January 2024
iTunes 7.3 - OSTypes Switched
A couple of Correspondents have noted that the OSType associated with the persistent ID property has changed to 'pPIS', which returns the persistent ID as a string. The previous OSType 'pPID' now returns a 64-bit number as in iTunes 7.1.1 and earlier. If you use raw Apple events to get this data then you may have to make some changes. (Thanks Milo and Manfred.)
1833 EDT -- No Sign of iPhone Users
Just wanted to say that, for the interest of historians, as of 30 minutes+ iPhone availability, no one that I know of has posted anything about the iPhone.
iTunes 7.3 - Sort By Difference
Tags starting with numbers now appear after tags starting with alphabetical characters when sorting by a particular tag. That may throw you for a loop. (Thanks Kirk.)
First Perusal of iTunes 7.3
As far as I have been able to tell, there are no AppleScript enhancements in iTunes 7.3. The iPhone, presumably, will display as a Source (like iPod) and (like iPod) audio files on the device will not be directly accessible with AppleScript. Since I have no plans to purchase an iPhone anytime soon, I'd be interested to know if AppleScripts such as Import iPod Audio Files work with iPhone. Then again, iPhone has its own OS, so file management may be completely different than with the iPod.
iTunes 7.3 Available
As suspected, Apple has posted iTunes 7.3. Presumably it provides support for iPhone, but if there are any significant AppleScripting changes, I will post as soon as I can.
iTunes 7.3 Coming Friday?
This iPhone Tech Specs page at Apple indicates that iPhone requires iTunes 7.3 or better. So evidently not all the iPhone goodies are in iTunes 7.2.
Beta Testers Aplenty
Thanks for the great response to my call for beta testers yesterday. I've got a great pool of testers and, sorry to say, will be unable to accept any more.
Beta Testers Wanted
I'm looking for a few beta testers for a new application I'm working on. Potential testers must be Mac OS 10.4 or better/iTunes 6 or better users, have access to all privileges of computers on the local subnet (Moms/Dads with home networks are ideal), and must not be afraid of getting their hands dirty with some safe and minimal poking around in the computer. If you are interested, get in touch with me by email. My email address is around here somewhere.
NEW: Nudge Stream URL
Nudge Stream URL is a stay-open applet that will attempt to keep the currently playing radio stream active. If the stream drops out, or another track is selected, the applet will re-open the stream's URL.
FastScripts
I recently got an email nudge from developer Daniel Jalkut. He's the developer of the application FastScripts, among other things. He noticed that I provide instructions for setting keyboard shortcuts for iTunes scripts and thought I'd be interested in FastScripts. I admit that I have known about FastScripts for awhile but never got around to trying it out. Well, I finally did. FastScripts goes the Apple Scripts Menu one or three better. It supports keyboard shortcuts for AppleScripts in its menu (both application-specific and global) and has the nice effect of taking place as soon as you set a shortcut value (without having to re-start an application like you would have to do if you set shortcuts in Apple's Keyboard Preferences), and will also allow you to set shortcuts globally. FastScripts is shareware, but FastScripts Lite is free and will let you work with ten scripts. I highly recommend it.