Software : iTunes sells enough songs to give everyone in the world four tunes

iTunes sells enough songs to give everyone in the world four tunes
Instagram photo feeds hit the web, mobile-only now a distant memory
Channel 4 releases 4oD app for Android, pair no longer 'Undateable'
Jelly Bean update headed to BlackBerry Android runtime, eventually

iTunes sells enough songs to give everyone in the world four tunes

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iTunes has reached another landmark - 25 billion songs have been bought through the service, according to Apple.

On average, it's selling more than 15,000 songs a minute, Apple's latest stats say.

The lucky fellow who downloaded the 25 billionth tune was awarded a 10,000 euro iTunes Gift Card as a reward. That man was Philip Lupke from Germany, and the milestone song was Monkey Drums (Goksel Vancin Remix) by Chase Buch. Us neither.

26m song catalogue

iTunes now has a catalogue of more than 26 million songs and is available in 119 countries, since it expanded at the end of last year. Just before Christmas, the service rolled out to another 56 nations.

iTunes 11 launched just a few days earlier. iTunes Match, Apple's cloud music storage service, is available in all countries where you can get the music software.

And all this despite iTunes' much criticised clunky, non-intuitive interface and processor-sapping performance.

Instagram photo feeds hit the web, mobile-only now a distant memory

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Not so long ago, visitors to Instagram.com were greeted with a simple holding page pointing at the all-important iPhone and Android apps, but the times, as the fella says, are a-changin'.

Soon after Facebook got its claws into the hipster-friendly photo sharing app, Instagram launched web profiles, complete with vanity URLs to showcase each user's filtered creations.

On Tuesday the company took matters a step further by transporting photo feeds to the web, in another departure from its long-held, mobile-only focus.

Co-founder Kevin Systrom said the web expansion was about making Instagram "even more accessible to our growing community," and bringing wider access on devices that "may be convenient to you at a given moment."

Uploads staying mobile-only

Users can now log into their accounts at Instagram.com and see their friends' snaps displayed just as they would on and iOS or Android device. A user's own profile is also just a click away.

The browser-based feed behaves in very much the same way as the mobile app. A double-click 'likes' the photo in question, while its also easy to leave and view comments.

The last bastion of mobile exclusivity is now the upload process itself and Systrom was quick to assure that this functionality would not be coming to the web any time soon.

"Since our launch in October of 2010, we've focused on building a simple app that has inspired creativity while capturing everyday moments through the lens of your mobile phone," he wrote on the company blog.

"We do not offer the ability to upload from the web as Instagram is about producing photos on the go, in the real world, in realtime."

Channel 4 releases 4oD app for Android, pair no longer 'Undateable'

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Channel 4's 4oD catch-up app has finally been released for Android smartphones and tablets long after its launch on Apple's iOS platform.

The free, on-demand service brings access to the last 30 days of programming from Channel 4, More 4 and E4, which includes The Undateables, Peep Show, Utopia and Embarrassing Fat Bodies.

There's also an A-Z library featuring a host of classic Channel 4 archive content like Father Ted, The IT Crowd and The Inbetweeners for fans of the old school.

The app offers unlimited, free streaming over Wi-Fi, but doesn't accommodate playback over mobile networks at present.

No Live TV...yet

However, the app doesn't facilitate the Live TV functionality promised by Channel 4 late last year, but we suppose it's important for C4 to walk on Android before it starts to run.

"We're pleased to be able to extend our successful video-on-demand service to this range of modern Android devices with a dedicated 4oD app," said Sarah Milton, head of video on demand at Channel 4.

"Users will now be able to catch up on their favourite Channel 4 shows and enjoy many more classics from the Channel 4 archive via their smartphones and tablets," she added.

To use the app you'll need to be running Android 4.0 and above, while C4 claims it has been specially optimised for the Google Nexus 7, Google Nexus 4, the Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy Tab 10.1 and, curiously, the ancient HTC Desire S.

Jelly Bean update headed to BlackBerry Android runtime, eventually

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What good is a tool like Android runtime if it's not even up to date?

Thankfully, BlackBerry announced on Tuesday at the BlackBerry Jam Europe event in Amsterdam that the Android runtime environment will eventually be updated to Android 4.1: Jelly Bean.

Android runtime allows developers to re-package Android apps for use on BlackBerry, but it's currently stuck at Android 2.3.3: Gingerbread.

The newly renamed company reportedly announced that Jelly Bean is in the works for Android runtime at the developer-oriented event, later confirming the news with Engadget, though it provided no time frame for when Jelly Bean might arrive.

Jelly Bean apps on the Z10

BlackBerry Z10 owners will certainly benefit from an update Android runtime environment, as it ushers more up-to-date Android apps through a shortcut onto the BlackBerry 10 platform.

As of Monday, it seemed the BB Z10 could be released in the U.S. on March 27, though the BB10 flagship is already available elsewhere. And, from the looks of it, the phone is selling quite well.

Time for an update

Good on BlackBerry for bothering to upgrade Android runtime - no doubt the Canadian phone maker would rather see developers port their apps to run natively on BB10, but runtime provides an easy (if imperfect) alternative.

As it stands, Android runtime is like a version of Wine for Mac, which allows Windows apps to be packaged individually for use on Apple's OS without need for a Windows OS license, that's only compatible with Windows XP software.

It's true that some emulators, like those for retro video game systems, are meant to preserve old software, but when it comes to Android runtime we'd rather have it as current as possible.

Yahuui Blog

Wednesday, February 6, 2013