iTunes

DoubleTwist Brings AirPlay to Android

I really like Apple’s AirPlay which allows you to use your Mac or iOS device to stream video or music to an Apple TV, powered speakers connected to an AirPort Express or one of the growing number of AirPlay enabled speaker systems. (In fact we have reviews of two such systems on the way.) I have expanded the “reach” of AirPlay in my home so that it is now available in four different rooms. I have, however, resisted jumping fully in because I don’t want to be completely and totally locked into Apple’s ecosystem. (Like I’m not totally locked in…

News

Remember: Starting Tomorrow, No iTunes App Store Additions or Updates for a Week

I have mentioned that the flurry of activity this past week on the iTunes is related to the ‘freeze’ that will be in place from the 23rd through the 28th. Well, iTunes Connect sent out a reminder message, so I figured I’d do the same! Basically it comes down to this: the state of the App Store today will remain identical until the 29th, when whatever new additions or price changes or updates have been pending will go into effect. One interesting side-effect is that if a publisher mistakenly scheduled a price change for during this time, it will make…

Editorials, Music Diary

The Democratization of Music in an iTunes Era

Say what you will about iTunes and the electronic age’s impact on music and the music industry but one thing is clear — they have been great about is giving talented people exposure long before they might come to the attention of agents, scouts and record labels. That’s the case with Applegirl, who caught the world’s attention with her rendition of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face performed with nothing more than a number of iPhones. Over three million views later she has a contract with a record company. Pretty neat. Then there is Ben, one of my students and an aspiring musician….

Editorials

My iTunes Store Customer Service Interaction Was a Good One

I’ve done more than my share of complaining about Apple’s iTunes App approval process. And for good reason; they are, at times, far too heavy-handed and not nearly transparent enough. And I’ve done my share of complaining about Apple in general. And for good reason; while their products are awesome there are times when their secrecy and arrogance are over the top. So when I had an encounter with Apple’s iTunes Customer Service that was pleasant… and positive… I thought I owed it to them to share it. I got my iPhone 4 on Wednesday. I loaded all my apps…

Editorials

Apple iTunes Will Not Take My Money but the Apple Store Will? It’s a Head-Scratcher For Sure

I ran into an issue the other day while using iTunes; I wanted to purchase a $50 gift card for a friend, but I couldn’t because the iTunes store said that I had “exceeded the maximum Gift certificate purchase amount for [my] account.” Confused, I took a look back at my recent purchases and found that I had only spent $200 in the past year on gift certificates, so what was the problem? I even changed my credit card, just in case it was an American Express limitation, but using Discover I ran into the same error message. Reading the message…

Editorials

Wait … YOU Had The App Made … and it is Just for ME, to Give ME Free Stuff?!?!

A long time ago I signed up on the Verve Music site in order to gain access to some ‘exclusive’ John Coltrane content. Since 2003 I have gotten more or less weekly emails from them, generally throw-aways promoting whomever was new, but with some occasional gems. Fairly typical for a music publisher and nothing obnoxious enough to make me unsubscribe. The last several months, however, have been a nearly daily stream of emails related to American Idol Season 5 runner-up Katharine McPhee and her latest recording “Unbroken”. Verve has been absolutely punishing my inbox with pseudo-personalized emails pushing me to…

Editorials

“Ode To The LP” or… Why iTunes Is Killing The Musical Experience

Last night I encountered the most elusive of musical creatures… the perfect album. That’s right, last night I listened to an album and when all eleven tracks were done playing I realized that I had not been tempted to skip a single song. I liked every single one… hence… the perfect album. I won’t even bother to mention the particular album since “likes” and “dislikes”, let alone “perfect”, are highly subjective with it comes to musical taste, but it did get me thinking about the state of the musical experience. More accurately, it made me realize what a shame it…

How to Do It Yourself!

So How DO You Actually Load Your Own Documents onto the iPad?

Having been one of the people in my social circle to have an iPad, I have been answering a lot of questions for others who don’t have an iPad, or that can’t be answered by playing with one directly. One of the most frequent questions I get is “How do you load PDFs (and other personal documents) onto the iPad?” If you look at the iPad by itself without a computer running iTunes, you can only explain this verbally. And it’s not the most intuitive process (in fact, not very Apple-like). So, rather than re-answer the same question multiple times,…

Editorials

$899 iPhone Application and No Refunds?

We all know how easy it is to purchase applications in the iTunes App. Store. Once you have a credit card on file you simply “click” once or twice and bam! Your new application is automatically downloaded to your iTunes library. Even 99¢ applications add up over time. Apple has made it so easy to spend money in their App Store, that often times I find that I don’t even think about purchases when I’m making them. “Hey, it’s only 99¢, no big deal.” Then my monthly bill comes; I find I clicked on thirty .99¢ apps, and $30 is…

How to Do It Yourself!

Quick Tip: Change the name of your iPhone or iPod

I came across this picture over at Howard Forums and couldn’t help but laugh at what the person had named his/her iPhone and what happened when it was “syncing” (look at the text at the top-middle 😉 ) Then I thought about it and wondered, how many people even know that the name of their iPhone or iPod can be changed? Or how many of you, in the excitement of setting up your new device simply left the default name in the set up box when you first synced it with iTunes? If you’re tired of seeing your beloved device…

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