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.

Elmedia Player is a convenient multifunctional media player for Mac OS X, which can play a great variety of formats. All Mac users will find its media library easy-to-use and already familiar to them from iTunes. You can create, manage and delete playlists. Also try out smart playlists: you can create them by choosing special parameters, and then Elmedia Player will organize files matching your criteria automatically.

There is PRO version available. It gives you even more: download videos and animations you like from the web directly to your hard drive (except for the streaming channels); enjoy videos in full-screen mode; make a screenshot of the favorite moment or convert the whole movie into series of screenshots.

To enter the contest and get a chance to win, just retweet this story by clicking on this link.

There will be 3 winners only. Results next week.

Jim Reekes explains the story behind Sosumi.

Back in the days, the Beatles (Apple Records) was suing Apple Computers Inc. for anything related to music. The reason being that Apple Records believes customers might somehow confuse Apple Computers with music from the Beatles’ Fab Four.

Sosumi is a witty attempt to bypass a lawsuit.

When he created the sound in 1989, Apple sound designer Jim Reekes originally called the the xylophone sounding Sosumi Mac system sound “Chime.” But the Apple Legal thinks the name is too musical.

So Reekes immediately joked about changing the Mac system sound to “Let it Beep,” a spoof of Beatles hit song “Let it Be.” Someone took him seriously and said he would never get away with it, so Reekes responded with “so sue me.”

The result is the name “Sosumi.” Reekes speculates that the lawyers did realized what it meant but willing to let it go, with their sense of humor.

Decades later, Apple still has a sense of humor. Apple’s website actually has a “So Sue Me” easter egg, with the HTML code of legal section under the css class sosumi.

Besides being creator of the iconic Mac startup sound and So Sue Me sound, in an interview with BoingBoing, it is revealed that Jim Reekes’ sound is also used by Steven Spielberg in Jurassic Park (when the computer restarts).

FLAC: Free Lossless Audio Codec is not a recognized format by iTunes.
To listen to a FLAC file on your Mac there are (in theory) 2 solutions: convert the file, or add a plugin to iTunes.
Since I’m not the kind of person that likes to mess a lot with my Mac, I prefer the first solution.
To me, MacFLAC is the perfect deal: free, fast and easy to use.
The possible output formats are WAVE and AIFF as you can see in the screenshot below:

Three steps to use MacFLAC: drag, drop, convert.
You can get it free from here.

It’s been a looooooong time I haven’t shared in MacAmour my love for house music, through playlists or songs, I think the last playlist I shared on MacAmour is this one…. More music on MacAmour here.

Here we go for 15 great 2009 songs to fill your iPods, iPhones with:

1. Dan The Automator – Rapper’s Delight (Van She Tech Remix)
2. Vaza – Kubo feat. Joyce Muniz
3. Go Baile – SR & Joyce Muniz
4. FFFAIR – Hhhigh
5. Fischerspooner – To The Moon
6. Lil’ Kim – The Jump Off (Monkey Safari remix)
7. Numero Group – I Can Make It (Sacha Di Manolo remix)
8. Marvin Gaye – Mercy, Mercy Marvin L.A. (Sacha Di Manolo edit)
9. Nancy Sinatra – Trouble Bubble Piano (Sugar Town edited by Sacha Di Manolo)
10. Myd – Train To Bamako
11. Air War (Acapella) – Crystal Castles
12. Fare Soldi- Il Vecchio e il Mullet (Rodion Remix)
13. Glasnost – No Survivor
14. Morten Breum – On It! (Nujax Remix)
15. MEDIA – 1982 (Johnatron Remix)

The Wi-Fi became the standard type of connection these days. Bonjour is the OS X system for sharing files, and more in a Local Network. But, what about being able to share these datas via Bonjour without being IN the local network?
You own more than a Mac, you are used to use Bonjour, you want to access your Bonjour Network while you’re in China watching the Olympic Games, read the following review of ShareTool!

First of all, ShareTool allows you to access Bonjour services in a very secure way.

With ShareTool, you can acces your home/work Bonjour services easily: 
With a single click you acces your shared file, printers etc… wherever you are!

Enabling ShareTool is one click away!

Imagine you’re in Japan and printing a photo from your USA
located printer!
The configuration is simple and ShareTool works great with different types 
of Routers (NAT-PMP and uPnP).

Another great feature is data-compressing to avoid using too much bandwidth.

ShareTool works with Mac OS 10.3.9 at least (which is reasonable) 
and it works great with both PPC or Intel Macs.

ShareTool is unique, I’ve never seen a similar application for OS X, and to me it deserves 5 stars out of 5!

Download ShareTool here!

[lang_en]In 5 easy steps you’ll be able to listen to music on your 1.1.4 iPhone with a bluetooth handset.

1. Start the iPod audio.
2. Go to the voicemail screen and enable the headset audio.
3. Double tap the home button to bring up the iPod controller.
4. Press “iPod”, which will take you to the iPod app.
5. Double tap the home button again, which will take you to the speed dial screen.

To stop it, you’ll have to leave the voicemail screen.[/lang_en]
[lang_es]En 5 pasos de progresión fáciles usted podrá escuchar la música en su iPhone 1.1.4 con un microteléfono del bluetooth.

1. Comience el audio del iPod.
2. Vaya a la pantalla del voicemail y permita el audio del receptor de cabeza.
3. Golpecito doble el botón casero para traer para arriba el regulador del iPod.
4. Presione el “iPod”, que le llevará al iPod app.
5. Golpecito doble el botón casero otra vez, que le llevará a la pantalla del dial de la velocidad.

Para pararlo, usted tendrá que dejar la pantalla del voicemail.
[/lang_es]