Download iTunes 9.2

Apple is now allowing developers to sell free apps with the ability for “in app” purchases, which was previously not allowed. This opens the door for some interesting uses, such as ebook readers. Other uses could be to replace the lite version of apps with a free version and have users pay for extra levels, tools, etc. with in app purchases.

Tomorrow is the highly anticipated Apple fall event… The invites sent out last week hint that it will be, as usual, an iPod event… But what can we expect? New iPod touch with camera? Discontinuation of the iPod Classic? How can Apple fill an entire event with just introduction of a new iPod? There has to be something else…

AppleInsider is predicting, besides the new iPods, an improvement of the App Store along with a new version of iTunes. They also mention the possibility of TV rentals on the mobile devices.

What do I think could make this event more exciting? Maybe introduction of the long awaited subscription based iTunes? They did recently approve the Spotify App across the pond… But then again Apple doesn’t approve apps that would “replicate” a function they offer as a first party, so that’s possibly ruled out… The tablet computer? I don’t think we will see this until next year, the invite pretty much says it all “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it”… So “rock and roll”… What could this mean? How about this, Steve Jobs saying “One more thing… The Beatles catalog is finally available on iTunes!” Now, that’s what I would call excitement, I’m getting giddy like a school girl just thinking about it… Yes, I’m a Beatles fan… Got a problem?

What do you think will happen?

Arstechnica is confirming the event Apple has scheduled for September 9th… As the invite indicates it says “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it.” Which lead me to believe there won’t be announcement of the highly anticipated tablet. Now what I want to know is… Will we see The Beatles catalog in the iTunes Store?

I just read a post from TUAW where they point out something I didn’t realize. The rumored Apple event is scheduled for September 9th, which incidentally is the same day The Beatles’ new remastered library is dropping, not to mention the Rock Band game (which I’m still on the fence about… on one hand it’s cool that new generations will get to know the amazing music from the greatest band ever… but playing them on plastic instrument? I dont’t know… Yeah, I’ve got issues…  but that’s another post).

Traditionally the fall event is to announce new iPods or changes to the line. Announcing the availability of The Beatles catalog in such event would certainly make sense. Let’s hope the Apples can put their past differences aside so we can finally see the Fab Four ushered into the digital era. Like they said over at TUAW “That would be even better than an announcement of a Mac tablet.” Ah… one can dream…

All of the nitpicking began to weigh me down. I couldn’t find my music. I couldn’t sync it easily. I couldn’t just start typing a song or band name into WMP to have the display jump to that part of the library like you can with iTunes; I had to use the search system or scroll — agonizingly slowly — to where I wanted to be. And, if I changed anything about an item midway down the library listing (say, to upload new album artwork), WMP would then reset itself and jump back to the top of the library, forcing me to start all over.

When I was an Apple outsider I thought using iTunes would be a pain because it tries to sync everything and what if I had too much music or didn’t want to put everything on there? I know now that was just ignorance on my part as you can drag songs to a playlist and then sync just that playlist, as I do with my iPhone 3GS today. The funniest part of my unfounded concern was the fact that with an 80GB iPod I just did a full sync of my library anyway. I have become so used to Apple’s intuitive design I don’t think I could go back either and I have a feeling I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Christopher sums up his experience perfectly and demonstrates why iPod is and will continue to be the Kleenex of the MP3 world:

So I gave up. I bought an iPhone, moved everything back to iTunes, and haven’t looked back. Works great.

(via @counternotions)

It has begun.  With the release of iTunes 8.2.1 (via TiPb), gut46 tells us, Palm Pre syncing with iTunes is indeed kaput. At least on this Pre user’s Mac, iTunes sync isn’t working after the 8.2.1 update.

When taking a look at the release notes…

iTunes 8.2.1 provides a number of important bug fixes and addresses an issue with verification of Apple devices.

…not only have busted the Pre sync, it looks like they did it on purpose and not as a side effect of another update.

(via TiPb)

Someone I know with a Pre tried it out for me. Also, I think Gizmodo has a post on it but again, it’s coming from a tipster who says so. But I can assure you, as of right now, it works fine.

Gizmodo’s tipster mentioned by Jeremy also confirms this:

An anonymous tipster just confirmed to us that the Pre iTunes sync continues to work with iTunes 8.2 (as it did with iTunes 8.2 beta for the iPhone 3.0 beta).

The idea of 3.0 firmware coming out before the 3rd gen iPhone is still up for debate, but this latest news does break some of my arguments against it.

I don’t personally jailbreak just becuase I just don’t care enough to bother, but I know a lot of people do. Yesterday I read an alert from The iPhone Blog stating not to upgrade to iTunes 8.2 if you are a jailbreaker:

It seems like it has but @MuscleNerd claims it is unintentional on Apple’s part.
“Today’s iTunes 8.2 update changes the way your computer talks to the device. This affects things like QuickPwn and PwnageTool when they try to identify what’s connected. Also, ssh over usb breaks due to same reasons. Fixes are in the works but for now avoid 8.2″

Then compare that to the most likely way Palm implemented the Pre sync described by Jon Lech Johansen:

So how has Palm most likely enabled the Pre to sync directly with iTunes? By doing the following:

When you select “Media Sync” on the Pre, it will switch its USB interface to use Apple’s Vendor Id and the Product Id for a specific iPod model
The Pre exposes a filesystem through Mass Storage Class that mimics the structure of an iPod
The Pre responds to Apple’s custom USB command and returns XML info about the device

Now add in a side of John Gruber’s take on why Palm is not using the official iTunes API:

Second, this API is old and Apple no longer licenses it to third-party device makers. Look at the list of players — they’re from the MP3 player stone age. In fact, this API is so old that it dates back not just to Mac OS 9, not just to before there was a Windows version of iTunes, not just to before Apple introduced the first iPod, but all the way back to before there was even iTunes. It dates back to SoundJam, the Mac MP3 player published by Casady & Greene that Apple bought to create the foundation for what became iTunes.

Based on the above I feel like that the Pre may not sync on iTunes 8.2 and I also think lots of people planning on buying a Pre have already updated to 8.2 not knowing about this compatibility issue. So you might be wondering, did Apple do this on purpose? A lot of people will say no, but if it really does break the sync I’m going to say yes becuase I’m not yet convinced, even though I hinted at it yesterday, that Apple  has decided break its mold and release iPhone 3.0 firmware (which requires iTunes 8.2 to install) several weeks before the 3rd gen iPhone.  So I’m only left feeling like they put out iTunes 8.2 now to break the Pre syncing less than a week before the June 6th launch.

I do want to see the Pre do well to add some healthy competition to the iPhone / Blackberry dominated hand held computer (I just can’t say “smart phone”) market, but if the Pre sync breaks on iTunes 8.2 this is going to look really bad for Palm.

iTunes 8.2 which has only been seen in the iPhone dev center has now been released to the public.  All references to the iTunes Pre-release in the iPhone Dev Center have now been removed.  The public release version number is slightly newer than the last beta, 8.2.0.10 vs 8.2.0.23. The big difference with iTunes 8.2 is that it supports iPhone OS 3.0…so it is starting to look like iPhone 3.0 might be release before the 3rd generation iPhone. So get downloading!