iTunes Tutorials: Learn to use iTunes fast.

Just got a new iPod? Then visit iTunes Tutorials. It provides a fast and easy way to learn how to get the most out of iTunes. Short videos show you how to Sync Your iPod, Import Music from CDs, Create Playlists, Get Free Podcasts, Shop the iTunes Store, and more. Of course, if you’re giving a friend a new iPod this holiday season, be sure to send your lucky recipient to iTunes Tutorials website. It’s the perfect place to help them get started with iTunes. [Dec 21, 2007]

Coppola/Murch: Second Youth

For “Youth without Youth,” his first film in ten years, Francis Ford Coppola returned to self-funded, low-budget filmmaking and to longtime collaborator and Oscar-winning film editor Walter Murch. It took six months for Murch and crew to edit the film, and they depended on Final Cut Studio throughout the six-month editing process. “In the final stages of editing the film, we were working with the ultimate resolution of the film,” says Murch. “So really, the final film, other than the color correction, came out of our editing rooms on Final Cut Pro—in this case Final Cut literally was the final cut.” [Dec 21, 2007]

Charity Checks: the Gift of Giving

Run completely on Macs, Charity Checks is a giving program that lets you make contributions to any charity while your gift recipient chooses the cause. With Charity Checks everyone comes out a winner. [Dec 20, 2007]

Reaching new heights with LaunchSquad

Their clients have exciting new products we’ll want to use; cutting-edge stories we need to hear. Who better to spread the word than LaunchSquad. One of the world’s fastest growing PR firms, LaunchSquad wants to excite people about the new ideas and technologies offered by the companies they represent. And they depend on their Macs to get the story out, supplementing traditional PR tools with audio, video and other Web 2.0 techniques. We’re “building stories about our clients using new communications channels such as blogs and podcasts,” says founding member Jason Throckmorton. “And we couldn’t do it without our Macs.” [Dec 20, 2007]

Pro Tip of the Week: Scheduling iCal via Mail

You get an email confirming your registration for a Final Cut Studio seminar. Next step: adding the event to your iCal schedule. Since you’re using Mac OS X Leopard, you don’t even have to leave Mail or open iCal. That’s because Leopard introduces a new technology called Data Detectors that lets your Mac recognize dates, email addresses, physical addresses, and other similar data. In this case, Mail can take advantage of Data Detectors to create a new iCal event for you. Find out how by reading the Pro Tip of the Week. [Dec 20, 2007]

“Aperture has given me a really elegant solution”

“John McDermott’s workflow once consisted of handing off rolls of Kodachrome to a courier and waiting to see which images appeared in Newsweek,” writes Derrick Story (digitalmedia.oreilly). But now Aperture has transformed McDermott’s workflow. “It’s basically brought everything under one roof for me,” the assignment photographer tells Story in the latest Inside Aperture podcast. Aperture allows him to “download, edit, caption, and correct images” in the post-production tool McDermott describes as “a really elegant solution, and a simple one.” [Dec 19, 2007]

Spreading the love of physics. On iTunes.

“Walter H. G. Lewin, 71, a physics professor, has long had a cult following at M.I.T. And he has now emerged as an international Internet guru, thanks to the global classroom the institute created to spread knowledge through cyberspace,” writes Sara Rimer (New York Times). Due to MIT OpenCourseWare, the “global classroom” that delivers more than 1800 courses via the MIT website, Lewin receives fan mail from students all over the world. “Professor Lewin revels in his fan mail and in the idea that he is spreading the love of physics. ’Teaching is my life,‘ he said.” Like to sit in on a physics course taught by Professor Lewin? You can download free video podcasts of his lectures on iTunes. [Dec 19, 2007]

Quick Tip of the Week: Private Browsing

Surf private. To keep you safe when you visit sites on a borrowed or public computer, Safari offers an option called Private Browsing. When it’s activated, Safari stops adding the sites you visited to History, removes items you’ve downloaded from the Downloads window, eliminates personal data from AutoFill, and doesn’t add your search terms to the pop-up menu in the Google search box. How can you take advantage of Private Browsing? Find out by watching our Quick Tip of the Week. [Dec 17, 2007]

iPhone a “clear winner in North America”

Seth Weintraub (computerworld) reports that a survey conducted by Canalys for Symbian “shows that iPhone sales are second only to Blackberry in North America. That means that iPhone has passed Windows Mobile, Palm and Linux in sales in North America.” [Dec 17, 2007]

iPhone most popular Google search term

The editors at tech.com.uk report that Google Zitgeist 2007, the “list of the most popular search terms it processed in” 2007 “has just been made public and, as expected, is topped by everybody’s favourite gadget, Apple’s iPhone. The iconic device was the fastest-rising search term both globally and in the US, which is where most of Google’s stats are drawn from.” [Dec 17, 2007]

The iPhone tops Gen-Y wishlists

According to Jonny Evans (Macworld), “iPhones are the most popular mobiles on the Christmas wish lists of 13 to 25-year-olds in the US.” As he explains, “the statistics drawn from the survey of 1,175 Gen-Y consumers are a ’bellwether for up-and-coming consumer trends,’ said Murtaza Hussain, chief executive officer at Peanut Labs.” [Dec 17, 2007]

Picasa retooled for iPhone

Bryan Gardiner (wired.com) reports that Google has optimized its popular Picasa photo service for the iPhone. He quotes Google software engineer Joe Walnes as saying: “Today, I’m happy to tell you that we’ve just released this new iPhone interface for Picasa. After you go to Picasa on your iPhone and log in, you can quickly see all your albums that you’ve uploaded to Picasa web. If you click on any of the albums, you can get a full view of your picture with comments from your friends.” [Dec 17, 2007]

Five stars for iPod nano

After thoroughly testing the new iPod nano, Dan Frakes (Macworld) concludes that “it’s been improved in almost every way.” It offers “very good sound quality, excellent battery life,” and an “improved user interface.” And one great screen for watching video. “Even though this is the smallest video-playing screen we’ve used, after watching a 90-minute movie on the nano we were pleasantly surprised by the experience. Picture quality is comparable to that of the iPhone, just smaller.” [Dec 17, 2007]

Keynote a thrill ride for Gillispie School students

For the students in Laura Sanderford’s sixth-grade science class, Keynote ’08 proved to be a roller-coaster experience. And they loved every minute of it. Having just learned about Newton’s laws of physics and researched the history of roller coasters, the class next built their own roller coasters as a science project. To share their experiences with other students, Sanderford’s class turned to Keynote. “The intuitive, seamless way that Keynote works with iLife made the project not only fun, but extremely easy,” she says. “The kids could edit videos with iMovie, and make their own music and record their thoughts with GarageBand, and then bring it all into Keynote. Everything works together so fluidly.” [Dec 17, 2007]

Bemidji State University bullish on Boot Camp

“With the Intel Macs,” explains Brian Allen, director of technical support at Bemidji State University in Minnesota, “students now have the potential to have both systems on their machines, so they can run both Windows and Macintosh applications. They can easily switch between Apple’s iLife suite and AutoCad. It’s the best of both worlds; they’ll really have two computers for the price of one.” In addition to offering students more flexibility, Allen and his team discovered that “Windows applications run faster on the Mac.” Best of all, dual-booting Mac computers offer BSU “the potential to save $150,000 to $200,000 a year in lab hardware purchases.” What’s next for Boot Camp at BSU? [Dec 17, 2007]

T-Pain: Sprung

“I can do it anywhere,” says the five-time Grammy nominee T-Pain. He can handle any aspect of music production—from composing to recording to mixing—wherever he happens to be. “All I need is my laptop, a hard drive and a controller and I have a full studio in my bag. And it sounds good — most of my stuff that’s on the radio now was straight out of Logic.” Logic Studio is so powerful, in fact, that T-Pain beams that “ I haven’t found anything that I can’t do in the program. I just get more and excited about it and now I tell everybody to use Logic.” [Dec 14, 2007]

“We’re iMac converts”

Calling iMac a “metal-clad masterpiece,” James Holland (t3.com) gives the popular all-in-one computer a 5-star rating (out of five). “Overall,” he says, “ the build quality, slick and tasteful aluminium finish, huge screen and jaw-dropping keyboard make this a winner. Paired with OS X and iLife ‘08, this is simply the finest all-in-one your money can muster. We’re iMac converts, and we couldn’t be happier.” [Dec 13, 2007]

Time names iPhone the Top Gadget of 2007

Saying that iPhone “changed the way we think about how mobile media devices should look, feel and perform,” Time Magazine put iPhone at the top of its list of “Top 10 Gadgets.” iPhone’s design, Time says, “is exceptional inside and out: It’s got a slick glass-and-stainless steel case and an elegant touch screen loaded with eye candy. It’s an iPod and a 2-megapixel camera. Images and video clips display vertically or horizontally—they reorient themselves depending on how you hold the thing. When the phone detects a wireless network within range—your own home wi-fi set up or somebody else’s—it lets you tap once to connect, and then proceed with your Web surfing, Google mapping, emailing and other activities.” [Dec 12, 2007]

Pro Tip of the Week: Browsing files with Cover Flow

Now you can browse the files on your Mac as easily—and enjoyably—as you breeze through album covers in iTunes or flip through photos on your iPhone or iPod touch. Just choose Cover Flow (a new viewing option in Mac OS X Leopard) instead of Icon, List, or Column view in your Finder window. Learn how you can “Go with the Flow”—and pick up some handy keyboard Cover Flow shortcuts—by reading our latest Pro Tip of the Week. [Dec 12, 2007]

Hit TV programming now available on iTunes Store in Canada

Canadian TV viewers can now visit the iTunes Store in Canada and find programming from Canada’s top networks, US broadcasters, and the National Hockey League (NHL). Now available for just CAN$1.99 per episode, programs include such Canadian-produced favorites as the top-rated and award-winning Corner Gas (CTV), the smash hit comedy Little Mosque on the Prairie (CBC), Emmy and Peabody Award-winning South Park (Comedy Central), and the NHL Games of the Year. [Dec 12, 2007]

• Apple Announces Hit Television Programming Now Available on the iTunes Store in CanadaDecember 12, 2007 7:46 AM PST
• The Apple Store West 14th Street to Open on Friday, December 7December 6, 2007 8:33 AM PST
• Apple releases Final Cut Express 4November 15, 2007 5:46 AM PST
• iPhone on Sale This Friday Night at Apple, O2 and Carphone Warehouse Retail Stores in the UKNovember 6, 2007 12:01 AM PST
• Apple Sells Two Million Copies of Mac OS X Leopard in First WeekendOctober 30, 2007 4:30 AM PDT
• T-Mobile and Apple Announce Rate Plans for iPhone in Germany Starting at just €49 per monthOctober 29, 2007 2:08 PM PDT
• More press releases...