After Apple banned iPhone app Podcaster from its iTunes App Store, CNET called Podcaster the iPhone app that's "so good, Apple won't let you have it." Apple hasn't said why, but it's widely believed that the app was banned for competing with the iPhone's built-in podcast-downloading software. But blogger Niall…
Running on Windows Vista, Apple's iTunes 8 isn't actually a computer virus, according to WordNet's strict definition of term as "a software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer." But that's only because iTunes 8 doesn't…
Click to viewDespite the fact that Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced no new products at the company's glorified press conference yesterday, the crowd's cheers were as blustery as they ever are at Apple events. But Newsweek's Dan Lyons, who must have bored enough by what was being said on stage to be paying so much more…
There is some shadow sect of people—pasty-faced, red-rimmed eyes, yellow teeth, the stench of cheese product on their breath—who must, simply must!, watch television on tiny picture phones. And the like. This undiscovered continent's worth of Americans have clamored so loudly for these techmologies that NBC and…
Chalk up a rare victory for NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker in doing what few can: He stared down Steve Jobs and won. NBC shows like Heroes and Battlestar Galactica are returning to iTunes, but on NBC's terms. Almost exactly a year ago, NBC packed up its toys and left Apple's iTunes store over a pricing dispute. Apple…
Something we bet Steve Jobs won't be discussing on stage at this morning's iPod event: The third-party developers who create apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch say Apple takes a week or more to approve updates — even bug fixes. Apple also doesn't communicate with the developers to tell them why or how long their…
Victor Wang — huh-huh — from Apple emailed the author of the Pull My Finger app, shown above, to explain that the interactive fart-noise program was deemed "of limited utility to the broad user community." I wonder what would happen if they applied a "utility" standard to the music videos sold through the same store?…
Lars Ulrich, Metallica's Internet-hating drummer, explained to a Bay Area radio station that he's glad the band's new album got leaked all over the world. A copy of the album was bought in a French record store and quickly uploaded to the Internet. The band's new stance is a big jump from 2000, when they sued Napster…
We suspect the name "Unbox" only ever made sense to Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos. The online retailer has rebranded its video-download store as "Video on Demand." The only other big change: The videos will now play on Macs. They'll continue to be downloadable to viewers' TiVos, Windows Media Centers, and Xbox consoles.…
Digg founder Kevin Rose claims this iTunes 8 feature from a reliable source:
At a press conference scheduled for September 9, Apple will unveil "unspecified new products," reports Reuters. Thanks, Reuters guys — that really helps! The event's theme is "let's rock." In August, Digg cofounder Kevin Rose predicted Apple would announce a new iPod Nano, minor changes to its iPod Touch, price cuts…
Infurious Comics created an iPhone app called Comic Reader, which does just what it sounds like it does, and featured a book called Murderdrome as the app's first title. Murderdrome is a story about a "game where the only way to score a goal," one character explains as he cuts into another's skull, "is with the…
"All Summer Long" is one catchy tune. Built on the groove of the late Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London," spiced up with Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama," the song nonetheless soars on Robert James Ritchie's down-homey delivery of one of the best ballads to hit the airwaves in years. I've heard it on Top 40,…
Is iTunes helping the music industry—or destroying it? That's the dramatic question we will answer for you in this post. Itunes is the single largest retailer of music in the US, period. It sells nine out of every ten digital song downloads in the country. And since it helped put the Tower Records of the world out of…
China has cut off access to the iTunes store after it was revealed that some Olympic athletes have downloaded a pro-Tibet album featuring, among others, tea-swilling bald Lothario Moby. Dear power structure: Please stop affirming Moby's self-importance. [Idolator]
In agreeing to sell the iPhone, does Best Buy know what its getting itself into? Steve Jobs is issuing mea culpas about MobileMe, Apple's flaky email-and-synching service. But there are no Jobsian apologies over the iPhone 3G. Sure, sales are fine, $30 million changed hands through iTunes App Store in its first…
In a post about iPhone apps sales hitting $30 million a month, today's featured commenter Shadowlayer gives a stark prediction:
Nullriver, a software developer, released an iPhone application called NetShare, which enables an iPhone to be used as a portable modem for computers. Despite being a violation of AT&T's terms of service, Nullriver got it onto Apple's iTunes App Store. Over the past week, Apple took it down, reinstated it, and then…
Apple CEO Steve Jobs says iPhone and iPod Touch users downloaded more than 60 million apps from the iTunes App Store during its first month of business, spending about $1 million per day for a sales total of $30 million. "At the current pace," report the quantitative analysts at the Wall Street Journal, "Apple…
Before Apple succumbed to jealous cries of the hoi polloi and removed his "I Am Rich" application from its iTunes App Store, developer Armein Heinrich sold eight copies of his $999.99 pristinely useless software — six to refined buyers in the United States, one to a collector in Germany and another to one in France.…
