Just about the coolest iTunes plugin I've seen yet.


http://www.opticalalchemy.com/products.html

I've heard that this is the direction Apple are taking with iTunes 5. View by album art, flip it over to see the tracklisting etc. Should be cool.

 

That's very nice indeed. No PC version though, will have to wait until I make the switch

 

I made a quick demo vid for Windows users

http://www.demomac.com/jewel.mov

 

Pretty pointless, but looks nice

 

Quick demo vid!!! I've been waiting 10 minutes for it to show. You should consider Windows XP and Movie Maker. Nice, easy, streaming video. Couldn't resist

 

What's "fonky"? is it a Mac'ism?

 

10 minutes You want to get yourself a proper 'puter! Its streamed, and even at 56k should play off the bat. I take it you "save target as" instead of clicking then

fonky, not so much a Mac'ism, more a Manc'ism

 

Nah, I clicked it. Might be my old machine but Quicktime never seems to stream properly like WMV.

Nice album by the way, by chance I'd purchaced a Bjork single on iTunes this morning.

 

Probably down to QT on a pc, its never been topnotch.

The Björk album is very good, I'm really liking Triumph of a Heart. The album artwork is ace to!

 

Take a look at the cover of the CD singe 'Who Is It'... stunning work again.

I'm struggling with Medúlla, have to be in the right mood.

I love iTunes, the catalogue is constantly growing. I had stopped buying Björk singles as our local record shop had stopped stocking them.

 

I'm a big fan of the iTMS too. It keeps presenting me with stuff I would never have seen before, James Blunt being the most notable addition to my library.

 

If only you could use it with something other than an ipod.

I hear someone is taking Apple to court over the fact that they are forcing him to use their ipod for playback rather than the player of his choice, (using the same anti-competition arguments that have been thrown at Microsoft). I await the result with interest...

 

>forcing him to use their ipod for playback rather than the player of his choice

What a pile of cack. It was his choice to use iTunes... and it's free!!

And anyhow, it's no problem importing tracks into iTunes then drag and dropping individual files or folders to another player. I just put a load on my PSP in the same way. In my case D:\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music and just like magic there they all are sorted into folders by a great free piece of software.

 

But if you buy a track from iTunes, you can only play it on an ipod because of the protection they put into the aac files (he wasn't referring to tracks ripped from his own collection bu bought stuff).

Are you saying you've managed to buy tracks and play them on another player?

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4151009.stm

 

Ah, that's a bit different. But...

>Are you saying you've managed to buy tracks and play them on another player?

Yup, no problem. The CD you can create from within iTunes will play on any CD player. Work around I know, but it does work. No doubt there are tools out there that rightly or wrongly will remove the protection.

 

Yep, but it'll be interesting to see the outcome though

 

This guy is a dick frankly. Out for nothing other than publicity to make a name for himself. I guarantee you he works in either marketing or law.

Firstly, has he never heard of CD's? How about the fact that the competitions stuff is restricted to anything that isn't an iPod, or a Mac. Should I take MS to court because if I buy a track from Napster it won't work on a Mac?

He has a gripe with Fairplay, the DRM that controls iTMS tracks. Unfortunately for him Fairplay is exactly what it says, fair. You get much more leeway with iTMS tracks than you do with wma's DRM'ed with "Janus" or "Plays for Sure" as its now known .

It won't take long, especially as there are already ripples in the US. But those who have been downloading tracks from wma based stores have got some very nasty surprises up ahead.

This guy can bitch and whine all he wants about having to use an Apple iPod to use what is essentially Apple software, but that doesn't change what it is.

You can make comparisons between this and the MS antitrust stuff but they would be way of the mark.

iTunes is multi-operating system, free, you don't have to use iTMS tracks, iTunes itself works with other players, the iPod is a separate item that you are not forced to buy in order to listen to your music.

I would be very, very surprised if this guy got anything other than laughed at in court.

 

Same here, but he is correct in that if you want to buy music from iTunes, then you have to have an ipod to play them unless you...

• burn them to cd and re-encode them (which will likely result in a degradation of the sound quality
• remove the copy protection, (which is a bit dodgy legally)

Doesn't really bother me either way, but it'll be interesting to see how it turns out....

 

True, but if you want to download tracks from Napster or any other wma service you have to...

•Buy a PC
•Or **** off

Exactly the same thing. like I say this guy is just after headlines, and as Apple are flavour of the month (which I know really gets your goat ) he will get all the headlines he can handle.

 

Not true. I'm actually seriously considering getting a mac of some sort (one of the more powerful ones - with dual processors etc). It's just that finances dictate it'll probably be either be in the latter half of this year or the beginning of next (got a few more important things to get first).

(Bet you were glad you were sat down when you read that eh )

Still think Apple are trying to create a monopoly with iTunes and the iPod though.

 

I hope you do get one. It will surprise you.

Apple will never be allowed to create any sort of monopoly, the Windows fans will never, ever let that happen.

Shame though, because if most of them just gave Apple a go (as I did just over a year ago) then most of them would probably quite like it.