iTunes notifications over a network?

OK, this is a problem that has been puzzling us at Rissington. The four of us play music from iTunes to an office stereo, via AirTunes. Our music is all scrobbled, and lots of our apps use the Growl we’ve installed. It should, therefore, be easy to get some sort of notification of what is playing to all of us.

I know what you’re thinking, we should talk to each other, and simply ask whoever it is that’s broadcasting what you’re listening to. Well, yes, that’s what we do now, but it feels like all the pieces are there for some slick system, it just needs something to tie it together.

We’ve tried a few solutions, like applescripts to send updates to a twitter account, and the closest we’ve come to is the Network notifications in Growl, which does work. It works too well in fact, and now everyone gets notifications of files uploaded in Transmit, or new feeds in NetNewsWire.

Also, if anyone had any ideas of how to create a global ‘pause the music there’s a phone call’ button, I’m all ears! We once managed this by using Old Faithful™ as the sole music provider but that didn’t quite work out.

Can anyone can point us to an app or script or something to achieve this?

Tags: itunes, questions, wifi

Waiting for Songbird to nest on OS X

Despite what I said last year, working completely off a Powerbook does work (now that I have a functioning powerbook of course!). Only one thing mars the experience – high CPU usage from iTunes.

I have a lot of hungry apps open, Fireworks and Omniweb can be quite greedy, but they’re beginners next to iTunes with its range of 31-60%. Obviously, playing music from another source (such as radio or iPod) would solve this, but I prefer being able to play music from my computer. Especially when I have bluetooth niftiness such as Salling Clicker pausing iTunes whenever there’s a phone call.

Tags: itunes, music, opensource, songbird, xul

Mac Media Centre - iTunes Remotes

Despite constant bribes the children still haven’t broken the old telly, so for now, the Mac Mini is acting solely as a server for iTunes and iPhoto. Thats just fine though, as it was mainly for music that I wanted to use it, and there isn’t much time for TV/DVDs. What I have done though is pick up a cheap Airport Express off ebay which is a great for sending music to the stereo without trailing wires.

Tags: itunes, mac, music, osx

Mac Media Centre part two - Software

FrontRow vs Others

So, now that everything is up and working, its time to find a GUI that will wrap it altogether. I could just use the default scripts in Salling Clicker to navigate between iPhoto, iTunes and DVD player using my phone, and this certainly works just fine. Lets face it though, a screen based interface is much nicer, and Frontrow is just the job. There’s the hack to get Frontrow running on macs that it isn’t meant to, and as mentioned above this works really well, but It’s a bit naughty, so lets look at the alternatives:

Tags: itunes, mac, mediacentre, osx

Tell me I haven't lost it...

I have this little quirk. I buy stuff from iTunes because its super-quick and convenient, but I prefer getting physical CDs. So, sometimes, if I really love an album I’ve bought on iTunes, it gets re-purchased in non-DRM CD form.

In the January Sales I picked up a ‘proper’ copy of Takk by Sigur Ros, to replace my DRM’d version. Yes I know I could’ve just burnt a CD and re-imported (or many other such tricks) but its not just about the DRM. Its about the status – in the same way that only the best apps get a permanent position in my OS X dock, some albums are too important to have as just a download.

Tags: itunes, music

A quick note on adverts

You may have noticed something new lurking in the sidebar, and like Ryan, I feel the need to explain myself. I’ve always resisted ads such as google’s, I’m not keen on how they look or the idea of making money from site visitors. The exception to this was when Dooce mentioned eating Leta with barbecue sauce, and her google ads made suggestions of where to get that sauce.

Tags: adverts, itunes, updates

Autumn Soundtrack

I love Autumn, and it makes me listen to slow music.

Tags: itunes, lists, music

Its finally here.. (or is it?)

“I’m off to liberate my bank balance. See you next week…”

Such brave words I spoke on Tuesday. As Jeremy, Richard and Tom all found out, bankruptcy need not be feared. It would seem that UK Music store is a little understocked with music. That Apple and the Independent labels couldn’t clinch the deal hasn’t helped. After much searching, I did find some back-catalogue Starflyer 59 albums that I wanted, and for that I’m really grateful.

Tags: itunes, osx, store

Playing iPods via iTunes

My ‘working away from home’ kit consists of just 2 things. My worn but trusty G4 Powerbook and my iPod. The iPod means I can play music in the car, as well as backup work to it. I’ve been trying to find a way of playing the music on my iPod through the Powerbook, without losing the link to my G5 where the music library is kept. There are plenty of apps that enable you to copy the iPod library onto your computer (such as PodWorks) – but I just don’t have the HD space for such a task. It also seems a little overboard – why copy everything when I should be able to just playback from the iPod?

Tags: howto, ipod, itunes, mac, music, software