Your distant dreams of becoming a Jedi Knight just got that much closer, as using Flutter will allow to stop and start music tracks on the iTunes and Spotify programs. It’s just for Mac OS X computers at the moment, as the app utilizes the iSight front-camera contained on those systems and it’s actually remarkable that this idea didn’t happen sooner, or wasn’t an official feature from Apple labs.

At the moment Flutter is still in alpha format, which explains why there is limited functionality at the moment. However, just imagine the possibilities that this app has – i.e being able to change tracks with other gesture movements like a hand swipe for example.

According to the makers, Flutter also works with iTunes video playback, while your gesture movements with also work from a considerable distance away from the computer. If you ever wanted to pretend to your friends that you seemingly have the magic touch of The Force, perhaps this free app is just what you need.

Check out the brief introduction video below to see how this works. We would love to see some further functionality to this and who knows – Apple may decide that this is a stroke of genius and will make the developers at Bot Square a rather sizable offer.

If you have already tried Flutter, let us know your thoughts on it – very impressive right?

More About: Flutter, itunes, spotify

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The iTunes Match subscription service was originally set for launch at the end of October, and allows users to scan their entire music library and replace tracks with higher quality ones from iTunes. These can then be streamed from the cloud. It will work on the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, and PC devices.

This will allow users to either stream or download their music tracks anywhere without having to manually sync to iTunes. Trouble is CNN Money are reporting since the service went live this morning it quickly became oversubscribed. Visitors were being met with a message to come back and try again in an hour, but a day or two might be a better idea.

The service will cost users $24.99 per year and will let you replace those tracks that may not be the best of quality depending on where they come from. If you have some tracks that may have been gained in a not so honest way, these will also be replaced. If iTunes doesn’t recognize a track out of its twenty million tracks, it will just upload the track.

It is not currently known when Apple will be launching the service globally, and if the demand in the US is anything to go by it may be a while yet. Have you signed up for iTunes Match?

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For those that are unfamiliar with the software, it is an application from Apple that allows musicians (novice or experienced) and others interested in music to create their own great sounds and melodies. The software is reportedly so easy to use that even those who have never played an instrument or studied music before will be able to use it. It features Smart Instruments that allow users to select chords from a library offering a wide variety of choice.

Philip Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of worldwide product marketing says ‘The innovative multi-touch interface combined with Smart Instruments makes it easy to create great sounding instruments.’ Users can also mix and record up to eight tracks which can also be shared with friends. When an electric guitar is plugged into any of the devices or another acoustic sound or voice is played through the microphone, it can be played and recorded with stompbox effects or through classic amps.

As PC World explains, for those that already own the app on the iPad, it can be downloaded to their other iOS devices for free, first time users will have to part with $4.99. Support for the app is offered by the fourth and third generation iPod Touch, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS as well as the iPad 2 and iPad. Will you be downloading this app to your iPhone or iPod Touch?

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The iTunes Match service was expected to be released at the end of October in the US and a little later for those in Europe and other countries, but it seems that everyone is still waiting as the 10.5.1 version still hasn’t showed up. While no reason for a delay has been explained as of yet, Apple appear to still be testing the service as they have just released a beta 2 build.

According to BGR reports, the beta 2 went live yesterday, reportedly available to developers for testing on Apple TV, bringing several changes including important performance and stability improvements. iTunes Match allows users to store everything from their iTunes Library in iCloud so they can use the media from it not only on their Apple TV but their computer, iPod Touch, iPad and iPhone anytime, anywhere all for just $25 a year.

The iTunes 10.5 and iOS 5 updates have been receiving great reviews despite the mysterious iTunes Match. The changes include being able to sync any of their devices with iOS 5 to their iTunes account via Wi-Fi, iCloud which lets users store all their purchases in the cloud and being able to purchase an item from any iOS 5 device or computer and download it automatically. What do you think of the changes? Have you had any problems? When do you think the iTunes Match 10.5.1 update will become available?

More About: itunes, iTunes Match

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The artist from The Who feels Apple should do more for musicians and said of the company “whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire Northern Rock”, according to an article on The Guardian. Townshend was talking at a radio industry lecture, and added Apple should take on some A&R executives to look for new talent.

He feels the company should then provide financial and creative support to emerging artists. He had strong words for those who partake in illegal downloading of music and said “If someone pretends that something I have created should be available to them free I wonder what has gone wrong with human morality and social justice.”

Townshend did say that iTunes was a “fantastic piece of software”, but said it only offers distribution and royalties to artists whose music it sold. Artists should be supported in other ways such as free computers and give advice to the 500 Apple felt merited it most. He said it could be like a record label but one that actually made money.

He came up with the idea for a feature on iTunes where artists could share music and make it like a local radio station. On Steve Jobs Townshend said he was “one of the coolest guys on the planet”. Do you think Pete Townshend has a point about iTunes?

More About: apple, itunes, Pete Townshend

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If you’re a fan of the franchise there is no doubt you will the game however it has been adapted into a board game style strategy game as opposed to an RPG, so will bring a completely different experience which players of the series may find hard to get used to. The iOS version will be called Assassin’s Creed Recollection and is expected to be available at iTunes sometime in November.

The game features key locations and characters from the Assassin’s Creed franchise including Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin’s Creed 2. Unfortunately there won’t be any characters from the fourth in the series, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. The gameplay is described as being board game with ‘political battle style’ and also features a multiplayer mode.

As Kotaku explains the game’s campaign is a lengthy 8 -10 hours long, which for an iOS game is pretty good value. Those who download the game will also get the Assassin’s Creed Embers short movie, which follows the life of Ezio Auditore in his last days. When it comes to an actual date and price for the download, it seems Ubisoft are yet to reveal these vital details. In the meantime check out the preview of the Embers short we have below.

Are you pleased to see the franchise make its way to the iOS devices? What are your thoughts on the change in gameplay?

More About: Assassin's Creed, iOS, itunes

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According to AppleInsider Jeff Robbin who is Apple’s vice president and engineer who had also worked on the iPod, is leading the company’s work to release a connected TV that has integrated search functionality.

Sources are claiming that Robbin is heading Apple’s secretive HDTV project, and are attempting to integrate seamless content search features into the unit. This will mean instead of checking if a movie or other content is available through the likes of Netflix, it would all be integrated with the unit.

Robbin had been at Apple working as a software engineer during the 90s before going onto work on his own ideas. While working at Casady & Greene he helped develop SoundJam MP MP3 player software, before Apple bought the rights to this software in 2000. This brought Robbin back into Apple and was in charge of the software being changed into iTunes.

He also had a big part to play in the development of the iPod, and is listed among the inventors of a number of important iPod related patent fillings. Steve Jobs held Robbin in high regard and often kept his role at Apple under wraps. Currently Apple has its $99 set-top box that it often refers to as its little “hobby”.

More About: apple, Apple TV, itunes

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When checking for an update in iTunes you’ll not find the update, at the time of writing, although going to the official Apple website has the download listed as version 10.5.

What’s new in iTunes 10.5? You can now buy music from any computer or iOS 5 devices and have it automatically downloaded; also it is much easier now to download previous purchases. In the past you have to contact iTunes support when you lose a song, book, app, or TV but now this has been made much easier with the ability to download previous purchases from within iTunes 10.5 at no extra cost, although if the store doesn’t have the file anymore then you won’t be able to download it.

Wi-Fi Syncing is another great feature in ITunes 10.5 that lets you sync with any iOS 5 device on your home network, all done wirelessly. The biggest improvement is iCloud, which lets you store all your TV and music purchases in the cloud and can be installed to your iOS devices anywhere. The first 5GB of storage is completely free.

Let us know if you’ve had any problems with iTunes 10.5, and also share feedback on the new features. Those of you in the UK looking for iTunes Match will not find it, although it should become available by the end of 2011.

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We thought we would have a look at last years release to see if we can get an insight as to when we can expect the update, which as we know was much earlier in the year. Let’s have a little history lesson; last year was the launch of iOS 4, which was released on June 21, 2010. However, this would come pre-installed on the iPhone, which was released just a few days later on the 24th.

However, what confuses us is this, iTunes 9.2 was the version that was needed in order to download iOS 4, but this was launched on June 16th. This means that Apple made the updated version of iTunes available 5 days before the new iOS – so why have they not done the same this year? However, in hindsight, this would have been around the time that Steve Jobs sadly passed away, it would have been insensitive to make iTunes 10.5 available for download on or near that day.

Depending who you ask we can expect to see iTunes 10.5 either today or tomorrow. Looking on Apple they just say coming soon. We just hope that this update does not have the same issue that 9.2 had, as Apple had to rush out a few tweaks one month later? Personally I think that the download will happen later today, otherwise Apple could overload their servers if they made it available on the same days as iOS 5. Here’s a checklist before you update.

More About: apple, iOS 5, itunes

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According to AppleInsider twelve European countries now have access to the service following an eight year wait. Consumers in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia can now access the store and download and buy music.

Last week the company also added online stores for customers in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. Presently there is no official online Apple Store in Cyprus, Malta, and Slovenia as there is only a webpage giving where to buy information. The three countries do have access to a standalone iTunes Store though.

Before this news there were reports that only ten more European countries will be getting access to an iTunes Store. This availability will further strengthen Apple’s customer base, and only last June the company announced they had sold more than 15 billion songs since 2003.

Some of the countries can also now buy or rent some movies from the online store, and there are around 270 titles available from the likes of Fox among others. The iBookstore is also now opened to new countries as well, but some that are not in the Euro still have no content on offer.

At the moment there has been no official announcement from Apple regarding the newly opened iTunes Stores. Do you purchase much from iTunes?

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