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TomTom Provides Update to App For iPod Touch/First-Gen iPhone Users

Matthew Tilmann — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:24:23 -0600

Fans of TomTom who use an iPod Touch or first-gen iPhone can now not only navigate their music, but can navigate around town too according to Apple Insider. The catch is, one needs TomTom's car kit, due to the Touch and phone lacking a GPS chip.

Version 1.2 had been submitted to Apple on November 12th and was released yesterday. Users can now look forward to newly updated maps and IQ Routes. Additional features include lane guidance, text-to-speech, and iPod player support.

TomTom's app sells for $99.99 USD from the App Store, and TomTom's car kit is available on their website for $119.95 USD.

iPod touch (Third-Gen)

Ray Aguilera — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:51:11 -0600

It pains us to find fault with such a rich, generously appointed handheld media player. But while the third generation of the iPod touch has plenty of outstanding features, they’re all mostly legacy features, and there’s really not much to celebrate in the new-and-awesome category. If you’ve been in the market for a touch, this one will please you immensely. But if you already own a touch, you’d do better to start saving up for something truly revolutionary--like maybe Apple’s long-rumored tablet.

The touch is now available in three configurations starting at $199. All sport hard volume buttons, an internal speaker, and a 3.5-inch capacitive multitouch screen. And while the high-end models add Apple’s Voice Control (more on that in a bit), all the other functions remain the same across the three configs. There is no built-in camera, despite all the pre-release chatter about that prospect.

Just like the old touch, only (a little bit) better.

The base 8GB model is identical to the second-gen 8GB model, except with a $30 price cut. The two higher-end 32GB and 64GB models, on the other hand, boast faster processors that gives them performance that’s on par with that of the iPhone 3GS. The highest capacity touch is advertised to hold a whopping 14,000 songs, though Apple bases that number on 128Kbps AAC files, which haven’t been for sale in the iTunes Store since April of 2009. Apple’s new standard is the 256Kbps AAC file, so your real-world capacity could be somewhat different if you buy lots of iTunes tracks or use higher bit rates for encoding your own media. Also, battery life is down a tad, to about 30 hours of music playback.

Speed-wise, the new 32GB and 64GB touch models post impressive improvements over their second-gen predecessors. Launching Peggle on the previous model iPod touch took 13.8 seconds, but the new touch does it in 6.9 seconds. Similar speed gains were seen when running the SunSpider JavaScript test in Safari: The third-gen touch is twice as fast, completing the benchmark in 15.2 seconds, compared to 31.8 seconds for its predecessor.

Using Voice Control features, you can now control your 32GB or 64GB touch by speaking commands into the included inline mic/remote on the earbuds. Voice Control worked well in a variety of settings, and it’s a convenient new feature for the touch, which (obviously) lacks hard playback controls.

Patent: New Wireless iPod/Headset Combo?

Cory Bohon — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:14:32 -0500

A new iPod patent filing has been unearthed today that shows us an iPod built into a small Bluetooth-style headset. Could it be a replacement for the iPod shuffle?

According to the US patent application, the device is a "wireless headset with integrated media player." Apple has included the following abstract about the patent filing:

"Additional functionality in a wireless headset allows it to be used during times that the external device with which it is wirelessly coupled is not being used, but when the headset is nevertheless being worn. This is accomplished by integrating a media player into the wireless headset. The media player may be an audio player, capable, e.g., of playing audio files such as MPEG-3 ("MP3") files. Optionally, the media player may include a recording function as well, so that a user can record voice notes. In addition, if the external device is a telephone (mobile or landline), the availability of a recording function could make it possible for the user to record all or part of a conversation. Similarly, voicemail messages received on the user's telephone could be uploaded into the headset for later off-line playback. Media files recorded by the headset also could be downloaded to the external device."

Of course, just because it's a patent doesn't mean that Apple will create a product. We think this could be a neat addition to the Apple lineup though and wonder if it could possibly replace the iPod shuffle.

You can read the full details on the U.S. Patent Office website.

via 9to5 Mac

iTunes 9.0.2 Follows Apple TV 3.0 Into the World

Roberto Baldwin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:02:06 -0500

To enable grid Dark background - File>Preferences>General>Grid View (Click to embiggen)

Are you ready for some updating, well too bad. Apple is pushing another update on us and this one is for the Apple TV 3.0 software they pushed live a few hours ago. The best part about the update, support for a dark background grid in iTunes.

Yippee!

How long until an series of iPod and iPhone updates are pushed for the new iTunes which in turn is for the new Apple TV. Eventually, they could create an update loop that'll doom us all.

You can download the update via Software Update or from Apple's site.

Apple's notes on the new update:

iTunes 9.0.2 adds support for Apple TV software version 3.0, adds an option for a dark background for Grid View, and improves support for accessibility.

Apple Releases Aluminum Remote

Cory Bohon — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:18:47 -0500

Today Apple released a shiny new remote to go along with the other product announcements. The new remote takes the place of the older, shorter, white plastic remotes that always seemed to squeak when you pressed a button.

The new remotes have the same $19 price tag, but are more iPod shuffle-esque in nature. Oh yeah, they're also made of aluminum (or as Jonathan Ive says, "AlooominiUm").

Apple notes on the store page that these new remotes will work with all Apple IR devices made after 2005, which means that you can get one for your beloved Apple TV, iMac, or MacBook.

You can get yours or see more pictures on the online Apple store.

Microsoft To Bring Zune Services To Mac?

Cory Bohon — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:31:24 -0500

Could Microsoft be bringing their Windows-loving Zune services to the Mac? ZDNet reports that the company is currently contemplating the idea. According to the article and to Microsoft's Director of Communications, Jose Pinero, they are considering whether or not to port their Zune software and service to other devices/platforms, including Apple.

Zune is Microsoft's attempt at smashing the iPod/iPhone market share by releasing a competing device along with services that offer unlimited Music downloads/streaming from their "Zune Marketplace."

Pinero made an interesting statement saying, "We are evaluating a lot of options in terms of platforms" when asked whether or not iPod users could gain access to the Zune services.

You can read the full interview on ZDNet.

Change iTunes 9's Appearance

Cory Bohon — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:18:29 -0500

Many iTunes users bemoaned the passing of the old iTunes theme for the new look in iTunes 9.0. With a quick hack, you can have that old theme back. Buttons and all. There's a MacThemes forum topic where a user has come up with a way to get the old iTunes 8 theme back.

The process is rather involved, requiring you to replace an RSRC file with one that you can download from the MacThemes forum thread. While the forum post doesn't mention this, we would like to add that you should duplicate and back up the RSRC file that you're overwriting. By doing this, you can change the theme back if something gets messed up.

Good luck!

The Complete iTunes History -- SoundJam MP to iTunes 9

Michael Simon — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:36:04 -0500

Watching Steve take the stage and roll out a new version of iTunes got us all nostalgic for the old days, when iTunes logos changed color and our jukebox looked like it could withstand a bomb blast.

Below is the history of the application that is running more than any other on our Macs. It spawned the iPod, iPhone, Apple TV and gave us an excuse to throw out those ugly CD towers that resided in the corners of our houses in the 90s. The ever present, iTunes.

THE START
SoundJam MP

Somewhere around the time Metallica began suing Napster over the leak of its "Mission: Impossible II" track, "I Disappear," in 2000, a light bulb appeared over Steve Jobs’ head. Ever the innovator, Apple’s iCEO saw the peer-to-peer network as more than an illegal nuisance and began to develop a way to leverage the Napster revolution into the next killer Mac app. Audio players such as Audion and SoundApp had already exposed the inadequacies of QuickTime, and Apple knew it needed to build its solution from the ground up.

After being rebuffed by Panic, which was already in negotiations with AOL over use of its Audion code, Steve Jobs approached Robin Casady and Michael Greene to discuss their SoundJam MP app, a powerful digital encoding program that looked a lot like Apple’s QuickTime player. After a series of short negotiations, Casady & Greene sold the rights for SoundJam to Apple for an undisclosed sum, and Apple immediately set to work on the app that would forever change the digital landscape.

While the terms of the contract were top secret (Casady and Greene discontinued their app on June 1, 2001, but were barred from discussing the Apple deal for two years), Apple certainly wasn’t shy about ransacking SoundJam as it incorporated many of its signature features into iTunes, including visualizers, plug-ins, online retrieval of album data and drag-and-drop playlist creation. Much to the dismay of Jelly fans, however, Apple opted to leave SoundJam’s skins on the cutting-room floor.

iTunes 1 (Jan. 9, 2001-Oct. 23, 2001)

About 10 months later, at Macworld San Francisco in 2001, Apple debuted iTunes alongside iDVD and the CD-RW-enabled Power Macs. While it wasn’t exactly a show-stopper (though 275,000 copies were downloaded in the first week), the "world’s best and easiest to use ‘jukebox’ software" definitely raised the bar for music players on the Mac, which were relatively sparse and rather pricey (SoundJam cost $40). By offering iTunes as a free download and installing it on every new Mac, Apple essentially cut down the competition at the pass--or at least put a good scare into them. "Apple has done what Apple does best--make complex applications easy, and make them even more powerful in the process," said Steve Jobs at the time. "iTunes is miles ahead of every other jukebox application, and we hope its dramatically simpler user interface will bring even more people into the digital music revolution."

For many Mac users, iTunes was an introduction to digital music, and Apple strived to create a straightforward jukebox that needed little or no instruction to get started. Popping a music CD into your Mac automatically launched iTunes, which loaded the disc, collected track data from Gracenote and added them to your library. A clean interface split into boxes kept everything neat and always within reach of a mouse click.

Conspicuously missing from iTunes 1 was the ability to burn a CD on an external drive, a deficiency compounded by Apple’s mostly CD-RW-less line of Macs. Apple answered the cries a month later at Macworld Tokyo with the introduction of new iMacs and Cubes with write-able drives, a 1.1 update that added third-party support, and the launch of the controversial "Rip, Mix, Burn" campaign.

iTunes 2 (Oct. 23, 2001-July 17, 2002)

After racking up more than a million downloads in just a few short months, it quickly became clear that iTunes was every bit as revolutionary as Apple hoped. What all those users didn't know, however, was that the music player was merely the first part of a strategy that would redefine the company as more than a Mac maker. in October 2001, Steve Jobs showed us the next piece of Apple's digital hub in the form of an oddly named, undeniably sexy hand-held device. Built exclusively to leverage the popularity of Apple's music app, iPod came bundled with a brand-new version of iTunes that allowed it to seamlessly integrate with the songs and playlists stored on our Macs.

Along with a considerable ratcheting of burn time, Apple also added "the three most requested features" into iTunes 2: MP3 CD burning, a 10-band equalizer and cross fading. A holdover from SoundJam, iTunes’ overdue equalizer came preloaded with more than 20 presets and brought robust, receiver-style tweaking to the desktop. The new crossfader eliminated the annoying gaps between songs and paved the way for a new generation of laptop DJs, and a sound enhancer appealed to audiophiles by adding depth and richness to tracks.

But the real reason for iTunes 2 was iPod support, offering an unparalleled experience that transferred a few days’ worth of music from your Mac to your pocket in just about 10 minutes.

iTunes 3 (July 17, 2002-April 28, 2003)

Introduced at the final Macworld New York keynote as a companion to the first “solid-state touch wheel” iPod, iTunes 3 was a mostly incremental update with few dramatic changes. In the 18 months since its inception, some 14 million copies had been downloaded, so Apple had little reason to change the formula; rather it added just enough new features and enhancements to keep the iPod + iTunes revolution rolling.

With iTunes 3, however, Apple threw down another gauntlet. Reduced prices, greater capacities and slimmer enclosures made the second-generation iPod even more desirable, but the addition of Windows support was the big change, opening up the popular player to millions of new music lovers. But Apple wisely kept iTunes tied to the Mac, forcing Windows users to sync their iPods with MUSICMATCH, a sub-par jukebox that basically served as an advertisement for iTunes’ sleek interface and finer points.

As if to drive the point home, iTunes 3 added a few dozen new features, including track ratings, Sound Check for consistent volume playback, support for Audible audiobooks and Smart Playlists, which streamlined and automated the creation of digital mixes based on a series of predetermined rules. A few other enhancements--new track tags, library consolidation, playlist importing/exporting and track joining--added to the experience and widened the gap between iTunes and every other jukebox on the market.

Click to embiggen

THE STORE
iTunes 4 (April 28, 2003-Sept. 7, 2005)

If iTunes 1 was a revolution, iTunes 4 was a bloody coup. What otherwise would have been a point update with a few minor playback improvements, AAC encoding and network sharing, iTunes 4 would have barely been noticeable without the addition of a new member to the "Source" sidebar: Music Store. A first-of-its-kind shopping experience that blew the roof off the industry and turned a thorn into a rose, the iTunes Music Store brought 200,000 high-quality songs from BMG, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal and Warner under one fully searchable, completely legal roof.

Album artwork, one-click purchasing, in-apps video and a mostly unrestrictive DRM all for less than $1 a track. A million tracks were sold in the first week; four months later it surpassed 10 million. Along the road to the milestone 100 millionth download, however, Apple took iTunes 4 in a decidedly different direction when it rolled out the second generation of its store. Determined not to duplicate its prior proprietary mistakes, Apple didn’t renege on its promise to deliver the iTunes Music Store to Windows users by year’s end--and certainly didn’t skimp on the goods. A near-identical port of its award-winning iApp made its way onto PCs in October 2003 with a streamlined, expanded store (Mac users called it iTunes 4.1).

With a 28-month upgrade path, version 4 stayed on desktops longer than any other iTunes release, gaining a slew of new features before retiring to digital graveyard: iMix, Party Shuffle, Apple Lossless, Podcasting, AirTunes, iPod photo and shuffle, and the European and Asian Music Stores all made their debuts under the iTunes 4 umbrella. Half a billion songs and 10 updates later, Apple had established itself as the undisputed king of the digital music domain.

iTunes 5 (Sept. 7, 2005-Oct. 12, 2005)

Where iTunes 4 was a lengthy, meandering release, the next version came and went in just five weeks. Introduced in tandem with the iPod nano at what would become an annual September digital music event, iTunes 5 packed an overall peppiness and a refined, cleaner mini player, but was surprisingly light on new features--and fittingly was the first numbered upgrade that didn’t come with a new color for the music note in its icon.

Sadly, the highlight of the pack was a new Search Bar that made quick work of rummaging through the store’s two million songs, rounded out by Smart Shuffle, playlist folders, parental controls, AAC VBR importing and Outlook syncing. Ultimately, though, it was the bug-ridden app’s dark platinum makeover that got the most attention. iTunes 5 ditched the outdated brushed-metal skin of its predecessors, and the thinner, sexier look filled many a forum with praise and criticism.

Better known as iTunes 4.10, the fifth version of iTunes was mostly a disappointment. Rumors about TV show purchases and movie rentals that had swirled in the days leading up to the event failed to materialize, and even Steve struggled to come up with something nice to say: "We are constantly improving iTunes with new features like... better searching because we love music ourselves and want to surprise and delight music fans around the world."

iTunes 6 (Oct. 12, 2005-Sept. 12, 2006)

What a difference 35 days make. At an unexpected "One More Thing" event in early October, Steve kicked iTunes 5 to the curb and rolled out the red carpet for the next generation of the digital jukebox. Arriving in tow with new iMacs and video iPods, iTunes 6 brought serious changes to the store, adding online gift options, customer reviews, "Just For You" recommendations and some 2,000 music videos and Pixar shorts, all priced at $1.99 and formatted for new iPod’s 2.5-inch color screen.

But that wasn’t all. Never content to rest on his laurels, Steve rolled out TV show downloads with iTunes 6, priced at the same $1.99 as the far-shorter music videos. Just five Disney shows were available at launch--"Lost," "Desperate Housewives," "Night Stalker," "That's So Raven" and "The Suite Life" --but when more than a million videos were purchased inside of three weeks, it didn’t take long before other networks came knocking. Before the end of the year, NBC Universal had signed up, followed shortly by MTV, Showtime, Fox and CBS, and soon iTunes 6 had done for TV what iTunes 4 did for music, cramming more than 220 shows onto its shelves within 12 months.

iTunes 6’s TV Store didn’t make quite as much noise as the Music Store, but its 11-month tenure marked the start of an exciting time for Apple, as momentum began to build toward something huge on the horizon.

Click to embiggen

THE SYNERGY
iTunes 7 (Sept. 12, 2006-Sept. 9, 2008)

Billed as the "most significant enhancement to the world’s most popular music jukebox and online music and video store since it debuted," iTunes 7 was indeed a dramatic reinvention of the five-and-a-half-year-old iApp, with sweeping interface changes, speed boosts and a renewed focus on the jukebox.

Packing two new navigation views--a list mode dotted with album artwork and an officially sanctioned version of Steel Skies’ Cover Flow--iTunes 7 put the emphasis back on iTunes as a music player, starting with the debut of the MiniStore, which strengthened the marriage between the two segments. Everything from the Source list to iPod integration received an overdue makeover, and Apple even fixed the age-old microsecond of silence that iTunes stubbornly inserted between joined tracks.

Of course, it wouldn’t be an iTunes update without a new addition to the store, and Apple didn’t disappoint here, either. With users already downloading more than a million videos and TV episodes each week, iTunes 7 made the logical leap to movies, adding some 75 near-DVD quality titles from Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films at launch and growing to more than 2,500 films from nearly every studio over the course of its two-year upgrade cycle.

What made the seventh version so significant, however, was its versatility. By the time it had run its course, iTunes 7 had well grown into its role as the center of the digital hub, with iPhone, iPod touch Apple TV, movie rentals, the App Store, and a slew of nanos and shuffles all landing on its watch. Through it all, iTunes 7 never felt stale, bloated or sluggish, smoothly adapting to the new demands with little more than a software patch.

iTunes 8 (Sept. 9, 2008-Sept. 9, 2009)

After 19 software updates to iTunes 7, it was time for the next whole number, and Apple finally delivered iTunes 8 at its annual music event in 2008. Following such a tremendous update was no easy task, and Apple could easily have packaged the new stuff into iTunes 7.8, if not for the super-smart technology hiding within.

The centerpiece of iTunes 8 was the Genius feature, an underrated playlist tool that combined the controlled randomness of Smart Shuffle with the queue capabilities of Party Shuffle (iTunes DJ after 8.1) to transform your Library into a personalized radio station. Adding to the fun was the optional Genius Sidebar, a mildly intrusive strip of song recommendations culled from a mix of your favorite songs (and in later versions, TV shows and movies) and "anonymously-gathered knowledge from millions of other iTunes users," all crunched by a series of Apple algorithms, neatly packaged and beamed back to your computer.

Minor tweaks elsewhere improved upon the broad refinements introduced in the prior release, and Apple dumped the Search Bar in favor of a return to field-specific exploring. An enhanced grid mode replaced album view with an iPhoto Events-like scheme that grouped albums and artists into interactive mini widgets. Taking a break from its relentless tide of upgrades, the store was mostly left out this round of enhancements, but iTunes 8 did usher in high-definition content (despite Steve’s previous declaration of 2005 as the year of HD).

iTunes 9 (Sept. 9, 2009)

Exactly a year after iTunes 8 meekly landed on desktops, Apple welcomed Steve Jobs back to the main stage by dropping a bombshell of a release that overhauled the store, made iPhone syncing effortless and updated the classic vinyl jacket for the 21st century.

Open iTunes 9 and you’re immediately smacked by a new white background, giving the grid a clean, bright look that makes your album art pop and beckons you inside. Speed improvements are noticeable throughout, particularly when using Cover Flow, which can now handle speedy scrolling with only the slightest bit of lag. Delving further into the latest version of Apple’s nearly nine-year-old jukebox reveals hipper icons, a few extra curves and whistles, and a new Home Sharing feature that finally lets your trade music with friends and family members.

Flip to the store and you’ll find a host of newness, beginning with a personalized welcome note, sensible layout, enhanced album pages with quick view windows and previews that borrow cues from the mobile iTunes Store. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find iTunes Extras (think DVD bonus features for digital movies) and iTunes LPs, the greatest thing to happen to music since, well, iTunes. A far greater thing than the digital PDF booklets bundled with album purchases, iTunes LP--while currently limited to just 12 albums and saddled with nonuniform pricing (Jay-Z’s pre-order costs $16.99 while Pearl Jam’s costs $9.99)--is poised to rekindle the creativity and connection that’s all but been stripped away by MP3s.

With iTunes X most likely slated for a September 2010 release, we can only wonder what new features are being realized in a secret bunker in Cupertino. Only time, and Steve Jobs, will tell.

What has been your favorite feature over the years? Share in the comments.