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Yahoo boosts prices on their music service, effectively doubling it by the end of the month. So subscribers will have to pay up or watch their music and playlists disappear. Yahoo’s initial $6.99 a month offer may have sounded cheap to early users. But Yahoo will now raise its monthly price for the portable subscriptions to about $11.99 (or $9.99 per month for customers who sign up for a year of service), as of Nov. 1. Subscribers who have already locked in a $4.99 per month discounted annual fee, which is still available through November, will keep that price until next year.

This brings it closer to Napster and RealNetworks, which offer $15 a month “subscription” service. It should be noted that these subscription services no not allow for burning CDs without paying an additional fee for each track, usually about 79 cents. Song purchased from Apple iTunes Music Store are not “rented” they are owned. Tracks are 99 cents and albums run about $9.99 – $11.99 typically. You can “burn” you own CDs and many albums come with a “digital booklet” in PDF that can be used as the CD jacket.

With Apple now supporting free podcasts right within iTunes, filling up your iPod with interesting content is free and easy. If you want to fill your iPod with music, new and classics, in all genres. I suggest you try Griffin Technology’s iFill. This is a killer $20 application for the iPod that allows you to record thousands of Internet radio stations, multiple ones at the same time. Literally “filling” your iPod in the amount you choose with music at no cost. This has been my answer to subscription services.
Continue reading Yahoo Music: Pay Up or Lose Your Music!…

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I think iFill is a killer application for the iPod and was using it daily until it stopped working when Apple updated iTunes to version 6. Happy to say I am recording Internet radio to my iPod again with iFill 1.09. It took Griffin Technology about 5 days to get the update out. Thanks guys.

Jason D. O’Grady of the PowerPage covers the same problem I had on iFill after upgrading to iTunes 6. I think iFill is a killer application for the iPod and was using it daily until it stopped working. I emailed Griffin Technology yesterday and have no gotten an answer as of yet.

I hope they have a quick fix for iFill, I was enjoying listening to time-shifted Internet radio on my iPod. See my review of iFill.

Continue reading OS X Tip #56: “SnapBack” While Going On Safari…

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Continue reading OS X Tip #51: When Your Mac Can’t SIT, dotSIT That Is!…

Another useful “widget” from Griffin Technology, iFill $19.99, is released. iFill records MP3 streams from the thousands of free Internet radio stations available directly to your iPod. You can choose several stations at once and select from many different genres. Maybe another reason along with your favorite podcasts, to not pay for a satellite radio subscription or use a pay-for music subscription service.

iFill may be a great fit for your “Digital Lifestyle” as I have found it for mine. With iFill, you can go to bed while charging your iPod, and wake up to an iPod full of new music, ready for your commute. This is a great way to get new music or your old favorites and listen to them on your iPod whenever you want. I will “iFill-er-up” while I work at my desk for the commute. iFill also allows you to listen to the stations while records or play what it has put on your iPod.
Continue reading iFill: Internet Radio Directly to Your iPod…

There are times you may need to convert a DVD to QuickTime to re-edit the content in Final Cut Pro or iMovie. Maybe you no longer have the original footage or it was edited by someone else. Recently, I received a DVD that was edited by a corporate TV department that needs to run on 5 Macs at a convention. Since very few DVDs have a loop function (none I had available including the Apple DVD player on the Macs) unless the DVD itself was created this way (iDVD can do this). It was desirable to “rip” this DVD to VOB or QuickTime files so I can make a playlist and have it “loop”. Unless you think re-starting a DVD on 5 separate computers scattered around at an eight-hour convention for a 5 minute video sounds like “good” exercise! You could set up a “looping” playlist on a DVD using just VLC media player, but I wanted to have all the footage on the hard drive and not have the Macs DVD drive getting a big work out at all the conventions we had to do. Looping playlists can be done with VLC media player, MPlayer, QuickTime Pro, or even iTunes! See iTunes Tip #9: Play Video Playlists Full Screen.

Anyway, no matter what your reasons. Here is some ideas on how to “rip” a DVD to VOB files and convert them to QuickTime or another format like DV, AVI, etc.
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My new favorite Dashboard widget is now Widget Television VF1. Widget Television VF1 by Skobos Designs, allows you to watch DV channels through any broadband connection. Currently there are 200 channels available — everything from movies, news and music videos to educational programming. The future of television is here. Experience some IPTV and try the widget to make it easy.

I watched a documentary on Muhammad Ali, the three Stooges, several movies, several music shows, ABC news, and some NASA TV all while working on my PowerBook. I did this by downloading and installing the Widget Television VF1 from the Apple Dashboard widget site and if you want to use the Widget Television VF1 on your desktop instead of only in the Dashboard widget layer just follow my OS X Tip #50: Use Dashboard Widgets of Your Desktop.
Continue reading Widget Television is Here…

Continue reading OS X Tip #50: Use Dashboard Widgets on Your Desktop…