Apple Preparing To Increase The Length of iTunes Previews to 90 Seconds

According to Symphonic Distribution (via MacRumors) Apple has sent notifications out to music labels to communicate that they’re getting ready to extend iTunes Music previews from 30 seconds to 90 seconds for songs that are at least 2 minutes and 30 seconds long.

We have just received the notification from Apple that this will be happening soon and are very excited to report the news as we firmly believe this is a decision that will show an increase of sales for our partners. Below is an excerpt from the email we have received.

As you can see in the screenshot above, by continuing to offer music on the iTunes Store labels agree to the new terms. Previews for songs shorter than 2 minutes and 30 seconds won’t change to the new 90 second clip format.

CNET posted a rumor claiming that iTunes previews were set to change to 90 seconds two days before Apple’s music event in September.

Dribbblr: Elegant Dribbble Client for iPad

I wanted to write about this app before, but I couldn’t manage to get it working properly on my iPad running iOS 4.2 beta. Luckily enough, the Tapmates developers worked hard on releasing a compatibility update, and here I am testing Dribbblr on my iPad running iOS 4.2 GM. Dribbblr is a free client for Dribbble.com, a gallery of great works submitted by popular and new designers who managed to get an invite to the website. It’s a great place to discover new talents and, why not, new apps coming out on iOS and OS X.

You can browse Dribbble from your iPad without an account, but thanks to the recently opened API Dribbblr adds native features like a completely redesigned interface and navigation that wraps Dribbble’s screenshots around a polished and minimal iPad interface. The app is free, but you can upgrade to a Pro version via in-app purchase ($2.99) that removes all the ads, although they’ve been cleverly integrated in the “timeline” and they’re good-looking enough to not get in the way all the time. Read more

Mac OS X Dock Built Using CSS3

We featured cool CSS experiments before: iOS icons in CSS, a Kinetic type video, a 3D rotating molecules demo that works great on the iPad earlier today.

Web developer and interface designer Michael Hüneburg, rebuilt the standard OS X dock using CSS3 animation and including reflections, bounce effects, labels. He also used some additional icons inspired to the popular iTunes 10 one. Check out the experiment here.

This is a quick CSS3 experiment trying to replicate the Dock of OS X, complete with labels, animations, reflections and indicators. It uses CSS transitions for the magnification effect and the :target pseudo-class and CSS animations for the bouncing effect.

The CSS-based dock works great on Webkit desktop browsers, but you won’t able to get the magnification effect on iOS due to the obvious lack of mouseover events.

JotAgent for Dropbox: 5 Promo Codes Up for Grabs

JotAgent is a neat little utility for iPhone and iPad that lets you quickly save notes in Dropbox with literally two taps. I reviewed it here a few weeks ago:

The concept is simple: you link the app to your Dropbox account, you fire it up and start writing. With the tap of a button, the note gets quickly saved in Dropbox. That’s it. You can then browse all the notes you saved, or simply write a new one.

JotAgent is not a tool for professional writers: it’s a lightweight app to “jot” down an idea and have it stored on Dropbox, which runs on your iOS devices, the web and Mac. It’s a great way to save random ideas, thoughts and pieces of text in a service that works anywhere, on any device.

The app is available at $0.99 in the App Store, but in case you haven’t bought it yet we have 5 promo codes up for grabs. Jump after the break, check out the giveaway rules and good luck!

Read more

Also From Steve Jobs: Final Cut Studio Ain’t Dead

Looks like the chief is back to organizing his inbox and replying to angry customers asking about Apple stuff. MacRumors reported of iTunes LP and Extra coming to the new Apple TV, and now according to a new email published by 9to5mac el Jobso suggested a reader to “stay tuned” for a Final Cut Studio update and “buckle up”.

Reader Evan Agee recently e-mailed the man in charge about the lack of a Final Cut Studio announcement at Apple’s Back to the Mac event and also threw in his hopes for a 64-bit update. Jobs’ reply?

Stay tuned and buckle up.
Sent from my iPhone

We are tuned in, Steve.

Steve Jobs Confirms iTunes Extras and iTunes LP “Coming” to Apple TV

Apple introduced iTunes Extras and LPs together with iTunes 9 in September 2009, but they never really took off. With a recent email reply to a MacRumors reader, though, Steve Jobs confirmed support for the two features is coming to the 2nd gen Apple TV, which being based on iOS doesn’t support Extras and LP out of the box.

Q: I’ve been a massive fan of the original Apple TV since it launched, in fact I have 2 of my own and have bought a fair few as gifts over the years. So as soon as the new Apple TV was released I bought one. Overall it’s a fantastic update for me as I always stream from my Mac mini anyway. But here’s the kicker - Where are iTunes Extras and iTunes LP gone? I’ve purposely been buying content with those features just for my Apple TVs. And now the features are unusable on my new box?! Is there an update coming to fix this?

A: Coming.

Sent from my iPhone.

Apple is expected to release a firmware update for the Apple TV to bring full support for AirPlay, and that would be the right time to bring iTunes LP and Extra compatibility back as well. The update could drop as early as next week, but when it comes to Jobs’ emails you never know if he’s joking or not. As MacRumors also speculates, iTunes LPs would make perfect sense on the iPad, with a larger screen capable of really enriching the experience of music albums and videos. Personally, I think that’d be the only way I could ever buy an iTunes LP.

3D Rotating Molecules On The iPad Will Blow Your Mind

Speaking of cool webapps running just fine on the iPad and iPhone: check out this cool demo of molecules rotating in 3D on the iPad (where the jaw-dropping effect is guaranteed), iPhone and any other browser that supports 3D transformations. Everything is accomplished through CSS, the developer says.

To accomplish this in CSS, we take advantage of a technique called “billboarding”. Billboarding involves rotating an object (in our case, each of the colored balls), in such as way that it remains facing directly at the camera at all times. This is a fairly common technique in the world of 3D gaming, used to render things such as trees and grass — and in our case, it gives the illusion that the circles are really spheres.

Try it yourself, it’s impressive. Yet more proof that the open web is more than welcome on iOS.

MacStories Giveaway: 5 iUseMac Bundles Up For Grabs

Yesterday we talked about a new Mac bundle from iUseMac which, in collaboration with ItaliaMac, is offering 9 great Mac apps (including the names of Picturesque, Renamer and Clean Text) at the price of $29. If you haven’t purchased the bundle yet (it expires in two weeks), you can get the chance to win one of the 5 bundles we have up for grabs here on MacStories.

Check out the giveaway rules below, and take at iUseMac’s included apps here. Read more

TabLinks 2.0: Safari Extension To Gather Links From Your Open Tabs

I’m not a Safari user anymore, but this extension from Brett Terpstra was just too cool to not mention it: with the click of a button, TabLinks can fill a pre-defined template with information about your open tabs. URL, title, window info – you name it. If you’re that type of user who always feels like he’s got too many tabs open at the same time and would like to save them for later, that’s exactly where TabLinks comes in handy. Read more