Mac,iPad,iPhone,iPod,Apple TV,iTunes,News,Tips,Tutorials,Articles,Reviews

Why your iTunes converted video has no sound?

2009-04-18T05:48:00.000-07:00

Because iTunes cannot convert muxed video (the audio and video of a muxed video file are on the same track), muxed video converted by iTunes will lose sound. You can learn more about this issue from apple’s official document, If you come across this problem, you can use Aneesoft Video Converter, it is freeware and deal with muxed video with no problem.

How to hack iPod to play games and music video?

2009-04-18T05:46:00.000-07:00

This part is mainly for the old version iPod, coz the new series of iPods can directly play video and game and you don’t need to hack them. If you want to hack your iPod to play Doom 3, you have to install iPod Linux on your iPod, here is iPod Linux official installation guide http://ipodlinux.org/Installation_from_Windows
Or you can take a look at this guide, which I think is more intuitional: http://www.youtubetoipod.biz/guide/ipod-linux-on-ipod-nano-play-music-video.html
Note: It can be pretty complicated to install iPod Linux on iPod, so give it a serious consideration before you do that.

How to manage two iPods on one computer or transfer music between iPods?

2009-04-18T05:42:00.000-07:00

Manage more than one iPod on the same computer

Method1
Create multi accounts on one computer, one account for each person to login OS and sync his/her iPod with iTunes.

Method2
Set your iPod to “Manually manage music and video”, and then create a new iTunes playlist for each iPod that contains all the music that you want to send to that particular iPod.

Transfer music between iPods

Method1
As for transferring music between different iPods, you need a special application to do that, I have tried a program named iPod2iPod, it can successfully transfer my friend’s iPod music to my iPod, and here is a guide about it: http://www.top5soft.com/tutorial/how-to-transfer-music-between-iPods.html

Method2
You can transfer music from iPod to your computer, and then re-add it to your iTunes library and sync it to your iPod.

Free phone ringtone download websites collection

2009-04-18T05:19:00.000-07:00

Here's collection of the best places to get free ringtones, with no fees and no hidden charges.

Recommended Sites...
Phonezoo:This makes it easy to express yourself and transform your favorite music into your new favorite ringtone. You can also look at other people's ringtones too. While they have ringtones, they also have pictures too. They are dedicated to building a community where people can find, create and share the content that they love - all for free.

Mxyer: Don't you just hate it when you buy a song and it's not the part of the song you would like to have? Mxyer, is our next ringtone site. It's the largest growing free ringtone community out there. It's simple, which is why I love it so much. Wallpapers, ringtones, videos, and more. This one has got it all.

Cellfish:This is a social network and destination portal centered on users sharing music, videos and art between their PCs and mobile devices. Although you can only download a maximum of three ringtones on selected ringtones, you can get all you want on images and videos. Also, get any picture or video from the web or your computer on your cellphone instantly, or upload all your cellphone pictures and videos then share them with friends. Cellifish is different from other sites because it has a "locker". You're locker holds all your uploads - either from you or your friends - and lets you have them, no one else. Of course, not everything has to go in your locker. You can keep the things you want to share on your cellifish page.

Mp3 Sites...
mobile.my-domain.org.uk/
mysite.verizon.net/
www.aussiebeats.com/
www.thetank.com/
www.futurewaveshaper.com/
simplythebest.net/
www.s4bb.net/
www.ringchimp.com/

Wav Sites...
mywebpages.comcast.net/
simplythebest.net/
www.wavcentral.com/

Midi Sites...
www.freeringtoneheaven.com
www.partnersinrhyme.com/
www.midisite.co.uk/
sprott.physics.wisc.edu/
simplythebest.net/

ADP Sites...
huenik.com/

All Ringer Types...
www.tuneusin.com
3gforfree.com/
www.blackberrymp3s.com/
www.MOViewavs.com/
www.findsounds.com/
www.free-ringtones.ie/
www.cellmind.com/
www.tones9.com/
www.brinked.com/most-discussed.html

Free video resource for your iPod or iPhone

2009-04-18T03:37:00.000-07:00

If you have an iPod/iPhone and far fewer videos than the gigabytes of storage space you have available, then you’ve probably asked one of most popular questions: “how can I load my iPod/iPhone up with free video?”Below are various channels of free video resource:

1. There is the iTunes Store itself, which frequently offers free promotional videos. The iTunes Store itself provides a Free on iTunes page with highlighted free content.

2. Limewire is fast and popular file sharing freeware working on Windows, Linux and Mac OS. Through the P2P (peer-to-peer) network, you can free download various files by its category or keyword searching.

3. Online video website such as YouTube,Yahoo,Myspace,etc.The complete list of online video website click here. The tutorial "How to download online videos to iPod/iPhone/PSP?" tell you converting online videos to iPod/iPhone, there are free ways to convert online videos to iPod/iphone.

4. Other website:
Channel Frederator offers up some of the best short animations anywhere.
PodGuide.tv
Channel 101 and Channel 102 offer up some brilliant downloadable shows.
The iTunes Music Store’s podcast section is loaded with free videos.
The Chronic..What?..cles of Narnia. Need I say more?

The complete list of online video websites

2009-04-18T02:03:00.000-07:00

English Video Websites:
www.youtube.com - (Video, Music Video and MP3)
video.yahoo.com
www.myspace.com - (Video, Music Video and MP3)
www.photobucket.com
uncutvideo.aol.com
www.nba.com
www.cnn.com/video/
www.bebo.com - (Video, Music Video and MP3)
www.metacafe.com
www.dailymotion.com
www.blip.tv
www.revver.com
www.archive.org
www.break.com
tv.com
broadcaster.com
livevideo.com
www.imeem.com - (Video, Music Video and MP3)
peekvid.com
www.liveleak.com
netlog.com
www.gofish.com
www.ifilm.com
www.putfile.com
mojoflix.com
www.porkolt.com
www.heavy.com
www.bolt.com
kontraband.com
filecabi.net
grouper.com
www.tv-links.co.uk
www.vsocial.com
jokeroo.com
brightcove.com
spikedhumor.com
www.vidmax.com
savvy.com
www.glumbert.com
www.vidilife.com
pyzam.com
www.funnyjunk.com
www.totallycrap.com
www.vidiac.com
www.fhm.com
www.weakgame.com
www.yikers.com
www.videocodezone.com
uniquepeek.com
www.killsometime.com
tetesaclaques.tv
dumpalink.com
www.neatorama.com
livedigital.com
www.vimeo.com
www.greenshines.com
www.bravotv.com
thatvideosite.com
www.boreme.com
www.wtfpeople.com
www.wildko.com
www.machovideo.com
www.funnyordie.com
www.yourdailymedia.com
wewin.com
www.slackernetwork.com
www.redbalcony.com
www.shoutfile.com
www.funnyhub.com
www.sharkle.com
www.buzzhumor.com
www.ejb.com
www.vidking.com
www.vmix.com
www.videoegg.com
www.funmunch.com
www.dailyhaha.com
www.videojug.com
www.ownagevideos.com
www.evtv1.com
www.psfights.com
www.devilducky.com
mentalfunk.com
www.freaknfunny.com
www.bofunk.com
aniboom.com
www.funmansion.com
www.chumvideo.com
fugly.com

Non-English Video Websites:
video.baidu.com
games.sina.com.cn/bn/
www.hi5.com
video.mail.ru
www.friendster.com
www.facebox.com
www.tagged.com
video.interia.pl
www.tudou.com
vlog.17173.com
www.flurl.com
www.56.com
v.wangyou.com
tv.mofile.com
www.pomoho.com
www.5show.com
www.ouou.com
v.iask.com
happy.enet.com.cn
www.myvideo.de
www.tvix.cn
www.yoqoo.com
www.ku6.com
www.6rooms.com
www.163888.net
vbox7.com
wrzuta.pl
www.smashits.com
flix.co.il
izlesene.com
clipfish.de
www.guba.com
www.youku.com
loadup.ru
sevenload.com
www.podlook.com
www.dalealplay.com
pikniktube.com
wideo.fr
www.seehaha.com
chilloutzone.de
www.streamdump.com
www.eblogx.de
www.wat.tv
www.carcrimes.com
www.kovideo.net
www.ichlache.com
www.bildschirmarbeiter.com
www.hans-wurst.de
www.sinn-frei.com
jeuxvideo.tv
www.cool-clip.de
www.videowebtown.com
www.trendhure.com
www.mycoolclips.com
www.ourdv.com
www.vidcrazy.com
movies.yoyos-blog.com
www.eylol.de
juckiq.de
www.stupidexe.com
www.autoclips.net
www.funny-media.de
www.fettemama.org
www.lachlabor.de
clips4.us
www.hiphopdeal.com
www.somehoney.com
www.crazy-movie.de
www.cliptubes.com
videorigolo.com
www.spassfabrik.net
www.tussi-clips.de
www.dalipit.com
funny-fresh.de
www.eingeparkt.de
www.funny-shit.net
tonclip.com
2funny4u.de
www.totaler-fun.de
www.trashbook.de
www.3steg.com
www.extremesportsclips.net
www.topfreemusicdownloads.com
www.krankerfrank.com
www.totalblogal.net
www.myvideo.ge
see.daum.net (new)
aura.damoim.net (new)

Above is the complete list of websites that provide stream video, if you want to download video from those sites and convert to iPod/iPhone/PSP video formats, you may learn from "How to download online videos to iPod/iPhone/PSP?"

How to download online videos to iPod/iPhone/PSP?

2009-04-18T01:27:00.000-07:00

iPod/iPhone/PSP can play only MP4 and H.264 video, online videos(complete list of online video website) is stream video (.flv), so you need special software to capture the stream video to MP4 video, and then sync it to your iPod via iTunes. Here’re some ways to do that:

Online FLV Converter:Vixy
1. Go to online video website, such as YouTube and find a video that you love. Copy the URL that in the Red box. Like this format: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs

2. Open free online flv converter http://vixy.net, just copy the video URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs to the input box, choose the output format as iPod video, and then click start.

3. When the conversion finished, we got the download link of the output video. Click the download link to download the video and save in your computer (remember where you save it in),then sync it to your iPod/iPhone/PSP.

The website service's deficiency don't setup output format's detailed specification and support output formats little.keepvid.com is also this kind of website.

Firefox + videodownloader
1. If you’re using Firefox browser, just install a plug-in named videodownloader(download link:https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2390)

2. After installing videodownloader, restart Firefox. In the bottom right, you'll see a little box. Go to the video you want to download, double click that little box.

3. select download link,then you could download the streaming video you want. (Note, you have to rename the file extension from “html” to “flv”when you save the link. (Make sure your compute is show file extension)

4. Convert the flv video to MP4 video with Aneesoft Video Converter,it is freeware.Then sync it to your iPod/iPhone/PSP.

If you are Macer,you may use iFunia YouTube Download Converter for Mac, it is easy to use and only $29.

How to watch iPod video on large screen TV?

2009-04-18T01:14:00.000-07:00

iPod is very good to watch TV to go, but it's screen is small,we may watch iPod video on large screen TV when stay home,here are the detailed steps:

1. Set up your iPod video options. On your iPod choose Videos -> Video Settings from the main menu. You will see three options: TV Out, TV Signal and Widescreen. Select the “TV Out” option.

2. Get your A/V cable. If you don't have an eighth-inch-to-RCA cable, you can pick one up on eBay for five or six bucks shipped. Search for "camcorder A/V cable." Remember, you want a three-plug yellow/red/white RCA connection at one end and a three-banded eighth-inch (3.5mm) A/V plug at the other.

Note:
* Plug the red RCA plug into your TV's yellow RCA jack.
* Plug the yellow RCA plug into your TV's white RCA jack.
* Plug the white RCA plug into your TV's red RCA jack.

After making these connections, you're physically ready to begin playback.

How to watch PDF or electronic book on iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video?

2009-04-18T01:07:00.000-07:00

iPod cannot directly display PDF files, you have to convert your PDF file or electronic book to *.txt format, and make sure the file size is smaller than 4KB, and then copy the *txt file to the “Note” folder ion your iPod. Here are the detailed steps:

1. Enable your iPod as a portable hard drive, plug in your iPod to computer and run iTunes, in the summary tab, check the option named “enable iPod disk mode”

2. Download and install txt2iPod, it is freeware,it can convert and cut your files to 4kb .txt files. Here is the download link: http://www.softpedia.com/get/IPOD-TOOLS/Other-IPOD-tools-Updates/txt2ipod.shtml

3. Connect your iPod to computer, open “My Computer”, open the iPod drive (the new drive with your iPod name), and copy the txt file to the “Note” folder, done. Then you can read the text file on iPod note.

Apple posts iPhone developer video profiles

2009-04-17T18:36:00.000-07:00

On the official website for its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference 2009 event, Apple has posted four new video profiles of various iPhone developers, explaining how the iPhone OS and SDK altered their views on what was possible on a mobile platform, and how it has affected their development processes. Included in the profiles are Dr. Ge Wang of Smule, developer of Ocarina, Werner Jainek of Cultured Code, developer of Things, Steve Demeter of Demiforce, developer of Trism, and Christina Wick of AOL, which has a variety of apps on the store, including AIM. Apple’s WWDC 2009 conference is scheduled for June 8-12 at Moscone West in San Francisco.

Apple Beats Windows In Customer Experience

2009-04-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

When it comes to the customer experience of PC firms, Apple stands alone.

In a new Forrester report, I examined results for the five PC brands in Forrester’s customer experience index (CxPi): Apple, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, and HP. The analysis examines feedback from more than 4,500 US consumers about their interactions with these firms. Here’s some of what we found:

* Apple came out on top, with a “good” rating of 80%. Compaq, HP, and Gateway ended up between 63% and 66% while Dell came in at the bottom with a “poor” 58% rating.

* Apple received the highest score for all three components of the CxPi. It had a particularly large lead over all other PC makers when it came to being easy to work with (17%+ better than the others) and being enjoyable (15%+ better than the others).

* Dell landed at the bottom of the PC rankings because it was rated well below the other firms in the areas of being easy to work with and being enjoyable.

The bottom line: The Windows ecosystem needs an extreme customer experience makeover.

Different channels that add music to iTunes for iPod/iPhone

2009-04-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

The following article focuses on different channels of listening to music on iPod and iPhone. To enjoy music on iPod and iPhone, you first need to get the music in iPod/iPhone format onto iTunes library and then sync the music to your iPod/iPhone.

1. Buy music from iTunes Store for iPod/iPhone

To find and buy music from the iTunes Store, just click on the "iTunes Store" link under "Store" in the left column of iTunes. Once in, you're greeted with the iTunes Store interface, with links on the left-hand side that take you to Music, Movies, TV Shows, Music Videos, Audiobooks, and Podcasts. After you've chosen a song or album to buy, just click on the "Buy Song" or "Buy Album" button for that selection.

2. Import your CDs into iTunes for iPod/iPhone

If you own a few CDs, you can import them into iTunes for your iPod/iPhone. Since you've already spent money on this music, there's no reason why you should have to buy it all over again just to get the songs into iTunes. Apple made it simple to rip a CD to your library.

By default, iTunes rips songs to AAC format, and although AAC is a very high-quality format, it isn't as widely-supported as the ubiquitous MP3 format, which enjoys support from virtually every digital music player known to man, including iPod and iPhone. To ensure greater portability of your music (and prevent you from feeling locked into one product just because you've ripped all your music in one format), I suggest ripping your CDs as MP3s. To do so, go to Edit -> Preferences. In the General tab, click the Import Settings... button. In the pop up dialog window of Import Settings, select MP3 Encoder from the Import Using dropdown menu and Higher Quality (192 kbps) from the Setting dropdown.

There are many other subscription music services you may already be subscribed to, like Rhapsody, Napster, and Zune Marketplace, which let you buy or rent tracks. But the songs that come from these stores use a Digital Rights Management (DRM) scheme that is incompatible with iTunes and the iPod/iPhone. In other words, these songs are protected from being played in software and hardware music players that don't support their particular standard (just like non-iPod music players can't play most music from the iTunes Music Store). There is software tool called TuneClone Audio Converter that claims to be able to remove DRM from Rhapsody, Napster and Zune Marketplace and convert the DRM protected music to MP3, WAV and unprotected WMA with a virtual CD drive. So if you want to transfer your Rhapsody/Napster/Zune music to iTunes for your iPod/iPhone, you mnay download this piece of software to help you get the music DRM removed and converted to MP3 for a try.

However, the online digital music store eMusic sells DRM-free MP3s, and there are many websites where you can download free and legal MP3s that don't contain DRM and can be imported into the iPhone easily.

3. Import MP3s into iTunes for iPod/iPhone

Once you've downloaded MP3s onto your computer, it's easy to import them into iTunes. First make a new playlist by going to the "File" menu and clicking "New Playlist" and naming it anything you like. Select that playlist in iTunes, then drag your MP3s from your hard drive into the right-hand pane. iTunes will start importing your music and populating the playlist with songs. After it's done, you're free to play back the songs or sync them to your iPod/iPhone just like all the rest of your library.

4. Import WMAs into iTunes for iPod/iPhone

Importing unprotected WMA files is just like importing MP3 files, but requires one additional step. With WMA files, iTunes will actually transcode the songs and change the format from WMA to whatever default audio encoder you've set in the iTunes Preferences. It's not necessary to know the difference between WMAs, MP3s, and AACs, but you should know that when you import WMAs, your original files are untouched and a new file is created.

Note: For importing DRM protected WMA files into iTunes, you will need to remove the DRM first. You may find some softwares which can be used to convert DRM protected WMA to MP3.

Apple Comments on Microsoft's Laptop Hunter Ads

2009-04-16T18:25:00.000-07:00

Businessweek's Arik Hesseldahl analyzes Microsoft's latest ad campaign "Laptop Hunters" have generated a massive amount of apple fans' discussion.

The latest television advertisement continues the "Laptop Hunters" theme in which a mother and son are tasked with finding a speedy sub-$1500 laptop with a large hard drive that is also good for gaming. The ads specifically target Apple's Macs as having a higher cost than PCs. Like the previous ads, they specifically point to higher cost of the Apple machines.

Hesseldahl rehashes the usual arguments on cost, but also gets a rare comment from Apple's PR department on the new ads.

Apple's Bill Evans said of the ads:"A PC is no bargain when it doesn't do what you want .... The one thing that both Apple and Microsoft can agree on is that everyone thinks the Mac is cool. With its great designs and advanced software, nothing matches it at any price."

Apple Launches Movie Downloads in German iTunes Store

2009-04-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

Apple today announced that it is now offering downloadable movie rentals and purchases through the iTunes Store in Germany.

Apple today announced that movies from major film studios including Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), The Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures Television and independents including Universum and Shorts International are now available on the iTunes Store in Germany for purchase and rent (www.itunes.de).

The German iTunes Store is offering approximately 500 films at launch, and new movies will be added for sale on the same day as their DVD release. Customers have up to 30 days after purchase to start watching rented movies, and rentals expire 48 hours after viewing begins.

Apple sees rare Mac shipment drop in Q1

2009-04-16T06:27:00.000-07:00

Apple is poised to ship fewer Macs to the US year-over-year in a quarter for the first time in multiple quarters,according to early estimates from IDC.

Purchase music online for your iPod or iPhone

2009-04-15T06:46:00.000-07:00

Many people considering the purchase of an iPod mistakenly believe that the iTunes Store is the only place where iPod users can purchase music. In reality, however, nothing could be further from the truth: Not only have users always been able to import standard audio CDs into iTunes and transfer them to the iPod, but in the past year or so a whole new range of iPod-compatible music stores have begun to pop up on the Internet. Some of these services have been around for some time for other digital music platforms, while others are relatively new entries in the world of online music sales.
Traditionally, the problem with purchasing music online has been the requirement by the recording industry for vendors to impose some form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions on downloadable content. This was intended to prevent users from easily sharing music via online services, but in reality was little more than a headache for the majority of users. The problem is that not all DRM technologies are compatible with each other, which means that you were restricted to purchasing content from online stores with a DRM scheme that supported your particular choice of media player. Since Apple did not license their FairPlay DRM to any other online vendors nor license any other DRM technologies for the iPod, the iTunes Store was pretty much the only game in town for iPod owners who wanted the convenience of purchasing music online.
However, a funny thing happened with the success of the iPod: Since the only major iPod-compatible online store was Apple’s own iTunes Store, it became popular as more and more people bought iPods, rising to become the number one online music retailer.
It wasn’t that other stores didn’t want to sell music in an iPod-compatible format, it was that they couldn’t: the music labels were tying their hands by not allowing them to sell music without DRM, and Apple wasn’t licensing its own DRM to any other online services. Of course, this left the record labels in a relatively uncomfortable position; they could either allow the iTunes Store to continue to dominate the online music retail business, or they could decide to loosen their stranglehold on digital copy protection in order to allow other retailers to sell music to the large and lucrative iPod customer base.
The end result was that the recording industry began allowing major online retailers such as Amazon and Walmart to begin selling music in the open, DRM-free MP3 format. Since just about every digital media player on the planet supports the MP3 format, this allows these online services to reach a much wider customer base, and provides a benefit for consumers in that your music is no longer tied to a single type of media device. In short, although one is of course expected to obey applicable licensing and copyright laws, the fact is that MP3 files have no technology-based restrictions on how you can use them—they will play in just about any digital audio application on your computer or mobile device and can be freely transferred and burned to CD without limitation.
In this article, we look at a few of the more popular sources for iPod users to purchase content online.

A Word about Audio Formats
Issues with Digital Rights Management (DRM) aside, there are three common audio formats in use by most online music services and media players.
1.MP3—Short for MPEG-1, Audio Layer 3, this is the most common format by far and supported by pretty much every digital audio player sold today. The MP3 format does not provide for any form of DRM, so chances are that if you have an MP3 file, it is not restricted in any way.
2.AAC—Short for Advanced Audio Coding, this is the preferred format used by Apple for its software and devices. Contrary to popular belief, however, this is not an Apple proprietary format, but is actually part of the MPEG-4 specification, and was originally designed to be the successor to the MP3 format. Many other modern digital audio players and even cell phones do support the AAC format, but it is not nearly as ubiquitous as the MP3 format. The AAC format can be DRM-protected, but this is only used by Apple with their FairPlay DRM on the iTunes Store. Users cannot create their own AAC DRM files, nor do any other online stores sell music in the AAC format.
3.WMA—Windows Media Audio is a format developed by Microsoft and used by Windows Media Player as well as most other digital audio players on the market. A DRM-protected version of the WMA format is still used by many other online music stores and digital media players. Apple’s software and devices do not directly support the WMA format in any manner, unprotected or not, although iTunes on Windows will offer to automatically convert unprotected WMA files into either MP3 or AAC format when you first import them into your library.
In addition to the audio format itself, a bit-rate is also frequently specified to indicate the relative quality of the music. This is expressed in kilobits per second, or “kbps” for short, and represents the amount of data stored for each second of music. Generally, a higher number represents better audio quality, although there is a point of diminishing returns for the majority of users. 128kbps is considered the minimum acceptable quality by most users, while bit-rates of 192kbps or 256kbps are considered by most to be indistinguishable from the source material even when played back on high-end equipment.

The iTunes Store
For many years, the iTunes Store was the only major legitimate online music retailer available to iPod users. Today, the majority of music purchased from the iTunes Store is still only available in a FairPlay DRM-protected AAC format that is only compatible with software and hardware made by Apple, specifically iTunes itself and the iPod, iPhone and Apple TV.

In the spring of 2007, Apple began selling tracks from certain labels in a new “iTunes Plus” format, which was a standard unprotected AAC format that could be used on any device supporting that format. In addition, while standard iTunes content is sold at a 128kbps bit-rate, iTunes Plus content is sold at a 256kbps bit-rate. Originally, iTunes Plus content sold at a slight premium over standard iTunes content, however today there is no price difference between the two types of content, and standard iTunes tracks are only sold where iTunes Plus versions are not available.
iTunes Plus tracks can be identified either by a small “Plus” symbol next to the track price, or by the words “iTunes Plus” found under the album name.

Tracks on the iTunes Store sell for $0.99 USD per track—a fixed-pricing model that Apple has been adamant about maintain even in the fact of industry pressure for variable pricing. Albums have a slightly different pricing model, however, since albums vary in number of tracks and whether or not bonus material such as videos are also included. The “normal” album price is $9.99 USD, although albums with extra content or the digital equivalent of multi-disc sets may sell for more than this. Further, Apple recently began selling albums at discount “sale” prices, and its also not uncommon to find shorter albums available for lower prices—generally if an album has less than 10 tracks on it, it sells for about the same price as buying the tracks individually.

At this point, the distinction between the iTunes and iTunes Plus content available seems to be in the hands of the record labels themselves, who make the determination on which tracks must be DRM-protected or not.
Note that the iTunes Store does sell more than just music, however. Depending on your country, you will also find music videos, audiobooks, TV shows, movies, and iPhone and iPod games and applications. The iTunes Store also serves as a gateway to subscribe to podcasts, but this is simply in the form of a podcast “directory” to simplify the process for users. Podcasts themselves are downloaded by iTunes directly from the podcaster’s own site.
The iTunes Store has the advantage of being the most convenient source of music for iTunes users since it is available from directly within the iTunes application on your computer and directly from the iPhone, iPod touch and Apple TV. Further, the iTunes Store has the largest catalogue currently available internationally. Although the content availability differs between countries, the fact is that the iTunes Store now operates in over 60 different countries, making it still the only online music option for many users around the world.

Amazon MP3
Last year, Amazon became the first major retailer to begin selling music online in the unprotected standard MP3 format. Ironically, Amazon sells music only in the MP3 format, and their catalog of unprotected content is significantly more extensive than that available from iTunes itself, since ALL content is in the unprotected MP3 format.

Amazon MP3 uses a more variable pricing model, with most tracks selling between $0.79 and $0.99 USD, and in fact it’s not at all uncommon to find tracks in the same album with different prices. Normal-length albums range from $3.99 to $12.99, with compilations and multi-disc albums selling at higher prices. Track and album pricing on Amazon MP3 appears to be determined largely on factors such as release date and popularity, and is generally in-line with the prices you would the equivalent CDs selling for in most retail stores.

Like iTunes, Amazon MP3 has some tracks that are available only as part of a purchase of an entire album, however users will often find that these “album-only” tracks actually differ between the iTunes Store and the Amazon MP3 store, so if you’re looking to make a single-track purchase of a track listed as “album-only” it’s always best to shop around.
Note that Amazon MP3 does not at this time provide any content other than music. Amazon MP3 provides files in the MP3 format at 256kbps and all downloaded files include the normal artist, album, and track name tags already filled in, as well as album artwork. Music
Although individually-purchased MP3 tracks can be downloaded directly, album and other multi-track downloads from the Amazon MP3 Store require the use of the Amazon MP3 Downloader application, which is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The Amazon MP3 Downloader queues up your content and downloads it and can also automatically import newly-downloaded tracks into iTunes for you.

Note that at this time, Amazon MP3 is only available to users in the United States, and Amazon enforces this in much the same way that the iTunes Store does for its country-specific stores: Users may log on and use the Amazon MP3 store from any physical location, but a U.S. based credit card and billing address is required to make purchases.

Walmart
Although Walmart has been selling music online in a WMA-based DRM format for some time now, they have recently switched their entire catalog over to the standard unprotected MP3 format.

Walmart uses a relatively fixed-price model similar to iTunes, with most individual tracks selling for $0.94 USD and most average-length albums selling for $9.22 USD. Discounts are occasionally available on selected tracks or albums, and prices differ proportionally for albums that are either longer or shorter than average length.

MP3 files from Walmart are encoded in either a 192kbps or 256kbps bit-rate, but unfortunately Walmart does not provide any indication on their store pages as to which bit-rate a given track is available in.

For Windows users, Walmart will prompt you to install a download manager the first time you purchase music from their online store. Mac OS X and Linux users are simply provided with a page of purchased content with appropriate download links. Once downloaded, Walmart MP3 files can be imported into iTunes simply by dragging and dropping them onto the iTunes window, or by using the File, Add to Library command from within iTunes itself.
Note that like Amazon MP3, Walmart’s MP3 store is only available to users in the United States. However, unlike Amazon, you must be physically located in the United States, and Walmart.com uses IP address verification to enforce this, rather than simply looking at the billing address. They specifically note that even U.S. citizens residing at military addresses or other territories or protectorates outside of the 50 United States will not be able to use their services.

Napster
Another recent arrival on the MP3 scene for U.S. users is Napster. Ironically, Napster began as the first major peer-to-peer music sharing site, and then later re-branded itself as a more reputable organization selling music legitimately in the protected WMA format. Most recent users will know Napster as one of the first subscription-based online music services, which provided unlimited “rental” style downloads for a fixed monthly fee.

The Napster-to-Go subscription business model remains available in much the same manner as before—that is, using WMA-protected files incompatible with iTunes or the iPod, and designed to “expire” when you stop paying your monthly membership fee. However, Napster has recently begun selling much of their catalogue in the unprotected MP3 format.
MP3 tracks from Napster are priced at $0.99 per track, with albums being priced simply as an aggregate of the track price. MP3 files vary in quality between 128kbps and 256kbps, with all newer content being encoded at 256kbps. The quality is indicated during the purchase/checkout process.

After purchasing tracks, they are downloaded directly via your browser. Windows users with the Napster dekstop application installed can use this as a download manager, but this is not required.
Note that a Napster monthly membership is not required to purchase MP3 tracks from Napster, even though they will encourage you to sign up for one during your initial registration process. If you’re only interested in purchasing MP3 files from Napster, about the only advantage to having a subscription is the ability to listen to full previews of tracks before you buy them. Without a subscription, you are limited to a 30-second preview.
Like Amazon and Walmart, Napster’s MP3 service is available only in the United States at this time. Credit card billing addresses are used to verify U.S. residency.

Rhapsody MP3 Store
Rhapsody was an online service by Real Networks that has also existed for some time as a music store selling WMA-protected music for other digital audio devices. Rhapsody briefly toyed with reverse-engineering Apple’s FairPlay DRM a few years ago in an attempt to sell music to iPod users, but that idea was quickly shut down by Apple due to licensing issues.

Rhapsody uses the standard $0.99 USD pricing model for individual tracks, with most average-length albums priced at $8.99 USD. All MP3 files from Rhapsody are encoded at a 256kbps bit-rate similar to the other online stores.

Rhapsody offers an additional feature which is somewhat unique from the other services: Users can listen to full-length previews of up to 25 songs per month with no membership or subscription required. Like Napster, a Rhapsody membership will allow unlimited full-length previews.
Purchased tracks can be downloaded directly from the Rhapsody site as a ZIP file, or Windows users may download and install a Rhapsody download manager.
As with most of the other online services that we have looked at, Rhapsody is only available to users in the United States. Credit card billing information is used to enforce this.

eMusic
eMusic has been around for longer than even the iTunes Store, and is somewhat unique in its approach from most other online music retails. Unlike the others eMusic has always provided their content in the open and unprotected MP3 format. Unfortunately, this limits the selection of music available on eMusic’s catalog—you won’t find major record-label music here, but there is a great selection of over 4 million tracks from smaller labels and independent artists, which is where eMusic’s primary focus lies.

eMusic works on a subscription-based model, but unlike services such as Napster-to-Go, you actually get to keep the tracks even if you choose to cancel your eMusic subscription. Instead of purchasing individual tracks, you sign up for a monthly subscription plan which includes a certain number of tracks per month.

Once you have downloaded your track quota for a given month, you either need to wait until the next month, or purchase a “Booster Pack” to add additional downloads.
The bit-rate of the MP3 files on eMusic can vary depending on the artist and/or source. Most files are 192kbps VBR, although they appear to be encoding some of their newer content at 256kbps.
Due to its focus on independent artists, eMusic has no country-specific restrictions on it, so you can use it from just about anywhere, and unlike the iTunes Store, there are no country-specific catalogues—you’re accessing the same music catalog regardless of where you are.

Conclusion
With the music labels finally coming to the realization that placing technical DRM restrictions on content has done far more to alienate and confuse legitimate customers than it has to reduce music piracy, iTunes and iPod owners now have more options than ever for shopping around and finding legitimate sources of digital music online.
While iTunes may seem like the most obvious and convenient option, there is now some real, genuine competition out there in the online music business. Consumers who are concerned about maintaining the widest possible range of compatibility and “future-proofing” their music should definitely look to online stores that are selling music in the DRM-free MP3 format, as these tracks can be played anywhere, and in many cases are cheaper in price and higher in quality than those offered by the iTunes Store.
As the online music retail industry continues to evolve, we expect to see even more online music retailers popping up and offering music from major labels in open formats. Ironically, with all of these other options it seems that the iTunes Store is now behind the times as the major holdout in dropping DRM. To be fair, however, the music labels themselves likely share much of the blame for this situation at the present time, and we do hope to see Apple’s entire iTunes Store catalogu. available in the iTunes Plus format soon, particularly since it remains the only viable source for purchasing music online for iTunes users living outside of the United States

Free music resource for your iPod or iPhone

2009-04-15T05:34:00.000-07:00

If you have an iPod and far fewer songs than the gigabytes of storage space you have available, then you’ve probably asked one of most popular questions: “how can I load my iPod up with free music?”
There are at least two answers to this question, one generally illegal, and one generally legal. You’ve probably already heard about the illegal free music options, but just in case you haven’t, we’ll run through the reasons you’ll want to skip them and use the legal free music sites instead.

Illegal Free Music: Downloads with Consequences
Several years ago, the sheer quantity of open challenges to American copyright law created a popular perception that music - old and new alike - was supposed to be free, and “shared” between friends and strangers alike. Upon release of just about any new album (and sometimes even before), full MP3-format tracks appeared on music-sharing services such as Napster and Kazaa, spreading around the world without restriction. Many recording artists were angered by what they felt was mass theft of their music, while others either ignored or embraced the file-sharing.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) decided to fight the “music is free” movement, undertaking highly publicized lawsuits on behalf of artists it represented. Services such as Napster were sued for billions of dollars as facilitators of copyright infringement, and either driven out of business or forced into retreat. Subsequently, RIAA lawsuits against individuals shut down large resources of “shared” music, and warned others that swapping smaller quantities of copyrighted content could subject them to similar legal action.
RIAA lawsuits haven’t stopped the trading of copyrighted music online, but they’ve turned file-sharing into a game of Russian Roulette. For obvious reasons, I don’t recommend the sharing or downloading of “free” music from file-sharing services unless you know for sure that the artist has specifically given permission for that music to be shared.

Non-U.S. Music Download Sites: A Dangerous Gray Area
The average person should be aware that there’s likely something wrong about getting entire free albums for nothing, but what if they were offered for pennies per song, instead of ten or more dollars per album? If you pay something for your downloads, is that enough to protect yourself from being sued?
That’s the question posed by a few web services operated by individuals outside of the United States. These sites purport to offer penny-per-megabyte downloads of popular music. One of the more notable, AllofMP3.com, offers a surprisingly robust collection of albums from major recording artists in the compressed audio format of your choice, even including albums from artists such as The Beatles who have not otherwise published their music online. More amazingly, songs are available for download at rates of under 10 cents per track. For years, the site claimed that it was operating legally under Russian law, and although some legal challenges to this were presented last year, the legality of this under Russian law still remains very much in question. Similar competing web sites in other countries, such as Spain’s Weblisten.com and Puretunes.com have been sued and shut down in the past, however.
I don’t take a position on the legality of any of these specific sites, as they operate under foreign legal systems and may or may not be entitled to offer the pricing and unprotected files they are selling. I urge you to exercise caution before assuming that any “purchased” music from these stores is a replacement for store-purchased CDs or licensed tracks from established domestic vendors of digital music. Keep in mind that just because you’re paying somebody for something doesn’t automatically imply that they’re legally allowed to sell it to you.

Downloading Free Music Without Fear
With so many questions regarding the legality of international and domestic music downloads - questions which in accordance with the RIAA’s litigation strategy have created a blanket presumption of downloading fear that may not be entirely justified - there are only a handful of major free music download sites that guarantee that users are not breaking any laws. The best we’ve seen are listed below.
Firstly, there is the iTunes Store itself, which frequently offers free promotional tracks as part of various albums, and a new free track-of-the-week is offered up each week. The iTunes Store itself provides a Free on iTunes page with highlighted free content.

Another site, itsfreedownloads.com also maintains a regular blog of links to free content on various International iTunes Stores. While not all content remains perpetually free, sometimes older posts can yield links to content that is still available but has otherwise disappeared from the iTunes Store’s own promotional pages.
3hive.com: A great blog-style listing of free iPod-compatible songs offered by record artists and labels in an attempt to entice full-album purchases. Songs are in the MP3 format in a variety of bit-rates generally ranging between 128kbps and 192kbps.

Epitonic.com: Offers highly professional, artist-focused presentation of free digital music downloads in MP3 format, with biographical details and short previews for songs across a narrow collection of genres.

Freekidsmusic.com: Along with its sister site Freechildrensmusic.com, provides a large variety of free MP3 format songs for young listeners.

Garageband.com: Not to be confused with Apple’s music creation application of the same name, Garageband.com collects and provides popularity charts of independent music, featuring over 125,000 bands.

MFiles.co.uk: Provides free downloads of well-known classical music in MP3 format.

MP34U.com: A clean, professionally designed interface to individual free songs sorted by genre, selected by site “sources” who pick and post only music they like.

Music.download.com: The music-dedicated expansion of popular software download site Download.com offers free full-length MP3 songs across all major genres, even including Children’s, Spoken Word, Comedy, Folk and Religious tracks. Most tracks are indie.
PureVolume: Offers over 100,000 free songs for download, and captured many of the best users of what used to be MP3.com (before it was scrapped, sold, and completely changed).

RCRDLBL: An exclusively-online record label which provides free MP3 downloads of exclusive music from emerging artists.
Of course, if you can’t find the song you’re looking for on one of these free sites, you can always visit Apple’s iTunes Store or Amazon's MP3 Store and make a purchase there. Though these aren’t as cheap as some of the questionable international sites listed in the prior section, they are an entirely safe and legal way to get access to over a million songs.

Free Music with a Catch: Ad-supported Sites
Years ago, the most common source of free music for your listening enjoyment was the radio. Radio stations were able to broadcast music from a wide range of artists at no cost to the listener. Instead they made money through advertising services. The “price” a listener paid to listen to free music in those days was having to endure listening to advertising interspersed with the music.
Recently, some web sites have begun to offer a similar business model: You can download free music, but this is either done through a client or web site with very proactive advertising (as opposed to the standard advertising on most web sites), or the music tracks themselves contain brief advertising spots placed at the beginning of each track.
Unfortunately, most of the sites that offer these types of services, such as SpiralFrog and Ruckus Networks (for U.S. college students) only offer their downloads in a Windows Media Audio DRM-protected format that is incompatible with iTunes or the iPod (or ironically, even the Microsoft Zune). Further, these tracks may not be burned to a CD. These sites are therefore generally of no value to iPod owners.
A notable exception is We7, a UK-based ad-supported site whose founders include Peter Gabriel. We7 provides downloads in a DRM-free 192kbps MP3 format, with the catch being that each track has a 6-12 second advertisement grafted onto the front-end. Ad-free tracks may be purchased outright, and We7 also offers a credit system whereby you can convert some of your tracks to ad-free versions once they have been in your library for 28 days or more. Since these tracks are in an open MP3 format, they can be played on just about any digital media player available.

Although primarily a paid subscription music service, eMusic.com provides a free ad-supported music service as well. In this case, the advertising is directed at the user via the ALOT toolbar which is installed in your web browser (compatible with IE6, IE7 and FireFox 2 only).

Downloading Free Podcasts: Radio for your iPod
In addition to free music for your iPod, you can also download “Podcasts,” short radio-style programs produced by individuals and companies around the world. Many of these podcasts include music selections, and some are even dedicate to showcasing independent artists and providing music commentary and review.
While podcasts were originally organized in several independent podcast directories out on the Internet, the ITunes Store now includes an extensive catalog of podcasts which you can subscribe to directly via iTunes completely for free. Podcasts available through iTunes include both audio and video podcasts, and cover an extensive range of topics. Basically, anybody who has anything to say on a regular basis can create their own podcast and get “on the air” via iTunes quite easily.
A selection of music-specific podcasts can be found right in iTunes in the Music Podcasts Directory, which includes a comprehensive selection of music-related podcasts from music reviewers, traditional radio stations, and even directly from both small independent and more mainstream artists.

How to rip encrypted DVD to iPhone video formats on Mac OS X?

2009-04-15T00:47:00.000-07:00

What's the most popular smart phone now? It must be iPhone! I like watch movies on it,but iPhone only support .mp4(H.264) formats, how to rip encrypted DVD to iPhone video format? You need DVD Ripper tool, nowaday there are some softwares, which DVD Ripper for mac is better? I recommend iFunia. By the way, I am Mac user.

Step 1:Download and Install iFunia DVD Ripper for Mac.
You can try out the Mac iPod Video Converter for free (Intel Version or PowerPC Version). After the download is finished, run the setup file and follow the Installation Wizard instructions. Using the DVD Ripper tool rip your DVD to iPhone format is just moments away!

Step 2: Add DVD Movie
Click the Load DVD button or Load IFO button, browse your computer, find the DVD folder of the movie you want to add from your hard disc or DVD-ROM, open your DVD folder, select the VIDEO_TS folder also all the IFO files and click OK.

Step 3: Edit, crop, trim DVD video (Optional)
If you want to rip segments from dvd on mac, simply click the 'Trim' button to trim the current title or chapter by dragging the Start Time slider to set the start time, and dragging the End Time slider to set the finish time. Also, to remove the black edges, you just click the Crop button to crop the video of the current title or chapter. You can specify an area either by dragging the frame around the video or setting the crop values: Top, Button, Left and Right. Above the crop pane, you can select an output aspect ratio and the available options are: Keep Original, full screen, 16:9 and 4:3.

Step 4: Output settings
If you don't know much about video formats, you can select a format according to the name of your portable player.For example, select 'MOV-QuickTime(*.mov)' when you want to rip DVD to QuickTime on Mac, and the default setting works great. This DVD ripper for Mac can also rip DVD to MP4, AVI, M4V, 3GP, MPG, MPEG, FLV on Mac OS X and convert DVD from PAL to NTSC. You can select mov or mp4 when you rip DVD to iMovie on Mac.iMovie supports MOV and MP4 video. It is easy to rip DVD to iMovie on mac.

Set Video and audio solutions: If you want to customize the output video's quality, you can click the 'Settings' button to open the Settings window and set video resolution, frame rate, bit rate, encoder, etc. The DVD Ripper for mac lets you extract audio from DVD movie to MP3 or AAC, etc.for web using or other portable players. You can set audio resolution, frame rate, bit rate and encoder on the 'Settings' panel.

Step 5: Start conversion
After setting the output settings, you can just click the Convert button to start converting your Movie. You can choose to shut down your computer or open the output folder after conversion so you don't have to sit before your computer waiting for the conversion to finish.

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How to convert video to iPod for Macintosh beginner?

2009-04-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

Finally, for Mac users, convert avi, mp4, and any other video to iPod in just a few steps with the iPod Video Converter for Mac. No need to know the technicality of iPod video converters - just run the program, choose videos, select your preferred preset, and hit Convert! Here are the easy steps.

Step 1: Download and Install iPod Movie Converter for Mac.
You can try out the Mac iPod Video Converter for free (Intel Version or PowerPC Version). After the download is finished, run the setup file and follow the Installation Wizard instructions. Using the iPod Movie Converter to convert your video to iPod format for Mac is just moments away!

Step 2: Add the Video you Wish to Convert using the Video to iPod Converter.
Run the program and click the "Add Files" button to add video or audio files. This Video to iPod for Mac supports most of the popular video formats including avi and mp4. You can also click the file name of selected title/chapter under Destination File item in the file list window and rename the imported files directly.

Step 3: Edit Your Video File (Optional).
Trim Video:
This Video to iPod Converter for Mac allows you to trim your video, so you can capture your favorite video clips.
Click 'trim' button to open the Trim window, then set the start time and end time by dragging the start time and End Time slider to convert a clip from your movie on Mac OS X. The final length can be found at “Trimmed Length”.

Crop Video:
To watch your movies on your portable players in full screen, you can also remove the black edges around your video with this Mac Video to iPod Converter
Click "Crop" button to open the Crop Video window. There are two methods available to crop your video: Crop by adjusting the crop frame and Crop by setting the crop values. After you select an output aspect ratio and finish the crop, the result can be previewed in the Preview window of the program main interface.

Set Effect:
If you want to adjust the video effect of your movie, you can click the Effect button and drag each effect adjustment slider to set the video brightness, contrast, saturation and video volume. You can also choose a special effect from the Effect drop-down list to apply to your movie.

Step 4:Choose your Preferred iPod Converter Preset.
In the left-hand section of the video to iPod converter interface, select the output format from drop-down menu. Choose the right preset for your iPod, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, etc.

Step 5:Start Conversion in this Video to iPod Converter.
In the bottom left corner of the Video to iPod Converter, choose the location where you would like to save your converted video files. Just be sure you have enough free space for your outputted videos. Finally, click the Convert button to launch the converstion process in this Video to iPod Converter for Mac. (See how easy it is!?)

Step 6:Transfer Video to iPod.
Open Apple iTunes and drag the newly converted video file to the library window. That's it. Now you can enjoy your beloved movies on your iPod breezily!

Tips & Tricks:
Tip1: You can play the video in full screen by double clicking the video in the preview pane.

Tip2: Click "Snapshot" button on main interface to take a snapshot while preview and save them as common picture formats like BMP, JPEG, GIF, and PNG.

Tip3: If you want to merge all added video files to iPod into one file, simply check the "Merge into one file" option. You can choose any videos you want to convert by ticking the check boxes before them. So that you can convert selected videos to iPod format on Mac.

Tip4: Don't use iTunes to convert limewire video, because most limewire videos are muxed video, which converted by iTunes will lost sound.

Tip5: You'll probably want to update the information of the video when you move it to the iTunes library. To do this, select Videos from the left-hand column and go to list view. Then, click the file for which you want to edit info and select Get Info from the File menu (or simply right-click). You can edit the boxes found under the Info tab.

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AT&T iPhone Exclusivity Expires in 2010, AT&T Asking for Extension?

2009-04-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal reports that AT&T's exclusive offering of the iPhone will expire next year but that AT&T is working with Apple to extend it to 2011.
The exact length of exclusivity has been a bit murky with initial reports claiming as far out as 2012 but the most recent reports corroborating the 2010 date.
AT&T has benefited from the exclusive iPhone offering attracting 4.3 million iPhone subscribers in the second half of 2008 with about 40% of them being new to AT&T. If the agreement does expire, this could open up the iPhone to become available with other U.S. carriers. This may, however, require some variations in hardware in order to accommodate other networks.

Apple Seeds iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 3 and New SDK to Developers

2009-04-14T21:28:00.000-07:00

Apple today seeded the third beta version of iPhone OS 3.0, along with a new build of the software development kit (SDK), to developers. World of Apple republishes the seed notes for the SDK, detailing a number of changes to various components, including Xcode, Interface Builder, and Dashcode, and notes that applications targeting pre-OS 3.0 devices are unable to be tested on the latest beta.
No visible changes in the new version of the OS have yet been detailed. The last beta was seeded to developers on March 31st.

Next Generation iPhone Component Suppliers?

2009-04-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

DigiTimes publishes this list of component suppliers for the next-generation iPhone that is rumored to arrive in mid 2009. The component list isn't particularly revealing except it reinforces the rumor that Apple will be using a 3.2 megapixel camera from OmniVision in the next generation iPhone. The current iPhone uses a 2 megapixel camera.

DigiTimes' sources claim that the suppliers will begin shipping in May and the first batch is estimated at around 5 million units.

iPod touch Tricks & Tips

2009-04-13T23:27:00.000-07:00

GENERAL
*If you're scrolling through a long document/page in an application - if you tap the bar at the top of your screen containing the time and battery, the application will automatically scroll up to the top of the document/page.
*To take a screenshot of any screen of your iPod (including the lock screen), hold the power and home buttons and release them. A white flash will appear on screen and a screenshot will appear in your Photos application.
*If your iPod is frozen and will not respond, you can force reboot by holding the power and home buttons until your device turns off. Please note that this is not recommended and is the equivalent of pulling the cord out of your computer to turn it off.
*Need a spare cleaning cloth for your touch, or an extra cloth to rest your iPod touch on while at work or school? Just go to your local vision care store (or pharmacy) and get an eyeglass/sunglass "cleaning cloth". Cheap and works great!
*If you wish to change your device's root SFTP password, open Terminal and type 'passwd'. You will then be prompted to change your password.

MEDIA
*Double tapping the home button in any application, or with the screen off will bring up the music controls.
*When watching a video, tap to bring up the onscreen controls. When you are done watching a video make sure you press done so your progress will be saved.
*When listening to an audiobook, iTunes and your iPod create a new chapter list unrelated to the subject of the book. It's accessible using the same control used for viewing audio tracks (upper right of screen).
*When playing media, press and hold the forward button to incrementally increase the speed of playback. When the media is paused, holding the fast forward button will make the media play slower.
*When listening to music, double tap the album artwork to have it flip over. You can then view the tracklisting of the album.
*If you pull your headphones out of the socket, any currently playing media will pause.
*If you would like to view the lyrics of a song (if you've added lyrics), by tapping the album art on the Now Playing screen.

BATTERY
*Turn off WiFi to save battery power when not in use.
*JB ONLY: Turn off SSH via SBSettings.
*Make sure to completely close apps when you are done with them to save battery power. This is accomplished by pressing and holding the home button for approximately five seconds. This boosts battery life big time if you run lots of different apps all the time.
*You can charge your iPod Touch from any fully powered USB 2.0 port. A PS2 does not have a fully powered USB 2.0 port. Ports that will work include a computer, printer, or a media centre. The device does not have to have iTunes installed to provide power to your iPod Touch.
*To improve battery life, turn down brightness through the Settings application.

HOME SCREEN
*If you would like to rearrange your Home Screen icons, tap and hold an icon until they all start to wiggle. Drag the icons around to rearrange them, and when it is satisfactory, press the home button.
*Websites without an icon will just be a screenshot for webclips, for websites like this zoom into an area of the site you would like the webclip icon to look like... ex. zoom into the website logo and that will be the webclip icon.
*Press the home button while on the home screen, and it will return to the initial home screen.
*Instead of sliding across the page, tapping imediately left or right of the page dots on the Home Screen and Weather will move to the next page.

THEMES: JAILBREAK ONLY
If you want to set a picture as a permanent background (and not only in the "wake" screen) Set the picture as a background in settings or directly from the picture gallery. Then, open Winterboard and tap User Wallpaper.

KEYBOARD
*When typing a lot of text in Safari turn it to horizontal view. The keyboard will be bigger and you can get a better grip of the Touch while typing with two thumbs.
When typing, if you press the space bar twice after a word it will insert a period and another space.
*When using the keyboard, if you hold the delete key down for about 3 seconds it will change from deleting letters to deleting words.
*Holding down letters on the keyboard will pop up the accents/symbols associated with those letters. Once it pops up, slide your finger over to the accent/symbol you like.
*When typing if you want to add something from the numbers keyboard just hold down the numbers and slide your finger to the number or symbol you want, and release. It will take you back to your letters keyboard. This way you dont have to tap numbers, tap your number, then tap numbers again to go back. This also applies for using the 'shift' key to apply capital letters.
*Make a spelling mistake? Press and hold the word you spelt wrong and a magnifying glass will appear. Slide your finger back and forwth to move the cursor.

SAFARI
*When in Safari, if you are presented with a link, hold your finger over the link, and a bubble will appear showing the URL that the link is tied to.
*In Safari since you can't open links in a new windows, you can open a new page, tap the bookmarks icon, tap the history folder and direct yourself to the last page you were just on and tap the link from there. You can also use a javascript bookmarklet called Tabulate.
*When you're on a website that has a frame or an iframe with scrollbars in it, use two fingers on that frame to scroll that window and back to a single finger to scroll the whole page.
*If you would like to save an image from the web, simply tap and hold the image to save it.
*In Safari double tap to zoom in or out. You can also "pinch" (putting your thumb and index finger on the screen and pinching in and out) to zoom in Safari, Maps, and in Pictures.

OTHER APPS
*Whilst in Mail's inbox view, sliding your finger from left to right on a message the 'delete' button will appear. This also applies in the list view of the Videos application. You can also delete Mail in bulk by tapping 'edit' and selecting the Mail you want to have deleted.
*In Google Maps, double tapping zooms in as expected, but single tapping with two fingers zooms out.
*The 'Notes' application is an easy way to draft mail. The 'mail' icon provides a link to iPhone's Mail and saved contacts.
*To use a scientific calculator, simply enter the Calculator application, and turn the device sideways.

Apple iPod shuffle USB Cable (3rd Generation)

2009-04-13T21:25:00.000-07:00

Historically, Apple's iPod shuffles have been -- by far -- the least popular for dedicated first- and third-party accessories, owing as much to the lack of user interest in augmenting the almost disposably-priced models as to their incompatibility with almost all of the add-ons developed for other iPod models. Synchronization cables and docks have always appeared alongside every new model, however, and so the third-generation shuffle now has its first two accessories: Apple's iPod shuffle USB Cable ($19) and Dexim's dock Shu-Lip ($16). While neither offering is a great value for the dollar, both may appeal to certain iPod shuffle users, anyway.

The official iPod shuffle USB Cable ($19) box appears as if it was assembled more to justify a minimum Apple Store accessory price than to offer real value to consumers. Third-generation iPod shuffle buyers know that the model comes packaged with a short 45-millimeter (1.6") cable with a full-sized USB plug at one end and a tapered, shuffle-matching 3.5mm headphone port plug at the other, all in a combination of silver metal with gray and white plastics. Rather than selling a replacement for this cable for $5, Apple instead packages together a 45-millimeter cable and a 1000-millimeter (39") one; the box thus should really be called “iPod shuffle USB Cables.” The shorter one may work better for some users, particularly those with laptops or machines that have front-facing USB ports, while the longer one provides more than enough distance to reach to the back of a floor-mounted computer or a desk-mounted monitor. It’s no surprise that they charge and sync the iPod shuffle, no more, no less, and work exactly as expected.

Shu-Lip takes another approach, and one that early rendered images suggested would be a little different from how it actually turned out. The idea, cribbed from companies such as Incipio (iPod shuffle 2G), was to radically reduce the size of the USB connector into something only a little larger than a USB plug. Add it to the third-generation shuffle, and you have a complete cable-less docking, charging, and syncing solution with a footprint similar to the typical flash drive. Dexim’s twist is that Shu-Lip has an aluminum body—adding to its expense—and expands the shuffle’s width rather than matching it. It crowds the USB port that it sits in, which can become an issue if the USB ports on your computer are really close together, as in the latest metal MacBooks, but isn’t a problem if they’re further apart or partially unoccupied, as on Apple’s older machines and Cinema Displays.

The challenge with many computers is, however, the same: as Apple anticipated with the 1000mm cable, the need for a connector that’s shorter and arguably more easily lost than the one included with the shuffle isn’t as great as for one that’s longer. Laptop users and those with easy access to front-mounted USB ports on desktop machines will therefore find Shu-Lip appealing, but those with only rear-mounted USB ports will not. It’s also worth a brief note that contrary to Dexim’s current advertising, Shu-Lip actually mounts the shuffle upside-down in a USB port, with its shirt clip facing upwards, a minor detail that some users may like and others won’t. We don’t really care, and you probably don’t, either.

Due as much to pricing as anything else, both Apple’s and Dexim’s solutions are worthy of only limited recommendations: Incipio had the right idea last generation with its $6 IncipioBud, which hit the right price point for something as simple as an iPod shuffle sync dock, while both Apple and Dexim have come up with alternatives that look nice enough but are just too expensive given the value they add. At press time, if you’re looking for a replacement or second USB connector for the third-generation shuffle, you don’t have many other options, so unless you really love either of these designs and are willing to pay a premium for them, it might be worth holding off for less expensive or more appealing alternatives to appear.
Company: Apple, Inc.
Website: www.Apple.com
Model: iPod shuffle USB Cable
Price: $19

iSuppli: iPod shuffle 4G costs $21.77 to make

2009-04-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

According to a teardown analysis of the fourth-generation iPod shuffle, the total cost of the device is roughly 28% of its retail price. Citing analysis from market research firm iSuppli, BusinessWeek reports that the total cost of the shuffle’s components, its remote-laden headphones, and its packaging comes to just $21.77. iSuppli found that Samsung supplied both the shuffle’s controller chip, which costs roughly $6, and the 4GB of flash memory, which also costs roughly $6; iSuppli analyst Andrew Rassweiler notes that Apple is likely using flash memory from Toshiba and Hynix Semiconductor as well. “It’s almost like six dollars worth of flash memory tied to some flash and a battery and not much else,” Rassweiler said. “It’s very basic and downsized.” The device also includes a lithium ion battery that runs $1.20, which Rassweiler describes as “the smallest we’ve ever seen.” Other component suppliers include On Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductor, and Texas Instruments.

Microsoft plans touch-based Zune HD

2009-04-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

According to new images published by Engadget, Microsoft is preparing a third-generation Zune device, presently titled Zune HD. One of the images includes a direct look at the potential device, which appears to have a wide-aspect touchscreen and an Apple-like black and silver exterior, with the rest showing abstract illustrations. Microsoft has previously targeted both the iPod classic and iPod nano with its drive- and flash-based Zunes, respectively, but has yet to offer a model comparable in features to the iPod touch.

Rumor: Apple Expect 4 Million New iPhones Shipment by end Q2

2009-04-13T20:15:00.000-07:00

Apple has placed orders for four million units of new iPhone models, with delivery expected by the end of this quarter, according to a China Times report. The report goes on to state that Apple may introduce three distinct iPhone models, including a new 2.75G (EDGE) model, a new 3G model, and a third model created especially for the Chinese market. All three models are said to be similar in design to the current iPhone, and the report states that the introduction of a third, smaller model—often referred to as the iPhone nano—is unlikely. Prior reports have indicated that a future iPhone model would include an improved, 3.2 megapixel camera, 802.11n wireless network support, and video recording features; Apple is expected to reveal at least one new iPhone model at this year’s WWDC event, scheduled for June 8-12 in San Francisco.

Buy.com posts sale of unlocked iPhone 3Gs

2009-04-13T19:22:00.000-07:00

Online vendor Buy.com is now selling unlocked 16GB iPhone 3Gs, a listing at the site claims. The phones are in detail described as "never-locked" models, able to connect to any GSM carrier in the US, including T-Mobile. Buyers are moreover said to be able to use the phones without the restrictions of hacked devices, such as an inability to sync with iTunes or download official firmware updates.
The list price for the phones is $800, however, and their origin is unknown. While Apple has begun selling contract-free iPhones, the official American options are still linked to AT&T. The most likely source may be regions such as France and Hong Kong, which sell unlocked iPhones that could in theory be imported at a high premium. Apple has not stated any position regarding the Buy.com listing.