As we told you this morning, some customers started receiving their iPad minis today, despite the fact that the tablet doesn't officially launch until Friday. This gave us early unboxing photos and new details about the product.
One of those details is that on the back of the iPad mini's retail box, it says that the tablet requires iTunes 11 for sync. But, as we all know, Apple has pushed its iTunes 11 release back to November. So what's the deal?
That's right, no new iTunes on Halloween for you! As you know, Apple promised to release iTunes 11, a major overhaul, by the end of October. Now it seems yesterday's management re-shuffling has affected the release schedule a bit as the company said today that iTunes is "is taking longer than expected".
The new release date is now being pegged at the end of November, a month from now, as Apple needs some more time to get the new iTunes right. That's a repeat of last fall, when Apple similarly postponed the launch of iTunes Match.
And perhaps inadvertently, Apple may have silenced the critics, just like that: instead of shipping prematurely, which reportedly was one of Scott Forstall's deadly sins (Maps, Siri), Apple is now taking its time to have such a critical piece of software in the perfectly solid shape before getting it out of the door...
Just as we're counting down until markets close and Apple reports its quarterly earnings, Bloomberg conveniently publishes a report about work on Apple's own Internet radio service apparently slated for early next year. The iPhone maker reportedly has "intensified negotiations" with major record labels about launching an iAd-supported online radio service.
These talks currently focus on various advertising revenue sharing schemes, with the final deal possibly on the horizon by mid-November. In addition to an upfront fee, music companies reportedly demand a percentage of iAd sales and the ability to insert their own commercials for artists...
In case you were not able to watch the iPad mini keynote live as it was happening yesterday, Apple made the video available for streaming on its website shortly after. But for those of you who don't want to be tied to a wifi network in order to watch the keynote, you'll be happy to learn that the whole iPad mini event is now available as a podcast download from iTunes...
In its never-ending quest to improve app discovery, Apple with iOS 6 added to its App Store on the iPad, iPhone and Mac something called App Collections, a curated section which lists apps that the company personally tested. As of recently, App Collections are now prominently featured on iOS devices and Macs via a dedicated section nested within the Categories menu of the App Store and iTunes. All of the apps featured in App Collections are basically recommendations by Apple's editorial team...
Microsoft announced Sunday evening that it was going to be launching its new streaming music service, Xbox Music, in the coming weeks. The move will pit Microsoft directly against Spotify, RDIO, and even iTunes.
Xbox Music will debut on — what else — the Xbox, and then roll out to Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 devices as they become available later this month. Microsoft says it's also working on iOS and Android clients...
It's been widely reported that Apple dropped stock YouTube and Google Maps app in iOS 6. I'm not really sure how nobody noticed this before, but it's been reported that Apple did kill another handy feature: the ability to gift apps.
The removal of the gifting capability affects mobile App Store storefronts running on iPhones, iPads and iPod touches as users can still gift apps using desktop iTunes on a Mac or PC. Apple itself confirmed the change and it's unknown when (or if, for that matter) the feature will return to iOS 6...
Good news today for folks in Germany and Switzerland. Reports are coming in this afternoon that Apple has recently started rolling out 'TV shows in the Cloud' in the two countries.
For those unfamiliar with the feature, it allows users to replay previously purchased TV shows through the Purchased tab in iTunes and on iOS devices, including the Apple TV...
With much fanfare, Apple launched Ping alongside iTunes 10 as a social network for music on September 1, 2010. Steve Jobs hailed it as being "sort of like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes". Despite signing up over a million users within the first 48 hours from launch, the experiment quickly went wrong.
The promised Facebook integration was pulled shortly after Ping was released, reportedly because Facebook wanted "onerous terms" that Apple could not agree to. Making good on Tim Cook's promise, earlier this month Ping began alerting users it was no longer accepting new sign ups and would shut down Sunday, September 30.
Are you sad that Apple sent Ping to the technology graveyard?
Have an iPhone 4, iPod touch, or below running iOS 6, and would like to downgrade back to iOS 5.1.1? Doing so is easy is you have your SHSH blobs saved for iOS 5.1.1 and can follow the steps inside. Unlike the beta period of iOS 6, you must have your SHSH blobs for iOS 5.1.1 save for you device now, because Apple has stopped signing iOS 5.1.1.
To downgrade, you will need the latest public version of RedSn0w. We will use the SHSH Stitching feature to combine the appropriate IPSW file for 5.1.1 and your corresponding SHSH blob for the device you wish to downgrade. It may sound a bit confusing, but it's extremely easy if you follow along carefully.
Take a look inside for the full walkthrough and video how-to.
It isn't news that Apple wanted to create a streaming-music service that would compete against Pandora. But now we are learning the back-story of why the idea was nixed - and it is a familiar refrain. According to a Friday morning news report, music publisher Sony/ATV wanted larger royalties for its songs...
If you wanted to watch Tim Cook and his team the iPhone 5, iOS 6, iTunes and new iPods but don't want to stream, you can now download the entire iPhone 5 keynote as iTunes video podcast, free of charge. Though Apple did not provide a live stream of yesterday's event, just a few hours later the company made available a streaming video of the presentation through its web site. If history is indication, following the Apple.com stream and iTunes podcast it shouldn't be too long until the keynote pops up on Apple's YouTube channel...