iTunes
Apple TV: Why I believe in It
I’ve had an Apple TV for about 3 or 4 years now. The old one that is, and have been very happy with my purchase. I know it wouldn’t have had a major impact being it costs about $300 and to be useful, requires the end user to be pretty saavy with the setup. I think the new Apple TV is enough of a departure to possibly be a BIG thing.
iTunes 10 is Available, iPod/iOS/AppleTV updates!
I’ve been trying to download it all day, finally seeing it available at Apple.com.
Yesterday Apple announced some new features to iTunes 10, some new iOS builds (4.1 and 4.2), new iPod models, and a new Apple TV line.
I’m a big fan of the Apple TV, and am very excited to hear it’s getting an upgrade (and a huge price cut, I paid $300 and was happy to do so). I may finally be able to have one on every TV in the house — without feeling guilty about it.
Apple TV has been the viewing platform of choice in our house on and off. It’s so easy to rent a nice looking movie (sorry Netflix, but the quality is just much better on Apple in my opinion — but I love the free movies). With the news that TV shows will be rentable, suddenly that $150 a month cable seems more optional than ever.
At $0.99 (the rumored price of renting a TV show) that’s 150 tv shows a month. Bye bye cable! If only you didn’t have my internet connection.
iTunes 9.2 Released
Time to “Check for Updates” and get the new iTunes 9.2.
From Apple:
- Sync with iPhone 4 to enjoy your favorite music, movies, TV shows, books and more on-the-go
- Sync and read books with iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 4 and iBooks 1.1
- Organize and sync PDF documents as books. Read PDFs with iBooks 1.1 on iPad and any iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 4
- Organize your apps on your iOS 4 home screens into folders using iTunes
- Faster back-ups while syncing an iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 4
- Album artwork improvements make artwork appear more quickly when exploring your library
Apple iPhone OS 4.0: Sneak Peek at 10 am Pacific Today
If you have somehow forgotten, today Apple will be providing us a sneak peek at the iPhone OS 4.0.
Here is one thing I believe will be announced:
- Multitasking (confirmed) – It has to be announced, the iPad sorely needs this to stay competitive as does Apple in the mobile phone market
That list isn’t long, but here is what I’d love to see, and why I think we may see it:
How can I sell my music on iTunes or Amazon MP3?
A reader just asked me (check them out, the URL is www.nicetimeproductions.com — they have won 3 international awards for their work):
…
I have a company that does films and music, I wanna know how i can use itunes to sell my products do i need to contact itunes directly or what can I do? What are the steps?
…
Apple: iTunes won’t transfer HD tv show to my iPhone 3GS
First of all, I’m on tech support with Apple and couldn’t say better things about their tech support staff. They are intelligent, helpful, polite — and very easy to understand and work with.
Just today, before going to the gym (you can tell I haven’t done this in a while) — I went to sync season 3 of Heroes (very good show) to my iPhone to entertain me while on the treadmill. It doesn’t work. › Continue reading
How To: Throw an iTunes DJ Party
With Apple’s iTunes 8.1 release, we now have iTunes DJ. It used to be Party Shuffle (for the past few years) but now we have a few new toys.
The biggest of which is the ability to allow guests to your party to vote for songs. Guests can see the song details, upcoming songs, request songs in your library, and vote on which songs they want to hear next.
So how do we do it?
Setup iTunes for DJ
You’ll need a computer running iTunes. Open up iTunes (making sure to have updated to the newest release, 8.1 is the first release to support all the functionality mentioned here). Click on iTunes DJ.
You are now in the iTunes DJ screen. In the lower part of the playlist window are the iTunes DJ options (seen below)
Here are the various components:
Source – This is where iTunes DJ will get the songs it shuffles automatically. Remember this when throwing a party, so people don’t have to see your Backstreet Boys collection. I have it set to my entire music collection (uh oh!)
Refresh – It refreshes your playlist. Real boring.
Settings – click here to setup iTunes DJ properly, here’s the window you will see (seen below)
A bit more fun, I have filled in some values.
The most important thing on this screen is the “Allow guests to request songs with Remote for iPhone or iPod touch”, as it lets us do everything in the rest of this article.
Your welcome message will show up in your guests Remote application (seen below, ignore my note about looking in a playlist, you can’t do that only browse by artist, album, song, genre, music videos, composers or a general search)
Going back to the settings in iTunes… you will want to click “Enable Voting” to let guests vote for the next song.
If you don’t set a password, anyone on your Wifi can see your iTunes DJ list, and make requests. Then again, hopefully you don’t have an open wifi point. If you do, I recommend a password.
Easy setup right?
Now the fun stuff: Remote.
As I discovered, if you are already registered with your iTunes on Remote, you will not see the welcome message. That is only for guests. If you want to see it work, remove your iTunes from remote. Tada!
Here are some screens you will see in iTunes:
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When your guests first load your “iTunes DJ” guest, they will see the current song. The album artwork will be there (a nice touch, I like having all album artwork in there, easy with “Get Album Artwork”). Your guests are presented with 3 options here. They can Request a Song (big button on bottom) to be added to your playlist, go back to the current playlist, or view Genius recommendations. |
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If your guests click on the “i” in the top right corner, they will see the Genius recommendations, clicking on “+” will add it to the iTunes DJ playlist. It will be added with “1″ vote. If other guests like the song and want it sooner, tell them to “vote” for the song (coming up in the next screengrab). Again this screen doesn’t look so good if you have a messy library, or missing artwork. Guests can tap “Back” to go back to “Now Playing”. |
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Here is how your users see your playlist. In light grey up top, we see “This Town” was just played. Normally the single most recent is visible but guests can scroll up to see more (based on the setting in iTunes). Currently playing is highlighted in black. Next songs are below. If a guest clicks on a “heart” next to a song they are voting for that song to be played next. The song with the most votes comes next. Guests can still request a song, exit out to setting, or view the “Now Playing” song. |
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If, at any point, a guest clicks on “Request a Song” — they are brought to a basic music navigation screen. There is no playlists option, or some other options. Users can search by most other parameters though. Keep in mind, that this is your entire “Source” that you defined earlier. If you want to limit choices to “Country”, or maybe “80s” music, then make an appropriate Playlist/Smart Playlist, and mark it as the source in the iTunes DJ “Source”. Interestingly “Music Videos” is listed here. Maybe just for the music, maybe for a future AppleTV update. |
iPhone: An update to the carrier settings? MicroCells?
I just popped my iPhone into the dock to sync, and got the following message:
An update to the carrier settings for your iPhone is available. Would you like to download it now?
From a little bit of research, it seems to be linked to AT&T’s upcoming 3G MicroCell technology.
It’s a smart idea, and it looks like they’re charging people for it!
The only information I can put together about these MicroCells is:
- An AT&T 3G MicroCell acts like a mini cellular tower supporting voice and data
- It uses an existing broadband connection
- Supports up to 10 3G handsets
- Works with any AT&T 3G phone
- Seamless call hand-over
- Uses GPS somehow (probably for the cellular GPS information we take for granted, maybe associated with “e911″ issues, also to verify the network is used where AT&T is licensed to operate — some lines will be blurred here)
- There is an associated fee (comparable offerings by Sprint $99 and $4.99 monthly, Verizon $249 and no monthly fee)
- Unlimited plans will be available
Wow! This is interesting!
If your gripe was ever “I don’t get service where I live”, then you just pay AT&T to extend their network to your home. Your cell phone will act like your landline.
I have to say, I didn’t see this coming, and I believe it’s brilliant. With so many issues on some 3G phones, just buying this device should eliminate those problems. Of course, it sucks to have to pay to fix service coverage. We all know some of us will do it.
This has to be great for some small businesses too. Setup a MicroCell in your office, pay for a basic cellular plan for your employees, and they can use the cell at the office for free.
Plus — Apple Stores won’t ever have those embarrassing moments when you unbox your iPhone (do they still do that?) and you have no service in the store!
I’m not sure whether this is for any 3G device in the area, or if it’s specifically for your 3G devices in the area. Most descriptions say it is secure, and that you can modify these settings. I’d love to be able to share my 3G service with my neighbor’s phones if I could.
Wonder if this is going to result in grumbling fro ISPs — now they’re supporting cellular calls.
Some relevant links:
AT&T’s 3G MicroCell to patch iPhone dead zones
AT&T 3G Microcell, a femtocell, coming sooner than we think?
Apple Issues Update Signaling iPhone Compatibility With AT&T’s MicroCell
How to link to iTunes: iTunes Link Maker
I was just about to write a post about an album I’ve been listening to, and an audiobook I just finished “reading”.
I wanted to know how I could link directly to those items in iTunes. Here’s how..
An official tool by Apple, it lets you find items in iTunes and link to them.
First you must enter the item you are searching for (I usually leave it as all media):
Once you hit search, you see a results screen where all matching items are listed. Click the arrow to the right of what you want to link to (keep in mind, clicking on the arrow next to an artist, will link to that artists page):
Finally you get the HTML to copy from the page, and insert into your document!
UPDATE
Recently I’ve discovered there’s a way to setup these links as an affiliate, to make 5% commission off sales made through your blog links. Check out my article, iTunes Link Affiliate: How to Make Money Linking to iTunes Music
Changes Coming to the iTunes Store: All Songs DRM-Free!
The day will come, by the end of March — where all songs in iTunes will be DRM-Free!
According to an announcement made on Apple.com, Changes Coming to the iTunes Store:
- All Songs DRM-Free
- Users Can Download Songs Directly Onto iPhone 3G Over Their 3G Network for the Same Price
- In April 2009, Songs on iTunes Will be Available at Three Price Points ($0.69, $0.99 and $1.29).
Good news for all of us!
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