iTunes

One of my personal favorite bands, The 88 [iTunes Store], recently recorded an entire single using nothing but an iPhone and their instruments. The app they used is called FourTrack [our review] and the song is called "Love Is the Thing" [iTunes]. We could honestly go on and on about how cool it is that they published a song recorded entirely on the iPhone to iTunes, but it may be more succinctly explained in the video below. Enjoy!

Ever purchase an app on your iPhone and find out later that it's magically shown up in iTunes? This is because your iPhone automatically transfers new app purchases during a sync. But what happens if the apps in iTunes are lost? Turns out you can invoke the magic app sync anytime you want. Simply right-click your iPhone in the iTunes Devices section and choose "Transfer Purchases." Any application on your iPhone that isn't in iTunes will immediately be moved.

Of course you can re-download any app in iTunes for free, but then you already knew that. ;]

Not surprisingly, Apple's servers seem to be getting hit pretty hard. Several users are telling us that they are getting errors from iTunes after trying to update saying "The iPhone [your iPhone] cannot be updated at this time because the iPhone activation server is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later." We saw basically the same situation at the iPhone 3G launch.

And... it's live! Apple has officially released iPhone 3.0 to the general public. It can be downloaded through iTunes by clicking the "Check for Updates" button in the iPhone source page. It's available for both original iPhone and iPhone 3G owners at no cost. iPod touch owners can get the update for $9.95.

In case you were curious, the version available in iTunes carries the same build number (7a341) as the GM developer seed.

Strings of code have been found in the new iTunes 8.2 released earlier this week revealing new radio tagging capabilities that would offer a way to buy tagged songs in iTunes running on the desktop. While this could be a sign of FM radio capabilities in a future iPhone, it could also just be for use with an app that works when the iPhone is plugged into a radio-enabled device.

The iPhone Dev Team has posted a warning on their blog not to download the iTunes 8.2 update released yesterday if they want to maintain the ability to jailbreak or unlock their iPhone. As iPhone Alley reader back2thebeatof84 pointed out yesterday, the new version of iTunes breaks YellowSn0w, QuickPwn and the Pwnage Tool. They list four reasons why not to update.

Apple has released iTunes 8.2, which adds support for the yet unreleased iPhone OS 3.0 expected to take the spotlight at WWDC. Apple also lists it as including several accessibility improvements and bug fixes. You can download the new version by checking for updates in iTunes or re-downloading at Apple.com.

As if the hype around the Pre weren't already enough, the iPhone may be losing part of their competitive edge to the Palm device in an area that no few other smartphones no MP3 players have: iTunes. It was briefly mentioned by a Palm rep at CES earlier this year that the device will be the the first non-Apple smartphone that will be able to sync with iTunes.

Apple has released version five of the iPhone 3.0 software (Build 7A312g) to developers, as well as a new pre-releas version of iTunes 8.2 and version five of the SDK (build 9M2735). As was the case with the last beta software download, iTunes 8.2 is required in order to install the latest beta OS. We're still waiting on details about new features and changes from the previous version.

9to5 Mac versions of the iPhone OS and iTunes will allow parents to chose which age group of App Store apps the device is unable to access. It's separated into four levels: 4+, 9+, 12+, and 17+The new feature should mean that some of the riskier apps will start getting approved into the app store, as Apple told one rejected developer. Screenshot after the break.