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.
iTunes Plus Price Drop
I’m not sure how I missed this little tidbit. I must have been busier than I thought the last two weeks. It seems that Apple has confirmed the rumor of an iTunes Plus (DRM free music) price drop to 99 cents. That’s excellent news in the battle for affordable, usable music. Even better, they are also adding indie artists and labels to the roster. This is fantastic for people like myself who like a lot of music that is not mainstream enough to be part of the industry “big four”. Good job, Apple!
Apple and Starbucks Team Up
Two giants of the hip set are teaming up to bring you a song of the day via iTunes download. Starbucks will start offering iTunes cards entitling you to a free download of the designated song of the day with purchase soon. Pretty fabulous, especially since most Starbucks have WiFi hotspots so you can grab your song while you have your cup of joe.
iTunes Goes Wifi
Apple Week In Review
I got a bit busy this week, as I mentioned over on Smoke Rings. That means I missed some excellent Apple news for you. By way of apology for tripping over my own deadlines this week, here is a quick recap of some of the highlights:
- MacWorld has opened registration for the the big MacWorld 2008 event and exhibition. Even better, for a limited time you can enter the code below at this site and get into the exhibit hall portion of the show for free. Yes, FREE. I wish I still lived in Santa Barbara – I’d so be there! (Use Priority Code: 08-E-VF01 to get the Exhibit Hall passes for free until October 5th.)
- This is a nice look at the man behind the beautiful designs of the iMac, iPod and iPhone, Jonathan Ive.
- The drummer from the Ramones, unable to resurrect his career legitimately, has decided to make some money by suing Apple and a host of others over use of his music. Git.
- This site tells you how to stream movies to your iPhone from iTunes. Awesome.
- Apple asks its workers to cancel holiday plans between Turkey Day and Xmas this year. The plan seems to be to release the new line of slim MacBooks,, and that coupled with new iPod options and other innovations may make this holiday season quite busy for Apple.
- Steve Jobs was subpoenaed by the SEC in the back dating case.
Have a great rest of your weekend! Can’t wait to see what Apple news and rumor abounds in the coming week.
You can also read my work today at Profy (NovelMaker, Mog vs LastFM), The Writer’s Well, and Smoke Rings. Enjoy!
The RIAA Killed Your Ringtones
RIAA has been a thug-life thrill killa for years now, but this one takes the cake. Do you know why Apple passed up their goal of user generated ring tones? That’s right, the ever evil RIAA made them. I am so sick of having to hear about and deal with the RIAA / MPAA bullshit, aren’t you? They should take a good hard look at digital media trends and get with the times already. Sadly, that probably won’t happen any time soon. Definitely read those two intelligent links on the RIAA and ringtones – you’ll learn something new.
Clearly, the record companies jumped on ringtones as a whole of stack of potential profits that could not be allowed to go without remuneration. Apple makes very little from sales of music in iTunes; the vast majority of revenues are funneled back to the record companies, which then devise how to avoid paying their talent and keep as much as they can.
I’ve ranted and raved about the RIAA so often on so many of my blogs that I feel like I’m repeating myself to write it all over again. Don’t worry, I still believe in fighting the good fight! I just don’t want to bore you with repetition. That said, you can read my previous rants thoughts on the RIAA at the following links:
How Do You Find New Music In An RIAA Thug Age?
Arrrr Ye Mateys, Do Ye Have Stolen Music?
FSF Calling Steve Jobs To Account For His Words.
MPAA Tries On RIAA Steel Toed Boots.
Prince: Marketing Genius And RIAA Defeater.
Bush’s Daughters And RIAA Copyright.
Annoying Future: RIAA Schooled By Judge.
Harvard Encouraged To Stand Up To RIAA.
End Of Boycott RIAA Month, Not End Of Fight.
Score One Digital Radio, Zero RIAA.
Television Melding With Internet.
Now They Are Dragging Out The It’s For The Children Chestnut.
The Reasons Behind The Reason.
OK. I just realized how much I’ve written about this topic. There are about 100 more RIAA posts on my various blogs. 
Just go to any of them and type in RIAA, it seems, and you’ll get a gazillion jillion hits.
Next Generation iPod: WANT
I thought I was content with my 30GB iPod Video for another little while. Until Steve Jobs unveiled the drool worthy new line of iPods yesterday. 160GB! Touch screen! WiFi! I must get my hands on those wonderful toys!
The hardest thing for me is going to be deciding which one to put on my wish list. Do I want enough room for my entire music collection in the 160GB? What about touch screen, getting rid of the click wheel that my long nails sometimes make irritating to use? And Wifi! glorious WiFi! Wireless iTunes downloads! Decisions, decisions.
Which one would you choose?
Apple TV Could Nail The NBC Coffin
AppleGazette echoed exactly what I was thinking when I read about the NBC brouhaha the other day. I thought Apple handled it just right – letting NBC shoot themselves in the foot. Sure enough, NBC compounded the problem they’d created by then signing with Amazon’s Unboxed service to distribute their content. Too bad for the short sighted NBC, Unboxed is not compatible with any OS other than Windoze.
I think AppleGazette is right in saying that now would be the time to add DVR capability to the AppleTV unit and increase the hard drive size. They’d have to be careful though – loyal to Apple as I am, I wouldn’t want to switch from my current DVR (dual channel) to a single channel version. I flat out watch too much TV to not be able to watch one show while recording another, or record two at once if I’m out of the house. I hope Apple seizes the moment, and the customers, with a strong DVR move.
Rumor Mill: iPhone Ringtones?
Speculation abounds that the September 5th press meeting called by Apple means iTunes Ringtones for the iPhone will be announced. What do you think?
NBC 0, Jobs/Apple 1
My colleague Cyndy wrote an outstanding article about why you can’t get your NBC content at iTunes trting this fall, which outlines yet more reason why Steve Jobs rocks.
There’s a reason why Apple surges with Jobs in charge: the man knows what he’s doing. The media companies are arguing for variable pricing, but most fans don’t want that. It’s nice knowing that you can pick up the latest Amy Winehouse album for the same price as a collection of performances from Yo-Yo Ma, and never have to wonder what your end total is going to be. Parents are actually giving allowances in iTunes accounts based on the simplified pricing; who wants to listen to a kid griping that this week’s allowance wasn’t enough to score the soundtrack from High School Musical 2?
Jobs called NBC/Universal’s bluff. Apparently, the price increases they wanted would have resulted in a price hike to iTunes customers of $3.00: from $1.99 per episode to $4.99 per episode. And rather than cut iTunes users off mid-season? Apple has decided to cease selling NBC’s programs starting with the new fall season. NBC/Universal will be left with no outlet for their programming, since Hulu isn’t expected to launch until October, and without the additional buzz that iTunes carrying new episodes of their fall premieres would add. I think they called your bluff, NBC!
Rock on, Apple. Rock on.
Two Recent Mac Purchases I LOVE
I made two recent Mac purchases, and I love them both.
The first recent purchase was Mojotones by VoodooErgonomics. I’ve been using a product called Xingtones. Xingtones has been great, I have no problem with Xingtones, but I have to say Mojotones came along and blew it away. They are both $20, so well within most budgets. They both make excellent sounding ring tones. they are both easy to use, though I have to give Mojotones the edge here for being a little more pleasant to look at and overall a slightly simpler interface.
So if they are both equally good products for creating your own ring tones? What really put Mojotones in first place? Four little words: Full Song Ring Tones. also, it is fully integrated with iTunes. Unless the song is locked by the artist, you can make any song in your iTunes folder into 30 clip on repeat or a full song. I love it! Plus, it is one click action and it works with any phone. Xingtone only works with one phone number at a time.
The other little gem I bought this week is the Griffin iMic. For under $40, I can now transfer all of my vinyl and cassettes to my MacBook. How sweet it is! It is a completely plug and play device. If you find the set up as it comes in the box is too noisy on your records and you don’t want to run them through garage band for clean up, they also sell a $20 grounding cable for your turntable that eliminates the problem. The hissing noise just sounds like an old school record to me, so I don’t need the second cable. I’m having a blast with this. It’s too bad I have to work to afford these toys, otherwise I’d be playing with the thing all weekend.
I’d write more gushing words about the iMic, but I have to go play some more old school punk records now. I’m currently on 7 Seconds. See you on the flip side!
6th Generation iPod
I am only marginally excited for this. When I tell you the reason why I can’t jump for joy yet, I just know you will laugh your collective socks off at me. Are you ready? No off button. I’m serious! Stop laughing! I am not in love with the sleep feature on the iPod. I don’t know about your iPod, maybe yours works just fine, but my iPod? Not so much. When it is on its own, not attached to anything, it shuts down like it is supposed to, eventually, but I consider the delay to be wasted battery minutes. When it is attached to my iHome in the kitchen or my iRiver in the car? It never shuts off. I constantly have to remember to take it out of the iHome or unplug it from the iRiver so it “knows” it should shut down. Eventually. After it wastes a few minutes of battery. It’s a small thing, I know, but I’d love to have the ability to just hit OFF already. Is that too much to ask?
Whew. Apparently I have strong iPod off switch feelings. Who knew? Back to the next generation iPod. It is rumored to have a large, more iPhone like screen in the works, which would be nice for video viewing. It is also rumored to run on OS X, another nice feature. According to the source web site, ArsTechnica, you should look for this in January. Knowing Apple, I’m guessing they will late but the 6th Gen iPod will be even better because of it. And if anyone at Apple reads this? Power. Button. Seriously, people.
SimplifyMedia Responds
I love it when a CEO or co-founder is involved with their product. In this case, the co-founder of SimplifyMedia, Paul Joyce, responded to my lukewarm response to his software as discussed in this post. Here is what he had to say:
Leslie-
Thank you for the mention and the excellent write-up on the importance of music sharing. My music collection is like yours: more than 2,000 albums on vinyl (no weeding), another 1,000+ cd’s and many iTMS tracks.
The reason I wanted to write is that our software’s memory use on your machine is very unusual. This isn’t something we have seen ourselves, and so far yours is the only report from the field. We would really like to understand what the problem might be. If you have it, someone else most likely will too. Do you know how much memory we ended up using? Less than 50MB while streaming is standard for us.
Also, on iTunes-purchased songs, we do let you stream you own songs to an authorized computer, just like Apple LAN sharing. This is a capability other streaming solutions do not have. Just log in on the remote machine using the same screen name. What we can’t do is strip the DRM out so that, in your example, Cyndy can listen. You can thank the DMCA for that. A great Cory Doctorow article from last year does a nice job of summarizing the many reasons DRM sucks.
Thanks again, and have a great weekend.
Paul Joyce
Co-founder, Simplify Media
I replicated the memory issue with Activity Monitor running this morning so I could provide an exact number. I’m not sure if the problem lies in memory use or in compatibility with other programs, however; here is the data pulled from Activity Monitor from just before the last incident:
%CPU 0.30, #Threads 18, RealMemory 20.62 MB, VirtualMemory 361.80 MB
Programs that were also running at the time of each of the incidents: FireFox, Adium, iTunes, ecto, endo, Thunderbird, Word
I don’t experience this issue with any other combination of programs, and SimplifyMedia is the only new addition to the MacBook lately. I hope that helps you plan for future instances. I appreciated your response to my post. Future users of SimplifyMedia should be confident using your product regardless of issues I’ve experienced, just knowing that the company is paying attention. Regardless, the fact that you can’t play iTunes files due to DRM issues is a real sticking point for me that has nothing to do with SimplifyMedia. I’d be interested to know if anyone has a workaround in the works for this problem that you can use with programs like this one.
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