Face Lifts For Everybody: Apple has confirmed that a new version of iTunes is set to debut alongside iOS 6 on September 19. The iTunes redesign will feature a streamlined interface that is nearly mirrored on both the iPad and iPhone 5. (Photos via The Verge) source
Check out our continuing iPhone 5 event coverage here
Still, without any actual quotes from Willis or his agents, lawyers, etc, nobody would follow this up and just write a story, would they? Without any sources?The Guardian’s Charles Arthur • Getting a little snarky about a story which floated around the ether yesterday, in which it was claimed that Bruce Willis had planned on suing Apple for the right to leave his music in his inheritance for his children. One problem: The original cited story has little to go on, and was later confirmed by his wife Emma Heming-Willis to be false — but not until after a number of media outlets picked it up. It gets worse — Arthur infers that the writer of the original story might have read a story regarding “Estates and Wills” and mistook “Wills” for “Willis.” (Which, if the case, is downright embarrassing.) Good rumors die hard.
» The first popular MP3 player: How did Winamp, which once boasted 60 million users, lose its lead? Simply put, AOL didn’t know what the heck to do with it after it bought it. Nullsoft, which AOL bought for $80-$100 million 1999, struggled to find its niche within the culture of AOL. AOL didn’t make it easy: They lumped them in with Spinner, another music product it bought at the same time, and kept bundling its apps (which its tech-savvy users, by the way, didn’t want) with the product. The company also had multiple run-ins with the app’s creator, Justin Frankel, who built multiple file-sharing networks while an employee of AOL, to the company’s bemusement. The result? Winamp was eventually left to die on the vine — until a couple years ago, when AOL realized it was sitting on a cash cow and started building it out again. It’s no iTunes, but it’s huge outside the U.S. And it just turned 15 years old. Happy anniversary, little MP3 player that could.
Follow ShortFormBlog • Find us on Twitter & Facebook
Hackers got a hold of about 3,000 emails from account shared between Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and his wife. One conversation chronicles the ruthless leader’s iTunes purchases, and let’s just say it’s an interesting mix. Without further ado, here’s a selection of songs purchased be the al-Assads. (Spotify playlist!) [h/t The Atlantic]
Blake Shelton - “God Gave Me You”
Right Said Fred - “Don’t Talk Just Kiss”
New Order - “Bizarre Love Triangle”
The Cover Girls - “We Can’t Go Wrong”
Leona Lewis - “Hurt”
Chris Brown - “Look at Me Now ft. Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes”
LMFAO - “Sexy and I Know It”
Right Said Fred and “Sexy and I Know It”: The songs a dictator gets down to. That said, “Bizarre Love Triangle” seems like a somewhat fitting description of Assad’s rule.
In reference to the prior post. (Also, follow me on Twitter if you like sarcasm. — Ernie @ SFB)
Canada’s like, “lol idiots.”
God bless the Canadians.
Kinda love the fact that L. Cohen is kicking butt on the charts. He’s in the top 10 everywhere but Australia. They probably don’t think they need him there. They have Nick Cave.
You wouldn’t buy a car from a salesman who speaks in double-talk and hands you an unreadable contract. So why do we accept it from software companies?Gregg Bernstein, the graduate student who transformed Apple’s confusing, 4,137-word iTunes TOS into a user-friendly masterpiece. See for yourself. (via thedailyfeed)
We totally have to give Apple credit: The conceit around the iTunes portion of the iCloud service, while not exactly what we expected (it’s not Lala 2.0, sadly), manages to pull off an interesting trick — it creates a revenue model from a place where only piracy existed before. By upgrading your music’s quality and making it easily accessible from the cloud, it adds value inexpensively, and gets around a major sticking point for the major labels cleverly. And music industry officials see it as a positive. “It allows for revenue to be made off of pirated music in a way that consumers don’t feel that’s what they’re paying for, and that’s what I find fascinating about it,” noted Jeff Price, the CEO of TuneCore Inc., which helps independent artists sell their music online. Our music anywhere for $25 a year? Sure, we’ll pay that. source
Yahoo wants to buy Hulu now too. They’re going on an “I...
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
Oh it’s on.
Preparing to launch its own “cloud music service,” Apple Inc. has reached tentative agreements with all four major record labels that would allow users to listen to songs from an Internet connection.
We noted earlier this week why Apple’s label deals are kind of a big deal.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was a genuine call. The girls were getting quite tense. They never would have forgiven me. They would have held it against me for all eternity.Gail “Thank you very much; I’m not interested” Davis • Revealing that she initially hung up on Apple as they offered her a $10,000 iTunes gift card for downloading the 100 billionth app from the store. Eventually realizing that she was the winner (her daughter downloaded the app), she frantically called back the help desk, getting an unhelpful person, then later got another phone call from Apple’s VP of iTunes. The lesson of this story: In case you’re ever presented with this situation, don’t do this. Alright, interwebs? source (via • follow)
» And the lucky winner: Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, UK, will be the lucky recipient of a lovely $10,000 iTunes gift card. Be sure not to spend that all on one app, OK? That Wolfram Alpha app is cool and stuff, but is it really worth it?
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
