Hey NBC (and Universal.) I’d like to thank you for saving me about $40 in a Season Pass ticket from iTunes and for giving me a higher quality version of your very entertaining show. Man, the details are so much better than what I was getting from iTunes that I can’t wait ’til I start downloading The Office, too!

Now since I’m on a Mac and your true intentions was not about the viewer (as you tried to tell the world), I had to go elsewhere besides Amazon.com or Hulu to get my season premiere of Hereos. Elsewhere meant going to this fine site and using Miro for the download. Miro nicely displays not just the most recent episode, but all of them including entire seasons! Now granted, you have to wait for all the seeders to get busy, but once that happens, it’s only a few hours and I have my free episode of Hereos…in 720p HD! How nice is that?!

Now, would I have done all this if NBC was still on iTunes? No. ‘But what about the HD?’ you ask. Well, while the high def is nice, iTunes is still faster and more convenient. I also do want to pay for my videos; however, if the provider that once gave me a paying way to do so and then takes that option away, what’s a hooked fan to do? You gave me no choice, NBC!

I’m sure we’re going to be seeing a spike in torrent traffic and a massive drop in NBC’s bottom line for downloads after this is all done. It’ll be fun to watch NBC come back to Apple like a dog with its tail between the legs. Man, is Steve Jobs going to have a fun day at work when that happens.

Okay, I have to get back to this free show on my Mac. L8.

It’s a bit ironic that Steve Jobs would make a jab at NBC Wednesday with Apple’s custom ringtone for the iPhone announcement. Basically, the NBC-Universal issue is that Universal wants more control over the DRM and higher prices for its content. If you look at the 99 cent price per ringtone charge Apple is pushing, you could say Apple is committing the same sin as NBC. Think about it. You can only use songs (and not even all of them) from the iTunes store. Control. You have to pay FULL price for a partial song! Higher prices. Sure, you could play the entire song as a ringtone, I guess, but would you get your complete value from it? No. While you can customize the start and end points of the song, does that really justify the high price? Not really.

Going further, what about the fact that you are being double charged? I mean, if you already purchased a song prior, you have to purchase it AGAIN! How does that make sense? I can’t believe Jobs could tell the audience at Moscone Center with a straight face everyone has to pay TWICE for the same song!

What makes this whole thing just amazing is the fact that you can put ringtones on the iPhone now without the help of Apple. Sure, it’s not the easiest thing in the world to use iFuntastic, but iToner (which we reported on) does the drop amazingly easy and costs $15. Granted, not cheap, but after a dozen or more ringtones from iTunes, it will be cheaper than Apple’s alternative.

To customize the start and end points isn’t too difficult, either. Garageband can do the edits on ones files and then you can save that out as your ringtone. Sure, it’s probably not as easy as it is in iTunes 4.7, but the selection and cost doing it this way is so much cheaper.

So that brings us to how Apple blew it. I don’t want to say it is being greedy, because it really could have charged more per song, but it is demonstrating that it likes to a make a buck toward the obscene. Like the DRM argument that even Steve Jobs agreed with, you should only have to pay ONCE for something you already own. If I purchase “Respect” from Aretha Franklin, then I shouldn’t have to buy it again if I want it to be my ringtone.

So why is Steve behind this? Well, there’s a new player in this game and it’s AT&T. Carriers make big money off of ringtones and this topic was sure to have come up with Apple when it brought it’s iPhone to then SBC with all of Apple’s demands. AT&T had a lot to lose and I’m sure ringtone revenue was not one thing it wanted to come out of its grips. Add in the evil record companies and you’re back to high pricing.

While I think Apple blew it with this lame pricing plan of 99 cents (49 cents would have been a better price point if it had to go through with the double charge plan), hopefully it’ll look the other way and continue to allow products such as iToner to work with the iPhone. It may have its back up against the wall, but it has been demonstrating this blind-eye treatment with all the Apple TV hacks. Hopefully, it’ll continue with the iPhone.

Looks like all of us early adopters got the shaft. For all that had to have their iPhone first, well your camping out and waiting in line for hours basically cost you more than time, it cost you money, too. About $200. For those that waited, you’ll be pleased to know that you can pick up the 8 GB iPhone for $399 right now. No waiting needed.

Wanting to fuel its blitz-paced sales for the iPhone that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated that there was, “No chance the iPhone is going to get any significant market share,” Apple showed its desires to punch over the 1 million mark by the end of the month with the $200 discounted price. That gives Apple just as many months since the iPhones release to double the sales amount by Christmas with a much lower cost to the buyer. “We want to put iPhones in a lot of stockings this holiday season,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs told a crowd of reporters at Moscone Center this morning in San Francisco.

Jobs also announced a slew of other incredible news. A new iPod that basically is the iPhone minus the phone, called the iPod Touch. With all the iPod features of the iPhone, the iPod Touch comes in both 4 and 8 GB versions. Equipped with Wi-Fi like it’s bigger brother the iPhone, you will be able to make a purchase and download it immediately to your iPod Touch when logging into the iTunes Wi-Fi Store, available tonight. Wi-Fi purchased songs will find their way onto your computer upon you next syncing. Jobs disclosed that the iPhone will have the same functionality in a few weeks with the next firmware update.

It’s pretty well known that Jobs enjoys Starbucks, so it wasn’t a surprise when he announced a partnership between Apple and Starbucks. With it, you’ll be able to use the iTunes Wi-Fi Store to purchase something you’re looking for or even the song that is currently playing. How? Your iPhone or iPod Touch will display it on the screen for you! “You will know what songs they’re playing in Starbucks, and you can buy it with one tap of your finger. And if you just missed it, you can look at the last 10 songs they’ve played.”

Other goodies include an iPod that finally will hold all my (compressed) music! The iPod video (5.5 G) has been renamed the iPod Classic (remember the Macintosh Classic?) and comes in 80 and 160 GB versions. Finally! 160 GB. Man, my mouth is watering! The Classic gets a new shell as well. Full Metal jacket, in fact. Still just black and white for colors.

Speaking of colors, the shuffle welcomes red into its line. No other changes for the tiniest of iPods, though.

The nano on the other hand, no surprise from the weeks leaks, has been squished and given a 2.5 inch screen that matches the 5.5 G screen resolutions. You’ll be able to watch videos on the third generation nano with amazing clarity for such a small screen.

Oh yes, did I forget ringtones? The iPhone will be able to get custom ringtones that you can edit in the pending updated version of iTunes. Start and stop the song where you want and for whom you want. Steve Jobs made a jab at NBC by playing John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” telling the crowd that it was for when NBC calls him. Apple’s CEO tried to break pricing easy to the audience by reminding them that some ringtones cost as much as $2.49, but truth is, 99 cents for a ringtone is still too much especially when you already own the stinking song! Not all songs in the iTunes store will be available as a ringtone and there was no mention of being able to use current non-iTunes material for ringtones. For the price of 16 iTunes ringtones, iToner is a better alternative.

I feel like I first have to preface this post with somewhat of a defense. Yes, I love my iPhone and yes I am relieved to be off of the Windows Mobile platform. Those two things are true, but I can’t help long for Microsoft’s ActiveSync. While it has it’s deficiencies, it sure syncs a lot faster than iTunes 7.3. How is it that every time I sync my iPhone, it takes forever to just get through my Calendar? Contacts takes a good amount of time, too. But when I use to “fresh” sync my Microsoft-based phone (docking the phone since a prior sync), ActiveSync never took as long as iTunes does to search for changes and sync them. I’m at a lost why iTunes takes as long as it does. Man, it’s unsettling!

Truth is, because of the long sync times, I’ll most likely only sync once a day, which sucks for a business professional like myself in which a single day could demand many syncings to keep both the desktop and portable device up-to-date. (If over-the-air syncing, via Direct Push, was supported, this wouldn’t even be an issue.) But with such lengthy times to get the iPhone up-to-date, stale information is most likely what the phone will have through the day.

Now to be fair to iTunes, I do sync a full year of events which is a lot. But again, iTunes should make an index file to allow the iPhone to check it for changes and then only change the differential, not the entire year of events. It seems like the same thing is happening with my 362 Contacts as well. Apple, there is a better way of doing this, so let’s see it!

You know, it’s a bit of a laugh to remember Steve Jobs introducing iTunes for Windows with his smug banner of “the best thing ever made for Windows” line. Truth was, iTunes had it’s share of problems from the start and never really has lived up to that banner Jobs raised so high years ago. Now with the added capability of video playing, things have just become worse.

Ever since iTunes incorporated video playing, my speedy Windows XP Professional box, equipped with a Pentium 4 3.00 GHz CPU, accompanied with 4.0 GB of DDR RAM, and an ATI video card with 128 MB of video RAM, has struggled to play anything. If I play Windows Media files, DiVX movies, or Xvid stuff, no problem. My box doesn’t even bat an eye. But the minute I try using iTunes, or the heart of its movie playing, QuickTime, bring on the slug. Kinda like that slug in the old Apple add against the Pentium way back in the day. Irony. Select a video Podcast and that alone “freezes” up iTunes for a good ten seconds. Click the play button and, well, get a coffee. Once the video starts rolling, you’ll be lucky to get fluid frames. Breaking it out into it’s own window does help immensely, I’ve noticed, though. Still, though, it’s just not worth even watching in the end.

I don’t quite get the problem. Maybe it’s a Microsoft thing like with Java and Redmond is doing something to prevent good video playing for QuickTime. Maybe it’s an Apple thing and it just can’t code a good video player for Windows. I don’t know. I do know my Macs have no problem with the same files on either a PPC or Intel-based Mac. Why can’t we spread the same love to the Windows box?

I’m sure I’m missing something and there is a tweak to fix this annoying issue, but fact is fact, out of the box, iTunes sucks when it comes to playing videos on Windows and it’s something that needs to be fixed if Apple doesn’t want to ignore a market share tens of times larger than its own operating system market.

Some new switchers may be a bit upset when they discover that all their star ratings and play counts will be completely missing when they migrate their iTunes library from their PC to their new Mac (*if their library exceeds the size of their iPods density.) Certainly, not all those waking from the Dark Side will have this issue; however, the few that do will not be happy when they install iTunes 7.1.1 (5). Why? Because the great trick of corrupting your iTunes Library.itl and changing the path information in your iTunes Music Library.xml file no longer works for easy migration. After attempting this trick myself and it failing, I spent the last three nights looking for a fix or even an ITL editor. I found neither. I then called AppleCare and stumped Ben. I pleaded with him to find someone that knew if there was an ITL editor “or something,” and he put me on hold. He came back five minutes later after speaking to someone “that works on this stuff” and told me that all my tricks I had attempted where the only ones this high-up guy could suggest. He acknowledged that my 140 GB Library would not transfer via the official Apple way. Ugh.

Apple really needs to stop breaking things. The “trick” was a wonderful way of moving libraries around, but for some reason, Apple thought it wise to stop that from happening. Now I’m seriously considering keeping my stupid PC around just for maintaining my iTunes library until a fix for the transfer comes around. I mean, is that lame or what? But what’s an anal guy to do who likes those stars? I’m sure there’s some copyright issue Apple is trying to avoid here and it probably figures using the iPod as a transfer device keeps them legal, but come on, at least let us use an external hard drive if you won’t let us simply say “Hey, I no longer use this path but now use this path for my music files”. Makes no sense why I can’t just change my path, but I guess there’s some deeper reason for that (or just a lame one.)

Now, if you let iTunes organize your library and keep it order, moving the iTunes folder from one OS to another may work though I have not confirmed this. Ben at AppleCare told me that OSX can understand Windows paths for conversion and it should work; however, I think he meant local paths (if that) as it did not understand my network path when I attempted this. If the music was local to the drive, again, maybe it would work but I haven’t found any other forum or blog posts to indicate this.

So, now why doesn’t Apple support network storage of music? Nearly every one that I know stores all of their music files on a network drive. I have mine on a NAS RAID5 set-up. It just makes more sense to put all of your valuable assets on such a set-up and I can’t understand why Apple won’t code into iTunes the ability to import and make changes to the settings file (ITL). Then to go one more step and break the ITL corruption trick is even worse!

I really hope there is a way around this problem because I’m dying to get my iTunes on my soon-to-be purchased Mac Pro. I want to keep all my music on the NAS for back-up purposes (I also use Amazon S3 for off-site protection.) Maybe one of you know of a fix? Tell us about it then in the comments.

Remember how many new bands you found out about when Napster first torched the backbone of the Internet in the late 90s before Lars got to it? Ya, finding really cool bands that rocked and lived what they said, unlike Metallica. For the most part, those days are gone though you can venture on the ledge of legality with P2P software that have taken over the Napster file sharing duties of the last millennium if your luck runs high in Vegas. But for most, relying on radio, features like iTunes suggestion, and friends is about the only way to find a new flavor for your ice cream cone. Not anymore.

iLike is a social network that aims to bring back the discovery of the original Napster. With its iTunes plugin, you’ll be able to see what others are listening to and what your common likes are. Like the P2P networks, the more people online at the same time, the more diverse music can be found and the knowledge shared among you all. You’ll be able to connect to others music libraries, see related music based on your tastes, and even download free (and legal) music from new artists. All with a click of a mouse button.

If you like what you hear, check out iLike and create your free account and then install the iTunes plugin. Share in the freedom, once again.

Every time EMI and Apple are mentioned in the same line, everyone thinks its going to be a pending Beatles catalog announcement. Well, that’s what happened this weekend when word was sent out from EMI that it had a big announcement and Steve Jobs was a special guest. Once the let down of the absence of the Beatles catalog was realized today, EMI fronted to the world a new way to purchase its existing catalog on iTunes: DRM free. Not only will there be no digital protection on the music files you will be able to download for $1.29 each at the iTunes store, but the quality will be twice that of the current DRM versions with a bit rate of 256 kpbs.

“We are going to give iTunes customers a choice—the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.”

If desire to upgrade your current EMI iTunes-downloaded music to the new higher grade ball-and-chain free versions, you can for a mere 30 cent upgrade per song.

Apple intends to have more than half of its offerings in DRM-free AAC format by years end. With this announcement, any music player such as iPods, Zens, and music players on computers such as Windows and Mac OS will be able to play the new version from iTunes. Further, digital network players, such as the Sonos music player, will be able to play your purchased music from iTunes without any worry.

We here at SvenOnTech applaud EMI and Apple and urge the rest of the record industry to follow suit…now!

No, Apple hasn’t started pre-loading Vista on Macs or started selling Zunes at the Apple Store but it has just added a ton of Star Wars audio books to its iTunes selection. Every Star Wars nuts as well as the casual fan will enjoy digging deeper into the Star Wars storyline as these audio books will take you further than the original trilogy or the new prequel of the last decade. Enjoy, the Dark Side.

The Beatles will be releasing their original 13 albums that found their way to CD in 1987 on the Internet very soon according to Neil Aspinall, the head of Apple Corps Ltd. Aspinall is the man responsible for protecting the assets of the Beatles and the man behind the Apple Corps vs Apple Computer (now Apple Inc) law suits. While much speculation has been running a buzz in the media of a Valentine surprise on iTunes, Aspinall told Roger Friedman of Fox News that everyone would be sharing in the love of Beatlemania when online downloads happen. “It will be on all the services, not just one,” Aspinall told Friedman. This means iTunes, Rhapsody, and Napster will all have it.

Aspinall offered little more details about the release of the most popular catalog in the music world other than to say it will definitely happen. No dates or specifics were given. All you need is love…and patience.