The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

NRK offers free podcast containing every Beatles song

Robert Palmer — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:30:00 EST

Filed under: iTunes

The Beatles could have all their songs on iTunes, but not the way you might think: via a podcast describing the story behind each song, released by a Norwegian broadcasting company.

NRK is podcasting its segment called "Our Daily Beatles" that chronologically tells a three-minute story of every Beatles song ever written -- 212 of them -- along with the song in its entirety. NRK offers its podcast of the segment here.

According to its website, NRK says it has procured the rights to publish podcasts of all its previously-broadcast radio and television programs that contain less than 70 percent music.

While not an ideal way to download the entire Beatles catalog specifically for the music, the podcast is free.

Apple has been negotiating with Apple Corps and the various owners of the Beatles' catalog to offer the music on iTunes. Last word was in November, when Paul McCartney said that talks broke down.

Thanks, Kenken!

NRK offers free podcast containing every Beatles song originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP's MediaSmart works with Time Machine, iTunes

Dave Caolo — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Hardware, Peripherals, iTunes

Earlier this week, HP announced the availability of two new home servers, the MediaSmart ex485 and ex487. It's true that both are based on Microsoft's Windows Home Server platform, but the interesting thing for Mac users is that they're recognized by Time Machine as backup targets, and they can act as an iTunes server. At $599US for the ex485 (750GB of storage) or $749US for the ex487 (1.5TB), that's not a bad deal.

Other specs include a 2GHz Celeron CPU, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, gigabit Ethernet, four USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA jack and four internal HDD bays. Note that total storage on these units can be scaled up to 9TB.

HP will begin taking pre-orders in January for shipment in February.

For now, I've got a G4 iMac in my basement acting as a home media server, as it were, to the Apple TV. Two external drives are attached -- one for Time Machine and one for a SuperDuper! clone, scheduled to update weekly.

A third, pocket-sized drive is updated via SuperDuper! weekly and lives off-site (read: my wife's desk in her classroom, don't tell!). Do you have a home-spun backup and streaming solution?

[Via Engadget]

HP's MediaSmart works with Time Machine, iTunes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So you just got an iTunes gift card -- now what?

Steven Sande — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: iTS, iTunes, Holidays

All day on December 25, TUAW presents "Now What?" We've got first steps and recommendations for all the Apple gifts you found under the tree today. Happy holidays!

Hopefully a lot of you reached into your Christmas stockings and pulled out a ~~lump of coal~~ fully-loaded iTunes gift card. In case you haven't been presented with one of these gems before, they come in denominations of $10, $25, $50, and $100 in the USA -- check your country's Apple website for the availability of cards in your local currency.

Turning this card into tunes or iPhone apps is simple:

1) Check the back of the card first. If you see a list of numbers and letters instead of the words "Scratch off gently with coin", then your card has been used before. Take the giver off of your Christmas list for next year.

2) If the scratch-off material is intact, grab a coin and gently scratch off the material to reveal the code.

3) Launch iTunes. Make sure you're logged into your iTunes account and not somebody else's.

4) In the upper right part of the iTunes screen you'll see an area marked "Quick Links" (see screenshot at left). Click on the "Redeem" link.

5) You're almost there. A screen appears that will ask you to enter the code exactly as it appears. Note that if you mistype even one number or letter, the card will be rejected, so make sure you're reading the letters and number properly.

6) Click the "Redeem" button. You may want to read the Terms & Conditions, but I seriously doubt it. There's more legalese in that document than you'd find in a bank bailout plan.

7) If everything has gone as planned at this point, you'll have a credit in your account. Exactly how much money you have to play with will be listed just to the left of your iTunes account name in the upper right side of the iTunes window.

8) Buy tunes and apps until you're filled with the joy of the holidays!

So you just got an iTunes gift card -- now what? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pocket Tunes plays sweet music

Mel Martin — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Audio, iTunes, Reviews, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

What! Another internet radio player for the iPhone? Yes, Pocket Tunes [App store link] does play internet radio in a pretty crowded field of similar iPhone/touch apps, but this little player has some unique attributes.

Pocket Tunes, which is also available for Windows Mobile and Palm phones, has excellent audio quality, and a nice, but not overwhelmingly large, selection of stations. You can add your own stations of course, and Pocket Tunes plays more audio formats than most of the other players out there, including aacPlus v1, aacPlus v2, Shoutcast, RTSP, and the usual suspects like MP3, AAC and WMA.

There are a few things that set Pocket Tunes apart from the competition. The GUI is pretty, not just a jumble of text, and the app contains a web browser so you can surf while listening to streaming music, something you simply can't do with other radio streamers. The browser can't see your Safari bookmarks, and you can't make your own, but listening to music and surfing the web is certainly better than listening to music and not surfing. The browser does have a link for the Google search engine, so getting to a website is not too painful.

You can also connect to the iTunes Store to buy any music you've listened to, and Pocket Tunes remembers stations that you have heard and caches them without your having to save them.

The audio quality of this app is quite good, and I got reasonably fast load and buffering times even using the EDGE network. I even tried to listen to music while driving, but when I plug in my car iPod adapter cord to the iPhone, I just get my regular playlists. I could have used the headphone out on the phone into the mini plug input on the car, but I didn't have the proper cable. Note to self: always bring the proper cables.

Pocket Tunes is $9.99, and competes against some fine free apps like AOL Radio and Flycast, and some apps that aren't free like Tuner [App Store link] and Wunder Radio [App Store link] which are both loaded with features for $5.99. Still, Pocket Tunes works very well, and unlike ~~all~~ the other entrants (except Flycast), it will let you read this review while listening to your favorite stations.

Pocket Tunes plays sweet music originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iTunes library tool SuperSync half-off today

Michael Rose — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:15:00 EST

Filed under: iTunes, Deals

I haven't run the numbers thoroughly, but there's a team consensus here that iTunes library management and synchronization questions occupy high slots in the top 10 list of frequent questions to Ask TUAW and our tip line. With multiple machines, iPods/iPhones and massive libraries of media, keeping everything shipshape can be a real challenge.

Past posts have discussed several options for sharing and syncing, including products like Syncopation, myTuneSync, TuneRanger and Mojo -- and one item that keeps showing up in the list is SuperSync, mentioned by Mat here. It may not be the most attractive tool for the job, but reports are that it handles the task with aplomb (though it's a good idea to back up your library first).

SuperSync is discounted 50% today via MacZot, at $14.95 for a pair of licenses (allowing you to sync 2 machines); if library cleanup is on your holiday to-do list, it might be a good last-second purchase. We'll aim for a TUAW Faceoff on the various library sync and management tools early in the new year.

iTunes library tool SuperSync half-off today originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Beta Beat: BlackBerry Media Sync for OS X

Christina Warren — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Multimedia, Software, iTunes, Beta Beat

Back in September, we started hearing rumblings that RIM was developing native OS X utilities for Mac BlackBerry users. Finally, RIM has released a preview version (on 12/19) of its BlackBerry Media Sync utility for OS X. It's no Desktop Manager, but at least it is a start.

BlackBerry Media Sync is designed to let you easily sync iTunes playlists (minus any DRM files) with your BlackBerry device. In August, PocketMac added a similar feature to its software, which is available for free from RIM's web site for all BlackBerry owners.

Basically, BlackBerry Media Sync will let you use your BlackBerry as an iPod shuffle (again, with the caveat that any iTunes DRM songs will not transfer to your BlackBerry). You can sync specific playlists or just have the free space automatically filled by your music collection.

There are some things you need to be aware of:

If you have another BlackBerry syncing utility, like PocketMac or The Missing Sync installed, it will stop working after installing BlackBerry Media Sync. You will need to uninstall BlackBerry Media Sync and probably reinstall your other software to regain functionality.
It is slow. At least in my tests, syncing using the BlackBerry Media Sync app was slower than just dragging an album/playlist over to the BlackBerry's Music folder in Finder.
When you sync, it seems to re-transfer playlists all over again, even if they haven't changed.

Still, we finally have a native RIM utility for OS X. Hopefully a full-fledged Desktop Manager is in the future.

Thanks Justen!

Beta Beat: BlackBerry Media Sync for OS X originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TUAW Tip: Removing duplicate songs from iTunes

Cory Bohon — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: iTunes, TUAW Tips

Have you ever been listening your iTunes library and wondered why a song played more than one time? Duplicate songs in your library can be very annoying, and waste precious space on your hard drive. In this TUAW Tip, I'm going to show you how to get rid of duplicates using a built-in feature in iTunes.

In iTunes, click the "Music" category under the Library section from the selector on the left. You should now see all of the music items that are in your iTunes library. Now click File > Show Duplicates. Any duplicate songs that are in your library will show up, and you will be able to delete the ones that you don't want any longer. To hide the duplicate song list, click the "Show All" button at the bottom of the window (or click File > Show All). You can use this same method for Music, Videos, and TV Shows. It will also work in any playlist.

Using the built-in iTunes feature is nice, but it can be very time consuming -- especially if you have thousands of songs, videos, or TV shows. In this case, you can use an application like iDupe (which costs $8US). iDupe gives you a ton of options for deleting duplicate songs in iTunes.

Do you know another way to delete duplicate iTunes songs? Know of another application to delete duplicates? Tell us in the comments!

Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 and TUAW Tips sections!

TUAW Tip: Removing duplicate songs from iTunes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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App Store changes layout, threat of the fleshy palm still looms

Robert Palmer — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: iTunes, Developer, App Store

TouchMeme notes that the App Store has changed layout to separate free and paid applications, perhaps in response to developer grumbling about competition in a crowded market.

Free apps and paid apps now occupy sidebars to the right and left, respectively, of a major category index page. The center still allows you to sort the results by release date, name, or popularity (which doesn't appear to work yet: it only displays an alphabetical list). The separation of free and paid apps brings iTunes more closely in line with the mobile App Store experience. The changes affect every category except Games.

The concerns, though, of the Iconfactory's Craig Hockenberry (who earlier this week published an open letter to Steve Jobs detailing his frustration with marketing iPhone apps) may not be entirely assuaged. He argues that the price appeal of 99-cent apps (which may not be supported by the data) stifles the development of larger, more expensive apps that earn less prominent placement in the App Store.

The issues of price popularity and developer ROI aren't exactly solved by this furniture rearrangement, but perhaps it will let more high-quality apps bubble to the top of the Paid App charts. Otherwise, Apple might yet see the fleshy part of Hockenberry's palm.

[Via AppleInsider.]

App Store changes layout, threat of the fleshy palm still looms originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stats: 99 cent apps aren't selling any better

Mike Schramm — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, iTunes, Developer, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

This is interesting: the prevailing argument about App Store pricing seems to be that developers are rushing down to 99 cents because apps priced there sell better (and developers say they can't fund really great apps priced there). But Mobile Orchard did a little number crunching, and their conclusion upends the whole premise: 99 cent apps don't sell any better than their more expensive counterparts. They plotted each app's popularity against its price, and while there are a few 99 cent apps out there selling better than any higher-priced app, the only real way to make the app "sell" better is to give it away for free. Above $0, price doesn't really matter than much in terms of popularity.

You could argue that Apple's 0 to 1 popularity scale doesn't tell us much (we're not looking at actual sales here, just a number Apple has given to each app in terms of downloads), but Mobile Orchard's conclusion makes sense, in a strange way: free apps, we know, are much more popular than any paid apps, and if people are willing to pay 99 cents, why wouldn't they be willing to pay more? Why should a 99 cent app sell better than an app of equal usability that costs $1.99? It shouldn't, and according to this data, it doesn't.

Very interesting. There is an exception -- in the Entertainment category, 99 cent apps do sell markedly better than the apps above them (Games, also, as you can see above, seem a little stronger in the 99 cent bar). But in the Business and Productivity categories, higher-priced apps actually sell better than their cheaper counterparts. People will pay what your app is worth, whether that's $1, $10, or even higher. The problem may be getting people to understand the app's worth in the first place (and that's where something like an App Store trial system might work), but Mobile Orchard's data says that price isn't a factor in an app's sales.

Thanks, Dan!

Stats: 99 cent apps aren't selling any better originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TV exclusives taking movies off of iTunes?

Mike Schramm — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Multimedia, Rumors, iTunes, Apple TV

Has your favorite movie gone missing from iTunes or Netflix lately? The reason could be television, says CNET -- apparently a slew of movies on iTunes and Netflix's streaming service have recently fallen prey to television exclusive agreements. With the onset of Apple TV and apps like Boxee making it possible to stream Netflix, TV networks with exclusive showing agreements have made sure that while they've got a lock on a movie, we can't watch it anywhere else.

Of course, as CNET notes, it's about the money (isn't it always?). If studios can make more money from the TV networks than they can from online rentals, then obviously they're going to go with television. The only problem with that, however, is that with an exclusive agreement, they'll never know, will they?

And of course the other issue here is the actual definition of places like iTunes and Netflix -- obviously, retail stores aren't barred from carrying these movies, so does that mean that Netflix and iTunes are actually content channels rather than retailers? Tough issue. You have to think that it'll eventually be settled in favor of digital distribution (what consumer wouldn't want to watch a movie on their own time rather than sticking to a TV network's schedule), but until studios are convinced otherwise, exclusivity agreements will likely be the rule.

[via Apple Insider]

TV exclusives taking movies off of iTunes? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First Look: TuneUp for Mac now ready to tackle your iTunes disorganization

Michael Rose — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: Software, iTunes, Reviews, First Look

Despite the presence of a checkbox to "keep iTunes library organized" in the application's preferences, the fact remains that iTunes tracks -- coming from a plethora of sources and of varying vintage, and sometimes numbering in the thousands -- are a black hole of bad metadata. Track and performer names may be wrong or missing (the dreaded "Track 01" and my favorite band, Unknown Artist, are frequently seen); other details may be off-base, and as for album art... well, let's just say that I don't use Cover Flow that much, and not because I don't like the way it looks; it's just that the wide stretches of empty covers are depressing.

There's some help on the way from TuneUp; the formerly Windows-only iTunes companion is now available for the Mac, with a free version that 'cleans' up to 500 tracks and a paid/subscription Premium license ($19.95 onetime or $11.95/annual) with unlimited scrubbing bubble power.

I decided to give TuneUp a trial run on the most confused, mixed-up section of my iTunes library: a collection of professional and collegiate a cappella tracks, with track names identical to the original recordings, sure to befuddle any conventional artist matching strategy. Would TuneUp's leverage of the Gracenote database give it an advantage in dealing with these puzzlers? Read on for more, or check out our gallery of TuneUp screenshots.

Gallery: TuneUp for Mac

Continue reading First Look: TuneUp for Mac now ready to tackle your iTunes disorganization

First Look: TuneUp for Mac now ready to tackle your iTunes disorganization originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How to stream your iTunes library across the web for free

Aron Trimble — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: How-tos, Tips and tricks, Internet, Internet Tools, iTunes

Mac OS X users and faithful readers of TUAW know that there is great power found in the command-line, but one of the greatest advantages of OS X's UNIX heritage is the secure shell (SSH) client and server. From the Apple Matters article on SSH tunnels for the common man: "SSH is a network protocol that provides secure communication between two computers." Its power comes from the ability to create an encrypted tunnel through which a client can send many types of internet traffic.

The Lifehacker article on setting up an SSH server covers the steps necessary to roll your own SSH server whether you are running Windows or OS X. Parts one and two of the Apple Matters series on SSH tunnels provide a lot of useful information on SSH as well as creating an SSH tunnel for encrypting traffic. One such use that has not yet been covered is how it is possible to stream your iTunes library across the internet while using software that is either built-in or available for free.

This tutorial will get pretty technical and assumes that you already have an SSH server and you know how to access it from a remote location (e.g. from work). If you are already past the point of just setting up an SSH server and are asking yourself "what now?" then read on to find out how you too can listen to your tunes at work even though they are trapped at home.

Continue reading How to stream your iTunes library across the web for free

How to stream your iTunes library across the web for free originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FluidTunes: The "wave" of the future?

Megan Lavey — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Software, Cool tools, iTunes

Majic Jungle Software has released FluidTunes, a program designed to let you navigate and play your music in iTunes without touching the computer. It's an interesting idea that almost sounds it should have come from the depths of Apple itself. After all, what's next after making multi-touch available to the masses thanks to the iPhone?

FluidTunes works by using iSight to track your hand gestures as you navigate through the program. You make a side to side sweep to browse through your iTunes library in Cover Flow mode. Then, you wave at the play and pause buttons to start and stop the music.

It's an interesting concept, but the execution is rather sloppy. You need to be in a fairly well-lit room for iSight to register the gestures correctly. My first attempt at using FluidTunes was in the kitchen in full natural daylight, and it worked fairly well. It was easy to wave from side to side to browse my music. However, I kept accidentally activating the play and stop buttons. When I waved at the play and stop buttons, they didn't work. Pointing at the buttons worked better, but as I dropped my hand away, it would either activate another button or I'd accidentally scroll to another song. Using the program in poor light is even worse. My second test area was in the living room with the lights dimmed. The program wouldn't stop scrolling through my library, and nothing would activate the play and pause buttons.

FluidTunes is an interesting concept that I think has a lot of potential, but needs a bit of work. It's something that currently needs a lot of light to operate, so it wouldn't be ideal for use in situations such as controlling your music from bed before falling asleep. If Majic Jungle can fine tune the controls for use in various lighting situations, it could open up a lot of possibilities for this sort of program.

FluidTunes is a free download and runs on a Universal Binary. It requires OS X 10.4.11 or higher.

Many thanks to everyone who sent this in!

FluidTunes: The "wave" of the future? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Analysis: iTunes holds 12.6% of the US music market

Mike Schramm — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPod Family, Apple Financial, iTunes, iPod touch

Stick with us here: a new report by Forrester Research claims that of all the music purchased in the US, digital purchases have jumped to 18% of the total, and they expect it to go up to 41% of total sales over the next five years. That means that about 20% of all the music sold in the US is bought digitally. And distorted-loop.com is doing a little reasoning from those numbers -- since Apple's iTunes accounts for 70% of US digital sales, DL has decided that Apple accounts for 12.6% of all music sold in the US.

Can't really argue with that reasoning, and given that we know iPod sales are up (and increased sales of the iPod touch means more people can buy from iTunes straight to their iPods, not to mention that one of the biggest days for iTunes sales is Christmas, thanks to all the new iPods under the tree), we can probably look for that number to head even further north next year.

Analysis: iTunes holds 12.6% of the US music market originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iTunes shows off the best of 2008

Cory Bohon — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: iTS, iTunes

Apple has created a "Best of 2008" [iTunes link] section in the iTunes Store. On this page, Apple lets everyone know what the top-downloaded TV Shows, Music, Movies, Apps, Podcasts, and Audiobooks are.

Among the top paid iPhone applications are Koi Pond, Texas Hold'em, and Moto Chaser. Among the top free iPhone applications are Pandora, Facebook, and Tap Tap Revenge. There's also a top downloaded podcast list. We didn't quite make the top downloaded podcasts list, but hey, there's always next year.

So, if you're looking to find some of the best online content for 2008, look no further than iTunes. You can click here to visit the iTunes Best of 2008 section.

iTunes shows off the best of 2008 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TUAW talks to boxee and brings you invites

Christina Warren — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:30:00 EST

Filed under: iTunes, Open Source, Mac mini, Interviews, TUAW Interview, Beta Beat, Apple TV

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm super thankful that I have been able to spend the last 13 months blogging for TUAW and interacting with all of you. On a more superficial note, I am also thankful for my Macs and all the cool stuff Apple products enable me to do.

The newest member of my Apple family is the Apple TV. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to talk to Avner and Andrew from boxee, the company behind the social media player of the same name. Boxee released an update earlier this week, but the next big version is set for December 4, 2008. Avner and Andrew were nice enough to answer my questions, share some details about the future of boxee and best of all, provide a link so that TUAW readers can join in the fun! If you want to try boxee on your Mac or Apple TV, enter your e-mail address at http://boxee.tv/tuaw and you should get an invite within 24 hours.

In the comments, on Twitter and via e-mail, many of you have asked questions about boxee, its limitations and its future. I took these questions and comments to Avner and Andrew, and here's what I got back.

On .MKV support for Apple TV

Boxee supports the .MKV container and if you are using a Mac mini, MacBook, iMac or Mac Pro, boxee can play back 1080p .mkv files without a problem. Apple TV is limited by its processor and GPU, and it maxes out playing back 420p and 720p .MKV content. I don't usually deal with .MKV, but a quick Google search turned up a lot of information about programs that can be used to convert files. Apparently, the PS3 has this same limitation.

Hulu performance

A number of users have complained about the quality of boxee's Hulu playback. I also noticed a decrease in quality after the latest update. The update on December 4 is going to address this. The big problem, for Apple TV owners, is once again the limitations of the hardware. Seeing as Apple TV's can stream HD content from iTunes (when downloading anyway), I think this is something that can be greatly improved, but it might take some time. Boxee is still in alpha and the goal is to enter beta sometime next year, so while I think the fact that Hulu is supported at all is fantastic, the Apple TV experience might take some time to fully evolve. If you are using a Mac for boxee playback, your performance will be much better.

Continue reading TUAW talks to boxee and brings you invites

TUAW talks to boxee and brings you invites originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple releases iPhone 2.2 firmware

Mat Lu — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:48:00 EST

Filed under: iTunes, iPhone

The long awaited iPhone firmware version 2.2 has appeared in iTunes and is ready for download. You can grab it now by clicking the "Check for Update" button in your iPhone Summary panel. Once you download and install it let us know how it goes.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Apple releases iPhone 2.2 firmware originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iTunes 8.0.2 now available, adds VoiceOver capabilities

Cory Bohon — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: iTunes, Software Update

Apple just released an update to iTunes. Version 8.0.2 "...improves stability and performance and provides a number of important bug fixes." They note that this update adds VoiceOver capabilities for both iTunes and iTunes U. VoiceOver is the built-in screen reader utility for Mac OS X that helps visually challenged users.

In addition to VoiceOver, Apple also includes the following "important" bug fixes:

Addresses a quality issue creating MP3s on some computers.
Fixes a connectivity issue with the iTunes Store when using some Internet proxies with Mac OS X.
Improves accessibility with VoiceOver.

You can get this 60MB update via Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update) or by downloading the installer package from the Apple Support Downloads website.

Thanks to Randall and others for the tips!

iTunes 8.0.2 now available, adds VoiceOver capabilities originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MacBook Pro users getting bitten by HDCP

Michael Rose — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:07:00 EST

Filed under: Video, iTunes, Bad Apple, Macbook Pro, MacBook

Yesterday, our buddy David Chartier at Ars and Sam Oliver at AppleInsider both publicized an issue that's been burning up the support boards for a while now: iTunes video rentals and purchases in HD are flagged for HDCP control, and in cooperation with the new Mini DisplayPort connector on the MacBook and MacBook Pro unibody models, those movies and TV shows are refusing to play back on non-compliant external displays.

In this case, 'compliant' means HDMI or recent-vintage DVI, but even monitors or TVs that support HDCP may not properly negotiate with the DisplayPort connector to give iTunes and QuickTime the all-clear signal (if so, quitting and relaunching iTunes once the display is hooked up may clear the playback hold). Equally annoying: HDCP is only supposed to apply to 'high-value' digital streams, meaning standard-def purchases and rentals on the iTunes store should be out of scope... but some reports indicate that both the HD and SD instances are flagged, blocking playback on anything but the laptop's internal display or a straight-thru HDMI connection. Argh!

While Apple TV users with unconventional output setups have been dealing with this aggravation since the beginning of the year, MacBook and MBP owners have largely steered clear, even as the HD content on iTunes became available for playback on the laptops. Now that the hardware and software have come into sync on the unibody models, Apple's compliance with HDCP -- a necessary but appalling condition of the content companies that deliver the HD movies and TV shows -- is beginning to close out the 'analog hole' and cause real aggravation for laptop owners with legitimate use cases. Talk about a bag of hurt.

MacBook Pro users getting bitten by HDCP originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iTunes 101: Use smart playlists to limit size

Cory Bohon — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: iPod Family, iTunes, Mac 101

Want to make an iTunes playlist that will fill your iPod, without making one that's too big to fit? With an iTunes Smart Playlist you can do this and much more. In this Mac 101 tip I'll show you how.

Start by making a new Smart Playlist by selecting File > New Smart Playlist (or hold down the option key and click the gear that appears in the bottom left hand corner). You can select what you want from the drop-down menus in the middle section. For instance, I chose "Genre ... is ... Rock," but you can choose any of the options you want. Check the box next to "Limit ..." and type in how much storage your iPod or iPhone has, then select "GB" or "MB" from the next drop-down menu for Gigabytes and Megabytes. You also should make sure the "Live updating" checkbox is checked.

When you're done, click OK. You then need to make sure that you sync this and only this playlist to your iPod by going to your iPod (under devices) > Music, and select "Sync Music," and "Selected Playlists." Then put a check mark beside the playlist you just created. Re-sync, and you're done!

Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section today.

iTunes 101: Use smart playlists to limit size originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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