| Anapod Explorer | ||
| Ian Betteridge September 30, 2004 | ||
| ||
Enter Anapod Explorer, which is the nicest and most comprehensive piece of Windows software for getting the most out of the iPod that we've yet seen. Anapod integrates with Windows Explorer, allowing you to directly drag and drop audio files on to the iPod from any folder on the PC. Uniquely, it supports conversion of audio files from formats that the iPod doesn't understand – such as Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, or unprotected WMA – into MP3, so you don't have to worry about what format your music is in. However, copying doesn't have to be a manual process. Anapod's SpeedSync feature allows you to designate any number of folders as being synchronised to the iPod, so that all the files within them are transferred over whenever the iPod is connected to your PC. What's more, Anapod supports creating play lists directly within Windows Explorer, simply dragging tracks into and out of the play list at will. If you have pre-existing play lists created in any of the popular formats by applications such as WinAmp, you can also just drag the play list directly on to the iPod, and have all the tracks on it automatically downloaded. Of course, this is a two-way process: drag a play list from your iPod to the PC, and Anapod creates a new folder and copies all the tracks in that play list to the PC. And Anapod Explorer does more than music, too: you can copy over all your contacts from Outlook with a single click, as well as creating iPod notes directly by typing on your PC. There are some other nice features too, which allow you to play the music on your iPod across a network, from any machine which supports MP3 streamed over HTTP, even allowing you to play your music through a web browser. Our only problem with Anapod Explorer came when occassionally it would refuse to recognize the iPod. However, within less than a week the software was patched to fix this issue - and with the product being patched on average every two weeks, bugs tend not to last for long. Overall, if you're using an iPod with Windows and you want to do more than iTunes is capable of, or you simply want the freedom to use your iPod in a different way, then Anapod Explorer is for you. Had this been $50, we would have thought it was decent value: at $25, it should be an essential purchase for anyone who can't get their head about the way that iTunes works, or just wants more flexibility when using their iPod. | ||
Saturday, May 14, 2005
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Tekkeon myPower Battery Pack
Tekkeon myPower Battery Pack
Pros: A solid external battery for Dock Connecting iPods, includes USB and FireWire ports for data docking, as well as a line-out port for clean audio.
Cons: Underperforms comparably priced (expensive) iPod batteries by a fair margin; dock substitute is fine on-the-go, but can’t be used when iPod is standing up.
Company: Tekkeon
Website: www.Tekkeon.com
Model: myPower
Price: $89.95
Compatible: iPod 3G, 4G, iPod mini, iPod photo
Jeremy Horwitz
11.08.04
Sometimes good products are overshadowed by similar competitors. But for a couple of small but interesting twists, such would have been the case for new iPod accessory maker Tekkeon’s myPower ($89.00), a white plastic external battery for iPods that competes directly with cheaper products from Belkin and slightly more expensive ones from Battery Technology Incorporated. While not identical to BTI’s stellar The iPod Battery and its strong sequel The iPod Battery ii, Tekkeon’s myPower is similar enough for most people’s purposes to merit direct comparisons.
Design
At a distance, it would be easy to confuse myPower with BTI’s The iPod Battery ii ($99.95). Both iPod external batteries strap relatively thin backpacks onto Dock Connecting iPods, adding over a day of additional battery life as demarked with a four-light power indicator. Each product has a power switch to control the flow of power from battery to iPod, and detachable plastic belt clip and iPod clip pieces. Tekkeon includes two iPod clips (iPod mini/iPod) instead of BTI’s three (iPod mini/3G/4G), and uses soft sizer pads inside its full-sized iPod clip to fit different iPod thicknesses.
Other differences are potential biggies. Rather than spread its power indicators and a “tell me how much power is left” button across the top of its battery like BTI, myPower adds an inch of extra plastic at its bottom and keeps its indicators constantly lit while power is being used. The lights are multicolored, with a single red light indicating that you’re close to the end of myPower’s juice, and three yellow lights to say you’re in the beginning to middle of the discharge cycle. As with BTI’s batteries, the lights aren’t reliable indicators: the fourth light disappears much more quickly than the third and second, and red quickly gives way to no lights - black - although myPower will recharge the right iPods (4G, mini, and Photo, not 3G) and leave them playing past myPower’s no power mark.
The real differences between the batteries are in what’s at the bottom of the inch of plastic: three ports for line out, USB 2.0, and FireWire cables. These ports might be considered odd additions to myPower’s design as a battery, but Tekkeon promotes myPower as an alternative dock, albeit one you can’t simultaneously stand up on its bottom edge while using those ports.
To that end, the company wisely includes white FireWire and USB cables compatible with myPower’s ports, either of which can connect to a computer for data transfers or recharging, while the FireWire cable can also connect to the iPod’s white power adapter to recharge off wall power. (Unlike BTI’s batteries, myPower doesn’t include its own AC power adapter cube, an omission plausibly and acceptably explained by the fact that Apple’s power adapter works fine, and can either charge myPower alone or with an iPod attached.) Though a Dock Connector port on myPower’s back would have more neatly accomplished these features, at least Tekkeon doesn’t force the user to go out and buy cables in order to use their dock features.
The company does, however, note that you’ll need to purchase “optional adapters” to use myPower for yet another purpose - namely recharging mobile phones. Presumably this will be handled through either the FireWire (unlikely) or USB 2.0 (likely) port, and would have been more expensive if Tekkeon had to use Dock Connector parts in every adapter. If Tekkeon sticks to the pricing it’s used on past adapters, you’ll spend an extra $4.95 per adapter. The adapters haven’t been released, and we haven’t tested one, but it’s an intriguing feature nonetheless.
Tekkeon’s choice to include a line-out audio port on myPower’s bottom is similarly interesting, and perhaps the single biggest distinction between myPower and other battery offerings. Because of this port, myPower’s the only battery we’ve seen thus far that can be used while outputting line-quality audio output in your car, though the importance of this feature to a given person will depend on whether he or she has already purchased one of several car chargers that offer iPod charging with line-out audio.
Performance
Because of BTI’s release of The iPod Battery and its sequel, positively recommending the performance of any other external battery is going to be tough from here on out. Tekkeon promised up to 32 hours of extra play time on a 4G iPod, 28 hours on an iPod mini, and 20 hours on a 3G iPod. The myPower is listed as iPod Photo compatible, but Tekkeon doesn’t provide runtime estimates. Since its numbers are based on roughly 20 hours of extra playback from myPower plus a complete recharge of the connected iPod’s battery if the iPod supports that feature (which the 3G iPod does not), so the iPod Photo could presumably hit between 32-37 hours, depending on how significantly the Photo drains myPower while recharging its own battery.
Our tests showed Tekkeon’s numbers to be fairly accurate - our standardized 4G iPod test ran for 30 hours and 45 minutes, for example, falling modestly short of Tekkeon’s numbers in a manner that repeated tests (and gradual battery burn-in) would likely remedy. As mentioned briefly before, the four battery indicator lights didn’t correspond with the time actually left on the battery; the first green light went out after less than three hours, for example, so you’re left with only rough estimates of how much power remains.
There’s nothing bad about 30 to 32 hours of 4G battery life, strictly speaking: buy myPower and you get nearly a day and a half of extra playback from your iPod, or a day (give or take) out of your 3G or mini. The only problem is that BTI’s batteries, which sell for close to the same price, give you two or three days worth of power in a very similar package. BTI’s iPod Battery ii went for over 55 hours on a 4G iPod, and The iPod Battery ran for 73 hours on a less power-efficient 3G iPod. While both retail for $99.95, they’re now available at retailers for as little as $75, placing Tekkeon in a tight position competitively.
Conclusions
Given its competition, myPower’s $89.95 price seems a bit high at this point. It seems obvious to us that when comparing external batteries to external batteries, the key factor is how much extra power you get for the dollar, and by that standard myPower sits a distant second to BTI’s options and better (though pricier) than the Belkin batteries we’ve seen.
But if you need its extra features, namely its USB, FireWire, or Line-Out ports, or its optional ability to recharge compatible mobile phones, myPower is currently the only iPod battery accessory with such offerings. While we can’t give myPower our highest recommendation overall, we do think it merits a strong B+ level recommendation given that some people may really like these extra features.
On a side note, we were glad to see that Tekkeon has proven that integrating extra ports on an iPod battery is plausible. However, we think that the feature would best be used not for mobile phone recharging, but rather to provide a pass-through (or Y-shaped) Dock Connector port so that the iPod could draw external battery juice while simultaneously using battery-draining accessories such as Belkin’s Media Reader. As-is, myPower is a solid iPod battery offering, but Tekkeon’s creative expansion of its ports (or changes to them in a future offering) could really expand the product’s value to all iPod owners.
Jeremy Horwitz is Senior Editor of iPodlounge and practices intellectual property law in his spare time. His recent book, Law School Insider, has been called the “best book about law school - ever,” and he continues to contribute to Ziff-Davis electronic entertainment magazines.
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these things are still HUGE!!!!! Hey lets put a big brick in your pocket… WOOHOO. Might as well tote around the powerbrick. I’d rather replace my internal battery with a more powerful one. Like a 2300 MaH Li-Polymer battery. That way- no size increase. They can be had for under 30 bucks too!
Yuck, this thing makes iPod look big and boring (like a huge chunk of white plastic), not what I want for my iPod.
Good review. This looks like the one I’d want as the port and audio out features are cool. In your review, the 1” section at the bottom is mentioned several times as a detractor but it should be noted that BTIs unit has the fire wire connector sticking out the bottom to the tune of almost an inch. The firewire connection certainly looks more vulnerable as compared to Tekkeon’s solution. I’ll also add the the Tekkeon device, to my eye, looks more elegant and integrated and less like an after thought. All of these devices are a pain compared to (if it were made) a high capacity iPod. If only Apple offered a a hi-cap version.
Pardon my possible ignorance, but if it has a USB and FW connectors how can the Belkin Media Reader connect to it as it uses an iPod dock connector? Or is there a converter cable available?
Thx
Pardon my ignorance as well, But does anyone know if, by using a Compact Flash card reader (USB 2.0) plugged into the USB port of the mypower, could digital photos which were saved on a compact flash card be transferred directly onto the ipod?
Thanks
Avoid this product. It is so cheaply constructed that the line out plug has really poor contact with the jack. The sound gets disrupted at the slightest touch ! I thought I had a defective product but the same problem after exchanging with a new one.
was trying to decide between BTI’s The iPod Battery ii and Tekkeon myPower Battery Pack. I like the extra features of the Tekkeon but it seems like BTI is the battery that is best.
Now if you combined BTI iPod battery with the extra features of the Tekkeon, you would have the exact product I want.
I was also trying to decide between BTI iPod Battery and the Tekkeon myPower Battery.
Is it me, or does the myPower seem better designed. The dock connector is integrated into the battery and you do not have the cord hanging down like it is on the iPod Battery? My main beef with my 4G iPod is that I have to charge it just about every day. 32 hours seems like enough charge time to keep me going for a few days of commuting.
Download.com Review of iTunes
Download.com Review of iTunes
Apple's iTunes used to be simply a versatile jukebox program that brought Mac users into the digital-music world, but new features that tune up its jukebox and the much-ballyhooed iTunes Music Store push it over the top. Seamless integration with the iPod, smart playlists, CD burning, and label printing create an 800-pound gorilla. New on the scene is Party Shuffle, which keeps a queue of songs at the ready that you can rearrange. Also new is iMix, which lets you publish playlists on the iTunes Music Store. iTunes supports MP3, AAC, AIFF, WAV, and a new format called Apple Lossless, which gives you uncompressed audio quality with files half the size. The Rendezvous sharing feature lets you see and play the playlists and music libraries of other users on your network.
One unfortunate quirk is how iTunes handles unprotected WMA files. We would prefer the program just play those files, rather than re-encode them into AAC format. Regardless, iTunes continues to be one of the best jukeboxes available.
Read More......Apple iTunes 4.8
Apple iTunes 4.8
Now with support for video
If you're getting tired of your current media player, Apple's iTunes is the answer.
ITunes is one of the best media players on the market. It comes with a vast music store that gives you the opportunity to preview and download songs at very reasonable prices.
This and the ability to create your own digital library makes iTunes a great choice for anyone who is tired of needing multiple players.
ITunes will look for any other copies running across a network and you can then listen to other people's music. An internet radio option is available for broadband users.
Version 1.8 adds support for video, in the form of an embedded QuickTime player. Little details are provided by Apple about this new feature, but it appears to support all the video formats that QuickTime supports (AVI, MPEG, Flash etc.).
Also new is Apple Lossless, an audio encoder for importing music into iTunes at half the original size with no loss of quality.
An excellent audio player with a huge library of music for sale
New in iTunes 4.8 [updated]
New in iTunes 4.8 [updated]
New iTunes adds video capabilities
Apple has released iTunes 4.8—an update that can be found on Apple’s website, though not through Mac OS X’s Software Update system preference as I write this.
In typical fashion, Apple’s release notes tell us little about what the update fixes and changes—only that the new version “includes new Music Store features and support for transferring contacts and calendars from your computer to your iPod (requires Mac OS X version 10.4 on your computer).”
I’ve poked around a bit in the new version and here’s what I’ve observed.
Contacts and Calendars
When you plug an iPod capable of holding contact and calendar information into a Mac running iTunes 4.8 and click the iPod preferences icon at the bottom of the iTunes window, two new tabs appear in the resulting iPod window—Contacts and Calendars. These tabs are similar to what Mac users have seen in iSync. Here you can choose to synchronize all the contacts in Apple’s Address Book or just the contacts in groups that you choose. Likewise, you can synchronize all your iCal calendars or just selected calendars.
iTunes Does Video
Also at the bottom of the iTunes window is a new Show Video Full Screen button. This button hints that iTunes 4.8 plays movies, and indeed it does. These videos are available from two sources—videos on your hard drive and those sold as part of an album on iTunes. Videos on iTunes? No, not the music videos and movie trailers found at The Store. Rather, the iTunes Music Store now includes videos that are included with select albums sold by The Store. [Thanks to Playlist forum visitor mrhsean for being the first to bring this to our attention.] To see the system in action, check out the Dave Matthews Band’s latest, Stand Up, and you’ll discover that along with the album’s music you also get a digital booklet that contains the album artwork and a video. This 5 minute 28 second MPEG-4 video weighs in at around 55MB and is of the “making of the album” variety, showing some interview clips along with scenes from the studio.
This is an interesting development for the iTunes Music Store in an age where recording companies are beginning to release DualDiscs—discs that contain music on one side and DVD video on the other. While bandwidth limitations may keep the iTunes Music Store from offering the same content as a DualDisc, it does put The Store in the video space and allows it to charge more for an album than the usual $9.99 (the Dave Matthews album costs $11.99).
As I hinted earlier, the music videos and music trailers available from the iTunes Music Store can’t be played in a separate window and don’t take advantage of this full screen button. If you want to view these movies you must download them (some trailers can be downloaded, other can’t) and then drag them into iTunes.
The new iTunes can also play movies that you drag into it. When you drag a compatible movie file into iTunes, it appears in the Library with a movie camera icon next to it. Select the movie and press Play, and up pops a small window that displayed the movie and the Show Video Full Screen button became active. Click this button and the movie plays full screen.
Movies can not be shared using iTunes music sharing service. And iTunes doesn’t support all the files types that QuickTime does. For example, a .avi file that plays perfectly well within QuickTime Player Pro 7 on my Mac running Tiger can’t be imported into iTunes 4.8. The Windows version of iTunes has the same limitation—QuickTime movies will play, movies in formats such as .avi and .wmv won’t.
Varying the Video
You can change how iTunes shows movies in iTunes’ Advanced system preference—choosing to show videos in the main window, in a separate window, or full screen.
You can also resize movies by holding the Control key and clicking on the movie—selecting Half Size, Normal Size, Double Size, or Full Screen from the resulting contextual menu. If you close the movie window, the Now Playing window (the window that displays album art) will play the video. Just as with audio tracks you can rate movies and iTunes will keep track of the number of times you’ve played them. You can also create Smart Playlists that sort your stored movies—just create an action that reads Kind contains QuickTime Movie and you’re in business.
Another interesting movie feature is that you can convert the soundtrack of a movie file to the encoding format selected in iTunes Importing preference. For example, if you’ve configured iTunes to import tracks using the AAC encoder, you can select a movie file you’ve brought into iTunes and choose Convert Selection to AAC. iTunes will take the movie’s soundtrack and create a new AAC audio track of that soundtrack (without, of course, altering the original movie file).
More Stores
This update also supports the new iTunes Music Stores that are opening in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.
Added Security
And, according to a posting on an Apple security list, iTunes 4.8 closes a possible security exploit. Versions of iTunes prior to 4.8 could parse a malicious MPEG-4 file that could cause iTunes to crash or execute arbitrary code. iTunes 4.8 improves its validation checks of MPEG-4 files to prevent such exploits.
Read More......Apple iTunes 4.7.1
| Apple iTunes 4.7.1 REVIEW DATE: 01.27.05
| ||||
If GarageBand 2 is the most-improved app in the iLife '05 suite, iTunes is the one that remains the most the same—but we still think very highly of it. Version 4.7 has been shipping for several months now; it included a host of new fea-tures mostly geared towards keeping up with the release of Apple's other products and new developments in the Apple iTunes Music Store. Version 4.7.1, shipping with iLife '05, added support for the iPod Shuffle and the ability to sync photos with the iPod Photo as well as some minor performance enhancements. Aside from support for the new iPod Shuffle and the ability to sync album art and photos to iPod Photo, the most significant update seems to be in the area of DRM: You can now authorize up to five PCs to play tracks you've bought at the iTunes Music Store. Other items some users may find handy is the new Lossless Encoder, which retains uncompressed CD-quality sound at half the file size, and the ability to find and delete duplicate songs in your library. iTunes also now lets you print out CD jewel-case inserts and create Party Shuffle mixes—automatically generated continuous queues of music from your library or playlists. The rest of the enhancements are mostly tied to the iTunes Music Store, including Artist Alerts that notify you when the store adds new tunes by your favorite performers; iMix, which lets you post your own playlists at the store; and Library Links, which you can click on for more information about items in your library. But if the improvements are small, that's only because iTunes was already one of the best music players out there (along with Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 and Musicmatch Jukebox 10). Aside from support for the iPod Shuffle and photo syncing with the iPod Photo, version 4.7.1 fixes a buffer overflow vulnerability and lets you find and delete duplicate songs in the iTunes browser window. It also lets you search iMixes by title in the iTunes Music Store. Where other apps in this suite have inherited some features from iTunes, we'd now like to see the reverse in iTunes—such as views of our music akin to those of photos in iPhoto. We'd also like to see a bit more in the way of browsing and organization flexibility, which is one area where Musicmatch Jukebox 10 wins out. | ||||
Apple iTunes 4.7
Apple iTunes 4.7
http://reviews.cnet.com/4505-3669_7-20201986.html At a glance
- Editors' rating: 8.3 Excellent
CNET editor's review
Reviewed by ; Eliot Van Buskirk, John Rizzo, and Rebecca Viksnins
Reviewed May 11, 2004 (updated December 6, 2004)
Whether you are looking to purchase music over the Internet or just need a good way to play and organize your digital music, iTunes is a great option, although it's available for only Mac OS X and Windows 2000 and XP. The iTunes Music Store section of the program offers flexible usage rights, high-quality tracks, a simple pricing scheme, a catalog of more than 1 million songs and 9,000 audiobooks, no-cost burning, and extended song information. Meanwhile, the nonstore portion of the application works great for ripping, encoding, creating playlists, smart shuffling, and even streaming your music to other computers on the same network--all for free. And, of course, you can use iTunes to transfer music onto the iPod, regardless of where you acquired the songs.
Installation and interface
Getting started is a simple matter of downloading and installing the latest version, a major advantage over more-convoluted programs such as Musicmatch. After that, you can start ripping your CDs and browsing the Apple iTunes Music Store for digital downloads. You don't even have to enter a credit card number or fill out any forms in order to browse and listen to 30-second previews. In typical Apple style, the iTunes interface is clean, friendly, and intuitive, even for beginners, but a help file is included.The iTunes Music Store is integrated into the iTunes application, so you can purchase additional music seamlessly. Click a song title, and you can edit its ID3 tag information, submit your own rating (1 to 5), and add it to a playlist or Party Shuffle (an automatically generated on-the-fly playlist). You can also customize iTunes by selecting new columns of information that should appear for each song. For instance, you could add Genre for sorting purposes.
The catalog focuses on rock and pop, with some jazz and classical goodies. Downloads are fast: 45 seconds for a six-minute song over a home DSL connection. In our dozen or so tests, we consistently noticed smooth, fast transfers. Some copyright holders still aren't letting Apple sell certain albums in their entirety; these works are labeled as partial albums. For example, although most of the 73 Ella Fitzgerald albums are available intact, much of Miles Davis's extensive catalog is offered as partial albums. Also of note: Songs with racy language are labeled Explicit. The same songs sans profanity are labeled Clean.
Browsing and searching the iTunes Music Store is quick and simple. You can search by genre, as well as the standard artist and album categorizations. Click the Artist or Album column next to any song to bring up new lists of songs or pictures of album covers. You can hear 30-second clips of every track, including exclusive new songs from profiled artists. Apple has deals with all five major labels and more than 450 indies to create a catalog of 1 million songs, although artists such as the Beatles still refuse to be included in this or any other online music store.
In addition to browsing for tunes, you can choose from more than 9,000 downloadable audiobooks, thanks to Apple's partnership with Audible.com, a Web service we've long admired. There's even a menu of free streaming Internet radio, and it includes a decent selection of stations, categorized into 19 genres to make them easier to find, with a visualizer that displays graphics moving in time with the music.
Since most kids don't have their own credit cards, iTunes offers allowance accounts to help parents manage the amount of music their kids can spend. You can set up allowances that recur each month, in addition to separate accounts for each kid in your family. You can also buy iTunes gift certificates in $10 increments, from $10 to $200 (the same amounts apply for monthly allowances).
Features
The iTunes application can play MP3s, AACs, and Audible files. This new version also lets you convert unprotected WMA files ripped with other programs into unprotected AAC files so that iTunes (and the iPod, if you have one) can play them. The program offers an equally healthy set of options for ripping CDs; you can choose between MP3, AAC, and the Apple Lossless codec, which compresses files in half without losing one bit of CD information.iTunes really shines in the area of playlists. You can create a playlist by manually adding songs or by specifying certain parameters, then having the program create a Smart Playlist. There's also a feature called Party Shuffle; when you click it, iTunes creates a spontaneous playlist from your music library or any playlist. If it's not what you want to hear, you can reorder the songs and add more tunes from your library via drag and drop. There's also a Celebrity Playlist option, which lets you browse and purchase songs or full lists from various celebrities, such as Missy Elliott and Michael Stipe. Right now, there are about 16 available.
A few generations ago, Apple added a feature that allows iTunes users on the same network (say, at work or in a dorm) to listen to--but not download--each other's music. Unfortunately, users of iTunes 4.7 cannot access the libraries of those running older versions and vice versa. Another quibble: You can burn only the exact same playlist of purchased songs 7 times, instead of the 10 times previously allowed. The compromise: Apple lets you access purchased music on five computers in this version, as opposed to three in earlier versions. If you upgrade or replace a machine and want to transfer purchased songs to the new computer, you can de-authorize a computer with a simple menu command in iTunes--a feature glaringly missing in Napster and other services.
Another new feature is iMix, which allows you to share your favorite playlists. After creating an iMix playlist, you receive a link that you can send to anyone else who uses iTunes. They'll be able to see the songs in your playlist and listen to 30-second samples of each, the idea being that they'll purchase the ones they like. This would be cooler if you could be paid referral fees or receive credits toward iTunes music when people purchase songs based on your iMix recommendation, Ã la Amazon's affiliate program.
iTunes Music Store also features a music video section, radio charts that track the most-played songs on about 1,200 stations nationwide, a way to print CD labels of purchased songs, and a freely downloadable promo single every Tuesday.
Music Store files are not MP3s; Apple uses a better codec called AAC. The files are encoded at 128Kbps and sound better than MP3s at the same bit rate. We noticed, however, that Apple chose not to normalize the files, so you might have to tweak the sound now and again or use the Sound Check control to level the volume automatically between songs.
Apple does a far better job of integrating artist and album information in its Music Store than its competitors. You can search artist biographies, as well as links to their influences and contemporaries. However, unlike Napster, which lets you browse other users' playlists, iTunes Music Store is thin on community features. With the exception of online forums, you're pretty much alone with your music.
We'd still like to see a line-in recording feature that would allow users to capture external audio sources into AAC, MP3, or any other supported format. Also, while applications such as Musicmatch Jukebox have a built-in album art retrieval service, you have to find your own with iTunes if you haven't purchased your songs from the Music Store.
Service and support
Due to the simplicity of the service, we doubt that many users will find a reason to ask for help. However, should you run into some sort of issue, Apple offers a variety of support options. If you've purchased another Apple product (such as an iPod) and its phone help is still valid, you can call for free iTunes-related support. Otherwise, Apple's info for Music Store is all online in the form of FAQs, material on upgrading and using the products, links to discussion boards where questions can be answered, and e-mail-based exchanges. Search results within iTunes Music Store include EPs, albums, and partial albums, depending on what the labels licensed to Apple. |
by mikes63737 - May 6, 2005
by oli666 - April 28, 2005
by mrghos7 - April 16, 2005
by thecoffman - April 11, 2005
by ce2030 - April 7, 2005
by Mark32 - March 7, 2005
by joeandjill - February 28, 2005
by Lukey0499 - February 25, 2005
by sleepydad - February 24, 2005
1 comment posted to this opinion.
September 14, 2004
Basic specs for Apple iTunes 4.7
Version-- 4.6
Compatibility-- PC, Mac
Distribution media-- Download
License qty-- 1 user
License type-- Complete package
Min processor type-- Intel Pentium
Customer service phone-- (800) 275-2273
Knowledge base URL-- http://www.apple.com/itunes/
Registration URL-- https://register.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/GlobaliReg.woa
Software updates URL-- http://www.apple.com/software/
Technical support URL-- http://www.apple.com/support/
Technical support phone-- (800)275-2273
Friday, May 13, 2005
XPlay 2
| Monday, October 04 2004 @ 10:16 AM EDT |
| XPlay 2 |
 As an iPod user whose primary computer is a Mac, but who often needs to (well, wants to) transfer files to and from a Windows system, I recently spent some time looking for a way to do just that.What I found was XPlay 2, which is a Windows application described by the vendor as "the first product ever to provide Windows connectivity for iPods, and as the only product ever to provide Windows integration for Mac-formatted iPods." Basically, XPlay 2 is a Windows Explorer integration that gives you access to your iPod. Yes, including a Macintosh formatted iPod. Using XPlay 2, you can perform such interesting operations as dragging and dropping music files to and from your iPod, drop vCard (contacts) and iCal and vCal (calendar) items onto your iPod. Oh, and full access to your iPod as a hard drive. Installation and setup was extraordinarily painless. Very professional and entirely seamless. After setup, it was simply a matter of plugging in my iPod and double clicking the "Explore my iPod with XPlay" desktop icon to begin. While I was mostly interested in hard disk access, I was fairly impressed by the music navigation (see screen shot below). An attractive, understandable way of navigating my music collection using the Windows Explorer metaphor. Beyond navigation (of the music collection, that is) and the expected abilities like copy, delete, rename, etc of songs, XPlay 2 lets you edit tag information on individual songs using the normal right-click/properties operation. Is this an "essential"? Definately, if you have a Mac formatted iPod and want to use it on a Windows system. Even if you're a Windows user only, though, you should find this application remarkably useful. There are lots of features in XPlay 2 that I haven't spent time on (like the iPod showing up as a portable device in Windows Media Player) just because I was interested in a specific purpose. There is, however, a full 14 day trial where you can try out all of the extras for yourself. Pros
Cons
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xplay from amazon.com
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how to share an iPod, March 17, 2005
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I don't care for the native XPlay interface personally: why make something look and act like Windows Explorer when Explorer is only marginally functional? but more importantly, XPlay doesn't support Smart Playlists, to which I am addicted. I use it strictly for its cross-platform capability.
Overall I am happy with this software. It stays out of the way when I don't need it and works seemlessly when I do. If you're running Windows ME/2K/XP and have a Windows-formatted iPod I'm not sure what its value is, but if you're running and older version of Windows or (like me) want to share an iPod between a Mac and Windows, XPlay is indispensable.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful: Why can't all software be this powerful and easy???, February 1, 2005
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Also, a friend of mine uses XPlay with his Windows Me system. With XPlay we were able to copy music off his iPod and save it to his PC. Pretty cool!!!
I was leary when I first read reviews on here about both XPlay and Mediafour as a company. I am not sure what experience others had on here, but for my money this is a first rate program.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful: 
Poor documentation, arrogant customer support, December 22, 2004
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful: Sweet as candy, October 27, 2004
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My old 98 computer can use the iPod and that is pretty cool.
I like being able to copy music from my iPod onto my computer. It makes downloading music at the office and bringing it home a lot simpler than FTP'ing the songs, remembering to grab them off the FTP, et cetera. This way I can also play the songs my new songs on the commute home too.
Slick stuff. If you haven't tried it you don't know what you're missing.
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PopUpCop 2.5
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| Full Review |
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| Robert Vamosi October 18, 2004 |
| Full Review |
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| Robert Vamosi October 18, 2004 |
Sometimes pop-up windows serve a purpose, such as providing additional information or linking to an external Web site. But most of the time, they just litter your desktop with annoying adverts. Thankfully, PopUpCop 2.5 stops all kinds of ads -- animation, audio files, pop-ups and even cookies. You can download a trial version of PopUpCop 2.5 here -- it costs $19.95 (~£11) to buy. In order to remove all of the ad-serving software that's already installed on your PC, you'll still need to run either Spybot Search and Destroy or Ad-aware, but PopUpCop 2.5 can protect your desktop from future ad-serving software, annoying pop-ups and malicious scripts. If you use Internet Explorer, PopUpCop is a more complete choice. |
PopUpCop's IE toolbar is clean and easy to understand. A police badge icon on the left opens a drop-down menu of configuration and technical-support options. A slider bar in the middle lets you quickly select preconfigured low, medium or high protection settings. A stoplight on the right of the toolbar indicates Java or ActiveX advertising script activity on a Web page. Finally, a handy display at the far right shows you at a glance the features that you've turned on or off.
Click the PopUpCop badge icon, and a drop-down menu displays your configuration choices. And this program gives you more choices than any other pop-up stopper currently on the market. PopUpCop lets you choose to allow all pop-ups, require the program to ask about each pop-up or simply disable Web features such as Java and ActiveX scripts, images, animation, background music and Flash movies. And as if these controls weren't enough, PopUpCop lets you customise its treatment of mouse scripts, useless warning dialogues, and window frame resizing. You can even customize PopUpCop's own setting controls; for example, you can remove options from the configuration panel.
With PopUpCop, there's no need to wonder which pop-ups got killed on a given Web page. The PopUpCop stoplight on the toolbar turns from green to yellow to red to indicate that the program suppressed either a pop-up or a script timer used to deploy a pop-up. Mouse over or click the stoplight, and PopUpCop indicates the presence of a cookie, a mouseover or a conventional pop-up.
Beyond its basic ability to stop Web page advertising, PopUpCop includes Xguard, a tool to fend off ad-serving software that installs on your hard drive. You may still want to run Ad-aware to remove any existing ad-serving software, but Xguard keeps future ad-serving programs off your system. Internet Explorer itself already alerts you just before a Web site loads such scripts onto your computer, but it doesn't describe the scripts themselves. Xguard, on the other hand, says it provides all the available information about the control and its publisher, including info on how to remove the control. PopUpCop's Xguard feature even stops the new InVue ads, such as those found on Yahoo or GeoCities sites, which sit atop Web pages. So far, none of PopUpCop's competitors can stop these ads.
In addition to PopUpCop's online help pages and adequate FAQ, EdenSoft, the maker of PopUpCop, offers free email technical support but, unfortunately, no telephone support.
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Wow, first battery solution for power users who need extended battery life AND pass through access to the dock features!