News tagged ‘iTunes’

Ryan Tate from Gawker quoted people closed to the matter who said that Steve Jobs is dissatisfied with the free app New York Times Editor's Choice. The reason is that it has a limited content of the daily NYT.

The story started when some time ago Amazon made a deal with Times and received exclusive rights on its full content. So now if you have Kindle you should pay to gain full access to the NYT edition. The same full content is also available on the web and it's free. Moreover, the deal apparently implies that other competitors may have the full text but they must sell it at a higher price.

Few days ago the New York Times decided to raise the subscription price on the Kindle, from $13.99 to $19.99 per month. That was no wonder because the NYT warned before that they want to charge readers nearly $20-30 per month. With such a deal Apple was left with a truncated version of the NYT for the iPad. Ironically, the same version for iPhone remains to deliver the full content.

Obviously, that is the reason why Apple has been ignoring the NYT iPad app recently. It is even not listed as a "noteworthy" or "favorite" in the App Store. User reviews are also mainly negative and many people ask where the full content can be found.

Lately Apple has released a third beta of the iPhone OS 4. It is specified as build 10M2247 and available for registered developers. Previous beta release was issued two weeks ago. The situation looks familiar as last year iPhone OS 3 had also gone through 5 beta cycles before it was publicly announced.

Currently the new update is unavailable due to installation problems, but those of the developers who successfully downloaded and installed it have already revealed what's new in the release.

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Finally the jailbreak for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch from the Dev Team is available for download. It's free and untethered and it's called "Spirit". The jailbreak supports every iDevice with firmware version 3.1.2, 3.1.3 or 3.2.

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This week Apple announced that it will shut down its previously acquired music service Lala on May 31. If you'll try to register there as a new user, you'll see a message box:

"Lala is shutting down. The Lala Service will be shut down May 31, 2010. Unfortunately, we are no longer accepting new members."

If you're an existing member of Lala, you'll be able to use the service until May 31. But since today you'll have no access to Web songs, gift cards (any unredeemed must be utilized) and wallets, and your credits will be automatically passed to iTunes. It is also announced by Lala if customer will request a check by May 31 they will write it.

Apple purchased Lala last year for $85 million. It was announced that this service will play a significant role in iTunes strategy. Lala's difference was that user was allowed to upload music from their hard drives and then listen to it from the service. Maybe now this function will be implemented in iTunes.

Greg Hughes is a developer who recently created an app for syncing iPhone and iPod Touch with iTunes over Wi-fi. It is called "Wi-Fi Sync" and requires a separate application for desktop so that iTunes could sync the device over Wi-fi. You can see how it works from the video above.

At first launch you need to verify the pairing process on both the computer and the device. After that iTunes will be launched and start to sync with your iPhone/iPod Touch. Everything else will work the same as if the connection was via a USB cable.

Greg plans to submit the app to the App Store in the end of this week. It is unknown whether his software breaks the rules of iPhone OS developer agreement, but if non-public application programming interfaces were used in its development then the app will likely be rejected. Anyway, Wi-fi Sync may also appear in the Cydia jailbroken marketplace, and Greg already considers this idea if his app won't be approved by Apple.

Yesterday Apple released a minor update for its media player suite iTunes. Now the version of the app is 9.1.1 and here is a list of issues that were fixed:

• Addressing some issues that improve stability and performance.
• Addressing a usability issue with VoiceOver and Genius Mixes;
• Addressing several stability issues with VoiceOver;
• Addressing issues with converting songs to 128 kbps AAC while syncing (this function was previously available only for iPod shuffle)

More information about security updates can be found on Apple's support page here.

You can update your iTunes via software update utility or download it directly from Apple.

Recently Apple has hired new global editorial games manager for iTunes App Store. His name is Matt Cassamassina and he has over 13 years experience of games reviewing.

Matt started his game career with the launch of N64.com. Later this resource was bought by IGN, where he continued to work. In the gaming industry he is known as the expert and information source about Nintendo.

After his appointment he wrote in his blog:

"I will be leading the charge for games on the App Store, so whether you browse through iTunes, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, the games content you see will be handpicked and organized by me and my team. I couldn’t be happier."

Matt Cassamassina will start his work in Apple at the beginning of May.

App Store games became very popular since the release of iPod Touch. Profit from game creating and selling it on iTunes attracted many single developers which lead to a success of the iPhone and iPod Touch as handheld gaming devices. The popularity of App Store games is even frightening for Sony and Nintendo that are now looking forward to create something innovative in the gaming industry.

Apple has released a new iPhone ad called "Family Man". The commercial highlights the ability for the iPhone 3GS to capture and playback video as well as a few applications from the App Store:

- Jamie Oliver; 20 Minute Meals ($7.99)
- Elmo’s Monster Maker ($3.99)
- Viper SmartStart (Free)

Watch the video:

Few days ago Lang Lang, who is a famous Chinese pianist, had a concert at San Francisco's Davies' Symphony Hall. At one moment he amazed audience with playing The Flight of the Bumblebee on an Apple's iPad! He made this possible with Magic Piano iPad app that is available for download here.

It is amazing how apps can make a device so functional. But some people say it is impossible to play like this on an iPad because its touch screen is not sensitive enough for such a fast play. You can even notice the moment when Lang Lang gives a device to conductor without skipping a beat. So probably it's just a record that was made before.

Freelancestudios created another cool accessory for iPhone - this time it's an "iRetrophone" dock that allows you making calls with a retro handset. The design is obviously borrowed from Henry Dreyfuss, prolific industrial designer who in 1937 created the iconic type of phone.

The base is compatible with any iPhone. We also recommend installing the iRetroPhone Rotary Dialer app ($0.99) so that the pair looked really authentic.

iRetroPhone is available for purchase in ping, clear or black resin here for $195.

Recently Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer had a financial conference call with the press and analysts. Here are some interesting facts we gained from the conversation:

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The story about iPhone 4G get's even more complicated. Recently the future iPhone 4G photos were shown just everywhere. After several hours these photos were claimed fake, because the device looked just like a Japanese iPhone clone. Today Gizmodo posted an article with many photos and videos, proving this is actually the next iPhone prototype. This might even be the real final version of iPhone 4G. And of course this might still be fake, a good one though. We don't know yet.

So what's new in the next iPhone 4G:

Front-facing video chat camera.

Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS).

Camera flash.

Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad).

Improved display. It's unclear if it's the 960x640 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the "Connect to iTunes" screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.

What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack.

Split buttons for volume.

Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic.

iPhone OS 4.0.

Dimensions: 4.50 х 2.31 х 0.37 inches.

Weight: 140 g.

Battery: 5.25 WHr 3.7V (iPhone 3GS - 4.51 WHr 3.7V).

Here are the photos of next iPhone:

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Opera for iPhone is the top downloaded free app in almost all markets tracked by Apple:

Today Opera announced their Opera Mini browser has been finally approved and included in App Store. The app was submitted to Apple almost a month ago. Some people thought the Cupertino's company won't approve it because it competes with Safari, the browser that included with the iPod Touch and iPhone.

Opera Mini is a choice of more than 50 million people because it compresses up to 90% of content before sending it to the end user. Such an algorithm significantly improves page loading and helps to save money on traffic.

You can download Opera Mini here.

Apple has released a new iPhone ad called "Shopper". The ad features only one actual app from the App Store, RedLaser ($1.99, iTunes link):