Tag: "iTunes"

Will Apple’s Textbook Initiative Help Grow the Market?

By Emily | January 20, 2012 | No comment yet

Apple’s foray into digital textbooks for iPad is obviously geared toward students; however, having Apple’s hand in the textbook market may increase the appeal of some titles to readers who aren’t purchasing the book for a class. Hopefully the textbook section of iBooks, which is woefully bare at present, will swell with titles that readers will buy just for their own edification.

If it sounds crazy to say that there’s no need to be a student or an academic to purchase textbooks from the App Store, think twice, because it has already happened.

By Juli | January 19, 2012 | No comment yet

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The new version of iTunes, 10.5.3, was released on Thursday with support for the new iBooks 2 application, which is now available on iOS. This update will allow users to sync textbook purchases between computers and the iPad.

iBooks 2 is dedicated to new interactive, digital titles that are designed to reinvent the conventional textbook. It was announced by Apple at its New York Event this earlier this morning.

By Juli | January 19, 2012 | 3 comments

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After today’s big textbook announcement, I thought that I’d give iBooks Author a look, and let you guys know what the new service is all about. To begin with, I don’t have any e-book experience, so I’m going to look at iBooks Author as a layperson, since Apple says that anyone should be able to use these tools successfully.

Installing the app literally took two minutes. If you’ve ever used Apple software, like Pages, Numbers, or Keynote, the interface will be familiar.

By Juli | January 11, 2012 | 1 comment

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Shazam is known for being that magical app that listens to any song around you and spits out the title and the lyrics, but the company is branching out and transforming into a fully fledged music service with the new Shazam Player app.

The Shazam Player allows you to play music, see streaming lyrics, and watch YouTube videos of your favorite songs and artists.

By Cristi | December 25, 2011 | No comment yet

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Today we are celebrating Christmas and offering our loyal PadGadget readers a final chance to win a $10 iTunes gift card. Use it to take advantage of some of the great bargains in our Daily App Deal or buy an album or book in iTunes to enjoy on your new iPad.

Whatever the reason, we have four cards to giveaway and entering our contest is easy! Just follow the directions below and maybe you’ll be a winner. Good luck!

By Lory | December 22, 2011 | 3 comments

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A recent study by City Investment Research shows that Netflix is still the top dog when it comes to Internet watching of television shows and movies, growing by seven percent between May and December of this year. Popular media-streaming website Hulu dropped by four percent in the same time period.

Netflix’s share of Internet viewers went from 20 to 27 percent, even while Hulu was dropping from 19 to 15 percent. Other Internet viewing providers like, Amazon, Comcast, CBS, and NBC also showed an increase in the share. However, iTunes, the stalwart that it is, didn’t budge in its share of viewing. Apple’s media streaming service held steadfast at a mere eight percent, which is even lower than the “other” category.

By Cristi | December 17, 2011 | 3 comments

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Celebrate the season and win! Today we are once again offering our loyal readers a chance to win a $10 iTunes gift card. Use it to take advantage of some of the great bargains in our Daily App Deal, rent a nice movie to get in the holiday spirit or maybe give it to someone on your list you still haven’t shopped for.

Whatever the reason, we have four cards to giveaway and entering our contest is easy! Just follow the directions below and maybe you’ll be a winner. Good luck!

By Jillian | December 15, 2011 | No comment yet

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iTunes Match

They shoot… they shoot… they shoot… and they miss! Apple sorta kinda released iTunes Match Internationally, at least for a little while. It appears that the roll-out was flawed however, and only the United States and Brazil are functioning with the service in any meaningful way.

By Cristi | December 14, 2011 | 1 comment

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The holidays are a time to count your blessings and embrace the season of giving! We are in the gift giving mood here at PadGadget and want to thank our loyal readers with a little something to use when taking advantage of all the great bargains in our Daily App Deal or for anything else that might tickle your fancy. Today’s holiday giveaway is for a chance to win one of four $10 iTunes gift cards.

Entering our contest is easy! Just follow the directions below and maybe you’ll be a winner. Good luck!

By Lory | November 23, 2011 | No comment yet

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Casual game distribution company Big Fish Games has just announce the release of a new type of gaming experience for mobile devices- subscription-based game play in the cloud. That’s right, for a monthly fee, members will be able to play dozens of premium Big Fish Games titles one multiple devices through their new Play Instantly! app. Is this the new face of mobile gaming?

Subscription-based games exist for iOS, Order and Chaos Online for example, but not like this. Big Fish Games is introducing a Game Fly style service… no, it’s even better than that. Play Instantly! is like giving the door man at an arcade five bucks in exchange for unlimited game play on all the games in the arcade for a month. Yes, thank you, I’ll be sleeping under the Foosball table in January.

By Emily | November 15, 2011 | 2 comments

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One of Apple’s most eagerly awaited new cloud storage features, iTunes Match, debuted yesterday. For the last six months or so Amazon, Google, and Apple have all competed to offer music lovers new ways to access their music libraries while away from the desktop.

I wanted to try out iTunes Match as soon as it was available because unlike Amazon or Google’s cloud music lockers, iTunes Match promised to give me access to my music without burdening me with the tedious process of uploading each individual tracks.

By Jillian | November 15, 2011 | 1 comment

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Google Music

We’re on the verge of the official Google Music release on November 16, 2011 and that has been verified now that we’ve had a sneak peek at the homepage of the service itself. There are lots of things we don’t know about Google Music but it appears as if they plan on giving away a song a day –which should be a huge incentive to give it a shot. Because this is exactly how loyalties are born, Apple may be a bit concerned with this news.

By Jillian | November 14, 2011 | No comment yet

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Music lovers will rejoice in eMusic Scenes for the iPad, a new app that brings an element of social networking to the history behind the music. By providing a forum for legendary music writers, eMusic Scenes uses artist imagery, in-depth editorial, song samples, and radio programs to describe over 18 well known music scenes including Detroit Soul, Greenwich Village Folk and Berlin Techno.

By Juli | November 14, 2011 | No comment yet

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Well it might be a few weeks late but Apple has finally launched the much awaited iTunes Match. The cloud based music service had been available as a beta for the past several weeks with Apple making several tweaks to make sure the new iCloud service was ready for prime time.

During the “Let’s Talk iPhone” announcement of the iPhone 4S and iOS 5, Apple promised that iTunes Match would be available at the end of October. That deadline came and went with no further updates from Apple, but after some extra time to refine the service, it’s finally ready for the public.

Just this weekend Apple sent out an email to developers, notifying them that iCloud music libraries were going to be erased on Saturday, November 12th, at 10AM PST. Wipes have been done periodically during the testing period, which began in August, but this time, it was in preparation of the official launch.

By Jillian | November 3, 2011 | No comment yet

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BBM Music

BBM Music launched Wednesday, offering BlackBerry users the same benefits seen already by other smartphones and tablets. The music service merges social networking with music by allowing users to choose songs to profile in their library which can then be shared to all of their friends who can then listen to the full tracks, discuss the music they are listening to or even enjoy them offline. In turn you can do the same with the lists created by others in your circle.