Music locker services are fairly common these days. Well, that is with the popularity of the ‘cloud’ and all. But back in the day, these types of offerings were pretty rare. Granted, that is most likely because our internet connections were often so slow that uploading one or two MP3 files was a painful experience. Forget about trying to upload hundreds or even thousands. Anyway, one of the services that was available was called MP3tunes.com and came courtesy of Michael Robertson who was also known for MP3.com as well as the Windows ‘competitor’ that was born as Lindows and died as Linspire. But before we get far of track, lets get to the point here — the OG music locker service MP3tunes.com has filed for bankruptcy. This move comes as a result of years and years of fighting. Specifically, they have been fighting with EMI since 2007 and according to Robertson — due to four plus years of legal costs, “Mp3tunes has no choice but to file.” With that, if you happen to have been using MP3tunes.com you may want to make some plans to get any files that you don’t have a local copy of. Via [cnet]  
Virgin Mobile has announced, and begun accepting pre-orders for the LG Optimus Elite smartphone. And for those thinking the name sounds familiar, Sprint launched it a short while back. The Sprint bit aside though, Virgin Mobile will have the Optimus Elite available beginning on May 15th. The price will be $149.99. In terms of the specs, the LG Optimus Elite features include a 3.5 inch display, 4GB internal storage, a microSD card slot and a 5 megapixel rear facing camera. The handset is running Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread and will arrive with support for Google Wallet as well as the usual Android goodies such as access to Google Play. Via [Virgin Mobile] and [9to5Google]  
It’s almost the middle of May and it seems that Samsung has started rolling out the Ice Cream Sandwich update for Galaxy Note owners. Some users, specifically in Germany and other countries are reporting that the update is now being pushed to their Galaxy Note via OTA. Unfortunately, this will be a gradual roll out so not all of us will be getting it at the same time. In fact, I’ve been checking my Galaxy Note and still have no luck with the update. But a friend of mine confirms that the update has been pushed to his Galaxy Note. So, I’m on an endless waiting mode for now. Check out your Galaxy Note now and see if the update is on your device. For our friends in Germany, the update is also available via Kies. It was also confirmed that the update bears the XXLPY Android 4.0.3 build with May 4 as its build date. The 319MB update also comes with a new S Note app and a new S Memo widget. Via [SammyHub]  
I will confess that I rarely watch DVD movies at this point. Mostly because I do not watch all that many movies. But also because I hate having to put a movie in and not being able to watch it immediately. Seriously, the warnings and the promos and those stupid start screens have effectively killed of the DVD in my house. It is to the point that when my daughter comes to me with a DVD, I suggest she may want to watch Netflix. And with all that, it looks like DVD watching will soon be just a tad bit more annoying thanks to two new unskippable government warnings. Hint to those making legal DVD watchers suffer through these warnings — these things are the reason why I want to pirate DVD’s. Just being able to rip a DVD, strip out all of this crap and burn it back to a disk as a ‘movie only’ almost makes this dying media acceptable. But the thing is, these warnings (and DVD’s) in general annoy the hell out of me. I suspect they annoy many others as well. And you know what — I am not a DVD pirate. Nor are the many others that simply want to watch a movie. On that note, I suspect the people that these warnings are really intended to reach are not even seeing them because they are pirates and they are already copying movies illegally. Here is a solution, how about we take those warnings and offer them in another medium — say a regular television commercial. Of course, they will probably try to make them so I cannot fast forward through them using my DVR. But realistically speaking, those who are pirating movies are already doing so. And perhaps more important — if they are pirating a movie — they are not watching the DVD to make sure it is ok before they begin. Simply put, that warning is already late and the only thing it is doing is annoying those who just want to watch. End rant. Via [ars technica]  
Wizardry is on the way. Well, that is what Amazon is now teasing. And while Amazon has yet to make any sort of announcement, those visiting the Kindle Store are now greeted with that message. Well, that along with the image of an owl. We suspect this has something to do with Pottermore, however it looks like Amazon is going to make everyone wait just a bit. That said, Kindle users who are fans of Harry Potter may want to pay attention to Amazon. Via [paidContent]  
Among the top three read-later iOS apps, Instapaper happens to be the only one which is not available for free. The other two being Readability and Pocket. But this does not stop those who take read-later type of apps seriously from buying the app and most if not all of them are probably satisfied for what they’ve paid for. That’s about to be improved some more as Instapaper has been pushed to version 4.2. The update’s major new feature is the iBooks style page-turning animations and gestures which you can activate or deactive from the app’s settings. Previously, page-turning is executed via simple fade-out option. While some users might not like the change, others will however embrace and welcome it as a good progress for the app. - All-new Fast Pagination mode, a complete rewrite from the old pagination code that greatly improves accuracy and page-turn speed
- Optional iBooks-style page-turning animations and gestures
- New draggable dot bar to replace the scroll bar in pagination mode
- New two-finger-swipe gesture to close an article
- Full-screen now has “Auto” mode to switch to full screen after a few seconds
- The subtle Twilight Sepia color tint can now be selected at any time
- Added sharing to Drafts and Quotebook apps
Of course there’s also the usual bug fixes and performance improvements which the developer said are pretty significant in this update. The update is free for those who bought the app previously while for those who have not used it yet, the app is priced $4.99. Via [iOS App Store]  
T-Mobile USA’s parent company Deutsche Telekom was forced to explore alternative options once the deal between T-Mobile USA and AT&T fell through. Among those options is the possibility of a merger with MetroPCS. Bloomberg sources say Deutsche Telekom will control the majority of the combined company should a merger actually happen. While nothing is official at the moment, sources for Bloomberg are also saying Deutsche Telekom is considering partnering up with Sprint as well. Ironically, Sprint was poised to purchase MetroPCS before its board of directors canned the deal at the last minute. Even though T-Mobile received enough assets from AT&T to extend its coverage area and begin building a LTE network, it’s still losing lots of customers every quarter and laying off employees. Via [Bloomberg]  
Based on a recently leaked image, it looks like Sprint will soon be launching a Google Wallet promo. The offer is expected to begin on May 18th and run for two months, until July 18th. The offer will be applicable for those purchasing a “select” LG smartphone with Sprint. More specifically, for those who purchase either an LG Viper 4G LTE or an LG Optimus Elite smartphone. Otherwise, according to what has been leaked thus far, those purchasing either of those two handsets will get a $25 Google Wallet credit provided they activate a Wallet account within seven days of buying and activating the phone. And while a $25 credit is nice, we should point out that you will get this credit in two parts. The first coming as an instant $10 credit and the second coming as a $15 credit and within three weeks. Via [TechnoBuffalo] 
 
Apple has just released their latest patch for OS X Lion which addresses several vulnerabilities which have been recently discovered, namely the FileVault password being kept in plain text issue. Additional issues fixed include and updated compatibility is UK keyboards, Samba printing queues, and RAW file compatibility updates. Check out the list below. - Resolve an issue in which the “Reopen windows when logging back in” setting is always enabled.
- Improve compatibility with certain British third-party USB keyboards.
- Addresses permission issues that may be caused if you use the Get Info inspector function “Apply to enclosed items…” on your home directory.
- Improve Internet sharing of PPPoE connections.
- Improve using a proxy auto-configuration (PAC) file.
- Address an issue that may prevent files from being saved to an SMB server.
- Improve printing to an SMB print queue.
- Improve performance when connecting to a WebDAV server.
- Enable automatic login for NIS accounts.
- Include RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras.
- Improve the reliability of binding and logging into Active Directory accounts.
- The OS X Lion v10.7.4 Update includes Safari 5.1.6, which contains stability improvements.
The update is available now for all OS X Lion users, just hit the “Software Update” option in the Apple pull-down menu. Get to it! Via [Apple Support]  
It looks like Google has rolled out the latest update for the Maps app on Android. This update brings the version number up to 6.7. But perhaps more important — this update brings a few new features. According to the “what’s new” section in the Google Play listing, Maps v6.7 brings Google Offers for those in the US, indoor walking directions for those in the US and Japan and the ability to see 360 degree panoramas inside restaurants and stores. That being said, if you are an Android user you may want to grab your device, launch Google Play and download the latest. 
Via [Google Play] and [Google Lat Long Blog]  | 
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