his pilfered music more readily available. With iTunes Match, the labels have made NO MONEY for these downloads. OH NO! But, wait! They HAVE made money with iTunes Match, and out of dodgy downloads, no less! Winner: THE FUCKING RECORD LABELS.

So, as we can see from my highly scientific insight, here’s how much iTunes Match will affect downloads: not at all. Only that is actually wrong. SHOCK TWIST! And that’s because if people like Craig (which may or may not be a character based on the ‘Craig’ who happens to write this blog) have access to iTunes Match and find out how convenient it is to have a personal music collection streamable on demand, that might actually encourage more download sales. In other words, iTunes Match will make the record labels more money through people using the service and more money through people buying more downloads. It’s therefore only logical that the labels will do everything they can to stop the service escaping from the US, because, as we’ve seen, record labels are run by total fucking idiots.

UPDATE: Possible counter from Gary Marshall (paraphrased): this isn’t necessarily the labels’ fault, because Apple’s only recently started talking to them. It’s possible, but the PRS says the talks are at an early stage, not that the talks have only just started. Also, labels are known for blocking progress—there is precedent for stupidity. Most importantly, though, an unnamed music executive is the person who said 2012 for the service to arrive in the UK, which seems a long way off. The silver lining is iOS 5 isn’t out until the autumn, and so perhaps the delay will only be a few months, or maybe labels will stop being idiots and sort things more quickly. But 2012 could conceivably mean ‘December 2012’ as easily as ‘January 2012’. Regardless, it’s utterly in the interests of record labels and Apple to get iTunes in the Cloud into international markets as soon as possible, rather than for the record labels to hold music hostage, gambling on, presumably, Apple offering a bigger cut.

Oh, BBC. According to The Guardian, you really do have your head up your arse quite a lot these days. After spending quite a lot of time trying to axe 6Music last year (£9 million in funding in 2008/09, and the one place where loads of new and interesting music is played on British radio), it’s now decided that BBC3 is, for some reason, sacrosanct, despite costing £115 million per year to run.

The digital channel’s new controller, Zai Bennett argues BBC3 is required to enable people to “experiment” with talent and formats, in the manner its rivals cannot. In the old days, that’s what BBC2 was for. BBC1 was for big shows, and more niche stuff would be on BBC2. Still, experimentation is all well and good, so since I just still fall into the target demographic of 16-to-34-year-olds, I thought I’d try and list all the must-have television I can think of on BBC3. Here goes:

• Ideal (Graham Duff’s fantastic comedy about a small-time drugs dealer)
• Being Human (vamps versus werewolves in Bristol)
• Doctor Who repeats

That’s really it. And Being Human became inexplicably dreadful as of series 3, leaving Ideal, which could probably find a home on BBC2. Perhaps the forthcoming quality review will sort things out, but I find it odd the BBC is trying to justify saving a channel that’s increasingly full of exploitative crap like Freaky Eaters, Spendaholics, The House of Tiny Tearaways and Sex..with Mum & Dad, when it’s simultaneously arguing the channel’s survival is required to enable it to experiment in a way other networks cannot. Those shows are precisely the same kind of garbage 5, Sky and others do crap out.

Interesting news from MacRumors:

Apple has quietly changed its guidelines on the pricing of In-App Subscriptions on the App Store. There are no longer any requirements that a subscription be the “same price or less than it is offered outside the app”. There are no longer any guidelines about price at all. Apple also removed the requirement that external subscriptions must be also offered as an in-app purchase.

The updated section 11.13 (now 11.14) of the App Store Review Guidelines now has no reference to content offered in the IAP having to be the same price or less than its price outside of the app. Apple now only demands apps not have a ‘buy now’ button that takes them outside of the app.

This is a smart move from Apple, not least with an Amazon touchscreen tablet rumoured to be on the way, from the one company that has the infrastructure and smarts to seriously take on the iPad in the areas where it matters.