apple juice

I’ve been really getting into my smart playlists lately, and I figured I’d share some of the joy.

Today’s smart playlist is: Morning of Quality

• Rating is between 3 and 5 stars
• Update!! Last Played is not in the last 1 Day (Gives you a new list all the time)
• Limted to 4 hours
• Selected at Random

This gives me a mix of good stuff to listen to all morning long.

Yesterday’s smart playlist: Four Hours of Stuff You’ve Never Heard Afternoon Discovery

• Play Count is 0
• Limted to 4 hours
• Selected at Random

Eventually Afternoon Discovery will be redefined as a “Least Recently Played” list, but for now, I have so much stuff to listen to!

I’m also going to bring these two playlists down to two hours each, and then add two more playlists to my daily listening.

This dude has some thoughts on smart playlists, as does this guy and here’s a whole site dedicated to Smart Playlists.

Needless to say, Smart Playlists are an incredibly powerful feature.

After I have my entire library rated, I’m going to move onto entering BPM info for at least all the dance/techno and hip/hop songs. There are some tools available to help you out. I’ll post about those when I get around to that project.

Happy Listening!

For all my Windows using friends and relatives out there who I have not yet converted (I’ll get you my pretties), Apple today released iTunes for Windows.

iTunes lets you access the world famous iTunes Music Store, where you can download songs for 99 cents each. No monthly fees, burn them to CDs, stick them on iPods. You own them.

The interface is worlds ahead of Musicmatch and Winamp, and iPod syncing with iTunes is a quick affair, unlike the complete library copy tha Musicmatch performs everytime you sync.

So go out and download it today!

Lick Me, I’m A Macintosh / What the hell is wrong with Apple that they still give a damn about design and packaging and “feel”?

Okay, so this article is a little over the top, but he does do a good job of explaining what that little connection that Apple users feel when they use their computers. I’ve often been asked, why do you use a Mac? Truth be told, all my computing could be handled by a Windows machine, sure, but there’s something else there. Like that old saying, “It’s the journey, not the destination.” Or similar to how funny and cool I think it is that I can roll up the windows and close the sunroof on my Golf with the key. I mean seriously, who thinks of that stuff?

People who care about design, and I’m happy they’re still out there. And I’m hoping they don’t go away, before we’re all living the wal-mart existince.

This is the point. Detail and nuance and texture and a sense of how users actually feel, what makes them smile, what makes the experience worthy and positive and sensual instead of necessary and drab and evil.

Today Apple introduced some new Powerbooks. The 15″ model now closely resembles the 17″ version, with it’s updated hinge design and aluminium packaging.

They also introduced a new wireless keyboard and mouse combo. They look pretty much exactly the same as the wired versions, sans wires. The wired versions with desktop computer, in my mind, aren’t that big of a deal, but with a powerbook, it’s an awesome feature. Set the powerbook down.Turn on the mouse. And you’re ready to go. Nothing could be easier.

So now the current computer I’m wishing after is the 15″ Powerbook with the Superdrive. Mmmm. It’s time to replace my PowerMac G3/400, don’t you think?

Quick review of the iTrip.

An excellent design that perfectly complements the iPod.

Draws its power right from the iPod.

Changing the station you transmit on is unfortunately a pain. You have to stop the song, go find the station mp3 file. Play it. Then return to your music. No switches to flick or anything.

On the other hand, you have access to any station on the FM dial.

On the other, other hand you’ll have to find a clear one. The transmission is no stronger or clearer than other FM transmitters. There is no drift or retuning once you get it though.

A cassette adapter still sounds better. But for those with no cassette adapter, this is a perfect choice. It also works great in a house. I can tune my two home stereos to it and it’ll play on both. Great for a party.

4 out of 5.

I’ve downloaded and given iTunes 4 a bit of a test. So far it looks pretty nice. The integration of the music store is pretty awesome, and the interface seems to be slightly refined. I haven’t had a chance to play with any of the sharing features yet, but we’ll give that a shot in a few days.

The Apple Music Store looks pretty good as well. The interface is dead easy. It will basically come down to whether or not people think $0.99 is the right price for a single. The downloads are fast, and they have a fairly vast catalog. It’s already been fun to browse around and listen to some samples.

I’ve been telling a few friends to hold off on their impending iPod purchase, and I’m glad they waited. The new revision looks very nice. I like the dock a lot, and i think the new user interface looks pretty nice as well.

Tomorrow I’m sure there will be tons of news and commentary on the whole situation, I’ll try and post a few interesting articles if I come across anything

Wow, wow, wow!