鷹頭獅巢_Podsafe音樂特區

http://www.apple.com/jp/itunes/

This is most welcoming news for J-pop enthusiasts. At 150-200 yen per song, it is a great bargain to buy songs there. Of course, whether anyone outside Japan can purchase songs without a local mailing address is anyone’s guess, but it is a great start anyway.

This also signifies the beginning of aggressive marketing efforts for Apple in Asia to sell more ‘pods and songs: if history is good enough as guidance, iTMS sells iPods, albeit indirectly through song sales. This is at least valid for US, which iTunes usage and iPod sales exploded ever since iTMS is available. Japan is probably the opening shot of Apple’s war on music against everybody else.

Now, where can I find a Japan address that works…….

Addendum: Just tested, no luck….. even my credit card does not work….. shoot!

Extended reading:
Playlist.com: Apple launches iTunes Music Store in Japan

Posted under Apple, Blog, iTunes

I sang high praises in my previous entry about iTunes 4.9. Now’s the bad stuff:

One of the podcasts that I subscribe had caused its playlist on my iPod Shuffle to sort from newest to oldest, instead of the other way around! It happens even if I had sorted the playlist that I keep on iTunes so that it is in chronological order! Thus, when I listen to that batch of podcasts, they were going back in time……..

Anybody know what happened? Any help will be highly appreciated!

Aside from that, it had been a blast for me playing with iTunes last night, when I subscribed most of the podcasts that I am currently listening to. Simple and elegant, that’s the way all programs should be!

Posted under Apple, Blog, iTunes

iTunes 4.9

Today, the latest version of iTunes, iTunes 4.9, was released to the wild, wild music and podcast world. And what a wonderful thing it is.

In case you are not into this iPod thing or just not up to speed, iTunes is the jukebox software that comes with iPods. It used to be the software that link iPods to Macs and PCs alike, and a nimble CD ripper, aside from playing music tunes. Now, with version 4.9, iTunes can capture podcasts, quasi-radio shows that amateurs and professionals alike are creating on all sorts of topics, and synchronize to iPods. iTunes enable quick and easy subscription of podcasts, as well as full length previews of podcasts to help you make the decision of subscribing or not, through Apple’s fable iTunes Music Store.

Comparing with your good old media aggregation software (the more fancy word for podcast downloader) like iPodder, iTunes bears a much simpler interface and is easier to use. Besides, because media aggregation software will use either iTunes and/or other media players to sync podcasts to portable players, iTunes will mean one application for podcasts instead of two; the simpler the better.

For me, which had already subscribed to a load of podcasts and use iPod, this version is just wonderful~

Extend readings:

豬欄 – iTunes接收podcast圖片教學
MacGrass – iTunes 4.9 的小更新

Posted under Blog, Podcast, iTunes