iPod Hardware Repairs in London

iPods are great, but like all computers they go wrong from time to time. If your iPod is in warranty Apple is the first port of call. But what if your iPod is older?

If you can get to Kensington High Street the Apple dealers there - Cancom Kensington - are worth a call. They're at 290 Kensington High Street, about ten minutes walk from Kensignton High Street tube station and the main shops. As Apple dealers they know the whole product range and can check your iPod from both a hardware and a software perspective. Talking to their staff they appear well informed, polite and very helpful.

If you'd prefer to ring them their number is 0845 686 3400. I hope your iPod never fails, but if it does, this could be your salvation.

Outstanding Support

Some years ago I made what has turned out to be a brilliant investment. It's a great piece of software which finds album art and embeds it into iTunes music libraries. I've found it to be quick, easy to use and very reliable.

It's called iAlbumArt, it is written by Mike Matheson and you can find out more at www.ialbumart.ipod-sync.com.

Several times I've done something which needs help. On every occasision I've been amazed at the quality of support I've received, direct from Mike himself. Maybe it helps with me being in the UK and Mike being in the States, but his replies to my calls for help have been as fast as they've been patient and courteous.

So if you're looking for software to handle your iTunes album art, and you appreciate world class support, look into Mike and his product. It's brilliant.

Robotic CD Ripping

In an earlier post Ripfactory explained that they were exiting the robotic CD hardware ripping market. Their plan instead was to have their ripping software sold by the hardware manufacturer as part of a robotic ripping solution. Given the worldwide raising of the blood pressure in the CD ripping community at the mention of Ripfactory, a step in the right direction.

Other postings have brought me into contact with MF Digital. I would have no hesitation in recommending them as a first class company to deal with, they've come over as a solid and professional, keen to deliver good service to their client base. They've even stepped into the breach when their erstwhile trading partner had appeared to let a client down.

So the ripping scene takes a step closer to the golden horizon with the launch of MF Digital's combined robot hardware and software CD ripping systems. You can find out more at MF Digital's web site.

The RipStation name echoes the heritage of Ripfactory but the product is supplied by MF Digital. If you're looking for a robotic ripping solution now your first port of call should be MF Digital. Perhaps I can briefly point out that I don't use a robot myself and I hold no brief for MF Digital beyond being happy to plug the good guys.

Robert Reads and Responds

I sit here typing this stuff and sometimes feel I'm the only one reading it. No, not so - I get replies.

The latest is from Robert Warnock at Ripfactory, he's their Metadata Support Specialist. Robert asks that I credit him and his colleagues for the improvements we've made in our Data Grooming functionality. Indeed much of what we offer is delivered by the latest version of their Audiogroomer software, customised for podServe's special needs.

Yes, thanks to Robert, Audiogroomer is a great tool and along with a couple of other packages and some home grown code, our take on Data Grooming rocks.

Ripping Wrecked by Locking?

For those who have forgotten we operate a CD ripping service (www.podserve.co.uk). At the end of each project we delete the files created along the way - often thousands of AAC or MP3 tracks. And as we also scan images for our clients from time to time we have images files to delete.

Ever since we've been using Macs this has been a smooth process, but I've noticed recently that one of our Macs is getting troublesome. Nothing major, but I sometimes have to go into the iTunes music library and manually delete some files. More troublesome is finding that files in Trash have somehow become locked. This is quite a nuisance, rather than rapidly clearing Trash the process stops. I was left with files left in Trash which I couldn't delete.

Unlocking a file with OS X is easy, just a few mouse clicks, but when you're stuck with 100+ locked files it becomes an unpleasant chore. I'm not alone in this as a Mac user client rang me saying he was having the same problem. So I did a bit of digging and found software which unlocks or locks files in a batch. I've run it a few times and it works well. It's simply called Locker and it's avaialable from vojousoftware.com.

So if you're struggling with batches of locked files, Locker is your answer.