Posts Tagged
itunes
Although SOPA and PIPA may be temporarily shelved, we all know that they’re going to come back in one way or another. It’s just a matter of time before one of those bills or an aspect of it slips through the cracks, and it’s all because Hollywood thinks we’re stealing their movies.
But pirating isn’t the problem. No, the reason why we aren’t buying your music, movies and TV shows is dangerously simple, yet no one is willing to do anything about it — with the rare exceptions like Apple being ignored by Hollywood. See, it all comes down to friction.
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In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Song Mix. The developer describes Song Mix as a cool interactive music trivia game and a great music discovery tool. It’s a great way to fill your dead moments. Whenever you’re stuck in traffic or having that meaningful conversation with your significant other, you now can just zone out and recycle your playlist. Try and guess as many songs as possible and show your music skills to your friends by reaching the top of the leaderboards.
Read on for more information and screenshots!
Although it came in a touch later than it was promised, iTunes Match is now ready to go. Now you can have all of your music — whether it was bought on iTunes or not — on any OS X/iOS device at any time. Kinda cool, right?
Yes, this is definitely a step in the right direction, but there are a few unanswered questions that I have about the service that make me a bit nervous. Let’s get into them after the break.
I realized one day as I was driving in my car that I started to get a little tired of always listening to music. Then I remembered that I could download podcasts on iTunes to listen to on my iPhone. So when I got home, I went into iTunes and downloaded a bunch of podcasts. Needless to say, after a week of getting my podcasts this way, I was left with wanting something better than what I was currently doing.
Ironically, as I was listening to a podcast on my iPhone, I heard about Instacast, and these guys that were talking about it were raving about how much they loved using it. So, it was at that point that I decided to give it a try myself. The more I used it, the more I started to fall in love and with many features being added over time, this has definitely been my go-to app for podcasts.
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The iPhone is an amazing device, and iTunes is pretty neat in itself, even if it’s not quite perfect. But one issue with the whole system is putting movies and TV shows on your iOS device.
Technically, the way to do it is to download your videos from iTunes, but what do you do with all of those DVDs that you already own? According to those fancy warnings at the beginning of every DVD and VHS tape I’ve ever seen, you’re not supposed to copy them no matter if you own them or not.
So what do you do? Do you buy your stuff from iTunes or just run the risk and burn your movies yourself? Let us know in the completely anonymous poll to the right.
I was out getting ice cream the other day with my family, and the topic of sharing books came up. My mother loves her iPad, and goes through books purchased on the iBook store voraciously. My father on the other hand, reads occasionally, but sometimes would rather just borrow a book from my mom to check it out, just like he would have years ago with the physical version. Thing is, now he can’t do that.
“The Kindle will let you lend out books, and so will other ereaders and tablets. What makes iTunes and Apple this ‘great’ ecosystem that no one can beat?”
I played with my spoon in my ice cream for a minute, and after some thought I said, “Well Dad, let me give you three reasons.”
Do you have a vast music collection but find you’re sometimes indecisive as to what to listen to? Or maybe you’d just love to have a personal DJ who can read your mind and play all the right songs all the time? Moodagent is an app that creates genius playlists from your iPhone’s music library by categorizing each song’s qualities.
The results are Moodagent playlists tailored perfectly to match whatever mood you’re in, and which can be adjusted on the fly, saved and replayed and shared via social media. Plus, Moodagent’s unique technology enables the app to give you song recommendations based on the musical profile of whatever song you’re listening to — then you can buy the tracks right off of iTunes and incorporate them into your playlists. Hit the jump and I’ll show you how it works.
In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting robick. The developer describes robick as a useful audio player to transcribe and practice music. This app can repeat playback, and you can change key and tempo with the wheel interface or control it visually. You can change the key and tempo of tracks separately as well. Tracks are imported as non-DRM protected files from your iPod library. The operation is very simple and enjoyable, and there is a twirling black doughnut shape on the screen for finger controls.
Read on for more information and screenshots!
We all know that iCloud is coming down the pike sometime soon, but for now, we’re still stuck with tethering our iPhones via USB anytime we want to put in an update or update our music. After writing about iOS 5 the other day, I realized that I maybe sync my iPhone once a month, and sometimes even less. That got me thinking: How often do you sync your iPhone?
Of course, soon this won’t be an issue, but it would be interesting to find out. Because if we skew towards not syncing, well then that makes Apple’s job easier by making the updates automatic. It saves them money on Geniuses, as well as fixing bricked iPhones because someone couldn’t update it correctly. On the other side, if we sync all the time then what does that say about us? Let’s find out, shall we?
Apple tech blogs have been talking almost ceaselessly about Apple launching a cloud-based music streaming service. Given that they’re the top seller of music on the planet and largely responsible for the digital music revolution, you’d think that Apple would be the company most suited to take on such an endeavor.
So where is it? Is this another mini-iPhone incident where rumor sites are just leading us along without any solid leads that it’s actually going to find out? Let’s explore.
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