Showing posts with label iTunes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iTunes. Show all posts

Friday, March 23, 2012

Get a Digital iTunes Gift Card for 20% Off This Week [Deals]

Today must be some sort of secret gift card holiday, because in addition to nabbing an Amazon gift card for 50% off, you can also grab an iTunes gift card from Best Buy today for 20% off, whether it be a $15, $25, $50, or $100 card. Whether you've got a new iPad or are just stocking up on new apps like Sparrow for iOS, it's a pretty good deal. Just head to Best Buy's iTunes gift card page and scroll down to the digital gift cards, which you'll see are on sale. They'll last until March 24, or until supplies run out, so grab them now while you can. [via Cult of Mac]

Posted by Ambar jaiswal at 8:38 PM 0 comments
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Friday, March 16, 2012

Flutter Controls iTunes and Spotify with a Hand Gesture [Video]

 Mac: Pausing and restarting music isn't exactly the hardest thing to do, but if you find yourself away from your chair you have to move to the keyboard or mouse to stop playback. Flutter is a Mac app that allows you to pause and restart your music in Spotify or iTunes with a hand gesture.


Flutter uses your webcam to track your hand gestures. The same gesture starts and stops your music, so if you put up the palm of your hand, Flutter recognizes it and pauses the music as long as you're within about six feet of the camera. This does mean your webcam is on all day long and staring at you, but Flutter insists it doesn't collect or store that information. Flutter is still in its early stages and the pause and start gesture is the only one currently available, but it is a free download if you want to check it out for yourself.

Posted by Ambar jaiswal at 4:43 PM 0 comments
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Remains of the Day: DVDs Imported to iTunes Now Stream to Your iDevices [For What It's Worth]

 Apple quietly moves your DVDs to the cloud, The Pirate Bay anticipates another raid, and Intuit finally makes Quicken 2007 Lion-compliant.

You Can Now Stream Many of Your DVDs From iTunes in the Cloud: iTunes Digital Copies of your DVDs and Blu-rays now get synced to your iTunes in the Cloud library for streaming, as long as the title is found in the iTunes store. [Gizmodo]Leaked: Police Plan to Raid The Pirate Bay: The Pirate Bay claims inside information about new warrants secretly issued in an ongoing investigation by Swedish authorities, but the site is confident it can weather any future raids. [TorrentFreak]Quicken 2007 and Lion Will Play Nice for $15: Intuit released Quicken for Lion this week, a long-awaited Mac update to their flagship financial software, supporting both OS X Lion's Intel architecture and files from past Quicken releases. [Macworld]Apple Shutting Down iWork.com on July 31 Amid Transition to iCloud: After languishing in beta for years, the service is being dropped in favor of iCloud syncing, with no word whether iWork's planned collaboration features will find their way into iCloud or some other product in the future. [Macrumors]Apple Pushing Back Initial iPad Orders in UK as Shipments to US Customers Begin: With launch inventory exhausted, pre-orders in the US should be arriving late next week, while several UK customers are reporting revised delivery dates early the following week. [Macrumors]Lenovo Recalls 160,000 PCs Due to Fire Risk: A fault in the power supplies of certain Lenovo M70z and M90z all-in-one PCs has been deemed a fire hazard by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, following a couple incidents of smoke or fire. [Neowin]Related Stories
Posted by Ambar jaiswal at 9:43 AM 0 comments
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iTunes 1080p vs. Blu-ray: Surprisingly Close, But Not Perfect [Video]

Apple has started filling the iTunes Store with higher quality, 1080p versions of movies, and despite the fact that they're nearly 1/10th the size of their Blu-Ray counterparts, Ars Technica found that the quality is almost as good. Sharpness and color reproduction were just about on par, though iTunes lost a bit of detail in grainy shots and had lots of issues with dark gradients (at least in the one movie they tested). Still, for 1/10th the size, that's not bad at all—plus you don't have to do the work of ripping it yourself. The one other big difference is that Blu-Ray discs contain a channel of DTS-HD audio, which is higher quality than iTunes' Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo AAC tracks, so if you're an audiophile, Blu-Ray gets another point in that category as well. Hit the link to see the full rundown, complete with many more comparison shots. [Ars Technica]


In the above photo, iTunes is on the left, while Blu-Ray is on the right. You can see that a very tiny amount of detail is missing in the iTunes version, particularly in the lighter areas of the face—hard to notice as it may be.

Posted by Ambar jaiswal at 6:32 AM 0 comments
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Friday, March 9, 2012

Apple Now Selling Low Bitrate, High Quality "Mastered for iTunes" Tracks [Music]

Apple Now Selling Low Bitrate, High Quality "Mastered for iTunes" TracksApple just launched a new section of the iTunes Store called "Mastered for iTunes", which includes tracks specifically mastered to sound good at low bitrates—no matter what kind of audio equipment you're using.

We've talked about bitrate before, and it's pretty simple: the lower the bitrate, the more compressed and low-quality your music becomes. However, since it saves space, most online music stores, like iTunes, sell music in low-bitrate formats so they're quick to download and fit on your mobile devices. The problem is, many tracks these days are mastered for low-end audio equipment, like your iPod earbuds with things like bass boost added to make them sound less "thin". As a result, they sound bad when you try to play them on good speakers or headphones.

Mastered for iTunes tracks are AAC, as usual, but are mastered with a specific set of guidelines in mind, designed to sound good on any type of audio equipment. Essentially, they're mastering the tracks so that when you downconvert them to AAC, you lose the least amount of data possible. They aren't lossless, but they're designed to be a better compromise between space efficiency and audio quality. Ars Technica has a great writeup on the ins and outs of the process, and Tested does a good job of summing it up in a more concise, easy-to-understand way, for those of you interested in the process.

For the rest of you, you can check out these new Mastered for iTunes tracks in the iTunes Store right now. Right now there are about 100 albums available, from popular artists like U2, Nirvana, Metallica, Coldplay, and more, with others to be added soon. They look like they're the same price as non-Mastered for iTunes albums too, which is great. Head to the iTunes store to check it out—you should see it right on the front page.

Mastered for iTunes: how audio engineers tweak music for the iPod age | Ars Technica

Related Stories

View the original article here

Posted by Ambar jaiswal at 4:16 PM 0 comments
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Thursday, March 1, 2012

iTunes Store could be slated for a major overhaul this year

iTunes Store could be slated for a major overhaul this year | Apple - CNET News CNET News @import "http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/Ads/common/css/SponsoredTextLink/sponsoredTextLink.live.css"; Manage Packages With UPS My Choice Home Reviews Cell Phones Camcorders Digital Cameras Laptops TVs Car Tech Forums Appliances Cell Phone Accessories Components Desktops E-book Readers Games and Gear GPS Hard Drives & Storage Headphones Home Audio Home Video Internet Access Monitors MP3 Players Networking and Wi-Fi Peripherals Printers Software Tablets Web Hosting You are here: News Latest News Mobile Startups Cutting Edge Media Security Business Tech Health Tech Crave Apple Microsoft Politics & Law Gaming & Culture Blogs Video Photos RSS Download Windows Software Mac Software Mobile Apps Web Apps The Download Blog CNET TV How To Computers Home Theater Smartphones Tablets Web Marketplace Log In | Join Log In Join CNET Sign in with My profile Log out .mad_center {text-align:center;} .mad_center div, .mad_center table, .mad_center iframe, .mad_center a img {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;}
CNET News Apple iTunes Store could be slated for a major overhaul this year Lance Whitney by Lance Whitney February 21, 2012 6:17 AM PST Follow @lancewhit

A redesign of the iTunes Store and the App Store could be in the works for later this year, according to 9to5Mac.

Is the iTunes Store scheduled for a major redesign?Is the iTunes Store scheduled for a major redesign?

(Credit:Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET)

iTunes users who've been wishing for a kinder, gentler version of the online store may finally get their wish.

Apple is said to be prepping a redesign of the iTunes Store and the App Store for later this year, says 9to5Mac. The goal would be to make the store simpler and help users more easily and quickly find the content they need.

Apple has reportedly told its various music and entertainment partners that it wants to make the iTunes Store a "much more engaging experience," 9to5Mac added. Tthe redesign is considered a "top priority" for Apple in light of rival operations such as Amazon's online music store and Spotify's music streaming service.

The overhaul would affect the iTunes experience for music, movies, TV shows, and apps but could include the iBookstore as well. Changes to the iOS mobile versions of the iTunes Store and App Store are likely in the works as well.

Still unknown, however, is whether the revamp would extend to the actual iTunes desktop application, says 9to5Mac. It's possible Apple would redo its online store but only unveil a small update to iTunes 10.

Well, here's one iTunes user hoping Apple will revamp the iTunes application as well.

The iTunes desktop app began life as a relatively simple way to synchronize youriPod content with your computer. But over the years, the program has become more complicated, more bloated, and more confusing.

I teach aniPad class for adults in my spare hours. The students typically find the iPad fairly intuitive and enjoy learning its various features. But when I show them iTunes, their eyes start to glaze over as if they can't understand why they need to use this cumbersome piece of software.

Apple has continually focused on adding new features, such as Ping and iTunes Match, but in so doing has also turned iTunes into a beast of a program.

I run iTunes primarily on aWindows 7 PC. Of all the software I use, iTunes gives me the most amount of trouble. It freezes, it hangs, it crashes. To be fair, the last few versions have improved the stability somewhat. Version 10 doesn't freeze or crash as often as did the previous versions. But it still reeks of software that definitely needs an overhaul with an eye toward simplicity and reliability.

So a redesign of the iTunes Store and App Store would be a step in the right direction. But what we really need is a kinder and gentler iTunes app itself.

Posted by Ambar jaiswal at 8:47 PM 0 comments
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