Why the iPhone update changed my mind

After impulse buying a 600$ (plus tax) piece of Apple foolishness, I have the ritualistic remorse that always follows such impulse purchasing. While it is nice to whip the iPhone out, and have friends and family ogle it, and ask you all sorts of questions– deep down,it’s hard to shake feeling a bit silly for having dropped 600$ (plus tax) on a phone.That all changed for me today. (Technically, it changed about 4 days ago with the iPhone 1.01 update– but it wasn’t until I read this post on iLounge that I realized it).Apple will tell you that the new iPhone update was basically a security fix update…but it turns out it also fixed a bunch of other stuff:

• Always BCC added to email settings so you can carbon copy yourself
• Battery diplay updates to provide more accurate display of charge
• Passcode lock can have a longer timeout– prevents you having to enter your passcode EVERY time the phone goes into standby mode– instead allows you to picke a time frame to allow the phone to wait before it requires a passcode
• Audio out now works on many popular stereo docks and adaptors

So, back to the regret part…I really only listen to music in my car. Until this update my iPhone just couldn’t take the place of my iPod– it had iPod features, but no audio out to my car’s iPod setup. Read more…

Not because it’s free (though that helps): Tangerine

I’ve been hoping for a good iTunes plugin/addon that would help group music by mood. Adding to my desire is my un-deniable ‘Reuben-esque’ physique lately. Toss in a huuuuge music library (currently pushing 50 gigs) and my inability to create decent playlists and you can see why I’ve fallen in love with Tangerine.

Tangerine has 3 main functions.

• Scanning – The app will scan your music library (except for iTunes music store purchases–something about the DRM makes this difficult) and keep a record of the BPM, beats per minute, of each song.
• (Really) Smart Playlists - You can use the app to create playlists of tracks falling in a certain beat range
• Syncing – The app will sync your Tangerine playlists to iTunes.

The burning question: Does it really work?

Yes. Yes it does. Usually…

Sometimes it gets the beats a little wrong, sometimes a LOT wrong. But I gotta tell ya’ it’s more right than wrong, and it scans your library WAY faster than just about any other BPM scanning app I’ve seen.

There are 3 perks that I feel put Tangerine above the rest

• It’s pretty – It’s easy on the eyes, and if Apple has taught me anything it’s that looks do matter. Think of it this way, you can be the smartest, nicest, most wonderful person in class, but if you show up every day with 3 day B.O., un-brushed teeth, and greasy hair…none of that matters.
• Playlist visualization – The app makes use of the album art for your tracks (if you have it– and if you have iTunes 7 Apple will let you download it!) and then shrinks or enlarges the art across a time line like a bar graph.  The tall the album cover the faster the BMP, the wider the cover the longer the song.
• Styled playlists – Just like the stair master or treadmill at the Gym, Tangerine can ’style’ your playlist to be gradually building, decending, random, or stepped.  It’s a great way to tailor the playlist and keep things from seeming too perfect.

Give Tangerine a look and decide for yourself.

Tally Hall likes me…they really like me! (UPDATED)

A quick one for all you sinners…

Saw a show at Paradise in Boston last Friday. Tally Hall, Contoller Controller, and OK GO.
I brought a camera and got a few shots. You can see some of them on Tally Hall’s Journal. Hopefully Controller Controller will post a few pix as well.

I’ll post up a few over the next few days.

(:Updated:)

I’ve just posted some of my shots from the show in the gallery page.

Unsung iTunes 6 features – stream to more than one stereo!

When Apple updated iTunes at MacWorld this week it included the ability to stream to multiple Airport Base Stations simultaneously. When you select Multiple bases you’re now presented with a list of available base stations to stream to.

So now you can have music all over your house, dorm, harem whatever…

Free music courtesy of Microsoft…

1. With laptop in hand, travel to metro area

2. Connect to an open wireless network, and look for other computers on this open network

3. Connect to these machines (almost always Windows boxes where users have turned on printer and file sharing) with the user name guest and the password guest.

Then browse your way to free music!

Thanks Microsoft!