Archive for category iPod/iTunes
BBC iPlayer Comes To iPhone and iPod Touch
Posted by Scott in Apple, Entertainment, iPod/iTunes on November 15, 2008
The BBC have today launched availability of iPlayer content on iPhone and iPod Touch, making the Apple hardware the first mobile devices to support the streaming TV service. The content is encoded as a 516Kbps stream so it will only play via WiFi on both devices as the EDGE connection of the iPhone is not fast enough to operate effectively.
The Web site access has not been optimised for the iPhone interface so to actually select the programme you require involves a fair amount of zooming and panning of the page. Hopefully this is a short term thing and the Beeb will improve the front end for easier navigation. What I can say though is that the video actually looks superb on with not stuttering or pixellation what so ever.
How Many Podcasts In Your iTunes ?
Posted by Scott in iPod/iTunes on October 10, 2008
Quick survey time…. Home many podcasts are you currently subscribed to in iTunes ? Mine is currently at around 20, plus or minus one or two. Mostly tech chat shows such as British Mac and TWiT, but with a couple of music and comedy shows thrown in for good measure.
Any good Mac casts that you think everyone should know about ? Drop a comment.
EU Ruling – Batteries MUST Be Easily Removable
Posted by Scott in Apple, Featured, iPod/iTunes on October 8, 2008
According to this post on RegHardware the European Union is preparing to launch new guidance to electronics manufacturers regarding the use of internal batteries which could cause Apple some headaches, but if it goes through presumably will benefit consumers in the medium term.
According to the article the EU directive will mandate that by 2012 25% of all portable batteries must be recycled and the implication is that the consumer should be able to readily remove the battery themselves, something that is currently not possible for Apples iPods and the MacBook Air.
Last.fm iPhone App Now Supports 2.1 Firmware
Posted by Scott in Featured, iPhone, iPod/iTunes on September 27, 2008
At long last the excellent Last.fm iPhone app has been updated to support version 2.1 firmware. Since the latest iPhone update users of Last.fm have been deprived of access to this excellent service as the previous build was incompatible.
This release has been significantly redesigned and looks much slicker then previously. From what I have seen so far it also seems as this version seems more stable as so far it has behaved flawlessly, something I could not honestly say used to be the case.
New iPod Touch Not Charging With Speaker Docks ?
Posted by Scott in Headline, iPod/iTunes on September 22, 2008
Did anyone else miss the bit in Steve Jobs announcement of the new second Gen iPod Touch where he explained that the new Touch would be incompatible with large numbers of third party speaker docks, including premiere devices such as the Bose Sounddock ?
You did ? So it wasn’t just me then ? To be honest I am astounded that this fact seems to have largely escaped the Apple blog network and the mainstream gadget press, because personally I think this is a REALLY big deal ! The Apple Support Forum has a long thread where many disgruntled customers are venting their displeasure after spending a lot of money on second generation iPod Touch and Bose speaker combos only to find that when they plug in the iPod they are greeted with the message “CHARGING IS NOT SUPPORTED WITH THIS ACCESSORY” !
Last.FM App Fix for iPod Touch with 2.1 Firmware
Posted by Scott in iPod/iTunes on September 14, 2008
By the looks of things the guys over at Last.fm are on the verge of releasing an update for their iPhone/Ipod Touch app that addresses the known issue with Apples V2.1 firmware.
Since updating to V2.1 firmware users have been left with a completely broken app. According to this thread the fix should be released to Apple this week. Heres hoping Apple don’t decide to do the dirty on Last.fm as they have done with Podcaster
Why Did Apple Leave Speaker Out Of First Gen iPod Touch ?
Posted by Scott in Apple, Featured, iPod/iTunes on September 13, 2008
Whilst I was glad to see that Apple have seen sense and included a speaker in the second Gen Ipod Touch, it does make me wonder why it wasn’t included in the first gen Touch ? Call me cynical but the more I think about it the more I think this was a clever bit of marketing ( which of course we all know Apple are experts of ).
When the first gen was released last year Apple must have known that the App store was coming shortly and that games were certain to become a major selling feature of both the iPhone and the Touch. The speaker design was already there in the iPhone and as such would have been very easy to transfer to the Touch, but Apple elected to not include it. Now a little over a year later they have released a Touch with speaker included, and Touch users like myself are all thinking about whether they should “upgrade” to a virtually identical device so we can get sound in our games like iPhone users.
Twitter Your Currently playing iTunes Track Applescript
Posted by Scott in Hints And Tips, iPod/iTunes on September 12, 2008
Over on What The Lemur W. Thomas Leroux has a small Applescript that will post the currently playing iTunes track to Twitter so your friends and followers can see what you are listening to. All you have to do is cut and paste the code shown into Script Editor and edit in your Twitter username and password then save as an Application and run it. The script loops through every 3 minutes and if the current track is different to the one playing 3 minutes ago it posts a new Tweet, so obviously if your current track is very short it may be missed.
iPod Touch Firmware 2.1 Frustrations
Posted by Scott in Apple, Headline, iPod/iTunes on September 11, 2008
It is fairly clear by now that there are an awful lot of issues with the latest firmware for the iPod Touch. The Discussion forum on Apple.com are alive with threads from disgruntled Touch owners feeling the pain of being an early adopter.
Personally my Touch has a number of issues at the moment and more are coming to light as I use it. The first problem I hit was with the iPod dock in my car ( a new Honda Civic ). This works by emulating a CD auto-changer, with the virtual disks being represented by playlists named Honda1, Honda2 etc on the iPod. Unfortunately since the upgrade the skip to next/previous disk buttons on my stereo now cause the iPod to effectively disconnect meaning I cant use the car dash to control playback, which is a royal pain.
New Nano A Step Backwards ?
Posted by Scott in Featured, Rumours, iPod/iTunes on September 7, 2008
Am I the only one to think that the design of the new Nano, purportedly being announced this coming Tuesday 9th September, is a bit of a step backwards ?
It looks to me like a slightly elongated Gen 2 Nano, which I think is really odd. Are they saying that the Gen 3 Nano design was a mistake ? Clearly the form factor of the Nano is constrained to a certain extent by the sceen dimensions, and I suppose if the associated announcement of HD video content from the iTunes Store also materialises then this would probably be a factor in the selection of a wide screen format display for the new Nanos.
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