Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » iTunes

Apple Adds Editors’ Choice and App Of The Week To Mac App Store and iTunes

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 25 May 2012 19:26:15 +0000

Finding some of the best apps on the Apple App Store can be rather difficult. This is why Apple acquired Chomp. Apple has also launched a new section called for iTunes and the Mac App Store called “Editors’ Choice.” The current Editors’ Choice on the iTunes is Cobook, Facebook Camera, Extreme Skater, Air Mail, and Sketchbook Ink. As part of the “app of the week” series, Apple has made Cut The Rope: Experiments free. The Amazon Appstore is known for offering apps for free at a heavy discount, promotional discounts for iOS and the Mac App Store are up to the developer. To my understanding, if a developer significantly reduces their price as requested by Apple, they would be given 100% of the revenue rather than the typical 70-30 split.

Jeff Robbin Believed To Be Spearheading The Rumored Apple HDTV Initiative

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:48:34 +0000

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) vice president of consumer applications Jeff Robbin is best known for developing iTunes and helped create the iPod. According to sources with Bloomberg, Robbin will now be spearheading the development of an Apple television set. Before Apple co-founder Steve Jobs passed away, he told his biographer Walter Isaacson that he had “finally cracked” how to build an integrated TV set with a simple user interface that could wirelessly synchronize content with Apple’s other devices.

Apple’s only foray into the TV market thus far has been the $99 Apple TV, which plugs into a TV and gives users access to content from iTunes, Netflix, and YouTube. Jobs called Apple TV a hobby rather than being a serious money-maker. Robbin was hired by Apple in 2000 when they acquired the SoundJam digital music player that he developed. According to his biography, Steve Jobs did not allow a Time magazine reporter to meet him without agreeing not to print his last name out of fear that Robbin would be poached by a competitor.

Robbin is also known for convincing Jobs to allow computers running on Microsoft Windows to use iTunes. Now iTunes has 225 million registered users and generated about $1.5 billion last quarter.

New UI for iTunes 11?

Riley Kennysmith — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 16:15:45 +0000

Apple’s upcoming iTunes 11 is rumored to be a significant redesign of the program. Speculated specs include iTunes and iCloud integration, the iTunes store getting fully integrated into the app and, for the first time since its first incarnation, a fancy new UI. [Business Insider / idownloadblog]

Amazon.com Drops Price Of Top-Selling MP3 Songs To $0.69

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 21:18:33 +0000

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has declared a price war with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by lowering the price of top selling music in a further effort to compete with iTunes. Now the average price on hit songs on Amazon are $0.69. Some of the hits songs that Amazon.com lowered the price on as of right now includes Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and Katy Perry’s “E.T.” Amazon.com has around a 10% market share and Apple has about 70% for the digital download music market according to the NPD Group. Apple is selling top selling songs for $1.29, almost double of what Amazon.com charges now. [LA Times]

Apple iTunes U Hits 300 Million Downloads

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:44:46 +0000

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced that they have hit the 300 million download mark for iTunes U. It took about three years to hit this mark. About 800 universities have iTunes U websites. Half of that number of universities distribute content on iTunes too.

Schools in China, Hong Kong, Mexico, Japan, and Singapore are now distributing content on iTunes too. iTunes U has about 350,000 audio and video files from these universities.

“iTunes U makes it easy for people to discover and learn with content from many of the world’s top institutions,” stated Apple VP of Internet Services Eddy Cue. “With such a wide selection of educational material, we’re providing iTunes users with an incredible way to learn on their computer, iPhone, iPod or iPad.”

[Apple PR]

Beware Of The PayPal and iTunes Hack Scam [WARNING]

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:36:53 +0000

Many people on Twitter and Facebook are reporting a hacker scam that is taking place on PayPal and Apple iTunes. There is a security hole in iTunes accounts that are linked to PayPal. Scammers have found a way to charge a lot of money to iTunes through the accounts of other people’s PayPal.

One customer said that his account was charged over $4,700. And he is not the only one. A large number of iTunes accounts were hacked.

PayPal has been very helpful with getting customers their money back and Apple is actively trying to fix the security hole.

Many customers are being sent phishing e-mail messages that tricks users to give away their iTunes user names and passwords. If you are sent a similar e-mail, DO NOT GIVE AWAY ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION! I would not recommend giving away your personal iTunes login information to websites that you are not familiar with.

[PCWorld]

iTunes Syncing In The Cloud On The Way

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:56:51 +0000

A source with Boy Genius Report said that Apple will soon be putting huge cloud capabilities in iTunes. This could almost eliminate the need for you to store content from iTunes on to your device (what normally takes up a big chunk of your iPod Touch or iPhone hard drive). These new capabilities will allow iTunes to:
1.) Stream music and movies from Apple to your computers and devices.
2.) Stream music and movies from your computers at home to your other computers or mobile devices.
3.) Wireless sync iTunes with devices.

[BoyGeniusReport]

Apple Releases An iTunes Connect Mobile App

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:50:08 +0000

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) released a new application [iTunes link] called iTunes Connect Mobile for developers that want to see their sales on-the-go. Developers will be able to see daily and weekly sales data. This includes paid apps, free apps, and in-app purchases. The iPhone and iPod Touch application works with the iPhone OS 3.0 or higher. This is Apple’s sixth iPhone application that they created.

iTunes Accounts For 26.7% Of All Music Sold Last Year

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 21 May 2010 19:38:29 +0000

iTunes, the music, movie, podcast, and application downloading software created by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) sells more music than Wal-Mart and Best Buy put together. iTunes now accounts for 26.7% of all music sold last year. This makes Apple the top retailer for music in the U.S. [Gizmodo]

Steve Jobs Gives Surprise Call To 10 Billionth iTunes Song Customer Louie Sulcer

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:52:40 +0000

This past week Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) sold their 10 billionth song on iTunes. The 10 billionth customer was Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia. Given the milestone, Steve Jobs decided to reach out to Sulcer through a phone call. “He called me and said, ‘This is Steve Jobs from Apple.’ I said, ‘Yeah right,’ ” said Sulcer in an interview with Rolling Stone. “I have a son that loves to play tricks and he does that every now and then — calls me and imitates somebody.”

Sulcer’s caller ID said Apple on it and he had no idea that there was a contest taking place on iTunes. The 10 billionth customer would be given a $10,000 iTunes gift card. The 10 billionth song to be downloaded was “Guess Things Happen That Way” by Johnny Cash. [Rolling Stone]