All Articles in iTunes

Harbinger of things to come? Or just coincidence? You decide. But while you’re deciding, head on over to Apple Software Update and grab yourself a copy of iTunes 8.0.2 and its quality, connectivity, and accessibility fixes.

(Though if you’ve jailbroken, or intend to Unlock when it becomes available, AVOID as we’ve already seen that the new MacBook lineups have jailbreak unfriendly iTunes builds, and this could be more of the same).

Got it? Gotten it? Let us know if you find any tantalizing iPhone hints!

According to CNet (via Apple Insider), Apple is in talks with the remaining 3 out of the Big 4 record labels who still refuse to allow iTunes to sell DRM-free music.

Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony BMG currently provide DRM-free music to rival services like Amazon MP3 as a way to promote competition to iTunes, though the lack of availability of these services outside the US, along with iTunes continued (and growing) dominance in digital music, may be causing them to rethink that position.

EMI, of course, has been offering DRM-free music via Apple’s iTunes Plus service since it launched, and at double the bit rate (quality) of the regular music.

Hopefully we’ll soon see the day that big music decides to stop treating their customers as de facto thieves and realizes offering quality goods at fair market prizes is the only real way to stop piracy. Or am I the crazy one?

Technically motor vehicles, we suppose, as people who can still afford to fill up the honking huge gas tanks on trucks and the like get their fair share of iPhone/iPod love as well, as Ars Technica reports that integration has now hit a majority level of 58%.

Proprietary dock port notwithstanding, Apple’s dominance of the music player — and now music phone — market has no doubt driven (ha!) the adaption. More egalitarian-ly, USB integration has hit 33%, with an even higher rate of increase. Says Jeff Smykll:

When my significant other bought her new Scion XD earlier in the year, one of the things she was really excited about was the iPod integration that came standard. The unit is pretty slick: the iPod can be controlled from the steering wheel, the information about the currently-playing song is available on the head unit, and the iPod’s playlists can be traversed using the stereo’s knobs.

Pretty slick. Now we have to decide if we’re going to spend our recession-dwindled savings on a car with iPhone integration… or similarly priced Macbook Air. Oh, why do you test us so, Apple?!

Ha! No iPhone news indeed! We knew Steve Jobs wouldn’t abandon us completely, not his baby, not his “third-leg” love child! Jason Snell, putting the new MacBooks under the microscope for Macworld, discovers (via Daring Fireball):

Yes, it’s true — these new MacBooks work with your iPhone headphones. If you click the button on your iPhone headphones, iTunes pauses. Click again, and the music resumes. A double-click advances one track, and a triple-click moves back a track—just like on the iPhone. What’s more, the headphones’ built-in microphone appears as the input device “Microphone port” in the Sound preference pane.

How awesome — and completely Apple-like is that?

(But is it enough to make you order a new MacBook?)

Continuing the (very welcome) trend of rapid, bug-fix (including the nasty HD overwrite Dieter wrote about a while back!) and stability themed product updates, Apple has released its first minor bump to iTunes 8 (see our feature overview), the aptly numbered 8.0.1. The list of changes, voluminous by Apple’s standards, include (via Macrumors):

Head on over to Apple Software Update to get the latest — and hopefully greatest version for your iPhone. Then come back here and let us know how it’s working for you, and… er.. whether it breaks anything else… Read the rest of this entry »