In a move that should surprise no one, Adobe announced sweeping changes to its Creative Suite software line and year-old Creative Cloud subscription service. Signaling a new focus on integrating creative services in the cloud with its professional desktop software, Adobe launched a new cloud-based Creative Suite—with a new CC moniker, for Creative Cloud. But it will look familiar. Significant upgrades to all current Creative Suite 6 apps are coming soon, but they will be available only by subscription to Creative Cloud, not traditional software licenses.

Ten years after Adobe corralled its disparate creative apps into a cohesive interoperable suite with a common launch date, the company is propelling those apps into its Creative Cloud subscription service. With updated versions of 15 professional creative applications—for photographers, graphic and Web designers, and video and motion graphic artists—Adobe announced the rebranding at its Max 2013 Creativity Conference keynote. While this transition and collective suite upgrade was announced today, the apps will not be shipping until June 17.

“This is the decision of our company—to focus on Creative Cloud—and it is huge,” said Scott Morris, Adobe's senior marketing director. “It’s an even bigger decision than when we moved to Creative Suite years ago." And it is sure to be controversial. However, Adobe considers the response to its Creative Cloud strategy more than respectable so far, expects some pushback from customers, and is prepared to deal with the fallout. "In the same way [as Creative Suite], there will be customers who have a hard time with it at first. But today our customers are on Creative Suite—they got over it; they saw the benefit of it; and that’s exactly the type of transition we’re going through.” Adobe says Creative Cloud has more than half a million paid members, and more than 2 million total members since it launched in April 2012.

With this update, you can store, sync, and share files via Creative Cloud, on the Mac OS, Windows, iOS, and Android platforms and on Behance, an online creative community Adobe purchased last year that is now integrated with Creative Cloud. Behance lets users exhibit work, get feedback, and generate exposure. With Creative Cloud, Adobe seeks to tame chaotic creative workflows and direct communication conduits away from email and Dropbox toward Behance.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

After several years of sneak peeks, Adobe’s propensity for revealing aspects of its new video and motion graphics applications to a select audience prior their release qualifies as something of a tradition. The captive audience at this year's National Association of Broadcasters national convention—the favored venue—saw an abbreviated version of what will soon be released as the new cloud-based Premiere Pro CC and After Effects CC, and more.

As Adobe wraps all of its professional creative apps into the cloud, Premiere Pro benefits from universal cloud features such as Sync Fonts and Sync Settings that let remote videographers and artists get down to work right away in a familiar tool-based environment, regardless of where they’re working.

In Adobe's transition from Creative Suite to Creative Cloud, familiar apps get an upgrade while subscribers get a slate of extra services for their $50 monthly subscription. Access to Sync services, 20GB of online storage, the Behance community hub, automatic cross-platform downloading and updates to all programs in the suite, and training are some of the benefits built into subscriptions.

Today, at its own conference, Adobe Max 2013, the company is revealing more details about the new version of its desktop nonlinear editing and motion graphics programs. Here are some of the highlights of the video line.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

If you love to listen to podcasts on your iPhone or iPad, you’re probably familiar with Vemedio’s Instacast, a $5 app that lets you consume your favorite shows through an elegant and well-thought-out user interface.

Despite all its great features, Instacast was an iOS-only affair—until now. The folks behind it have now released a public beta of Instacast for OS X, and we’ve taken the Mac version for a spin to see how it holds up.

Podcasts a-go-go

Like its mobile cousin, Instacast for Mac revolves around a simple and intuitive user interface that emphasizes your content, organized according to your tastes.

When you first launch the app, you’ll probably start by building your own library of podcasts; Instacast offers a convenient panel for this purpose, letting you pick favorites from a large catalog that’s divided up by podcast type—audio, video, enhanced content, and so forth—as well as by genre and language. You can also search for a specific title, or enter a feed URL directly if you so choose.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The great thing about the iTunes Store is that you can buy just about any song you can imagine, cheaply and easily. And the worst thing about the iTunes Store? Sometimes you can buy those songs a little too easily.

Apple’s retail store for digital downloads has been open for a decade now, and in that time, you’ve probably loaded up on a lot of music. And you don’t have to tell us that some of those downloads probably seemed like a good idea at the time. In honor of the 10th anniversary of the iTunes Music Store, I combed through my purchase history to find some of the instances where I could have spent my 99 cents more wisely. Perhaps my confessions of regrettable musical choices will make you feel better about your own iTunes indiscretions over the last 10 years. At the very least, I hope my embarrassing selections serve as a reminder that when it comes to hitting that download button in Tunes, sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.

More One-Hit Wonders Than I Can Count

Just after the iTunes Store opened its virtual doors, my paymasters at Macworld wanted an article on the depth and breadth of the store’s initial offerings. Among the more hare-brained of my assorted schemes to survey the store’s selection: See how many of VH1’s Top 100 One-Hit Wonders I could download from iTunes. The answer, at the time? 39. The cost to my psyche whenever “It’s Raining Men” has popped up on random shuffle during the ensuing decade? Incalculable.

“Wait, you went ahead and actually downloaded all those songs?” you may be asking. “Why not just keep a running tally and leave it at that?”

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

As I write this paragraph, I’m enjoying a playlist that I created from among the thousands of songs on my iPhone, and it’s no big deal. It wasn’t always so simple: Once upon a time, crafting the perfect playlist for your MP3 player felt like an epic project. You had to rip the songs from a CD onto your computer, find sources—legitimate and otherwise—for tracks you didn’t own, and then hope everything was in the right format to play on your portable device. Apple changed all that, thanks to a series of musical moves right at the dawn of the 21st century—not the least of which was the launch of the iTunes Music Store.

It was only ten years ago—on April 28, 2003—that Apple opened the iTunes Store (then called the iTunes Music Store) and changed the way we buy music. The store arrived with just 200,000 tracks; in the ensuing decade, that library has grown to more than 35 million songs, from the Beatles to Jay-Z. You can even download those tracks over your phone if you want—no computer needed. That was not possible before the iTunes Store opened.

Apple’s not fond of reminiscing, but even the company has taken note of iTunes’s anniversary. The store “revolutionized the distribution of digital content,” Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s chief financial officer, told Wall Street analysts when announcing Apple’s quarterly earnings earlier this week. In addition to those 35 million songs, which are available in 119 countries, the store sells 60,000 movies in 109 countries, and 1.75 million books in 155 countries. By Oppenheimer’s math, the $4 billion in quarterly billings recorded by iTunes in the most recent quarter makes it the largest digital content store in the world.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

In March, I wrote an article about how Apple should change the way iTunes Store purchases work. Namely, that there should be a way to buy content now, but download it later—especially in the case of large video files such as movies or TV show seasons.

Lo and behold, on Friday Apple did just that, adding new download options for a variety of content, including movies, individual TV show episodes, TV Season Passes, and completed seasons. You get the same options for movie bundles, music box sets, and for when you choose to complete a TV season or Season Pass.

When purchasing any of the above items using iTunes 11 on a Mac or Windows PC, or an iOS device running iOS 6 or later, you’re now presented with Later and Download (or Download All) buttons. Tap Later and the purchased items will be added to your iTunes account and accessible to stream or download in the future via Apple’s iTunes in the Cloud feature. It’s a handy feature if you, say, want to buy a movie on sale while you have a spotty data connection; you can make sure to get the cheaper price, then download the item when you get home—or even just play it from the cloud.

Note that the new option is available to those who live in countries or regions where Apple supports iTunes in the Cloud for video and audio. You can check Apple’s complete list to see if you qualify.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple’s still the king in digital music and raking in the moolah for PCs, but one trader loses big on the company. The remainders for Tuesday, April 16, 2013 are fit for a king.

After 10 Years Apple Continues Music Download Dominance in the U.S. (The NPD Group)

That’s right, nearly ten years after the iTunes Store debuted, it’s still on top of the world, ma. Apple continues to hold the majority of the paid music download market, with 63 percent; Amazon follows with 22 percent. In additional news, NPD reports that 38 percent of surveyed consumers think it’s still important to own music, while 30 percent of Americans believe that listening to albums are important and 27 percent wonder if you’ve ever really listened to Dark Side of the Moon, I mean, like, really.

Escaping PCs (Asymco)

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Mark your calendars because the iTunes Store has an anniversary coming up. Apple started selling music downloads on April 28, 2003—a business decision that seems to have worked out pretty well for the company considering that Apple has since sold more than 25 billion songs.

There’ll be time enough to reflect on the impact of the iTunes Store later this month. In this episode of the Macworld Podcast, I’m joined by executive editor Jonathan Seff and senior editor Dan Moren, as we reflect on another aspect of the store’s stellar growth over the past decade—the fact that the iTunes Store itself has gotten a little unwieldy in recent years.

And stick around after our iTunes discussion for some bonus talk, as Dan Moren fills us in on the iPhone 5 coming to T-Mobile.

Download Episode #349

Show Notes

Jon recently weighed in on the topic of iTunes Store improvements with an article on how Apple could fix the way purchases work. Another topic that comes up in our discussion—managing iTunes accounts—was addressed by Kirk McElhearn in an article on moving an iTunes account from one country to another. (Speaking of Kirk, if you’re the least bit interested in getting more out of iTunes, you should make his Ask the iTunes Guy column one of your regular reads.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Yes, yes, it’s April Fool’s Day. But here at the Remains of the Day, it’s business as usual. So you can read about non-resellable MP3s, rumors about the next two iPhones, and Tim Cook’s handsome, handsome yearbook photos without any fear that we’re out to fool you. That’s because the remainders for Monday, April 1, 2013, respect everything about you.

You Still Can’t Resell Your iTunes Songs, Court Rules (AllThingsD)

A U.S. District Judge ruled over the weekend that users cannot resell songs they bought on iTunes. The case between Universal and service ReDigi has been going on for a while, but this judgment could mark the end of the line. So you may in fact be stuck with that one ill-advised Taylor Swift song you purchased. Forever.

Steve Jobs’ first boss: ‘Very few companies would hire Steve, even today’ (SiliconValley.com)

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Like a lot of people, I was hardly bowled over by Apple’s first stab at its Podcasts app. It didn’t support playlists, didn’t sync podcasts between devices, and its Now Playing screen was split into two pieces—one of which featured a reel-to-reel tape recorder interface that, while cute for those who had some notion of what such a device was, took up a lot of space and provided very little useful feedback.

With each update, Podcasts has improved slightly, but version 1.2, released on Thursday, is the reboot that we’ve been waiting for. Playlists (called Stations) have been added, iCloud syncing has been implemented to ensure synchronization between devices (and with iTunes on your computer), and the Now Playing screen is a single unit that blessedly lacks the tape-deck interface. Let’s look at these highlights.

Station to station

Fire up Podcasts and you’ll now discover a My Stations button at the bottom of the screen. Tap it and you’re taken to the Stations screen. Here you find three entries—On the Go, Most Recent, and All Unplayed. A number bubble to the right of each entry reflects the number of episodes that either haven’t been played at all or have been only partially played. To create a new station just tap the New Station button. You’re prompted to name and save your station. A sheet (iPad) or screen (iPhone and iPod) pops up, displaying all the podcast series that are on your device.

You can choose to include all your podcasts in the station or just those you’ve selected. By default, they’re all selected, so just tap those that you don’t want to include. When you’re finished, tap Done.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple on Wednesday updated GarageBand for iOS with support for Audiobus.

Audiobus is a $10 third-party utility for iOS that lets users pipe audio between apps. That way you can, for example, combine audio from a drum machine app with audio from a synthesizer app. Among the apps that already support Audiobus are Animoog, ThumbJam, Samplr, DM1 - The Drum Machine, and all of Korg’s apps. And now, GarageBand joins that list.

With the latest version of GarageBand, Audiobus users can now play and record music from compatible apps within Apple’s recording software. Apple says that the $5 GarageBand is the App Store’s most popular music creation app.

The Audiobus integration follows a consistent path that Apple has been taking. The company has incorporated popular and emerging third-party technology into its apps for a while now—including Facebook, Twitter, and Sound Cloud—and the Audiobus compatibility for GarageBand continues that trend in a new way: direct interactions with a third-party app.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple and Sony are going head-to-head—or ear-to-ear?—over music licensing, Phil Schiller posts a tweet and the Internet goes wild, and a former Apple rival joins Cupertino in taking on a new threat. The remainders for Thursday, March 7, 2013 can’t read or write.

Apple’s Internet Radio Service Said to Be Delayed (New York Times)

Apple’s rumored music streaming service seems to have hit a rumored roadblock. Reportedly, the delay can be laid at the feet of Sony/ATV, which has pulled the required rights from its licensing—probably because it’s still sore that nobody bought MiniDiscs.

“Be safe out there.” (Twitter)

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Is a subscription service music to Tim Cook’s ears? Will Apple set back the clock on Swatch? Will a judge tell a case not to pass go and not to collect $200? All those questions and more on the remainders for Wednesday, March 6, 2013.

Exclusive: Apple’s Cook, music mogul Iovine discuss new music service (Reuters)

Beats CEO Jimmy Iovine—whom you might remember said he tried to talk Steve Jobs into a music subscription service a decade ago—has reportedly met with Tim Cook and Eddy Cue about Beats’s plan to launch a subscription music service, codenamed “Project Daisy.” No deal was discussed, apparently, though Reuters says that “Cook expressed interest in Daisy’s business model.” I can hear him now: “Nice business model, Jimmy—shame if something were to happen to it.”

Swatch Chief Hayek Skeptical That Watch Could Replace an IPhone (Bloomberg)

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple aims for India adoption, breaks new ground down under, and gets super in the UK. The remainders for Monday, February 25, 20213 are worldly-wise.

Apple signals emerging-market rethink with India push (Reuters)

To date, Apple hasn’t focused a lot of attention on India, but that may be about to change, according to Reuters. The company has apparently been trying to make the iPhone more attractive to Indian consumers, via a pay-by-installment plan, and has launched a new marketing effort. Unfortunately, the company nixed my proposed tagline: “Naan do it better.”

Legal twist in Apple, Samsung case (Australian Financial Review)

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple has sold its 25 billionth song through the iTunes Music Store, the company announced Wednesday.

The record-setting track, “Monkey Drums” (Goksel Vancin Remix) by Chase Buch, was bought by Germany’s Phillip Lüpke—a display of Apple’s dominance in the worldwide music download market: The iTunes music store is available in 119 countries, while rival companies Google, Microsoft, and Amazon make tunes available in a fraction of those markets.

Lüpke will receive a €10,000 iTunes gift card. At current exchange rates, the price works out to roughly $13,525—enough to keep him in music downloads for a very long time.

The iTunes Store originally opened in April 2003, meaning the company is on pace to sell more than 2.5 billion tracks per year during the service’s first year in existence. But that once-disruptive service increasingly faces challenges from streaming services like Spotify and Pandora, and a music industry still struggling to deal with the changes that Apple wrought may find itself in further turmoil as a result.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

iOS may have some radio features up its sleeves, Apple’s pimping self-made ebook authors, and if you work in mapping and software, there are plenty of jobs in Cupertino. The remainders for Tuesday, February 5, 2013 are radioactive. Get it?

‘Radio Buy Buttons’ found in iOS 6.1 via newly jailbroken iPads, could mean new functionality coming (9to5Mac)

The Intertubes are abuzz with news of radio icons uncovered in iOS 6.1 by jailbreakers. It’s mixed with rumors from last year that Apple may be working on an online streaming service to compete with the likes of Spotify. As long as I can get the experience of driving my car around the suburban streets of my hometown circa 1997, I’m totally in.

iTunes launches Breakout Books section to highlight self-published titles (paidContent)

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

If you ever thought the old Macworld Expo was a zoo, you should have seen the antics on the Macworld/iWorld 2013 show floor Saturday.

Abu, a dimunitive but extremely energetic four-year-old capuchin monkey made her debut alongside her human, Mike Casey—all in the service of Jam, the new music composition software from DreamWalk Interactive.

Why go the monkey route? Because Jam has a monkey mascot that animates as certain processes are performed in the software, and Jam's monkey bears a passing resemblance to Abu.

The Jam monkey motif actually had nothing to do with Abu—it was already part of the software design and interface—but in a highly convenient brainstorm, Jam's PR guy got the idea to ask his friend Mike Casey in Las Vegas to bring his little capuchin to the show just to stir things up a bit. Mission accomplished.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

As with past Expos, the show floor at the 2013 edition of Macworld/iWorld was peppered with companies showing off wares that help Mac OS and iOS users make make beautiful music with their beloved Apple devices. And many of the products making headlines at Macworld/iWorld were fresh off their debuts a week earlier at the NAMM music industry show in Southern California.

Castiv makes clamps for musicians looking to attach iPads and iPhones to mic stands, guitar headstocks, and tripods. This year, the nice folks at Castiv spared some love for drummers with a new Drum Sidekick, a clamp for holding your iPhone to the rim of your drum for recording or reading music. Due in April, the Drum Sidekick (pictured above) is expected to cost $49.

In the show’s Appalooza section, Focusrite touted its $199 iTrack Solo. A digital audio interface, the iTrack Solo lets you connect instruments and microphones to either your iPad, iPhone or Mac. Most audio interfaces support either a Mac or iOS connection, so having one interface for both is very convenient. The iTrack Solo has a quarter-inch input for connecting a guitar or bass, and an XLR input for microphones. It comes with a dock connector cable for connecting to an iOS device, a headphone port and two RCA phono ports for connecting external speakers. The iTrack Solo ships with Ableton Live Lite 8 for Mac and Windows, but will work with GarageBand for iOS and just about any other digital audio workstation.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

In the Music Studio showcase at Macworld/iWorld on Saturday, Stefan Lipson gave the audience a look at KaleidoPro, a MIDI application that works with a drum controller or any MIDI instrument. With KaleidoPro, a musician can play not just a wide range of drum kits, but also other instruments.

Musicians can map different sounds on the drum pad, which is connected to a Mac. You then create a composition that tells the software how to process the MIDI data. When you’re actually performing, the data is processed in real-time.

Now, I realize what I wrote may not make sense to a lot of people—heck, I’m not even sure I understand it myself. So it’s probably best to just watch the video below to see what KaleidoPro can let you do.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

You can turn your favorite axe into a wireless midi controller with Fishman Tranducer’s TriplePlay Wireless Guitar controller. The company gave me a look at the $395 package at Macworld/iWorld this week.

The TriplePlay controller comes with a hexaphonic pickup that slips under your strings near your regular pickups and connects to a wireless controller that your mount behind the bridge. A small wireless receiver is also included; it either plugs into your Mac or an iPad using a Lightning USB Camera Adapter, allowing you to record to GarageBand for iOS without any wires.

The name TriplePlay references Fishman’s software bundle that allows you to record using PreSonus Studio One Artist, compose with Notion Music - Progression 2.0, and perform with Native Instrument’s Kontakt Komplete Elements and GuitarRig LE as well as IK Multimedia’s SampleTank XE and Amplitube Custom Shop software. Fishman’s own TriplePlay software lets you pick and control up to four virtual instruments at a time with your guitar. You could, for example, set your two lowest strings to an acoustic bass virtual instrument and the upper strings to sound like a nylon string guitar or electric piano.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

If you're into karaoke, Jam for iPhone is karaoke with a twist.

Jam, a free iPhone app from DreamWalk Interactive that aspires to be the “Instagram of Music,” lets you sing any kind of song—even one you’ve made up on the spot—and set it to music. You can then post your original tunes on Facebook or on the Jam community website and have people rate your songs—the promised Instagram angle—letting your creations climb on the Jam charts. And, of course, you can share your music via email and text.

Jam is designed for aspiring singers, with or without talent. You record your little tune into the program and Jam lets you add backing styles from its built-in musical choices. So you can pick styles like Reggae, Club Pop, Rock, 80s Dance, Punk Rock, and more, and it will automatically add the backing music of that style.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Watch your back, iTunes: Amazon’s now in the game of selling digital music to iOS users. The retail giant has optimized its store to let owners of iPhones and iPod touches browse and purchase from its 22-million song catalog.

To sidestep Apple’s rules about taking 30 percent of purchases, though, Amazon’s store isn’t available via a native app, but rather in a Web interface that iOS users can access via Safari at www.amazon.com/mp3. The interface is optimized for Apple’s handheld devices, complete with a black-and-orange aesthetic that is strangely reminiscent of iOS’s Music app.

That optimization also lets Amazon offer common touch controls, like the ability to quickly swipe through carousels of songs and albums, much as you can in iOS’s iTunes Store app. Tapping on a play button next to a song plays a 30 second preview, which plays in the background as you browse (though if you do anything to cause the browser to load a new page, you’ll cut off the song). As on the iTunes Store, tapping once on the price of a song or album will turn it into a Buy button that you must tap again, at which point you’ll be prompted to enter your Amazon credentials.

“And then what?” you’re probably wondering. Unlike the iTunes Store, Amazon has no direct access to your iOS device’s Music library. Amazon sidesteps again here, loading your purchases directly into your Amazon Cloud Player, which you can access via the Web or the company’s Cloud Player app. And because you purchased that music from Amazon, it doesn’t count against your Cloud Player storage limit.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

iPad rumors are floating to the surface once again, Phil Schiller’s comments to a Chinese paper are called into question, and Apple’s won a major award. The remainders for Friday, January 11, 2012 are as sweet as a nut.

Rumor: Fifth-gen iPad, second-gen iPad mini to debut in March (AppleInsider)

Here come the newest batch of rumors! This time, it’s that the iPad mini and full-size iPad will both see refreshes in March. So says an analyst from Topeka Capital Markets, and if they don’t know in Topeka when the next iPad’s going to be released, well, where do they know!?

Apple won’t blindly pursue market share: report (Reuters)

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Though Apple’s 2012 might have seemed dominated by Mac, iPhone, and iPad news, other big stories for the company cropped up throughout the year. This was Tim Cook’s first full year as Apple’s CEO, and Apple faced challenges in the realm of security, made transitions in its online services, and updated one of its flagship applications. We’ve already recounted the year in iOS news and the year in Mac news. Here are highlights from Apple’s 2012 in terms of, well, everything else.

This is Tim

This year marked Tim Cook’s first full calendar year as CEO. And he wasn’t quiet. Despite his promise that Apple would double down on secrecy, Cook spent a surprising amount of time in 2012 talking publicly about Apple’s plans and strategies.

He followed in Steve Jobs’s footsteps by speaking at the annual D10 conference. He reassured unhappy customers that a new professional Mac would arrive in 2013. He coined the term “toaster fridge” in describing why Apple isn't looking to make a hybrid Mac/tablet, and he explained his vision of the post-PC world.

Cook also made a public statement about iOS 6’s Maps app—specifically, saying that Apple was “extremely sorry” for the frustration the app had caused. He even took the step of suggesting that customers disappointed with Maps try mapping options from other companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Motorola. That, moment, dear Mayans, is when the world as we knew it drew to a close.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple on Thursday released iTunes 11.0.1, the thrilling sequel to iTunes 11, the late-November overhaul to the company’s all-in-one music player, iOS device syncing center, and app, music, video, ebook, and podcast store. While 11.0.1 unsurprisingly offers far less drastic changes than its immediate predecessor included, we have discovered a variety of significant but subtle improvements in the minor update.

The release notes in full for 11.0.1 read as follows:

This update to the new iTunes addresses an issue where new purchases in iCloud may not appear in your library if iTunes Match is turned on, makes iTunes more responsive when searching a large library, fixes a problem where the AirPlay button may not appear as expected, and adds the ability to display duplicate items within your library. This update also includes other important stability and performance improvements.

Senior contributor Kirk McElhearn confirmed on his blog that when searching his very large library of 65,000 tracks, iTunes 11.0.1’s performance improves significantly over iTunes 11. “Searches that took more than 30 seconds with the initial release are nearly instantaneous now,” he writes.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Begun, these iPhone rumors have. Elsewhere, Apple’s radio service isn’t getting play time from record labels, Eric Schmidt’s got a head-scratcher, and Apple’s getting greener (and not with envy). The remainders for Wednesday, December 5, 2012 are the fairest of them all.

Purported prototype ‘iPhone 5S’ back panel shows minor tweaks to internal design (AppleInsider)

Thus beginneth the iPhone 5S rumors! Rumor sites are awash with pictures of a purported backplate for Apple’s next iPhone model. The difference mainly being in the positioning of certain screws. In the equivalent of reading tea leaves, we can now theorize about what those different screws mean. My leading theory is that Apple has rearranged them to mess with Apple rumor fans.

Pandora shares plummet after hours on weak outlook (CNet)

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The iPhone 5 and the iTunes Store go, uh, internationaler; Apple’s not abandoning Logic any more than your average Vulcan; and Brian Williams challenges Tim Cook to an on-air arm wrestling match. (Okay, I made the last one up.) The remainders for Monday, December 3, 2012 are black and white, and read all over.

iPhone 5 Arrives in South Korea & More Than 50 Additional Countries in December (Apple)

The iPhone 5 is launching in more than 50 additional countries this month, Apple announced this morning. Among them are Brazil, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey, and South Korea. What, no North Korea? (We’ve got more on how this puts Apple on track to hit its 100-market goal for the phone’s release by year’s end elsewhere on Macworld.com.)

iTunes Music going live in Turkey, Lebanon and Russia ahead of tomorrow’s rumored Russia-based iTunes event (9to5Mac)

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Make no mistake: When you first launch iTunes 11, it’s going to feel awfully different from the iTunes you’ve grown accustomed to. That’s because it is awfully different, from many of the user interface choices right down to the brand new icon, which now even more strongly resembles that of the Mac App Store.

Edge-to-edge design

The first thing you’ll notice upon opening the new iTunes is that the sidebar—the one with links to your playlists, the iTunes Store, Books, Movies, Podcasts, and such—is gone. Apple describes the new look as an “edge-to-edge” design. Instead of using the sidebar, you rely on a dropdown for navigating between sections of the app, and a button at the upper right of the window takes you to the iTunes Store. But here’s a quick spoiler: If you can’t stand the dropdown approach, you can get the sidebar of old back. Go to the View menu and choose Show Sidebar. Bonus: The icons in the sidebar, which went to a faded grayscale in iTunes 10, regain their saturation in iTunes 11.

Another casualty of the “edge-to-edge” design is the status bar—you know, the one at the bottom that lists the number of songs in your library, or the current playlist, or what have you, along with how long it would take to play those songs and how much disk space they use. You can restore that as well with a trip to the View menu, by choosing Show Status Bar.

There’s a host of new user interface conceits in iTunes 11, making it seem almost like a testbed for Apple’s design. For example, the pop-up menus that appear when you click the black arrow button next to a song that you’ve selected feels more like something out of iOS than OS X. Clicking on a sub-menu item—Genius Suggestions, for example—doesn’t pop-open a sub-menu, but rather slides into a separate screen. Likewise, clicking on an album in the Album view slides open a list of songs in that album that resembles the iTunes Store (and includes a button that lets you quickly toggle over to that album in the store, as well).

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple on Thursday released iTunes 11, its new take on the jack-of-all apps for music playback; app, music, and book shopping; iOS device syncing, and more. The update is available in the Mac App Store.

iTunes 11 sports a massive redesign; Apple calls it an “edge-to-edge design.” Gone is the long-familiar sidebar of old. In its place is a dropdown menu for navigating between sections of the app, along with an omnipresent button at the right to jump into the iTunes Store.

The iTunes icon goes through another revision—though it’s still a music note in a blue circle. And the iTunes Store gets a new look of its own, too, more in line with the iOS version of the store.

Among iTunes 11’s many new features is the ability to play back all of your purchases—not just music, but movies and TV shows too—from iCloud, if you’re so inclined. All your old video purchases will now appear on the appropriate tab, and can stream—quickly, in our early testing—without being downloaded first. Videos in iCloud show a cloud icon atop their thumbnails.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple and Columbia Records on Monday announced that AC/DC’s complete catalog is available digitally for the first time—exclusively at the iTunes Store. The rock band had long been missing in action from online music stores, but now the entirety of the band’s discography is available for digital purchase. All the music has been Mastered for iTunes as well.

According to a press release, all sixteen of AC/DC’s studio albums, along with four live albums and three compilations, are now on sale in the iTunes Store.

Two collections are available: The $100 Studio Collection encompasses all of AC/DC’s 176 studio-recorded songs, complete with an iTunes LP featuring photos and liner notes. The $150 Complete Collection adds in rarities, demo tracks, the four live albums, and an iTunes LP with “a detailed essay and photos from the era,” according to iTunes. The compilation includes 312 tracks.

The iTunes Store also now offers AC/DC ringtones.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here