iTunes

Apple’s New Thunderbolt Technology Could Eventually Come to the iPhone

Alex Heath ∙ February 25, 2011

Apple recently introduced a new connection technology dubbed "Thunderbolt." In Apple's MacBook Pro refresh, the Thunderbolt port has been added as a new wired connection architecture that Apple hopes will unify its connection technologies.

The key feature for the Thunderbolt architecture is speed. Thunderbolt promises to be lighting fast (pardon the pun) and offer incredible speeds for data transfers. The need for Thunderbolt is evident for the desktop, but it's not a stretch to imagine that Thunderbolt could eventually make its way to iOS devices.

Apple Mulling Over Higher Quality Music For iTunes

Jeff Benjamin ∙ February 23, 2011

If you want fast food, you're going to sacrifice on the quality of said meal; the same applies to music. Over the years the digital music revolution has indeed made digesting tons of good music easier, but it came at the expense of quality.

Apple is looking to rectify some of the quality issues by potentially allowing the use and download of 24-bit audio files; the current industry standard is 16-bit audio.

What does this mean for users like you and I? Does this mean we'll end up paying more for our music? Check inside as we mull over the possibilities...

App Store Previews Now Showing on Twitter

Alex Heath ∙ February 17, 2011

Twitter has integrated App Store previews into its website for tweets containing links to iOS apps. If you tweet a link to the App Store, Twitter.com will automatically show a preview of the app with a description and screenshots.

This new feature allows for easy viewing of apps in tweets before being redirected to iTunes. The previews are only available on Twitter's website...

Sony Planning on Dumping iTunes?

Jeff Benjamin ∙ February 11, 2011

Talk about something that would hurt iTunes' bottom line, and many hearts, including Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Reeling after the App Store rejection of their eBook Reader app, a Sony executive has hinted that the company's catalogue of music could have a limited shelf life on iTunes.

As you can probably imagine, Sony's music catalogue goes waaaay back, and includes some of the most popular recording artists in music history; think Beyonce, Bob Dylan (a Jobs favorite), etc.

Would they really dare to take on Apple in this manner?

FreeSync Allows You to Use Your iPhone While Syncing With iTunes

Jeff Benjamin ∙ February 9, 2011

If the story sounds familiar, that's because it is. You want to be able to use your iPhone while synching with iTunes, so what do you do?

You jailbreak your iPhone, and install one of two tweaks: Synchronicity or FreeSync. Both tweaks do a good job at allowing you chug away at your iPhonely duties while syncing with iTunes, and both are similarly priced.

With that in mind, which jailbreak tweak should you go with? We've already covered Synchronicity -- a tweak that made it into our Top 10 Jailbreak Apps for 2010 list -- so lets look at the flipside of the coin with FreeSync...

Wi-Fi Sync 2.0 Beta Now Available

Guest Author ∙ Updated April 3, 2018

As of last night, British developer Greg Hughes has finally released the public beta of Wi-Fi Sync 2.0. For those of you who do not know, Wi-Fi Sync allows you to sync your iPhone over a WiFi network without connecting to iTunes via the USB cable.

We have been waiting for this release for quite some time, and we were quite pleased to see the developer post the link on Twitter last night. Today, if you are on the mailing list, you will receive an invitation to try it out. The bottom line is...

Prevent Accidentally Updating Your iPhone With RecoveryGuard

Guest Author ∙ January 31, 2011

Have you ever accidentally updated your jailbroken or unlocked iDevice, leaving you without a jailbreak or unlock for weeks or even months? Well, there’s finally a solution to stop accidental updating.

From the creator of MiTime and Pushfix, comes another extremely useful utility! RecoveryGuard is a new tool which prevents accidental upgrade and restore of your iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Check inside for details on how it works...

iTunes 10.1.2 Conveniently Drops Before the Verizon iPhone 4 Launch, Apple Hides Details From Upgraders

Jeff Benjamin ∙ January 28, 2011

Everything seems to be falling into place for a fairly smooth Verizon iPhone 4 launch. The announcement was made, pricing details have been released, and the pre-order arrangement has been established. Hmm, what's left?

What about an iTunes update so that you can actually use your iPhone when you receive it? Apple has you covered there as well, with the recently pushed iTunes 10.1.2 update.

Can you guess what this latest update includes?

Apple Posts a Roundup of iPhone Apps From TV Ads

Alex Heath ∙ Updated February 18, 2018

We all love Apple's broadcast commercials. They're elegant, pretty, and a great way to show off what makes the iPhone special.

There have been many iPhone ads from Apple over the years. These ads show off some of the best apps in the App Store. Have you ever seen an app in an iPhone commercial and wished you knew its name so you could download it yourself?

Apple has posted a roundup of popular apps from iPhone TV ads on iTunes...

Tip: How to Stop Text From Appearing Over Your iPod Album Artwork

Alex Heath ∙ January 27, 2011

Annoyed by text appearing over your album artwork in your iPod app? What about all that description junk that usually appears over podcasts? Whenever you tap on your song/podcast's album cover, the time "scrubber" drops down with other settings like shuffle and repeat.

Depending on your song/podcast's metadata, tapping the album artwork could also result in text being displayed over the artwork. You can download songs with lyric or credit info in the description. Lots of podcasts use this window to display episode descriptions and show notes.

Some people really like this feature of the iPod app. It does have its positives. However, if you find it annoying, we'll show you how to easily hide text from appearing over your album artwork...

The App Store Gets An Official Twitter Account

Alex Heath ∙ Updated August 24, 2016

Who says Apple doesn't like Twitter? The hilarious @CEOSteveJobs Twitter account was recently approached by Twitter (on Apple's behalf ) and asked to make clear that the account was parody and not reflective of Apple Inc. While Apple had a bad impression of Twitter in that case, the company still understands the value in the "tweet."

Apple has a few official Twitter accounts in existence. The @AppStore is the newest addition. The App Store welcomed itself into the Twittersphere with the tweet, "Welcome to App Store on Twitter! Follow us to discover new apps, get exclusive offers, and share with friends. #appstore"

Apple will use @AppStore for featured apps, promotions, and hopefully some interesting App Store facts and statistics...

Woman Hangs Up on $10,000 iTunes Gift Card Phone Call

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

When Orpington, England resident Gail Davis tapped "install" to download Paper Glider, she got a free game. Unbeknownst to her, the install also yielded her a $10,000 iTunes gift card; the result of being the 10 billionth app downloaded in the history of the App Store.

I guess you could say that Davis had impeccable timing. Unfortunately her timing skills didn't carry over to an extremely timely phone call; one from Eddy Cue, Apple’s VP of iTunes.

You see, Davis mistakenly perceived the phone call to be nothing more than a prank, so she hung up the phone...