90 days until Maiden
April 23, 2010
Quick iTunes 9 first impressions
September 9, 2009
iTunes 9 was just released. You can go to any number of sites for the press release, so just my first impressions.
The look is now softer, more subtle, maybe a little more “plastic”. The maximize (green) button no longer puts iTunes into mini mode on the Mac. You have to hit Shift--M to switch, which follows the Windows behavior. The Application tab and the Store both have a new, lighter look.
The Applications management tab is going to be a hit with people who have a lot of apps.
Management of Playlists, Photos, TV shows, and Podcasts similarly got refinements, albeit not as dramatic as the Applications. It would be nice if Aperture and iTunes could both pull CoreData links and show quick thumbnails of the albums.
I don’t recall a full screen Coverflow option. I may just have missed it previously.
The “Automatically fill free space with songs” is new for the iPhone. I like this.
New AC/DC album confirmed
May 8, 2008
Convert HD-DVD to BluRay
February 20, 2008
Got HD-DVD and need a way to convert to BluRay now that HD-DVD is dead? Check out this conversion walk-through over on Wired.
iTunes Digital Copy
January 15, 2008
TUAW caught this tidbit during the keynote.
Starting today if you buy any 20th Century Fox DVD that is labeled ‘iTunes Digital Copy’ you’ll not only get the physical DVD, but a digital copy. Simply insert the disk into your Mac or PC, enter a unique code into iTunes, and iTunes will import a digital version of the movie onto your Mac/PC. You can view the movie on your Mac, iPod, or iPhone as many times as you like (since you own the movie) but the digital copy can only be imported into one iTunes library.
That’s a pretty sweet feature- while you can do this with Mac the Ripper and Handbrake, this legitimizes the whole process.
Rip your CDs, get sued
December 29, 2007
Engadget is reporting on an Arizona man being sued by the RIAA.
Ira Schwartz, the industry’s lawyer in the case, is arguing that MP3 files created on his computer from legally purchased CDs are indeed “unauthorized copies”
which means the industry now wants you to buy the song 3 times – once on CD, once on DRM-laced downloads, and again if you should want a ringtone. Time to listen to more public domain classical music.
Amazon beta MP3 store
September 28, 2007
I tried the Amazon MP3 beta store two night ago and came away pretty impressed. While the UI is not as slick as the dedicated iTunes application, searching, purchasing, and downloading music was very easy. I bought a few Amy Winehouse tracks, and the music was 89¢ or 99¢ a track, ripped at 256 VBR MP3 (LAME-encoded), came with album art, and no DRM. You have to download an app to buy full albums on Windows or Mac OS, but other than that, pretty good experience.
Metalheads not meatheads
March 22, 2007
From Telegraph.co.uk, a report that it’s not the meatheads that are metalheads.
Intelligent teenagers often listen to heavy metal music to cope with the pressures associated with being talented, according to research.
The results of a study of more than 1,000 of the brightest five per cent of young people will come as relief to parents whose offspring, usually long-haired, are devotees of Iron Maiden, AC/DC and their musical descendants.
Researchers found that, far from being a sign of delinquency and poor academic ability, many adolescent “metalheads” are extremely bright and often use the music to help them deal with the stresses and strains of being gifted social outsiders.
…”Participants said they appreciated the complex and sometimes political themes of heavy metal music more than perhaps the average pop song.
…The researchers surveyed 1,057 members of the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth – a body whose 120,000 student members are within the top five per cent academically in the 11-19 age range.
Asked for their favourite type of music, 39 per cent said rock, 18 per cent R&B and 14 per cent pop. Six per cent said heavy metal and a third rated it in their top five genres.
…You can’t really jump your anger into the floor and listen to your music at the same time with other types of music.”
Joost!
March 21, 2007
I got an invite to the Joost beta about a week ago, and I finally got around to installing it on my MacBook Pro. That brings me to my first note: Joost is an Intel-only binary.
The first launch took about 30 seconds to go from no window to small blank window, to full screen presentation. From there, you go into channel selection:
Squirrel Music
March 19, 2007
My friend Andy AKA [ES] Secret Squirrel AKA Utopia Music has a podcast of his house mixes. I took the liberty of putting his mixes on a Darwin (Quicktime) Streaming Server I set up this evening. Check out his Podomatic page, and then take a listen to his work!