Recent Articles

Along with CDBaby, TuneCore was and is one of the best ways for independent artists to get their music onto iTunes without going through the hassle of trying to score a full-on record deal with the thieves big record labels.

Apple's iTunes and Apple TV Remote App was one of the first -- and arguably still one of the best -- releases via the App Store back in July. We loved it in our original review, and now that Apple has pushed out a 1.1 update, there's a tiny bit more to love:

• Create Genius playlists
• Create and edit playlists in iTunes

An obvious update, given how the feature has headlined iTunes 8 and iPhone 2.1 (and iPod Touch 2.1). Hopefully this will also solve some problems for those who experienced them post update.

Still no support for Front Row, however, which is perplexing given how great that service makes the Mac Mini media center. Please get on that, Apple!

Get in now via the iTunes App Store, and check out our pics of the new functionality... after the break!

(And thanks MAB for the tip!)

Seems it wasn't a hair that broke the blogerati's back, it was an App. Or more precisely, it was Apple's denial of the Podcaster App that let loose the floodgates of negative internet reaction. Or even more precisely, it is the continued lack of certainty among developers as to what can and will be denied by Apple, leading many to reconsider the return on investment of hours upon hours of coding with 11th hour rejection hanging perpetually over their heads, like a virtual Sword of Damocles.

The iPhone shook up a very complacent smartphone world, but if we think it exists in a vacuum, if we think the other big players won't respond (no matter how embarrassingly long it might take them), and if we don't hope that they do -- hardcore style -- to prevent Apple from one day getting just as complacent, then we're not doing our jobs as bloggers or consumers.

One of the biggest complaints I hear regarding the iPhone? You guessed it! Where is the picture mail (MMS)?! A while back I started a forum thread that told readers how to send a picture with a email attached to any cell phone, to any network, from the iPhone. But the truth of the matter is, MMS is really not all that it is cracked up to be. (it is convenient though, I will give it that). I'm used to not having MMS on my Sprint Windows Mobile devices so when I made the switch to an iPhone it was never a big deal. But for some, it's a major deal.

As we mentioned earlier, when you purchase an HD TV show from iTunes you're actually getting two copies of the show -- one version in HD and another in standard definition for your iPhone. They're two separate files and, well, apparently they don't always go great together. Ars Technica is reporting that when iTunes gets around to downloading the SD version, some users are finding that it's overwriting the HD file.

Outside Spore, and perhaps the recently demoed Need for Speed, there's no bigger game waiting on this year's iPhone horizon than THQ's Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. And now it's available via the iTunes App Store.

We're already downloading and will be back with a review as soon as we can get with the dark side and bring some order to the galaxy...

You got it yet? How's it seem? Awesome like the original trilogy, or prequel city?

(And any sign of Lightsaber Unleashed yet?)

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed preview gallery after the jump!

AT&T has high hopes for their U-Verse service, which is AT&T's fancy term for their high speed internet, TV, and voice telephone package. It all works over the Internet and some believe that this is the direction that television is headed. So how does the iPhone fit into all this?

In the latest firmware, 2.1, Apple implemented a nice safety feature: the ability to have your iPhone erased if the wrong pass code is entered 10 times. It is a great feature if your phone is stolen or lost and you have vital information that should not be seen by anyone else.

I received the above picture from forum member cgov this morning. Seems as though he only gets 5 tries to unlock his phone before it gets erased compared to 10, which is supposed to be the standard.

Anyone else seeing that?

(Thanks for the tip cgov!)

Joy of Tech are geniuses. Read their cartoons. Laugh. Or just smile knowingly. 'Nuff said!