Continue reading iTunes Tip #31: Using iTunes Search Bar…

Continue reading iTunes Tip #30: Trim Start/End of Tracks in iTunes…

Continue reading iTunes Tip #29: Skip Tracks When Shuffling…

Continue reading iTunes Tip #28: Get Serial Number of Last iPod Connected…

ReelSmart.com is not a news site. But I thought this story will prove pretty important to readers. I thought I might submit my version of what I think the new logo should be! I heard that Mickey is very happy about the news and is emailing all his friends using his new Mac-Intel iMac. He says it is very fast by the way.

Disney buys Pixar for $7.4 Billion
The Walt Disney Company has announced it is buying its longtime partner Pixar Animation Studios Inc. for $7.4 billion in stock. Pixar was started by Steve Jobs in 1986, buying some guys and an idea, that were working in a barn at LucasFilm for 10 million dollars. Pixar created the first ever, all computer animated, full length movie called Toy Story, released November 22, 1995. Many animated hits followed such as “A Bugs Life”, “Monsters, Inc”, “Toy Story 2″, “Finding Nemo”, and “The Incredibles”, all distributed by Disney.

Pixar now gets bought by Disney to help out Mickey and company for 7.4 Billion dollars. Making Steve Jobs the biggest individual stockholder in Disney and a member of the board or directors. This will vault Steve Jobs into a powerful role at the media conglomerate. Not bad for a side-business, Steve!

Pixar President Ed Catmull will serve as president of the combined Pixar and Disney animation studios and Pixar Executive Vice President John Lasseter will be chief creative officer of the animation studios. Jobs’ role as a Board member of Disney. We will see what this means for Apple. But I can not see any downside for Apple. Looks from here to be all good! In a side note-as of today the iTunes Music Store is offering “exclusive” Disney shorts…

Several large carriers and pushing for a tiered Internet service model that will change the Internet as we know it forever. Internet users should be very concerned about what they are proposing as they are trying their damnest to put a “pretty face” on this model. Basically they feel that collecting “subscription fees” from users is not enough for their wallets, they want to be able to charge application providers, service providers, search sites, and ecommerce websites fees for just carrying your access to this content over “their” pipes. Therefore, who ever “pays” the most will get priority over others, and those who do not pay will not be carried over the ISP’s pipes at all! This means that consumers will be blocked from full access to those sites.

In this day and age where NOT one ISP, can or is even willing to guarantee the download and upload speeds they claim that we are paying for, it amazes me the absolute gall to “spin” what comes down to cyber-extortion as somehow a good thing. This is really about JUST two things: CONTROL and GREED. It actually has little to do with providing better service to what is conceived as important Internet services getting priority. Who determines what is important to whom? Not you, I guarantee that.
Continue reading Cyber-Extortion: Tiered Internet Service Model?…

Pandora is your “personal” streaming Internet radio station. Unlike other Internet radio stations that you pick by genre and they stream the same music to everyone connected. Pandora, created by the Music Genome Project, gets “very” personal. You pick your favorite artists and songs and Pandora streams music to you, based on your choices. This is a great way to discover new music. In my opinion better than subscribing to Napster, Rhapsody, or Yahoo! Music where you need to pick your tracks, set up your own playlists, requiring you to do all the work. Having to go through a million tracks without much in criteria other than genre, to discover music you have not heard before, only to lose all your playlists when you stop paying!

You simply tell Pandora your favorite artists and songs, and in turn Pandora streams music based on your selections. They use over 400 distinct musical characteristics by a trained music analyst to select the music for you, NOT based only on genre. This is not a simple “you bought that” and “others who bought it, also bought this” type of choice you get from iTunes or Amazon. While listening, you can click on the album artwork and use Pandora’s “thumbs up” or thumbs down” feedback to even further fine tune the music to your taste, making Pandora your personal DJ. The more you listen and give feedback to Pandora the more it can deliver music that matches your distinct taste. Pandora features over 300,000 songs from over 10,000 artists with new ones being added regularly.

You can “program” up to 100 stations. The service comes in two flavors, free, and subscription-based. The only difference is the free version is supported by ads. The subscription pricing is $36 for a year ($3/month) or $12 for 3 months ($4/month). If you no not mind ads, Pandora is free. By clicking on the album artwork you will see links for iTunes and Amazon to allow you an easy way to purchase and music you are listening to, if you desire.
Continue reading Open Up Pandora’s Music Box…

Continue reading iTunes Tip #27: Send Music To Several Speakers in Sync…

Continue reading iTunes Tip #26: iTunes 6.02 Also Adds Video Sharing, But……

Seems I was too fast with my last post or too slow! Apple has been pretty quiet about the new features it added to the Jan 10, iTunes 6.02 update release. There is yet even another new feature to add to the MiniStore and the additional “video kind” for TV Shows. The 6.02 iTunes release also adds the ability of AirTunes sending music to several Airport Express units simulataneously. In my last post on Jan 14, I recommended Airfoil 2 for adding this feature to iTunes.

You must make sure you update your Airport Express with the 6.3 firmware update (released on January 3rd).

In the Speakers drop down list, you can now select the “Multiple Speakers.
Continue reading iTunes 6.02 Adds Multiple Speaker Support…

Rogue Amoeba brings us Airfoil 2 (Shareware $25, OS X only) which adds a missing function your Mac. It allows your Mac to play ANY audio on multiple AirPort Express units simultaneously, in sync.

Please note: Since Apple’s iTunes 6.02 release, iTunes NOW supports multi-speaker playback right in side iTunes! Airfoil 2 still adds support for playing back ANY audio your Mac can play which is not supported without Airfoil 2. See iTunes 6.02 Adds Multiple Speaker Support.

Our home is equipped with five Apple Airport Express units installed in different rooms and different floors of the house. This is primarily so we can stream audio from my Mac to the different room stereos or powered speakers. As we use iTunes for all the music in the house this is convenient. We have not used CDs to play music in quite a long time. Our huge iTunes music library and Internet radio are accessible to any room in our home.

I have always wanted the capability to stream any audio from my Mac to multiple rooms at once and of course in sync. I have been hoping Apple would add this in the future. This would make a lot of sense as they would be able to more easily sell more AirPort Express units. But Apple has yet to add this feature or allow the Airport Express’ and AirTunes to work with anything but the iTunes application.

Well, Airfoil 2 to the rescue. Rogue Amoeba is the same company that has brought Mac users some great shareware like Audio Hijack Pro, Audio Hijack, and Nicecast, and some nice freeware like SoundSource, LineIn, and Detour all of which I highly recommend.
Continue reading New Airfoil 2 Enhances iTunes for Mac Users (UPDATED)…

The new iTunes release 6.02 has yet another new improved feature. You can now adjust the Video Kind located under the Option Menu to include TV Shows. Before this release you where only allowed to change it to either Movie or Music Video. Only TV Shows bought from iTunes Music Store came with the Video Kind set to TV Shows.

This will now allow your videos to show up in iTunes and the iPod in the right category. Videos bought from iTunes Music Store come with the Video Kind locked so you can not change it.

The new iTunes release also has a new MiniStore feature that is creating some controversy and adds a feature to “Convert Selection for iPod”.

See the posts below for more info:
iTunes Tip #25: iTunes MiniStore On/Off
iTunes Tip #24: Converting Video for the iPod
iPod Tip #14: Move Your Music Videos to the Correct Playlist
Video and the iPod for Mac Users

Continue reading iTunes Tip #25: iTunes MiniStore On/Off…

Continue reading iTunes Tip #24: Converting Video for the iPod…

I have to say I was excited to see Apple release a new professional portable machine, the MacBook Pro with an Intel processor inside. The PowerBook G4 is in dire need of a refresh, mostly due to speed. But as happy as I am to see Apple get us a faster professional notebook earlier than expected, I am not so sure the new MacBook Pros were as well thought out as many have claimed, when it comes to “pro” users needs. iBook users are different in many ways from PowerBook users, as many of them are creative “pros”.

The new MacBooks seem to take us “one leap forward” and at least “three steps back” for professional users and road warriors. Sure I am plenty happy to see a machine that finally will give us the speed of what a G5 PowerBook promised. But for some strange reason Apple has removed some features “pros” expect. This has prompted me NOT to order the new MacBook Pro (available in Feb) for myself and the three other engineers in my office. We will stay with the latest generation of the PowerBook G4 and deal with the slower speeds. At least for now.
Continue reading Intel-based MacBooks Arrive With Missing Features…