January 2024
Daypart v1.0.1 Released
Daypart v1.0.1 has been released. With Daypart you can:
- Schedule playlists flexibly, for just a few minutes or several hours
- Schedule intricate configurations of playlists on a weekly basis
- Segue between playlists without cutting off songs
- Automatically shuffle and/or repeat playlists
- Store and re-use frequently used scheduling criteria
- See how playlists are scheduled over a period of days
- Automatically load and engage a schedule at startup
Plus, Daypart features:
- Uncluttered, easy-to-use interface
- Scheduling tips
- Scheduling conflict-awareness
- Customizable windows positioning
- Ample keyboard shortcuts
- Detailed Help book
Updated in v1.0.1:
- Fixed issues related to date/time formatting
- Fixed "sortedDataRows" error
- Addressed error issues when adding Event to Schedule
- Addressed slight delay at startup issue
This update is free for registered users.
iTunes AppleScript Keyboard Shortcuts Activate Twice
Correspondent Peter Kappesser noticed that under iTunes 8.1 AppleScripts to which he had assigned keyboard shortcuts (via the Keyboard Shortcuts tab in Keyboard & Mouse of System Preferences) would be activated twice when launched by the keyboard shortcut. Thus, they will perform their task twice in a row. I can verify it happens at my house, too. File a bug report.
Dupin v2.0 Released
Dupin is your iTunes duplicates manager.
Dupin allows you to quickly find all sets of duplicate tracks in iTunes based on the criteria you choose. It can then automatically select the "Keeper" tracks from among a number of duplicates using your choice of a variety of versatile filter options. Tracks you decide not to keep can be purged from iTunes and their files optionally moved to the Trash. Dupin is flexible, fast, and easy to use.
With Dupin you can:
- Locate, sort, filter, and purge duplicate tracks
- Preserve play history and ratings
- Re-populate iTunes playlists
- Manage intentionally duplicated tracks
- Copy tracks to new iTunes playlists
- Sort tracks and view track info
- Export a list of duplicates to a text file
- Locate tracks in the Finder and in iTunes
- Audition tracks
In addition, Dupin features:
- Familiar iTunes-like interface
- Robust Help
- Ample keyboard shortcuts
- Visual progress feedback during operations
- Customizable toolbars
- Optional update checking
Updated in version 2.0
- New "Consolidate History" tool can consolidate the play, skip, and ratings information from all tracks in a Dupe Group to the single "Keeper" track
- New "Re-Playlist" tool can re-populate iTunes playlists replacing "non-Keeper" tracks with "Keeper" tracks
- Added "Track Number" and "Disc Number" to "Get Duplicates" Criteria
- "Library Matrix" replaced with Playlist Popup
- "Filter Controls" setting "Volume Location" replaced with "Folder Location", "Protected" kind with "Purchased" kind
- GUI enhancements
- Speed and efficiency enhancements
Dupin is $15.00. For more details, visit the Dupin product page.
8.1.1 Not Far Away?
Both TidBITS and iLounge surmise that reports of iTunes 8.1 video-Genius capabilities may have been premature on Apple's part, since the description of this feature has been removed from the iTunes What's New page, and quite obviously it is not working in iTunes 8.1. Should a v8.1.1 be expected soon?
Speed and Large Libraries in iTunes 8.1
Kirk McElhearn says in iTunes 8.1 and Large Libraries: More Progress on the Speed Front that the speed is there.
iTunes DJ is Still Party Shuffle
Although you will see it listed as "iTunes DJ" in iTunes 8.1, it's the same thing as "Party Shuffle" (AppleScript-wise it has the same playlist special kind) with a few new behaviors.
New track Property
New in iTunes 8.1, the track object has a new release date property.
iTunes 8.1 Released
Apple Released iTunes 8.1 today (v8.0.2 was the previous version). Among the new features are its ability to handle larger libraries more speedily, iTunes Plus (256kbps AAC) importing via CD, and Genius playlists that will scour for video media.
I know of at least one AppleScript enhancement. A track's played date and skipped date properties can now be wiped by setting either to 0 (zero) or missing value. Before, you could never set these properties to anything but a date. While you could set played count and skipped count to 0, the only way to fudge the played or skipped date was to give it a date in the past, like date "January 1, 1970". Now, you can do this:
tell application "iTunes" set sel to selection repeat with aTrack in sel tell aTrack set played date to missing value set played count to 0 -- and/or set skipped date to missing value set skipped count to 0 end tell end repeat end tell
I'll have a look for any other changes.
Gizmodo Mench
Thanks to John Herrman at Gizmodo for the nice mention in his Dealzmodo Hack: Making iTunes Work For You article. Lot's of good stuff in there.