ItunesStreaming
Latest
iTunes exclusively streaming David Bowie's new album
As reported by Apple Insider, David Bowie's forthcoming album, The Next Day, is exclusively available to stream on iTunes in its entirety until March 12th, when the album is released. The Next Day, available for pre-order now, is Bowie's first album in 10 years and has come as somewhat of a surprise. Bowie first announced the album in early January with a video for the track "Where Are We Now?". iTunes streaming is becoming more prevalent as a means to promote high-profile releases. Previously streamed albums on iTunes have included works from The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Matchbox 20 and Jack White. [Via Apple Insider]
Apple streams entire Red Hot Chili Peppers album in iTunes
The iTunes Music Store has achieved another first (for the iTunes Music Store): streaming a full album to listeners. Beginning yesterday, users can stream Red Hot Chili Peppers' new album I'm With You in its entirety for free. The album doesn't go on sale until August 30th, but one song is available for sale now and users can also pre-order the entire album. It's cool that Apple (and the Red Hot Chili Peppers) are allowing users to stream the album in full, but as I write this I can see why Apple might not think iTunes music streaming is ready for prime time. I'm getting a ton of buffering errors. That of course could be due to everyone trying to stream the only album you can from iTunes. Also the stream is one long stream of the entire album -- you can't skips around to individual songs, which is kind of limiting. But then again, it is free music. No word on how long the stream will be up, but it's reasonable to assume that it will be taken down once the album goes on sale on August 30th.
Confirmed: Apple TV can play 1080p content from iTunes, but still only outputs 720p
The header says it all folks. We just ran some tests on the AppleTV's playback limits by streaming 1080p movie trailers in iTunes and managed to verify murmurs saying the device can accept 1080p content. Unfortunately, output is a different story, since it downscales the image back to 720p on your display. Yes it's a little frustrating -- especially since it's predecessor was up to the challenge -- but it should at least comfort those with a massive library of 1080p videos who were worried about reconverting for their new black box. Considering the hardware gems discovered in the AppleTV teardown however, we're still holding out for the jailbreak community to let us play our 1080p files, and display them too. Oh, and if they could get to work on Super-Hi Vision support at some point, well, that'd be just dandy.
Exclusive: Upcoming Apple TV loses 1080p playback, gains apps... and will be renamed iTV
You might remember that we broke news of an updated Apple TV headed to market just a few months ago. If your brain isn't working right, let us jog it: a trusted Engadget source asserted that the gang in Cupertino would be releasing a $99 version of the set top box, similarly sized and packed with internals akin to that of the iPhone 4 (A4 CPU, 16GB of flash storage), and will introduce new iTunes streaming services the box could take advantage of. Well we've gotten a little more info on the project, and it's not all good. Apparently the box won't be capable of handling (or enabled to handle) 1080i or 1080p video. Instead it will only push out 720p clips. The word -- and cause for much internal debate, we're told -- is that this has something to do with the A4's inability to crank on higher resolution content, but we don't see how that's possible considering the iPhone 3GS could play back full HD video. Furthermore, the device will be getting apps and presumably an App Store entry, though it's unclear if there will be cross-pollination between iPad and iPhone / iPod touch offerings and new Apple TV applications. Oh, and there's one more thing -- Apple will be officially changing the name of the device to iTV, abandoning the current moniker in favor of something a little more in line with its current iOfferings. Interestingly, that was the name of the Apple TV when it was originally announced by the company, so it appears Steve and friends aren't so much moving forward as going back to their innocent, untainted roots. Regardless of which direction the company is heading in name-wise, we can likely expect a full reveal sometime in the Fall... so hang tight. Update: To clear up any confusion, the loss of 1080p is in reference to the previous information we had (linked above, and here) about the new Apple TV -- not in reference to the current Apple TV.
Media Manager for Mac enables iPhone / iTunes media streaming to FiOS TV DVR (video)
We're hearing that the PC version of this here software still beats out the Mac counterpart, but equality is slowly but surely becoming a reality. The main new feature over on the OS X side, however, is a good one: the ability to stream iPhone and iTunes media directly to your TV via your FiOS TV DVR. Fire up an iTunes playlist and watch the fun roll by on your home TV, and there's even support for photo slideshows and the like. It's available to download right now from the read link, and those still skeptical can catch a demonstration vid just past the break. [Via Zatz Not Funny]
Apple prepping iTunes Replay on-demand streaming service?
Probably more than any other facet of Apple, we've seen rumor after rumor regarding iTunes fade away in the sunset. Of course, many of those delightful plans were likely shot down by the likes of the MPAA, RIAA and other so-called content guardians, but we say all that in order to depress your hopes on this one. For whatever it's worth, an undisclosed source at CNET has confirmed an AppleInsider report that Cupertino is prepping an on-demand video streaming service for the next iteration of iTunes. Slated to be dubbed iTunes Replay, the service would purportedly "allow users to stream their iTunes video purchases directly from the company's servers for playback anywhere, anytime without eating up local storage." There's no denying that Netflix's Watch Instantly has been a universal hit, but that's in large part due to the firm's willingness to embed that functionality onto all sorts of devices. Is Apple planning on going toe-to-toe with the market leader via your computer and a box it still regards as a hobby? We've got our doubts, obviously.[Via CNET]
Musicast
Streaming an iTunes playlist over the internet, or making it into a podcast: sounds like the mad ravings of a lunatic, right? The RIAA would never allow such a thing, people becoming their own radio stations and not playing crappy pop music?!Enter Musicast, an $18.00 Universal application that opens your playlists to the world. Once you launch Musicast you see a list of your playlists (both smart and not so smart). You can pick and choose which you would like to make publicly available and that's it. Now your Mac has been transformed into a music streaming machine (though imagine an internet connection is required for this to work).I wonder if this is breaking any silly copyright laws.
