iTunes

iTunes now accepts donations for Hurricane Sandy relief

Hurricane Sandy's damage toll is rising, and charities including the Red Cross are doing what they can to assist.

Dozens of deaths have been reported, countless homes have been destroyed or damaged, public transport is only slowly getting back into service, and financial losses are reaching into the billions of dollars.

Government agencies and private organizations are pitching in to the relief effort for those impacted by the super storm. The Internet has a role, too, with Apple's iTunes serving as a hub to accept donations from users across the United States.

When you sign in to your … Read more

Apple reminds iTunes Match subscribers of auto-renewal

With the one-year anniversary of iTunes Match fast approaching, Apple is reminding annual subscribers that their plan will automatically renew.

The company sent out e-mails to subscribers this morning, noting that the automatic renewal can be turned off just like in-app subscriptions for newspaper and magazine feature Newsstand.

iTunes Match stores music tracks in the cloud, and makes them available on any device with iTunes. It can also tidy up old collections of ripped CDs with high-quality versions from Apple's digital store.

The $24.99-a-year service launched last November following a three-week delay.

Apple was the first out of … Read more

Right on Cue: Can iTunes chief fix Apple's maps and Siri?

In Apple's never-ending negotiations with record labels, iTunes boss Eddy Cue often played the good cop to Steve Jobs' bad cop. But for current CEO Tim Cook, Cue may well be Mr. Fix-It.

In a surprising executive shuffle, Apple announced Monday that Scott Forstall, who runs software development for the iPad and iPhone, would be leaving the company, along with retail chief John Browett. Cue, an Apple employee for 23 years who was chief of iTunes since it launched in 2003, has now absorbed control of the Siri voice recognition service and the disappointing Apple Maps.

For the affable … Read more

iTunes 11 delayed into 'end of November'

Apple says it needs a little longer to finish up work on iTunes 11.

The software, which adds a handful of new features and a facelift, was previewed at an event last month, and was originally due by the end of October.

Apple now says the software will be out before the end of next month.

"The new iTunes is taking longer than expected and we wanted to take a little extra time to get it right," Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told CNET. "We look forward to releasing this new version of iTunes with its dramatically simpler … Read more

Apple news roundup: iPad Mini, new Macs

Tuesday's CNET Update has the breakdown of Apple's new hardware:

Apple shook up the tablet world (again) by revealing the iPad Mini at its press conference Tuesday. Apple also announced a new full-sized iPad and upgrades to its Mac computers. Today's Update video sums up all the new toys, but you can find more details on each product in the links below:

- iPad Mini: Starts at $330 for a 16GB Wi-Fi version, arrives Nov. 2. Preorder Friday. (4G version starts at $460, arrives Nov. 16)

- Fourth-generation iPad: Starts at $500 for 16GB Wi-Fi version, arrives … Read more

Apple may rev up iTunes 11 at tomorrow's iPad Mini event

iTunes users waiting for the new version could find their wait over sometime tomorrow.

Reports cited by MacNN and other blog sites say that Apple will officially kick off iTunes 11 at its iPad Mini event tomorrow.

Apple showed off the latest update to iTunes at its iPhone 5 launch event on September 12, promising that the new version would come sometime in October. So tomorrow does seem a likely candidate.

iTunes 11 offers the latest refresh to the now 12-year-old music player. The interface itself has been redesigned, while iCloud support is now built in. And the new mini … Read more

Waiting for Apple's next big thing

Steve Jobs would surely be pleased.

A year after his death, the company he co-founded and brought back from near-ruin is on a tear. With its top executive team still in place, Apple is set to close out its most profitable year ever. Its stock, now up 65 percent for the year, gives Apple a market value far more than Google's and Microsoft's combined. The iPhone 5 is selling at a record pace, and fans continue to line up and even camp out for a chance to be one of the first with a new Apple product.

Now … Read more

Apple's Ping officially closes, disappears from within iTunes

Right on schedule, Apple has closed up shop on its failed music-meets-social networking experiment Ping.

The closure, which was quietly announced from within iTunes last month and slated for September 30, is simply a removal of the feature from within iTunes software, as well as the iTunes Store. Users who attempt to click on the link get an error message and are sent to the Apple Store home page.

Any playlists users made within Ping have been converted to iMixes, Apple's publishable playlist format. Meanwhile, Ping users lose their followers and people they were following with the closure.

The … Read more

Apple to pull plug on social music network Ping on September 30

Apple has announced the last waltz for Ping, its social music network, after adding greater social-networking integration to iTunes.

The company will shut down Ping on September 30, Apple announced the closure today on the Ping channel on iTunes. The company also announced today that iTunes 11 -- the software's next major release -- adds more sharing options for Facebook and Twitter, including showing music likes and recent purchases.

An Apple representative noted that any playlists users made within Ping will be converted to iMixes, the company's publishable playlist format. However, the feature will become unavailable, and users … Read more

Apple reworks, simplifies iTunes

Apple has reworked iTunes to feature a simplified user interface, iCloud integration, and a new mini player.

Company executives said the design overhaul would make iTunes easier to navigate, and improve performance.

"Music is deeply embedded into our DNA," Apple CEO Tim Cook said as Apple made the announcement in conjunction with the debut of the iPhone 5 today. "This is the reason we created iPod and iTunes, and these products have gone on to revolutionize the music industry."

The new iTunes store design on the iPad emphasizes big icons and album/poster art -- almost … Read more