Macenstein

Review: Audioengine AW1 Premium Wireless Audio Adapter – It just works

The idea of wirelessly streaming music from a remote home media server to a living room audio system has long been the “Holy Grail” for husbands who have been forced by their wives to move their bulky computers into the basement, and who have been told they cannot drill holes in walls and run wires throughout the house. While in theory I agree that a house looks nicer without a giant CPU tower sitting next to the TV with wires spilling all over the floor, the available... Read More

Keep up on iTunes 99¢ rentals with 99rental.com

Are you having trouble keeping up with all ONE of the weekly 99¢ iTunes movie rentals Apple releases each week? Well, the site 99rental.com has got you covered. Created by faithful Macenstein reader Damien Huze, 99rental showcases the latest 99¢ iTunes rental each week, and provides the movie’s description and iTunes store link. It is actually more useful than it sounds, as you can subscribe to the rss feed or elect to receive e-mail notification of new releases.... Read More

Beatles now NOT coming to iTunes, and I still don’t care

Ugghh.. just when you thought the most boring ongoing story in the Mac community might finally have come to an end, News.com is reporting that the rumored $400 million deal McCartney allegedly penned with Apple is “untrue”, and the Beatles catalog will not be appearing on iTunes anytime soon. I’m taking this news pretty hard. The only thing worse would be if Apple announced they were removing the entire catalog from The Ink Spots from the iTunes store. But... Read More

Hints that the Beatles iTunes launch getting closer? 1 to 2 weeks?

The whole “Beatles on iTunes speculation” thing has pretty much burned me out. I am perhaps one of the few people who doesn’t really care one way or the other about whether or not the Beatles come to iTunes. Sure, it would be a little exciting if the Beatles were an iTunes exclusive artist, but odds are that isn’t going to happen. I own all the Beatles albums on CD already, and while I realize Beatles fanatics rival only the KISS Army in loyalty and... Read More

iTunes Now Number Two Music Retailer in the US

Thanks in no small part the increasingly low standards today’s youth have with regard to music, Apple today announced that it is now the number 2 music retailer in the US, second only to Wal-Mart (The fact that Wal-Mart is number 1 is actually quite sad). Such “classics” as Flo Rida’s Low, Miley Cyrus’ See You Again, and American Idol’s Jordan Sparks’ No Air have allowed Apple to sell over 4 billion songs to over 50 million customers.  Read More

Write a caption, win a prize

[THANK YOU, WE HAVE A WINNER. THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED] “OS 9 died doing what he loved.. sporadically freezing and crashing”. Think you’re funny enough to be the next Margaret Cho? Well, now’s your chance to prove it to the world. Write your best caption for the above photo taken at the Funeral for OS 9 held at the 2002 WWDC, and if we think it’s the funniest, we’ll send you off a $20 iTunes gift certificate. The contest is open to everyone... Read More

NBC shows on Amazon for $1.89. Was Apple lying?

Above: Where’s the rampant price gouging we thought NBC was insisting on? Remember back during the whole NBC/Universal pulling out of iTunes debacle a few months back, Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes, made this famous quote? “We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase. We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers.” Well,... Read More

Poll: How much “Apple” music do you own?

[Hey, it’s our first poll, so please take it!] Apple users are often categorized by the press as mindless followers, a cult that obeys the commands of the Almighty Steve, and will more often than not buy anything Apple decides to put out (or at least WANT to buy it). For the most part I consider myself to be a card carrying member of that cult. There haven’t been too many Apple product announcements recently that I would not have bought if money were not an issue.... Read More

iTunes: Pre-selling songs from the past, in the not-too-distant-future, NOW!

Due to some poor musical choices I have been asked to buy for my family, my weekly iTunes “My Alerts” newsletter has been poisoned, and is full of all sorts of lame upcoming releases. Apparently, Mandy Moore, Natasha Bedignfield, AND The Backyardigans all have albums dropping next week, and iTunes thinks I want to know about it. Above: The Hives’ Barely Legal album, as displayed in “My Alerts” However, one group I was happy to see mentioned in... Read More

NBC returning to iTunes?

Perhaps Warner’s jumping to the Apple-backed Blu-ray format scared NBC Universal more than we thought. Engadget has some very “friendly” quotes from both NBC/Universal exec Jeff Zucker and Steve Jobs which many are taking as the CEO’s laying the groundwork for NBC’s return to the iTunes store. We’ve said all along that we admire Apple, that we want to be in business with Apple,” said Zucker. “We’re great fans of Steve Jobs.” Wow. For... Read More