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- Music sharing, near and far
Filed under: iPod Family, Software, iTunes
iTunes has historically made sharing music with friends something of a hassle. It's not impossible, but it's not a "Just Works" scenario. It does, however, make it ridiculously simple to erase your friend's iPod, but I wouldn't call that a feature. The advent of library sharing on a local network did allow for some semblance of communal music, albeit within fairly strict confines. However, a variety of solutions exist for achieving a more social level in your audio pursuits.
iPod users quickly realize that the first step is to achieve bi-directional transfer from their portable device to the computer. Several great utilities exist for augmenting iTunes' sync capabilities. We've mentioned Podworks before, and Senuti is a long-standing favorite. We've also covered iPod.iTunes, which recently underwent an update. Any of these tools can get your music from your iPod into iTunes, including your friends' iTunes, but I'll take the safe road and mention from the start that music sharing is for personal use only (which will seem increasingly ironic as you read on, but I'm sure you know the rules well enough that I don't need to elaborate).
Sharing your audio files over wider network also requires some additional software. There's Simplify Media, which we highlighted last year. You've also got KavaTunes, a shareware app that makes a web page from your music collection that looks and acts just like iTunes. And now we've got Mojo.
Mojo
Mojo makes it simple to view, play and download music from other Mojo users. You control a buddy list, allowing only certain people to access your music. And the great part is that the standard version of Mojo is free. There's a PRO version - starting at $10.95 for 3 licenses - that adds playlist subscription, but the functionality of the free version is otherwise unlimited.
Mojo is fairly adept at automatically navigating many network configurations and multiple protocols, automatically detecting other Mojo users. A helper app runs in the background (optional) and provides a constant connection to your authorized friends. Your available Mojo friends appear in your buddy list, and you just select a connected buddy to browse the music they've made available using Mojo's (not bad-looking) interface. DRM songs display in red, and actions taken on them will offer to let you jump into iTunes to authorize your machine. It also detects songs that already exist in your iTunes collection and greys them out. They're still playable, but the option keeps you from downloading duplicates. Songs downloaded through the interface can be automatically added to iTunes, with several options for automatic organization.
I set Mojo up on a remote server and made two users, just for fun. I uploaded a few songs and then streamed them back over the Mojo connection. It worked smoothly and I found myself considering relocating my collection to a server with enough storage and automatic backups. That would free up about half of my hard drive and make my songs accessible to any computer with Mojo installed. It might never happen, but I like the possibility ... and the idea of doing it for free.
Misu
But, let's say you want to share your music with someone standing right next to you. Obviously, the option exists to do some manual transferring of your collection from iPod to iTunes to another iPod, but there's an easier way on the horizon. Enter Misu, a new application from the developers of Menuet and Art Collector (covered previously).
Misu, which just entered a beta period, offers an extremely simple interface (check out the visuals) for connecting multiple iPods, choosing a source from the detected devices, and melding the music collections together. It compares the libraries of the source and the target iPod(s) and figures out what songs are missing. Hitting the transfer button effectively synchronizes the collections. If there's more music than will fit, it will offer to stop when the target device is full. Misu doesn't offer any options for manual management. It also doesn't currently work with iPod touches, but that functionality is planned.
The Misu beta isn't publicly available, but the developer is opening it up to TUAW readers. To limit the number of beta testers, the invitation will last for 24 hours, starting this morning. People who get in on the beta will also receive a licensed copy of the final product, free. If you've been looking for a program that fills the person-to-person iPod sharing void, grab the Misu beta and take it for a spin. The super-secret code you'll need is 48372.
You'll want to set your iPods to disk mode, and you may want to disable the "Start iTunes when connected" option. Have fun with all that legal music sharing.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Happy Birthday to Mac OS X!
Filed under: OS, Cult of Mac, Apple, Apple History
This weekend marked a very special date as Mac OS X turned 7 years old. Mac OS X was launched on March 21, 2001. Throughout the years, Mac OS X has definitely seen its share of changes. In these 7 years, OS X has been through 6 versions (7 if you include the first public beta version). Below is a list of the version names, numbers and launch dates of each Mac OS X release:
- Mac OS X Public Beta (September 13, 2000)
- Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah (March 21, 2001)
- Mac OS X 10.1 Puma (September 25, 2001)
- Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar (August 23, 2002)
- Mac OS X 10.3 Panther (October 24, 2003)
- Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (April 29, 2005)
- Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard (October 26, 2007)
[images courtesy of Wikipedia]Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Mac OS X Public Beta (September 13, 2000)
- Clever Get a Mac sidebar ads
Filed under: Humor, Cult of Mac, Found Footage
Apple has some clever new Get a Mac sidebar ads running on various sites around the net, including ZDNet. In them, PC repeatedly hits an emergency reset lever (attempting to clear negative banners about Vista) to less than good effect. The humorless sort are quick to point out that the quotes PC resets don't come from actual reviews, but instead from op-eds and the like. Personally, this seems like a distinction without difference. The point is that Vista has not been that well-received in the tech world and Apple is right on target about that in this series of ads. (As to various problems with Leopard, well, that's for a another time).
Thanks to everyone who sent this in.[via Gizmodo]
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Welcome to Macintosh documentary to premiere on 4/6
Filed under: Video, Cult of Mac, Apple History
The new documentary Welcome to Macintosh has just been been accepted to the Wisconsin Film Festival, and is scheduled to make its debut on April 6. The film features interviews with a variety of Mac-notables like Andy Hertzfeld, Guy Kawasaki and others, and traces the history of the development of the Mac since before its introduction. I have to admit I'm a sucker for this sort of thing, so I'll definitely be interested to see the film when it's released.
[via Macworld]
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Photoshop Elements 6 now shipping
Filed under: Software
After a delay and then a pre-order period, Adobe has finally begun shipping Photoshop Elements 6 for the Mac.
This is good news for me, as my old copy of Elements 3 won't work on Leopard at all (I know, I'm a cheapskate). Some of the new goodies in version 6 include a new Quick Selection tool and tabs for quickly jumping between different functions. This version also makes it super easy to create photo books, greeting cards and more.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 runs on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard (so PowerPC-users aren't left out in the cold). A single license will cost you $90US, though registered owners of older versions can upgrade for $70US with an in-box, mail-in rebate (or via adobe.com).
[Via MacNNRead | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - TSA makes good: X-rays MacBook Air and posts video
Filed under: Odds and ends, Apple
As you'll recall the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) was hard at work, hoping to avoid making another MacBook Air owner miss their flight (the security people didn't know what to make of the x-ray images of the MacBook Air). The TSA got their hands on a MacBook Air for some testing, and ran it through one of their test x-rays machines. Lo and behold, the solid state drive made the MacBook Air look different than traditional notebooks (though in what way, the TSA can't say).
The long and the short of it is that the TSA is distributing printouts of the MacBook Air's x-ray to screeners across the country so they know what to look for. I feel more secure already.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Ringtone Subscriptions in iTunes
Here's a clever concept that I would never have dreamed up myself in a million years: iTunes ringtone podcasts! The idea is this: you subscribe to podcast that delivers ringtones to iTunes and allows you to sync them directly to your iPhone. I gave it a try, downloading one "episode" and sure enough it was immediately available for iPhone syncing. There aren't a lot of ringtones at this point -- just variations on the teen/mosquito high-frequency buzz -- but as a proof of concept, it's very neat indeed. Hopefully others will pick up this idea and run with it. I'm not a big ringtone aficionado personally but I know a lot of people will love this -- especially for well chosen ringtones sampled from real life.
Thanks, Klaus.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Unlockers rejoice: Special deals on early-release iPhones
While supplies last, you can save $20 on refurbished 8GB and 16GB iPod touches and iPhones. These earlier model units are marked as "Original Software Release" and cost slightly less than those already upgraded to current software. Stock has been going in and out all weekend -- so if you don't see units for sale right away, keep checking back. At some point, I'm sure Apple will run out of stock on both touches and iPhones but for now, do try, try again.
Thanks Matt D
Update: TUAW reader Ian seems to have hit the bullseye: 'So this means that although you save $20 on the touch, you have to pay $20 to get the January apps? Isn't that what "original software release" means? '
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Why the Mac is better than the PC: Crapware
Filed under: Cult of Mac, Apple
InsanelyGreatMac has an excellent article outlining another point in the ongoing battle of which is better: PC or Mac? The article gives the examples of computer companies such as Sony, which install "crapware" (or demo versions of software that you have to manual uninstall) on new machines. At the time of the IGM article, Sony was charging $150 to get your machine free of unwanted software -- a $50 fee for not installing the extras, and $100 for an upgrade to Microsoft Vista Business Edition (whoa, say that 5 times fast). Wired has since reported that said Sony has removed the $50 "Fresh Start" fee, making one only pay $100 to upgrade to Vista Business.
IGM also made the point that Mac users may pay a premium, i.e.the "Apple tax", to get a better, crapware free product.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - eMusic calls bundled music anticompetitive
Filed under: Apple Corporate, iTS
Over at the Guardian, music retailer eMusic has weighed in on those rumors about Apple bundling iPods with free iTunes access. It would be "anti-competitive behavio(u)r by a monopolist," the Guardian quotes David Pakman, eMusic's CEO.
The plan, which not a lot of people seem to believe is entirely real, would be to sell iPods and iPhones with a set "free music" premium charge that would allow unrestricted access to music over the lifetime of the device. The likely cost would be about $100/device, working out to about $5/month over 18 months. This plan would make music labels "dangerously dependent" (again, according to the Guardian article) on Apple.
I'm not sure I follow Pakman's reasoning. The Universal Total Music idea has been around for a while and was originally proposed for non-Apple platforms. If Total Music does pan out for the iPod/iPhone, it seems that it would be Universal Music (or a reasonable music industry facsimile) being anticompetitive not Apple.
Thanks, Sebastian Clarke.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - International .com keyboard hack: NZ and beyond
Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone
I recently posted about internationalizing your iPhone's .com key. TUAW reader nzbullet directed me to this New Zealand/Australia button hack. It works like this: you copy the UK keyboard folder, rename it to a new country and then swap the .co.uk for a new extension.
Unfortunately, you seem to be limited to switching existing keyboard styles to new text--you can't add more characters. This means that the 6 characters of the UK keyboard (.co.uk) can morph to com.au (6 characters) but not to .com.au. (7 characters)
I thought it was a pretty nifty workaround and thought I'd share.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать
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