iTunes - Download Videos in HD

Want to enjoy the movies and TV shows you have purchased from the iTunes Store in full size HD or high quality SD? Here's how to configure iTunes default download preferences:   Open iTunes and sign-in with your Apple ID. Click on the Edit menu > Preferences. Go to the Store tab > Automatic Downloads and then tick the Download full-size HD videos and Download high-quality SD videos checkboxes:

How to Get Refunds from the iTunes App Store

The iTunes Apps Store policy states that all sales are final but if you have a genuine and valid reason, Apple will issue a refund. If you are wondering why would anyone want refunds for apps, books or games purchased from the iTunes store, consider the following situations:

• You ordered an HD movie from the iTunes store but after making the purchase, you realize that it would take several hours to download that massive file to your computer. You can stop the download but your credit card will still be charged.
• You have an iPhone but you accidentally bought an iPad version of some app which is obviously of no use to you. You can ask Apple for a refund.
• You wanted to buy a game but there were at least a dozen similar titles on the iTunes store (remember Flappy Birds?). The app you finally bought is not the one you were originally looking for and you therefore want to return it to Apple.
• You have two or more iTunes accounts and you purchased an iPhone App using the wrong iTunes account. You can’t transfer apps across accounts so a refund followed by re-purchase makes more sense.
• The 1-Click ordering system, that Apple licensed from Amazon, makes it easy for anyone to buy apps, songs, movies and games from the iTunes store with a single click but this can sometimes lead to accidental purchases especially when kids have access to your devices. They may make in-app purchases without your knowledge.

These are just some of the legitimate reasons why   people may want to return their iTunes store purchases and request refunds from Apple.

Return your iTunes Store Purchases to Apple

The iTunes App store sales policy clearly says that you cannot cancel a purchase or receive a refund for a purchase but they are known to make exceptions if you have a valid reason.

For instance, I recently purchased the $2.99 Reeder app from the iTunes store but only after installing it on my iPad did I realize that it was an iPhone-only app and not designed for the iPad. I requested a refund from Apple and how they reversed the charges in less than 4 hours.

Here’s how you can return apps to the iTunes Store and request a refund:

Step 1: Locate the invoice receipt for your iTunes Store purchase and click the “Report Problem” link next to the name of the app (or game or movie or song) that you would like to return.

If you have deleted the email invoice that Apple sent you after you completed the purchase, launch the iTunes program using this special link and you’ll see a list of all items that you’ve bought from the iTunes store. Open an order by clicking the “Report a problem” next to the app name.

Alternatively, if you do not have iTunes on your computer, go to reportaproblem.apple.com to submit a refund request to Apple from your web browser.

Step 2: Sign-in with your Apple ID and then choose an option from the drop-down menu that best describes your problem. If you have purchased an app accidentally, choose “I didn’t mean to purchase this item.” If the kids have made an in-app purchase, choose “I didn’t authorize this purchase.” If you aren’t happy with the app, choose “Item opens but doesn’t function as expected.”

You can expect a response from Apple in the next 24-48 hours. If Apple support is satisfied with your reasoning, they’ll reverse the credit card charges. Please remember that you are not entitled to a refund under the iTunes Store Sales policy so if they deny your request for a refund, move on!

In some cases, Apple may issue refunds for app purchases immediately without involving the support team. When you submit an issue with an app using the above form, it will offer you a “Refund” option. Click that and you’ll get an email notification from Apple saying you’ve been issued a refund.

iTunes Trick: Stuff More Songs and Podcasts in Your iPod

 you have lower capacity iPod like the 1GB nano, this trick will help you stuff more music and podcasts into your MP3 player.

You have a large collection of MP3 music and audio-video podcasts on your hard-drive that you want to copy to the iPod or burn them onto a CD disk using iTunes.

But before you plugin the iPod to your computer and transfer the music collection, you may easily cut out all the long silences, crowd applause and all the other boring intros / outros from the songs that will otherwise occupy precious space on your iPod drive. Now what is the most effective way to do this?

 
Use iTunes to Trim Unwanted Portions from Songs and Podcasts

For editing songs, you can either use any of the MP3 cutter software or your favorite iTunes which employs non-destructive editing meaning the original song file will not be modified though the unwanted portions are still removed from the music file that will be copied to your iPod or CD.

Here's how you do it. Play the song in iTunes from beginning, pause where the boring intro ends and note the time. Now skip the playhead to the location where the unwanted outro begins and note this time as well. [see red arrows in the iTunes screenshot above]

Next, we'll instruct iTunes to copy just the music between the specific time period and skip the rest. Right click the song -> Get Info -> Options. Enter the Start Time and End Time that we noted above. Click OK.

When you transfer this to the iPod, iTunes will remember your preferences. If you want to permanently edit the song, right-click the song again in the iTunes playlist and select "Convert selection to AAC" - it will appear as a new song in the same playlist.

Browse the iTunes Store Without Installing iTunes Software

Even if you are not buying movies or songs from the iTunes store, it’s still a perfect place to learn about new audio books and free podcast shows that have just been released onto the web. Other than that, iPod Touch and iPhone customers use the iTunes store to download games and apps for their devices.

Now a problem, or let me say limitation, with the iTunes store is that it is very tightly integrated with the iTunes desktop application and Apple doesn’t provide a web front end to enable users access the iTunes store without downloading iTunes software.

For example, I neither buy stuff from iTunes nor do I have an iPhone or iPod touch but I am still forced to install the iTunes software because there’s no other way to navigate their excellent Podcast directory.

Though Apple could have used HTML like format for writing the iTunes store, they have chosen some cryptic XML format for delivering iTunes pages and hence they can’t be read using standard browsers.

Well not anymore. Nikhil has developed a Google App Engine powered tool – App Store– where you can browse the iTunes store as a website without having to install iTunes. He could successfully decode the complex XML format of iTunes and render them as regular HTML pages in real time.

Why you need a Web Based iTunes Store?

Here are some more reasons why a web version of iTunes store is useful:

1. You are behind a corporate firewall or working on a computer that doesn’t allow software installation.

2. You use Linux while iTunes is only for Mac and Windows.

3. You have a website and need to link to some new iPhone App available on the iTunes store. Normal iTunes links would open only if visitors have the desktop software so you can instead link directly to the online App store.

4. You use Zune but the podcast directory at Zune marketplace is not extensive as iTunes.

5. You use another podcast catcher program to download podcasts.

6. The iTunes Online store may not be available in your country.

Nikhil’s iTunes App Store doesn’t have search but you can easily do that with without the desktop software, just go to itunes.apple.com and use the search box available near the iTunes showcase box.

And while iTunes is bloated when compared to other media players, you may still need it for making iPhone ringtones or for adding more music in your iPod.