Archive for the ‘iTunes’
My Favorite iTunes Plug Ins
iTunes is a fantastic and easy way to get music for your iPod or computer. Even so, there is always a feature someone thinks is “missing” to make it do just one more thing. Lucky for the rest of us, these people make some fabulous plug ins and extras to fill in the blanks.
iWow: recommended by MacUpdate. Works great on Tiger and under, not so hot on Leopard right now. Hopefully they’ll patch it soon.
iTunesExport (Windows): sends your iTunes library to a thumb drive or another computer
Symphonic: locate and open songs
iTune My Walkman: put iTunes on non iPods (phones, MP3 players)
ByteController: controller for your menu bar
DockArt: Put album art in the dock instead of the iTunes icon
DRM Dumpster: automate the process of clearing the DRM from your iTunes files
GForce: replaces the iTunes visualizer
NowPlaying: list the iTunes songs you are currently listening to in your IM program and other places
Privatunes: my favorite of all the plug ins on the list, this one removes your personal information from each file. Currently only works one song at a time.
Arkaos Visualizer: another visualizer replacement for iTunes
iDupe: removes duplicate songs in iTunes for you - quite handy
MoreTunes: completes your meta data information while displaying album art
Harmonic: add lyrics to your iTunes library
DeskTunes: iTunes notifier
iConcertCal: scans your playlists then displays concerts from your favorite artists coming to your area
Moody: sort your songs by your mood
There are a ton more out there to choose from, but this list has some of my favorites. Have fun, and if you have a favorite I forgot share it in the comments!
MacWorld 08 Thoughts
I was underwhelmed by the MacBook Air. I think it is geared to the business traveler who doesn’t need an actual optical hard drive or any serious storage space because they will only us it to write letters and such. I don’t want a laptop I have to buy a separate hard drive for to store photos, movies, files, etc on. I think they should have kept this in development until someone made a ultra slim hard drive to put in it. Because the MacBook Air with a massive slim hard drive of 160GB or more PLUS the Ram and Flash is has already would have truly been stunning. I’m guessing some gadget heads will buy the air out of a need to have the latest thing right out of the starting gate. I keep seeing comments around the net from people who don’t get that it only has a flash drive and RAM who think the 500GB is plenty of space for a computer, but trust me, it isn’t that kind of memory, folks.
As for the rest of it? The iTunes movie subscriptions and the improvements on the AppleTV and such? That was better than the MacBook Air, frankly. I still wish the AppleTV was also a true DVR, but this is a step in the right direction. Too bad Time Warner countered the innovation with an announcement of a crippling price hike based on bandwidth. Sometimes the entertainment and technology sector can’t win for shooting itself in the foot all the time.
I was also concerned with Apple’s recent Bad Apple legal tactics against bloggers and other fans, and had high hopes they would do something to rectify the situation a bit, but this reaction to a fan tells me I shouldn’t hold my breathe. I had a press pass to this even this year, and no way to go. Now I’m a bit glad I didn’t try harder to find the money for airfare. I would have enjoyed seeing my friends in California, but I would have been disappointed with the overall Keynote. I probably would have had fun wandering around after though - maybe next year.
Antitrust and Apple
In December a lawsuit was filed against Apple accusing it of making its iPod into what is known as “crippleware”. This mean that while components in the iPod will play “industry standard” WMA files, Apple’s iPod restricts playback to Apple format AAC files. This is true - iTunes does in fact convert all MP3s to AAC files, and I must agree that I find it a pain in the ass. However, I find it a paint in the ass from the other direction - I’d like the industry to let go of the idea of the WMA file as main stream, as the quality of the songs in WMA usually are just not great. I don’t think that is going to happen, but since I follow all things music and apple news so closely, I’ll be following the lawsuit to see where it heads.
Apple and Fox: New Movie Deal via iTunes
Do Apple and Fox have a movie deal in the works? It seems to be the case. Fox and Apple have been in negotiations to have Fox movies available through iTunes for download as rentals. This could tie in quite nicely with an upcoming AppleTV upgrade also said to be in the works that would allow movie downloads straight to the set top box.
I said when AppleTV first came out that I wouldn’t get one until they had DVR capabilities, since I already had enough gadgets and gizmos hooked up to my TV. Basically, I’m looking for something that will help me to have less things plugged in to my television, not more. If AppleTV is going to be part of the Fox/Apple download deal, I’d say that’s a step closer to becoming something I’d buy.
Rumors about that Apple has been in talks with the other major studios to add movies from their labels to iTunes, but so far Fox is the only one that has concrete evidence to back it up. I’d love to see rentals in iTunes. I have been dissatisfied with having both Blockbuster and NetFlix as solutions, and would love a third option. If the price is right, iTunes downloads, Amazon Unboxed and Blockbuster or NetFlix could all work together to form the basis of a new movie rental market that I’d be happy to participate in.
iTunes Plug Ins and Add Ons
LifeHacker posted their list of 23 iTunes extras and add-ons here. Are they really the best? That I don’t know, but I do know that I don’t use many iTunes add-ons. Most of the ones I’ve tried, like iWow, don’t play well with Leopard. Others don’t play well with iTunes at all on a MacBook, causing speaker issues. Many don’t have adequate updates and support once they are created, tossed in the dustbin by their programmers.
If you find an extra or add on for iTunes you want to try, by all means use it. My MOG and Last.FM “recently played” lists come from an iTunes add on. When they work, they work great. But when they don’t they can be hard to uninstall. I suggest learning to use the Activity Monitor - a handy way to stop a process causing an iTunes Freeze so that you can figure out if the freeze may be due to a plug in or not. If it is, you can then uninstall the plug in. If it isn’t, you can trouble shoot using Activity Monitor.
Do you use iTunes add ons? What are your favorites? Did LifeHacker leave any off its list?
Using Your Mac For Holiday Cheer
Creating a short movie card or holiday podcast is the ultimate in easy with a Mac. I just used my MacBook to make this tiny, miniature pod cast for Cre8Buzz:
I had never used Garage Band to make a pod cast before, and it took about 30 seconds from the time I opened the program to the time I hit export to iTunes to say what I wanted and add background Rockabilly holiday music. Easy peasy!
If I can think of enough to say I may do a longer pod cast email for all of my far flung friends and relatives this year. I probably wont do an iMovie, I’m too camera shy, but I bet some of my friends like Meleah will. How about you?
(Don’t forget to help me win the Cre8Buzz contest, too!)
I Can’t Believe It Is Almost Christmas: Apple Gift Guide
Apple released the Apple Gift Guide this week. I can’t believe it is almost Christmas! The link below will get you free shipping on items ordered from the Gift Guide. Enjoy!
Apple Store Gift Guide - Free Shipping on all Gift Guide items.