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MacFixIt Answers
MacFixIt Answers is a feature from MacFixIt where our editors answer questions e-mailed to us by our readers. We have been getting regular contacts and questions from our readers, and hope to share our correspondences so everyone may benefit and contribute to them. This week we have questions about e-mail time stamps, spinning beach ball cursors when entering text in text fields, changing the default application for documents, "File Exists" errors when managing messages in Mail, and iTunes window resizing problems.… Read more
Apple counts down to 10 billionth song download
Apple on Thursday began its "Countdown to 10 Billion Songs."
Apple is getting close enough to having 10 billion songs downloaded since opening in 2003, that it is beginning a countdown on iTunes. Official rules are available from Apple's Web site.
The winner of the countdown--the person that downloads the 10 billionth song--will win a $10,000 gift card. You can download any song from iTunes and be eligible for the prize, the company said.
Apple also posted a list of the most downloaded iTunes songs of all time. The top song right now is the Black … Read more
Report: Apple to test $1 TV downloads
A new report Wednesday evening says cheaper iTunes TV show downloads could be in the offing.
Apple will be offering U.S. TV shows for $1 each, according to the Financial Times. The offer will coincide with the release of the iPad--expected sometime in April--and is described by "people familiar with the discussions" as a "test" to see whether cheaper downloads will result in increased sales.
TV episodes are normally $1.99 for standard-definition and $2.99 for high-definition through iTunes. The Financial Times says that "some" television networks acceded to Apple's push … Read more
Opera readies mini browser for iPhone
Watch out Safari. There's a new browser looking for a spot on the iPhone.
Norway-based Opera announced Wednesday that it will unveil its new Opera Mini 5 browser for the iPhone at next week's 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The developer of the desktop Opera Web browser is touting Opera Mini as faster than Apple's Safari, thanks to its use of compression. Opera said it compresses pages by up to 90 percent before they're sent to the mobile device.
Opera Mini 5 will also offer such features as tabbed browsing, a password manager, and Speed … Read more
Microsoft on iTunes in 2003: 'We were smoked'
There has been a lot of commentary following last week's New York Times op-ed by Dick Brass, a former Microsoft executive who claims that the company is bogged down by process and infighting, and has hence lost its ability to innovate.
One of the most interesting follow-ups comes from Groklaw, which dug up some e-mails placed into the public record a few years ago during an antitrust case against Microsoft. (These materials have been a treasure trove of interesting and sometimes-embarrassing internal communications, including then-Windows chief Jim Allchin's 2004 admission that he would have bought a Mac over … Read more
iTunes 9.0.3 breaks AirTunes connection for some
The mystery of the disappearing Zune music
The Zune forums are alive with complaints that a bunch of music has suddenly disappeared from Zune devices. The reason: it appears that Microsoft has pulled a bunch of music from the Zune Marketplace. If users downloaded this music to their devices via the subscription-based Zune Pass service, then it apparently disappeared when they synced their device. (I'm talking about subscription-based "tethered" downloads, of which users get an unlimited number per month. The Zune Pass also offers 10 permanent MP3 downloads per month, and those downloads have not been affected.)
I'm not a Zune Pass subscriber, … Read more
Spotify has much to do before U.S. launch
Spotify, the already much-buzzed about European music service, has seen speculation about an impending U.S. launch cranked up to such high levels that it's hard to separate fact from fiction.
On Tuesday, Billboard's Glenn Peoples landed an interview with Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and asked him when the popular service will finally land in the United States. This is what he said: "We're in the final stages of setting up. Yesterday we signed a data center contract, which is huge for us...So, we're gearing up for a U.S. launch. I can't … Read more
About the "iTunes Media" folder
Having started as a music player, Apple's iTunes application has historically organized content in your account's Music folder. With the introduction of iTunes 9, Apple applied slight changes to the default organization of files that iTunes manages, which may or may not show up for you, depending on how you use iTunes.… Read more
