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.
New iTunes version 5.0 with a new look and some new features even for old iPod users. Playlists within folders, contact and calender synch with Outlook, far better search (allegedly like spotlight in OS X), shuffle options (woo), parental controls (woo - this is irony by the way) and album reviews in the music store. Was that really worth an update to a version 5.0.
On installing it seemed to update my whole library. On syncing with the iPod it’s refreshing ALL the tracks. That’s 22 gigs it’s writing back to the iPod. Strange. Even odder - some tracks won’t write to the iPod - they did yesterday. I updated the iPod firmware and all seems well by going from version 2.2 to 2.3.
The new search is great - fast and accurate. Folders are also nice as the parent folder will display a sum of all the child playlists. Not convinced on the new look which is better than the old brushed metal but seems to have an odd double pixel around the left and right window border.
And like that….they were gone. All podcast software writers must be jumping with joy now that iTunes 4.9 is out with podcast support - not. No need for iPodder or Odeo (nice knowing you) when iTunes supports it all from within the one package for free. Speaking of free I notice that all the podcasts have the word ‘Free’ text to the subscribe button - I can see some podcasts costing a few pennies in the not too distant future but for the majority to keep a fan base and charge the quality will need to increase. then again with the BBC and other broadcasters looking at podcasting, web technologies and alternative revenue streams it seems only a matter of time before a charging model is introduced. If thousands are willing to pay for ringtones who knows how big the podcasting market could grow to. Podcasts in iTunes also support chapters with pictures for each chapter and clickable links in iTunes. All sounds like a step to a new format of audible books and makes more sense when you think how easy it is to buy from the iTunes Music Store?
There’s some nice features for managing podcast transfers to the iPod - all episodes of a podcast, latest episodes only etc. I can’t see a feature I’m missing right now that I’ve seen in other software so this looks to be a good update to iTunes and a reduction in the amount of apps I need on the pc which is officially a good thing.
Also new is the iPod. No more iPod photo, the 20Gb and 60Gb iPod’s both have colour screens and support for bookmarking podcasts and displaying album and podcast art as well as photo’s. £299 for a 60Gb iPod is very tempting. Nice updates from Apple - again.
Finally I have achieved one of my long term goals. It’s not one of those vitally important life changing ones, but it brought a smile none the less. All 3501 songs in my iTunes library have now been rated and listened to at least once. Joy. The advantages this brings……mmm. Well, the playlists will be fully functional and at least I’m able to listen to all my top rated music. The radio playlist will also work 100% with all my music. And that’s it. Thank you for listening.
I’ve been using iPodder for a few weeks now with mixed results. iPodder allows you to download podcasts of your choosing to your iPod. Podcasts, in case you didn’t know, are audio files (like normal radio broadcasts) that can be easily downloaded from the net and stored on your iPod, or any digital player for that matter - pc, Xbox etc.
While the software works well and integrates nicely with iTunes, it’s the quality of the content I’ve been most disappointed with. Out of the popular top 10, Reel Reviews, IT Conversations and Engadget have been the only ones that perked my interest with the rest being fairly poor. Adam Curry (who started off the concept of podcasting) was just irritating - if I want to listen to someone coughing in my ear I’ll just listen to the guys in the office whose banter is far more entertaining. The others I have tried have been fairly poor. I guess it’s no surprise really as like blogging, some things should be left to the professionals. Still worth a try even for the two shows above although it goes without saying that this is for broadband users only - the IT Conversations shows can run over an hour…but they can at least be fast forwarded for when they get a little dry.
