Category: apple

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iTunes Plus upgrades now à la carte

One of the big criticisms of the introduction of the widespread use of iTunes Plus on the iTunes Store (ie the removal of DRM) which was announced at MacWorld 2009 was the fact that you had to do an all or nothing upgrade.

That has now changed.

Upgrades now no longer have to be on a whole library basis they can be now done on an iTunes Plus upgrades now à la carte basis as seen in Apple’s FAQ (note opens in iTunes). You can now do single songs.

As a result I can upgrade my Prince songs, but not necessarily the Steps track I must have bought when I was not really with it!

iTunes Plus

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EyeHome Replacement

Since my EyeHome stopped working, I am guessing it was the transformer again, I have been thinking about a possible replacement.

Choices are limited, Elgato no longer make the EyeHome or any type of replacement.

You can buy uPnP devices, however my experiences with the PS3 make me wary of purchasing a uPnP media streamer.

I am supposing the obvious choice is the Apple TV, however I am not sure if I can connect it to my TV. I don’t have an HDTV, so the connectors won’t really work with a SCART television.

So do I upgrade my television so that I can use an Apple TV?

Decisions.

Going to try and see if I can find an EyeHome power replacement.

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12 Days of Christmas iTunes Giveaway

Apple’s iTunes Store is offering twelve days of giveaways from the 26th December to the 6th January.

For iTunes 12 Days Of Christmas, we’ve delved deep into our catalogue to pull out some real treats for the holiday season. Check back here every day for rare singles, exclusive live tracks and free music videos from some of the biggest artists in the world today. Plus classic TV programmes that you just won’t want to miss. Consider them little stocking fillers for your new iPod.

Find out more.

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Nokia N97

I see that the Nokia N97 has been announced. A very nice new phone which as well as a touchscreen also has a slide out keyboard.

Obviously designed to compete with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s G1 it is Nokia’a answer to the new internet phone now being demanded by consumers.

There are some early reviews out now, CNET and ZDNet.

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The new MacBooks

Popped into the Apple Store today to check out the new MacBooks and boy are they nice. Though I had seen them online, there is something about seeing them in the flesh.

They are constructed well and I like the way they are made from a brick of aluminum.

I might have to get one.

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Mail.app believes iTunes receipt from Apple is junk

You might have thought that the Mail.app included with OS X might have a hunch that e-mails from Apple (specifically from apple.com) probably isn’t going to be a spammer.

True you as a user may mark e-mails from Apple as junk manually, but the automated process, nah!

Or so you would think!

A few days ago I “purchased” a fair few apps from the iTunes store and as per usual Apple sent me a receipt outlining my purchases. I have received many of these not just because of the stuff I buy, but also as I more often then not download the free single of the week as well.

So you can imagine my surprise when Mail.app marked my latest receipt as junk!

Mail.app believes iTunes receipt from Apple is junk

No idea why.

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iPhone 3G available 11th July

Apple announced iPhone 3G on Monday in a keynote by Steve Jobs at the WWDC in San Francisco. It will be available in the UK on the 11th July via O2.

New features include:

  • 3G-capable. 2.8 times faster than EDGE.
  • GPS built-in
  • Thinner
  • Better battery life – 300 hours of standby, 2G talk-time 10 hours (as opposed to 5), 5 hours of 3G talk-time (competition is 3 hour 3G talk time), 5 to 6 hours of high-speed browsing, 7 hours of video, 24 hours of audio.
  • Flush headphone jack

Other new features are:

  • contact searching
  • complete iWork document support
  • complete Office document support (now includes PowerPoint)
  • bulk delete and move for Mail
  • save images you receive
  • scientific calculator in landscape mode
  • parental controls
  • language

I wonder if the Keynote (iWork) and PowerPoint support also allows you to show the presentation via an AV cable in the same way you can do at the moment with video and images.

It will be interesting to see also if iWork (or even Office) support includes editing and creating support, or is it just going to be reading, I suspect the latter.

Of course there are also all the features announced when the iPhone SDK was released earlier this year which include:

  • Exchange and ActivSync support
  • Applications
  • VPN

Downside is that you now need to activate the phone in store, so now unlocking just became a lot more expensive as you will have to buy into a phone plan as well as the phone.

Though O2 do say they will be offering it on a Pay As You Go contract in addition to the Pay Monthly contract they had with the old iPhone.

Overall I am tempted by the new iPhone, it’s certainly a much

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iTunes Movies in the UK – hmmmm

I was quite pleased the other day to hear that movies films would be available in the UK iTunes Store.

iTunes Movies in the UK - hmmmm

At the time I had a quick look over the store and saw lots of films. The number one film was (at that time) I am Legend, I was quite impressed that the price for the film was only £6.99 – and that seemed to explain why it was number one. I was also interested to see that National Treasure 2 was also available and thought “I’ll rent that”.

At that time I was busy with work so knew I would leave until later to get them.

So today I upgraded my version of iTunes and decided I would buy I am Legend and rent National Treasure 2.

So you can imagine my disappointment, to see that I am Legend had gone up in price to £10.99. So why was it cheaper to begin with? Why has it gone up? Was it a mistake that Apple has now corrected? Or did I imagine it all?

Ah well so not to worry I’ll rent National Treasure 2 instead. Even with the rental limitation, I was fine with that, I could always transfer the film to an iPod and connect the iPod to my television.

Oh.

No.

Yes, though I can buy National Treasure 2 for £10.99, I couldn’t rent it!

It’s suppose to be a reasonably fun film, worth renting, but not worth buying it and certainly not worth paying £10.99.

So my first proper attempt to get films off the iTunes Store was not a great success, ah well maybe next time.

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iTunes Movies in the UK

Great news for all iTunes Store users in the UK, we can now buy and rent movies.

From the Apple press release:

Apple® today announced that movies from major film studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate UK are now available on the iTunes® Store in the UK (www.apple.com/uk/itunes). Movie purchases and rentals feature iTunes’ legendary ease of use, which makes discovering and enjoying movies as simple and easy as buying music on iTunes has always been. The iTunes Store in the UK features over 700 films available for rent or purchase, with titles available for purchase on the same day as their DVD release, including favorites such as “Hitman,” “I Am Legend,” “National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets” and “Into the Wild.” iTunes Movie Rentals also features over 100 titles available in stunning high definition, perfect for viewing on a widescreen TV with Apple TV®.

I am very pleased with this, and I suspect I may use it a fair bit.

I am even now seriously considering getting an Apple TV just so I can watch the movies on my TV, well I guess I can use the iPod nano in the meantime.