Gearfuse

According to BGR, this screenshot taken from Facebook shows the upcoming social networking interaction offered by iTunes 9, expected to be announced at Apple’s September 9, 2009 special event.

While the screenshot clearly shows notifications for new songs added to the iTunes library and the creation of a playlist, I wonder how far Apple has gone with the social interaction. Will we be able to share the tracks we are currently listening too?

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By a show of hands, who loves porn? Don’t be ashamed! I don’t blame you if you’ve felt a little guilt over the past few weeks with the way Apple shuns the nude female form. But in this second case of porn removal (so far), we can at least see the legal sense.

Free iPhone app “BeautyMeter,” which was sort of like a modern version of “Hot or Not,” was pulled from the iTunes App Store shelves after teenage girls began bearing it all to bump up their ratings. Even if whoever posted these images wasn’t the actual nude girls in question and even if they happened to be 17 rather than 15, the law is the law. And jailbait is jailbait, no matter how sexy.

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Earlier in the year, Apple threw a hissy fit over the Palm Pre and its multi-touch abilities. Now Apple is going public again without naming any names. It states that third-party DMPs may sync with iTunes but that it’s totally unsupported and they could lose that feature in the future. This means that Apple will soon release an iTunes update that blocks out the Palm Pre entirely. Hell hath no fury like that of Steve Jobs.

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Oh man this is sweet. You see, this week, I got my hands on the GM copy of the iPhone 3.0 OS. I installed it, went “OK, cool”, went to revert and nearly bricked my iPhone. Somehow, two days later, it unbricked itself and went back to OS 3.0, which is what’s needed to rock this tethering hack. Here’s how it works (in short):

• Have a Mac, iPhone with 3.0 OS installed and a pre-release version of iTunes 8.2
• Install the iPhoneTether app
• Hack some config files
• Reap the benefits

While I’m desperate to try this out, I don’t feel like fucking up my iPhone 3G again. The poor thing’s been through too much trauma. Hit the link for 9to5Mac’s full instructions.

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Oh shit! If you’re one of the suckers consumers that pays for tracks on iTunes, your world is about to get flipped upside down. Starting April 7th, Apple will charge more than $.99 for songs with popular tracks shooting up to $1.29. This, according to the LA Times, has been in the works for awhile and Apple has apparently let record labels know when the change goes into effect.

Everyone is predicting it’ll be a fiasco and a half if Apple follows through with the change in pricing. As for me, I’ll stick to Bit Torrent thank you very much.

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I was asked by the developers of SmartRSS 2 to play around with it before its release on the iTunes App Store. The software, released by Visuamobile, is one of the best RSS readers I’ve used period, let alone for an iPhone. It’s very quick and although it lags up at times, this is expected when you’re grabbing hundreds of RSS feeds at once.

Adding a new feed is easy. Just use the menu (seen above) and search for your favorite website or blog. If it’s not listed, you can manually enter the feed URL. You can also import an OPML file via your Google Reader account, which sets up in seconds. All of the other standard features you’d expect in an RSS reader are here and the formatting is perfect for the iPhone 3G.
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Do you hear that? Those are the crickets chirping.

Apple performed its last Macworld Keynote today sans Steve Jobs. Instead, Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller delivered it and boy was it lackluster. A lot of software upgrades for iWork, iLife, etc. iPhoto has some new features and iWork.com will be Apple’s Google Docs rival for cloud collaboration. You can also take music lessons via GarageBand with artists like Sting and Patrick Stump of Fallout Boy.

After the software came the only hardware upgrade; the 17-inch Macbook Pro. New battery, new display and thinner. Same old bullshit that all the other Apple laptops got a few months ago.

It ended with an iTunes information regarding more DRM-free tracks and variable pricing on music. Tony Bennett played. Lame.

Apple fans are clearly disappointed.

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Stop the presses! Hold the phone! Did you hear? Apple is getting rid of DRM! Yay! This is so awesome! Know why? Because, ah….

Uh….hmm.

Mrrr…rzp?

Yeah, nevermind. Nobody buys music anyway and those who do probably don’t give a shit about DRM. Big whoop. Apple will most likely announce some kind of pricing scheme deal as well during Macworld. Record labels. You get the idea here. Too bad they won’t be announcing the Macbook Wheel anytime soon.

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Woke up to this cartoon on Tumblr. It’s so, so true, especially after my cousin received $75 in iTunes Gift Cards for Xmas. I mean, who really buys new music? Apps, apps, apps!

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I hope you’ve been preparing for the new Xbox experience because it’s going to change the way you play your 360. No doubt you’ve heard that Microsoft has completely revamped the dashboard, bringing with it a new design and avatars that give core players the casual feel of the Wii. Is this a good thing? It sure is according to Engadget.

Joshua Topolsky of Engadget wrote up a positive preview of the new Xbox experience which will soon be your new dashboard. In the preview, he comments on the likeness between the Xbox 360’s marketplace and iTunes. Additionally, he mentions the Netflix feature which allows you to shuffle through movies in your queue. I’m thrilled about the new Xbox experience, I just hope my 360 doesn’t turn into a Wii. Look for the update to hit your system come November 19th.

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