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NPD Survey Places Amazon Second to iTunes
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Apple, Internet, Music,
The NPD Group has a new report that states that in 2008, 87% of all digital music buyers in the U.S. used iTunes while 16% were purchased through Amazon MP3. Analyst Russ Crupnick says that being in second place is encouraging considering that it has only been around for 18 months.
“It used to be that iTunes was first, and second was practically nobody,” Crupnick said. The survey also reported that many of the consumers are older and still purchase CDs.
Read More 
| cnet
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Video recording coming with next iPhone
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Cameras, Smartphones, Handhelds, Rumors,
We’ve been hearing that video recording would be coming to the iPhone for a while, but now we’ve got the evidence to back it up. Our friends over at MacRumors got ahold of a leaked screenshot showing a toggle within the Camera app that lets you choose between snapping a photo and recording a video. In order to enable the feature, plist config files in the current iPhone 3.0 firmware need to be edited so as to make it appear that a video camera is present. Other hidden features include a compass, camera auto-focus, and voice control, which we assume is for voice dialing.
One would imagine that new features like these would require some sort of newly updated iPhone to take advantage of them. Coincidentally, the iPhone 3.0 software will be made available in June—just in time for the next iPhone to launch. We are officially excited.
Read More | MacRumors
Apple releases iPhone OS 3.0 beta 2
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Portable Audio / Video, Software,
Hey, looks like Apple has just released iPhone OS 3.0 beta 2 to developers as of a few minutes ago, alongside beta 2 of the iPhone SDK 3.0. As you recall, iPhone 3.0 introduces a bunch of new functionality for consumers, and over 1,000 new API for developers. Many who upgraded to firmware 3.0 when it was made available have complained of much sluggishness taking over their iPhone or iPhone 3G, so let’s hope that upgrading to beta 2 cleans up some of that, for those people who didn’t downgrade back to 2.2.1. Developers, you can grab iPhone OS 3.0 beta 2 right now.
iPhone 3.0: Some apps currently incompatible [UPDATED]
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Entertainment, App Store News, Free Apps,
We know, there was a lot of excitement surrounding the iPhone 3.0 beta release yesterday, and tons of people rushed to upgrade. However, now we are seeing some of the negatives that are starting to creep up. Sure, the keyboard can be a bit sluggish in some apps, and MMS isn’t working at the moment, whatev on those. What really sucks, though, is the fact that there are some apps that will just flat out refuse to
install. Case in point, the new Fandango app. If you try to install it on your 3.0-enabled iPhone, you’ll get a message telling you that the application isn’t compatible, and that it requires the iPhone 2.2.1 software update. We aren’t feeling that, because we wanna get our Fandango on!
Let us know if you find any other apps that choke on iPhone 3.0.
Update: Looks like the problem here is with installing from the App Store directly on the iPhone. We just tried downloading and installing Fandango using iTunes, and it works swimmingly. Keep that in mind.
[Thanks, Tyler!]
iPhone 3.0 keynote now available in iTunes
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Corporate News, Handhelds, Software,
Yesterday, Apple finally unveiled the iPhone 3.0 OS. We are stilling digging deep into the update, and will be bringing you our thoughts in just a bit, but we felt that it might behoove us to let you know that you can now download the iPhone 3.0 keynote presentation directly from iTunes now, in it’s entirety
(minus the Q&A session.) Go ahead and get a first-hand look at cut, copy, and paste, MMS, global Spotlight search, and all the demos. If you aren’t a developer, then you can look forward to downloading the update in June, which will probably be alongside this years iPhone release.
Read More | iPhone 3.0 Keynote [iTunes Link]
iPhone OS 3.0 preview on March 17th
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Corporate News, Handhelds, Software,
Alright iPhone fans, we know that the Palm Pre has been getting all the attention lately in the “awesome touchscreen phone” department, but relax. Apple has just sent out notice to all of us press-types that they are going to be presenting iPhone OS 3.0 for the first time on March 17th. That’s right, in five days you will get an “advance preview” of what Apple has been working on for the next version of the iPhone operating system, as well as a look at the new version of the SDK, which will (or should) give developers better ways to integrate their apps into the OS.
We’re excited.
Steve Wozniak Cha Chas
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Apple, Home Entertainment, Music, Videos,
We admit that we occasionally watch reality shows, especially when we hear that Apple’s co-founder is appearing on one. Steve Wozniak first appeared on a Segway to meet his partner Karina Smirnoff for his stint on “Dancing With the Stars.” We guess that was so he could convince her that he had some physical ability. We really like that he tried to turn his performance into something mathmatecal during rehearsal. The two performed a cha cha to the tune “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” and unfortunately got the lowest score of the evening, a 13 out of 30.
Read More | abc
Redesigned iPod shuffle: 4GB, Buttonless, VoiceOver Text to Speech, $79
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Design, Music, Portable Audio / Video,
This morning Apple unveiled a brand new, re-imagined iPod shuffle. The new shuffle hits you with 4GB of storage space, which equates to about a 1,000 song capacity, and is half the size of the previous generation iPod shuffle, which in and of itself was pretty freaking small. Another new feature is VoiceOver, which is basically a text-to-speech technology built into the shuffle. Since there is no screen, sometimes it’s hard to know what’s playing. With VoiceOver, you press a button and the shuffle will tell you the name of the song and artist, as well as the name of the playlist, if applicable. VoiceOver is available in the following languages: English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.
The downside? For some reason Apple thought it best to move all the controls on the shuffle to the headphone cable. You simple cannot control the iPod shuffle from the actual device. This immediately limits the number of headphones available, because even if you own a pair of fantastic $150 headphones, if those headphones don’t have controls, you are screwed and left with the crap Apple headphones that ship with the device.
The Beatles: Rock Band Announced
Posted by Alex Lifschitz Categories: Electronic Arts, Music, Party Games, Release Dates,
Well, ever since the folks at Harmonix got their hands on the Beatles catalogue, we all (and by that, I mean ‘I’) figured that this day was coming. Sure enough, Apple, MTV, and Harmonix have announced The Beatles: Rock Band for release on 9/9/09, and a website has been put up with nothing but an interior shot of (what I believe is) Abbey Road Studios (main recording studio for the Fab Four) and a ‘9.9.09’ plastered across the screen. The game will feature content by the Beatles (duh) and will be bundled with signature instrument replicas if you order the full shebang, and if that means I get to rock a little plastic Hofner, I’ll be there on day one. When reached for comment, Paul and Ringo both chased me off their property with vicious dogs. I tried to reach the other Beatles, but I unfortunately lent my shovel to the neighbors.
Hit the jump for the full press release.
Click to continue reading The Beatles: Rock Band Announced
Apple iMac gets updated, 24-inch model cheaper
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop,
Yup, even more Apple update news for you guys today, as it would be irresponsible of us not to inform you of the spec bumps to the iMac line. Like all the other Apple computer products, the iMac picks up a Mini DisplayPort with this revision, but that’s not all. Prices are looking good, with a 20-inch model starting at $1,199, and the 24-inch model starting at a price of $1,499. There is only one 20-inch model, which hits you with a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB RAM, 320GB hard drive space, and a GeForce 9400M graphics chip. The baseline 24-inch model includes the same processor, but 4GB RAM and a 640GB hard drive. You can move up from there if you want a 2.93Ghz, or 3.06 GHz, processor. You can pick up a new iMac now.
Read More | Apple iMac
