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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.
Jason Snell Tries Not to Gag
I think Macworld's Jason Snell did a great level-headed job responding to some pretty whacked-out questions in this Advertising Age interview with Simon Dumenco (who has all the misinformed media memes about Apple down pat).
NEW: Change Hidden iTunes Preferences
Change Hidden iTunes Preferences is an application that will let you invoke some so-called "hidden" iTunes preferences: Show "Library" playlist, Show genre while browsing, Allow half-stars in ratings, Show arrow links -- to either search the iTunes Store or search your library, Load complete iTunes Store preview before playing, Play songs while importing or converting, and Create file names with track number. Some of these preferences, as some users may recognize, used to be available in iTunes' Preferences. Others, like the "Library" and half-stars prefs, have recently been discovered. This is for use with iTunes 8 or better only.
The download disk image contains the actual application (which is not an AppleScript) and an AppleScript to launch the app from your iTunes Script menu. Make sure you copy both of them off the .dmg.
Regarding DRM-Free Tracks
I'm seeing Apple's announcement about offering DRM-free tracks around the internets and I'm also seeing headlines and memes like "Apple is dropping DRM". Technically, it's the record labels who have dropped their insistence that Apple provide DRM. Apple has stated they would provide DRM-free files in a heartbeat whenever the record labels wanted to get over themselves.
Kirk on Sync multiple iPods to one Mac
My good friend Kirk McElhearn has an article up at Macworld on syncing multiple iPods to one Mac:
When you're alone with your iPod and your Mac, it's easy to manage your library and sync your music, videos, audiobooks and data. But with the holidays over, many family members who didn't have iPods beforehand may now find themselves the proud owners of one of Apple's music players. And when two or more people share a Mac, it gets a bit confusing. There are several ways you can sync multiple iPods to one Mac, but the easiest method is to share a music folder. Here's how you can share your music with another user on your Mac.
8 Million DRM-Free Tracks
Apple announced today at the Macworld keynote that 8 million tracks from the iTunes Store will be available DRM-free, with more to follow in March.
iTunes 8.0.2 Released
Apple has released iTunes v8.0.2. As of this writing it is only available via Software Update; I prefer to download the installer from the download page, so I'll wait a bit. According to the release notes, iTunes 8.0.2:
- Addresses a quality issue creating MP3s on some computers.
- Fixes a connectivity issue with the iTunes Store when using some Internet proxies with Mac OS X.
- Improves accessibility with VoiceOver.
More info when and if available.
Multiple Library Confusion
I've just posted a brief article explaining how your system can get confused when using iTunes' multiple library feature:
Some of my AppleScripts for iTunes use a routine which reads the iApps.plist in order to obtain the location of the current iTunes library's XML file in order to get information from it. I occasionally get reports that these scripts don't seem to be working correctly; that the information seems to be wrong or doesn't correlate with track tags in iTunes. When the Correspondent and I investigate this phenomenon, very often it is because the iApps.plist contains the wrong location for the current iTunes library....read more here.
