David Crosby says iTunes is "brilliant" - PBS' Frontline interviewed David Crosby, a music legend known for his solo performances as well as his work with the Byrds, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. In it Crosby mentions how iTunes looks "really, really, really promising."
iPod mini straddles form-function divide - By flashing around a few pictures of the portable digital music player, Apple received more than 120,000 orders for the device before it even hit retail.
New Changes to iPod input? - I purchased the iPod voice recorder from Belkin when it first came out. I tested it for a while, and while I think it was a nice novelty item, it wasn't what I expected. It was very easy to distort, the interface wasn't very intuitive and I didn't see much use from it. It was easier for me to just write voice memos down than mess with those. However, there is the iTalk from Griffin (the same Griffin that makes the iTrip) that is $20 cheaper and sports other features. While it claims to have crystal clear sound quality, I am somewhat wary of this. The main feature I am interested in would be line in port for an external microphone. The implications of this working the way I hope it will are incredible
How iPod changed my life - My iPod has revolutionized my life. I take it everywhere - I mean everywhere. I have it when I walk to class, to work, to get some lunch, even if I'm only going two blocks and I only get a chance to listen to a few songs. I have even tried to listen to it while taking midterms and exams, with mixed success. It is handy for long road trips and for studying at my favorite café or the library
Beyoncé, Your Mix Tape Sucks The perils of iTunes celebrity playlists. - It's a distinct and painful memory shared by music lovers of a certain age. You spend a couple hours recording a wicked awesome mix tape for a friend, or a lover, or (most often) someone in the uncertain terrain between. You fill it with songs cunningly chosen to simultaneously bare your heart and play it cool. You nervously hand it over—"Yeah, no big deal, but I made you this." Two weeks later, you ask how much she loved it, and when she shrugs, you feel a hot flush of shame. Face it: Your mix tape sucks.
Now celebrities and musicians—from Beyoncé Knowles to Avril Lavigne to Sting—can feel that same hot flush of shame
GadgetLust :: A Pal for Your Pod - Dials, dials, everywhere! Some strange confluence of hi-tech audio and retro-mod styling has brought us yet another external speaker system for our iPod: The Tivoli iPAL
MSN vs. iTunes, iPod - In addition to his comments about PC search, Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi talked Wednesday about how the company's forthcoming MSN Music service will compete against the one-two punch of Apple's iTunes Music Store and its popular iPod music player. Here's what he said, in response to an audience question
Kicking the Tires: iTMS users should grab iPodRip - How many of you have amassed a great deal of music from the iTunes Music Store? And how many of these tunes have you backed up? Yeah, me too. I promised that I would get to it one day. Unfortunately, that day didn’t come around soon enough. Lost eight songs off of my iBook. But they were still safely on my iPod. Trouble was, how to get them back.
Microsoft plans iPod competitor for as little as $50 - Microsoft Corp. Corporate Vice President of MSN Yusuf Mehdi told attendees of Goldman Sachs' fifth annual Internet Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada that the company will produce its own line of portable music players for as little as US$50, according to a brief in the Denver Post. The devices will complement a Microsoft-made music download service expected to go online later this year
European indie labels sign deal with Sony Connect - Independent record labels in the UK, France and Germany have signed a licensing deal with Sony ahead of the company's launch of its Sony Connect online music store in those countries next month.The deal comes as Sony races to launch in Europe ahead of Apple's leading iTunes Music Store, which may have the necessary licensing contracts to launch in Europe by the middle of next month
iFrog :: iPod + Kermit = Another Funny Movie From the iChicken Guys - iFrog, a fun-for-all-ages ad-cum-homage du iPod that could probably do more to inpsire GadgetLust in preschoolers than anything the kids in Cupertino could ever think of.
MacGeneration Musing: Thoughts on the iPod division - This reorganization will certainly reassure the more skeptical, especially since Apple announced that it had sold more iPods than Macs in the last fiscal quarter. Some observers went as far as saying that Steve Jobs’ announcement of stopping any development related to the Mac wouldn’t be too far in the future.
Separate Apple, iPod divisions can be a good thing - Last week Apple created a new division within the company that will concentrate solely on the iPod. Having a Macintosh division and an iPod division will be a good thing if handled properly. You’ll have two teams concentrating on two different types of products, which, despite some overlap, have somewhat different customers and needs. And by making the iPod a division of Apple rather than a wholly owned subsidiary (a la FileMaker Inc and PowerSchool), the music player’s substantial profits will continue to bolster the bottom line of Apple per se
Red Screen iPod - This is what I did to my friends iPod. Patience is a must especially when removing the metal back and cleaning off dust. The light must be on to see.
Product Review -- Monster iCase Travel Pack for iPod - The iCase Travel Pack for iPod consists of an InCase nylon pouch outfitted with a customized interior meant to hold your iPod and accessories. The pouch comes pre-packed with a Monster iCharger auto adapter and iSplitter headphone adapter (both of which are also available separately). iCharger lets you power your iPod through a car cigarette lighter, while the iSplitter allows you to "share the music" by splitting your single earphone jack into two 1/8" mini-stereo outputs
Navipod Remote for the iPod - One of the fun things about owning an iPod is all the great third-party gear that is out there to discover. A lot of companies have taken the zeitgeist of the iPod--fantastic design coupled with cutting-edge technology--and used it as a springboard for their own imaginations. The NaviPod is one such produc
CoreAudio: More Awesomeness from iPod+iTunes - Four things you can do to make your iPod last longer in better condition and be more efficient during use.
Review: The Altec Lansing inMotion Portable Audio System - Similar to the iPod's stock earbuds, I've found a number of reviews on the 'net saying basically, nice speakers, but where's the bass? I can only reiterate what to me seems rather obvious: it's right there in front of you. It's not dominant, but neither is it submissive. The sound from these little beauties is the definition of crystalline sound reproduction, balanced and clear as an unmuddied lake. They sound wonderful
Hard Drives Aplenty - There are a lot of lessons still being learned from devices like Apple Computer's iPod music player, and not all of them have to do with how the music business is changing.
The iPod's just a click away - Fabmall, an Indian online retailer today announced that the world's most loved music player, the Apple's iPod would now be available on fabmall.com The iPod will be available through a dedicated section on the fabmall portal. There will also be a selection of iPod accessories available
Divide and Conquer Why Apple Has an iPod Division - The news, broken Wednesday by the New York Times, was that Apple was creating a separate iPod division because the little music players are such a huge success. Conventional business school wisdom also says that starting a separate division is a way of isolating startup costs, making them more obvious to Wall Street and thus minimizing negative impacts because of course, even Apple has to spend money to make money
Why a separate iPod division is good news for the Macintosh - Apple's foray into digital music has now been elevated to the same status as its personal computing efforts. What's more, the new iPod division is going to be headed up by none other than Apple hardware guru Jon Rubenstein, who will apparently no longer be involved with the Mac at all. The death of the Macintosh must surely be just around the corner now, right?
Well, maybe not.
If Al Capone had an iPod - The record labels claim to have lost more than $2 billion per year in music sales due to piracy. Whatever Coke, Apple and Wal-Mart are doing to lessen this total is not of significant benefit. Apple, however, could well make $1 billion in iPod sales this year, which certainly helps Apple.
Apple iPod 15 GB - As for the price, this will reduce your bank balance by around Rs. 20,000. This is undoubtedly expensive and not something everyone can afford. But its cool looks, sound quality and the extreme flaunt value makes it a fair buy. And at the end of the day, Bond girls aren't found at any Tom, Dick and Harry's side, are they?
Review: Keep Your iPod Mini Covered, Literally, With The iSkin Mini - The iSkin Mini, iPod mini Protector, can cover your new iPod mini perfectly without denying you access to the iPod's controls. The case comes with a belt clip as well as a "screen saver" cover to protect your iPod mini's LCD from suffering any scratches.
Napster offers free seven-day trial - UK music fans will pay almost double what their US counterparts are asked to fork out. An extra fee of £9.95 will be charged to buy entire albums, or 99p for single tracks. This means they will be free to burn the music to a CD or transfer it to a portable music player.
Nelly Furtado performing at Santa Monica Apple Store - Pop singer Nelly Furtado will be performing at the Third Street Promenade Apple Store in Santa Monica, California, this Friday night. The acoustic performance is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. PT
W Hotels offers 'iTunes Days' - W Hotels has initiated a new promotion called iTunes Days -- monthly events at select W Hotels around the country that encourage W guests to "mix it up in a digital soundscape" as they listen to iPod-equipped DJs, get iTunes CDs with free iTunes music downloads (while they last), drink "AppleiTinis" and get chances to win iPods and iMacs
Analysts: iPod division could lead to other devices - Apple Computer Inc. confirmed on Thursday a Reuters report stating that a new iPod division had been set up at the company, splitting the Macintosh and iPod hardware segments. While Apple said this would allow the company to focus resources on the iPod, analysts believe that it solidifies the importance of the iPod within Apple and could be the start of something bigger for the company, such as the release of other digital devices
Music biz waves axe at goose that laid golden egg - The maths just do not add up. The ungrateful record labels that were so desperate to beat piracy, but which overpriced all their own efforts at online music, are now working behind the scenes to drive up the price of music on Apple iTunes. It is a mistake and it will backfire; and judging by statements that are coming out of Apple, the people at Apple know it and are resisting it as best they can
Apple's iTunes software heads to China - The Mac maker said Founder Technology, China's second-largest computer maker, will bundle iTunes on its PCs. An Apple representative said the deal applied to the iTunes jukebox software only, and not the company's online music store. The store has thus far been limited to U.S. customers, though Apple has said it hopes to expand to Europe this year
Waiting time for iPod to shorten - Hitachi's hard disk drive unit said on Sunday that it will spend about $200 million (113.4 million pounds) to double the disk drive output of its Thailand factory, including the 1-inch, 4-gigabyte disk drives that are found in the iPod Mini
iTunes 4.5 - On the first anniversary of the launch of the iTunes Music Store, Apple released iTunes 4.5. Although this is really an incremental release, going from 4.2 to 4.5, it has features that make it worth downloading
iPod for Windows Updater 1.3 - iPod Software 1.3 is compatible with touch-wheel and scroll-wheel iPods without a dock connector
Break out the 78s: iTunes Rescues Antique Songs - Recent additions include rare tracks by Roy Orbison, along with early Motown singles which will be available on the iTMS to celebrate the company's 45th anniversary
Reuters Examines The Culture Of The iPod mini - Apple's iPod mini is many things: It's small, functional, light weight, and many consider it to be well-designed. It is also a fashion statement, according to a recent article in Reuters. The article,PluggedIn: Apple iPod Mini Reflects Personality, points out that not only has the iPod mini found a home in the hands and on the belt clips on the trendy and the fashion conscious, it seems to resonate with the individualists
IPod All the Rage in High Fashion - Forget the $200 iPod bag from Gucci; it's for cheapskates.The ultimate iPod accessory is Fendi's Juke Box, a $1,500 carrying case for transporting multiple iPods
Apple iPod Mini reflects personalities - Some pooh-poohed the assorted colors of Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod mini as frivolous, but the digital music players are a smash hit and have become fashion accessories in and of themselves
Six week waiting list for iPod mini - If you want to be assaulted by a humiliating burst of laughter, go to Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA or even Apple Computer's own stores and ask for an iPod mini. Tell them you want it in pink and insist that you need it now.
It's Time for an iPod IPO - if the iPod were a stock, I'd dump my shares. It's hard to imagine Apple maintaining its dominant position in digital music. Jobs had actually predicted 100 million in iTMS song sales in the first year, and he missed by a wide mark. Apple managed to turn in only a 10% quarter-over-quarter increase in iPod sales last quarter, implying the market is slowing. And several top executives dumped millions of their own Apple shares in late April, the first major sale by insiders in years
Altec Lansing inMotion speaker system for iPod - If you do a lot of travelling or want easy access to your iPod in every room of your house, inMotion is currently the best solution out there. The sound isn't enough to justify the cost, but the portability and dock compensate. Just make sure that if you're in the hotel room next to me, you keep your inMotion turned down...unless you're playing Robert Palmer. Then everything's okay by me
The Russians are coming - With no sign yet of the Apple iTunes music download service launching in Europe, Ashley Norris gives the much-touted Russian site All Of MP3 a spin
Sony US music service an 'embarrassment' - Sony's choice for format restricts consumers to its own hardware - a complaint the paper also makes about Apple, though at least iTunes does permit you to rip CDs to MP3 for transfer to other brands of player. Sony's SonicStage software does not support MP3 and "it defaults to storing music in an invisible, deeply buried sub-directory", the paper warns
Convert music videos to iTunes tracks - If you drag your new video file into the iTunes window, iTunes will copy the file into its library and play the audio track. You can then discard the video of this file by selecting Convert Selection to
A warning about iTunes, backups, and bought music - The reason why I'm mentioning it is that iTunes doesn't give you a warning or any indication that it didn't burn those bought tracks. The only way to know is to view the CD and compare it with your playlist and notice that there is a size difference
Apple mulls SA iTunes store - The South African music industry is very different from the US or Western Europe's. For instance, South African consumers prefer compilations rather than whole albums and this affects their spending patterns
Apple Refutes iTunes Price Rumors - I'm not surprised that Apple quickly responded to a potentially damaging rumor, particularly given that Steve Jobs had reiterated the 99-cent pricing about a week earlier," Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox told MacNewsWorld. "Jobs said that the 99-cent pricing was firm, in response a question about rumors the record labels would demand more
iPod shuffle shakes up music habits - Even more wondrous than its sophisticated technology, though, is how the iPods and their ilk are changing the way music is being experienced, or re-experienced, by all sorts of audiophiles in all sorts of settings, from health clubs and school cafeterias to malls and subway cars.In essence, these devices function much like customized jukeboxes or personalized radio stations, but don't require a pocketful of coins to feed them or noisy advertisements to support them
iPod mini in a Ford Explorer Part II - In a recent entry, I introduced you to Jesse Melchior, an amateur special effects artist and filmmaker who came up with an ingenious design for installing an iPod mini in a Ford Explorer. After receiving an avalanche of feedback from his first design, Mr. Melchior has been at it again -- creating a completely new design
B’lore tech firm helps iPod get loud - Impulsesoft has built a bluetooth wireless stereo adapter to help Apple’s iPod amplify its sound by fitting seamlessly to the audio system
Microsoft exec on iPod - Responding to a question from one of the reporters, Knook downplayed the popular notion of a head-to-head competition between Apple Computer's iPod music player and the handheld audio/video playback devices that will run on Microsoft's Portable Media Center software
The Vines Ride For iPod - The Vines single 'Ride' has been picked up as the soundtrack to the new iPod television commercial.
Legal Music Downloads at 5¢ A Song? - The Russian AllOFMP3.com site is a music and video online Internet-store that claims to be legally offering MP3 song downloads at either $14.95 per month (maximum 1000 tracks per month) or individual songs at one cent per megabyte. That's right; about 5¢ per title and up
iPod Means That iCan't Hear You--and iLike It - There are certain factors that make the close quarters of urban environments more tolerable to the human animal. Some of these factors are environmental, others relate to the city's infrastructure, but I think one of the biggest contributors to the maintenance of individual sanity under crowded conditions is the personal stereo. Without those we'd be killing each other on the SkyTrain every day
iPod Junkie - Thanks to a birthday gift from my special lady, I've become a total iPod addict—got the earbuds strapped on, like, 10 hours a day. Now I'm itching to see what else the wondrous little rectangle can do. Where can I learn how to hack my iPod?
iPod mini - If you have an active lifestyle, the iPod mini is the best combination of portability, good looks, great sound, and respectable capacity. It may not be cheap, but the pleasure it will give you is priceless
REVIEW: New ITunes Boosts Features - ITunes 4.5 bumps up the number of computers that can play a song purchased from Apple's iTunes Music Store. It lets you share playlists and create attractive inserts for CD cases. And it builds on an already impressive set of features designed to help people discover new music
'45 Motown 45s' on iTunes celebrates 45th anniversary - Motown Records today released the 45 singles ever issued by Motown ("45 Motown 45s") and 45 hard-to-find albums from the Motown archive on the iTunes Music Store to celebrate Motown's 45th Anniversary. Premiering on the Apple iTunes Music Store is an exclusive "store within a store" marking the 45th anniversary of Motown Records
Sony launches competitor to iTunes - the competition between iTunes and the new Sony Connect service is less a battle of the bands than a gear war that pits Apple's sizzling iPod against Sony's MiniDisc, the struggling 13-year-old device that's never caught on in the United States
iTunes Music Store Sells 3.3 Million Songs in One Week - Apple today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded a record setting 3.3 million songs from its third generation iTunes Music Store since its launch one week ago. Highlighting the popularity of its innovative new features, iTunes users have already published more than 20,000 iMixes, and those iMixes have been rated by fellow iTunes users over 50,000 times
Apple Locked In Battle With Indian Portal - In an intermittent war between the open-source community and the proprietary software industry, $6.7-billion Apple Computers has slammed a legal notice on Sarovar.org for hosting a software tool called Playfair. Sarovar.org, a Thiruvananthapuram-based Indian portal dedicated to the open source software community, had hosted Playfair, a tool that enables free download of music files from Apple’s properitary online music store, iTunes
The Back Page - Online Music Prices Must Be Lower Than CDs - In the ongoing battle to save what many consider to be a beleaguered industry, the RIAA and its member Big Five recording labels have made one misstep after another. Perpetually inflating prices in the midst of an economic downturn, even while production costs dropped; fighting all forms of digital file sharing even though said file sharing was increasing interest in both listening to music and purchasing music; trying to force customers into renting music through online site
The iPod Comes Home - The mini, with its 4-GB drive (that's about 70 hours of nonstop music), boasts the perfect size and capacity for a portable music player. But the full-size iPods still have a place in our lives. Use your mini on the go--and your big clunker as your home stereo. All you need is a superb set of speakers (with subwoofer, of course), and a device that allows you to control your iPod from the comfort of your red lacquered Eames chair
Digging the iPod Mini - As a user of iPods through multiple generations, I felt compelled to secure a Mini. It was, I felt, my duty as an Apple devotee to judge the little critter for myself. After two weeks of use, I've been able to ascertain what makes the Mini unique. It could be that I will fall victim to the sound problems others have reported after a few more weeks of use, but for now I can say it is the sweetest MP3 player I have yet encountered
Apple Airs New iPod Television Commercial - Apple aired a new television commercial last night in its silhouette series of iPod advertisements. The new ad is called "Wild Postings," and builds on the themes Apple has used in its other iPod advertisement
Student hacks iTunes for compatibility - According to the Australian researcher who cracked the authentication used by Apple's iTunes software, current-generation Digital Rights Management (DRM) will never work.
Sony plays in iTunes territory - Sony on Tuesday launched its online music store, throwing its hat into a ring that has been dominated for a year by Apple Computer's iTunes. As a competitor with significant resources--and a long list of music devices with which it hopes to rival the iPod--Sony's entry into the market could help change the dynamics of digital music sales
EU probes music licensing system - Sixteen national organisations that collect royalties on behalf of music authors may be in breach of European competition law. The main antitrust authority in the 25-nation European Union is examining the so-called Santiago Agreement that allows societies to grant "one-stop" copyright licences to on-line commercial users for the downloading and streaming of music
Sonnet Podfreq FM Transmitter - While it pains us to say it, the first iPod product by longtime Apple upgrade and adapter maker Sonnet Technologies is the archetypical fat, drunk, and stupid iPod accessory: the Podfreq FM transmitter is a bulky, expensive, and technologically underwhelming product by comparison with competing and established products. Most amazingly, one of the Podfreq's design errors even limits its ability to be used for long stretches in a car - a problem we never would have expected in a $99.95 "premium" FM transmitter. If you're interested in learning just what went wrong with this product, read on
iPod Mini - First Impressions - After three weeks of waiting, it finally arrived: the coveted iPod Mini. Despite my misgivings about Apple's latest and greatest portable music player, I had ordered one as a gift for my wife. Though it was shipped from Shanghai, it took less than 36 hours from packing to arrive at our doorstep, which is especially amazing when considering it was custom engraved on the back
Apple IPod Mini - naysayers should consider the mini's slender size and styling, which is both functional and easy on the eyes and fingers. While it's not my ideal audio player, the hundreds of thousands of iPod mini owners would obviously beg to differ
Belkin Digital Camera Link - Cheaper at an $80 retail price and smaller than the company's previous media reader, the DCL also remedies the biggest complaint about the Media Reader levied by the niche professional photographers' market: speed. But it also introduces some new problems, namely battery and compatibility issues, which cripple what could otherwise have been a universally well-received new product.
eBay flooded with iPod minis; Prices top $500 - How popular is the iPod mini? Point your browser to eBay and search the words 'iPod mini' and you'll get over 10 pages of results
With iTunes set for world domination, Steve Jobs is the new crusader for our digital rights - Folks, it's over: the digital music wars officially ended yesterday. Despite the launch of a slew of competitors, they couldn't combine to even so much as put a dent in iTunes' seventy percent marketshare. None of them are going anywhere, most of them are going to fail, and their inevitable replacements won't do much either. In fact, iTunes has become such the standard that Apple has even built into iTunes the ability for Windows to convert their WMA-formatted music into the iTunes-friendly AAC format.
iTunes 4.5 and DRM - There seems to be some confusion about what iTunes 4.5 changes about digital rights management (DRM) in regard to songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store -- so much so, in fact, that I've had to update this entry twice to get it right (I hope). Here's what I nowknow
Monster iCharger - But we've recently had the opportunity to put a number of Monster's iPod accessories through their paces, and we were pleasantly surprised by a number of them. Many of the products compared favorably in price with other companies' accessories, and worked at least as well. The results below speak for themselves
Turbolinux Supports Windows Media and Apple's iPod - Japanese Linux distributor Turbolinux Inc has introduced a new multimedia version of its eponymous desktop Linux operating system with support for Microsoft Corp's Windows Media and Apple Computer Inc's iPod MP3 player
Ad guru opens Apple's iPod to the world - A quick-thinking Sydney developer is cashing in on the iPod and file-sharing phenomena, and has launched what he claims is the iPod's first Web server.The DOT-POD software, available in server and client versions, lets users share tracks from their iPod with others via the Internet. The software betters a standard Web server by displaying track data in HTML, and offers specialised searches and user controls.
Sweet & Sour Note - On first anniversary of iTunes, record labels bemoan its success - Online services account for just a fraction of overall music sales, but they're growing rapidly. And the new choices they give consumers threaten to remix the recording industry's traditional revenue streams, pumping up the volume of singles and subscriptions and turning down album sales
Sources: Apple films new iPod television spot - It's no secret that Apple is readying the release of its 4th-generation iPod digital music player. The company retains a strong position on the sale of digital tracks and players, and plans to ease up on the competition are not a part of its playbook. After all, Apple isn't paying its engineers to sit back, smoke cigarettes and sip spiked Capri Sun fruit drinks, though some may find that mental image amusin
Transcript Of Apple's iTunes Conference Call - The following is a transcript of yesterday's press conference from Steve Jobs concerning the first anniversary of the iTunes Music Store (iTMS
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