Castro is a brand new podcasting app for the iPhone (available in the App Store for $2.99). It’s not an update to an existing podcast client. It’s a new app. It doesn’t have any legacy to anchor it down because it really is a fresh start.
Via AdAge, Apple has hired Michael Pallad for its iTunes Radio team. Pallad’s LinkedIn confirms the report, citing Apple iTunes as his current occupation.
AdAge says that Pallad joined Apple about a week ago and is in charge of international iTunes Radio sales. Pallad comes from Cumulus Media, a real-world radio organisation, as their Executive Vice President of Sales. As Apple’s initial round of iAd campaigns for iTunes Radios run out at the end of the year, it seems Apple needed someone versed in radio advertising sales to help setup its deals for 2014.
Proving it can stay competitive with iTunes Radio, the streaming music service that debuted with iOS 7, Pandora Radio is busy at work bringing new features to its own customizable streaming music service.
The company released a feature update today to its iOS app bringing with it the ability to set song or artist stations as alarm clocks.
While the native Clock app in iOS can awake you to a specific song, Pandora’s station alarm clock is a nice addition to iOS and a compelling reason to use Pandora Radio even if you’re an iTunes Radio evangelist.
Pandora Radio 5.1 also brings full iOS 7 compatibility as it was previously designed for the iOS 7 but built for iOS 6,
Check out the full release notes below and download the latest version from the App Store.
As we’ve previously reported, Apple began giving away select paid apps in its Apple Store app recently as an added incentive to download and check out the app.
This week in particular Apple has replaced the free app with free music from iTunes instead. The playlist is appropriately holiday themed and features songs such as Silent Night by Kelly Clarkson and The First Noel by Mary J Blige.
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Back in April, we reviewed Infuse, a media player application by FireCore, the makers of aTV Flash. After several feature updates, and an announcement earlier this year, FireCore today released Infuse 2, an all new version of the application with a completely redesigned user interface and a new pricing structure.
PayPal has announced a new section dedicated to online gift card purchases. The “Digital Gifts” store has opened with what PayPal describes as a “marquee merchant”, namely iTunes. Although buying iTunes gift cards with PayPal has been possible for a long time thanks to eBay, this is the first time PayPal is selling the cards directly through themselves.
Naturally, you can pay for the cards with your PayPal account credit. The company poses the store as a really simple way to give a meaningful gift to someone for the holidays.
Buying a digital gift from PayPal is as easy as one-two-three: select a gift and denomination, enter your PayPal ID and Password, send the gift to a loved one or redeem it on the spot. Simple, convenient and secure. To help open the digital doors we have just started offering iTunes codes.
The store is currently offering iTunes cards in $15, $25, $50 and $100 variants. Gifts can be bought for yourself or gifted to someone else via email. Whilst PayPal is not offering the best deal by any measure (offering gift cards at face value), the service is quick and convenient.
Amusingly, despite being a digital good, the store is reporting that $15 and $25 cards are already “sold out”.
Apple has opened pre-orders on a new exclusive album on the iTunes Store, titled “Dance (RED) Save Lives, Vol. 2”. The album, which is expected to debut on November 25th, is in support of the Global Fund, with 100% of proceeds being donated to the cause. Apple promoted Volume 1 of the album last year, with proceeds benefiting the same cause.
Notable artists who have tracks featured on the album include Katy Perry, Coldplay, Robin Thicke, and Calvin Harris. While you can’t purchase the entire album today, a single from the album, “Celebrate,” is available when you pre-order.
Apple has a long relationship with the (PRODUCT)RED organization, recently working with designer Marc Newson to create several products, including a red Mac Pro, to be auctioned off at an upcoming event in support of the cause on November 23rd.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVukJXI5NXM]
After much anticipation, Google finally released its native Google Play Music app for iOS today. The All Access and Radio service was originally announced at Google IO in May with the promise that it would be ported to iOS devices a few weeks later. Then it was rumored last month. Well, today it is really here and Google was nice enough to give us a great look at the service yesterday (video above).
Google’s music ecosystem differs greatly from Apple’s and more closely resembles Spotify or Amazon with a focus on the Cloud. On Macs and PCs you can use it through a browser with an interface that is remarkably robust for a webpage, but obviously not quite as responsive as iTunes, especially with local music.
Play millions of songs, instantly, on any device, including all the music you’ve ever bought…from anywhere.
Google’s Music is in the Cloud (mostly) so you can seamlessly move from device to device, though there is a 5 app limit (but no limit on devices with web browser access). You can upload 20,000 songs for free, create playlists and share with friends, listen to your music anywhere there is a web browser or iOS/Android device. Kind of a no-brainer…
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Google’s Chrome Blog has announced that Chrome for iOS will be getting autofill functionality shortly, enabling automated completion of web forms. If you already use Chrome on a desktop machine, the iOS app will sync data between the two.
For iPhone and iPad users, Chrome for iOS will soon include Autofill to help you quickly fill out forms on-the-go just as you can on desktop and Android. When you sign into Chrome on your iPhone and iPad, you can quickly complete online forms using your synced Autofill info from other devices you’ve signed into.
Google says that it is “starting to roll out” the feature from today, but the version of the app on iTunes hasn’t been updated at the time of writing.
Safari introduced iCloud Keychain, offering synchronised logins and credit card data, with Mavericks and iOS 7.
Following redesigns of many of its other applications, Apple has completely redesigned its iBooks application for iOS 7. The new iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch app follows the design aesthetic of the bundled Newsstand application, and also includes a completely redesigned iBookstore. The free update is available via the App Store now. For fans of the page curl effect in iBooks, you will be happy to know that it has not been removed.
Apple has also completely redesigned its iTunes U application, an app for downloading and managing education content. Both apps include redesigned icons:
Apple is inviting iTunes customers to donate between $5 and $200 to the American Red Cross to assist its relief work in response to Typhoon Haiyam, which is estimated to have killed more than 10,000 people (update: the estimate was later revised to 2,500).
The typhoon – the name given to a hurricane when it occurs in the West Pacific – is thought to have been the worst ever to hit land. Philippine Red Cross volunteer rescue and relief teams are providing assistance in the hardest hit communities, including assisting in search and rescue efforts and distributing food and relief supplies to survivors.
Apple has used the iTunes donation system several times, in response to Superstorm Sandy, the tsunami in Japan and the earthquakes in Haiti.
In light of the recent reporting in regards to the NSA and governments across the world and their connection to the data that technology companies hold on their customers, Apple has published a lengthy document detailing its customer privacy policies.
We believe that our customers have a right to understand how their personal information is handled, and we consider it our responsibility to provide them with the best privacy protections available. Apple has prepared this report on the requests we receive from governments seeking information about individual users or devices in the interest of transparency for our customers around the world. This report provides statistics on requests related to customer accounts as well as those related to specific devices. We have reported all the information we are legally allowed to share, and Apple will continue to advocate for greater transparency about the requests we receive.
Additionally, the company has published charts that detail how many customer data requests it has received Between the beginning of January and end of June this year from governments.
Breakdown of important details:
Xfinity TV’s iOS app now allows subscribers to stream live TV channels as well as access on-demand content. The app has also been renamed from Xfinity TV Player to Xfinity TV Go.
Early reviewers, though, seem more interested in Air Play functionality, which has not yet been added.
The app is a free download from iTunes.
Rap fans can now (legally) listen to Eminem’s new album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2, a full 4 days before its scheduled release exclusively on iTunes Radio. In the past, iTunes simply provided on-demand playback of the early albums in their entirety from the Artist’s page, but now it’s providing the streams through a ‘First Play’ station on its new iTunes Radio service in the US.
The album was recently released ahead of schedule via BitTorrent which may have hastened the move to iTunes Radio.
[tweet https://twitter.com/Eminem/status/396386076262023168 align=’center’]
It looks like all Apple’s future album streams will also land in the new iTunes Radio ‘First Play’ station. Earlier this year Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue told Entertainment Weekly that Apple would leverage iTunes Radio for the premiere streams.
This year, iTunes has been successful in converting streaming album premieres into impressive pre-orders and sales, how much influence did that have on iTunes Radio?
We’re leveraging it. For example there’s a Justin Timberlake album that’s on iTunes Radio as of [last Thursday] for the first time, so the first time we ever premiered an album on there. We certainly knew we would leverage it for iTunes Radio but the primary key to iTunes Radio was to create it custom for you. When you’re talking premiering song, what we’re doing iTunes Festival-wise, we knew iTunes Radio was a perfect place for that so it’s perfect alignment
Labels and artists hope that the free streams will help combat leaks of the album ahead of its official release and also translate into increased preorders by driving users to iTunes.
Eminem is a 13-time Grammy winner and has sold over 220 million albums worldwide. His new CD is easily one of most anticipated albums of the year. The deluxe version includes 21 tracks with blockbuster appearances by Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, and Nate Ruess (from the band FUN). The album has already produced three chart-topping singles: The Monster, Survival Berzerk, and Rap God. Pre-orders are priced at $15.99 and include immediate downloads of the aforementioned singles.
Apple appears to have recently started promoting some of its own stock iOS apps on the App Store for search terms that would have previously displayed results from third-party developers first. As noted by MacStories, when searching for terms such as “browser”, “web”, “SMS”, “Movies”, “cloud, “Siri”, “internet”, and others on the App Store, Apple is now promoting some of its own apps and services such as Safari, iTunes, Messages, iCloud, and Siri as the first results.
The result for Apple’s apps aren’t typical App Store listings but instead provide users with a brief description and link to either “Learn more” or open the app. Clicking Learn More takes users to Apple’s website in Safari for more information on the app, while some listings, such as iTunes, allow users to tap “Visit iTunes Store” and automatically launch the iOS iTunes app.
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw3w68YrKwc]
Back in July, Square Enix released the mobile-exclusive game Deus Ex: The Fall as a tie-in to the popular console and PC franchise. Today the company published a free version of the game that allows players to run through the full game’s opening mission. Other than the limit on how far into the game you play, everything else is unrestricted.
Even though the iTunes requirements say that the iPhone 4 and fourth-generation iPod touch are compatible, the company notes in the app’s description that it will not actually run on those devices. Players looking to take the mobile Deus Ex experience for a test run can grab it now for free on iTunes.
If you take your iOS games seriously enough to make it to the top of the Game Center Leaderboard, it can be annoying to see someone cheat their way past you with a Leaderboard hack. Previously, all developers could do about it was ask Apple to deal with the issue – but new features in iOS 7 make it possible for developers combat cheaters themselves. We previously told you about all these new anti-cheater features for developers, but today Apple reminds devs in an update that they now have the ability to delete fake scores and block known cheaters altogether.
You can now view and manage the top 100 scores and usernames for all of your Game Center leaderboards. Protect your legitimate players by signing in to iTunes Connect to delete fake scores or block players that post fake scores. You can also restore scores and players within the same time period.
iOS 7 introduced a number of new developer tools to help block Leaderboard spam, including the ability to set realistic maximum scores and reject unsigned submissions. This latest addition goes one step further in allowing developers to directly zap fake scores after the event. Apple this week added a description of exactly how developers can combat fraud on leaderboards in its developer documentation:
After you have apps available in the App Store or Mac App Store, iTunes Connect gives you access to 30 days of scores posted to your apps’ leaderboards. If you determine that players are able to generate fraudulent scores, you can remove these scores from a leaderboard or even block individual players from posting scores. You can manage active leaderboards as follows:
- View the top 100 scores for a given leaderboard or grouped game leaderboard.
- Delete a specific leaderboard score from a leaderboard.
- Restore a specific score to a leaderboard.
- Block a player from posting scores to a given leaderboard. This deletes all scores on the leaderboard for that player.
- Restore a player and the player’s most recent score posted before being blocked.
iTunes Connect maintains 30 days of leaderboard entries for your review: scores older than 30 days cannot be removed from a leaderboard; scores removed or players blocked cannot be restored more than 30 days after they are removed.
For instructions on how to do this, Apple refers developers to the Managing Game Center Leaderboard Activity section in the iTunes Connect Developer Guide.
Update: The analysts were right to be optimistic, but not optimistic enough
As we wait for Apple to announce its Q4 results in this afternoon’s earnings call, more than half of the analysts included in Fortune’s survey expect the company to beat its high-end guidance of $37B. The average is driven up by the amateurs, who come in at $37.38B, while the professionals expect just a touch under the top end at $36.95B.
Predictions on both revenues and earnings do vary markedly, however. While the consensus view is that year-on-year revenues will be up 3 percent and earnings down 6 percent, even among the professionals the earnings estimates span a 15 percent range.
Top: FBN’s Shelby Seyrafi: $39.18 billion (up 9% year over year)
Bottom: Cantor Fitzgerald’s Brian White: $34.57 billion (down 4%)
Apple beating its own guidance wouldn’t have been remarkable in the days when Apple gave absurdly pessimistic guidance and then blew it away, but would be impressive since Cook started offering realistic ranges …
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As discovered by 9to5Mac reader Nicholas, Apple’s Remote application might finally see an iOS 7 makeover alongside a redesigned icon that is seen in the latest version of iTunes (version 11.1.2). While many of Apple’s apps were updated yesterday, Find My Friends, iBooks and Remote didn’t see iOS 7 redesigns or new releases.
When adding a new remote to iTunes, the potentially new icon is shown in the device dropdown. It matches the grid system and looks like an iOS 7 icon. The app was last updated January of this year and currently sports an iOS 6 design.
The popular Evernote productivity app was updated yesterday to offer the ability to customize the homescreen, view notes on a map and improvements to saved searches.
Premium users can now change the order of the homescreen buttons, or remove altogether the ones you never use. Just hit the Edit button at the bottom of the screen. Users can also view notes in a map view or by tapping on the name of a location (handy for notes on particular places, probably less so for unrelated notes you happened to take in the back of a cab somewhere) and create and remove saves searches directly from the search results.
If you haven’t yet tried Evernote, check out our in-depth guide. Evernote 7.1 is available on iTunes as a free app, with in-app upgrade to get premium features.
Having somehow managed to gets its iOS music-purchase app approved by Apple, UK record store HMV today saw the app pulled for contravening the terms & conditions which prohibits directing sales of goods or services outside of an app, reports the Guardian.
The app had allowed people to browse and buy MP3 downloads from HMV’s relaunched digital music store, while also scanning artwork and identifying music playing in the real world and providing preview clips.
HMV, which once owned more than 300 record stores, entered administration earlier this year after failing to adapt its business model to the digital music era. It was then bought out and relaunched with 133 stores. The music app was a claimed venture into digital downloads, but while it seems lax approval procedures got it into the app store, it was never going to stay there.
HMV Chairman Paul McGowan claimed innocence in a series of tweets, affecting not to know why Apple had asked them to remove or amend the app and then pulled it when he refused.
Apple have politely asked us to remove the #hmvapp from the AppStore. We have politely declined.
— paul mcgowan (@ppmcgowan) October 18, 2013
Via Engadget
Earlier today, Apple announced that it will be holding its fall event on October 22nd. The event will take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California. However, like in some past years, Apple will hold a simultaneous event to cater to media not located in the United States.
For its September 10 iPhone event, Apple held simultaneous satellite streams in Berlin, Tokyo, and Beijing. For the upcoming event, the stream will be held in London, according to members of international media invited to the stream. The London-based event will begin at 6PM local time and it will be held at the Kings Place Hall. This hall fits a few hundred people.
It is likely that the London stream will also offer an opportunity for local journalists to try out the new devices. We’re expecting an iPad mini with Retina display, redesigned full-sized iPad, new Macs, and talk of OS X Mavericks, so there will be plenty in store for the demo area…
The BBC have announced that several missing Doctor Who episodes from the Patrick Troughton era have been found. In total, the BBC have been able to recover and restore nine episodes of the hit TV show, which had previously been thought to be lost forever. These episodes, which span two series (“The Enemy of the World” and “The Web of Fear”) are now available exclusively on iTunes.
Photo: engadget.com
Today’s update to the iOS Flickr app offers auto-uploading of full-res photos to your private Flickr gallery. Couple this to the 1TB of free storage available and you effectively have a Photo Stream style service that can store over half a million photos, rather than simply the last 1,000.
Flickr introduced the 1TB capacity back in May (with parent company Yahoo offering the same free storage to email users yesterday). If you sync iPhoto with Flickr, you effectively get all the benefits of Photo Stream but with 500 times the capacity. You do need to be careful with this, however: the sync is two-way, so if you delete photos from Flickr, they will also be deleted from iPhoto …
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