Gadgetopia

Want to promote your favorite song or artist on your website? Use Apple's iTunes Link Maker to create a link to that song or artist's wares on Apples iTunes Music Store. The iTunes Link Maker lets you connect your website directly to any song, album or artist on the iTunes ...

Apple - Education - Products - iTunes U: Interesting use of iTunes. iTunes U is a free, hosted service for colleges and universities that provides easy access to their educational content, including lectures and interviews From this larger article about how colleges and increasing using MP3s for teaching.

Apple launches Windows version of iTunes service "Apple Computer Inc. launched the long-awaited Windows-compatible version of its iTunes online music service Thursday, promising a wider library of songs and new features to maintain its lead in an increasingly competitive market. 'This isn't some baby version of iTunes. It's the whole ...

PayPal and Apple have announced that you can now use your Paypal account to purchase music on the iTunes music store. Now, when you sign up for a new, free iTunes account and pay with PayPal in the iTunes Music Store, you'll make your online music experience better than ever. ...

Apple has sold its 100 millionth song from the iTunes Store. Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas downloaded Somersault (Dangermouse remix) by Zero7; the 100 millionth song purchased from the iTunes music store. He will receive a 17-inch PowerBook, a 40GB iPod, and a gift certificate for 10,000 iTunes songs to ...

Apple has announced a new affiliate program with the iTunes Music Store. As an iTunes Affiliate, you can place banners and links on your site that will direct your visitors to the iTunes Music Store. You can earn a 5% commission on all qualifying revenue generated by links posted on ...

I used the iTunes Music Store for the first time today. I actually didn't want to install it, but Apple is bundling it with QuickTime these days, so you have to get one to get the other. Then my wife, Annie, heard about it, and she wanted to try it. ...

Here's something interesting that just popped up; tuneDial.org is a place where musicians can share their music for free through iTunes and the Music Store interface. The really cool thing is that it totally bypasses Apple's iTunes Music Store and allows artists to create and share playlists of their music ...

The WINE configuration gurus over at Codeweavers have announced that their next version of Crossover Office will allow iTunes to play nicely on your Linux box. For those unfamiliar with the product, Crossover Office allows MS Office, Photoshop, and many other Windows programs to run quite nicely on your Linux ...

Yesterday Steve Jobs gave us some new goodies to play with and some things to look forward to. With all the attention paid to movies being available on iTunes and the nearly microscopic shuffle I think a very important business opportunity for Apple was overlooked by the blogosphere. iTunes 7 ...

"Apple today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded over ten million songs from the iTunes Music Store since its launch just over four months ago, averaging over 500,000 songs per week. The ten millionth song, 'Complicated' by Avril Lavigne, was purchased and downloaded at 11:34 p.m. (PDT) on ...

Your 99c belong to the RIAA - Steve Jobs: Huh, go figure. I'm surprised by this because I understand that there's no iPod download for Windows. Given this, how is iTunes for Windows supposed to help them sell iPods? "At an Apple financial analyst conference on Wednesday CEO Steve Jobs ...

Here's a case where the RIAA might not have a problem with iTunes file sharing feature: Some dirtball in a UM dorm had kiddie porn movies on his computer and was caught when another Cramer Hall resident saw what was shared on his playlist. The up-side is that there are ...

Apple released iTunes 4.9 this morning. I've extolled the virtues of podcasts in this space before, but this takes it to the next level. Apple has grabbed onto podcasting with both hands and they are intent on making it a part of the entire iPod package. If you've been waiting ...

... in only 3 1/2 days. And over a million songs purchased by those Windows users in the same amount of time. See the Apple press release. I wonder how high Bill Gates' blood pressure is by now.

A Reuters story reports that Target will be selling prepaid $15 iTunes Music Service (iTMS) cards off the rack alongside iPod mini's. I predict that this will have a huge effect on the downloadable music industry; if consumers can use cash (or check) at Target or other retailers to prepay ...

Early yesterday morning Apple sold its 1 billionth song through iTunes Music Service. The billionth song ”Speed of Sound” was purchased as part of Coldplay s “X&Y” album by Alex Ostrovsky from West Bloomfield, Michigan and as the grand prize winner he will receive a 20-inch iMac, 10 fifth generation iPods ...

Obviously, Microsoft's answer to the iTunes Music Store won't look exactly like the iTunes Music Store. Or will it?

Does the public's ability to buy a single song immediately via iTunes or whatever make it easier to clear the rights to use songs in media? On last week's Saturday Night Live, there was a funny Digital Short that parodied the final episode of Season 2 of The O.C. (video ...

Wal-Mart to launch online music service: There's nothing anyone can sell that Wal-Mart can't sell cheaper. Wal-Mart Stores is looking to its core customer base with its new online music service, offering a library of largely country music songs for less than the 99-cent per download industry standard.

EMI will sell songs without copy protection on iTunes: Cory Doctorow, 1. Jack Valenti, 0. Giant record label EMI Music said Monday it plans to sell songs without built-in copy protection on iTunes and other digital music services. EMI, the label of Norah Jones, Coldplay, Iggy Pop and many other ...

Apple and Pepsi are teaming up with a new promotion: Apple and Pepsi-Cola North America today announced a historic promotion to legally give away 100 million free songs to Mac� and Windows PC users from Apple�s iTunes� Music Store. Beginning February 1, 100 million winning codes will be randomly seeded ...

According to a New York Post article, Ronald McDonald is stealing Pepsi's thunder. Less than a month after Pepsi announced a blockbuster deal to give away 100 million downloads from Apple's iTunes music service to its customers, ... McDonald's plans to give away up to 1 billion songs in a ...

Apple - Education - iTunes U: This is the audio version of OpenCourseWare, I suppose. Apple has gotten a bunch of high-end schools to contribute lectures to iTunes, which are available for download, and appear to be free (I didn t find any with prices attached, at any rate). iTunes U ...

American Idol castoff William Hung's first album Inspiration(link requires iTunes) is available as an iTunes exclusive. I can't think of a better way to use up some of those iTunes Pepsi caps I've got laying around. If you haven't seen footage of Mr Hung performing Ricky Martin's She Bangs you're ...

Apple introduced today the new AirPort Express wireless doodad. The AirPort Express (can I call it the APE for short?) is a little white wall-wart-sized brick that can be used for several things, most notably streaming your iTunes music -- mp3, CD, or Internet Radio -- wirelessly from your Mac ...

Using Firefox on OS X? Like to find free content for your iPod? If so, FoxiPod just made your job a little bit easier. FoxiPod is a Greasemonkey script that will place a small icon next to any link to an audio file compatible with iTunes. Clicking the icon downloads ...

Rhapsody is giving away music. I was able to listen to a dozen full-length songs today with no cost and no catch. According to this article at O'Reilly, anonymous users can listen to 25 songs per month (but no free repeats -- the same song twice counts as two songs). ...

I have been trolling around the iTunes Music Store lately looking for unusual things to catch my eye (or ear). Today I discovered that ">silence has a price. And as you would expect, that price is $.99. The above link may only work if you have iTunes installed. If so ...

Real Networks announced a couple of days ago that they had 'figured out' Apple's FairPlay DRM technology, and that future versions of RealPlayer would include 'Harmony', a technology to allow songs purchased from Real.com to be played on the iPod. This naturally got Apple's attention, and their lawyers arched their ...

Norwegian hacker cracks iTunes code: I'll say it again, DRM will never work. Last Friday, a new security-cracking program called QTFairUse was posted along with the message "So sue me" on a Web site for which Johansen is listed as the registrant, or owner. The new program circumvents ...

Someone recently tried selling on eBay a song that they downloaded from iTunes Music Service, and was promptly shut down. So, the question that arises is, when you purchase a song from a service such as IMS, what is it that you're actually buying? And are your rights of ownership ...

It's hard for good commercial software and shareware to compete with free software, especially when it comes bundled with the OS you're using. So the folks at Panic Inc. must've figured, if you can't beat 'em them being Apple's iTunes you might as well join 'em. Audion, "the ...

I've mentioned before that when it comes to music, I really can't say what my tastes are. I know what I like when I hear it, but I can't really classify myself as being a huge fan of a certain band or a certain genre. AudioScrobbler seems to be designed ...

This may turn out to be nothing, but... A week or so ago, an app named iFlicks 1.0 was released by Helixent Technologies (of Mitchell, SD, of all places!) iFlicks was designed to help you organize digital movies, in much the same manner as iTunes does for music. It's unique ...

I tried out Amazon's Unbox service tonight. It was perfectly adequate -- I got exactly what I paid for with no drama at all. I purchased the first episode of Firefly for $1.99. I probably could have started watching it after five minutes or so, but I let it download ...

Rip and Burn and Download on a Stereo: The Olive Symphony is a home stereo component that pulls its music from an internal drive. Take the built-in CD player, for example. When you slip a CD into the slot and press the glowing Play button, the music begins. The song ...

Zune vs. iPod: the battle begins: Fortune reviews the Zune against the iPod and the winner is...the iPod. But it's not as much of a runaway victory as you'd expect. The Zune did quite well in a couple areas, and, as Fortune notes, it's the first model out the door. ...

Apple's iTunes Music Store is down right now; all links redirect to this page. Guess that means Rob's comment is on the mark, and the heat will be turned up a bit for Amazon's Unbox. I'm thinking it'll be better than perfectly adequate.

Combining two of my current favorite things, Apple has added an RSS Generator to the iTunes Music Store. You can now custom build a feed based upon the genre(s) that interest you and if they are new releases, just added, etc... Pretty cool use of RSS. Via MacNN

Bush bares soul with 'iPod One': Dubya's got himself an iPod. "iPod One," as the player has been dubbed, is used by Bush while he pedals around his Texas ranch on a mountain bike [...] The task of downloading the music falls to the 58-year-old president's personal aide, Blake Gottesman, ...

'Cool Hunters' Like Apple's Shine "During the summer, Apple became one of the coolest companies in America. At least that's what youth marketing experts who follow the tastes of teenagers say. Thanks to the iPod, the iTunes Music Store and the PowerMac G5, Apple is one of the hottest companies ...

Small-amount purchases online may finally happen: Will iTunes give credibility to the oft-talked about theory of micropayments? "Apple Computer's online music store has won attention for its stylish ease of use, and deservedly so. Yet one of its most interesting features has drawn little notice the ability to buy ...

Sowing the Apple Seeds of Love: Because we all know how well Apple has done with clones of its hardware. At a high-tech expo stuffed with an overabundance of company announcements, PC maker Hewlett-Packard stole the show yesterday when it announced it will resell a version of Apple Computer's iPod ...

Microsoft set to launch iTunes Music Store competitor: Come everyone, pile in. The boat can surely fit one more. Microsoft, hoping to take a bite out of Apple Computer's highly popular online music service, is gearing up to launch its own Web site for selling songs over the Internet. [...] ...

Coke Enters the Music Business: Wal-Mart, iTunes, Microsoft, and now Coke? Coca-Cola is launching an Internet music download service in Britain next month, the first consumer brand to jump into Europe's crowded Internet music market, the company said on Monday. The soft drinks maker said that in January it will ...

EBay flirts with digital music downloads: It was probably inevitable. Online auction giant eBay Inc. will allow some customers to buy and sell digital music files as part of a pilot program that could piggyback on the success of Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes service. San Jose, Calif.-based eBay said ...

I'm generally a PC guy, but this is really cool: "You walked into a room bearing a laptop running Jaguar (the latest version of the OS X operating system) with a wireless networking (Wi-Fi) card, and you could instantly see the iTunes music files of everyone else in the room ...

Linspire's lawyers (formerly Lindows) apparently need work after their losing battle with Microsoft. Now they're testing Apple's resolve by announcing LPhoto and LSongs. Two applications that bear more than a little resemblence to iPhoto and iTunes. Apple may be smaller than Microsoft, but it doesn't take too much research to ...

NBC pulls YouTube channel: This really, really sucks. There were a lot of Monday mornings around here where we would replay the latest Digital Short. [ ] the relationship had run its course. NBC got buzz for a revived Saturday Night Live and The Office, and YouTube, through the sheen of ...

The odd trip of a mysterious recor: Here's an interesting story about how 11 MP3s of unreleased Fiona Apple tracks somehow got on the Internet and subsequently resurrected her career. Last year, Apple and the multitalented producer Jon Brion came up with a wonderfully complex construction of Brion's vision and ...

Steve Jobs is a great guy. If you happen to be in the market for a new car, Steve and his friends at Apple have made your choosing a little easier. Steve wants to make sure that you'll be able to take your iTunes with you, so now there is ...

The NFL today announced a deal with Audible to provide recordings of the remaining playoff games for purchase through the iTunes Music Store and other audio content sites. I have to admit that if my team won the Super Bowl I'd probably buy it just for posterity. In fact I ...

The Wal-Mart You Don't Know: While not terrifically geekish, this is a good story about Wal-Mart, a company that is affects us geeks more and more everyday. From Linux desktop computers to iTunes competition to RFID adoption, Wal-Mart is a retail force that will push its way into any market ...

This is too cool for words. Duke will be providing all incoming freshman with their very own iPod this coming semester. The iPods will be preloaded with content related to Duke campus life, including freshman orientation information and the academic calendar. What's more, a special Duke Web site modeled on ...

Oh great. Walmart is selling iPods. Just think... Now you can in one easy stop get your oil changed, pick up groceries, the latest DVD release, a low-cost Lindows laptop, a fresh pack of underwear, a 100lb bag of dog food, a Schwinn Stingray bike for your kid's ...

Sorry for wasting away your Friday, but you really should check out Pandora. Can you help me discover more music that I'll like? Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Each friend told us their favorite artists and songs, explored the music we suggested, gave us feedback, and we in ...

This could be fun! Think Secret says they know what The Steve will be unveiling at the January 11 Macworld Expo: a bare bones, G4-based iMac without a display that will retail for $499. This new product will be for a Windows user who has experienced the iPod, the ease ...

Apparently Apple isn't just taking people to court, they're also being sued by an unhappy iTMS customer. It seems Thomas Slattery is being "forced" to buy an iPod if he wants to use the songs he purchased from the iTunes Music Store. Last I checked you could listen to any ...

Once again with the iPod, Apple Computer led the way, proved there to be a viable market for something not done before, and now the others are coming out with their own versions. Dell just released its Dell DJ in 15 and 20GB versions, right along with a rip-off of ...

Steven Levy on the secrets of the iPod shuffle: This is a fascinating except from Steven Levy's upcoming book on whether or not the "shuffle" feature on his iPod was actually random. He suspected it wasn't, and he actually confronted Steve Jobs on it. My first iPod loved Steely Dan. ...

Well Macworld San Francisco 2005 is underway and as expected, Steve had some exciting announcements during his keynote. Some expected and some surprising. iLife '05 - A nice upgrade to an alreday great product. I'm excited because now iPhoto can handle any RAW photos I may take. $79 and ships ...

Apple just released the latest iteration of the iMac with faster processors, a built-in iSight camera for easy video conferencing, an 8X dual-layer DVD writer (and CD-RW combined), among other spiffy new features. The new software featured on the iMac is FrontRow, a new multimedia interface that can be controlled ...

NBC - Saturday Night Live - Special Treat in a Box: If you watch Saturday Night Live, you probably noticed that they finally matched Lazy Sunday this weekend with another Digital Short that -- I'm embarrassed to admit -- had me rolling on the floor laughing. The short had a ...

An InfoWorld article by Chad Dickerson tells of his accidental conversion from Windows and Linux to Mac OS X. "On a recent Friday, weary from shopping for a new PC, I grabbed the 3-year-old G4 at my desk and took it home to see what all the Mac and OS ...

A few weeks ago I finally took the plunge and purchased an iPod. I'm a little late to the party, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate how this little device has changed my appreciation and usage of the music I have owned for years. Even before my little prize ...

And this time it's more preposterous than ever. According to him, now that Apple is using Intel processors they will complete the transformation and totally drop OS X, replacing the OS in Apple machines with Windows. Yeah, right. Like the market needs yet another Windows machine. The last thing Apple ...

I must admit I wasn't expecting anything earth-shattering from Steve Jobs yesterday and for the most part I wasn't disappointed. While unveiling some pretty cool toys, both hardware and software, he failed to deliver anything that on it's surface will immediately sway a consumer to purchase a Mac over a ...

I rarely eat at McDonalds, but while on vacation last week our kids talked us into it as we drove across western Nebraska. My wife ordered a Big Mac, and unbeknownst to me, they had a Sony Connect promo going on where you get a free music download with every ...