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iPad apps: Twitter and social networking essentials
As you might've notice, either here on the site or likely elsewhere on the internet, we at Engadget have somewhat of an affinity to social networking. With a new screen sitting here saving us some screen real estate, we decided to give a number of Twitter and other pro-social apps a go for perennially staying connected to our online friends -- so long as there's a decent WiFi connection nearby. Here's the highlights from what we've toyed with, and stay tuned for even more roundups on the horizon. Twitterific for iPad (free; $4.99 for Pro account) - Definitely the best Twitter app on the iPad so far (pictured above). It works great in portrait and landscape, contextual links conveniently pop out and photos even get special format treatment. No option to upload photos when tweeting, but we're guessing with a lack of a camera, it didn't seem as necessary an addition -- we like to show off our screen captures and saved browsing images, but hey, that's just us. The only deterrent for power users is that you can only view one column at a time, but with lists, saved searches, and all other thread options easily accessible from the leftmost column, we didn't find it too inconvenient whatsoever. [See in iTunes]
WSJ: CBS bringing free HTML5-encoded TV shows to the iPad, ABC plans detailed
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that ABC and CBS are hard at work adapting episodes of their TV shows for the iPad, with both set to offer streamable programming to new slate owners immediately upon launch. Their delivery strategies diverge slightly -- ABC will use the app that was unearthed (and confirmed by us) this morning whereas CBS will stream through the browser (hello, HTML5!) -- but the eventual user experience will be a commercial-supported affair that should be familiar to those who've used their respective online streaming services already. All that remains now is for NBC and Hulu to fall in line, as expected, and your portable media consumption menu will be complete. It'll also be interesting to see what happens to iTunes Store pricing for episodic TV programming, which will soon be up against free (or in Hulu's case, potentially subscription-based) alternatives. Update: And here comes the official presser for ABC's plans, alongside ESPN SportsCenter XL and a handful of Disney apps.
iPad roundup: New York Times and others get HTML5 video, iPad app store demo, and more
The momentum towards HTML5 and away from (or at least in parallel with) Flash seems to be accelerating with today's launch of the free Brightcove Experience framework for HTML5 -- a "way to publish, distribute, and monetize web video for the iPad and other Apple devices" according to the Brightcove press release. While Brightcove might not be a household name, some of its 1,000 customers, including Time Inc. and The New York Times (a Brightcove investor), certainly are -- both of whom are already using the new HTML5 solution in preparation for the iPad's April 3rd US launch. A real coup for the Flash-hating Steve Jobs if you start factoring in the rumored Flash-free NPR and Wall Street Journal iPad sites as well as that little HTML5 iPad test CBS was testing out in the open last week. Also rumored for launch is an iBookstore filled with 30,000 free e-Books courtesy of the Gutenberg Project. See the screengrab evidence after the break in addition to a purported video walkthrough of the iPad store. The video previews several new "HD" formatted iPad apps that we've already seen as well as a few new ones like Twitterific. Sorry, still no Hulu HD. The mouse pointer in the video, however, makes it clear that this is running on desktop somewhere, not on an iPad. Still, it definitely looks the part.
Apple pressuring music publishers over Amazon Daily Deal
Amazon has used low-priced, exclusive "Daily Deals" to promote its MP3 store successfully, and Apple's not happy about it. In fact, the iTunes team is trying to talk publishers out of participating. According to Billboard, participating labels entered into the program with Amazon in 2008 without paying a thing. It was simply meant to increase the store's publicity. Two years later, that's changed. An unnamed major-label head of sales told Billboard that "[the] promotion morphed into something where the labels make arrangements to provide an exclusive selling window with Amazon for a big release expected to do a lot of business on street date [the day the new release is available for general retail sales]." Two years in, the labels are motivated to offer Amazon first dibs on major releases at a significant discount, and that's gotten Apple's attention. Billboard's sources suggest that iTunes executives are trying to persuade labels to stop offering Amazon these exclusives, and have even gone so far as to pull their own promotions for those releases. In response, Billboard reports, certain label executives recently opted out of Daily Deal promotions for such big names as Corinne Bailey Rae, Lady Antebellum and Ke$ha (Sony Music Entertainment denies considering a Daily Deal promotion for Ke$ha's "Animal"). Additionally, Amazon is said to be altering the deal to not require exclusivity, but Apple's still unsatisfied. Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to sell digital music. [Via AppleInsider]
Apple announces winner of the 10 billion songs promotion
Just yesterday Apple's iTunes store reached a huge milestone -- 10 billion songs sold. That's an incredible number. In fact, it's almost as incredible as the prize that Mr. Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia received for buying the magic song. As his reward, he received a $10,000 iTunes gift card, which he may use towards any of the music, TV shows, movies, apps, books, etc. in the store. What was the 10 billionth song downloaded? "Guess Things Happen That Way" by Johnny Cash. Apple's vice president of Internet Services Eddy Cue remarked on the milestone in a recent press release. "We're proud that iTunes has become the number one music retailer in the world, and selling 10 billion songs is truly staggering." Congratulations to Mr. Sulcer! Enjoy that hefty gift card. Might we suggest a little Battlestar Galactica [iTunes link]? [Via MacDailyNews]
Mac 101: How to use the iTunes parental controls
As Apple removes sexually suggestive apps from the App Store (and is evidently preparing a Red Light District for the future), users are wondering how they can protect their kids from certain content. With that in mind, here's an overview of the parental controls in iTunes. Note that the screenshot at right is from iTunes 9.0.3. Older versions look slightly different. Parental controls are only available in iTunes 5 and later. To access these settings, select Preferences from the iTunes menu, and then click the Parental tab. Here you've got several options. First, you can disable access to podcasts, internet radio or the iTunes Store completely. Note that you can keep iTunes U accessible while disabling the rest of the store. Additionally, you can deny access to shared libraries. Once turned off, these items won't appear in the left sidebar of the iTunes window.
Apple sells 10 billionth iTunes download
As speculated earlier today, Apple did in fact manage to sell their 10 billionth iTunes download. This represents a huge milestone for both Apple and the music industry. Apple has revolutionized the music industry with the iPod and iTunes. It seems like only yesterday that Apple sold the 500 millionth song to much fanfare. It's pretty clear that this whole digital music thing has really caught on. Here's to another 10 billion Apple, from your fans at TUAW.
Apple serves up 10 billionth iTune, smiles all the way to the bank
Whether you love it or loathe it, there is now no way to deny the spectacular success of Apple's iTunes Store. The proprietary digital media player, organizer and salesperson has just now recorded its 10 billionth song download, marking a truly unique achievement in the still nascent world of digital distribution. Congratulations to Apple, whose response has been to thank you all for spending so much cash and making El Steve look like the techno pied piper. Hit the source link to find out what the most downloaded songs of "all time" were... you might not be surprised by the top three, but you should definitely be horrified.
Rumor: Apple's TV subscription plans stall on "tablet eve"
With less than 24 hours to go before the tablet's likely introduction, the New York Times is reporting that the TV networks are resisting Apple's proposed subscription model of distribution. For $30 per month, Apple would supposedly allow customers all-you-can-eat access to their library of television content. However, TV execs fear Apple's recent stance on individual song pricing in the iTunes Store, which spurred track sales but dampened sales of albums. AppleInsider suggests that there's a contingency plan in place, in which Apple asks* the networks to change the price of an individual TV episode from $1.99 to $0.99, which jibes with a story on Financial Times this morning. I'd welcome a subscription model for TV and movies. For $30 per month, I could stream any TV show or movie in Apple's library to any approved device: Apple TV, iPhone, iPod, computer or tablet. This would prevent the last-minute shuffle of files as I prep my machines for a hotel stay and more importantly, eliminate the "You missed your show" tax. If I miss an episode of "The Office," why should I pay two bucks just to catch up when I can see it on Hulu for free? Sure, I can get a HD (720p) version from iTunes, but I'm willing to go with 480p from Hulu when it's free. I pay $40/mo to the cable company now and the vast majority of shows/networks I never watch. Why pay for them? When Apple first introduced television to the iTunes Store, only a handful of networks were on board. Now there's a laundry list of participants. I imagine that we'll see a similar growth pattern with the tablet. *Define "asks" as you will.
Mauritius to Apple: Thanks for the iPhones, can we haz iTunes Store?
Recently, the people of the island republic of Mauritius have been able to purchase the iPhone 3G and 3GS through mobile phone provider Orange, but there's one major problem -- there's no access to an iTunes Store. This brings back memories of the original iPhone, when there was no iTunes Store to tempt iPhone owners with its wares. Can you imagine? No apps, no songs, and no videos for purchase directly from your phone? It boggles the mind. Here at TUAW, we're doing our part for the "Free the iTunes Store" movement in Mauritius. Reader Marc, who works for Mauritian Apple reseller Paoma, notes "Thousands of iPhones, no Apps! We are hoping to get Apple to take notice and include us. A Facebook page has been set up to document the movement and we have already been featured in many leading French-language Apple blogs." Well, Marc, now you have a leading English-language Apple blog taking up the cause as well. If you'd like to help iPhone users in Mauritius get their own iTunes Store, consider visiting the Facebook page and joining their group.
Donate to the Red Cross Haiti relief effort via iTunes
The people of Haiti are enduring the devastating catastrophe brought about by this week's earthquake. Relief is finally beginning to arrive but there is an overwhelming amount of work to do. You can support the American Red Cross by making a donation through the iTunes Store. it's quite easy: Just navigate to the donation page [iTunes link] and select the amount you'd like to send. Donation options range from $5US to $200. The Store confirms that 100% of your donation will go to The American Red Cross. Your iTunes Store account will be charged as necessary. Please do what you can to support the emergency relief efforts.
Apple adds 30-second samples to browser-based iTunes previews
Last November, Apple launched browser-based iTunes previews, which gave customers information on a song or artist before pushing them out to the iTunes Store. It's a handy, welcome change. And now this week, they've added 30-second song samples to those preview pages (check it out). Just as you do in the store, you can hear any track's sample by clicking the small "Play" button that appears when you mouse over its name. There has been speculation about the future of a streaming-based version of iTunes since Apple bought Lala in November. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that LaLa executives have been given key roles at Apple, and that members of the existing iTunes team will report to them. While playing with the new previews today, we explored the page's source for any hints of Lala, but found nothing. However, we did come across something interesting. Turns out you can easily turn any 30-second preview into an iPhone-compatible ringtone, and you don't even need GarageBand. First, find a snippet you're interested in. Then view the page's source. Scroll down until you see something that starts: audio-preview-url="http://a1.phobos.apple.com/us/r1000/016/Music/3a/7b/83/mzm.ekrigiqi.aac.p.m4a" Copy the URL (minus the quotes) and paste it into Safari's Downloads window. You'll get a file with a name similar to: "/mzm.ekrigiqi.aac.p.m4a" Now, replace ".aac.p.m4a" with ".m4r," drop it into iTunes and sync. You've got a new ringtone! Of course, you can't choose the 30 seconds you hear, and that use probably isn't intended by Apple. But if the preview happens to be what you want, there you go. [Via Mac Rumors]
Mac 101: Purchase a file in iTunes for someone else
The iTunes Store and App Store have mastered the art of the impulse purchase. "Only two bucks? Sure, why not?" The good news is that you can send a song, album, movie or TV show to a friend just as easily. Let's start with music. First, find the album or song you'd like to send. If you're sending a song, you'll see a drop-down arrow next to the track's "Buy" button. Click it to reveal the menu at right, then select "Gift this song." You're brought to a new screen (in the gallery below). From there you only need to enter some information, click continue and you're done! Your recipient will receive a nice email message with a download link. The process is the same for albums, individual TV shows, audiobooks (though the "Gift this audiobook" looks different) and movies. Note that you can't gift entire TV seasons (bummer) or iPhone/iPod touch apps. However, you can opt to share a link to an interesting app. With the app selected, click the same drop-down button to reveal the "Tell a Friend" option. The same is true of Podcasts - hit that "Tell a Friend" button to let everyone know what you're listening to. With just a few clicks, you can share your favorite content with anyone you want! %Gallery-81392%
The App Store Expense Monitor: Be scared. Be very scared.
I know that we're between Christmas and New Years, but it seemed more like Halloween when I checked out The App Store Expense Monitor from WetFish Software. It scared the Yuletide right out of me, taking me from Ho Ho Ho to OMG No!!! This free Mac application looks into your iTunes library, finds the apps you bought under all iTunes accounts on your computer, searches for the current prices of the app, and then gives you the bad news in some detail. It's scary how all those innocent little $.99 US charges add up, but it might not be as bad as it seems. Regardless of what you paid for an app, the Monitor finds the current price and uses it to total up your cost. If you have a bunch of apps that you got when they were free and they were later were changed to a paying basis, your total won't be accurate. That should be okay for most people. But if you want to make your accounting perfect, and you remember what you really paid for an app, you can edit the prices; quite a nice feature. It's also possible to also export the information to a .CSV file for viewing in a spreadsheet, which would be a very nice feature if it actually worked. The program tells you that you can sort the information ranked by developer, name, category or price, but in actuality, your resulting spreadsheet file is two columns wide with most of the information jammed into column A. Not very useful... Update: The output CSV file appears to use semicolons as delimiters, as pointed out below, rather than the commas that are customary in the US. Adjusting your import settings to match will improve your results. In setting up the App Store Expense Monitor, I found another stitch dropped in the attention to detail department. The program expects to find your apps in the ~/Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications folder, which is not where they live in the current version of iTunes. You'll need to change the path to point to the ~/Music/iTunes Music/Mobile Applications folder. That's not the biggest deal, but an oversight like this should have been caught and corrected, even in a free program. Update: Sorry for any confusion over the paths noted above. It looks like it's my machine that is idiosyncratic, as our commenters and my fellow bloggers report that the first path is indeed correct on their machines. Regardless of the minor glitches, the App Store Expense Monitor is still quite useful in giving you an idea of what you spent on all your apps, while affording you a reality check on the implications of tapping that Buy Now button. [via lifehacker]
Apple's 12 Days of Christmas iPhone app
As we reported last week, Apple is again rolling out their '12 Days of Christmas' promo for almost all of Europe. From December 26 to January 6 anyone with a iTunes account in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and Ireland can download a free song, music video, app, television show, or film from 'some of the biggest star performers' on iTunes. To help you remember to download the daily giveaway, Apple has created a '12 Days of Christmas' iPhone app [UK iTunes link]. It uses push notifications to alert you when the new download is available and also allows you to connect to Facebook and recommend the download to your friends. So if you live in Europe, get downloading! The promo starts December 26th, but the app is available now!
iTunes U breaks 100 million downloads
Apple's iTunes U has broken the 100 million download mark. iTunes U is a part of the iTunes Store featuring free lectures, language lessons, audiobooks, and more from over 175 higher education organizations including Princeton University, UCLA, Harvard University, MIT, NYU Medical School, Oxford, Cambridge, Georgetown, DePaul, Duke, and Yale University. According to Apple, one of the most popular universities on iTunes U has been Open University (iTunes link), the UK-based educational organization dedicated to distance learning whose programs include Arts and Humanities, Business and Management, Childhood and Youth, Health and Social Care, Law, Psychology, and Science. OU says they have around 150,000 undergraduate and more than 30,000 postgraduate students. In related news, if you've never watched Steve Jobs' Stanford University commencement speech give it a download [iTunes link]. It's emotional, it's raw, and it's when he revealed to the world he had cancer. You can also read the text of his speech here.
Apple allows Google to use Lala
We're not sure how Apple plans to utilize its recent acquisition of Lala, but BusinessWeek reports today that Apple does plan to let Google keep utilizing the service. Google unveiled its own music search service in late October, which is backed by Lala. "We have enjoyed a good relationship with Apple for many years, and that continues to be the case," R.J. Pittman, Google director of product management, told BusinessWeek. "We are agreeing to continue to leave the service as it is." An Apple spokesman declined to comment to BusinessWeek regarding the issue. There is already speculation that Apple's Lala purchase could lead to a web-streaming model for iTunes, which would directly compete with Google's service.
Apple introduces discounted iTunes movie bundles
The iPhone Blog reveals that Movie Bundles [iTunes link] are now available through the iTunes Store. This sort of feature has been available for years in brick and mortar stores, where you can buy two more more related movies packaged together at a discount. They start out at $9.99USD with the most expensive being $34.99USD for an HD action pack of Jason Statham movies. The bundles are also available in the Canadian iTunes Store as well. [Via MacRumors]
All about the new, improved App Store in iTunes 9.0.2
Our eagle-eyed blogger David Winograd sent out a breaking news post Friday night to let all of you know that there were changes afoot in the iTunes App Store. Sure enough, those changes appear to have migrated through most, if not all, apps by now. In my opinion, the new design makes more sense in the overall iTunes 9.0.2 layout than the "old" design did. The app icon is now very large (blue highlight in above screenshot), so apps with poorly designed icons will need to be retooled by developers in order to create something that grabs potential purchasers with one glance. The app screenshots in the old version of iTunes were apparently confusing to a surprising number of users. The new design now shows two or three full screenshots of each app in action (see yellow highlight above), with a visible scroll bar at the bottom of the screenshots indicating whether the user can scroll to the side to see more. The old version simply showed one screenshot and required clicking on the picture to move to the next screen image.
Something's changing in the iTunes App Store
Jason Grossman, author of Irene's Spirit, just tipped us that the look of the iTunes App store seems to be changing. At least that's the case for his app, and we'll be keeping an eye out to see if the rest of the store follows suit. Instead of the gray background with descriptions on the right and pictures that can be clicked upon to change the picture, now the background is white, the pictures are all displayed using a scroll bar, with the review summary on the left and, as usual, reviews at the bottom. Now to get the description of the app, you click on a More button on the right of the screen that brings up the author's description, and which devices and OS are required. Let us know, in the comments, if you see others magically changing.
