News tagged ‘iTunes’

Come on, lets face it: there are a lot of bad apps available in the App Store. Some would say crappy apps! Even with Apple’s strict app approval process, if a developer creates something stupid, it can still find its way into the App Store.

Now, there is a website that highlights the best of the worst apps available. Created by Josh Helfferich (who hosts the popular website, iPad Apps That Don’t Suck), Crapptastic “celebrates the hilarity that is the iTunes App Store.”

The site just debuted, so there isn’t much there. Still, with sites called “Horse Trailer World” and “Listen to the pig” already included, I can’t wait to see what is added soon!

Apple’s Special Event kicks off tomorrow, on Wednesday at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. This annual media event usually focuses on the iPod line, but recent rumors suggest that there might be other topics covered as well. Let’s see a brief summary of what we might expect tomorrow.

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A new Apple iTunes survey reveals quite interesting information – among other iPad features, it suggest the ability of “instantly” watching iTunes Store video – something that is not currently available.

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Apple has posted a new job listing looking for a marketing manager specifically for the iBookstore. The listing seeks an experienced business marketer "to drive awareness and sales of iBooks through co-marketing programs with publishers and authors, strategic partnerships, and via online and direct marketing tactics." It seems like a lot of the position will be self-driven, as whoever's chosen will be asked to come up with some interesting schemes to push iBook sales, both with publishers, and even across the other divisions of iTunes. But the bottom line is of course sales -- Apple wants someone to push iBooks, specifically in the US.

iTunes users will be able to sample a minute of a song before purchasing. Currently, iTunes song samples are limited to 30 seconds.

The report said that the addition of more sample time is one of a number of expected changes to iTunes, aimed at helping users discover music. It is rumored that Apple will spend "a large part" of its 1st September  special event detailing how the new iTunes improves the user experience. But Apple is not expected to introduce a cloud-based iTunes service, which would allow users to stream music to devices such as the iPhone.

The Yerba Buena is full of preparations for Apple’s upcoming Special Event for the media on September 1^st. Now the huge banner proudly shows the same Apple guitar that was printed on the invitations sent earlier this week.

The image has given rise to much speculation in the Internet community, and now there are rumors that Apple is going to be releasing new Apple TV with rental services, new iPods and many other devices.

We’ll know it all on September 1^st at 10 am Pacific Time!

Netflix has finally released their updated application to support both the iPod Touch and iPhone, as well as the iPad. It is now available at the App Store.

Get Netflix on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Just download this free app and you can instantly watch TV shows & movies streaming from Netflix.

• It's part of your Netflix unlimited membership. Not a Netflix member? Start your FREE trial today.
• Watch as often as you want
• Resume watching where you left off on your TV or computer
• Browse movies and manage your instant Queue right from your device

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Phillip Shoemaker, Apple's Director of Applications Technology for the App Store, is a former App Store developer himself who has a handful of applications, several of which fall into the category of low-brow fart and urination humor, still available for sale. Shoemaker's App Store development work was handled under the name GrayNoodle LLC. The game Animal Farts features various cartoon images of animals with their buttocks facing forward, giving users buttons to trigger "Fart," "Poot," "Drop" or "Wiz" sounds accompanied with animations illustrating said emissions.

According to an Apple spokeswoman, all of Shoemaker's applications had been approved prior to his employment with Apple. Apple's statement is apparently contradicted, however, by App Store data showing that three of his applications debuted in the App Store up to six weeks after Shoemaker had tweeted that he was working for Apple in early March 2009.

Recently Facebook has released a new version 3.2.1 of Facebook for iPhone to correct some bugs. At the moment there is nothing new, but we observed only some bug fixes. Press the update button right now and tell us if you notice any changes.

Facebook for iPhone 3.2.1 is available here.

Can not wait for the official release? Do you want to get CineXPlayer for iPad on your iPhone and iPod touch right now? For those of you who do not know, CineXPlayer is an iPad application that allows you to download Xvid AVI files using iTunes, so you can easily reproduce the format that Apple won’t. Because the developer has not invented version of the application for the iPhone, the hacker decided to do everything by himself.

It is a complete step by step tutorial on how to install it on your iPhone or iPod touch available here. You just need to jailbreak these devices, because the process involves SSH (SSH program for secure file sharing on the network) to access the iPhone, but it's worth it if you want to get it right now!

Coconut Island Studio has introduced a new game called Finger Balance. This application has taken the lead in many rankings and is now ready to please everyone. Finger Balance received the title of "New and interesting" and "What's New" in the world of Apple App Store. To celebrate the success of the application and show gratitude to all the users who appreciate it, Coconut Island Studio decided to present a free iPhone 4 and, as a bonus, give a classic game iDragPaper this weekend.

Everyone can take part in the raffle. To do this, just buy Finger Balance and pass levels 4-N, N 7-and 10-N. Then, at each level you will see a button. Click on it, enter your email address, confirm it, and you are registered in the raffle! Now Coconut Island Studio will give a winner 10 iTunes gift certificates at $ 15 each.

Raffle ends at midnight on August 22, 2010. The winners will be contacted by e-mail. So do not waste time, play!

Chinese-language newspaper Economic Daily News reported Tuesday that Apple plans to launch a second-generation iPad with a 7-inch screen by Christmas of this year.. The report claimed that the original, 9.7-inch iPad is too big and heavy for many consumers, and the new model will cut weight down from 700 grams to 500 grams.

The newspaper suggested that the new iPad will have a Cortex-A9 processor and 7-inch LCD screen with resolution of 1,024-by-768 pixels.

On Monday, it was alleged that indications of a next-generation iPad are currently found within the source code of iOS 4. The relevant code allows devices carrying the designations of iPhone3,2, iPhone3,3, and iProd2,1 to “auto-activate”, a process said to allow carriers to test the devices without requiring manual activation through iTunes.

As you may know, iOS4 has new features that allow parents or even companies to limit an access to the system for their children or employees respectively.  Currently an access to Safari, YouTube, camera controls, location services and iTunes content including music, TV, movies, software and podcasts (that satisfy given rating threshold) may be blocked.

But the latest developer builds of iOS 4.1, which in turn must appear in a couple of months, include new restrictions related to the Game Center. The latter will allow players to find other players or teams for group play and track their game scores and in-game achievements, but new restrictions will make it possible for parents to prohibit their children from playing against any other user without supervision.

Screenshots that reveal these options are posted above.

A source has revealed code in iOS 4 showing that new iPhone and iPad models may be set to begin field testing. The relevant code allows devices carrying the designations of iPhone3,2, iPhone3,3, and iProd2,1 to "auto-activate", a process said to allow carriers to test the devices without requiring manual activation through iTunes.

Software evidence of Apple's future devices tends to appear rather early in the development process, as evidenced by iPhone3,1 appearing in iPhone OS configuration files in March 2009. That device turned out to be the iPhone 4, released 15 months later. Evidence of field testing of the iPhone 4 appeared by late November 2009, more than six months before its public launch. The fact that the new iPhone models carry the iPhone3,2 and iPhone3,3 designations rather than "iPhone4,1" suggests that the hardware is a relatively minor revision to the existing iPhone 4, although it is unclear why there are two new iPhone models in testing.

We've gotten some information that Apple plans to rename the Apple TV into "iTV", which was initially named as "iTV" in September 2006, but changed the name to "Apple TV" for its launch in January 2007. Apparently the box won't be capable of handling 1080p video. Instead it will only push out 720p clips. Moreover, video experts note that the difference in resolution is not visible to users at a normal TV viewing distance unless the screen is larger than 55 inches. The device will be getting apps and presumably an App Store entry.

iTV well be running iOS that means that it will get access to iTunes. By converting Apple TV into an iOS device, the company could erect a third new wing of apps in iTunes. This smaller, cheaper device will probably use network streaming rather than Apple TV's hard drive for local storage.