$0.99 iTunes ringtone creator no more?

It seems like only yesterday Steve Jobs introduced make-your-own ringtones in iTunes, where you could take a song you already bought, and pay again just to use it in cut-down form as a ringtone. And — whoosh! — now it’s gone from iTunes 10?

The recording industry is no doubt to blame for the $0.99 price tag — they manage to both charge consumers and stiff artists on those, keeping all the money for themselves — but I’m guessing there were ..read more

Apple Special Music Event 2010 round-up

Once again Steve Jobs put sneaker to stage and at the Apple Special Music Event 2010 wowed the crowed with new gorgeous new hardware, stunning new software, and… services of a sort. The big stories were iOS 4.1 and iOS 4.2, the new iPod touch, iPod nano, and Apple TV, and iTunes 10 with its Ping music social network, and of course, what we didn’t get.

The full story… well, here it is in handy bullet-point form.

Event coverage Apple Special Music Event ..read more

iOS 4 Ping social music network gallery

After a few hiccups, Ping, Apple’s new social music network, is up and running on iOS 4 devices. Yesterday we took a quick look at how Ping worked in iTunes 10 and while computers have some advantages, I think I’m preferring it on iPhone right now.

Putting it in the iOS iTunes app is strange of course, until you realize Ping exists primarily to encourage people to buy more iTunes music, so having all those shopping carts handy is in Apple’s best ..read more

Official Twitter for iPad hits App Store

The official Twitter for iPad — technically a universal binary now for both iPhone and iPad — has just hit the iTunes App Store. Formerly known as Tweetie, the app was under development by Atebits and Loren Brichter before getting bought up by Twitter, and after a brief transitional delay, it’s finally here.

How is it? Different. Stacked. Brichter certainly didn’t simply scale up the Twitter for iPhone UI. This is all new in both look and approach. I’m going to ..read more

Apple special music event – what we didn’t get

What didn’t we get from Apple during their 2010 special music event? The iPod touch line got an extremely decent refresh, as well as the Nano.   iPhone is getting iOS 4.1 next week with some newly added features and some much needed bug fixes. The iPad will be getting iOS 4.2 – in November, but I’m sure some of us would have liked to see it sooner. And we got an overhauled iTunes. I personally ..read more

Apple live streaming music event to test new data center?

Cult of Mac claims a source has told them Apple is live streaming today’s special music event as a way to test their massive new, North Carolina data center, set to go fully operational later this year.

Apple’s first live video broadcast in years is a test of the server farm’s ability to stream a future version of iTunes for iOS devices, our tipster says.

“The goal is to monitor traffic load and quality,” says our tipster, who asked to remain anonymous ..read more

Fox, ABC to offer $0.99 iTunes rentals, CBS, NBC to keep heads buried in sand?

“People familiar with the situation” (yes, them again) have told the Wall Street Journal that both Fox and ABC are good to go on $0.99 iTunes TV show rentals, and will be announced later today at Apple’s special music event. Since ABC is owned by Disney, whose largest shareholder is Steve Jobs, their getting on board isn’t a huge surprise. Likewise, Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox, introduced Jobs at D8 and is all up in Apple rescuing print media (like ..read more

Do you still regularly sync your iPhone with iTunes?

Tomorrow at their annual special music event, Apple might announce a new version of iTunes (iTunes X?) — maybe with $0.99 TV rentals or streaming cloud music — and thinking about that made me realize I hardly if ever sync my iPhone with iTunes anymore.

Just before iPhone 4 came out the Apple Store swapped out my 3GS due to cracks along the dock that had been preventing me from syncing. Because I couldn’t sync, I’d been downloading apps directly onto ..read more

iTunes song previews doubling to 60 seconds?

At their annual special music event tomorrow, could Steve Jobs announce that Apple’s iTunes song previews are doubling to 60 seconds? That’s what CNET is hearing rumored:

Currently, iTunes offers 30-second snippets of songs, a feature designed to give users a taste of the music to help them decide whether they like it enough to buy. Some users have long complained that half a minute isn’t enough time to really hear a song.

30 seconds has sometimes been enough for me, sometimes ..read more

Angry Birds 1.4.1 and Angry Birds HD 1.4.1 hit App Store

Angry Birds for iPhone and its big brother, Angry Birds HD for iPad, have been updated to make it even birdier and, I fear, angrier. New features in version 1.4.1 consist of:

15 levels have been reconstructed A new golden egg has been added Fresh new achievements are included And, um… fantastic feathered fun is plentiful

The iPad version hit a couple of days ago. The iPhone version is just hitting now. If you try out either update, let us know what you think.

[iTunes for ..read more

Next Page »