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30 Most Recent RSS FeedRetired, Not Euthanized
I got several fretful emails regarding yesterday's post about the retirement of several scripts which iTunes 8 has rendered unnecessary. Of particular concern was the appearance of Make Bookmarkable on the list. This is somewhat typical:
"Just a quick note to vote for preserving Make Bookmarkable. Although the ability to change the Media Kind to Audiobook in iTunes 8 has been added to preferences, it is NOT possible to change the Media Kind of podcasts -- despite the fact that the majority of podcasts are MP3s. I listen to dozens of podcasts and most of them are spoken word audio. Many benefit from the ability to speed them up. Until Apple allows for regular MP3s to be sped up I will continue to use Make-Bookmarkable."
Additionally, changing the Media Kind of a track does not change its file's file type, so changing an MP3's Media Kind to "Audiobook" does not make the MP3 an AAC. It just allows it to be listed in the Audiobooks library playlist (by some hidden mechanism; AppleScript cannot emulate it). So, in consideration of the cases where one actually wants to change the file type with Make Bookmarkable, I suppose it will remain un-retired and updated when necessary.
As for the other scripts on the list, they will still be available on the site, just out to pasture in the Retro Scripts section.
Retiring Some AppleScripts
Here is a list of AppleScripts which have been rendered "Old-And-In-The-Way" by virtue of new features in iTunes 8, particularly the new multi-edit features:
- Batch Set Tracks Sorting Tags
- Make Video Tags
- Set Video Kind of Selected
- Make Bookmarkable
- Make UN-Bookmarkable
- Selected Tracks Bookmarkable
- Set Selected Tracks Shuffle
- Enter Description Text for Selected
- Enter Long Description Text for Selected
I will most likely move these to the Retro Scripts category once I positively determine that their utility is superfluous with iTunes 8.
Dupin and Genius Playlists
Dupin Users: The current version of Dupin does not accommodate iTunes 8 Genius playlists properly when they are selected for "Get Duplicates". Although I am concerned, it's probably not a big deal.
Here's the Thing: I am considering holding off the next update to Dupin (which will include the fix for Genius playlists) until some features I had been planning on adding are also implemented. While I could put up a quick fix quite soon (which would be version 1.3.5), I would only be releasing another update in a week or two with additional features (version 1.4). In either case, until the next update, you can avoid any issues with Genius playlists by not selecting them from Dupin's Playlist popup. Your "Get Duplicates" results under such circumstances will be inaccurate.
iTunes 8 and Genius Incompatibilities
As I hinted at yesterday Genius playlists are a new "species" of playlist. Several scripts are affected by their inability to correctly distinguish Genius playlists from other playlist types. I will be working on fixes for them in the coming days. I think, in fact, that you can pretty much attribute any failings of AppleScripts that did work before iTunes 8 to the appearance of one or more Genius playlists. You may want to verify this by shutting Genius off and trying the errant script again. While some AppleScript behaviors have been updated/fixed in iTunes 8, I have not (yet) noticed any new AppleScript features that would otherwise cause scripts to error.
Multi-Edit Features in iTunes 8
iTunes 8 now allows access to many more media tags when using the multi-edit Get Info screen. Also, note that you can convert any file type to Audiobook (M4B). Looks like the end of the line for Make Bookmarkable.
iLounge on iTunes 8
iLounge has an excellent overview of the new features in iTunes 8. Particularly good details on the Genius features.
Genius Playlists and AppleScript
As far as AppleScript is concerned, iTunes 8's Genius playlists are user playlists with a special kind of none and a smart value of true, and therefore they are indistinguishable from Smart playlists. I don't know if eventually there will be a special kind value of "Genius", but for now distinguishing a Genius playlist from Smart playlists will not be easy.
iTunes 8 Loses Prefs Control for Genre Browser
Switch off the iTunes 8 Genre browser via a defaults write command in Terminal.
iTunes 8
Apple released iTunes 8 today at the "Let's Rock" event.
Happily, the "whose clause" bug from v7.7.1 has been fixed: a filter using an implied plural ("every" or a range) will return a list and one that implies singularity ("first", "last", "some") returns a bare item. As it should be.
More as it develops.
UPDATED: Quick Convert v2.8
Quick Convert will convert all or just the selected tracks of the selected Playlist using your choice of available iTunes encoders, restoring your Preferences-set encoder afterwards. Works with importing selected CD tracks, too.
Additionally, you can:
- copy all converted/imported tracks to a new playlist
- choose to remove and/or delete the original tracks and/or files
- if you have selected the AAC encoder you can choose to make the tracks "bookmarkable" and re-add the converted files to the Audiobooks library
Latest version is compatible with iTunes 7.7.1 and accounts for DOS-formatted drives during M4B conversion.
