itunes

OK, so I get the iMac, the iBook, the iPod, iTunes, and even (grudgingly) the iPhone. Apple thought up the moniker, so we can't begrudge them for expanding on the very successful franchise. But the iTrip, the iRiver Clix and Cowon's range of iAudio products tested the limits of my patience. And I could have held my tongue if BMW's iDrive had been the end of iOpportunism.

But when I noticed the iLoad--a device for ripping CDs and DVDs to iPod without a computer--on Senior Editor Donald Bell's desk this morning, I felt the need … Read more

Hundreds of Web developers, designers, and ordinary geeks gathered this weekend to build usable applications for Apple's iPhone. The barcamp.org event was hosted at Adobe Town Hall and featured dozens of sponsors. The hack-a-thon began on Saturday morning, and wrapped up late Sunday afternoon when each team had a chance to present its app.

Some teams included a group of Yahoo! developers, and others included complete strangers who had just met the day before. I give credit to all teams who participated, but here are the 10 most memorable creations:

10. iPhoneVote This application was the first one presented at the hack-a-thon, and it was used as a voting system for the event. You would tilt your iPhone in portrait mode to vote yay, and tilt it horizontally to give a negative vote. There was a laptop set up in the front of the room, and it was updated in real time. Unfortunately, I don't think the app reset each time a new team would present, so the votes just tallied up into the 80s. Even though it wasn't used for its official purpose, it was a great burst of hope for future apps like this, and boosted the morale of the developers in the room.

9. AppMarks If you have an iPhone, make AppMarks your Safari home page. The interface models the iPhone front door, but instead, each icon links to a Web app or HTML bookmark. I mentioned AppMarks in this blog post a few days ago. AppMarks is cool, but I want to see more functionality. If the AppMarks people want users to add AppMarks as their home page, they need to always be thinking of new features. There are other products, like Mojits, that are right on their heels.

8. PickleView The only sports application presented was called PickleView. Ryan Christianson from the Walt Disney Internet Group explained that in baseball, a pickle is a play in which a base runner is trapped between bases with fielders tossing the ball back and forth and usually ending with the runner being tagged out. Most will remember it well from the 1990s classic,The Sandlot.

Their iPhone app visualizes a box-score view of your favorite teams’s stats, and then displays a mock Twitter feed of PickleView's friends. I am not sure if that's how this app works, but the developers have a cool concept.… Read more

I found myself at a friend's birthday party July 4 eve with a bunch of San Francisco hipsters celebrating the fact that the next day was a holiday.

Downstairs, DJs were spinning techno and break beats; upstairs was a mellower scene. The attic of this historic home in the Presidio had been turned into the ultimate chill pad, the floors covered in futons and faux-fur throws, lamps throwing colored light on the ceiling; a carefully chosen ambient selection drifting from iTunes. On a big screen, the interactive iTunes Visualizer was warping the music into beautiful swirls of color and … Read more

Apple may soon be facing some courtroom issues related to a snapshot by an accomplished photographer and a sugary song by pop singer Avril Lavigne, according to two recent sets of court documents that were reported by AppleInsider.

Both cases have yet to go to court.

The first suit, filed on May 25 in a San Francisco court, names Apple only peripherally. James Gangwer and Tommy Dunbar, the members of a 1970s band called the Rubinoos, allege that Canadian singer Lavigne's recent single "Girlfriend" borrowed a bit too liberally from their 1979 song "I Wanna Be … Read more

We have been hearing some grumblings recently from the record labels about iTunes' strong hold on the online music industry. Apparently some of them are complaining about the uniform pricing across all songs and some are unhappy with the use of DRM (Digital Rights Management) on their songs. Well, today we are seeing some of those grumblings take center stage. The New York Times has the scoop that Universal Music Group has decided to not renew their annual contract with Apple to serve up their music on iTunes. Although the article does say that Universal may still offer music on … Read more

According to reports in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) and New York Times, Universal is pressing for new terms as it renews its contract with Apple. Until the contract negotiations are worked out, Universal will offer songs "at will" through the service, meaning it can yank them at any time if they don't come to an agreement.

Universal is the largest record label in the world, accounting for about 26% of all recorded music sales (according to the company). It has also been, along with Sony BMG, one of the most aggressive about protecting its business … Read more

Pink Floyd fans who may have thought that they had bought their last copy of The Dark Side of the Moon are helping to make the landmark album a best seller again--this time at Apple's iTunes.

The reason appears to be its availability in a new audio format--yes, again.

Thanks to generations of music fans wearing out copies of the album on LPs, 8-track tapes and cassette tapes, Dark Side has sold more 35 million copies worldwide since it was released in 1973 and has spent more than 1,550 weeks as one of Billboard's Top 200 best-selling … Read more

During CNET's review of the Apple iPhone I found a surprising omission from the iPhone's device tab in iTunes. It seems that there's no way to manually move content between iTunes and the iPhone. Instead, content management relies entirely on automatic syncing preferences. As someone who uses their iPod on multiple computers, I rely on the 'Manage music and videos manually' check box that appears in the device manager tab when I connect my iPod to iTunes. Without it, each time I sync my iPod to a different computer I run the risk of having content overwritten. … Read more

As expected, Apple on Friday issued iTunes 7.3, which adds support for that ringy thingy that hits the market today.

The software contains a link in its help section to the iPhone manual, but when I went to check it out it was a dead link. I'm leaving the link here, because I assume at some point Friday it will be live.

There is also an iPhone tab in the preferences page. But if, like me, you don't have the super-gadget, all you get is a painful reminder that you are leading an iPhoneless existence.

"The … Read more