That was quick. Just yesterday I wrote about the rumored addition of HBO shows to the iTunes Store and today they show up on iTunes. The following HBO shows are now available on iTunes, though some of the episodes cost more than $1.99:
Portfolio.com is reporting that you might soon be able to find Tony Soprano in the iTunes Store. HBO, the premium cable channel known for its original programming, is in talks with Apple to add HBO programming to the iTunes Store.
There are a ton of Mac volume controllers out there. CoverSutra is one of the best that we have seen, however, if simplistic and free is what you like, then why not try iTunesVolume. Just as the name implies, you are able to control the volume of the iTunes application with this small app.
I don't think anybody likes DRM. Customers certainly don't like it: they want to listen to music and watch video where and when they please. I don't think it's that popular with the content providers, either, because it's not a perfect solution. It might cut down on some piracy, but by no means eliminates it entirely.
DRM has come up recently in a few places, and companies have set up camps at two ends of the spectrum. Amazon.com is doing a booming business selling DRM-free music, sometimes for better prices than at the iTunes Store. On the other hand, we have NBC, who may or may not be partnering with Microsoft to create device software that (somehow) determines if a particular music or video file has been stolen.
As much as I'm sure that both Zune users would appreciate having access to NBC's video library, the problem remains of how exactly Microsoft would do that, aside from splashing giant watermarks across everything. My money's on unicorn tears.
How much more investment will there be in DRM before content providers realize it's an inefficient, ineffective way of deterring piracy? Sound off in comments.
Last year, we wrote about the Moody beta. This week, the folks at Crayon Room made version 1.0 available. The idea is to sort music by mood, rather than artist, album or genre.
Last week, Apple's iTunes Store turned 5 years old. Now the blogosphere is buzzing with the fact that Apple said they had over "10 million" songs in their library, then later changed the page to say "6 million." That's a difference of 4 million songs unaccounted for. MacNN did the math and said that if they had 10 million songs, it would have accounted for a 66% increase in their catalog in only a month. MacNN has before and after pictures of the iTunes Store page showing the changes. 
As we posted earlier today, Apple announced that several movie studios will now be releasing digital versions of their movies for sale on the same day as the DVD. Even Apple TV users can get in on the fun. You now have the option of buying movies directly on your Apple TV, whereas before today you could only rent movies from Apple TV. Sure, it's not groundbreaking considering you could buy the movie on your Mac and transfer it to your Apple TV, but it's nice to see the added layer of convenience.
Apple TV owners will also note a new "Top Sellers" category in the "Top Movies" page, an additional option for those times when you want to crowdsource your movie selection.
Thanks, Kevin!
Given the choice between buying a physical DVD and grabbing a downloadable iTunes version of the same movie, you might choose what's behind door #2 for convenience, iPod playability and speed; that is, if you're willing to wait it out while the DVD-only window ticks away. Up until now it's been about 30-45 days post-DVD release, with a few exceptions, before the iTunes version showed up. With a report from the NY Times yesterday that Warner Brothers was moving to "day-and-date" digital release, simultaneous with the disc ship, we expected to hear something from Apple promptly, and we have.
For more than 25 years, one name has stood for quality television entertainment; one name has represented the finest in Hollywood production values and narrative standards. One name... and that name is Norman Lear. Since he's not available, it's my duty to report that the guilty pleasure of classic TV -- Stephen J. Cannell -- has now placed a big chunk of his delightfully down-n-dirty oevure on the iTunes store for your downloading and viewing enjoyment.
American anglophiles, rejoice! Three BBC America shows have just been added to the iTunes Store line up. The shows are:
TUAW is told that a media navigator will allow you to view videos, play podcasts, listen to music and even support shuffle playback. The screenshot shown here shows some of the localizable strings for the iPhone-based application. There's obviously no timeline for release, but since the SDK event back in February, it's been rumored that Apple would release some official iPhone apps of their own, and iControl might be the first.
Update: The data is so thin on the ground that it's hard to respond to readers who have asked whether this will be a "Back to my iTunes" application. Just having local Bonjour support wouldn't be all that useful. Apparently a screenshot of the bundle (not apparently a real application) here
We may not have movies in the U.K. iTunes store, but that hasn't stopped the UK broadcasters from slowly but surely adding their wares to the UK shop. First the BBC pitched in with a selection of shows such as 'Spooks' (it airs in the US as 'MI:5') and then Channel 4 added the likes of Black Books (amongst others). So today adding to the mix is commercial broadcaster ITV, which has added 'Lewis', 'Goodnight Mr Tom', 'Brideshead Revisited', 'Cold Feet', 'The Saint' and 'Captain Scarlet' to the UK store.
The ongoing expansion of edu-world content in iTunes continues with Friday's addition of PBS to iTunes U (direct link); teaching support videos and instructional content from KQED, WETA, WNET thirteen, WGBH and more. Video clips that illustrate science, geography or history (including segments from Ken Burns' documentary The War) are accompanied by PDF lesson plans and educator's guides -- awful handy!
Last week I talked about controlling your Mac with an e-mail; this week, as promised, I am going to show you how to apply this same idea to iTunes. So, without further ado, let's get started with writing some AppleScripts. 
| # | Blogger | Posts | Cmts |
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| 1 | Dave Caolo | 51 | 0 |
| 2 | Cory Bohon | 43 | 4 |
| 3 | Mat Lu | 37 | 4 |
| 4 | Erica Sadun | 35 | 1 |
| 5 | Scott McNulty | 35 | 2 |
| 6 | Michael Rose | 27 | 18 |
| 7 | Brett Terpstra | 22 | 0 |
| 8 | Mike Schramm | 20 | 4 |
| 9 | Steven Sande | 16 | 9 |
| 10 | Robert Palmer | 15 | 24 |
| 11 | Joshua Ellis | 7 | 4 |
| 12 | Christina Warren | 6 | 19 |
| 13 | Nik Fletcher | 4 | 1 |
| 14 | Chris Ullrich | 3 | 1 |
| 15 | Jason Clarke | 1 | 1 |
| 16 | Lisa Hoover | 1 | 1 |
| 17 | Victor Agreda, Jr. | 1 | 4 |
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