Appletell

Since its introduction by Apple on January 9th, 2001, iTunes has become one of the most popular music library organization apps ever.  It started off simple and eventually became what it is today, a place not only to organize files, but to shop, learn, and watch.  With so much growth, large deals, and new features in the past few years, it makes me wonder where iTune’s place will be in the future.  When digital sales take over physical media, will it be because of iTunes?  Will iTunes one day start a revolution in how we purchase and handle all of our DVDs, music, and TV shows?  Or will iTunes eventually slip away into the past and be replaced by a whole new app or movement?

With the direction iTunes is headed now, it seems like it very well could be the driving force behind moving totally to digital sales for some.  It has one of the biggest music selections available anywhere, allows you to rent movies, releases new DVD titles the same day as hard copies, and contains all sort of other media, such as podcasts and TV shows.  With only a couple more deals and updates, iTunes could soon be the place to go for all of your media.  This would almost completely eliminate the need for physical media.  Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t think this will happen anytime very soon, but it is possible.  But what would seal the deal for moving completely to digital media?

MORE »

Apple has just released an update for Apple TV.  This update, 2.0.2, is the second one since the Apple TV Take 2, but there is no word yet on any big changes besides the normal bug fixes.  It appears that this update came at a perfect time as you can now use your newly updated Apple TV to buy PBS content from iTunes.  Also quietly released, this new content includes video, as well as teacher guides, from stations such as WGBH, KQED, and WETA.  There are also some NOVA episodes up, making this a great resource for teachers.

There are over 200 tracks up on iTunes including interviews and radio shows, so feel free to go check them out and let us know how it is.  Also be sure to tell us if you find anything new or interesting in the Apple TV update.

• Bring the net to your TV: Sony Bravia leads the way
• YouTube testing HD video and improved audio
• Apple rated #1 in customer satisfaction in recent survey

As most people know, the 2007-2008 television season was severely hampered by the Writers Strike that lasted over three months. It resulted in some cancellations, some delayed seasons (I want my 24!) and it also proved good for some other shows that likely would have been cancelled had the networks not needed new material to fill the schedule.

One group that was hurt by the strike are those who purchase season passes on iTunes. Many shows ran incomplete seasons, and so many people payed for many more episodes than they received. Apple answered this problem with a couple different deals:

For television shows that were cancelled because of the strike, Apple is offering partial refunds.

For television shows, like Heroes, that lost episodes because of the strike, Apple is offering two free video credits that will work for TV episodes, short films, or music videos. Feature films are not included.

These refunds, etc. have apparently been applied to iTunes accounts, so check in to see if you have any free video passes waiting for you!

Via [ArsTechnica]

• Bill O’Reilly complains about video games, Heidi Klum
• Sharp TV Christmas Tree in Grand Central
• New MacBooks and MacBook Pros require HDCP for some iTunes videos

Shaw Wu of American Technology Research is one of the many analysts making predictions on Apple’s third generation version of Apple TV. His predictions remain similar to those of many others: Apple will most likely include digital video recorder functionality (as reported) and will transform the Apple TV that we know into a TiVo-like device, or “real business” instead of just a “hobby,“ as stated by Wu. He estimates that it will only cost Apple $12-$15 extra to add DVR components to Apple TV, but will benefit the company greatly in sales and popularity of the device.

Apple is also said to adopt the new Blu-ray standard, and build it into its future products, specifically Macintosh computers, which can mean a lot for the future of many of Apple’s products, including Apple TV. Wu believes that Apple is in its “final discussions” with Sony regarding adopting the new high definition standard, despite Apple’s current stance which is heavily pushing the HD capabilities of the iTunes store.

If all of these predictions are to come true, Apple is soon to see a huge boom in sales and adoption of its products among consumers. Mostly to benefit is Apple TV, which is currently seeing the least in sales among Apple’s popular products.

• YouTube testing HD video and improved audio
• AT&T branded Nokia E71 spotted in-the-wild
• Rumor: Palm Treo Pro coming to Sprint this January

MacRumors.com is reporting that Hulu, the joint venture between NBC and FOX, is planning an iPhone and iPod Touch compatible version of the site to be released as early as Thursday. MacRumors stresses that this is an anonymous tip, which means it is not very reliable.

An iPhone compatible site is technically feasible, because Hulu videos are based off of Apple’s H.264 video codec, which is what YouTube uses to get video onto the iPhone. BBC recently launched their iPlayer in the same fashion, so there is proof that it can be done. Making an iPhone compatible version would be a sizeable blow to iTunes, because up until now, if you wanted to take TV shows on the go, iTunes was the easiest and most obvious way to do it. If Hulu offers a free, on the go repository of all NBC, FOX and many old TV shows, iTunes might see a decrease in traffic.

The tip says that the iPhone version of Hulu will be released Thursday, so we’ll know in a couple of days.

Read [MacRumors]

• Sharp TV Christmas Tree in Grand Central
• Bring the net to your TV: Sony Bravia leads the way
• New MacBooks and MacBook Pros require HDCP for some iTunes videos

Video site Hulu has moved out of private beta, effective Thursday. Hulu is a joint venture between NBC and FOX that was created after NBC pulled out of iTunes due to pricing disputes. It offers free streaming video of full episodes of most shows on General electric (NBC Parent Company) and FOX owned stations, plus some older shows, like “Who’s the Boss” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.“

Hulu is funded by ads placed at commercial breaks in shows. A 15 or 30 second ad, usually from the same sponsor, plays 3 times during an hour-long show, and twice during a half-hour show.

In the new version, a Hulu operator notes, users can pick the ads they want to view. The new version also adds Warner Bros. full length feature films and NBA and NHL highlights and historic games.

While not direct competition to iTunes, Hulu is an obvious alternate to iTunes for watching TV shows you may have missed.

Via [Electronista]

• Sharp TV Christmas Tree in Grand Central
• Bring the net to your TV: Sony Bravia leads the way
• New MacBooks and MacBook Pros require HDCP for some iTunes videos

The earlier leaks are now confirmed to be true by the BBC themselves, who have launched a special version of the iPlayer website for the iPhone and iPod Touch. As of today, users on an iPod Touch or iPhone can browse to bbc.co.uk/iplayer through Safari, and view specifically-encoded videos for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Right now there are only a limited number of shows that will work on this mobile version, but shows are being added constantly. The video is encoded at 400Kbps H.264 video, with a 116Kbps AAC soundtrack. Because of this relatively large file size, the iPhone can only access content through Wi-Fi, as EDGE speeds will be too slow.

I tried this out on my iPod Touch, and I was impressed by the video and audio quality streams. Of course, I was using Wi-Fi, but there was very little time between buffering and starting the video stream. Make sure you turn the screen orientation to landscape, or else the video will play portrait in a 4:3 format.
Via [MacNN]

• Bring the net to your TV: Sony Bravia leads the way
• YouTube testing HD video and improved audio
• Apple launches new iPhone Your Life site

At the fifth D: All Things Digital event, Steve Jobs revealed a software upgrade to the Apple TV that would allow customers to access YouTube’s thousands of clips through a wireless internet collection. You would not access the clips directly from YouTube, instead a team would host the videos in an Apple TV format, available for anyone to view. Users will be able to log in to their YouTube accounts, add favorites and use other features of the popular video-sharing site.

The video quality will be exactly the same as the ones on YouTube’s site which means the videos through an HDTV will be similar as to on your computer. There is a quality issue when watching very low quality content on a TV or display with a high resolution. Though, as Steve mentioned, people are finding ways to upload better content everyday. The update will be available in mid-June with only selected clips (i.e. Featured videos), with the whole YouTube library being available in the fall.

[Apple TV]

• YouTube testing HD video and improved audio
• Apple Releases Apple TV 2.3, couple nice new features
• Apple rated #1 in customer satisfaction in recent survey