- Apple would like you to know that they've hit the ten billionth download.
The downloader of said billionth song is the lucky recipient of a $10,000 iTunes gift card. Try not to spend it all one place (gift card is also good for app store purchases as well).
- Apple holding countdown contest for ten billionth iTunes song download.
The winner of the countdown--the person that downloads the 10 billionth song--will win a $10,000 gift card. You can download any song from iTunes and be eligible for the prize, the company said.
- A collection of the most popular free Mac downloads of 2009.
Some interesting bits of free software to try out if you haven't already. I still haven't gotten around to testing out Google Chrome on the beloved Mac. I'll be giving that a whirl today. Also, it's a shame that Magnifique doesn't work with Snow Leopard - would've liked to try that one out as well.
- You can now use Bing on your beloved iPhone via their brand new app.
For some time Microsoft has tried to muscle onto the iPhone. In August Microsoft app developers made it possible for third-party iPhone app developers to integrate Bing into their offerings by providing a software developers kit (SDK).
- Apple offers up a free holiday sampler in the iTunes Store just for you.
'Sampler' in my opinion, is the wrong word in this case as Apple is essentially giving away TWENTY tracks of free holiday music. Head on over to iTunes and snatch this up while it's still available. You'll get to hear Weezer do a rocking rendition of 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas'.
- You can now preview entire albums in the iTunes Store with just one click.
A neat little feature that will spin through the previews for entire albums rather than having to go through track by track which is certainly a time-saver. Apparently Amazon's MP3 service has had this feature for quite some time.
- Apple decides to acquire Lala, a streaming media service.
I have a strange feeling that the 'Genius' functionality in recent copies of iTunes are due for an upgrade thanks to this brand new acquisition. Just a hunch.
- Latest Palm WebOS update doesn't attempt any shifty iTunes syncing.
The free update weighs in at 126MB and brings with it dozens of tiny tweaks that improve the Palm experience. But if you were waiting for the resurrection of the Palm iTunes sync, you're out of luck: WebOS 1.3.1 does no such thing.
- Apple would like you to know there are now over 100,000 apps to choose from.
...choose from an incredible range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel. App Store users have downloaded well over two billion apps, continuing to make it the world’s most popular applications store.
- Apple trying to pitch iTunes subscriptions to television networks.
...Apple is pitching a monthly subscription service to the TV networks, an iTunes-based alternative to cable packages that would cost about $30 per month.
- Five smart playlists to help you manage your iTunes library.
Some good suggestions from the folks at TUAW for making the most out of of your iTunes library utilizing smart playlists. Here's an additional one from yours truly: One Play Wonders - rating is in the range of 3 stars to 5 stars while the play count is just 1. Enjoy.
- Palm decides to partner up with Amazon instead of hacking their way into iTunes.
But what Palm should really do is to make an iTunes rival, a media-playing, content-syncing, Amazon MP3-friendly application. And it should make it work not just with the Pre, but with any device you might own, including the iPhone.
- Daily Grind: Calm
Name: Vin (aka shaggy)
Occupation: Webmaster / Procrastinator / Dad
How Vin feels today: Calm @ 1:18:00 PM
What Vin really wants today: Enjoy a quiet Monday at the office due to the holiday. Attempt to get a leg up on some upcoming work projects.Music Stuck in Head: Nothing
...and it's kind of nice actually.Stuff to do today:
- Convert some non-compatible iPod movies to compatibile versions with iTunes 9
- Converting... converting... converting...
- Holy crap, this is taking a long time
- Twiddle thumbs
- Start drawing up new DotComic strip for this week
- Note that season premier of Dexter was pretty good, creepy as always, but pretty good
- Thank Showtime for showing more than enough of John Lithgow for one week
- Post-rehab House should be interesting tonight as well
- Note that overall Fall television programming so far has been pretty entertaining
- Even Heroes was borderline decent
- Apple releases update for iTunes 9 that fixes some bugs.
If you had issues with your copy of iTunes being unresponsive or just unexpectedly quitting, this update is for you.
- The AppleTV gets a brand new hundred dollar price drop.
Your gateway to iTunes on your television site will now set you back just $229 instead of the previous price of $329. Oh, and you can kiss the forty gigabyte model goodbye. C'est la vie!
- Apple has posted a video stream of their special music event from yesterday.
Watch Steve Jobs's triumphant (and much applauded) return to the stage. Lots of interesting stuff out of Apple yesterday from iTunes 9 to iPod Nanos with video cameras (which for some strange reason can't take still photos).
- Beatles catalogue coming to iTunes today after all?
Yoko Ono may have let this one leak out in a recent interview with Sky News. Sky News has since pulled the article with no retraction. Oh, and EMI says this isn't happening and to please ignore the past two sentences.
- Five ways to listen to music on your iPhone without actually using iTunes.
Thanks to the incredible success of the App Store, there are plenty of ways now to access streaming music even when you don't have the files.
- Rumors swirling yet again about Beatles catalogue finally coming to iTunes.
While no further indication from EMI, Apple Corps, or others close to The Beatles or Apple have suggested that an iTunes deal is imminent, the timing of these events has unavoidably resulted in new speculation regarding an agreement.
- Rumors swirling that Apple may hold a keynote event in September.
Looks like it may bring a new version of iTunes to go along with it.
- Five ways to get the most out of your beloved music collection.
Wasn't aware of the TidySongs app, going to play around with this one today.
- Apple and record labels working collaborating on plan to boost music sales.
The collaboration apparently has the codename of 'Cocktail' - hence the fruity thumbnail.
- Latest Palm update restores iTunes syncing.
...Palm has hired several former Apple executives and engineers to lead the company's turnaround and Apple has issued veiled threats against Palm regarding intellectual property contained in iPhone that has appeared in similar forms in the Palm Pre.
- Latest iTunes update kills off Palm Pre sync ability.
Well that was fun while it lasted.
- Michael Jackson first artist sell one million downloads in a single week.
The late King of Pop gets into the digital record books.
- Apple sued for fraud in regards to outdated text on iTunes gift cards.
Whoops. Time to update that gift card verbiage, Apple.
- New pricing model in iTunes turns out to be a good thing for artists and their respective labels.
The math is simple. So long as sales for higher-priced tracks don't fall more than 29%, labels take in more revenue from $1.29 tracks, after factoring in wholesale rates, distribution fees and mechanical royalties.
- Apple would like all Palm Pre users to know just what the term 'unsupported' means.
Apple's new tech note posted yesterday spells it out a little more clearly.

















































































































































