jessedyck.com

Yep, i definitely have an iphone now, and let me say it is better then i could have thought, that seems to be the general opinion on it with anyone that cares even slightly. I’m typing on it right now using wifi (no expensive edge for me, yet), so as awesome as it is (and typing is awesome), I’m still making it short.

I’ve bought a few more domain names, hopefully I’ll get around to making use if them. I had an idea for a completely new, less personal blog that I’d like to get off the ground, so look for that in the coming months. Also now that I have an iPhone, I’d like to start making some apps for it. Probably just “Web 2.0″ apps, but who knows, maybe I’ll actually use that Xcode that is taking up so much space on my iBook.

That’s all for now, more bandwagon later…

Well, I have temporarily fixed my iTunes 7 for Windows sound problem. After searching through forums I discovered that people were having luck playing with the Qucktime audio settings (Start>Contrl Panel>Quicktime>Audio Tab). For me, it’s the the Size under the Sound Out section, it appears iTunes doesn’t like 24 bit, so changing it to 16 bit has some what fixed the problem. The only thing is now the audio is noticeably quieter. What used to be 2 notches is now 10 (when using my diNovo to adjust volume levels). Others are having to turn on Safe Mode and adjust the Rate in order to fix their problems, I wasn’t deep I guess.

But fear not, for iTunes 7 has many more issues around the corner. Now, for whatever reason it’s taking around 5 minutes from the time I click the iCon to the time it is able to play music, and it wouldn’t stop bugging me to register my iPod, which actually caused more freezing. I think once Apple gets these problems fixed iTunes 7 will be loved by all, but until then I would probably recommend against upgrading.

One new feature that I discovered today was the option to back up your music to a disc. I would be fine with losing all my hard drives that contain documents, operating system files, and images, but if I lost my music hard drive, I would be devastated. So this seemingly easy to use back up method is a godsend. While I cringe at spending 11 DVDs on it, I know that one day those drives will die, so I’m sure once Apple fixes everything I will be backing it all up. Hopefully DL DVDs will have come down in price by that time too, that or HD DVD will be readily available for PCs. View the full guide at http://www.tuaw.com/2006/09/12/how-to-back-up-your-music-using-itunes-7/.

So, Steve did his thing today and released a bunch of fancy new products. Like usual, I followed as much of the presentation live on macrumors.com as I was awake for, eagerly awaiting a new wide screen iPod for me to waste my savings on. While that never came, we did get a bunch of cool new items. A new iPod there is, but my favourite item was iTunes 7, primarily the new iPod integration and album art. As soon as the presentation (note I’m not saying keynote…) was over I quickly jetted over to iTunes.com to download and install it… This is the tale of my journey…

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So, as we all know, iTunes 5 was just released, along with the spiffy new iPod Nano. Both seem cool, but as always, there are negative comments. Here are mine!

iPod Nano: the new iPod, it almost seems like Jobs is simply trying to get every last penny out of the iPod lovin’ crowd. I mean, don’t get me wrong, a smaller iPod, with a color screen, and a click wheel, cool indeed. However, Apple just released the iPod Mini something like a year and a half ago, then updated it with the larger, 6GB drive about 6 months ago. As well, Apple just released the iPod shuffle about another 6 months ago. So, it seems that they just released a canceled the middle of the road iPod, only to release a lesser version. I think Apple would have been smarter to add the color screen to the mini, maybe make it a bit minier, but keep the same 4/6GB models, or maybe (if prices allow for it) make them 6/8GBs. I know I sure do love my Mini, it seems to be able to take more abuse then the full sized iPods, and its nice and compact, however I still long for more storage space!

All in all, I think the Nano is in a wierd point. It’s between the Shuffle and the Mini. I know Apple discontinued the Mini, so it’s not fair to include it anymore, but I just think the Nano is too much of a beefed up Shuffle, more so then a lesser iPod.

Now, on to iTunes 5. I was really excited when this release came about. I instantly downloaded it and installed it when I heard, eager to see the changes. The interface is much more minimalist, which is good since my library is forever growing, I want to get as much on one screen as possible. The first thing I remember telling my Colegues is that it looks a lot like Mail.app. Of course no one else at work is a Mac user, so I got a lot of wierd faces, but I still stand by that, it is very similar, particularly the light blue background in the sources section. After that, the lack of borders is going to take some time to get used to, but the interface is definitely new and refreshing.

I don’t think I will use much of these new Parental Controls or Smart Shuffle features, but they seem like they may be practical to some users. I like how even the Windows version includes the OSX-like ‘Lock’ for the Parental Controls. Nice touch guys! The only thing that I have noticed to be not good is the scrolling. It does not seem to scroll through my 4500 songs as well as iTunes 4 did. Maybe that means I aught to start trimming down my music library? Nah!

On that note, have you ever wondered what would happen if your interfaces became a living being? What would one interface say when you decided to switch to an other one. Would it get mad, or would it accept the fact that its time for a change? Well, it looks like Brushed Metal was quite mad about being booted out of iTunes, being the popular app that it is. And Aqua sure as hell isn’t helping the situation!

Poor B.M.

!–jdyck–!