Apple Updates iTunes With Some Nifty New Features, Better MiniPlayer And Multi-Discs Albums

Slicing through most of the Google I/O conference news is this update from fruit company: earlier on, Apple released iTunes 11.0.3. 

This isn't just a small affair, as quite a few new features are included, including a more refined Songs View and the capability to view multi-disc albums as an individual album. The update also delivers changes to the MiniPlayer, like a new album artwork view and a progress bar. Needless to say, those changes are combined with the typical performance improvements and bug squashes. 

You can download iTunes 11.0.3 now through Software Update or via the Apple Website.

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A Look at Cable And Many Alternatives For Watching Films And TV

Given all the amazing video content available online for free or for very little money, I simply cannot fathom ever paying for a cable TV service. Movies, television shows old and new, the daily news, recorded comedy stand-up specials, and live sports are all available via the Internet, not to mention the ever-growing cache of home videos featuring adorable cats, puppies, hedgehogs, and other precious creatures riding Roombas. The Internet is awesome—and I mean that it literally leaves me in awe.

Where can you find all this great stuff to watch?

Note: All the sites and services mentioned in this article appear in a complete list on the final page of this article, alongside some additional resources. You're welcome!

Specific Networks and Television Shows (Free)
When there's a current television show that you want to watch as close to the release date as possible for free, start by going to show's or host network's website. For example, PBS can quench your Downton Abbey craving, or you can let your kids get their fill of Bert and Ernie from a selection of rotating videos on SesameStreet. Each night's episode of The Daily Show is posted on TheDailyShow the next day. Modern Family appears on ABC.Go shortly after airing, and so on and so forth. Likewise NBC, CBS, and Fox all have limited content to view for free right on their sites.

New episodes usually don't have a long shelf-life though (networks often take them down within a few days), and not every show is available online for free. So this method works only for specific series that you want to follow actively and plan to watch as within a few days of a new episode airing.

All these options are free, and there are many more ways to pay to view specific television shows, which I've included in the next section.

Specific Shows and Movies (Paid)
When you've exhausted your free options and can't find the specific television show you want to watch (in a legal way), you can turn to either à la carte services or subscriptions.

With iTunes (the software is free; prices for content vary), you can buy single episodes as well as season packs of thousands of television shows for a few dollars. You'll often see an option to rent the content instead to save a little bit of money. When you buy television episodes or movies through iTunes, you can download them and watch them offline, which is good to know if you want to save a video to an iOS device and watch it while on a flight without having to pay for Wi-Fi. You can watch iTunes content on any device that can connect to your Apple account. [Source]

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Apple Presents a Patent System For Buying And Selling iTunes 2nd Hand Digital Content

We’re living in a digital world these days, and more and more of our music and video is being consumed via online methods. Apple’s iTunes is one of the forerunners when it comes to offering music, movies and indeed TV shows to customers all over the globe. Even today though, there are some people who don’t want to buy their content online and would rather pick up CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays instead.

If you talk to these people, one of the main reasons for their reluctance to buy online content is the fact that they can’t sell that content at a later date. Being able to move discs on has created a vibrant 2nd-hand market for all manner of content, but that’s just not possible if you buy from iTunes, for example.

In order to help ease such concerns, Apple has patented a new system that would make it possible for people to buy and sell 2nd-hand content at will, removing possibly the last roadblock to online content domination and perhaps putting the final nail in the coffin for solid state distribution.

The patent itself allows for content to be moved between users, with the rights to play that content being transferred along with it. This would allow for authentication to play that content to be switched from the seller, to the buyer. Importantly, there would also be a revenue model which would see a a portion of the sale money going to the copyright holder – something that has always been a stumbling block when it comes to such ideas.

Interestingly, Apple is not the only retailer of digital content to peruse the idea of offering a 2nd-hand market. Amazon, too, has its own patent for such a system, with the addition of the ability to lock content after it has changed hands a given number of times.

Both Apple and Amazon know that content is the key to keeping users within their own ecosystems, be that iTunes or Amazon’s own solution. Offering the ability to sell that content on to other users could see more skeptical people trying out the wares on offer by both Apple and Amazon and as a result, hardware sales could increase.

With that in mind it’s not difficult to see the motivation for Apple here, but as always, it will need the green light from copyright holders before anything gets pushed out into the market.

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