Do you know those little arrows that appear in iTunes when you have a song selected? You know, the ones that appear just after the title of the song, artist, and album and link to the iTunes Store when clicked? Yeah, those! Well, if you want the arrows to link to your iTunes library instead of Apple's induced store (and another impulse purchase), then just type the following command into Terminal (found in Applications > Utilities):

defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YES

To change things back to normal, just replace the YES in the above command with NO. As some commenters have pointed out, you can temporarily reverse this hack by pressing option and clicking on the arrow.

Want to see more tips like this? Visit TUAW's Terminal Tips and TUAW Tips sections.

Here's something to look forward to. The band Snow Patrol have announced the pending release of their first "interactive album," A Hundred Million Suns, for iPhone and iPod touch via the iTunes Store.

So what's "interactive" about it? According to the band, users will be able to access content like lyrics, additional images and artwork plus video from the iPhone and iPod's touchscreen. The album's project manager called it "...a digital booklet that will take you into the videos and content."

Sounds like a fun way for musical artists to take advantage of touch technology. Expect A Hundred Million Suns to be released in October.

[Via Steve Rubel]

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the sorry state of global search in iTunes. Basically, the iTunes Store has grown so large that it's difficult to find what you're after. Type something into the search field and you'll see results for albums, podcasts, movies, TV season, apps and more. Stop the insanity!

iphonexe is offering a solution for the App Store. They've got 3,000 titles sorted by category. Enter the name of your target application and you're brought to a results page with a summary, version number, screenshots and an App Store (sponsored) link.

They've also got a directory of jailbroken apps which works the same way. It's not the solution I'm looking for, but does limit search results to iPhone/iPod touch apps.

[Via MacNN]

The government of China has blocked access to the entirety of the iTunes store, and the publishers of a single new Tibet-themed album are claiming responsibility.

The album, Songs for Tibet [iTunes link], is a compilation of music by Sting, Alanis Morissette, Garbage and others, plus a 15-minute lecture by the Dalai Lama. The album is being released by the New York City-based Art of Peace Foundation, whose spokesman Michael Wohl said he believed the album was responsible for the outage, but couldn't prove it.

Wohl said the foundation issued a press release claiming 40 Olympic athletes downloaded the album as a display of solidarity, which he suspects triggered the shutdown.

Apple acknowledged that they are "aware of the log-on problems," but wouldn't say how many customers were affected nor comment further. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which regulates Internet use in China, did not comment either.

[Via the Associated Press.]

By definition, nearly all tips we receive about Apple future product intros are wrong. After all, we're not Engadget. People aren't going to risk their jobs to deliver insider information.

That being said, a tip that shot into our mailbox this morning really tickled my fancy: not because I think it's accurate but because I really really want it to be true. Our anonymous tipster laid out a description for iTunes Unlimited that I thought was brilliant. Although this guy (by definition) does not work for Apple, he really ought to.

He suggested that the late September Apple event would introduce several great items that we'd love to see but haven't been holding our breath for. These are disk access for the iPhone and iPod Touch and iTunes Unlimited.

His take on iTunes Unlimited goes as such: For just $129.99 (or $179.99 bundled with MobileMe, or $99 for current MobileMe subscriptions), you would buy unlimited music access for one year. This would offer you 256 Kbps music, or as Steve would boom it, "The highest quality digital music subscription service ever." You could download and play directly on your computer or iPhone/iPod and the option to "buy and keep" would replace the subscription version of a song with a downloaded version.

I totally love this idea. It's not the first iTunes subscription rumor we've heard, either. I'm not betting that would happen. But it brought a huge smile to my morning. What do you think of iTunes Unlimited? If it were available, would you buy it?

Thanks, extremely creative anonymous tipster

Since switching to the Mac full-time last year, my only remaining complaint has been the abysmal (and finicky) FLAC support in iTunes. FLAC, or Free Lossless Audio Codec, is an open source lossless compression format that offers a nice compromise betweeen storing the uncompressed music file -- which is very large -- and converting the file to a lossy format like MP3 or AAC. Apple has its own lossless format, Apple Lossless, and Apple Lossless is great -- but I have lots and lots of live performances archived in FLAC and haven't wanted to spend the time converting all those files so that I can play everything in iTunes. About 6 months ago, I pretty much gave up and started just ripping CDs in Apple Lossless and using Max to convert favorite albums or performances.

Reader Mitchell wrote in and told us about Fluke, which aims to be an easier way to play FLAC files in iTunes. I've used other XiphQT based solutions, but none have worked as well as Fluke. Install Fluke and then open up a FLAC file with it (or drag your FLAC files to the icon) and it automatically runs a script that tricks iTunes into adding a FLAC file to the library. For the most part, tagging and even album art will be converted -- though I did have to add track numbers to some of the files I tested. It isn't as seamless as an actual FLAC player, like Cog, but it is certainly more hassle-free than some of the other script-based solutions I've used in the past.

Fluke is free and available for download here.

Thanks Mitchell!

A little friend showed up yesterday on Boot Camp-equipped Intel Macs and PCs with Apple apps (iTunes, Safari, QuickTime) installed -- an update to the updater that updates our updating. Apple Software Update 2.1.1 for Windows is out... there's no download page at Apple, so for now the only way to get your hands on it is via the existing Apple Software Update on your machine.

What does it do? Well, it improves security and overall reliability. Recommended for all users. Keeps your refrigerator smelling fresh and can be used as a dentrifice ... wait, no, sorry, wrong stuff. If you do install the update and you notice any changes, positive or negative, do let us know.

Thanks Adam!

I should say, even before I start this post, that I've moved my iTunes library from one installation of iTunes to another, and what I did was just copy everything in the /Music/iTunes folder from one Mac to the other. But that's the transfer equivalent of parallel parking a semi and stopping when it "feels right" -- it worked for me, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone else. I also have almost no iTunes purchased music in my library, and that's likely not the case for anyone else.

Fortunately, for people who don't enjoy playing Russian Roulette with their iTunes library transfers (and don't want to buy the software for it), here's a quick and easy guide to how to transfer everything over properly, and make sure that all the little hooks and crannies line up correctly in the new installation -- specifically, iTunes keeps an XML file that tracks where everything is, and you've got to change paths (using a quick find and replace) on all the tracks in your library. iTunes will then use that XML file to backup its own records, and then you're hunky dory.

What I can't find, according to this guide, is what damage I may have caused to my system by just hauling everything in and starting up iTunes -- I checked the Location key on both my new Mac and the old one, and the Locations are completely different, without me ever changing them. Either way, even though I throw around my libraries with abandon (look Ma, no backup!), you'd probably much rather be safe than sorry.

Thanks, Robert!

Since the introduction of the App Store, the iPhone and iPod touch backup procedure has become quite time-consuming. The Panama Canal was constructed in less time. Fortunately, the impatient can speed up (or kill) the process in one of three ways.

The first is the simplest. When the backup begins, simply click the small "x" that appears in iTunes' main window. This will halt the backup but continue the sync, so those new podcasts you've downloaded will get transferred.

The second procedure is a bit more involved. Open a Terminal window and type the following:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool true

That will kill the backup procedure until you enable it again by typing

defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool false

Just be aware that this method also kills SMS message backups.

Those of you uncomfortable with Terminal can use this tiny application which essentially runs the commands above at the click of a button.

Finally, you can follow the steps outlined at iPhoneFreak that involve disabling the option to send diagnostic information to Apple at sync.

So there you have it -- three ways to make your backup procedure more pleasant. If you need to recover files from a backup, you can use the mdhelper application, written by our own Erica Sadun.

Update: The DisableBackup application in method #2 above has been updated to take advantage of a new feature of iTunes 7.7.1. Details here.

It's a week of superlatives for Apple content providers!

Tapulous announced that their free game for iPhone 2.0 / iPod touch, Tap Tap Revenge (click opens iTunes) should reach the one million download mark sometime this weekend. Tap Tap Revenge joins Facebook in the million-download club, with Facebook being the first app to reach these lofty heights last week. A visit to the Tapulous website shows a counter ticking off the downloads (less than five thousand to go as of 10:42 AM ET today).

Tap Tap Revenge uses soundtrack music by indie artists and over 2.5 million song downloads have been counted so far. Tapulous is now approaching the major labels on a "Pro" version of the game that would feature music by top stars.

On Wednesday, Walt Disney Co. announced that they have sold over 5 million movies to viewers through the iTunes Store since the company started offering their releases online. While Disney CEO and President Rob Iger noted that although the company doesn't achieve the same margin on online sales as they do through traditional channels, it's the increase in online consumption of movies that the company is focusing on.

[Disney info via Marketwatch]

Apple just released an update for iTunes. The release indicates that iTunes 7.7.1 "includes fixes to improve stability and performance." You may recall that the last update for iTunes (7.7) was released on the iPhone 3G release date.

You can download this iTunes update by opening Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update).

Thanks, Michael!

If you're anything like me -- and I sincerely hope you're not, for your sake -- you have a large iTunes music library, but the music that you like right now is only a small fraction of that total. (Yeah, that embarrassing '96 Dave Matthews Band album is getting pretty dusty.)

Since my musical tastes vary from day to day, and songs quickly fall in and out of my fickle favor, I love assigning ratings to the music I like this minute. I have a five-star rating for la crème de la crème, and a four-star rating for stuff that's pretty good. Three-star items are sadly relegated to history.

Next, I combine ratings with smart playlists: Now I can add and remove songs from my current rotation just by changing their star rating. I can do this on-the-go, too: Change a rating on my iPod, and the playlists are updated immediately, and eventually synced back to the computer.

Follow me across the jump to see how you can dynamically and efficiently manage your music as quickly as your tastes change.

As the iTunes Store has grown, its search feature hasn't. Enter a bit of text in the search field, and you get results for

1. Albums
2. Podcasts
3. Movies
4. TV seasons
5. Music videos
6. iTunes Essentials
7. iTunes U
8. Apps

The results were manageable when we were just browsing music, television and movies. Today, it's just too large. Even some of the sub-categories are getting crowded. Recently, the App store was receiving a lot of eBooks from AppEngines. Earlier this week, a "Books" section was added to the App Store.

That's a good step, but I'd like to be able to filter results before execution. For example, an App Store search, a music search or podcasts. iTunes Power Search [link] does this pretty well, but I'd bet that most users don't use it. This ought to be the default search procedure.

Of course, I'm old and crotchety, so take this with a gain of iSalt.

Thanks to Matt for the eBook App Store tip!

CIO.com interviewed AT&T spokesperson Mark Siegel, who confirmed that Friday's activation server outage was due to massive worldwide demand. This may not come as a surprise, but it's the only official comment we've heard.

"The iTunes software appeared to have been so overwhelmed by demand [Friday] that customers were not able to go through that final stage and sync their iPhones," Siegel said.

Apple has not commented on their servers' performance on Friday. Nor have we learned any more about the other great mystery: the details behind the rocky MobileMe transition that lasted Wednesday through the weekend.

The CIO article also discusses Apple's physical supply chain for the iPhone 3G, and how it performed for the rollout. Analyst consensus: top notch. "Good job to Apple for mastering the physical supply chain so well that you have this high-profile launch and your problems are not on the physical side -- you have product in stock," said Kevin O'Marah, chief strategy officer at AMR Research.

[Via Reddit.]

No doubt by now you've noticed that many of the "applications" available on the iTunes App Store are various ebooks by AppEngines (iTunes Link). I thought I'd take a look so you can see what you're getting for $0.99. Each of these applications is a single classic (and thus copyright-free) book. For my tests I chose Jane Austen's delightful comedy of manners, Emma (iTunes link).

When you first open one of the AppEngines ebooks you get a nice "leather" cover splash screen with the name of the book. Then you're taken to the first "page." You can advance pages by either swiping (right to left) or merely by tapping the screen. You can go back a page by swiping in the other direction. There are three font sizes which you can choose via the pinch gesture.

At the top there are two buttons: a table of contents button that lists chapter titles and a search button that allows you to search for text. When you search on a term, it is highlighted in yellow throughout the text. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell there does not seem to be an easy way to move to the next instance of the search term. You just have to page through the book until you see the next highlight.

While there are several book reader applications in the App Store for both commercial (i.e DRM-ed) and open-source texts, I think the AppEngines editions are basically worth the modest purchase price for the convenience. Personally, I find it nice to have separate home screen buttons for each book, and the presentation is more than adequate. Be sure to check out the gallery below.