A few of us here at TUAW received an email from Apple this morning stating that Apple TV-compatible versions of previous iTunes LP purchases are available for download. You'll remember that LP purchases made before the Apple TV 3.0 release would need a second download to work with the Apple TV. Apple is now offering those downloads.

The email from Apple is very straight-forward:

"With the latest versions of iTunes (9.0.2) and Apple TV software (3.0), you can now use iTunes LP on your Apple TV. We have updated the iTunes LP that was included with [your previous purchase here] so that it can now be viewed on Apple TV in addition to your Mac or PC...."

From there, the message provides a download link. Grab it, sync your Apple TV and you're off. My own is syncing as I type this, so we'll let you know how it looks and behaves later today. In the meantime, enjoy iTunes LP on your Apple TV!

In an attempt to increase movie sales, Apple is pushing out more alternative content on the iTunes Store. Today, they've spruced up their "Music Movies" library and added a landing page to promote upcoming releases. Music Movies are music-themed movies, concerts and documentaries that generally feature exclusive content and behind-the-scenes footage.

While the selection is currently limited, Apple does offer a few movies that are not available anywhere else, such as an exclusive Kings of Leon concert DVD among other selections such as U2's "Rattle and Hum" and "John Lennon Imagine". In addition to the added content, a prominent landing page has been created that is dedicated to this genre of film.

Apple also plans to negotiate early access to music-themed movies and is trying to make the content available for download long before it is available in stores.

Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we have questions about arranging icons on the iPhone, installing Windows via Boot Camp, AirPort networks, iMac rotation support, replacing the video card in an iMac, and more.

As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.

Leah asks:

Is there a better way to arrange icons on my iPhone than by trying to drag them around on the phone itself. I can't seem to get it to work very well and usually mess it up.

Apple provided a better way of organizing iPhone icons in iTunes 9. In the past, I always tried to arrange my icons on the iPhone the same way you do, by dragging them around on the device itself. This isn't as easy as it sounds, especially if you have larger hands.

Now, with iTunes 9 or higher installed and your iPhone connected to your Mac or PC, launch iTunes, click on the Applications tab, and you will not only see the apps you have installed on your iPhone, but the iPhone screens and the placement of the icons as well.

Simply drag the icons around in iTunes and put them in the desired order. The next time you sync, the icons are arranged identically on your iPhone as well. It's so much easier.

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.

Apple is already the huge name in the music business with the iTunes Store, and they've made continual inroads into the application, video, and movie markets as well. But what if Apple also became the content provider of choice for TV?

That idea isn't that far-fetched, according to a blog post by Peter Kafka at the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital. Kafka reports that Apple has been pitching the concept of $30 monthly TV subscriptions through iTunes to TV networks.

You'll note that I said iTunes. That's the interesting point here -- Apple isn't pushing sending content to a particular device, like the Apple TV that Kafka refers to as "underwhelming" (sounds familiar, doesn't it?) or the fabled Apple tablet / slate / whatever. Instead, the service would be available immediately to the more 100 million iTunes account holders that Apple had as of a year ago. Have a Mac? You're a potential customer. Have a PC? Ditto.

There's only one fly in the ointment -- will broadcast and cable programmers buy into this? Kafka thinks the first content provider to jump would be Disney, which of course counts Steve Jobs as its largest shareholder. Cable companies might not like the loss of their usually overpriced monthly packages to an upstart, or having their bandwidth chewed up by hordes of people streaming HD video. And there's always the question of whether current cable TV subscribers would make the jump to streaming content.

Kafka ends his post with a quote from an unnamed TV executive, who says of Apple's subscription plan "I think they might get it right this time." What's your take, TUAW readers? Do you think the world is ready to purchase all of its video content from Apple? Leave your comments below.

As we learned yesterday, not everyone loves the update to Apple TV.

For me, however, the upgrade was an improvement to an adequate piece of hardware -- when it chose to work. By mid-afternoon, I was listening to classical music being streamed over Internet radio, and I was very happy with the Apple TV for the most part. The flagship new features -- iTunes Extras and iTunes LPs -- were finicky and hard to work. Trying to navigate through iTunes Extras was akin to herding cats. When it works, it's fantastic. When it doesn't, you want to hurl something at the wall.

I'm quite the opposite of fellow blogger Steve Sande when it comes to the Apple TV. I chose the device over getting cable back in February. I promptly did the hacks to open up the USB port and utilize Boxee (with Hulu) and XBMC. Please note that these hacks will be wiped when you upgrade to 3.0.

I frequently use it because it became the perfect home for streaming content from first an external hard drive, then my new iMac. I'm an anime fan, and used the chance to rip my DVDs to my hard drive and have all the episodes in one place. It's very nice not to have to get up and change DVDs after every 3-4 episodes. I also stream YouTube content and play music over it.

Here's a look at some of the new features:

'Tis the season to be buying. But what do you get for that special geek in your life?

I can't speak for your geek, but I know what I'm asking Santa for this year – I just hope he's a TUAW reader. Whether he is or not, maybe going through my list will give you an idea on how to max out your credit card spread some holiday cheer this year.


Dear Santa,

I've been a good boy this year. I've cut back on the booze, and they don't greet me by name at the strip club anymore. So instead of a stocking full of coal, could you find it in your heart to bring me one or more of the following items on the night before Christmas? I know it's a long flight to New Zealand from the North Pole, but you've got to admit, at least the weather down here is waaaay better than in Cleveland this time of year.

First of all, I'd like a shiny new 802.11n Airport Express. I like my Time Capsule (when it's not being a recalcitrant piece of junk), but the 5GHz wireless signal doesn't reach from my living room all the way back to my office. With an Airport Express, I'd be able to extend the wireless signal from my Time Capsule to the other side of the house and geek away in privacy. That way my wife won't have to grit her teeth every five minutes when the theme from Metroid goes off at 80 decibels and tells me I got a new e-mail. And since the Airport Express is 802.11n-enabled, I'd still be able to back up my data to the Time Capsule at a brisk pace.

I'd also like these Shure SE115m+ earphones. I've been using a set of Shure E2cs for about three years now, and I love them, but the one big advantage the SE115m+ has is the controls built into the cord that would allow me to pause, play, and skip through tracks on my iPhone. I'd also be able to take calls, and it even has a built-in microphone. Santa, if I had these earphones I'd be able to put those white earbuds that came with my iPhone into a drawer and never look at them again, and that would make me a very happy boy indeed.

You know how I like to shoot HD video, right Santa? But not those kinds of videos, because that would get me on the naughty list. My MacBook Pro does a good job of encoding video – it works pretty close to real-time – but if I had an Elgato Turbo.264 HD Video Encoder, it would go so much faster. Like 3-4 times faster. That way I could spend less time waiting for videos to encode and more time drinking helping old ladies across the street.

If I'd been a really good boy this year, like if I'd won the Nobel Peace Prize or employee of the month at TUAW, I'd ask for a bona fide guitar amplifier. But since I haven't been that good, I'd settle for a Zoom G2.1U Guitar Effects Pedal with USB interface. This thing will simulate all kinds of guitar effects for me, and it'll plug right into my MacBook Pro. So far playing my guitar through Garageband has been an acceptable substitute for a real, live amplifier, but the one thing I definitely miss is all my effects pedals. Garageband includes lots of neat software effects that simulate pedals, but you can't stomp on them to switch them on and off. I know – I've tried.

Last thing, Santa: if none of those other things will fit in your bag, could you just get me a big, fat iTunes gift card? I've got nearly US$120 worth of songs I want to upgrade to iTunes Plus so I can stop worrying about DRM nonsense on my previous purchases and get higher-quality music in the process.

Thanks Santa. Next year I promise to be more helpful and honest and say fewer naughty words about New Zealand's telecommunications companies.

Just last week, Verizon released Media Manager for the Mac. While many customers are saying it's less powerful than its Windows-based counterpart, it received significant changes this week. Namely, users can now stream content from their iPhoto and iTunes libraries to a FiOS DVR (something TiVo did three years ago, but let's not nit-pick).

With the desktop app running (configured as a simple preference), you can browse iTunes playlists as well as your entire library. From iPhoto, browse your library, events and slideshows. Keeping events intact is nice for when you want to show Aunt Shirley pictures from your trip to Scranton.

Note that this requires a FiOS TV DVR Set-Top Box, Mac OS X 10.4 or greater, iTunes 7 or greater, iPhoto 6 or greater and QuickTime version 7 or greater. For an unnecessarily enthusiastic demonstration of the software, check out the video after the break.

(Screenshot courtesy of Dave Zatz / Zatz Not Funny)

[Via Engadget]

Smart playlists have been a feature of iTunes since version 3.0 (circa 2002), and they provide a means for you to create automatically-updated playlists that fit a certain criteria. For me, they serve as a hands-off way to stay up-to-date on my latest music and Podcasts, as well as a repository for a certain genre of music. To create a smart playlist, click on "File" and select "New Smart Playlist" (or you can use the command-option-n keyboard shortcut).

If you want a playlist that contains only holiday music, you could specify that the playlist include all songs with either the "Christmas" or "Chanukah" genre tag on it. Because smart playlists auto-update, you needn't worry about adding songs to it: as long as the track's tags meet the criteria, it is automatically included in the playlist -- unless, of course, you choose the "limit to" option, which limits the the tracks in the playlist based on your choosing.

Read more for five of my favorite smart playlists, as well as criteria for how to create them.

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Engadget is reporting what everyone who has a twitchy refresh button already knows: iTunes 9.0.2 is out, bringing support to Apple TV 3.0. The iTunes update is available through Software Update, and the Apple TV update is right there in the box that says "Apple TV" on it.

The Apple TV update refreshes the look of the main menu, Genius Mixes and internet radio. It also adds iTunes Extras and LP support. Here's the official press release.

Notice any other new stuff? Tell us in the comments.

I love podcasting.

My first podcasts weren't really podcasts, just recordings that I made and uploaded to a website in the late 90's so that other people could listen to them. Unlike the podcasts we know and love today, there was no way to subscribe to all of the episodes that I recorded. When podcasting as we know it hit the world in 2004, I started hosting podcasts through one of my companies.

Despite creating two long-running podcasts between 2004 and 2007, I finally gave up because of the time involved. Part of the problem was due to me being a stickler for perfection in my podcasts, while the rest was due to the fact that I was stuck with podcasting when I was near my iMac and could edit and update a feed file on a regular basis.

Earlier this month, I decided that I wanted to start up a personal podcast again. Yeah, I talk about tech, but for the most part I wanted this to be a free-form podcast that could talk about photography one day, music the next, and the joys of being a cat owner the third. Since my calendar is already pretty well jammed, the only way I was going to be able to commit to doing a podcast every day was to get the podcast workflow down to as little time as possible.

Folders, which have been a feature of iTunes since iTunes 5.0, serve as a means to better organize your music. For example, you could create genre- or artist-based folders with corresponding playlists nested within them. But moving playlists into folders isn't the most fun thing, and can be especially time consuming if you're going to be moving a bunch. Fortunately, the "Move Playlists to Folder" script provides a means for you to easily move multiple playlists over to a specified folder in iTunes.

First, download and install the script: the file should reside in your [username]/Library/iTunes/Scripts/ folder. After successful installation, the script will now appear as an item in the scripts menu. If you didn't already have any scripts installed, the script menu allows you to access and run scripts for a specific app.

This AppleScript, along with a host of many other iTunes script goodies, is available as a free download at Doug's Scripts. However, Doug would also be more than happy if you were generous enough to donate a buck or two to help buy him a latte.

Just like the Facebook pages that Apple has set up for iTunes and the iTunes Trailers Twitter account, Apple has just set up several Twitter accounts for iTunes, which cover Music, Podcasts, Movies and TV Shows.

First, the Music account, twitter.com/iTunesMusic , will provide information on "new releases, pre-orders, iTunes LP, exclusive offers and more."

Second, the Podcasting account, twitter.com/iTunesPodcasts , will provide a "Podcast Episode of the Day, from iTunes Podcasting."

Next, the iTunes Movies account, twitter.com/iTunesMovies , doesn't contain a description, but does contain one tweet so far, and it looks like it will be used for Movies on the iTunes Store.

Finally, the iTunes TV account, twitter.com/iTunesTV , which contains no tweets yet, will provide "Official TV updates from the U.S. iTunes Store on Twitter."

Will these accounts make a impact on what you discover in the iTunes Store? Let us know in the comments below!

Within days of the iTunes 9 and iTunes LP announcement, people had already thoroughly hacked apart the iTunes LP format only to discover it was just a clever combination of images, HTML, CSS and Javascript. Because any web developer could create an iTunes LP, it seemed strange that indie labels were left out in the cold, with LPs having a high cost of entry and no distribution of their LPs on the iTunes Store.

We do have a report this morning of Apple announcing that they'll be opening up the LP format, but a few inventive artists appear to have leapfrogged that step towards glasnost. It was only a matter of time before someone starting offering iTunes LPs in other ways, and iTunesLP.net is that someone. They're already offering up Disney's Fantasia in the iTunes LP format, but no music is included.

Installing the LP is as easy and double-clicking the downloaded file, but for the music to play properly it must be correctly tagged and named, and of course you need a legitimate way to get the music in question. Even though the site only offers 1 LP currently, it has plenty of tutorials and directions on how to create and distribute your own.

As long as no copyright laws are being broken, I think creating and distributing these LPs is a great idea. It offers users the chance to create visually stunning LPs for older music that the labels wouldn't bother with, and it offers indie labels the chance to get iTunes LPs out there, even if they're not yet available directly in the iTunes Store. With Apple's new policy towards opening up the LP format, this may be a brief opportunity for the workaround, but it's nice to see.

Update: ElectricPig is reporting on 10/13 that an Apple spokesperson said the LP format will be opened up for all, indies and majors alike.

There's word from an indie record-label that iTunes LPs are not for the indies. Introduced at Apple's "It's Only Rock and Roll" event in September, the iTunes LP format adds "bigger than a matchbook" album art, song lyrics, video clips, and other extra content to albums sold through the iTunes store.

Brian McKinney of Chicago-based label Chocolate Lab Records saw some promise in the new format and started looking into the idea of producing for iTunes LPs himself. But the truly small labels may have a hard time getting in. McKinney spoke to the digital distribution manager at his label's distributor, who reportedly told him that Apple charges a $10,000 production fee for iTunes LPs. $10,000 may be less than the heads of Warner Music Group, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and EMI spend on breakfast, but could be cost prohibitive for the little label that could (if it had $10,000 handy for each of its acts).

It's not just the cost that prohibits the little labels. According to McKinney, it's also Apple. McKinney says his dude in distribution was told "that LPs aren't being offered to indies and that there are only about 12 LPs being offered right now."

"Foul, foul, filth and foul," cries Cult of Mac's Pete Mortensen. Like a financial analyst moving a stock from "buy" to "sell," Mortensen says iTunes LP has gone from "the first digital album good enough to criticize," to "the first major content misstep in the history of the iTunes Store." Assuming that Chocolate Lab's distributor info is on the up-and-up, Mortensen thinks iTunes LP is "less a new format for music than it is a new form of paid advertising on the iTunes store."