iTunes U is a section of the iTunes store that houses educational audio and video files for free use by anyone.
iTunes U is a part of the iTunes Store featuring free lectures, language lessons, audiobooks, and more, that you can enjoy on your iPod, iPhone, Mac or PC. Explore over 75,000 educational audio and video files from top universities, museums and public media organizations from around the world. With iTunes U, there's no end to what or where you can learn.
Check it out in the iTunes Store. iTunes U includes the formidable series of podcasts from the University of Oxford. (via vsl)
MacRumors has the scoop.
Once again, digging through Apple's XML files has revealed the url to the iPhone 2.0 Firmware that is presently available on Apple's servers.
Here's the direct download link. Be sure to read all the disclaimers at MacRumors...this is not an official Apple release and should be treated with caution. (Basically, don't try this at home, kids.) And once again, here's the link to the App Store so that you can install all the shiny new iPhone apps.
iTunes 7.7 became available last night and with it, the capability to buy applications to put on your iPhone. Well, you can't actually put them on your phone yet, but you can buy/download them. Here's a link to all iPhone Apps and here's a link to just the free ones. I can't seem to get the link for the main store's page, but the easiest way to get there is to click on "Applications" in your iTunes Library and click "Get More Applications".
The new iPhone software will likely be out later today so that you can actually install and use these apps.
Update: Here's the link for the iPhone Apps Store. (thx, carl)
After months/years of the band putting the kibosh on it, Radiohead albums are finally available through iTunes. (The albums have been available at Amazon's MP3 store for months.)
As rumored yesterday, the iTunes Store has added some HBO shows to their lineup. The initial offerings are the first seasons of The Wire, Flight of the Conchords, Rome, and Deadwood, as well as seasons 1 and 6 of the Sopranos and all of Sex in the City. Prices are between $2-3 per episode. (thx, dhrumil)
In the ongoing battle between the iTunes Music Store and Amazon's MP3 store, Amazon is giving a 20% referral fee to their associates for each song sold through the end of the year. Wow. That's $1.80 on a $8.99 album...I wonder if Amazon's selling these for below cost (like they did with Harry Potter.) (via nelson)
Hotel Chevalier, the short film by Wes Anderson that takes place before the action in The Darjeeling Limited, is available at the iTunes Music Store for free.
Amazon has launched their mp3 music store. Files are in mp3 format, no DRM, high bitrate (high quality), and songs are mostly 89-99 cents. A compelling alternative to Apple's iTMS.
Apple and EMI jointly announced earlier this week that the iTMS would offer EMI's music without DRM and at a bitrate of 256 kps instead of 128 kps. Twice the bitrate = twice as good, yeah? Not so fast...you might not even notice the difference.
Apple will begin to sell DRM-free songs from EMI via the iTunes Music Store in May. The songs are higher quality but will cost slightly more ($1.29 vs $0.99 for the DRM version). It'll be interesting to see how many people choose to buy the non-DRM stuff at the higher price. My feeling is that typical consumers won't care that much...lower price will win out over slightly higher quality and some nebulous future flexibility. I bet EMI is even half-hoping for failure on this thing: "see, customers *want* DRM..."
Steve Jobs' thoughts on music and DRM. Sounds like he'd rather that music sold via the iTMS didn't have DRM built in.
Music industry: CD prices are being driven down by $9.99 albums on iTunes Music Store. "Physical retailers are pressuring the labels downward on price (of course, Wal-Mart is the biggest culprit) because they don't want to be undercut by iTunes 9.99 on all single albums. We're rapidly moving to a 9.99 world on the big sellers (the ones stocked in Target and Wal-Mart and Best Buy)."
John Hodgman reports that the audiobook for The Areas of My Expertise is available for free at the iTunes Music Store.
Update: From what I can tell from the first 3:34, THIS IS THE WORLD"S BEST AUDIOBOOK!1!!
