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How to recover your iTunes account ID

If you have regularly used iTunes to purchase music and movies, then you may have a significant collection of titles that are tied to your specific iTunes account. However, if you have used more than one iTunes account, then you may run into trouble if you cannot remember the account ID you used to purchase the items.

At the very least, if the songs are DRM-protected and you have not authorized your system to play them, then iTunes will present you with a notice to log in to your account before it will play them.

While Apple offers a quick … Read more

Windows - Clean up your iTunes library with Leawo Tunes Cleaner.

Leawo's Tunes Cleaner searches your iTunes library for duplicates, missing album art and song tags, and other issues, and automatically fixes it all without requiring an iTunes Store account. With a few clicks, it can tidy up the largest iTunes library, but it also works with folders outside of iTunes, though it doesn't work as a general music library cleaner: You must have iTunes 10 or better installed. Leawo Tunes Cleaner does work with Windows 8, though, as well as XP, Vista, and Windows 7; both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. It's not free, but the unregistered version … Read more

It's curtains for Songbird

Songbird, an iTunes alternative that originally combined music playback and management with Web-based music discovery, will exit stage left permanently at the end of the month.

CEO Eric Wittman revealed in a blog post that Songbird will no longer be maintained as of June 28, and that its parent company, Pioneers of the Inevitable, also would be closing down.

"[T]he company has found ourselves unable to fund further business operations," he said. The open-source desktop version of Songbird, its mobile apps for Android and iOS, and its music discovery service Songbird.me will all go dark. Wittman … Read more

Hide and unhide apps from your iPhone's purchased list in iOS 6

Turns out, I've been giving you bad advice. Or at least outdated advice. In my post on this topic from last year (in the heady days of iOS 5), I showed you how you could simply swipe on an app on your purchased list right on your iPhone to hide it. For no good reason at all (at least any that I can see), iOS 6 did away with this functionality. Perhaps iOS 7 will bring back the ability to cull your purchased list from your phone, but for now, it requires a trip to iTunes. *sad trombone*

Open … Read more

Yes, iTunes Radio could crush Pandora. But that's just for starters

iTunes chief Eddy Cue unveiled Apple's iTunes Radio at the company's big developer conference in San Francisco this week, and it didn't take long before a chorus of rivals and pundits dismissed the product as, well, no big deal, especially considering that so many streaming-music services already exist.

The current king of Internet radio, Pandora, made sure the press was aware of how large it was, with 200 million registered users, 70 million of whom are regular listeners, and 5 billion stations created. Even Nokia -- that's right, Nokia -- trotted out a VP who suggested … Read more

Social media users like the sound of iTunes Radio

Apple finally unveiled its music streaming service, iTunes Radio, and the social Web approves.

Social media analytics company NetBase found that 94 percent of social media users had positive comments about iTunes Radio following the product's release during Apple's WWDC developers conference on Monday, which means only 6 percent had negative comments.

The streaming service, which is tied into Apple's popular ecosystem, was highly discussed in the media in recent weeks as a competitor to services like Pandora and Spotify.

NetBase said iTunes Radio received the most positive comments among all of Apple's products announced on … Read more

iTunes Radio vs. Pandora

Apple may be the top dog when it comes to digital music sales, but does it have what it takes to get a late foothold in the world of Internet radio?

To cut through the hype and get a sense of what Apple's newly announced iTunes Radio service really offers that may be noteworthy, we've stacked it up against the gold standard of personalized Internet radio, Pandora.

iTunes Radio Pandora Free option Yes Yes Premium tier $24.99/year $36/year $3.99/month Platforms iOS, Apple TV, Mac OS, Windows iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Mac OS, … Read more

Apple WWDC roundup: iTunes Radio, iOS 7, Mavericks, and MacBook Air

CNET Update keeps it simple:

In this episode of Update, get the highlights of Apple's WWDC keynote presentation in under three minutes. To dive deeper, check out these stories:

- Apple's iTunes Radio service finally revealed

- iOS 7 changes are overwhelmingly cosmetic

- Details on Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks

- New MacBook Air aims for all-day battery life

- Apple offers sneak peek of next Mac Pro desktop

And during Apple's keynote presentation, Microsoft announced the Xbox One will arrive in the U.S. in November for $500. During the E3 presentation, Microsoft showed off new games … Read more

Apple fixes wireless syncing bug with iTunes update

Following the release of OS X 10.8.4, Apple has issued an update to iTunes, bringing the version number to 11.0.4.

This latest update includes the recent new MiniPlayer and song view features of the program, and in addition fixes a bug that would cause iTunes to quit when switching between wired and wireless syncing, and also potentially require you to repeatedly log in to the iTunes store.

The update also includes a number of security improvements, and brings back album artwork as a view option when in list view.

To apply this update, choose Software Update … Read more