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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

iTunes Match

Macrumors.com is saying iTunes Match is now available for users in the UK.

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.

Brentwood - Thailand Floods Hit

When clients ask for their ripped CDs to be returned to them on a USB hard drive I normally buy one in Brentwood High Street. For years I shopped in our branch of Dixons but they closed earlier this year so now I rely on Argos.

Argos has been patchy for technology supplies but they do have the advantage of being competitively priced. I’ve just walked in and picked a drive, but not yesterday - they had no disc drives at all. Not a single drive. When I got back I tried to order one from the Argos website but that wasn’t possible, none available for order either for collection in store or home delivery.

This afternoon I had to drive into London to collect CDs so I stopped off in PC World on the way back. Talking to one of their staff about the reduced stock of drives they had and he explained the problem. Apparently 90+% of the worlds supply of drives are made in a relatively small area of Thailand, and they’ve been hit hard by floods recently. He pointed to a sign rationing drives to two per customer until supplies are back to normal.

So, if you want your music files returned on a USB drive we might struggle at least until Thailand has dried out. Wonder if the BBC has a weather forecast for the Far East.

Sonos & High Quality Music

If you’ve seen our CD ripping blog you’ll know we had a panic when the installer of the Sonos system for which we’d ripped several hundred CDs, had pointed to a post on the Sonos website to say AIFF files were not supported.

Here’s a footnote. I was contacted by our client on Monday. He explained that he’d been listening to his music over the weekend and thankfully it was streaming fine. He’s happy, I’m relieved. So we’ll continue to rip CDs for Sonos users, into AIFF, Apple Lossless or into AAC or MP3 formats. With confidence.

Sonos Drops Highest Quality Audio

We don't always get it right, when we get it wrong the best thing is to hold up your hand and apologise. Then fix it. Which I'll have to do today. We've been ripping CDs for nearly eight years, initially exclusively for iPod / iTunes configurations and more recently for Sonos. That part of our business has grown rapidly so today we have ripped CDs for many clients who don't even own an iPod. These music lovers have invested significant sums in their music so naturally they don't baulk at buying a large capacity NAS drive to store their music. Storage capacity isn't an issue in these cases, clients want the highest quality sound. CD ripping for Sonos took us into new territory, that of uncompressed music. The best quality digital music is AIFF. It has the benefit of being entirely uncompressed, it's exactly as appears on the original CD plus the features of a digital "wrapper" that holds the album, artist, track data etc. Before I leapt into this with Sonos clients I made some checks. First, I looked on the Sonos website where it clearly said they support AIFF files. Indeed I looked again earlier today and on the opening sales page for their music player's features it lists AIFF as one of the supported file formats. Second, I rang Sonos and asked them. I got confirmation of what's on the website. So I went ahead with confidence and ripped a batch of CDs for our first client. When we delivered the NAS drive with its files (I think the first one was over 700 CDs) I connected the drive, pointed the Sonos software at it, and updated the library. My client flipped through his controller, hit play, and we listened as Verdi filled the house. Since then I've lost track of the number of Sonos / AIFF configurations we've worked with, all without issue, until yesterday. We ripped just over 650 CDs for a client but the signal drops out. Some tracks play fine, then another drops out. Frustrating and not what anyone wants. My client went back to the installer and he's replied quoting one of the Sonos FAQs - this says that while AIFF is "supported" it is not "recommended". There's a footnote at the bottom of that page which says - Sonos does not recommend choosing AIFF files for your library because of AIFF's outdated metadata support. You can acheive the same audio quality by using FLAC or Apple Lossless, both of which fully support metadata and album art. The installer is interpreting this as if "not recommended" means the same as "unsupported", and is refusing to help our client any further. Where does this leave us? For my client it means I'll have to say sorry, admit that I'd not seen this example of weasel words, and possibly challenge the installers interpretation of the footnote. I will gladly offer to convert his music into Apple Lossless. Enough of my problems. What does this mean? Staggeringly it means Sonos no longer supports the highest quality audio. Nobody who's really into music is going to accept anything less than the best. Sure, Apple Lossless is very good, but it's not the best. If you want music streamed at its best (uncompressed) Sonos has ceded the ground to other suppliers - Apple will stream AIFF all day long, as will better systems such as Crestron. Future home entertainment demands aren't going to be for more compressed formats so unless Sonos can address this they're going to struggle. What does it mean for you, if you're planning to buy a home audio system? Talk this through with your installer but get an unequivocal statement about AIFF before you sign on the dotted line.