iTunes

This weekend I stumbled across the ESPN ScoreCenter app. And let me tell you this app is a must have for any sports nut or even a non-sports nut like myself.

Here's a novel idea: Geoff Smith, a musician and creator of jingles who got his start doing theme songs for hundreds of top podcasts and eventually also online advertising and marketing firms, has created a ringtone service. You subscribe to his podcast, and each week you receive a new ringtone, plus get access to previous ringtones.

 Apple just released (within the past half hour) iTunes 8.1 and it seems to be "zippier".

They also have a new system for App Store reviews, where you can filter reviews by a particular version.

The primary enhancements for iTunes 8.1 relate to the new iPod Shuffle, introduced today, but there are quite a few other new features.  Here's the Readme:

What's new in iTunes 8.1

Apple announced today that nearly all of the music sold on iTunes will be 100% DRM free. DRM, or Digital Rights Management, has been the bane of the music downloading world since its inception. DRM is a security method to prevent people from copying and distributing music illegally which sounds good on the surface but because of the complexity of our changing lives and music playing products only proved to hamper and anger consumers.

I'm writing an article for our printed publication, detailing my experience developing an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

While Apple prides themselves in simplicity, developing an app was rather tricky.  However, the results have been rewarding.