Posts Tagged ‘iTunes Store’

Apple Launches Online ‘iTunes Preview’ Content

November 14th, 2009

Without any official statements, Apple quietly deployed a web-based “iTunes Preview”, which allows users to browse iTunes Store’s offerings, even if they have not installed iTunes. When Apple released iTunes 9 in September, they made it possible to share iTunes’ offerings on Facebook and Twitter, but when the link to the iTunes Store content was clicked, nothing happened unless iTunes was installed on the clicker’s device. With the new web-based iTunes Store Preview, people without iTunes can browse iTunes Store content, but they still can’t listen to song samples, nor purchase content.

WebBasediTunesStore

Currently, only music content is available in the web-based iTunes Store preview, and since no official announcements has been, it is unclear if an extension will come to Apps or Movies.

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Steve Jobs named CEO of the Decade

November 5th, 2009

Steve Jobs - KeynoteSteven Paul Jobs, Apple CEO and co-founder, the 43rd richest man in America and largest individual Disney shareholder, is according to Fortune named ‘CEO of the Decade‘ for his role in turning Apple into a groundbreaking technology leader.

Youthful founder gets booted from his company in the 1980s, returns in the 1990s, and in the following decade survives two brushes with death, one securities-law scandal, an also-ran product lineup, and his own often unpleasant demeanor to become the dominant personality in four distinct industries, a billionaire many times over, and CEO of the most valuable company in Silicon Valley.

One reason why Jobs is named as CEO of the decade is that he, after his return to Apple, introduced the iMac that became a breakthrough with its all-in-one computer system, and it reestablished Apple’s economy, and in 2001 he and Apple launched iTunes as a music software and later the same year Apple released the first iPod, but those events didn’t seemed to help in an established market, and takeovers were rumored.

Steve JobsAt this time, Macintosh computers were mainly used by students and artists, but Steve Jobs had a plan and he convinced the rest of Apple’s board that it would be a great idea to build retail stores, and at the same time it was realized that Apple had to become different on designs compared to the successful blandness of Microsoft, Dell and Intel. That difference proved to be a breakthrough and after a short while, people came to Apple begging for the next iPod.

In 2002 Apple made iTunes Windows compatible, and it became another huge step forward for Apple and just a year after, iTunes Store was opened and became pioneer in digital music. 5 years later another brilliant idea was realized: the App Store. But wait, isn’t something missing? Of course. The iPod became an astonishing success, and in 2007 Apple reinvented the phone. In other words, they introduced the iPhone – an iPod and a phone in one single device.

In January 2009, Steve Jobs took a 5 months leave of absence from Apple to undergo a liver transplant, and fans of Apple didn’t saw him until September 9th, when he returned as first keynote speaker and presented among other a new iPod Nano lineup.

At AppleLunch we couldn’t agree more to Fortunes decision of naming Steve Jobs as ‘CEO of the Decade’ and without him, Apple news and rumors wouldn’t be that interesting to follow.

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New Apple TV Software Is Coming Soon

October 29th, 2009

apple-tv-01Apple has today updated the ‘iTunes Store Terms and Conditions,’ which will show up the next time you’ll attempt to purchase something on iTunes Store, and yes, you have to agree. The new terms includes something rather interesting.

The new terms and conditions includes hints of a forthcoming software update to Apple TV, which will allow viewing of iTunes LP and iTunes Extras.

The Terms of Sale have been revised to clarify that you can now use iTunes LPs and iTunes Extras on Apple TV with software version 3.0 or higher.

We have earlier posted a rumor that a new Apple TV will be launched before christmas, but Phil Schiller expressed in an interview to Gizmodo prior last weeks product update, that no more Apple products will be released before christmas.

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Apple is designing FM App for the iPhone?

October 14th, 2009

Reports have been coming in surrounding a possible iPhone App release from Apple, which will bring FM radio to the device. Sources claim that it will work as the iPod App in many ways, such as the ability to listen to music/radio while browsing Safari or using other applications. We are not yet sure if the App will be integrated into the currently existing iPod App, or if it will be launched as a stand-alone application.

One of the features which have been mostly discussed, is song tagging, which allows you to tag a song in the radio so that it can later be traced and purchased in the iTunes Store. In many ways, this rumored FM radio capability for the iPhone, seems to be very much like the one in the iPod Nano, though it will probably take advantage of iPhone’s unique functions as well.

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Free App Review – Shazam & Shotgun Free

October 8th, 2009

Today it’s Thursday and it’s time for our weekly free app reviews. Each Thursday, AppleLunch will provide you with reviews of free apps from the App Store to separate the wheat from the chaff. Today, we finally found out who made that stupid songs that keeps playing in the radio, and gives a hint to rob a bank.

Shazam

If you have had an iPhone for quite a long time, you are probably familiar with the free application, made by Shazam Entertainment Ltd., called Shazam.

You are probably familiar with the following situation: You are sitting in your car in a traffic jam, listening to the radio and there is this song, that you have listened to a couple of times, but you have no idea who has made it, nor what it is called. Shazam provides a solution for you.

Shazam1

Shazam is an application with a unique technology that identifies tunes anywhere, using only the mobile phone. After you have opened the application, all you have to do is to tap the “Tag Now” button in the upper right corner, and 15 seconds later it tells you what song that you are currently listening to.

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When Shazam has tagged the song, it shows you some information about the song; who has made it, what label it is from and the album of the song too. Shazam also gives you a link to iTunes Store so that you can buy the song right away, or if the music video is available on YouTube, Shazam gives you a link to it.

If you are using Twitter, you can tweet that you have used Shazam to discover a song, but you have to live with a link to other Shazam tags on Tiwtter.

Shazam3 IMG_0415

If it’s available, you can also read a biography of the band that has made the discovered song and you can also see a list of discs they has made in the discography section. Finally, it’s also possible to take a photo and attach it to the tagged song, or pick a photo from your iPhone library.

Shazam is without any doubts a must-have application for your iPhone. You will sometimes get into situations where you really need to know the name of a song that you are listening to, and if you doesn’t have any connection to a wireless network, you can record the song in Shazam, and when you come home or some other place with connection to the internet, you can open Shazam and the application will now connect to its servers and find the name of the song that you have recorded.

Shazam is FREE and available on iTunes App Store, and if you have an iPhone, then download it! If you only have an iPod Touch you need a microphone to record tunes.

Get the app from iTunes App Store

5/5 STARS

Shotgun Free

This application seems fun to some people, who might be very bored in their spare time. On the iTunes App Store, there are tons of applications with the same function as Shotgun Free and hopefully one or two are also better than this.

Shotgunfree1

After you have opened the application, you gets a menu screen with three opportunities; well written instructions, a list of achievements and the button that we missed in our BlackJack Free preview, the “launch shotgun” button.

How to use the application? Well, after you have launched the shotgun, you need to load it before you can shoot. You loads the shotgun by holding your iPhone or iPod Touch in vertical, and then you rapidly takes your iPhone 20 centimeters down, and if you do it correctly, you will hear a loading sound, like on real guns.

Shotgunfree2 IMG_0420

Now the gun is “half cocked,” but you’ll need to cock it completely so move it just as rapidly 20 centimeters up, and now you’re ready to fire, which you do by turning the iPhone into horizontal mode, (and now remember to aim at your target! ;-) ) and tilting it up rapidly.

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If you tap the achievement button, a list of several goals will appear on your screen so that you can use the application to complete the achievement list. That, we hasn’t done because the application is too monotonous to spend even two minutes of using.

Shotgunfree5 Shotgunfree6

We will only give this application 2 stars because it’s very boring after short time, and you can’t choose between additional guns. The instructions though are well created and easy to understand, and the implementation of an achievements list was a good idea, but we don’t think that anyone wants to complete the whole list. If you have, then please contact us and tell us how you found the motivation ;-)

Get the app at iTunes App Store

2/5 STARS

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9th September “Rock and Roll” media event – Round up

September 26th, 2009

Users have requested an overview of the updates Apple introduced in the “It’s only Rock & Roll, but I like it” media event the 9th of September, so here is a Keynote round up summary.

iPod updates

The entire iPod lineup has been refreshed.

  • iPod Nano – received a camera along with video recording and voice over functionality. FM radio and the new Genius Mix have been integrated as well. The display is slightly larger (now 2.2 inches). It’s got a microphone and speaker and is available in 8 GB and 16 GB versions for $149 and $179.
  • iPod Touch – better hardware, making it about 50 % faster, capable of running OpenGL ES 2.0 and is now available in 32 GB and 64 GB for as low as $199.
  • iPod Shuffle – more colors (pink, green, blue and stainless steel) and is available in 2 GB and 4 GB for $59 and $79. The stainless steel version costs $99.
  • iPod Classic – now comes in 160 GB instead of 120 GB for $249.

Read the entire article here: Apple gives us a new iPod family

New iPhone OS – 3.1

Introduces Genius for Apps and native ringtones. Genius for Apps works just like the original genius, and recommend Apps which might interest you.

Read the entire article here: iPhone OS 3.1 released

iTunes 9 released

Entirely new look in the iTunes Store, making it easier to navigate and use. Album ratings and social networking (Facebook and Twitter) have also been integrated in the new look. Home Sharing is a new feature which lets you share your media between other computers in your home.

Read the entire article here: iTunes 9, new store, home sharing and sync improvements

Steve Jobs returns

The Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, was Keynote speaker for the first time since his leave of absence. He officially returned to Apple in June, but hadn’t appeared much publicly before this Keynote.

Read the entire article here: Steve Jobs returns as Apple keynote speaker!

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iTunes 9.0.1 released

September 23rd, 2009

Apple has just released the first software update to iTunes 9, which was released earlier this month at Apple’s media event. The update is 9.0.1 and includes several bug fixes, such as

  • Resolving iTunes Store browsing issue
  • Addressing a performance issue where iTunes may become unresponsive
  • Fixing an “unexpectedly quit” issue
  • Fixing a problem syncing Podcasts in playlists to iPhone or iPod
  • Fixing a sorting album with multiple discs problem
  • Addressing an issue with the Zoom button not switching to Mini Player
  • Improving syncing applications to iPhone and iPod Touch
  • Genius will now automatically update to show Genius Mixes

iTunes 9.1 can be downloaded from Apple’s website or by using Software Update on your Mac.

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Rumor: New Apple TV to be launched before Christmas?

September 22nd, 2009

Since the beginning of September, there has been a lot of ongoing speculations on if Apple is working on enhancing Apple TV, and it was rumored to be announced at the media event, held September 9 this year, but it wasn’t even mentioned.

Earlier this month, Apple discounted the Apple TV 160GB model to $229 and the 40GB model wasn’t available anymore. This has lead to further speculations on an upcoming announcement of a new Apple TV model, and now Computerworld reports that people in the Apple TV section at Apple have been doing overtime work lately, and this could be another clue to an upcoming announcement of a new Apple TV.

With the release of iTunes 9, Apple launched a new iTunes Store with the opportunity to purchase iTunes LP and iTunes Extras. These two new features will in all probability be supported in a new major Apple TV software update.

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The music industry wants extra money from Apple

September 18th, 2009

People from the music industitunes store - moviesry including publishers, composers and songwriters have begun lobbying the U.S. Congress to get more money from Apple’s iTunes Store in compensation from digital distribution of their songs.

Earlier this year, Apple increased the price on many songs and albums in the iTunes Store for the first time ever, but the authors of the songs are not yet happy. Now they’ve found other arguments to increase their share of the revenue from digital music, and one of them is the 30-second song samples that you can hear before you consider whether you want to buy the song/album or not. With the 30-second sample, customers can stream the music right from iTunes Store and the creators think that they should be paid a performance income from Apple every time a certain 30-second sample is being played.

The music industry has been in negotiations with Apple on this issue for a long time, and now their patience has expired, so they decided to lobby the Congress with the demand of a performance income from anyone who sells music, movies or TV shows online.

If you in the US watch a TV Show on anyything, but online, there is a performance fee collected, but if the TV-Show is downloaded over iTunes there aren’t any performance fee paid, and that’s generally what the whole thing is about, according to David Israelite, president and CEO of the National Music Publishers Association.

According to Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association, it’s a question as to whether an online download could be considered a performance, and argues “They are picking on Apple because they say Apple is making a bundle of money, but these companies should be thrilled that Apple and the other services are selling music and generating millions, maybe tens of millions, in royalties.”

If the National Music Publishers Association is so angry about the 30-second sample song and demands performance income from Apple, what would then happen to YouTube if the Congress legislates the performance fee on online media?

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iTunes 9, new store, home sharing and sync improvements

September 10th, 2009

This update has been as certain as the announcement of new iPods, but the features included in the new iTunes 9, which was released yesterday at Apple’s “It’s only Rock and Roll” media event, were not at all sure. But let’s start with the features which have been rumored to arrive in the new iTunes:

  • iTunes sharingFirst we get an entirely new look in the iTunes Store, which is far more dynamic and user friendly. In the old store, you would navigate by reloading pages many times, just to see an artist’s albums or switching to his or her songs. Now though, Apple has made this happen totally interactively, so you need to reload the pages as few times as possible.
  • Album ratings have also been notably more visible and featured in the store.
  • And now, social networking. iTunes now enables you to share your wishes or music of interest in the iTunes Store on Facebook and/or Twitter. After clicking e.g. “Share on Facebook”, you will be taken to the usual Facebook sharing page. You may be asked to enter your login information, but that’s everything there is to it. It is a one-click “Tell my friends about this” function.Facebook sharing

And here is what we hadn’t seen coming:

  • When you click the arrow next to an album in the iTunes Store, artist or anything else you might want to share, you also have the option of actually adding the item to a wishlist, which have seemed to be some pretty successful features in many online stores.
  • Home sharing is an entirely new feature, which enables all of your computers at home to share their media files. Films, music and even playlists and audiobooks. You just need the other computers to be authorized to play the music, and it can be streamed live from just about any computer in your home.

So, that’s it! You can download iTunes 9 as of today, and stay iTuned and check back later from more summaries of yesterday’s Apple keynote.

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