iPhone4idiots » iTunes

We Benefit From Apple’s Delayed iTunes Match Launch

hirtme — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:45:54 +0000

Well I was wrong about Apple releasing iTunes Match over the weekend. Apple stated it would begin in October and missed the deadline. I think this is probably a good thing for the consumer. It obviously wasn’t ready as most those I follow that were testing it said it was slow and didn’t match nearly a high enough percentage of songs. Apple would be smart to get it right before rolling it out. They made the mistake of launching an immature product with their horrible Cards app which I reviewed here. Don’t make the same mistake again. iTunes Match is coming for sure, it’s just a question of when (remember the delays in the white iPhone!).

iTunes Match Ready to Roll This Weekend

hirtme — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:10:07 +0000

Looks like iTunes Match launches this weekend. Those beta testing the music matching service have been told by Apple that iTunes is deleting the libraries today. The likely last step before it goes live. I expect that this weekend. What iTunes Match does is for $25 per year iTunes will scan your music library and match songs with Apple’s own library and then upload the rest of the songs it does not recognize. This makes all your music available on all your iOS devices. It also turns any music you downloaded thorough other means into a legal high quality copy. Anyone planning on using this service?
UPDATE 10/30 – Looks like it’s not happening this weekend. Since Apple said it would go live in October that can only mean one thing. Numerous beta testers have stated the service is slow and only matches about half the songs. It’s still not ready.

How Do You Consume Music??

hirtme — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:28:07 +0000

Back in the mid 1990’s I used to listen to music a lot. I spent a good bit of money on speakers, amp, subwoofer and Adcom 5-disc cd changer. I’d wake up in the morning load five cd’s and hit random and listen to music at volumes that my neighbor would comment on. New albums would come out at midnight on Tuesday’s and about once per month I’d be there so I had something to listen to at work the next day. Then came Napster and I quit going to Tower Records. About 10 years later it closed. If I needed a song or album I just did a quick search and downloaded it to my computer in minutes. Ripping cd’s and Napster is how I got the majority of music on my Mac today. Currently I listen to music I’ve synced through iTunes or Pandora. Actually, I’ve been listening to Pandora more this week since I downloaded PandoraSkips (a cool Cydia tweak that gives you unlimited skips). I haven’t tried Spotify, but I know it’s popular along with satellite radio. There are just so many ways to consume music these days. Apparently Facebook is planning on getting into the act by offering free music. I don’t see myself using this and figure it will die like Facebook Deals and Facebook Places have. With so many changes over of the past 10-15 years I realized I have no idea how people listen to music anymore. So that’s my new poll question. How do you mainly listen to music today? You can vote for more than one in this poll.

MusiXmatch – Display Lyrics For All Your iPhone or iPod Songs

hirtme — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 09:47:00 +0000

Ever been listening to a song on your iPhone or iPod and wondered what the lyrics were to that last line? Happens to me a lot. While very poetic and talented Kurt Cobain or Eddie Vedder aren’t always the easiest to understand. Remember that hilarious Adam Sandler skit on Saturday Night Live where he sang Evenflow? What made it so funny was his jibberish sounded exactly like the song! Anyway, there have been apps before that would display lyrics, but most either didn’t have a large database of songs or were not polished enough to be simple to use. That has changed with the release of free app called musiXmatch. The app has lyrics for more than 5.4 million songs and its own built in music player that will display the words while the song plays (see the photo). The large database of songs and how easily and quickly it installs, no computer required, really makes this a killer app! I currently have about 300 songs on my iPhone. After installing and launching the app it immediately loads it’s player with all the songs in your iPod app. There really is no need to connect to iTunes as long as your music is already on your iPhone in the iPod app. I tapped My Music, Hurt by Nine Inch Nails, and the lyrics displayed! Tap the button in the lower right corner and two buttons appear. One to play the song and another to purchase from iTunes. In addition to the words you can swipe right and a very brief bio of the band is displayed along with how many songs the app has lyrics for that particular artist. Swipe right one more time and see a list of those songs. There is a trending tab that displays a list of songs. Currently Maroon 5, Moves Like Jagger, is number one? There also is a search tab that lets you find songs by name or artist.

The downside of the app is that it is still buggy. In first hour of testing I searched and selected Pen Cap Chew by Nirvana and it played Smell’s Like Teen Spirit. Then for Eminem Under the Influence it displayed the lyrics to another song and same for Alice in Chain’s Grind. That’s a lot of mistakes for one hour. The second problem is that if you lose your 3G connection the song doesn’t pickup where it left off, but starts over. Despite these two issues, I totally recommend this app. Especially if like me you want to know the words to the songs you are singing.

One Month In – Ping Fail

hirtme — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:27:54 +0000

iTunes 10 was released one month ago (four weeks actually) at which time I wrote about how badly Ping sucked. Ping is Apple’s attempt to create a social network for music. It’s launch had some major issues and while Apple has fixed the spam problem they apparently will not connect to Facebook anytime soon. Thus, I’m officially declaring it a failure and have a few reasons why. It had been a few weeks since I logged into Ping yesterday, but I wanted to see if things had changed. On the positive, the spam problem seems to have been corrected. I checked a few popular musician’s comments with tens to hundreds of replies and found no spam links. However, you can still pose as anyone you want as my account, Kurt Cobain, still exist. BTW, thanks to my 56 followers whomever you are. Next I wanted to see how big it’s getting. This is a rough guess, but the following day after my first article Apple announced Ping had one million subscribers. At that time Lady Gaga had almost 200,000. Scary I know, but part of that is that Ping features and recommends those that are popular, not what you might like to listen to given your tastes. This is a design flaw that has yet to be changed. Lady Gaga now has 465,000 followers so if the ratio holds that puts Ping somewhere around 2.4 million users now. Even if I’m wrong and its five million I’m still not impressed. If Apple would have cut a deal with Facebook the number would be far north of 10 million for sure. Whatever the number, I highly suspect a very high percentage are like me. They signed up to take a peak at Ping and aren’t coming back. I only followed two people – Rick Rubin and Dennis Lloyd, the founder of iLounge. While Rick uses Ping daily (I mean it is his business), Mr. Lloyd’s last activity on Ping was two weeks ago. I’m sure he’s used Facebook and Twitter multiple times since then. He, like myself, was one of the curious to check Ping out but obviously didn’t find it very interesting or sticky. My initial gut instinct was correct – #Ping #fail. Interestingly, Rene over at the iPhone blog wrote this morning that, “Facebook CTO Bret Taylor is “very confident” Facebook and Apple will be able to come to terms on integrating Apple’s social music network with Facebook’s social people network.” Like the mythical Verizon iPhone, I’ll believe it when I see it. Frankly, even if it happened tomorrow, it might be too late to save Ping.

iTunes Ping Sucks – Stick to What you Know Apple!

hirtme — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:50:59 +0000

iTunes 10 came out yesterday and offered one major change – Ping. Steve Jobs touted it as “a social network for music”. You were supposed to be able to follow bands and friends and share what music you were buying, listening to and where concerts were being held. Sounds cool right? Well its not. First, Facebook is blocking Ping so you can’t connect with your friends. The only way you can find them is though search or emailing them directly and who wants to bother with that. Second, the software doesn’t find similar music to what you like for recommendations, but instead only what’s popular. Lastly, the software doesn’t seem to filter spam and will let you take whatever name you want. Thus follow me, Kurt Cobain! Apple even had Facebook connect on its own website yesterday morning. However, Facebook started blocking Ping as there was no contract in place. This would be really funny as Apple is getting some of its own medicine, but without Facebook Ping is terrible as a social network. You can’t connect with your friends easily. What good is a social network if you can’t easily find the people you want to be social with?

When I created my profile I picked Nirvana and Alice in Chains as the only two bands I liked. So whom does Ping recommend that I follow? Lady Gaga and Katy Perry! Obviously the software is just showing you what is popular (Lady Gaga already has over 150,000 followers) rather than what you might like that is similar. Another issue is that you can pick any name so there are already six Justin Biebers. I took the name Kurt Cobain. Yes, I have taste and while I don’t see myself using Ping much – follow me for kicks! The other big problem with Ping is it doesn’t filter spam in the comments. I followed Rick Rubin and there were 82 comments on an album he liked. At least ten of these were “get a free iPhone at . . .” with a link to the same website. Apple needs to get this under control really fast or Ping might be their biggest flop since the first generation Apple TV.

I’m a big Apple fan, but just like Google should never had tried to make a smart phone (sorry to anyone who bought a Nexus One), Apple should stick to what its good at. Unless Apple works out a deal with Facebook and gets a handle on the spam, Kurt Cobain says, “Stay Away!”

Apple Keynote – iOS 4.1 & Much More!

hirtme — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:50:31 +0000

Apple held its annual September Keynote event yesterday and announced a ton of new products and updates. Updates to iOS 4.1, iPod shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod Touch, Apple TV, iTunes 10, Gamecenter and Ping social music network! It was a lot to take in. I’ll give a few thoughts on all this but for me personally this biggest news is iOS 4.1 coming next week. Steve Jobs claims it fixes the bug that makes the iPhone 3G run so slow on iOS 4.0 and higher. This would be huge for many of you if it really works. Time will tell. Apple’s CEO also stated that it fixed the proximity sensor bug with the iPhone 4. Forget the antenna “death grip” press (that was no big deal), but the proximity sensor on iPhone 4’s is messed up and a fix is welcomed news (again assuming it works). Just try and put your iPhone on between your shoulder and face to free up your hands. You are sure to mute, enable speaker or hang up on your call. It’s annoying, but I will not give up my jailbreak to get this fix. I’ll live with it until the next jailbreak is released. For more in iOS 4.1 and all the other stuff. iOS 4.1 introduces HDR (high dynamic range) standard to photos. I’m not a photographer so I don’t know exactly what this means, but I’m sure it will make photos look even better. Also built into iOS 4.1 is Game Center, which is all about multiplayer games. I think this is going to be huge as there is nothing better than talking trash and competing against others in games. If you don’t have friends to play with then Game Center will find them for you! They demoed Project Swords from Epic Games that will be out before the holidays. It looked pretty cool. Again, IMO this is going to be BIG!

There are new iPods coming. A new iPod shuffle is only $49. Man that’s cheap. The new iPod Nanos no longer have a click wheel but now a touchable screen. It’s half the size of the previous version and has a 24 hour battery life. It will sell for $149 for 8GB and $179 for 16GB. The new iPod Touch is what really impressed me. It has the retina display just like the iPhone 4. It also has the front and rear cameras – just like the iPhone 4. Facetime will work on the iPod Touch through email. These will begin shipping next week with prices of $229 for 8GB, $299 for the 32GB version, and $399 for the 64GB. Apple is also revamping Apple TV. The new version is only $99 and 80% smaller. Apple is removing the hard drive and going strictly with a streaming model. Any iOS device will stream to your Apple TV. Apple TV will include streaming of Nexflix and $0.99 rentals for TV shows. I would take a wait and see on this. Apple TV is the only Apple product I have ever purchased and then not really used. I even modified mine to install Boxee and still don’t use it much. Thus, IMO the $99 would be better sent on an iPod.

Lastly, iTunes 10 is now available. It will include Ping which they are calling a social music media tool. Like Facebook meets iTunes. Not sure what to think about that, but I suspect it will not be something you use nearly as much as Facebook or Twitter. Well that is the majority of what was covered today. The consumer will decide which items will be a hit and which will disappear like the original Apple TV. I’m most excited about Game Center. I will use that next week on my old iPhone 3G and let you know how it goes. As for the iPhone 4 – iOS 4.1 will have to wait as keeping the jailbreak is the most important thing. Oh, sorry the site was down yesterday, but I’m at the mercy of my webhost. Thanks for your patience. Let me know your thoughts on all this Apple news.

Netflix & ABC apps arrive for iPad!

hirtme — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 19:19:26 +0000

Very exciting news! With the iPad going on sale tomorrow almost 1000 new apps are hitting the iTunes app store. BTW, you’ll probably notice a ton of the apps you already have are available to update. This is because they are going Universal Binary (whatever that means) to support the iPad as well. You really don’t have to update unless you are getting an iPad, but when you have some extra time I’d go ahead and do it. Now why most of these apps are iPad only, this is great news for iPhone and iTouch users as I’ll explain in a minute. But first a quick mention of two of these new apps, Netflix and ABC Player, both of which are free. ABC Player allows you to stream about 20 shows, including Desperate Housewives, FlashForward, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Modern Family, and V. I’m not sure how much advertising will be added (I wish it were none). The Netflix app requires a Netflix account of course, but if you have one your iPad has access to TV shows and movies from the catalog of Netflix titles available for instant viewing. Now, why is this big news for the iPhone and iTouch? Because my guess is these apps will work on jailbroken iPhones and iTouches within a few months at most Further, because these apps are only available for wifi, I predict it will be less than a month until the iPad is jailbroken so 3G unrestrictor will work on it. Also, with ABC on board the other big networks are sure to follow very quickly. Live TV everywhere anytime on your iDevice just got one step closer.

iTunes 9.1 is Out – Safe to Upgrade Unless you used Blackra1n

hirtme — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:45:36 +0000

A few days ago Apple released iTunes 9.1. First off, if you have jailbroken or plan to maybe jailbreak one day you should never upgrade iTunes or your iPhone’s firmware or carrier settings unless you research it and find out it is safe first! The Dev-Team has confirmed it is safe to upgrade for all jailbreakers expect those that used blackra1n. I used PwnageTool and redsn0w so I upgraded and have had no issues. Now if you used blackra1n there is already a fix out called blackbreeze (don’t you love the names?) but its very new with mixed early reports. Bottom line, if you used blackra1n don’t upgrade until any issues with blackbreeze are resolved. Get ready, with the iPad and iPhone 4.0 coming in the next few months there should be lots of jailbreaking news.

How to Unrar files for Mac & PC

hirtme — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:32:48 +0000

Thought I’d make a guide about unraring files since some people aren’t sure how to do it. It’s really simple and there is also a step by step video at the end of the guide. To see how to convert files to mp4 see our guide here. So rar files are a way to breakup another file into smaller parts. For example, instead of finding a single link avi movie file that is usually 700 MB you might find seven 100 MB rar links. First, if you are on a PC (Mac guide is just below PC) you will need to download WinRAR here. As you can see its been downloaded over 92 million times. It’s safe and easy to use. Once you’ve installed WinRAR go ahead and make two folders on your desktop and call them rared and unrared. Download all your rar files into the folder titled “rared”. Once they are all in there open WinRAR and select the rared folder. Next, click “extract to” in the top bar and navigate and point the folder on your desktop titled unrared. Hit OK, wait 20 seconds for WinRAR to do its thing and the you should find the avi file in the unrared folder. See video for example. If you are on a Mac its even easier. Macs have UnRarX installed on them so just double click the file with the extension .rar within your rared folder. Twenty seconds later your .avi file will appear in the rared folder. See the video and please consider rating it and subscribing to our channel.