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iTunes 7.4 obsolete after 48 hours; 7.4.1 breaks homebrew ringtones
Filed under: iTunes, Software UpdateThere are apps that age gracefully, staying functional and relevant for months or years with no changes at all (I'm looking at you, TNEF's Enough -- 2005 in the house!)... and then there's iTunes. We had only hours to get used to a new version with support for all the iPods coming down the pike, and then in don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it fashion, 7.4 was gone and 7.4.1 was here. Wheel in the sky, keep on turning.Apple hasn't listed specific changes between 7.4 and 7.4.1, but initial reports say that the technique for creating your own ringtones simply by changing file extensions, which MacRumors announced earlier today, is now blocked (anyone surprised? Didn't think so). Despite the patches, we're told that iToner 1.0.1, just revised to work with 7.4, continues to work as advertised with 7.4.1.You can download the new iTunes for Mac and Windows directly, or hit Software Update for the refresh.Thanks Mike B. and St3phenRead | Perma...

TUAW Best of the Week
Filed under: TUAW Business, AppleWhat a week for Apple fans. After a slow Labor Day, we got a huge midweek event, new iPods, and what turned out to be the week's biggest story: the iPhone is now $399.MobileChat iPhone AIM Client DebutsStarted off the week with not one but two IM iPhone betas.MarsEdit 2.0Red Sweater's blogging client gets a new interface and Flickr integrationMass-media messup: NBC doesn't get the iTunes storeNik tells us why the peacock should leave the pricing to Apple.Ask TUAW: External Front Row, iSight mirroring, booting from an external HD, and moreYou ask, we answer, and you don't even have to pay an extra buck just to read it for 30 seconds on your iPhone.The Beatles: whateverScott doesn't care if the Beatles showed up on Wednesday or not.Metaliveblogging "The Beat Goes On" eventWhat's the next best thing to being in Moscone West? Reading our commentary about it.iTunes: Free WednesdayFeaturing Dave Matthews and The Pick Up Artist (not the same person).iPhone...

Installer.app locks out PXL package
Filed under: Software, Developer, iPhoneLots of drama in the iPhone development community since last night, and it all revolves around a decision that "lg," the developer of Installer.app, made to remove PXL from its list of installable applications. PXL is another package manager for iPhone (open source, while Installer.app is still free, but currently closed source), that works with either Breezy, iBrickr (for Windows), or any other PXL manager. A little while back, the PXL guys decided that the easiest way to get their packages onto the iPhone was to actually run through Installer.app, but lg, last night, apparently decided that he didn't want them doing that, and locked them out of the application.And that, according to many iPhone developers, is not cool. The creators of NES.app, in response, have pulled their application from Installer.app completely, posting a notice on their site that "NES.app will no longer function from Installer.app or other third-party package installers...

Does Apple want to sell TV shows for 99 cents?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iTS, AppleThe Apple/NBC drama continues with this latest report from Variety. Sources tell Variety that Apple proposed to the studios that TV show prices on iTunes should be lowered from $1.99 each to $.99, to which NBC said, 'No thanks!' NBC is pushing for 'flexible pricing' meaning that new shows would cost more than older shows which makes sense to me if the prices are reasonable (i.e. not $4.99 for new shows) and this scheme is actually already in place in the iTunes Store.What?! I thought Steve was all about one price or nothing, I hear you say. Yes, that would seem to be the case if one looks only at TV shows and music, which account for most of iTunes purchases but one shouldn't forget that Apple also sells movies . Newly released, or hot, movies cost $14.99 to download while older movies cost just $9.99. Oh, the confusion a buyer must feel when faced with these differing price points!I predict that in the near future all the studios (includin...

How not to download iTunes Store tracks or previews for Ringtones
Filed under: iTS, iTunes, iPhoneWe've just received word via Engadget that you may not use iTMS-purchased music or previews as ringtones.Engadget's awesome Nilay Patel addressed the issue this morning, clarifying that although you can legally install ringtones ripped from your personal CDs, iTMS tracks and previews are off-limits. He writes that the iTMS EULA prohibits the use of downloaded files as ringtones, probably due to its contracts with the music industry. Music ripped from CDs, however, are not derivative works and do not infringe copyrights. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Create your own iTunes-compatible ringtones
Filed under: iTS, Hacks, How-tos, iTunes, iPhoneiTunes 7.4 makes it especially easy to add and sync ringtones with your iPhone--without having to pay for a third-party installer. TUAW reader Arnold Kim passed along a link to this fabulous MacRumors post with a method attributed to "Cleverboy" and Nicholas "Drudge" Penree sent me additional instructions. It goes basically like this: iTunes uses the m4r file extension for Ringtones. If you remove an AAC file from your library and rename it from .m4a to .m4r and then add it back to iTunes, the program reads it back in as a ringtone rather than a normal library track. You can then sync it to your iPhone. I've tested this with both an MP3 that I converted to AAC and with a track I purchased from the iTunes store. They both worked. The secret lies in making sure the name change happens properly. This isn't a big problem on Windows. On the Mac though there are protections in place to keep you from renaming the file extension--this...

Apple paranoia in action
Filed under: Bad Apple, iPhoneI'm doing screenshots today and I snap a photo of the iPhone video application. Notice anything missing? Like the actual video? What kind of paranoia prevents a screenshots application from photographing video on a platform that shouldn't be doing snapshots in the first place because it's not set up for third party interaction?Thank you Apple.p.s. I know. I know. It's probably just hardware acceleration.Permalink | Email this | Comments