Continue reading »]]> Apple has today launched a beta of the new iTunes version 10.3 which, above all, includes the new iCloud functionality (or at least some of it).

You can grab your hands on the new version via this link. It’s available for Mac and Windows (32 and 64 bit). The download (at the time of writing) is running horribly slowly (currently getting about 30kb/s on the 77MB download) – but I’m guessing that’s down to demand and should return to normal sometime later this evening.

I’ll post up the good news when I’ve got it going!

Continue reading »]]> This is an issue that seriously irritated me for some time. I could run iTunes absolutely fine on both my Desktop PC and my netbook, but on both, as soon as I closed iTunes it would automatically reopen itself again.

It might repeat this process three or four times before it actually stopped reopening. I was beginning to think it was Apple ignoring a bug in the software, but I think I’ve found the problem.

If you regularly use Windows Live Messenger on your desktop machine, try this solution.

Go to Windows Live Messenger, click your profile name (below your display picture), and then click “More options”. Then untick the checkbox “Show information about the song I’m listening to”.

This will, of course, stop WLM from showing any song you are playing as your personal message. However, I’m not hugely fussed as I just use last.fm to note all the music I listen to.

That fix seemed to work for me. iTunes doesn’t seem to automatically reopen any more. Let me know if this fix works for you.

PS – sorry I haven’t posted in ages. I took a bit of a break in April!

Continue reading »]]> Apple has just set up their 12 days of Christmas website ready for Christmas 2010. The session will offer 12 days of various free music, videos, apps and books.

To download the app to your iPhone or iPod touch head here, or click here to go to the official site where you can sign up to email alerts.

The 12 days starts on December 26th, and finishes on January 6th – so don’t miss out! Last year I remember it was actually really good - some decent apps, films and music given out for free.

This really is a no brainer – something for nothing from Apple, for once!

Continue reading »]]> Apple has recently released their latest version of iTunes 10.0.1 with, it has to said, nothing of any significance that’s new.

It seems to have some minor improvements to Apple’s Ping service, but other than that, there’s nothing particularly interesting to report.

So much for a huge download. Typical Apple. When will Apple learn that not all of us have endless bandwidth allowances?!

Continue reading »]]> Just a quick heads up to everyone who is concerned – the iTunes Store has collapsed and will not load globally as far as I’m aware.

According to forum results, the store has been offline for some time but Apple (as yet) has not issued any statement regarding the issue.

I suspect Mr Jobs is more concerned about the fortune he’s loosing in digital sales!

Update 5.29pm GMT: I can now access the iTunes Store again from here in the UK.

Continue reading »]]> Manage your overnight downloads without running up the electricity bill!

Do you ever find it annoying when you know you’ve got so much overnight download allowance with your broadband, but don’t want to use it because you’re computer uses so much electricity.

I have that problem regularly. It’s all very well having tonnes of usage allowance between midnight and 9am, but I don’t really want to run my computer overnight as a) it’s a fire hazard and b) it consumes a large amount of electricity.

So, yesterday, I found a solution to the issue. I found an app that will download your files for you and store them on the iPod. Then, when they are done, it will open up a port (8080) that you can browse to on your computer and download the files back locally.

The screenshot below is the file server page that can be browsed to in any web browser on your local network once it is activated within the app (click to see larger size):

I find this app so useful because I can run it all night and it won’t make a sound and won’t cost the Earth. Perfect!

You can get the full version here at £1.19, or get the free version here – but bear in mind that with the free version you can only store 10 files at a time.

Continue reading »]]> It’s not 3.2, but it’s something…

This appears to be a minor update from Apple, but it has a few important fixes. Wikipedia quotes the following:

• Improves accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS
• Resolves issue where third-party apps would not launch in some instances
• Fixes bug that may cause an app to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard
• Fixes security bugs in webkit and recovery mode

Sadly, I won’t be able to download the update for the time being as my iPod Touch is out for repair for the second time!! Very annoying. I shall be complaining to Apple!

Anyway, head over to iTunes and see for yourself whether it is any good!

Continue reading »]]> As most of you will already know, the Apple conference on the 9th of September brought a lot of news to iPod users. As well as the new iPod Nano and “new” iPod Touch (I can’t say it’s new, all they’ve done is made a bigger size), Apple also released the new iTunes 9. Sadly I wasn’t able to get it right away as I’m going through small problems with internet bandwidth, which also explains why I haven’t been able to post reviews on the new iPod Touch/iPhone firmware yet – don’t worry I will get round to it as soon as I get my unlimited bandwidth back which, as far as I know, should be next week.

Anyway, as for the new iTunes, I am surprised to say that I’m actually very impressed with the new release. The new features aren’t ground breaking, but the new performance upgrades have finally arrived.

The new iTunes packs new features such as Home Sharing, which allows you to share your music between other computers in your home, and a brand new redesigned iTunes Store. Both of which work very well. I haven’t checked out the Home Sharing yet but from what I’ve read online it looks very good. The new iTunes Store is certainly very tidy and works very efficiently and I much prefer it over the previous version.

But I’m happiest about the much smoother performance. The load-up time has improved dramatically and actually browsing through the application is much more speedy.

What used to be a misery is now much easier to use and much less time consuming. I still don’t think iTunes is brilliant, but the new version has definitely made syncing my iPod much less of a chore.

Well done Apple, this is a big improvement.

If you’d like to download the new version, open up iTunes and click Check for Updates in the Help menu. Otherwise, you can head over to apple.com and download a copy from there for free.

Continue reading »]]> iTunes 8.2 will now be available on Apple Software Update.

The update adds compatibility for the upcoming iPhone/iPod Touch 3.0 software update, and apparently also adds “many accessibility improvements” according to Apple.

Apple iTunes 8.2 has been in discussion for quite some time since it was dispatched to iPhone 3.0 OS beta testers over the course of the last month.

Unless you have an iPod Touch or iPhone, I don’t think there is any rush to get hold of this update. Even if you do, the latest iPhone/iPod Touch OS release date hasn’t even been confirmed yet. Apparently, Apple are going to confirm the new OS release date at the Worldwide Developers Conference next week.

Continue reading »]]> Wow, long title! Anyhow, this is the first guide I am making that will be posted on the general blog. And today I’m going to be explaining how to covert your MP3 audiobooks into the format that iTunes will recognise as an Audiobook, and will place in the Audiobooks section on your iPod.

This is quite a complicated process, and I wouldn’t recommend doing this if you are an amateur with your iPod or iTunes. Basically, I’d like to make it clear now that I don’t take any responsibility if you mess anything up, but if you follow my instructions correctly you should be fine. Please feel free to post a comment if you think I’ve made a mistake anywhere.

What you will need…

iTunes 7 or above (I’m using iTunes 8), a relatively recent iPod (or iPhone), plenty of free space on your hard drive and iPod (you will need a few gigabytes at least), some experience in iTunes.

Instructions…

1. First of all, you need to get iTunes to find the MP3′s and add them to it’s library (don’t worry – they won’t be there for long). I really suggest you do one book at a time, especially if each chapter has its own MP3. Once they are added you should be able to find them in the Music section of your iTunes (most likely as Unknown Artist). Also, it’s a good idea to write the chapter number and name for each MP3 track, if it’s not done already. Once you’ve located them and got them up, go to the next step.
2. Select all of the tracks from the book, right click on them, and then select “Create AAC version”. This is going to take a while so grab a coffee and a biscuit.  Once that is done, you should be able to find them in [iTunes directory]/Unknown Artist, unless you renamed the artist name – in which case it will have a folder for the artist name. The iTunes directory is most likely to be in C:/Documents and Settings/[User]/My Music/iTunes for Windows XP or C:/Users/[User]/Music in Windows Vista.
3. After that, you need to change the format of each M4A in the folder to M4B, so that iTunes will recognise it as an audiobook.
4. Now simply add the files back into iTunes, and voila! You’ll probably need to add Artist and Album tags, but otherwise, there you go.