Watching movies and TV shows on an iPad is a pleasure. Deciding what to watch, and then figuring out which iPad app offers which film or show at that moment, isn’t.

Once again, the way to buy music is changing.

For years, the legal digital music world has seemed relatively simple to grasp. There were two basic models: the online stores, where you buy singles or albums and store them on individual computers or devices; and the subscription services, where you pay a monthly fee or listen to ads for access to an online trove of songs.

Human as we are, there will always come a time in our day-to-day life that we commit mistakes. There are those which we cannot rectify and undone and there are also mistakes that we can. More often, these mistakes will be committed if we are unsure or we really don’t know what we are doing. There are also times when mistakes happen because we want things be done quickly.

I purchased an app from App Store which I think I can use with my iPad; I was wrong. So, I decided to return it to Apple and claim for a refund. Fortunately, the amount I paid for the app was credited back to my account. I wasn’t even expecting it to happen as Apple sales policy says that all transactions made or purchases are final and cannot be refunded. Maybe I was just so lucky… /> id="more-23282">

Read before you ask for refunds

Anyway, there are certain situations that Apple might consider when someone asks for a refund, and they are as follow;

1. You are an iPhone user but you purchased an iPad version of the app or vice versa. Obviously, the app you purchased will be of no use.

Can someone please explain this Bloomberg Businessweek story to me? I’ve read it a few times and am still having a hard time understanding what is or what isn’t being implied, or not implied, about a partnership between Coinstar and Apple.

First of all, the title is awful because most people likely don’t know that Coinstar owns Redbox (they acquired them last year), the DVD rental kiosk company. Instead, most people know Coinstar as those machines in supermarkets where you turn in your loose change for cash or silly things, like Facebook Credits. So why on Earth would they be partnering with Apple on some online venture?

Well, again, it’s about Redbox, as they sort of note in the first paragraph. But what are they going to do with Apple?

“I would not conclude we are or are not doing a streaming deal with them,” Coinstar CEO Paul Davis told Bloomberg. Well that clears things right up.

Filed under: Audio

Whether by design or accident, Ping's lack of integration with other social networks, or even with the web itself, is now its most compelling feature — at least from a strategic perspective. It's essentially an e-commerce platform for music disguised as a social network.

There seems to be some confusion out there right now about iTunes Ping, Apple’s new music social network, and Facebook. Some people seem to think it was never a part of iTunes, that Apple decided against connecting; while other reports say they think it was at one point integrated, but that it wasn’t working and has since been removed. I can tell you for sure that yesterday Facebook Connect was a part of Ping — because I used it.

When I first loaded iTunes 10 yesterday and started up Ping, connecting with Facebook was the first thing I did to find friends. At first, I will say that it didn’t work. I hit the Connect button, entered my credentials, and nothing happened. But I tried again and it worked perfectly. I found a handful of Facebook friends who had just started using Ping as well and connected with them.

Further, looking at my Facebook account, I’m still connected to Apple’s Ping app there. And so are 27 of my Facebook friends, currently. Apple has removed the implementation from iTunes for right now, but the app is still live and connected on Facebook.

Filed under: Audio, Apple

AirPlay was one of the most nebulous topics up for discussion today at Steve Jobs’ special press event regarding iOS, iPods, iTunes and Apple TV. In many ways, it’s something we already know a lot about, since it’s the successor to AirTunes. In others, it’s a mystery.

AirTunes, for those who didn’t know, was the technology that allowed iTunes users who also owned AirPort Expresses to wirelessly stream their iTunes music library to speakers connected to the portable routers. It was good, but you had to pay $99 for every AirPort Express, and connect them either with optical audio or mini stereo cables to your sound system or receiver.

Filed under: Audio, Web services, Apple, Social Software

After nearly a decade, iTunes is getting a new icon with the release of version 10 today. Steve Jobs joked about the looming obsolescence of the CD featured prominently in the logo now that iTunes sales are poised to surpass CD sales for the first time in history.

Ping

The new icon is a metaphor for what’s to come in iTunes’ future. The emphasis will be on music, yes, but also on what’s unique about music on the web. Accordingly, Jobs also introduced Ping, a brand new social network Apple created specifically for iTunes. Ping allows users to share activity with their friends, and follow their favorite artists to receive updates about concerts, albums, and more.

Last week, we show you how to jailbreak iOS 4.0.2 for iPhone 3G in Windows. As promised, here is the how-to for Mac users. While this tutorial is very simple, I will need everyone to follow every step conscientiously. Before you start, here are some things that you have to consider: /> id="more-20520">

• Backup your iPhone before doing the jailbreak. Restoring the data is easier to do after the jailbreak process.
• Jailbreaking may void the warranty of your iPhone; you should know that after doing the following steps, you cannot just go to Apple stores and proclaim your iPhone is not working.
• You must be responsible for securing your iPhone after the jailbreak.
• This tutorial is for Mac users only.
• RedSn0w, the tool used in this tutorial to jailbreak your iPhone, is NOT used to UNLOCK your iPhone.
• Make sure your iPhone 3G runs on iTunes 9.2 before you proceed.
• RedSn0w will never work on iPhone 3Gs and iPhone 4.

Here are the steps you should follow to jailbreak iOS 4.0.2 for your iPhone 3G.

Step 1. Download the following files:

One of my favorite parts of my Macbook is the set of media keys across the top of the keyboard. For a music, movie, TV and general media junkie like myself, these keys make things quick and easy. What I do hate though, is when I switch to an external keyboard and mouse, which I generally do pretty often with the way my home office is set up, I lose that functionality. When this happens, the only option you’re left with is going all the way in to iTunes, or at least up to the menu bar, to change tracks, volume, etc. This wrecks your workflow. Another problem with them is that they take up useful function keys. These keys are used for different things in different scenarios on different machines, but on a Mac, they’re useless as anything besides media keys. I know a lot of professionals in the computer industry that rely heavily on the function keys on their keyboard, and I can see where they’re coming from when they say they hate a Mac’s dedicated row at the top.

The release of Apple iPhone 4 left an impression that the second generation iPhones will be out of the scenes for good. But no, iPhone 3G is always as good as the day it has been released. It may not have the same functionality as the fourth generation, but still, you will not be left behind, technologically, if you have it. Now, that being said, I have something here for iPhone 3G owners — a step-by-step guide to jailbreak iOS 4.0.2 for your iPhone 3G to, at least, compete with others who have the latest model of iPhones and enjoy the features that iOS 4.0.2 offers. This one’s for Windows users alone. Mac users, I will publish another guide for you, too, in the near future. /> id="more-20104"> /> Important Notes:

Before you carry out the jailbreak, go through these notes and see if you are ready to perform the process;

Apple's offered browser-based iTunes previews for a couple of months now, so is there any good reason my browser should show the preview and open iTunes every time I click an iTunes link? We think not; here's how to fix that.

Apple-focused site The Apple Blog details how to stop the iTunes web previews from automatically opening iTunes along with the web preview. (You can always choose to click through to iTunes after you've seen the web-based preview.) The post explains how the pages open iTunes (JavaScript), then the author sets out solutions for various browsers (and they should work whether you're on Windows or OS X), including Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. In Firefox, for example: