Filed under: iTunes

Jailbreakers ahoy! Yesterday brought the release of the Dev Team's pwnage tool for jailbreaking and unlocking iPhones equipped with the new 3.1.3 firmware. As usual, though, there are a few catches: first, if you don't need to update to 3.1.3, the dev team says you shouldn't bother anyway -- it doesn't do much that the old versions of the firmware doesn't, so if you don't need to upgrade, just leave your jailbreak as is.

3G and 3GS users especially should be leery of this one, since if a mistake is made, there's a chance you could upgrade your firmware and then not be able to unlock it again. They also have all sorts of other warnings and exceptions on their blog post. As they say, don't download and run those files without seriously thinking about what you're doing with your iPhone.

If, after all of that thinking, you decide it is time to crack open your iPhone with the 3.1.3 firmware, the jailbreak will put together a custom 3.1.3 IPSW for you to restore back on to your iPhone -- here's a quick how-to to start with. Good luck, and be careful out there!

[via Engadget]

TUAW reader Gabby tipped us off this morning that Apple has expanded its new browser-based iTunes previews to include App Store offerings. Sure enough, I pasted a standard App Store URL for Apple's Remote application into Safari and was treated to the preview shown just above.

This new preview option is just one of many App Store URL tricks you may want to take advantage of. You can find some of the most useful tricks right after the break on this post. Got another URL trick for App Store? Let us know in the comments.

By default, movies and TV shows in the iPod portion of the iPhone and iPod touch play in landscape view. The biggest change with respect to video orientation came about with iPhone OS 2.0, which provided the option for landscape-right viewing (that is, with the volume and silent/vibrate buttons facing up). While most videos could, and should, be viewed in landscape, there are times that call for a portrait perspective -- for example, when placing your iPhone into a dock, which is what I do when working out.

Getting your iPhone to play a movie or TV show in portrait mode requires a simple change in the video's tag, from TV Show or Movie to Podcast. Simply right-click on the file and select "get info "(or you could use the Command-I shortcut). Then, in the "Media Kind" section within the "Options" tab of the video, select Podcast. Now, the videos will show up in both the Podcasts and Videos section of the iPod portion on your iPhone.

Obviously, this isn't something you'd want to do with every movie or TV show in your library. So, to revert the file back to its old self, you'd want to follow the same process and change the video back to a TV show or movie.

Those who enjoy USB book sharing their ePub and eReader files in the current version of Stanza [iTunes link] will want to avoid the 2.1 version of the software, currently being distributed in the App Store. The update notes reveal that Apple apparently ordered Lexcycle to remove the USB sharing ability. Unfortunately, Lexcycle is forbidden from explaining why they were told to remove the feature.

To me -- and this is pure speculation -- this is Apple's equivalent of giving Amazon the finger. Amazon acquired Lexcycle back in 2009, and that this could be part of a series of moves by Apple to drive people toward the iPad and the upcoming iBooks software. I wouldn't be too surprised if Apple found a way to ban the wonderful Kindle app [iTunes link] from the App Store at some point in the future. Is Apple becoming the next Tammany Hall with Steve Jobs its "Boss" Tweed?

iTunes 9.0.3 is out now for download on Software Update and in the usual places. The update features the option to remember your password when purchasing items in iTunes (finally!), fixes problems with Smart Playlists and podcast synching on iPod, and resolves a few bugs and issues. There's no word of any updates in compatibility for iPad, but it's probably just too soon for that yet.

That "remember my password" fix will definitely come in handy, though. Get it while the gettin's good!

Most of the rumors coming out about next week's event say that there'll be a tablet with a lot of similarities to the popular Amazon Kindle device, but even before Apple takes the stage, Amazon is taking one of the new ideas for its own. The online retail powerhouse announced that it is adapting a payment model for content providers that's very similar to the App Store, with a 70/30 split on pay sharing. There are a few limitations (there's still a cost for delivery, and the publisher has to conform to a number of price, feature, and location standards), but essentially, Amazon is taking the exact same model that has worked so well for both Apple and its development partners, and bringing it to the Kindle platform.

The timing is interesting -- with Apple just about to release what many expect to be a Kindle competitor, you have to wonder what Jeff Bezos is thinking. You have to wonder what Apple will do, too: while there are certainly all kinds of other things the theoretical tablet can do, it's possible that, if they are as close as some people think, Apple and Amazon will end up competing over content delivery, and one or the other may have to change its royalty offerings in order to attract more premium content.

That's all a ways down the line, of course -- first, Apple needs to announce the tablet, and then we have to see what happens in terms of releasing content for it. But there's no question Amazon and other companies are watching Apple's plans in the App Store, and it'll be interesting to see what comes next.

We've covered speculation about Apple's acquisition of music-streaming service Lala in the past. General consensus has been that Apple is looking to use the service in a future version of iTunes, allowing users to stream their own music libraries to their computers, iPhones, and iPod touches from a remote server, thus freeing up memory space on the devices themselves.

Citing "a wide variety of insider sources," Michael Robertson, former CEO of mp3.com, claims that this speculation is correct. He says that instead of moving to a subscription-based model, Apple will indeed leverage the technology and resources of Lala to allow users to stream their music libraries from a remote server.

It will be interesting to see if Robertson and other analysts' speculations are correct. There are certainly some technological hurdles to surmount in letting millions of iTunes users stream billions of songs – my own music library is nearly 40 GB, which is twice the default data allowance on MobileMe – but licensing issues seem to be even thornier. While Robertson says that "...because users are in possession of the materials no new licenses are required from the record labels or publishers," for streaming content, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that your friendly neighborhood RIAA will disagree. However, if Apple can indeed make this streaming service happen, it will be a huge win for them, and more importantly, for us users.

[Via electronista]

News is going around about yet another expensive app bucking the trend on the App Store, but here's the twist: this one actually has a good reason for such a high price. BarMax CA [iTunes link] is an app currently out that costs $999.99 -- that's right, while most developers are haggling with customers over 99 cents, this one's selling for a full $1000. But there's actually a good reason for that. It's a bar prep app, designed to help would-be lawyers pass their bar exams. Comparable services cost up to three or four times the price of this one, so if you have an iPhone and are planning to take the bar, this could actually be a "bar"gain (sorry, please don't sue us). The app is over a gig in size and brags about squeezing 50 lbs of books into the palm of your hand -- there are test questions, reference guides, audio lectures, and practice cards all included in the app's purchase.

Of course, if you really do want to buy something like this, just getting it for your iPhone probably isn't the best way to do it -- you should probably do the research and see what other bar prep programs are out there before you jump into this one. And the app description in iTunes even says they'll ship you an iPod touch just to use the program, so even if you go with BarMax, you might as well see how you can get an iPod touch with it, right? But an app like this may show that there is a market for super-expensive apps, even if they have to fit very strongly into a specialty niche.

Of course, to learn whether anyone actually buys it, we'll probably have to wait and see.

I'm the iTunes music pharmacist for my family's iPod and iPhone music libraries. In short, what this means is that, whether it's due to "getting sick of hearing the same thing over and over when I'm running" or wanting a new song or album on their iPod, they come to me when they want their music refilled. Which is fine and dandy. I'm more than happy to do this, and have my trusty ol' 17 inch iMac loaded with everyones' music on it (except mine, which is loaded on my MacBook Pro).

From the 3rd generation iPod classic to the iPhone 3G S, and from The Arcade Fire to ZZ Top, there exists an eclectic iPod and music mix in my family. How I would sync music for each person varied on a case-by-case basis, and usually took shape in syncing specific folders, playlists, smart playlists, and genres. For the iPod shuffle, however, I would typically click on the "music" within the device and choose playlist-based "autofill."

This morning, my sister brought over her shiny new third generation iPod shuffle. And to my surprise, it, unlike its predecessors lacked the "autofill" feature. Or so I thought.

After spending a half hour or so creating a size-limited smart playlist with random songs, I said to myself, "Self, there's gotta be an explanation for this. Surely, the folks at Apple wouldn't leave out something as important as autofill."

And they didn't. They just put it in a different place for the third generation shuffle, and have now extended the feature for all iPods and iPhones.

To enable autofill on your iPod or iPhone, click on "summary" tab for your device (in the "device" section of iTunes). Then place a checkmark on "manually manage music [and videos]."

Now here's where I got lost and confused, and I don't want you to pull out your hair like I almost did mine just because I didn't read the Apple support forums carefully enough. Except for first and second generation iPod shuffle models, the autofill option for all iPods and iPhones is activated by expanding the device (by clicking on that little triangle to the right of it) to reveal its media folder hierarchy. Then, you'll want to click on "music," and now you'll see the autofill option in the bottom left hand corner. The whole time, I thought it'd be located on the "music" tab within the device, much like how it's on the "contents" tab on the second generation iPod shuffle.

Autofill is now available for all iPods and requires iTunes 8.1.

The more you know...Dun, dah, duh, ding.

The people of Haiti are enduring the devastating catastrophe brought about by this week's earthquake. Relief is finally beginning to arrive but there is an overwhelming amount of work to do.

You can support the American Red Cross by making a donation through the iTunes Store. it's quite easy: Just navigate to the donation page [iTunes link] and select the amount you'd like to send. Donation options range from $5US to $200. The Store confirms that 100% of your donation will go to The American Red Cross.

Your iTunes Store account will be charged as necessary. Please do what you can to support the emergency relief efforts.

According to AppleInsider, Apple has scored higher than other PC companies on Forrester's new customer experience survey, but their main software app didn't fare quite as well. Apple came in at number 35 on the list, which places them way above PC competitors like HP, Compaq and Dell, though iTunes only scored place number 46, putting them way behind online media competitors Barnes and Noble (which sat at number one) and Amazon.com (#4).

The survey was driven by asking customers how well their needs were met by the companies on the list, how easy it was to conduct business with them, and how enjoyable the different interactions were. Note that this survey only rates customer interaction -- in terms of actual sales, iTunes is still through the roof. And Apple is still leading the way in customer satisfaction as well. But in terms of actual customer experience, iTunes especially, for something that is quickly becoming Apple's core method of interacting with customers, could probably use a little work.

Here's a bit of interesting for you from the folks over at APC: during a press event at CES 2010, Intel used iTunes to tout its latest processors rather than one of the other oft-used performance-testing suites. Specifically, they showed off an i5 processor not by running some complex graphics simulation or commercial benchmarking algorithm, but by launching iTunes and synchronizing with an attached iPod.

Intel is attempting to make processor specifications more useful to normal people by focusing less on engineering statistics and more on actual applications. What is interesting here is that Intel is essentially admitting the difficulty in quantifying the improvements of their latest hardware. It is, however, easier to qualify their improvements by showcasing their hardware using applications people use everyday.

This de-obfuscation of a processor's ability is a good thing. It means that my mother-in-law can stroll through Best Buy and understand that a given set of hardware is going to perform better at the tasks she cares about most. In the end, it really is less about GHz and more about GTD.

It's Saturday night and you're out and about painting the town red, or whatever color it is that towns are painted these days. Whether you end up at a night club, a lounge or a bar, there's a good chance there's going to be a DJ spinning up some tunes at the venue. And there's a good chance that you'll see a glowing Apple in front of the DJ, as said DJ may be accompanied by a MacBook or MacBook Pro. If you've ever looked into doubling your Mac as a virtual turntable, then this post may help you scratch the surface -- err, vinyl.

Scott Moritz over at The Street has new rumors about the tablet today (though be warned, Moritz isn't first in the hearts of Apple crystal-ball gazers): he says that the tablet does not include any Intel chips inside, and that Apple has instead elected to go with another provider for the little pieces of metal, silicon and plastic that will power what many expect to be the new revolution in portable computing. He cites Apple's "design manufacturing partners" as sources, although of course neither Intel nor Apple have anything to say about the subject.

And elsewhere in the tablet rumorscape, John Gruber has a followup to his big tablet speculation post that's worth a read. He says that yes, of course, the App Store will deliver apps to the platform, that yes, there may be an SDK delay (although don't forget, we've already heard about a possible new SDK going around), that yes, the new tablet may offer up non-app iTunes content from indie providers, and finally that no, the tablet probably won't have Flash, for the same reasons that the iPhone doesn't.

Which all sounds legit, though even Gruber admitted in his other post that his theories were based on reasoning more than any secrets he'd heard. We're getting a pretty good picture of the tablet as we go along here -- odds are it'll get even clearer before we see the thing on stage.

Apple released a Bonjour update today that is suppose to improve the connections between iTunes and the Apple TV. For those who have downloaded it and own an Apple TV, have you seen any improvements? Please let us know in the comments.

Bonjour Update 2010-001 is available now via Software Update. It is not yet available through Apple's support downloads site.

Thanks to all those who sent in the tip!