News tagged ‘music’

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.

Apple on Wednesday invited members of the media to its annual media-centric keynote, where it is expected to introduce new iPods and an updated Apple TV, set for Sept. 1 in San Francisco, Calif.

The event will be held next Wednesday and will start at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, 1 p.m. Eastern, and will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Alluding to the music-themed nature of the event, the invitation includes an acoustic guitar with a sound hole in the shape of an Apple logo.

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.

Today mobile media company ParkVu introduced an interesting Facebook app called "Music WithMe", which allows publishing your music library from iTunes to Facebook. After publishing the tracks it contains may be shared, commented on, liked and discussed by your friends.

To use it properly you should also install a desktop app, which is now available only for Windows (Mac will be supported soon).  When the setup will be over the app will show your tracks in its Facebook application here. Note, that your friends also must install this app in order to comment on and like your tracks (and without it the app looks pretty useless).

According to Brazilian resource MacMagazine, Apple will introduce new iPod lineup on the event that will take place either Aug. 16 (Monday) or 17 (Tuesday). As you may know, traditionally Apple holds this event in September.

The publication reveals that a new iPod touch will be announced and it will have front-facing and rear (with flash) cameras and gyroscope.

Since the event is music and media-centric, Apple may also introduce new versions of its apps. According to another report, this time from a French site Mac4ever, the company will introduce 64-bit versions of iPhoto, iWeb GarageBand and another mystery application that will became a part of a package.

According to AppleInsider, Apple's employee Jeff Williams has recently been promoted to right hand man of chief operation officer Tim Cook. That move was made to ensure that Apple products meet "the highest standards of quality" after it was revealed that iPhone 4 has significant problems with antenna, bluetooth and proximity sensor.

Before 2004 Jeff Williams was Apple's head of worldwide procurement and managed company's supply chain of the music player components.  Then he became a Vice President of Operations and played a significant role in worldwide launch of iPhone and iPod.

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Apple just released its third quarter earnings. Here is a quick summary:

• Revenue: $15.7 Billion (record)
• Profit: $3.25 billion ($3.51/share)
• Margin: 39.1% (vs 40.9% last year)

International sales accounted for 52% of revenue

Sales:

• Macs: 3.47 million
• iPods: 9.41 million
• iPhones: 8.4 million
• iPads: 3.27 million

Here is the official press release:

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Yesterday popular UK band "Squeeze" played their song "Pulling Mussels From The Shell" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The video is pretty interesting because one of the band members was using an iPad all along and even made a solo during a second minute.

The app he was using is MooCowMusic's Pianist Pro.

Apple released iOS 4.1 beta and SDK for developers. Here is a quick look at the changes:

1. Larger signal bars.



2. New look of Game Center.




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Guys from iPhoneHellas.gr report that iOS 4.0.1 may be released today. Such information was received from some "reliable" source, and it looks like true as earlier this site has already been proven to be reliable channel of information.

Well-known blogger Jonny Evans from ComputerWorld posted yesterday an interesting article where he analyzed some of recent trends in Apple's success and made few conclusions about the company's next steps. Here is a short list of it:

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John Lewis from Electricpig.co.uk received new rumors from his suppliers about next-gen iPod touch. Here is a list of innovations that will be likely added to the new device:

• FaceTime support;
• 5-megapixel camera;
• front-facing camera;
• LED flash;
• Ability to capture video in HD;
• support for iOS4;
• gyroscope (to be precisely, he said the device "will also offer the same movement sensors as the iPhone 4").

As we see, new iPod touch will be pretty much the same as the new iPhone (but without phone functions, of course). The new device will be probably presented on the next Apple's music event in September.

So now, when the iPhone 4 camera is proven to be good enough for shooting high-quality short films, Marty Martin and Steve Failows introduce first iPhone 4 music video. It is a clip for a song of Steve Failows, (also known as flakjakt) who wrote it only in two days. Two more days were needed to create a concept.

“Our main goal, however, was simply to make a good music video, no matter what the camera”.

The creators also told that there were troubles with aperture, shutter speed control and lightning, so it was obvious that there will not be enough abilities of iMovie. So the footage was worked out in Adobe After Effects and Final Cut Pro.

“Although the result was a bit rushed and rough, we ended up embracing the look and think that it helps translate emotion well onscreen”.

Enjoy!

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HymoNGR3G5w

CNet specialist will talk about data protection, folders and new music playlist feature. Let's watch:

You can watch part one of this here.