Most of my (non CD ripping) work is done on a Mac Mini. One of the great things about the Apple platform is that it just works. Having faith in Apple I tend to just accept the messages to say there are new versions of the operating system or key applications and install them soon after they become available. Which is what I did yesterday, to a whole batch of updates - including to iTunes.
No fuss, no drama. I had to restart the computer (not always required) but carried on just as normal. Then a horrible screeching sound, starting quietly and getting louder. For some reason iTunes had fired up and started playing the first track in the library, which happened to be an audio book for kids about a scary spider - and the weird sound was a special effect that opens the tale. Mystery explained, shut down iTunes and carried on.
That same thing happened every few minutes yesterday afternoon. And evening. Finally I took the hint and left iTunes running. Spent most of the evening thinking "It's never done that before". And it's done it again this morning.
I don't know if this stems from something in iTunes, the operating system, Safari or OS X. The library to which iTunes presently points is stored on an external USB hard drive. What happens is that apparently spontaneously iTunes loads, opens and starts to play the first track in the library.
From yesterday's experience the phantom iTunes start doesn't seem directly coincidental to any other action such as accessing the external drive, opening a particular program or any hardware related action. I went out to the Post Office, leaving a silent office, and came back to find iTunes was open and telling a story.
If this is happening to you I regret I can't explain what's going on, or how to stop it.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Thursday, May 03, 2012
A New iTunes?
I have got to the point where I have even bored myself predicting a new solid state storage based iPod model to replace the iPod Classic. If it happens, it happens - you heard it here first and a long time ago. Then I suddenly thought, what about iTunes itself?
History first. When Apple launched their first portable music player they relied on a non-Apple pice of software, MusicMatch. It wasn't bad, very mainstream computing interface. It was subsequently swallowed up by Yahoo, pretty much faded away. When iTunes hit it was a breath of fresh air, particularly compared with Microsoft's Windows Media Player. You could tell iTunes was built by music lovers, it did what people want when they enjoy music. And it put the track (not the album / CD) at the centre of the music library. Of course it was imbued with all the loveliness that so many people like about the Apple brand. It wasn't to everyone's taste, and there's still a cottage industry in non-Apple, non-WMP music playing and ripping systems. However for 95%+ of the tune loving populace, it has to be iTunes.
Just looking across the range of Apple's current applications, on a daily basis I use iPhoto, Aperture, Pages, address book and calendar, I get the feeling iTunes is creaking a little. So what next for the music monster?
First - CD ripping. OK, that's my business and it's where my thoughts turn first. I'd like ripping to be faster, maybe that will happen. For the typical iPod owner why do they even have to bother? Couldn't they just say they have bought a CD and allow Apple's vast music cloud to place that set of tracks into their library, to be downloaded as and when necessary?
Second - compression. When we started people had tiny hard drives against big record collections. Today the collections are only a little bigger, but iPod drives (not to mention laptops and desktops) are huge. If Apple could do to their Apple Lossless codec what they seem to have done to their jpg algorithm in Aperture, you'd get effectively lossless music quality in file sizes only a little larger than decent AAC files. Then, users wouldn't have to dance to the AAC, MP3, Lossless jig and agonise on what's right for them.
Third - DVD ripping. Movies are as much part of home entertainment as music, Come on Apple.
Fourth - bury the database. Yes, easier said than done, but all that wordage on the standard iTunes screen just confuses most users. Sure it needs to be under the hood but the look and feel of iTunes is dated and clunky. Apple is brilliant at interface design, this one needs an overhaul.
History first. When Apple launched their first portable music player they relied on a non-Apple pice of software, MusicMatch. It wasn't bad, very mainstream computing interface. It was subsequently swallowed up by Yahoo, pretty much faded away. When iTunes hit it was a breath of fresh air, particularly compared with Microsoft's Windows Media Player. You could tell iTunes was built by music lovers, it did what people want when they enjoy music. And it put the track (not the album / CD) at the centre of the music library. Of course it was imbued with all the loveliness that so many people like about the Apple brand. It wasn't to everyone's taste, and there's still a cottage industry in non-Apple, non-WMP music playing and ripping systems. However for 95%+ of the tune loving populace, it has to be iTunes.
Just looking across the range of Apple's current applications, on a daily basis I use iPhoto, Aperture, Pages, address book and calendar, I get the feeling iTunes is creaking a little. So what next for the music monster?
First - CD ripping. OK, that's my business and it's where my thoughts turn first. I'd like ripping to be faster, maybe that will happen. For the typical iPod owner why do they even have to bother? Couldn't they just say they have bought a CD and allow Apple's vast music cloud to place that set of tracks into their library, to be downloaded as and when necessary?
Second - compression. When we started people had tiny hard drives against big record collections. Today the collections are only a little bigger, but iPod drives (not to mention laptops and desktops) are huge. If Apple could do to their Apple Lossless codec what they seem to have done to their jpg algorithm in Aperture, you'd get effectively lossless music quality in file sizes only a little larger than decent AAC files. Then, users wouldn't have to dance to the AAC, MP3, Lossless jig and agonise on what's right for them.
Third - DVD ripping. Movies are as much part of home entertainment as music, Come on Apple.
Fourth - bury the database. Yes, easier said than done, but all that wordage on the standard iTunes screen just confuses most users. Sure it needs to be under the hood but the look and feel of iTunes is dated and clunky. Apple is brilliant at interface design, this one needs an overhaul.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Windows XP Support
Last week we completed a CD ripping project, as usual, spread over several computers - in this case we'd used four machines. Then it occurred to me that for the first time in ages we hadn't used a Windows XP box. Starting next week we have a new computer joining our array and with that there will be no more XP in The Hutch. So what?
Well, if we supply your music back to you on DVD you won't notice any difference in our service so you can skip the rest of this. If, like many users, you would like your music on a hard drive there could be a problem. Some years ago Apple pioneered long file names in its operating system, Microsoft followed with Vista and Windows 7. If we're ripping a collection (particularly with classical music) these modern implementations of iTunes will allow folders to be created with file names longer than supported in XP. In practical terms this can mean that the library our client loads at home may be a few tracks short if XP can't handle the length of the file names.
What can be done? Our preferred choice is for our client to step up to a later operating system. If this isn't going to happen we can look at their music data and take a stab at shortening the fields that are used in Mac OS X or Windows 7 to create the folders. That does mean that you will be missing some of the data but you will "get" more tracks. It's a better alternative to us saying with hostility "We don't support Windows XP".
Well, if we supply your music back to you on DVD you won't notice any difference in our service so you can skip the rest of this. If, like many users, you would like your music on a hard drive there could be a problem. Some years ago Apple pioneered long file names in its operating system, Microsoft followed with Vista and Windows 7. If we're ripping a collection (particularly with classical music) these modern implementations of iTunes will allow folders to be created with file names longer than supported in XP. In practical terms this can mean that the library our client loads at home may be a few tracks short if XP can't handle the length of the file names.
What can be done? Our preferred choice is for our client to step up to a later operating system. If this isn't going to happen we can look at their music data and take a stab at shortening the fields that are used in Mac OS X or Windows 7 to create the folders. That does mean that you will be missing some of the data but you will "get" more tracks. It's a better alternative to us saying with hostility "We don't support Windows XP".
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Pogoplug - Love at First NAS
In terms of technology I love Apple the most, followed by Kodak. But from this week there’s been a new love in my life - a pink bit of technology called the Pogoplug. And if you had one I think you’d love yours too.
Before I tell you why Pogoplug has joined us let me tell you something about our technology set up. We have six computers installed in an office at the back of the house. They’re a mixture of Mac and Windows PCs. Through these boxes we provide analogue to digital services - cd ripping, photo scanning and video conversion. Over the years the size of the hard drives inside each machine has edged up but we still have two terrabyte drives attached via USB ports onto which we’ve been copying completed work projects. Frankly, it’s all got a bit chaotic. Yes, we can find files when we need to but it takes longer than necessary.
We have also been worrying about data loss while in the middle of photo scanning projects. Large image libraries are forming a bigger percentage of what we do so files are on the computers connected to each scanner for maybe a couple of weeks. If the awful were to happen and one of those drives went down, several days worth of production could be lost. At the moment we back up, manually, each evening but it’s easy to forget.
Our photo scanning service offers an online album for print scanning clients. One of the benefits of the online service is it takes a day or more out of getting digital files back to clients. Photos scanned today can be put online today, and downloaded by clients. It’s proved popular with people doing last minute photo books or who just don’t want to have to wait. We’d like to offer the same service to people who ask us to scan slides and negatives, but we can’t because the maximum file size offered by Zenfolio is too small.
A few weeks ago I started to scratch my head to find a way to first of all consolidate the large backup drives we’ve been using so files could be accessed from any of our computers, to see if there was a way to make large jpg and TIFF files of scanned negatives available to clients and to deliver a backup strategy we presently lack.
My first thought was a NAS device. Network attached storage, as the name suggests, is a hard drive which hangs off your router and is thus open to any network connected computer. We’ve often dealt with these on behalf of clients who want their files accessible through their homes, without the necessity of having to leave a PC switched on all the time. This would have been a solution but all the files from two large drives would have had to be copied across the network to their new home, and the investment made in the present USB drives wasted.
Enter Pogoplug - which turns up to four USB drives into network attached storage, instantly. OK, not exactly instantly, they say it takes one minute to get the system configured, but as close to instantly as makes no difference. When my unit arrived I followed the really simple instructions, got the Pogoplug registered and online, then connected the two USB drives into ports at the back. A few clicks and whirs later and the folders on both drives became available over our network.
I should clarify, you can make connected drives and their contents accessible in one of two ways. First, via an internet web browser interface; second via an extension of the file management system. This means for me I can look on my Mac via browser and see two USB drives. I can create folders, drag and drop, delete contents exactly as I do with the internal hard drive.
Good points? Very simple, elegant extension of file management system, very fast even though the main Mac access to the Pogoplug is via a wi-fi connection rather than hard wired ethernet. I can add much more capacity just by adding low-cost USB drives.
I am knocked out by the free iPad app. Not only can I access conventional data files but it manages streaming music. Sitting here now my iPad gets a signal from the floor above me, which is sent out of the house, into the office, the file is accessed though the Pogoplug and then sent back the same way. Wirelessly, faultlessly for over an hour.
We’ve yet to try the feature that should let clients access their digital files and download them direct to their systems, but if that works as it says on the box, it will be a big step forward.
Bad points? As far as I can see the Pogoplug backup software doesn’t replicate the folder structure we have on each system. Via the backup program I could restore one or more files but I can’t for the moment work out if it’s possible to restore a folder containing one clients work. That’s a very small issue, just dragging the client folder onto the relevant hard drive via the Mac file management system achieves what we need. I would have liked an FTP facility as from time to time people need to send us big files. It would have been great if they could have dropped them directly into our storage system.
Going forward we need to organise our file storage, so one drive will be designated for music and the other for photos. We’ll try to find a file naming system that will enable us to use Pogoplug’s backup software so we can recover a full set of clients image files during the course of a project, and then offer those for the client to download when the files are bigger than Zenfolio can handle. I’m feeling very positive about Pogoplug, can’t think why I didn’t buy one before.
Before I tell you why Pogoplug has joined us let me tell you something about our technology set up. We have six computers installed in an office at the back of the house. They’re a mixture of Mac and Windows PCs. Through these boxes we provide analogue to digital services - cd ripping, photo scanning and video conversion. Over the years the size of the hard drives inside each machine has edged up but we still have two terrabyte drives attached via USB ports onto which we’ve been copying completed work projects. Frankly, it’s all got a bit chaotic. Yes, we can find files when we need to but it takes longer than necessary.
We have also been worrying about data loss while in the middle of photo scanning projects. Large image libraries are forming a bigger percentage of what we do so files are on the computers connected to each scanner for maybe a couple of weeks. If the awful were to happen and one of those drives went down, several days worth of production could be lost. At the moment we back up, manually, each evening but it’s easy to forget.
Our photo scanning service offers an online album for print scanning clients. One of the benefits of the online service is it takes a day or more out of getting digital files back to clients. Photos scanned today can be put online today, and downloaded by clients. It’s proved popular with people doing last minute photo books or who just don’t want to have to wait. We’d like to offer the same service to people who ask us to scan slides and negatives, but we can’t because the maximum file size offered by Zenfolio is too small.
A few weeks ago I started to scratch my head to find a way to first of all consolidate the large backup drives we’ve been using so files could be accessed from any of our computers, to see if there was a way to make large jpg and TIFF files of scanned negatives available to clients and to deliver a backup strategy we presently lack.
My first thought was a NAS device. Network attached storage, as the name suggests, is a hard drive which hangs off your router and is thus open to any network connected computer. We’ve often dealt with these on behalf of clients who want their files accessible through their homes, without the necessity of having to leave a PC switched on all the time. This would have been a solution but all the files from two large drives would have had to be copied across the network to their new home, and the investment made in the present USB drives wasted.
Enter Pogoplug - which turns up to four USB drives into network attached storage, instantly. OK, not exactly instantly, they say it takes one minute to get the system configured, but as close to instantly as makes no difference. When my unit arrived I followed the really simple instructions, got the Pogoplug registered and online, then connected the two USB drives into ports at the back. A few clicks and whirs later and the folders on both drives became available over our network.
I should clarify, you can make connected drives and their contents accessible in one of two ways. First, via an internet web browser interface; second via an extension of the file management system. This means for me I can look on my Mac via browser and see two USB drives. I can create folders, drag and drop, delete contents exactly as I do with the internal hard drive.
Good points? Very simple, elegant extension of file management system, very fast even though the main Mac access to the Pogoplug is via a wi-fi connection rather than hard wired ethernet. I can add much more capacity just by adding low-cost USB drives.
I am knocked out by the free iPad app. Not only can I access conventional data files but it manages streaming music. Sitting here now my iPad gets a signal from the floor above me, which is sent out of the house, into the office, the file is accessed though the Pogoplug and then sent back the same way. Wirelessly, faultlessly for over an hour.
We’ve yet to try the feature that should let clients access their digital files and download them direct to their systems, but if that works as it says on the box, it will be a big step forward.
Bad points? As far as I can see the Pogoplug backup software doesn’t replicate the folder structure we have on each system. Via the backup program I could restore one or more files but I can’t for the moment work out if it’s possible to restore a folder containing one clients work. That’s a very small issue, just dragging the client folder onto the relevant hard drive via the Mac file management system achieves what we need. I would have liked an FTP facility as from time to time people need to send us big files. It would have been great if they could have dropped them directly into our storage system.
Going forward we need to organise our file storage, so one drive will be designated for music and the other for photos. We’ll try to find a file naming system that will enable us to use Pogoplug’s backup software so we can recover a full set of clients image files during the course of a project, and then offer those for the client to download when the files are bigger than Zenfolio can handle. I’m feeling very positive about Pogoplug, can’t think why I didn’t buy one before.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
MP5? Apple Less-than-lossless?
A few weeks ago rumours appeared suggesting Apple may be about to release a new music file format, one that would make music sound better. Well, suggestions are that this will see the light of day at an imminent product launch Apple have scheduled. Also, over the weekend I noticed the company behind the maths that made MP3 possible had launched a new way of making sound better on mobile phones.
An idle thought - MP4 is taken for movie files - so maybe this will be MP5? From Apple's perspective a new format, now, will cause a headache for them and their users. Generally better sound means more hard drive space. This won't help Apple directly as they buy in drives and it will put more pressure on the ageing iPod Classic, more than due an upgrade. Bigger files would be a major ouch for iPhone users too.
If I were Apple, why? Well someone is going to do it so it might as well be you. It would head off an interloper gaining traction within iTunes, it would keep the iPod / iPhone / iPad ahead of the game. maybe it would give Apple a toe hold in non IOS areas too. However they'd probably have to re-encode their entire iTunes Music Store library to keep their Music Match function operable and that's no small task.
I think it would be a positive move, one we'd jump on and would be appreciated by our clients. Better sound, what's not to like?
An idle thought - MP4 is taken for movie files - so maybe this will be MP5? From Apple's perspective a new format, now, will cause a headache for them and their users. Generally better sound means more hard drive space. This won't help Apple directly as they buy in drives and it will put more pressure on the ageing iPod Classic, more than due an upgrade. Bigger files would be a major ouch for iPhone users too.
If I were Apple, why? Well someone is going to do it so it might as well be you. It would head off an interloper gaining traction within iTunes, it would keep the iPod / iPhone / iPad ahead of the game. maybe it would give Apple a toe hold in non IOS areas too. However they'd probably have to re-encode their entire iTunes Music Store library to keep their Music Match function operable and that's no small task.
I think it would be a positive move, one we'd jump on and would be appreciated by our clients. Better sound, what's not to like?
Friday, February 03, 2012
Game, Set and iTunes Match
I was asked a question last night and suddenly had a shock to remember this CD ripping business is still operating. Some years ago somebody suggested iTunes and iTunes Music Sore would be transformed into a cloud based service. Rather than ripping CDs and storing them locally, then adding to that music archive with purchased tracks, all our music would be moved away to a gigantic data centre in America.
What then would be the point of having a CD ripping business, focusing on care and service, wouldn't Apple be doing that all for us?
I'm pleased to say iTunes Match - the cloud based option - is now with us, and podServe is still here, ripping more CDs than ever. Why? Well, even if you adopt iTunes Match, you still have to have a ripped track to start with, you can't just say you've got this and that CD which then appears in your library. You aren't given Spotify type access to their back catalogue and yes you have to pay for it.
iTunes match in the UK costs about half the price of a big USB drive per year. As an off-site backup option it isn't greatly compelling (it doesn't handle photos for example). Plus if you have high quality music (Apple Lossless or AIFF) you'll experience a drop in quality. I have mixed feelings, but I'm unequivocally glad we're still here, ripping CDs, untouched and unmatched.
What then would be the point of having a CD ripping business, focusing on care and service, wouldn't Apple be doing that all for us?
I'm pleased to say iTunes Match - the cloud based option - is now with us, and podServe is still here, ripping more CDs than ever. Why? Well, even if you adopt iTunes Match, you still have to have a ripped track to start with, you can't just say you've got this and that CD which then appears in your library. You aren't given Spotify type access to their back catalogue and yes you have to pay for it.
iTunes match in the UK costs about half the price of a big USB drive per year. As an off-site backup option it isn't greatly compelling (it doesn't handle photos for example). Plus if you have high quality music (Apple Lossless or AIFF) you'll experience a drop in quality. I have mixed feelings, but I'm unequivocally glad we're still here, ripping CDs, untouched and unmatched.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Android Music from iTunes - Take Two
Just to update an earlier post, software to synch music between your computer and iTunes.
While I still like Doubletwist Lifehacker is now recommending iSyncr (available here). They now favour this over Doubletwist as you only need to install this on your Android phone; Doubletwist needs an iTunes lookalike program installed on your PC or Mac.
Like Doubletwist there's both a wired and wifi version available.
While I still like Doubletwist Lifehacker is now recommending iSyncr (available here). They now favour this over Doubletwist as you only need to install this on your Android phone; Doubletwist needs an iTunes lookalike program installed on your PC or Mac.
Like Doubletwist there's both a wired and wifi version available.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
CD Ripping and not an iPod in sight
Clients often ask for help, typically how do they get the DVDs containing their music from our DVDs through their PC and onto their iPod. So it's interesting to be asked how to get music onto an Android mobile phone.
The process up to loading the phone is the same as for an iPod, we import the DVDs into iTunes. As iTunes can't recognise anything that wasn't made by Apple we recommend an additional item of software, Doubletwist, which replicates iTunes, then manages the flow of music from your hard drive onto the phone. So I loaded the music into iTunes and as we were chugging through the final DVD the client picked up her phone. Amazing, the music was there already.
Synch was happening, not via iTunes / Doubletwist but via her subscription to Spotify. Virtually instantly Spotify was finding the music tracks and making them available to her subscription account. Brilliant, we decided it wasn't necessary to continue with Doubletwist.
The process up to loading the phone is the same as for an iPod, we import the DVDs into iTunes. As iTunes can't recognise anything that wasn't made by Apple we recommend an additional item of software, Doubletwist, which replicates iTunes, then manages the flow of music from your hard drive onto the phone. So I loaded the music into iTunes and as we were chugging through the final DVD the client picked up her phone. Amazing, the music was there already.
Synch was happening, not via iTunes / Doubletwist but via her subscription to Spotify. Virtually instantly Spotify was finding the music tracks and making them available to her subscription account. Brilliant, we decided it wasn't necessary to continue with Doubletwist.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Friday, December 09, 2011
iPads, CD Ripping & Light Switches
One of our first CD ripping clients has become a regular client, I think I know my way around his house as well as my own. On Wednesday I was up and down stairs (yet again) re-installing Sonos software so his music system would work again.
In the train on the way back I was thinking in a brick & concrete London home, where wireless signals travel badly, Sonos is just too complicated for the average user. When it fails it takes ages to get it up and running again. So I was interested to read in The Times today their “Interiors Special” - 10 trends that hit in 2011, this came in at number 4 “The trickle down trend : iPad homes”.
“Not long ago a complex array of control gadgetry was de rigueur in expensive homes, but today anyone can control their music, TV, lighting and heating with an iPhone or an iPad.” A pundit then goes on to comment on the super-rich “The prime market has seen the importance of frivolous centralised electrics wither in favour of simple old-fashioned light switches”. gets my vote. Pay attention Sonos, you’re beginning to look frivolous.
In the train on the way back I was thinking in a brick & concrete London home, where wireless signals travel badly, Sonos is just too complicated for the average user. When it fails it takes ages to get it up and running again. So I was interested to read in The Times today their “Interiors Special” - 10 trends that hit in 2011, this came in at number 4 “The trickle down trend : iPad homes”.
“Not long ago a complex array of control gadgetry was de rigueur in expensive homes, but today anyone can control their music, TV, lighting and heating with an iPhone or an iPad.” A pundit then goes on to comment on the super-rich “The prime market has seen the importance of frivolous centralised electrics wither in favour of simple old-fashioned light switches”. gets my vote. Pay attention Sonos, you’re beginning to look frivolous.
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