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apple.com posts

Filed under: Hacks, iTunes, Apple

Apple's iTunes Affiliates site briefly subjected to image swaps

Our friends over at OS X Daily passed along their story noting that Apple's site for iTunes Affiliates was vulnerable to a cross-site URL trick, letting you substitute your own images for the ones normally displayed on the page. Since the site is intended to let websites display a custom top banner, this was 'as designed' -- at least until jokesters began taking advantage.

The trick works (or at least, it did) by taking the default URL from the web browser and replacing a few things like the artist name, album name, album thumbnail source and the image link.

The Internet moves pretty fast, though. As I was typing this, Apple removed the top banner altogether, preventing the customized image display. No more pranks for us.

In any case, OS X Daily pointed out that the image issue could allow malicious folks to redirect would-be Apple visitors to malware sites or other bad destinations. Even an innocent image viewer that appears within an iframe on a branded page can cause problems; that's what the folks at Wired found out last January, when someone took advantage of their image tool to post a hoax "Steve Jobs had a heart attack" news story.

Props to Apple's web development team, though, for taking this down within the ten minutes it took me to finish the post.

Filed under: Apple

It's Friday afternoon, and the online Apple Store is down

Well, this seems a little unexpected; it looks like the online Apple Store is down. Could we be seeing the new Mac mini, iMac or MacBook models that have been rumored to come out soon? When the store comes back up, we'll let you know of any changes.

What do you think could come when the store is back up? Let us know in the comments below!

UPDATE: It's back up, it looks like there's nothing new.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Retail, Apple

Apple adds Questions & Answers to its online store

Over the past week, something new on the Apple Store went somewhat unnoticed and unreported in the Mac media. Apple has added a new Questions & Answers feature to most of the product listings on its online store. This new feature allows customers to interact with each other; however, this is different from the current review system Apple has. In addition, this feature is somewhat similar to the Customer Discussions feature that Amazon.com offers. It adds a bit more of a social push, something Apple has been up to lately.

Do you think Apple's Questions & Answers will be a useful tool, or just another place for people to gripe? Let us know in the comments below.

Filed under: Internet, Apple

Apple redesigns its start page


Many Safari users will note that Apple's Start Page (set as Safari's default homepage) was redesigned today. This page is used by Apple to let customers know of any changes, updates, or product revisions. The page now shows four dynamically changing tiles at the top: a movie trailer section, hot news headline section, online store section, and an iTunes section.

This redesigned page gives you an overview of everything Apple, and now it's even better. You can see the new page by clicking here (or by going to apple.com/startpage).

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Filed under: Switchers, Apple

Apple posts "Find out how" tutorials


Today, Apple added a new "Find Out How" section to their website. This new page features video tutorials of the following aspects of the Mac:
This information is no doubt welcome to many new switchers, or potential switchers, who want to learn more about the user interface. You can also subscribe to these in iTunes by clicking the "Download videos to iTunes" button at the bottom of the video window.

Thanks Joseph!

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Apple Professional

Found Footage: Apple.com, this is your life!


This is fun. A couple of years ago, we pointed out a nice archive of Apple's homepage. Today, the folks at Macenstein have collected similar images from Flickr user Kernel Panic into a video history. Some of the really old stuff isn't represented, but it's still a fun way to waste a few minutes.

Who remembers Apple Cafe? How about the smoking bunny suit? Or my favorite: "Beyond the rumor sites. Way beyond."

Enjoy.

Filed under: Internet, Apple

Apple sites worldwide gain the new metal look



We're receiving reports that Apple sites around the world have been updated to the new 'metal look' that the US site received last June at the start of WWDC '07. Since I live in the US, I'm less familiar with Apple's international sites. However, TUAW reader Graham points out apple.com/nz/ which sports the new look. I've found that the sites listed in the international popup at the bottom of apple.com have been updated as well.

Anyone out there still on the previous design? Let us know.

Filed under: Video, iPhone

Apple creates iPhone-specific trailers site


For as long as I can remember, apple.com/trailers has been a great, ad-free place to see all the latest movie trailers in the one of the best video formats available on (and off) the web. During my ceaseless tinkering, I just noticed that Apple has created a sub-page at apple.com/trailers/iphone specifically for the iPhone, offering access to what looks like the same content and trailers you can view with a regular computer browser. In fact, visiting that URL in any desktop browser, including Safari 3 beta, redirects to the main /trailers/ site, ensuring that visitors don't get mixed up with the wrong page.

Perhaps even cooler, selecting a trailer on the iPhone reveals a page with a static picture where the trailer would be, and a play icon. Clicking this icon appears to take the user to an iPod-like app, where the trailer begins to buffer, and all movie controls are available. As icing on the cake, if you're already listening to media in the iPod app, your music/podcast will gracefully fade out, giving the trailer you want to watch full priority until you exit the movie.

Filed under: Internet, Apple

Apple leads in website traffic in computer hardware category

According to a study by internet traffic analyst comScore, Apple currently leads in website traffic in the computer hardware category, attracting more than 36.7 million unique visitors this year as of February. Compared to last year, Apple garnered 24.2 million visitors in the same amount of time, which translates into a 50+% traffic increase over the past year.

As far as other traffic stats, there were 66.4 million visits this February, with visitors averaging 1.8 visits. Notably, iTunes witnessed traffic growth of 71% since last year, with 26.5 million unique visitors this February. Whew.

Filed under: Cult of Mac, Internet, Apple

Apple updates OS X Downloads page design



Apple has refreshed the look of the OS X Downloads page. It is a much cleaner design, and highlights a number of RSS feeds (Top 20, Just Added, and Staff Picks). Listed on the right side of the page are the Top Widgets, and the top iTunes + iPod downloads.

Do we see shades of a possible new UI in Leopard? Only time will tell.

Thanks, Nik.

Filed under: Widget Watch

Widget Watch: Delivery Status

I am on my Mac for about 80% of my waking day, and I drift to sleep thinking of cool things I could do with my Mac. That means that I purchase many things online. It is convenient and usually cheaper, but you do have to wait for the package to show up. Enter Delivery Status, a very cool widget from Mike Piontek.

This widget goes beyond tracking UPS and FedEx shipments, though it'll do that as well. Not only does this Widget track packages via UPS, FedEx, DHL, and the US Post Office, it also tracks your order status from Amazon and the Apple Store.

Not too shabby for a free widget.

Filed under: Retail, Apple

Apple.com 14th most visited site in US

MacNN found a survey from comScore Media Metrix for the month of August which ranked apple.com as the 14th most visited site in the U.S. with 31.5 million unique visitors. On the top of the list is Yahoo! with more than 131.3 million visitors, while Dell surprisingly leapt from 47 to 35, though MacNN notes that is largely due to the battery recall. YouTube, surprisingly, rose to the #32 spot with 19.1 million visitors in August - I always figured they were closing in on MySpace somewhere near the top of the hill.

MacNN has more details of other properties and observations made from the survey, so take a gander if you have an interest in web and marketing trends.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Video, Odds and ends, Apple

Video autoplay on Apple.com?



Am I the only one who is annoyed that every time I go to Apple.com I am presented with one of the new ads. I wouldn't mind it too much if I had to make them play, but no Apple has decided that you must watch them. Didn't autoplaying video on websites go out of fashion with those 'Under construction' gifs and the Blink tag?

Tip of the Day

Holding the Command key (aka the Apple key) and pressing Tab will cycle through your open applications. It's easier to Cmd-Tab if you are Copy (Cmd-C) and Pasting (Cmd-V) to and from various applications.


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