With the hustle and bustle of the new iPhone 2.0 firmware, the App Store, and the 3G iPhone, it can be easy to forget the foundation that got the whole ball rolling: iTunes. Yes, Apple’s jukebox from the first days of Mac OS X has undergone many changes over the years, but the tight integration with iPod (and later iPhone) syncing cemented it for many users as their primary music player.
Now Apple has created a new way to get the most out of iTunes. It’s called Remote (App Store Link) and it’s an iPhone App that creates a direct link (over a local access network) between the iPhone in your hand and iTunes on your computer.
If you’re a stranger to Awaken, let me tell you what it does. Basically, Awaken is a simple application which sets alarms to either pause or play your iTunes. It’s extremely useful if you’d like to wake up to some funky songs in the morning; or to go bed with soothing music in the background, knowing that your Mac will turn itself off when the time is right. Sounds like a great application, doesn’t it? The only problem is: it costs $12.95. I’m not a cheap person but I’m still not willing pay $13 just to have some music played to me in the morning or before I go to bed.
podUP is a simple application that was built for one purpose and it does it very well — retrieving songs from your iPod.
In the past, I’ve had friends come looking for me asking me for help with their iPods. Their complaint was that there were songs in their iPod which were not showing up in iTunes. They didn’t want to re-sync it again in case they lost it, so they came to me. Luckily, I had this program handy.
Free music is and always has been one of the top internet favorites. (Remember Napster?) While the trend is already shifting from that dark p2p-age to the more civilized crowd, netizens today are still craving for free music and it IS available legally if you know where to look for it.
With millions of song downloads, the term “internet and music” can’t be separated from iTunes and the store. So, it’s natural that many people turn to iTunes to find (free) music.
DoubleTwist is a Windows-only desktop application which liberates your media from the Digital Rights Management (DRM) labels and lets you share it with your friends and also synchronizes it with various other devices including external devices such as Blackberry, Nokia N Series and Sony Ericsson Walkman Series phones. It can also convert the songs in your iTunes library and lets you share them with ease. Plus it also works on video.
There has been much confusion in the past as to what exactly a podcast is. To ease some of the confusion, it is basically an online show which can be in the form of audio or video that is downloaded on demand. Most notably, podcasts utilize RSS which stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS might even be how you subscribe to Make Use Of and podcasts work the same way. However instead of text posts you would be downloading audio or video.
Sharing your music through the local network has always been relatively painless with iTunes. Essentially, it is only a 3-step process. Streaming your music through the Internet is slightly more complicated since you’ll have to find the right programs or web service which suit your needs. Some of the programs which I’ve come across are Hamachi (which utilizes VPN) and Simplify Media. Online services like DOT.TUNES, nuTsie and Maestro will also allow you to stream your music, but via a browser, which is sort of a good thing because you can access your library from anywhere since you won’t need iTunes or WinAmp.
iTunes is not the best or even one of the faster music players out there but it is definitely one of the most popular ones. If you’re using iTunes as your primary music player then here are some addons to improve your iTunes experience. On the other hand, if your iPod is the only reason you keeping it then check out some equally good alternatives in our iPod Tools roundup.
(1) iTunes Sync - Sync iTunes with other MP3 players
Want to have identical browser settings on every one of your PCs ? How about keeping documents on your office and home PCs synchronized? For these and several other ways to sync your data read further. Enjoy!
1. Google Browser Sync - Sync Browser Bookmarks, History, Settings, etc. between diff. PCs
Google Browser Sync is a Firefox extension from Google that can auto synchronize your browser bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across multiple computers. It even lets you restore open browser tabs and windows across different machines so you can always pickup from where you left. It’s completely automated, all you need to do is to install it on all computers that you use on a regular basis.
2. SyncToy - Synchronize Files Between PC and USB Thumbdrive
As a big fan of Firefox, I am always interested in any other projects that Mozilla might be dabbling in. Yesterday I began testing Songbird which is Mozilla’s open-source version of Apple’s iTunes music player.
Songbird has the same basic design as iTunes but it’s black (default skin) and with added functionality. As with iTunes, you can import your music, subscribe to podcasts, create playlists, rate each song, synchronise your playlists with your computer files and so on.
But let’s take a look at what makes Songbird different from iTunes.
Quick look at 3 different applications for accessing your music library directly from mobile phone.
IMPORTANT: All listed services are FREE, however depending on your mobile plan data transfer fees may apply. I recommended that you contact your mobile carrier and find out about your ‘data transfer’ charges before going with any of the below listed music applications.
SimplifyMedia is a one of a kind application (Mac, Win) that lets you easily share your music library with friends and allow them to access and stream your tracks without leaving their iTunes player (screenshot). The best part about it is that it works even if you are NOT in the same network. You can also use it to access your own music library from other computers and most importantly from your iPhone or iPod Touch.
I live in Gmail. In fact my entire life gets run by Gmail in every possible conceivable way (except for cooking my dinner which is the next Gmail feature that I am waiting for!). I am now running a little experiment to see how much information I can collate from inside Gmail without having to visit other sites. With a staggering 5GB of Gmail space, I think there’s no danger anytime soon of running out of space!
I’m a big fan of the iPod but what I don’t like is Apple not being very forthcoming about how to move music from the iPod back to the PC. They’re quick enough to tell you how to move the music from your PC to your iPod but when you want to do the opposite, Apple clams up tight.
