More iPod Loading Without iTunes…

I realize that last night TQT was missing but it will be back next week as my Tuesday night schedule should be easing up a bit.

A couple of weeks ago, I highlighted how to load up an iPod Shuffle without using iTunes because of some major issues I’ve had with iTunes in the past (read here and also here). This post will fill in the blanks for those of you using iPod versions other than the Shuffle. Unfortunately, this method does NOT work with iPhones and also requires you to sync your iPod with iTunes and load at least one song on there. I, personally, would recommend you do this on your friend’s computer rather than loading that piece of garbage on your computer. Now, off to the races.

The program we are going to be using is called Floola. Floola is a free side project by a helpful chap, so I would highly recommend donating if you like the product.

Start by downloading Floola here and be sure to extract the zip file to your iPod’s base directory. If you go to My Computer, you should see the C: drive and a couple other drives. On of them (E: on my computer) is the iPod. Double click it and you will see a couple of folders named Contacts, Calendars, Notes, and an see-through folder called iPod_Control. This is where you want to unzip your Floola folder to. Head over to the folder you extracted the files to and double click on Floola.exe.

The first task you need to do is choose which model of iPod you have. If you aren’t sure, you can visit Apple’s model identification guide. Floola will also give you some suggestions. It suggested that my iPod Nano 2G was either a 1G or a 2G (where G stands for generation). It also gives you some warnings and instructions, so be sure to read them through.

Once you hit save, you are pretty much home-free. At this point you can add tracks, delete tracks, manage photos stored on the device, and do pretty much everything else iTunes did.

A huge added bonus is that Floola is now saved on and runs from your iPod itself. That means if you visit anyone’s computer, regardless of whether they have iTunes or not, you will be able to update your music, photos, and podcasts using only the information on your iPod.

Have you tried any other alternatives to iTunes that worked for you? Found any hidden gems on Floola that cemented the deal for you? Share in the comments!

Load an iPod Shuffle Without iTunes…

Before we get started, note that this tutorial is for the iPod Shuffle only. We’ll get to other iPods later, don’t worry.

It is fairly well documented around these parts that I’m not a huge fan of iTunes (read here and also here). It is easy to find a new music player and manager (I mostly use foobar2000), but it much more difficult if you own and iPod.

Apple loves making beautiful, functional products, but then they manage to lock you into everything Apple. In order to use your Apple iPod, you have to use Apple iTunes. Want to use the gorgeous and simple OSX? You can only use it on a Mac (well, almost ‘only’).

I bought a iPod Shuffle because I loved that it was super compact, had good battery life, had a durable aluminum shell, and was nice and inexpensive. When I first got it, I used a program on Linux called gtkpod since iTunes isn’t made for Linux. I no longer have my Linux PC around so I was searching for a way to load music on my iPod Shuffle without iTunes and I found an amazingly simple way: iShuffle.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Make sure you’ve either uninstalled iTunes from your computer or be sure to uncheck the box that automatically launches iTunes when you plug in an iPod.
2. Go to the iShuffle site and download the ‘iShuffle-without-iTunes.zip’ file. Open it and move to Step 3. We’ll use this zip file for Step 4.
3. Plug in your iPod Shuffle. Now click on “My Computer” or “Computer” and you should see your iPod showing up. Go ahead and double click on the iPod to view it’s contents.
4. Go back to the zip file from Step 2 and open it. Extract the file labeled ‘iShuffle.exe’ on to your iPod Shuffle. It should go on the iPod directly (in the root), not in a folder. In the above example, it should go in E:\.
5. You will need to create folder named Music to put in that same location. After you create the folder, its location should be E:\Music in the example above.
6. You can now load any music you want in the Music folder. After loading the music, double click the iShuffle.exe file to build the playlist and finish up the process!

Note that if you make any changes to the music located in the Music folder, you have to re-run the iShuffle.exe file to re-build the playlist.

If you are lacking some decent music to listen to on your iTunes-free iPod Shuffle, be sure to head to Amazonmp3.com to download some new tunes.

We’ll discuss Floola soon for managing iPods other than the Shuffle soon, but do you have any other media managers that you use in place of iTunes? I’m looking for some new running music, so be sure to let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions!

The Digitante and the iPhone…

I recently learned about a company called Genwi and a product they came out with called iSites. iSites makes it simple to turn any website into an iPhone (and iPod Touch) application.

iSites uses the RSS feed for your site to allow iPhone users to read new articles as they are published. Recently I started publishing the articles I write in the late evening the next morning at 6:00 am and they generally show up in the feed within an hour, so the nightly post from The Digitante shows up around the same time as the morning paper.

Additionally, if you have a Google Android smartphone such as the Motorola Droid or the HTC Hero, Genwi is currently in final testing for an Android app. They plan on releasing BlackBerry and Windows Mobile versions of their product in the future as well.

If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, you head to the Apple App Store and your very own copy of The Digitante app.

If you are interested in creating an app for your own site, Genwi charges $25. This covers all the fees to register your app with Apple. Also, according to my understanding, this should also cover the cost of the Android app as well. No word on the cost for a BlackBerry or Windows mobile version.

Here are a couple of screenshots of the new app as well as a nice download link!

And here is the background image for the feed:

I would highly recommend you check it my application and PLEASE let me know what you think of it! Are you using it yet? Know anyone who could use an app like this? Just send them the link: http://thedig.in/iphoneapp.

Top Posts for 2009…

By far, the most popular feature on The Digitante was Friday Night Links. It’s probably my favorite post each week as well.

However, I want to give a run-down of the most popular individual posts at The Digitante. Without further ado, let’s get to the list.

1. Note Taking with Facebook – Getting picked up on Lifehacker certainly helped out on this post as it came in at around 600 visitors. It also stirred a bit of controversy as you can see from the comment section of the Lifehacker post. Mostly there were concerns with how Facebook handles privacy, but read on if you want to know how to deal with the privacy issue.
2. Sprint Store vs. Best Buy – When I initially wrote this post, it was a toss up as to who I would buy my next phone from. After continuing to consider the question and having some person experiences with both, I think I’ve landed firmly on the side of Best Buy. Sprint need to pull their head out of the sand and start offering an instant rebate. There is no way they can keep making people wait 8-10 weeks for their $100 check. People are just too price sensitive.
3. Meet The Digitante – Who would have known that everyone would be so interested in who I was and how I got to be where I am. I certainly would not have known it. I am glad I wrote this post because it gave me a chance to figure out who I am. Alright, inspirational speech time is over.
4. Build a Simple PC for $300 – If there was one thing I could do every day for the rest of my life, it would be to order parts and build computers all day long. The fact that I got to share that with everyone was really cool. I am currently designing a PC for a friend that will be used in a recording studio and another that will be used by me as a media center PC. I can’t wait to document that as well.
5. Empty a Water Bottle Quickly – Another hands-on, doing type of post. I am hoping to do some more instructional videos like this. I need to get a better camera for shooting video though.
6. Gifts for Your Techie – This isn’t necessarily one post, but all the gift guides were a hit. I’m hoping to do a little more on gift giving next year and hopefully start a bit earlier (Pre-Thanksgiving) so you have plenty of time to shop.
7. Facebook Privacy – If you use Facebook, this is a must-read post and I would highly recommend you spend 5-10 minutes and check out your privacy settings. I found some very disturbing things, especially regarding the amount of information that could be shared about me by others. I made sure to disable others’ ability to share vulnerable information of mine.
8. Mr. B Picks Up a Pre – This was actually the second in the In Action! series by The Digitante. Mr B was also kind enough to let you all know how The Digitante did. The first was Mr. G’s New TV, so be sure to read that one as well. If you have a tech need fulfilled and you want to be the next installment of In Action!, be sure to contact me and let me know.
9. A Bad Apple Spoils the Bunch – Apple rubbed me the wrong way for the last time. I’ve spent the last 3 months iTunes free and I’m loving it. I wrote about DoubleTwist which recently added the AmazonMP3 store to its interface. I wasn’t totally happy with DoubleTwist though. I’ve got foobar2000 installed currently and I’ve used it a little, but not enough to write about it. Also, Songbird recently added a slew of new features so I need to check that out as well.
10. Upgrade Your Wireless Router – This was a more technical article, but was perhaps the most doable for some setting up their first wireless router. I can’t recommend Tomato and the WRT54GL enough. If you are in the market for a new wireless router, this is the only way to go.

Let me know if you had any favorite posts from this year. What do you want to see more of in the next year? Toss it in the comments section!

iTunes Alternative #1: DoubleTwist…

A little over a month ago, I went on a bit of a rant about iTunes and the fact that they were pushing some shady updates that #1 weren’t necessary since I don’t have a  corporate iPhone and #2 were billed as an update even though I don’t have the program installed in the first place. Add in the fact that iTunes is hugely bloated and I was wanting to find a nice, svelte replacement for iTunes.

I’ve found two replacements: DoubleTwist and Songbird. Tonight I am going to cover DoubleTwist.

Getting started

This is easy to get going. Download the program from the site and after it installs, simply open it. You will have to sign up for a user ID. Once signed in, you should hopefully see all your music and pictures from your computer.

If your music didn’t show up, you can specify which folder or folders you want to add.

One note: I had to completely quit out of DoubleTwist after installing before I could get it to recognize my music. I don’t know whether this was a fluke, a bug, or some other reason, but it was no big deal.

When you play music, it opens the player in a separate window. I’m not sure how I feel about this and it doesn’t look like you can change this behavior. You can drag additional songs from the media manager to the player window which is nice.

The big win

The biggest thing DoubleTwist has going for it is the fact that it is compatible with almost any media toting device: iPods, cell phones, even PlayStation Portable. From the DoubleTwist website:

Our vision is simple: to create a unifying media platform that connects consumers with all their media and all their devices, regardless of whether they are online or offline.

We feel that just like you don’t use a different browser for every web site you visit (Firefox to read the NY Times, IE to stream Hulu, Chrome to browse YouTube, etc) you shouldn’t have to use iTunes for Apple products, Nokia software for Nokia phones, Sony software for Sony products, etc. The typical household today has many such devices and there is a need for a simple and powerful software that connects them.

iTunes on the other hand only syncs with Apple products like the iPhone and iPod. Being a BlackBerry user, this has always been an issue so between mobile Dropbox and DoubleTwist, I should have all the music I need all the time.

Huge upcoming feature

The big feature that DoubleTwist has coming up that should be the stake in the heart of iTunes is Amazon MP3 store integration. You will soon be able to choose from almost 10 million high quality songs via the integrated Amazon MP3 store. Songs range from $.69-1.29 and you can find almost everything there. I’ve been using Amazon MP3 for a couple of years now and I love it.

What’s missing?

I was using DoubleTwist about 2-3 years ago and it had an amazing feature that allowed you to “liberate” your iTunes songs that were locked to your iPod with digital rights management (DRM). It looks like this feature is missing from the current generation of product, most likely because of legal issues with removing DRM. If you want to hear me rant a little about DRM, feel free to read this.

All in all, DoubleTwist seems ok and the main draw is the fact that you can sync your music to almost an device. If the liberate option were still there, this would be my go-to media player. Instead, I’ll have to do some more testing with Songbird.

If you have questions about this, leave a comment below or use the contact information found on any page to get in touch with The Digitante.

A Bad Apple Spoils the Bunch…

For the last four or five years, Mrs. Digitante and I have used iTunes to manage our music. We prefer to download the music at Amazon MP3, but after the download completes, it loads into iTunes. I am now thinking that my use of iTunes needs to change because Apple’s behavior over the past couple of years has irked me to the point that I’m ready to move on.

What happened?

For a long time, Apple had its own browser for Macs called Safari. They then decided to introduce a Windows version. Unfortunately, they were very underhanded about how they introduced it. They put it in the top section of the Apple Software Updater so it looked like they were upgrading a current program (“then” section), not installing a new program as it should have been (“now” section).

Basically, Apple was using their updater tool to fake people into downloading their browser. Although it is a good browser now, it was riddled with issues when it first came out. After a large outcry, they moved it to its current location as seen in the screenshot above.

All this over only one incident?

That was the first time I saw this but there is much more recent incident that occurred this week. On Monday evening, Apple provided an update to a program called iPhone Configurator Utility. Aside from the fact that configurator isn’t a word, this program was not actually an update, but a completely separate program that would be installed for the first time under guise of an update.

I don’t own an iPhone so I’m no sure why I was even a candidate to receive this program. As it turns out even most people who own an iPhone don’t need this utility since it more of a corporate tool to apply security policies to iPhones that belong to employees. That’s right, not only do you have to own an iPhone, but you also have to have received it from your employer.

Additionally there were some concerns about the fact that the program contained a web server which is a prime location for hackers to gain access to private information on your computer.

As you’ll notice from the screenshot above, Apple pulled the configurator software after a bunch of complaints. I’m really not sure how you don’t learn your lesson after the first time you try this stunt.

Seems a little sketchy

For a company that claims to cares about the user experience above all else, they certainly were taking advantage of their users in a pretty skeevy way.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to work on finding a new, better music player. I’ll be sure to let you know what I find. In the meantime, be sure to leave a comment with your favorite music application and I’ll be sure to check it out.

New Apple announcements…

I’m taking a short break from our little Google series to catch you up on the little Apple shindig that happened today. It was a pretty boring deal with no new products and no particularly ground-breaking features. However, there was a bit of intrigue in there.

iTunes 9

• They added iTunes LPs which have lyrics, concert videos, exclusive songs, and photo albums. Oddly enough, they don’t include lossless, uncompressed versions of the song for high fidelity listening. Boring!
• Improved interface, an App manager, and tweaks to the syncing procedure. More “who cares.”
• A Home Library that allows all the computers on your account to automatically import songs from other computers. Basically, if you download a new song on your desktop, next time your laptop is on the same network, it will import that song from your desktop. This feature is great, especially for anal retentive people like me who do everything they can to be sure all their music is the same on all computers.
• Tweet your current listening selection. Meh. Its kind of cool, but I doubt I’d ever use it. I’ve got much more important things to post on Twitter.

iPod Nano

• The Nano got a camera and a microphone. This is pretty nice and it includes a voice-over feature and effects for the camera such as night-vision (the green blurry footage) and 19 or so other effects.
• On the aesthetic front, it got a new paint job that is shiny instead of the matte finish in prior generations.
• FM tuner: Welcome to 1998, Apple. 1998 is approximately when the first mp3 player got its FM tuner. Downside is you need to plug in headphones to get reception. Not a big deal for the most part though.
• Did you know that people that use a pedometer walk approximately 2,000 more steps than those without? Did you know the iPod Nano now has a pedometer? Get your walk on!

iPod Touch

• Upgraded processor in the 32 and 64Gb models. Boring!
• The 8Gb version price is lowered to $199. Boring!

That about covers it aside from some extremely minor updates to the iPod Shuffle and the iPod Classic. If you have any questions, ask away in the comments. Back to the Google series tomorrow with Google Docs!

Music to my ears

I just got back from hearing the songs of Led Zeppelin by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. The show was really great and got me all pumped up to listen to some Led Zeppelin. For me, the easiest way to do so is on my laptop. I can take it anywhere with me and just pop on some headphones.

There are a number of ways to get music on your computer: some involve music you already own and others involve music you would like to purchase or download from an online store.

Please keep in mind that all the advice here applies to music that is yours. It is illegal and morally wrong to copy CDs and music that are not yours. That being said, let’s get some music!

I got some great B-sides, bro!

If you already own music on CDs, cassettes, LPs, or 8 tracks and you have a player for the format, chances are that you can get that music on your computer.

Scratches and pops are a must in my recordings

I am going to talk about LPs, but the same would apply to cassettes, 8 tracks, and any other older format. LPs are analog which means there is a physical representation which is then translated in to a sound. For an LP, the groove the needle goes in changes size to change pitch. An LP (or any analog source) would require plugging a wire into the headphone jack on the turntable and the line in plug on the computer. You will also need recording software to record the output of the turntable. For this, I recommend the free software Audacity. I have not used Audacity yet, but there are plenty of tutorials out there that you can search for, including this one. You will have to manually name your tracks.

Pure crystal clear digital for me please!

CDs make your life much easier than LPs because they are in digital format instead of analog. Digital means that the music is stored as a bunch of ones and zeros. Those ones and zeros are translated into sounds. The analog recording above was translated from analog into digital. The digital CDs are going to be digital, so that takes one step out of the equation.

To record, or ‘rip’ your music to your computer, you need to have a CD drive on your computer (most have them) and you will need a program such as iTunes or Exact Audio Copy.

iTunes is extremely simple to use: put in the CD and click record. Unfortunately, the options for naming tracks and playback formats are limited. The quality of the output is just ok.

EAC includes CD track information look up (Database –> Get CD Information From –> FreeDB). You can experiment with things like bitrate (the quality), format (mp3: compressed, FLAC: lossless), track naming conventions, and other options. This is a bit more advanced but gives much more control and flexibility over your music catalog.

I already bought a bunch of stuff on iTunes, BUT…

If you purchased songs from iTunes, you may have had issues with playing those songs in places other than your iPod or iTunes. This occurs because Apple added Digital Rights Management (DRM) to protect the tracks from being copied and passed around. Unfortunately, this also means you cannot play these tracks on the hundreds of other mp3 players such as the Zune, even though you are legally allowed to do so due to “fair use”. In order to allow you to use those DRM tracks elsewhere, I recommend DoubleTwist. It is simple to use and will automatically search for DRM tracks and liberate them aka remove the DRM so you can load them on any music player you like.

What if I want more music? My collection of Cher albums is incomplete.

There are a number of places on the web to download new music. iTunes is currently the most popular online music store, although I use AmazonMP3 for most of my purchases of popular music. AmazonMP3 can also link you to the actual CD for an artist if you would prefer to have the actual disc.

If you like free music, you can check out the Download Squad’s list of 35 Places to Download Free Legal MP3s.

I’m going to need a bigger harddrive.

There is plenty of music out there to suit everyone’s tastes. There are also many ways to get the music that suits your taste. Some of it, like iTunes is dead simple. Other stuff, like using Audacity and a turntable can be downright scary. If you need help getting your music on the computer, feel free to head over to The Digitante home page and either click the contact link to send an email or give me a call. Music gives you a feeling that you just can’t beat! Terrible pun intended…