Introducing iTunes in the Cloud beta. The music you purchase in iTunes appears automatically on all your devices. You can also download your past iTunes purchases. Where you want, when you want.

• Automatic Downloads. Purchase music from any device or computer and automatically download a copy to your Mac and iOS devices.

• Download Previous Purchases. Download your past music purchases again at no additional cost. Your purchases are available in the iTunes Store on your Mac or in the iTunes app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Previous purchases may be unavailable if they are no longer on the iTunes Store.

iTunes 10.3 also adds Books to the iTunes Store, where you can discover and buy your favorite books on your computer and automatically download them to iBooks on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. This version also allows you to use Automatic Downloads with apps and books or download previously purchased apps and books from your computer or iOS device.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit: support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Evidence 1- The Deals with the four majors
Apple’s plans to bring music streaming to the upcoming iCloud service are coming together swiftly this week as the company signs up a third major record label.
Apple does indeed appear to be planning big changes to its cloud services package, according to references found in the latest developer preview of Mac OS X Lion.
According to Bloomberg, Apple reached an agreement with Warner, EMI and Sony.
Universal Music Group – the largest of the four major labels – is the only one yet to strike a deal with Apple.

Evidence 2 – Amazon stops selling MobileMe
Worst, Amazon.com has just stopped all sales of MobileMe. It’s almost as if they know something’s coming that could blast their recently unveiled Cloud Locker music streaming service out of the water. There’s an iCloud on the horizon.

Evidence 3 – iCloud found in OS X Lion under the “Castle” codename
French blog Consomac discovered code referring to something called “Castle,” which is described as an upgrade to MobileMe in Lion programming strings.

Evidence 4 – Apple spent $4.5 million on iCloud.com
Apple has reportedly purchased the iCloud.com domain for the new cloud-based storage service it is currently working on, paying $4.5 million to the previous owners who have now rebranded their service. Visitors to iCloud.com are currently redirected to the new service – now called CloudMe – but it is believed Apple will take over the domain when it’s ready.

Evidence 5 – New job listing for hiring a media guru
new job listing on Apple’s website reveals the company is in search of a media engine guru who may help the company kickstart its cloud-based media streaming service dubbed iCloud.

Any MacAmour reader knows my opinion on iTunes 10′s icon.
This post is for those of them who share my point of view.
First off, here are the 2 possible techniques to change iTunes’ icon:

Technique #1:

1. Quit iTunes. Command+click on icon to show its location.
2. Right click to “Select Package Contents”
3. Find “iTunes.icns” and replace it with your icon in .icns format (not jpg or png).

Technique #2:

1. The first thing you need to do is download the attached icon file.
2. Open the icon file.
3. Press “cmd+A” to select the image, then “cmd+C” to copy it.
4. Now, you need to close iTunes.
5. Next, you should open finder, and click Applications.
6. Find iTunes and click it a single time.
7. Click “File”->”Get Info”
8. Click the ugly icon at the top right, next to the text “iTunes” “Modified”, etc.
9. When you click it, it should highlight. Press “cmd+V” to paste in the better, prettier icon.

Note: the iTunes 10 icon in your applications folder should change. You might have to remove the App from the dock and add it again, if your dock icon doesn’t change.

Alternative icons to iTunes 10′s:

iTunes 9 icon, you can get it here.

Dmitry Fadeyev’s replacement icon, (my pick) you can get it here.

More alternative icons after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

Want to get free applications for your iOS device or get a Ping account, now Apple enables you to open an ITMS without any Credit Card or Paypal account, no need to use this old trick.

Just follow these easy steps:

1. If you already have an account, choose Store > Sign Out.
2. Pick your country by clicking on the country flag located in the bottom right corner of the main iTunes Store page.
3. If your country also has an iTunes Store, you’ll need to navigate to the App Store by clicking on App Store from the top navigation bar. If not, proceed to step 4.
   
4. Important: Before proceeding to the next step, you must purchase a free application by clicking Free App.
5. Click create new account
   
6. Click Continue.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve reached the 5 computers limit for home sharing, iTunes store etc.., there are only two (known) possibilities to solve this problem, looking for a workaround to exceed that limit is useless of course::

1. One by one solution: Start the computer(s) you’d like to deauthorize, go to iTunes and select >store>deauthorize computer
   
2. Bulk/Batch Solution: Apple provides a solution to reset all of the authorizations at once, go to iTunes store, open a session with the account you’d like to deauthorize computer(s) from, go to the account information window and click on “deauthorize all”, this solution is the best if the computer is dead, sold or has problems.

Note: You may only use this feature once per year. The Deauthorize All button will not appear if you have fewer than 5 authorized computers, or if you have used this option within the last 12 months. If you need assistance on using this feature, please contact the iTunes Store support via email (http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/ww/).

Ads free, setting up an account takes 5 seconds if you already have an ITMS account, sharing the huge ITMS database… Ping has everything to beat any music social community because it is fully integrated with the biggest music store in the world: the iTunes Music Store.

After you setup your account, you’ll need an additional 5 seconds (10 seconds) to become familiar to the super easy user interface.
Ping.com (famous golfing accessories) doesn’t belong to Apple of course, and the only way to connect to that social community is through the iTunes browser.
Main actions you can take through Ping are: follow (you might be familiar with that if you’re already on Twitter), post (you probably have at least posted a review on the ITMS, Ping enables you to discover them all in the “my reviews” page, and like (a feature Last.fm users are familiar with too).
Some of these actions have been integrated on albums page, you can see below (post and like):

A mix of Twitter and Last.fm that is very promising and that, of course, will boost the ITMS and iTunes users (which will boost the ITMS).

If Apple integrates stats system like Last.fm’s now playing and like-o-meter Ping’s follow features would be more interesting.

iTunes 10 comes with many new features and improvements, including:

• Introducing Ping. Use Ping to follow your favorite artists and friends or connect with the world’s most passionate music fans. Discover the music everyone is talking about, listening to, and downloading.
• Rent HD TV episodes for just 99¢ each. Watch them on your Mac or PC, on-the-go with iPhone or iPod touch, or in your living room with the all new Apple TV.
• Play your favorites on the all new iPod touch, iPod nano, iPod shuffle, and Apple TV.
• Play music wirelessly with AirPlay on AirPlay-enabled speakers, home theater receivers, and iPod accessories.
• Explore many look-and-feel improvements throughout iTunes.
• Enjoy performance improvements which make iTunes faster and more responsive.
• Additional voice support with VoiceOver Kit for iPod.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

The package you can download below contains more than 120 QuickTime player components (or add-ins, plugins whatever you call them) making it capable to read almost all of the possible video formats without adding any 3rd party application (like DivX player, VLC, WMP etc…)

To install these components just:

• paste to the library/quicktime and
• paste to system/library/quicktime ( authenticate require)

To download the package just click here

Make the jump to see the full list of these add-ins:

Read the rest of this entry »