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30 Most Recent RSS FeedNEW: Update Expired Podcasts
This Mac OS X Hints post proposes a solution to a problem I was having: iTunes will stop updating a podcast subscription if one of its episodes has not been played within five days (so that's what happened). The poster provided an AppleScript solution, which, although admirably on the right track, was somewhat convoluted. Why not just plain update the podcasts! Update Expired Podcasts will batch-update every podcast subscription in your Podcasts playlist by simply "telling" iTunes to updatePodcast for each podcast subscription. The trick is getting a discrete list of podcast subscription names for the updatePodcast command; put 'em in a repeat loop and yer done.
Microsoft R&D and Their 80's Transformers Mentality
I got a kick out of this MacNN Blog review of Microsoft's Transforming Media Device patent. I especially liked--as usual with MacNN's patent reviews--The Bottom Line analysis, including: "Microsoft?s detailed patents clearly go to demonstrate just how off-guard Microsoft was the day that Apple unveiled their iPhone's many innovations and just how off-target Microsoft really was in respect to understanding what device innovation even means." Transformers! More Than Meets The Eye!
My Feeings Exactly
From Mac News World: "According to Jobs, only 3 percent of music on the average iPod is purchased from iTunes and protected with DRM. The rest is unprotected, having come from CDs as well as both legal and illegal file sharing.
In other words, the music industry has already lost the battle, thanks largely to its own, wholly unprotected, format, the CD. It is a curiosity of the music majors that an industry born in the crucible of free love and intergenerational rebellion should have become so Luddite in its approach to new technologies."
Like CareerBuilder monkeys.
I Like PandoraBoy
As I've noted in a previous entry, I've been digging Pandora, the music discovery site. Normally, you have to run it from your web browser. I got tired of trying to remember to keep a Safari window to keep the stream going so I used a dedicated browser, Shiira, just to run it. Well, turns out there's a nice little app that uses Webkit to display Pandora called PandoraBoy from FrozenSilicon Labs. PLUS, it's AppleScriptable so you can assign hotkeys to control volume and skipping and thumbs ups/downs. It can also interface with Growl. And PandoraBoy is free. Can't beat that with a bat.
Wonder if they'd add an AppleScript feature so I could grab currently playing track info? Gotta drop 'em a line.
Update to iTunes Coming Soon
Probably not completely unexpected, but here are some clues. This recent AppleCare article on Windows Vista and iTunes compatibility: "iTunes 7.0.2 may work with Windows Vista on many typical PCs. Apple recommends, however, that customers wait to upgrade Windows until after the next release of iTunes which will be available in the next few weeks." This time frame jibes with the AppleTV specs page that had at one time listed iTunes 7.1 as a requirement (it now just lists "iTunes 7"), and AppleTV is due to start shipping this month.
Who Will Accept Gates' Challenge?
Bill Gates from his interview with Newsweek: "Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine."
UPDATED: Copy To Lyrics (Service) v1.1
A quick update to Copy To Lyrics (Service) adds display alerts to appear when appropriate. This Service menu service copies selected text from any application to a selected iTunes track's Lyrics tab. It was created from an AppleScript using ThisService. And BTW, I want to thank ThisService developer Jasper for helping me out with a few questions on how ThisService works.
NEW: Copy To Lyrics (Service)
I have been hearing some buzz about Waffle Software's ThisService application which will create and install services based on virtually any command-line script or AppleScript. So I thought I'd give it a shot. Copy To Lyrics (Service) is a service that will copy the selected text from an application to a single selected iTunes track's Lyrics tab. I just did it for fun, really, but it might save some lyric-gathering obsessives a few keystrokes.
Apple's Web Traffic Up...And Periphery Sites?
According to this MacNN article, "Traffic to Apple's website and the popularity of iTunes continues to surge at a rate greater than many of other top internet companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!" Now, not for nothin', but this site also has experienced a surge of usage over the past six months; I've recently had to purchase more bandwidth to accommodate more traffic, which I have never had to do in five years or so of web presence. So I'm wondering: does this mean there really are more Mac users? And are they hitting other Mac-centric sites in the same proportion?
Why We Love Mac OS X Hints
Rob Griffiths, Mac OS X Hints' progenitor, recently posted a neat weblog entry at Macworld about downloading some cool free Apple fonts from the Apple iTunes AppleScripts download page. (Fonts from an AppleScripts download page?! Read Rob's article to grok.) In the course of the article, Rob casually mentions This Little Site Of Mine, and I'm much obliged.
Then, today, he's posted a hint about the usability of the new format of Google's image search results page. For those of you who may use Find Album Artwork with Google and are frustrated with the results, the hint is worth a look. Spoiler alert: get yourself SafariStand; I love that thing!
