Macenstein

iTunes book store hacked?

A quick look at the books category on iTunes and it’s no wonder that rumors of an iTunes hack are surfacing. It seems that suddenly a certain Thuat Nguyen (who has no website or contact info on iTunes) now has 40 of the top 50 books being sold on iTunes, and what’s more he/she is buying them with other people’s iTunes accounts (up to $200 worth per account) if the comments being left on the titles are any indication. Now of course, we COULD all just be... Read More

7 things Apple can do to REALLY clean up the App Store

When Apple decided to make its somewhat arbitrary iTunes “porn” (and I use the term loosely) purge last month, one of the made up reasons it gave for justifying the move was that developers and customers were finding it hard to find quality apps amidst all the “adult” material. Well as we saw, removing those 5,000 apps (or less than 3% of all apps) did more or less nothing to fix the issue. While we certainly do not wish to see ANY developers’... Read More

This is why I never jailbreak my pumpkins

Sure I love all the cool things I can do with a jailbroken pumpkin, but when things go wrong, they go horribly wrong. I resolved last year to stop jailbreaking my pumpkins, and this picture reminds me of exactly why I decided to suck it up and just make do with the firmware that ships natively with the fruit. It takes roughly 2 hours to restore a 12 pound pumpkin via iTunes, and the 20 pound model takes up to 3 hours. It just isn’t worth it. Thanks to faithful Macenstein... Read More

Random thoughts: Apple’s 100,000 iPhone apps and the Google GPS app

Two things happened today that filled me with a resounding feeling of… “meh”. Well, actually lots of underwhelming things happened today (I’m rather hard to overwhelm thanks to various mood evening drugs)) but two Apple-related things happened. Apple to hit 100,000 iPhone Apps The first announcement did not officially come from Apple itself, rather it came via the blog-o-sphere. Apparently Apple has now passed (or will reach in the next day or so) the... Read More

Write a caption, win a prize

[Thank you WE HAVE A WINNER! This contest is now closed. Congrats to Faithful Macenstein reader Dick Nick who won with “At least I got the two important things in the divorce.” There were actually quite a few truly good captions this time around, and many variations on certain themes, so this was indeed a hard choice to make.] Just admit it, you lost your ball. Think you’re funny enough to be the next Margaret Cho? Well, now’s your chance to prove it... Read More

Wage war on your out-of-control iTunes library with Song Sergeant

Through a series of unfortunate events this year, my iTunes library had become a shell of its former self. Over the years I had amassed a library of about 13,000 songs (yes, all legally purchased) but due to not one, but TWO hard drive failures and the theft of my iTunes backup drive, I now had a pieced together Frankenstein of a library that despite my best efforts to repair, was becoming clear that all the duct tape in the world wasn’t going to be able to hold together... Read More

Apple’s not so subtle “F U” to the Beatles

Is a giant multi-billion company above petty squabbles? Doesn’t look like it. One of the most popular rumors leading up to Apple’s “It’s Only Rock and Roll” music event this week was that the Beatles would finally be announcing the availability of their newly remastered catalog on iTunes. In fact it seemed like a dead lock once word of a Beatles Special event was announced for the same day. Well, the event came and went with nary a mention of an... Read More

Is iTunes 9 sporting “Marble”?

Looks like Apple’s rumored “unified interface”, code-named “Marble” might be a comin’ after all… starting with the somewhat UN-unifying iTunes 9 interface. Faithful Macenstein reader Patrick writes: “Hey, if you notice the new look on itunes 9 it is very different than snow leopard etc etc. But is this the marble theme apple said would be included into snow leopard but never turned up. Remember in the past itunes received the new... Read More

God, I wish I cared about this event…

Faithful Macenstein reader The Boston Spangler writes: Hi Doc, A friend of mine works at EMI music, and he just posted this pic up on facebook… Thought it might help fuel the Apple/ Beatles debate until we hear a real announcement today… So, whaddya think? Thanks! The Boston Spangler  Read More

Ummm… It’s not like they’re going to bury his albums with him guys

I have time and again admitted to not having a soul, but seriously, I don’t get this at all. That right. How are the Black Eyed Peas on the charts? No, seriously, why the big rush to buy Michael Jackson’s songs now that he’s dead? Are people planning to have massively depressing listening parties? Or was his death simply a reminder that he used to make music about 15-20 years ago?  Read More