tuning

Apple will be beaming Justin Timberlake to your iPhone this fall, when he headlines more than 60 acts at this year's iTunes Festival in London. But you'll need to vie in local media competitions if you want a chance to see him bring "sexy back" in person for free.

Other top performers include Thirty Seconds to Mars, Jack Johnson, and Jessie J.

Every night in September, performances can be watched live or on-demand by iOS users around the world on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, as well as on iTunes on computers or Apple TV. … Read more

As consumers are buying more smartphones, their listening of digital radio stations and other live programming is growing fast, says TuneIn.

The Internet radio service on Wednesday announced that its 40 million monthly active users have listened to more than a billion hours of programming in the first four months this year. That works out to about 6.25 hours per user, per month. How this compares to the same period last year the company won't say, though it noted it's a new record.

TuneIn's also got a new $25 million round of funding led by Institutional … Read more

Computer malware authors exploit weaknesses in software. Developers combat computer crooks by patching their programs to block malware attacks. That's why we're encouraged to keep our software up-to-date. Every now and then, a software update fails, leaving our systems a little less secure.

I got a first-hand look at the problem the other day when the Apple Software Update program balked at installing iTunes version 11.0.3 on my Windows 7 PC. The installer reported "insufficient privileges" and suggested I log on as an administrator or contact my system administrator. Of course, I was logged … Read more

While most companies are making the jump from Web to mobile, NextGuide, the app that tells you when and where your favorite shows are on, has decided to go the opposite way. The social TV guide for iOS is now available on the Web.

NextGuide Web has the same functions as the iPad app and aims to bring together live TV and streaming videos. Users can pick their favorite shows and keep track of when, and where, the shows are available online or on TV.

"There's a lot of confusion around TV," said Jeremy Toeman, the CEO … Read more

Apple, which has been aiming for a summer rollout of a streaming music service, has hit a negotiating snag with Sony Music over some of the features that it is building into its product.

More specifically, Apple and Sony Music, the world's second-largest music label, are still trying to hammer out details over how much Apple would pay for songs that people listen to a fraction of and then skip, according to people familiar with the negotiations. There could be other points of contention as well.

Apple's streaming music service, which most closely resembles Internet radio leader Pandora, … Read more

A new update to iTunes on Thursday adds two new features to Apple's MiniPlayer and improves performance for users with large libraries.

Version 11.0.3, which went out as a free update on Mac and PC, has a new feature that lets you tweak the MiniPlayer to show album art with the player controls hidden. When you mouse over the player, the controls fade back into view. It also brings back the MiniPlayer progress bar, one of a handful of features Apple took out in the jump to iTunes 11.

Other changes include now showing album art in … Read more

In a fast-moving world, we often find ourselves struggling to keep track of everything that is going on around us. With Scheduler for Mac, users can now manage their daily events efficiently and without much hassle. The app also allows the user to set a schedule for launching their apps, documents, and scripts, automatically.

Scheduler for Mac is free to try but needs to be registered after a 30-day trial period. A license code will be sent to the user free of charge after simply providing a name and e-mail. The installation of the app is quick and easy and … Read more

Thanks to video games, karaoke is more than just a barroom activity, and StarMaker Karaoke makes it more accessible than ever with a robust, feature-filled app that is a lot of fun, despite its relatively high cost of entry.

StarMaker Karaoke with Auto-Tune is exactly as it sounds, a karaoke app that allows you to sing along to your favorite songs on the iPad. You can record each of the songs as you sing them and even turn on Auto-Tune or Magic Tune to really take your song to the next level. Combined with guide vocals, background vocals, headphone recording, … Read more

For some audiophiles, Counting Crows and The Wallflowers will forever be associated with the mid-1990s--along with Netscape Navigator, Hotmail, and of course, Windows 95. But don't call their joint summer outing a nostalgia trip. Velvet-tongued Counting Crows vocalist Adam Duritz, hot off the heels of The Outlaw Roadshow (alongside a slew of new indie bands), prefers to view his comparatively intimate Wallflowers double bill as a much-needed respite.

Other than sharing a decade, the comradely combos have shared previous tours, a track (Duritz sang on The Wallflowers' "6th Avenue Heartache"), and even a producer (T-Bone Burnett, back … Read more