I think it’s around two years since TV shows were first available on iTunes in the USA. Finally some content was made available to purchase in the UK this week. First thing you notice is how little there is - it’s all American and there’s not much off it. There’s rumours of BBC and Channel 4 content to come later but there’s nothing at the moment.
Then you notice the price. It’s high. £1.89 per episode. That would be £43.47 for Lost series 3 which sounds a lot but the whole series can be bought on iTunes for a reduced price of £32.99. Currently the box set is available on Amazon for £44.98 so there are savings to be made however it’s almost double the American price, like most things here in the UK. While I’m saying there are savings to be made on DVD’s, that’s for latest box sets only. Earlier box sets are available for much less than the iTunes price, and would you really want to pay more for lesser quality?
I’ve just spent £1.89 to test just how good the iTunes TV shows look. (more…)
Tangerine is a new beta app for the Mac that has one major aim - to create playlists for iTunes based on the Beats per Minute (BPM) of a track. It also wants to do that quickly while looking good at the same time. First impressions are that it manages all three.
Once installed and running Tangerine will locate and analyze your iTunes library. There are issues if your library is located on an external drive but mines detected without a problem. The analysis is very quick - Potions website states around 3 tracks every second but obviously the anaylsis will be dependant on your library size and your encoding quality. Once analyzed it’s then down to you to create playlists based on the BPM that’s been associated to the mp3 file.
By using sliders to easily change the criteria it’s easy to make varied playlists - from fast paced workouts to slow burners. Once complete the playlists is displayed and you have the option of saving it in your iTunes library. Another nice feature is the ability to write the BPM values back to iTunes allowing you to use the BPM within iTunes itself.
All the basic functionality worked well but there were one or two quirks especially with the BPM analysis. It seemed to mark some real slow tracks with very little beat with a high BPM. However it didn’t mark any of the faster tracks incorrectly so hopefully this can be addressed before official release. The look and feel of the app though is terrific. Once the playlist has been generated it is shown in the Tangerine window along with it’s album art. There are also some nice speech bubbles used to show track info. Playback controls (more accurately playback info) could have been displayed with more clarity though - again something that could be addressed before 1.0 release.
Some features I’d like to see - ability to use a playlist as a source for the newly generated playlist rather than the whole library. I’d also like to pick genre or ratings (you can select use predominately higher ratings) and base new playlists on those criteria. Actually I can pick genre or ratings - you just need to add a rule in the preferences which you can enable/disable to you liking. Nice. I guess the one thing it really does need is a readme…and a help file.
This is a really handy app for gym bunnies or runners that want to tailor there playlists to not only good songs but songs that match their pace. I’ll be using it to generate some game based playlists - high for racing games (or Lumines), low for something like golf. One little point to finish on - the installation screens on Mac are great and Tangerines is one of the best. Enjoy.
Apple iMac and new 80Gig iPod ordered. About a week until they are shipped - cannot wait! New iTunes also out today that looks a lot slicker and introduces…gapless playback - at last. Get downloading!
September 12th could be an expensive day. Apple are doing another of their ’special events’ which has everyone speculating on new products. Hot tips are a new iMac and an iTunes movie store and maybe a new iPod or replacement for the Nano.
I would love to see Macbook Pro updated with at least the new Intel chips - that would be enough for me to purchase. I also want, well, need a new iPod as my current one is full and I can’t be doing with picking and choosing what music I want on the player. I’m still not sold on a video iPod though especially if it’s larger than the current models. Would be nice to see a video and a music iPod developed.
One thing on the movie store - rumours are $14.99 for new titles and $9.99 for older movies - sounds a bit steep considering the movies will come with DRM restrictions. Surely that wouldn’t be the price for a movie sized only for a new iPod? That got me thinking - would we see hi-def movies sold for that price through iTunes? The movie’s would be large but would users be willing to download hi def movies and play then from their laptop or pc rather than buying an HD-DVD or Blu-ray player. Will probably never happen but the option would be nice.
Shamelessly copied from elsewhere I present my iTunes signature - itsm.mp3 (2 Meg download). The program that generated the file can be found on at Jason Freeman’s site. It has a few options and will generate your own signature based on this. The only requirements are that you use iTunes and can run Java apps on your pc.
So can you name all the tracks in my signature? I couldn’t but the app creates a list of the tracks used….
1 - So I Begin - Galleon - I Believe
2 - Love Will Come Through - Travis - 12 Memories
3 - Landed - Ben Folds - Songs For Silverman
4 - Whatever, Whenever - Groove Armada - Vertigo
5 - Kiss This Thing Goodbye - Del Amitri - Waking Hours
6 - Fix You - Coldplay - X&Y
7 - 1 Thing - Amerie - Touch
8 - Don’t want to Fall in Love - Chris Issac - Chris Issac
9 - All I Need - Air - Moon Safari
10 - Toca’s Miracle - Fragma - Dogs Balearics Disc 2
11 - Creep - Radiohead - Pablo Honey
12 - Bad Day - Daniel Powter - Daniel Powter
13 - Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet - Get Born
14 - Vertigo - U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
15 - El Salvador - Athlete - Vehicles and Animals
16 - Somewhere Only We Know - Keane - Hopes And Fears
17 - I Can’t Be With You - Cranberries - No Need To Argue
18 - Shiver - Coldplay - Parachutes
19 - Further - Longview - Mercury
20 - Fake plastic trees - Radiohead - The Bends
21 - Drop The Pressure - Mylo - Destroy Rock ‘n’ Roll
22 - Give It Away - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Greatest Hits
23 - Oh My Gosh - Basement Jaxx - The Singles
24 - Amsterdam - Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
25 - Go - Moby - 3 for 1
26 - Electric Mistress - Jamiroquai - Dynamite
27 - ‘95 aka Make Things Right - Lemon Jelly - ‘64-’95
28 - Catch - Kosheen - Catch
29 - Free - Estelle - RnB Essential Spring 2005 CD2
30 - Mr. Brightside - The Killers - Hot Fuss
31 - Between Angels And Insects - Papa Roach - Infest
32 - Run - Snow Patrol - Final Straw
33 - American Idiot - Green Day - American Idiot
34 - Girls - Prodigy - Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned
35 - You’re Beautiful - James Blunt - Back to Bedlam
36 - Leave home - Chemical Brothers - Exit Planet Dust
37 - What Sound - Lamb - What Sound
38 - Any Day Now - Elbow - Asleep in the Back
39 - Feel Good Inc - Gorillaz - Demon Days
40 - Hush - LL Cool J feat. 7 Aurelius - Now 60
41 - Black And White Town - Doves - Some Cities
42 - TwoMonthsOff - Underworld - AHundredDaysOff
43 - The Blower’s Daughter - Damien Rice - O
Worthwhile playing around with the settings to see what different sigs can be created.
