Hasta La Gadget!

Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services and Ferrari board member, is Apple’s do everything, fix any problem man. According to WSJ, he’s the guy who’s in charge of fixing Apple Maps and Siri. More »

It’s time to give your best buddy Chris Kringle the gift of iTunes music on Facebook – straight through the social network’s own gift-giving portal. This update brings Facebook Gifts up to a very real existence once again, reminding us that you’re able to not just give your friends a bunch of digital stickers, but real-world physical gifts like cookies and ice cream. What better way to tell your buddy you love them than with digital cash given through your favorite social network?

Some Facebook gifts are as odd as a pair of chopsticks while others are as fabulous as a jar of cookies – literally. Most of the items given away by people working with Facebook Gifts are simple and small – fitting in perfectly with the iTunes Gift Card way of giving. It’s the perfect “everyone wants one of these” gifts. And from Apple’s perspective, it’s the gift that keeps on giving.

When Apple sells an iTunes Gift Card to a user who owns an iPhone, they download a collection of music tracks and have extra cash left over – better spend just a little bit more to get that last app! If they sell an iTunes Gift Card to a person giving that card to someone who only has a desktop machine, they need iTunes to use it. They’ll also feel inclined to purchase an Apple device on which they can play the music or movie they purchase – this media doesn’t go anywhere else.

With Facebook being a newly more integral part of the iOS experience, it’s only fitting that Apple would continue to add its services and connections in with Facebook for all. Now we’ve got to decide if it feels too impersonal to get a gift card without actually getting the plastic. Such is the intricacy of holiday gift giving!

Facebook gifts adds iTunes cards to the fold is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you like some of the music that AC/DC has made over the years, like me, it probably pains you to pay full price for a complete album when you only want a couple tracks. Sadly, AC/DC has kept their music off the iTunes digital music store so no one could buy individual tracks – until now. AC/DC’s full catalog is finally available on iTunes.

That means all sixteen of the band’s studio albums, along with four live albums, and three compilation albums are now available to purchase as digital tracks. Apple is also offering two exclusive iTunes collections. Naturally, one of those collections is called The Collection and gives you all sixteen studio albums for $99.99 (USD).

The other special collection only available on iTunes is called The Complete Collection, which includes all the studio albums, live albums, and box sets for $149.99. The best news is that fans can now purchase any individual track they want from any of the bands albums.

For those about to download, we salute you.

While Apple hasn’t officially announced that they’ve passed the 1 million mark as far as iOS apps (their most recent announcement was for 700,000 apps), iTunes App Store discovery company Appsfire says that over 1 million apps have been submitted and approved in the App Store since its launch over four years ago in July 2008.

However, Apple only usually focuses on the number of live apps in the App Store, not the total number of apps that have been approved over the years, so it’s unlikely that we’ll hear an announcement from Apple about this. Regardless, Appsfire tweeted today that iTunes App Store has been home to 1 million iOS apps.

Ouriel Ohayon, co-founder of Appsfire, provided some statistics of the different apps and how the App Store sits today. Out of the 1 million apps that have been approved since 2008, almost half of them are paid apps, and roughly 160,000 of the 1 million apps are games. Currently, there’s just over 736,000 apps that are currently live in the App Store, 45% of which are paid apps, while 16% are games.

Because the App Store has seen developers remove their apps, the live number of apps is below the number of total submissions that Apple has approved. However, Apple says that there are around 400 million iTunes account holders who have teamed up to download iOS apps 35 billion times. Android’s Google Play store is slowly creeping up on Apple, though. There’s over 675,000 Android apps currently available, and they’ve seen more than 25 billion downloads.

[via The Next Web]

iTunes App Store reaches 1 million approved apps is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

After 8 long years, Sony has finally given in, offering music from its Japanese artists on iTunes in Japan. This comes after the company’s addition of Western artists to the iTunes store earlier this year. Sony has been experiencing low earnings and is a rival to Apple, which no doubt makes this a bit like salt in the company’s ever-growing wound.

The music is already available, and includes Japanese artists like Ikimonogakari and Toshinobu Kubota, which were previously offered via Recochoku. The music is not DRM’d, which means users can freely swap it amongst all of their devices. The tracks can be downloaded for about $3 each, or $25 for an album. The audio is rated at 256kbps.

This comes after Sony picked up Recochoku, a distributor it used to makes its tracks available to Japanese customers. Perhaps not surprisingly, Sony hasn’t issued any statement or announcement in regards to this change in stance. One must commend the company – ever stubborn and staunchly opposed to using its rival for sales – for holding out as long as it did.

Some analysts believe this move is part of Sony’s overall efforts to gain traction after experiencing its recent losses. Per its last quarter earnings report, the company brought in $20 billion in earnings, a drop of $158 million. Last month, we reported on Sony’s plans to lay off about 2,000 of its workers by the end of this year.

[via TNW]

Sony gives in, adds its music to iTunes in Japan is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.