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30 Most Recent RSS FeedSync a Wi-Fi iPhone Once a Day With launchd
A while back, I retired my iPhone 3GS to the bedside table after buying an iPhone 4. I use the 3GS pretty much as a glorified clock radio-iPod Touch. I have a few radio apps on it and the Digital Clock app. I also have it set to sync and back up over Wi-Fi to my main iMac so I manually initiate a sync when I need to update Podcasts and apps and what have you.
This manual syncing has become tiresome. (I mean, if I used a traditional clock radio, I wouldn't have to update its content manually, right?)
It's simple enough to write an AppleScript to sync a connected iPhone but I want the script to run on a regular basis without me having to fire it. I like to listen to Podcasts in the evening so sometime during dinner would be a good time to update the 3GS with any Podcasts that have arrived during the day. For this, I can create a launchd agent to fire the AppleScript that syncs the 3GS in the background. Here's how to get all that to swing: (more…)
Thousands of Empty Playlists? Redux
So there's this glitch with iTunes Match that somehow creates thousands of empty playlists. I posted earlier about this and snippeted a simple script to scratch the empties from your iTunes. Too simple since it appears to get really bogged down trying to examine playlists while iTunes is deleting them. Correspondent Lowell Stewart suggested deleting in batches to give the processing some breathing room, and I've incorporated this in an update to Delete Empty Playlists. It's definetly speedier using Lowell's suggestion.
If you've been affected by an iTunes Match Empty Playlist Glitch then use Delete Empty Playlists v2.0.
UPDATED: Play Random Album v3.0
A Particular Correspondent noticed that the previous version of Play Random Album was biased towards larger albums when selecting one at random. The problem was that it grabbed a random track first and built the album out using the album of that track. Well, of course. Albums with more tracks had a better chance of being selected by virtue of having more tracks in the pool, as it were.
The latest version of Play Random Album actually chooses a random album name first which gives every album a fair chance. I've also speeded it up a little and tweaked some error checking. Attach it to a keyboard shortcut and it almost feels native.
I just bought a set of Bose 201 speakers and I've been burning 'em in (ahem, letting them experience a variety of frequencies) by playing random albums using this script. Works great.
iTunes 10.5.3 Available
Apple has released iTunes 10.5.3, which features support for the new iBooks textbook format.
NEW: Search IMDB
Search IMDB allows you to choose a search term from the pertinent tags of a selected iTunes track and then choose the type of search to make at the IMDB website.
Results are displayed in your designated default browser using a Finder routine. Most web browsers are not 'scriptable which somewhat limits what you can do with them with AppleScript.
And, what the heck. Here's a Rotten Tomatoes script I use on my "entertainment center" Mac Mini that uses the name of the selected track for a search:
tell application "iTunes"
set sel to selection
if sel is not {} and (length of sel) is 1 then
my processSearch(get name of item 1 of sel)
end if
end tell
to processSearch(n)
try
tell application "Finder" to open location ("http://www.rottentomatoes.com/search/?sitesearch=rt&search=" & n) as text
end try
end processSearch
UPDATED: This Tag That Tag v3.0
This Tag That Tag v3.0 is now a consolidated applet that previously had been a collection of four separate scripts. It will assist with copying text between tags for each selected track or track in a selected playlist.
It will float open over iTunes while being used and detect whenever the iTunes selection has changed, as displayed by Target:. Also now provides a progress indicator.
NEW: Delete All Lyrics
It's often interesting to look through the search queries this site gets to see what people are looking for. Over the past few months the phrase "delete all lyrics" has been showing up pretty frequently. Don't know why it is—seems like it wasn't so long ago the phrase "find song lyrics" was more prominent. Fads! Who can predict 'em?
I already have a script that will delete the lyrics of a selection of tracks. But this would be rather slow if you used it against every track in the library. So I've posted Delete All Lyrics. This is a Cocoa-AppleScript applet (for OS 10.6 and 10.7 only) that will fairly quickly go through all the tracks in the "Music" playlist and delete the lyrics. So whether you're tired of trying to sing-along or just need to clear out some bytes, it should do the trick.
Album Art on Your ATV2
Correspondent Dave Reynolds was dismayed that he could no longer enjoy watching cover flow album art "dance" across the TV while enjoying his music. To his chagrin, the Apple TV 2 no longer has the screen saver that displays floating album art. So, he used Save Album Art to Album Folder to export his album art as files to a chosen folder (like ~/Pictures/iTunes Art/) and then pointed the Apple TV (ATV: Settings > Screen Sharing > Photos > Computers > the Computer to Use) to use that folder as a screen saver (iTunes: Advanced > Choose Photos to Share). Party on, Dave.
TIP: Your iTunes Match Scheme Leaves Duplicate Files
If you are using iTunes Match to update your music to the higher-quality Store stuff you may run into a duplicate file problem if you don't Trash the original files first. For example, I've got an album of MP3s I ripped in 2002 at 128K and now want the 256K AACs that I can download with iTunes Match. The trick here (explained by Macworld's Jason Snell) is to delete the tracks and Trash the files from iTunes, but not from the cloud. Then I can click the tracks' cloud icon to download the new files from the Store. However, if I don't Trash the files they will remain in my iTunes Media folder heirarchy and when the new AACs are downloaded I'll have the original MP3s alongside the new AACs.
But, if you get yourself into this situation you can easily find and remove the files that are no longer in your iTunes library (but which are still in your iTunes Media folder) with Music Folder Files Not Added. This app will list the files in your designated iTunes Media folder which are not in your current iTunes library so that you can Trash them (or add them, if you like).
iTunes Match AppleScripting Notes Redux
iTunes 10.5.2 appears to fix some issues I was seeing regarding AppleScripting and iTunes Match. In 10.5.1, AppleScript occasionally wouldn't recognize that a track had "morphed" from shared track to file track—say, after downloading a file from the cloud—and visa versa without restarting iTunes. This is fixed and AppleScript detects the change of class immediately.
Also, attempting to delete an iTunes Match file track from the library will no longer elicit the alert dialog requiring confirmation to remove the track from the cloud; the track will simply remain in the library as a shared track and will remain in the cloud. Its file remains in its original location (although its local file path can be retrieved via the track's location property and used to move, Trash or rm the file if necessary). For obvious security reasons, AppleScript cannot delete a track from the cloud or completely delete an iTunes Match track from iTunes. This kind of removal can only be done manually by the user.
I should note that a script probably should remove the file when deleting an iTunes Match track from the library (that is, library playlist 1; deleting from an ordinary user playlist simply removes the track from the playlist, as expected). Otherwise, re-downloading the file from the cloud will create a duplicate file.
On another note entirely, I'm seeing artwork now appearing again as a track's file's Finder icon. Since iTunes 10.4 artwork behavior has been—as one tweet to me put it—"hinky" in this regard. I don't pay much attention to artwork so this may have been fixed in 10.5.1 or perhaps is an iTunes Match phenomenon.
More as it develops.
(UPDATE: Several Correspondents have reported that artworks were showing up as Finder icons again as of 10.5.1.)
