For quite some time I’ve had a personal software rule that I would no longer install Apple software on my laptop PC. No iTunes or QuickTime for me. The reason I made that decision is because of the problem I’m having now.

There are a couple of websites I use regularly that continually wanted me to install the QuickTime application so I could enjoy the website in all its glory. I finally caved in and decided to give QuickTime another try.
Then I kept getting updates and updates that kept wanting me to install iTunes and Safari along with my QuickTime updates. …read more

Ok, I am still and oldie when it comes to music players. While I have downloaded and tried out various music players, I still come back to Winamp and surprise, surprise, I am still using the old theme (see image below):

My colleagues laughed at me when they saw the Winamp which was expected, I use this application because it is simple, requires low memory and at the same time works just fine. While I have thousands of songs, I only listen to a short list of albums that I listen to over and over again. These songs include songs …read more

In the “no” column: the iPad tablet. The Beatles catalog. iPod Touch w/ built-in camera.
In the “yes” column: iTunes 9.0. Full-length album download format. Facebook & Twitter integration in iTunes. Lower iPod prices. Whole new iPod Nano with built-in video camera, FM radio tuner, microphone, speaker, pedometer, available today.
And all this under the long-awaited return of Steve Jobs.
Let’s break it down.
iTunes

iTunes got a major upgrade today in the form of iTunes 9.0, which sports a clean, fully redesigned interface and tons of enhancements both big and small:

The big news is iTunes LP (the project formerly code-named Cocktail), a snazzy new …read more

This evening, at the request of my wife, I’ve been playing around with iTunes on her computer. I’ve got to say I haven’t missed anything. I’m simply trying to get her library to update itself and remove references to songs that are no longer available to her on our home network.

The songs aren’t available because the computer they were stored on is now offline and I’m not sure when it will be getting fixed again. You’d think there would be an easy way to get this done. If there is, I haven’t found it. That’s one of the reasons I …read more

[via Digital Daily - All Things Digital]
Veering away from tradition of having the events on Tuesdays, Apple’s September music event is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept 9, 2009. The venue is yet to be announced but according to the Digital Daily it’s sure to push through.

Apple’s September event is usually a music centered event. Last year saw the launch of iTunes 8 with the Genius feature, the 4th Gen iPod Nano a.k.a Nanochromatic, the 2nd gen iPod Touch. What will Apple pull out of it’s proverbial magic hat this year and will it’s number 1 magician be the one to perform …read more

One of the web sites I currently read with regularity is Smashing Magazine. I must say that I enjoy this site a lot and have been learning a lot of things. They recently published an article by Jen Gordon of Clever Twist. The article is entitled “How To Create Your First iPhone Application”. It lists the steps that you need in order to create your first iPhone application.
With the iPhone’s rising popularity, applications for this device are rapidly gaining market share. The great thing about the iPhone is that for the first time there’s a great mobile platform that people …read more

Sony, Warner, Universal, and EMI are banding together to take on Apple’s dominance of digital music downloads with the launch of a new file format that will bundle together an entire album, its liner notes, artwork, videos, and maybe even ringtones.

It’s called “CMX,” and it’s due around November of this year. According to the Times Online, online shoppers haven’t shown much interest in downloading entire albums — only singles. CMX hopes to change that, by enticing customers with loads of extra content if they buy and download full albums. CMX is a unique offering in that when you open it …read more

In a move to bolster sales of albums, Apple, according to the Financial Times is joining forces with record labels to come up with new “Digital Albums”. This is reminiscent to the days wherein people would buy albums/cds not just for the music but for the covers and booklets that come with it.

With today’s online distribution, record companies are losing album sales due to the fact that people can now just purchase songs they like instead of an entire album. Honestly, buying on a per song basis makes much more sense to me. Having said that there’s still something nice …read more

C30 Rock’s season finale included a song at the end which is reminiscent of a “We Are The World” type of song. While it was a great show and a nice ending to a good season, 30 Rock upped the ante by releasing the “He Needs A Kidney: Music Video” video through iTunes. NBC, Universal Media Studios and Apple are donating 100% of the proceeds to the National Kidney Foundation.
The video features big name stars such as Sheryl Crowe, Elvis Costello, Mary J Blige, Clay Aiken, Norah Jones as well as other performers. Jeff Richmond, 30 Rocks’ music supervisor composed …read more

April 7, 2009 marked the change of Apple’s pricing scheme for it’s iTunes music downloads. From one price fits all, it shifted to a variable pricing scheme. With songs as high as $1.29 to as low as $0.69. The $0.99 price point will remain for other songs. Basically what this means is that the new/popular songs will be priced higher, the older and less popular will be priced at the lowest price point and the rest will remain at the $0.99 price point.
Apple had to give in sometime to the demands of the record labels, who are currently struggling with …read more