Apple’s OS X changed the playing field back in 2001, setting Apple up to succeed for the next decade while Microsoft tripped over its own feet. Tools like Spotlight, Automator, the iLife suite, Safari, and the “Core” technologies all built into each new Mac have redefined how many use their computer. We can only hope that iTunes X will have the same effect, redefining how we use our media.

iTunes X Wish List (in no particular order):

Name and icon change

It’s time to put that amazing Apple creative team to work. No longer is iTunes merely a tunes manager. It’s a jukebox, a TV and Movie Manager/Player, it’s a sync utility, it’s a store, it’s an Audiobook player, and for over 20 million people it’s phone management software. Obviously iTunes and its icon both have serious street cred, but if the iBook can survive a name change, so can iTunes. Wow us Apple, we know you can.

Tighter control over the library

How many times have you had 3 songs by the same artist all tagged as different genres? How many times have you had mis-tagged genres? Bruce Springsteen isn’t grunge metal iTunes, it just isn’t. What about when you create a new MP3 in Audacity or GarageBand and iTunes automatically adds it to your library, duplicating the track to your music folder to keep your files organized? How about duplicates? Don’t even get me started on Album Art…

When you get a big library in iTunes, it can just be a headache keeping it all properly tagged, organized, etc. iTunes has tools to combat some of these difficulties, but sometimes you just wish they were smarter.

• Automatically remove the duplicates – analyze track length, match up the wave lengths, compare the tags
• Talk to Genius/the iTunes Store and find out the right genre for a song
• Call third-party services like Last.fm, Pandora, and Amazon to fetch missing album art (I know Amazon is competing with Apple, but they offer mostly open APIs to call product info).

Genius Mixes to go: Bridge the gap between the web and the desktop

iTunes has never been good internet radio software. Most attempts at internet radio in general have failed to launch. Apple knows what kind of music I like because of Genius analysis. Let me stream my Genius Mixes when I’m on-the-go and away from my library. Offer genre stations that will introduce me to new music. Partner with Last.fm or Pandora, or maybe build something new in-house (make better use of that iTunes.com domain name?). I would even pay a small monthly fee. Bridge the gap between the desktop and the web.

Please, pay attention to playlists

I love iTunes, but the playlist system leaves much to be desired. It’s been 8 years: give me a keyboard shortcut to add the currently playing song to playlist(s). The constant dragging of songs into playlists is maddening when you’re trying to build a playlist. How many times have you used shift+click or ctrl+click, selected 50 songs, and then forgotten to hold shift/click for song #51? Make it easy to build them, easier to share them with friends, or even allow the download/sharing of playlists from an online portal. Crowd-source playlist building.

Revamp Music navigation

The iPod has always been the true pioneer of intuitive music navigation. Navigate music via Artist, Album, Track, Genre, or Playlist. iTunes has always had the ability to sort these fields, and even used to have the old browse eyeball, but it’s never been as intuitive as an iPod. iTunes developers have tried Cover Flow, Album Covers, and many iterations of list formats. Cover Flow is without a doubt one of their better attempts, but it has it’s short comings. In a collection where many albums lack album art, it’s not very pretty or useful, and it can really lag on a machine with a slower processor.

Considering we’re in the age of netbooks, having an iPod-esque navigation option would be a great addition, and provide UI congruity. With the long-rumored upcoming Apple Tablet, this would be especially handy.

Redo Movie/TV navigation entirely

The iTunes Store has turned iTunes into one of the first successful digital film/tv distribution networks. Others have tried downloads via the browser, but the browser doesn’t seem to be a successful delivery network for digital video downloads. However, the way iTunes organizes the digital video from its store (or from your own rips, if you’re tech-savvy enough) is very early 2000’s. Digital video is not music, and should not be sorted as such.

This view is hardly helpful for navigating a big collection…

Movies: Genre navigation, DVD/Blu-ray cover art, plot descriptions, director/cast/crew lists.

TV Shows: Series navigation by network/genre, season navigation, episode summaries.

iTunes should be calling services like IMDB/the iTunes Store for information on movies in your library. Plus, there’s no easy way to integrate DVD/Blu-ray extras in the current iTunes. Making the desktop movie experience more like the streaming web experience with Netflix and Hulu would make it much more powerful. If a movie I downloaded with iTunes or imported had DVD extras, exclusive interviews, etc., I would drop my DVD’s like hot pockets. Until then… I stick with buying and watching DVD’s.

Audiobooks

Audiobooks have always been somewhat of a side-hobby of Apple. If they were done correctly, it would be much more exciting to buy them digitally. Book jackets/information would be huge bonuses, extra’s from the author. A ticker showing what Page # correlates with the current time. Easier chapter skipping, built-in dictionary/glossary to look up words/characters/events. It’s currently an untapped medium: tap into it.

Revamp the Sidebar

The iTunes Sidebar is one of the more intuitive navigation systems in applications today. There’s very little clutter, it’s quick, its attractive, and most importantly it’s quite usable. However, it’s ever-growing in each redesign of iTunes. If you have a lot of playlists, shared computers on your network, connected devices, etc, it grows to an astonishing length. While it allows you to close off certain sections, that’s useless for syncing and moving content around. Try adding one the playlists at the bottom of your long list of playlists to your iPod. Case and point.

Navigation similar to that featured in the new iTunes Store would be welcome. Using both vertical and horizontal navigation is going to be vital as iTunes continues to grow bigger and bigger.

Lets get real on syncing

It’s time for some meatier syncing tools. One thing that the iTunes’ competitor Zune does quite well is give users information about what in your library is on your device. In Zune software, indicators next to each track tell users whether the item is synced or not. In the age where we rip CDs, copy music off of friend’s iPods, take backups off our own hard drives, and can purchase music directly on some iPods, it’s long-time for more powerful syncing tools. Have a view option to show what’s synced with the currently connected iPod, and whether you’re allowed to sync the content in your library over (is the track’s DRM authorized for this computer yet?). Give an estimate for the time needed to sync. Wireless syncing for the iPod/iPhone would also be a nice touch.

iTunes suite?

Lets face it: iTunes is too bloated. It just tries to do too much. With big libraries it’s just plain slow. If I’m launching iTunes to simply catch up on a podcast, I have to wait for it to load all my music, movies, audiobooks, TV shows, playlists, applications/games, and preferences. With small libraries it’s manageable, with large libraries… it’s a nightmare. Apple, it’s time to compartmentalize iTunes, and turn it into a suite of applications. Apple already kind-of does this with the ability to open core components in new windows.

• iTunes – iTunes as we know it today : an implementation of all the applications when you want everything at once
• Music application – Let users organize music, play like a jukebox, sync with devices
• TV/Film/ application – Navigate video collection, watch videos, sync with devices
• Store/Download Center application – For when you want to go on a spending spree, without lugging everything you own with you to the store. Plus podcasts – weekly/daily updated content for download and play.
• Sync manager – for managing syncing with iPods, iPhones, Apple TV and other computers on your network
• Front Row – It’s always been a side-developed app with roots in the Apple TV. Take iTunes DJ and other miscellaneous tools (visualizers, full screen cover flow, etc.) Apple has built over the years , throw them into Front Row, and give it a face lift.

Give us the option to launch parts of it, and flesh out each app. iLife is a suite for media creation. iTunes should be split into a similar suite for media playback/management.

Conclusion

There’s plenty more to innovate in iTunes. Hopefully in the next major release we’ll see see some exciting new features, and some redesigns of things that don’t work so well in the current version.

After looking at the changelogs—both the shiny publicized one as well as the more technical support one—I realized that the primary changes that I had issue with were all covered under the phrase “an improved look and feel.” With respect to the geniuses at Apple, this is a terrible way of doing things. The largest way a typical user interacts with a program like iTunes, whether or not it has Home Sharing, Genius Mixes, and the like, is through its UI. We get very used to these interfaces. And yet, there are never any specifics given as to what the changes to the UI actually are. This itself must change.

I’m not saying that the old iTunes interface was perfect, but it was something we were all used to. To suddenly change things around in an interface that makes sense just confuses everyone. Take the new column view, for instance. It is useless to me to have a list of all my artists, and then a small window for the songs. I preferred the old way, when I could have albums, artists, and genres all along the top, while still being able to see the song list below. This doesn’t necessarily mean it shouldn’t have to be changed, but Apple should at least tell us how to make it look the old way. I only found the options for reverting the view by wandering around in the menus for some time.

The playlist and other icons were changed in the sidebar as well. I, personally, don’t really care about this one way or another, but again it brings up the question of why Apple would do this when the old ones worked perfectly well. Is an off-center note more trendy than one in the middle? Is a cut-off gear nicer than a complete one?

About fifteen minutes after upgrading, I had reverted most changes, and made my peace with the new changes that I couldn’t fix. Satisfied with my life, I clicked the green button to minimize the window into the Mini Player I always keep in the corner of my screen. The window simply jumped slightly. Huh. I must have pressed the wrong thing. I clicked again. And again. And again. My world exploded once again. That was the most useful feature of iTunes—to have the display become small and unobtrusive. Had Apple actually gotten rid of this? Luckily, this was not the case; I eventually discovered that you could bring up the Mini Player by pressing Shift+Apple+M. Although this made it possible, it still seems like a stupid idea on Apple’s part. Why make this so much more difficult to do? I’m all for keyboard shortcuts, but if my hand is on the mouse, it would be nice to click. At least, tell me how to make it appear, rather than, once again, making me hunt through menus.

So, I’m not against change. Many of the new features of iTunes are great (I love the new Genius Mixes, among other aspects), but just, tell us about them, okay? An “improved look” is not nearly descriptive enough for me. Make sure that I—and people with less patience for scanning menus—know how to make a program do what it had always done in the past. Progress should not come at the cost of information. We’ll like the updates more if you tell us what’s in them, I swear.

Final Cut Studio has been around for a number of years, gaining traction on it’s Avid counter-parts. Being used by large-production companies for feature films, or short goofy clips by high school and college students, Final Cut serves a broad audience with its suite of editing, creation, and manipulating tools.

*Note: To be fair, we haven’t yet gotten our hands on the software, this is working from the advertised feature list from apple.com

Final Cut Pro 7

Final Cut gets the bump to the big 7.0, and while it offers a number of small new features, I was hoping to see a stronger feature set for a big version change like this. Apple calls it “the year’s most stunning new release.” If this is the year’s most stunning new release, it’s going to be quite a disappointing year.

• Current Final Cut users will be happy to get an improved export system called “Easy Export.” This one was common sense: allow users to continue working on a project while it’s encoding in the background. I’m excited for this, but it seems like something that should have been done in the first place.
• Apple is heavily touting it’s ProRes codec family as a big feature, and while a more extensive codec family is useful when working with multiple types of clips, I hardly see it as a big feature.
• Apple is parading better integration with iChat and Cinema Tools, support for more formats, more effects and transitions, and blah blah blah… None of these features are so earth shattering I would pay $299 for the upgrade.

Motion 4

I don’t event know what to say about Motion. No major updates to the interface, no major new features, just more of the same tacky templates, particle emitters, and preset patterns.

• Lots of other small little useful tools Motion has had for years made better…

Soundtrack 3

Soundtrack got the most new features of all the apps in my opinion, which is sad for this video-centric suite.

• Soundtrack sounds like it got a bunch of tools to repair common audio problems with just a few clicks. This will be refreshing change, as before it could be clunky to make smaller edits in a large timeline.
• Soundtrack 3 improves integration with Final Cut to make it a more useful counter-part in the editing workflow. Make precision edits to dialogue levels on two tracks to that they match perfectly. Another great feature, but it always seemed like a feature destined for Soundtrack, nothing that will change how you use the advanced multi-track editor.

Color 1.5

A lot more of the same. Color grows up a bit, and gains… you guessed it: tighter integration with Final Cut.

• Not much to report. Come back next version.

Compressor 3.5

• Compressor gets a bit of a facelift, and I understand that it’s hard to improve an encoder. Compressor does a better job of handling batch jobs, gives you better batch templates to work with, and a great 3rd-party-plugin system to let you better write your own custom workflows.
• Compressor supposedly now gives “pristine” format conversion, including excellent SD-to-HD up-conversion. A plus, sure, but it’s hard to quantify what “pristine” format conversion means in comparison to what Compressor used to be.

DVD Studio Pro 4

• To be honest the Apple website doesn’t really say much about DVD Studio Pro of consequence. It touts features already available in the software for years, and just more of the same.
• Blu-ray support? I’m guessing (and your guess is as good as mine). Compressor supports it now, so it leads one to believe that you would be able to burn Blu-Ray images at least. No where on the site does it say that it does though, and no Macs currently support Blu-Ray media, or have drives to read/write the discs.

Conclusion

I’m honestly at a loss of words as for what to say about the new Final Cut Studio. By no means do I think they’re bad programs, I think they’re all excellent, but there are no compelling features to justify the upgrade. It adds better inter-app integration, it offers some improved sharing features for popular formats and services, and just improves over-all. There’s honestly not much to report.

Either Apple did a terrible job advertising new features on their website, or the new suite is just the slightly more-polished version of Final Cut Studio 2 it sounds like. If users were planning on buying Final Cut Studio already, they should go for it, there are some useful new fixes and tie-ins, but it’s not really worth the upgrade from the current version.

Ecoute has a small main windows that feels a lot like an iPod. You can browse your music just as you would on an iPod or iPhone. When you play a song the window will shrink and display the album artwork for the song. Hover your mouse over the album artwork you can easly play, pause, and skip back or forward in the track. The bottom of the screen displays the time that is left in the track and you can click the search icon to search songs. Clicking the album artwork will display the song lyrics (if available).

Ecoute also has many features that iTunes lacks. You can add a small controller to your desktop. This will display the album artwork, song title, artist, and album. You can also use it to play/pause, and skip ahead or back. You don’t need to have Ecoute’s icon in the dock. It can be in the menu bar instead. Ecoute even has Last.fm scrobbling. If you don’t know what Last.fm is, it let’s you track and share what music you listen to.

Ecoute is a very basic app. While it would be nice if it included some more features, like playlist creation and the ability to tell if a playlist is new or not, it is a great application to listen to music and watch videos without opening iTunes. You can download a free trial of Ecoute from PixiApps and a license costs $10.

The Easy Way

Naturally the easiest way to keep your Palm Pre syncing with iTunes is to download an older version of iTunes, or refuse to upgrade to the new 8.2.1 release. This limits you to the features (and security) of the older version, and isn’t very practical. Although, if you have multiple machines, it could be just as easy to leave iTunes at 8.2 on an older machine. Click here to download iTunes 8.2 from Version Tracker.

The Other Easy Way

A few months back we previewed the doubleTwist software released by famous DVD encryption cracker DVD Jon and his small team. The concept of the software is simple: sync your all devices from one piece of software, without all of the hassle. doubleTwist is still fairly new, but it offers support for a few hundred smartphones, Mp3 players, the Sony PSP. Recently added to that mix is the Palm Pre. A note for Palm Pre PC users: the doubleTwist is available for Windows as well on the company’s website.

1) Download and install the doubleTwist software from the company’s website, and launch the app.

2) Sign up for an account with the company in the dialogue box that appears at your first launch.

3) Once loaded, you should be able to see tabs for your music, photos, and videos from your iTunes or iPhoto libraries.

4) Connect your Palm Pre (or other smartphone/device) with the USB cable to your machine.

5) Your device will show up in the column under the “Devices” section. This should look remarkably familiar for iTunes users. Then syncing both ways works the same way as it would in iTunes. Select the music you want to transfer to your device, and drag and drop it onto the device in the sidebar. When transferring video, doubleTwist will automatically convert the video for the right format of your device.

doubleTwist’s interface is attractive, yet sparse. It’s merely a sync manager,
you’ll still want to use iTunes for content management.

It’s as simple as that. While normally I would think it’s a hassle to have yet another step to sync to my phone, I find doubleTwist a friendly, simple, and intuitive solution.

This video is a company demo of how doubleTwist syncs content from an Android phone (or similar phone).

I hate to gush about any app, but I love it.  As a Comcast user (who is not getting anything free from Comcast, other than this app, which is free to all), I was shocked and dismayed that just earlier this year, the web client to access my voice mail forced me to listen to the mail before deleting them.  No mass delete check boxes either.  Since then, Comcast rolled out comcast.net and now the iPhone app and has removed any doubts I had about Comcasts commitment to getting mobile right.

The app is extremely clean and sleek.  I honestly don’t think Apple could have done a better job designing this one.  Comcast turned to mPortal for the heavy lifting in coding the app and they’ve done an outstanding job.  Let’s take a look at the features of this instantly-essential (to me at least) application.

Digital Voice

This is the killer app of the, well, app.  See that button in the lower right-hand corner?  That one allows you to forward your number as you please.  Awesome.  Now, I can forward and unforward my number about as easy as playing a rousing game of Lexic.

Simply hit the Call Forwarding button, choose where you want to forward your number to and push the slider to turn it on.  Users can even label phone lines, like “work” so they can be recalled easier and faster.

In a very Android-like way, all your calls are shown in the “All” category.  Users ccan click on Outgoing, Missed or VM tabs to access just those calls.  If you feel that is too much info to look at, simply hit clear and you have an empty page.  Very soothing.

Access to call logs, both incoming and outgoing is there as is easy deletion of voicemails.  Everything you need, all within reach seems to be the design mantra here and it works.

SmartZone Address Book

Last year, Comcast bought Plaxo, the social networking site that sought to keep everyone’s contact information in one place.  Comcast integrates this great idea in their iPhone app.  By bringing your Plaxo address book into your iPhone you get contacts sync’d much like the Palm Pre does.  When one of your contact changes say a phone number, that change is pushed to Plaxo and thus into your Comcast SmartZone address book which can be sync’d with your iPhone address book.

Comcast bills this as a universal address book – the last one you’ll ever need.  The iPhone app also uses your on-iPhone contacts as well.  Handy.

If you are like me and keep your iPhone by your side while watching TV, there is a nifty guide that localizes based on your location to tell you what is on.   Not ground breaking but nice to have.

SmartZone Inbox

Most Comcast users are going to love this.  This feature combines your Comcast line phone data along with your Comcast email.  All in one place, organized by time and searchable.  Even your email folders are accessible through this app.

On Demand

Another nice to have feature, find out what is new from Comcast’s On Demand.  The app will display movie trailers broken down into categories or you can search for a specific title.

Settings

Good settings to me, are the tell tale mark of a well thought out application.  This app has just about every setting adjustment you could want.  Users can change the home screen from a list to Cover Flow  to a grid, alerts can be customized as can several other settings.  It is a nice touch.

Summary

Rarely am I this impressed with an iPhone app. About the only flaw I can see is the lack of push notifications, but that is a minor (and fixable in later versions) flaw.  The Comcast application is simple, easy to use and very detailed; exactly the type of application that makes the iPhone shine.

Learn more at: [Comcast] or [iTunes link]

The first thing you will notice about Snowtape is its amazing interface. It uses a completely custom UI that really works for the app. It also includes a mini-comtroller (just like iTunes) that is also unbelievably good-looking. It doesn’t just have a good UI though, it is very easy to use. There is a directory where you can search for stations, and there is also a repository of recorded tracks that you can edit and send to iTunes. It’s very simple.

In the directory, Snowtape sorts all stations by genres. Each station can have many genres, so some may appear all over the place. With the recent 1.1 update, Snowtape now has 700+ stations built-in, so you may never have to add your own. If you ever do, though, you just go to File>Import URL… if you have the URL of the playlist (for the station) or File>Import File… if you have the actual playlist file. You can sort stations by title, description, genre, number of streams, quality and popularity. The streams usually range from 320 kbps to about 16 kbps with most at about 128 kbps.

Snowtape’s main purpose is to record internet radio. And this is very simple to do. When you are listening to a stream, simply click the record button, and until you click the button again, everything will be recorded. Once you have recorded what you want, you can go to the Last Recorded section and see what you have. Your recording will be split into tracks based on the song that was playing. However, the track data from internet streams doesn’t always change exactly when the song changes, so you may have to do some editing. But, if some of the song gets cut out, you are out of luck. Although you can cut a track, you can’t add from one track to another. Luckily, you can decide for Snowtape to not cut it into tracks by going to the Recording tab of Preferences and deselecting the Enable automatic cut at track boundaries checkbox. Using that feature comes at a cost.

Once you have finished editing a track, you can get artwork for it by simply clicking the Get Album Artwork button. You can then choose from the images it shows you. And once you have done that, you can export to iTunes. The track info will already be filled in, and if you choose artwork, it will be there too. Recording in Snowtape could not be simpler.

One thing that may be overlooked by some users of Snowtape is RadioURL.com. This is a service provided with Snowtape that allows you to share what you are currently listening to to other Snowtape users. When you are listening to a station, just go to Action>RadioURL.com and choose what you would like to do. Others can then click on the link created and listen to what you are.

Snowtape retails for $29 and you can download a free demo from that link as well. Having artist alerts would be nice, but with 700+ stations, by the time you got the alert, the song would probably be over. It is extremely well designed, and just nice to use. I was not much of a radio fan before it, but now that it’s so easy, I listen and record all the time. I think everyone should try out this app.

SweetFM is a mash up of sorts, mixing Last.fm streaming with your average iTunes helper app. Like all other iTunes helper apps, SweetFM displays the album artwork of the song your currently listening to and that functionality also works with music you stream from Last.fm. It also has an indescript spot where you are suppose to enter what you want to listen to on Last.fm and an arbitrary arrow button next to it. One would think you could just enter an artist name into the box and get Last.fm to play it but this is not the case. Instead you have to press this arrow button to display a group of addition buttons labeled “Artist”, “Tags”, and etc. You then have to hit one of those buttons and enter further information into the box. For example, if I wanted to listen to Pink Floyd on Last.fm, I would have to open up SweetFM, click the arrow, click artist, and then enter “Pink Floyd” in the box.

In reality all they are really doing with this convoluted process is adding a little tag behind the information you enter into the box. You would think they could automate this or have a little bit of magic happen behind the scenes, but unfortunately that is not the case.

Aside from that the application feels more like a beta than a final release, I’ve encountered multiple bugs in the few days that I’ve been playing with it. The first of which is that what the application shows as playing and what is actually playing in iTunes don’t match from time to time, even though SweetFM says the right info in it’s menu in the menu bar. Also, the progress indicator, which allows you to scrub through songs, occasionally does not work.

But the most disappointing part of this application is it’s user interface. Even though they are touting the fact that you can design skins for this app using HTML and CSS, a well built one should still come bundled with the app. Fibre, the included skin, is an overly glossy, distracting waste of desktop space. Personally, I like my iTunes helpers to be pinned to the desktop and just meld with everything else their but Fibre is just not capable of doing that (the melding at least). Silly things like having the horizontal volume slider bumped right up to the “Scrobbling” button for Last.fm makes it seem as though the slider has something to do with “Scrobbling” when in fact it does not. The semi-transparent background in particular is my least favorite part, why does it need to be there? Take a page from the designers doing skins for Bowtie and just get rid of the app background all together, it works so much better with the desktop. Luckily choco moko has a skins directory on their website but at the moment it only has one additional theme, which seems only like a slight redesign to Fibre and nothing more.

If your at all interested in helper apps for iTunes, I would recommend you stay away from SweetFM. Although if your a fan of Last.fm it is worth checking out. It is available from choco moko for $29. If you are just looking for an iTunes helper, check out the free Bowtie.

Ringer is a very basic application. The sidebar on the left lets you browse your iTunes library and the rest of the window is for creating ringtones. You can browse many different sections of iTunes including artists, movies, and TV shows. You can also search for the specific clip.

The ringtone creator is very similar to the one built into iTunes. It has the same features and tools. You simply drag a box around the portion of the song you’d like to use, and hit preview. You can also set the gap in between loops and have the audio fade in and out. When you click create the ringtone is instantly placed under “Ringtones” in iTunes and you will be able to sync them with your iPhone.

Ringer is a great app for creating simple ringtones, but it doesn’t have many advanced features. For some ringtones it might be useful to have a few simple audio effects. There is also no way to control the length of the audio fade. Ringer doesn’t have many features, but it does just what it should. It’s an easy way to create new ringtones in a few short seconds. Ringer is available for $15 from Pixel Research Labs.

AirPhones’s interface is plane and simple.  It’s designed to work in the background so that you don’t need to worry about adjusting any settings while the app is active.  AirPhones’s preference window is accessible through its menubar icon.

You can choose to have the app launch every time you log in as well as choose to access the preferences from the dock, the menu bar, or both.  AirPhones will also tell you which devices are paired with the app and allows you to clear it.  Speaking of devices, lets look at the interface on the iPhone and iPod touch.

Launch the app, and this is what you get.  That’s it!  You can control the volume with the supplied slider at the bottom.  AirPhones will work as far as your network will allow.  If your network is bridged across an entire campus, your AirPhones will still be receiving even if you are at the complete opposite side of the area.

You can be watching a movie, listening to iTunes Radio, staying up to date on the latest broadcast web event, etc – anywhere with your mac and an iPhone and iPod Touch.

In terms of performance AirPhones does not disappoint.  Sound quality is great, and the app does not suck up your processor.  Setup is painless and fast.  All you have to do is hit connect in the preference window on the mac and you’re connected.

AirPhones is $4.99 at the iTunes Apps store, and the client on the mac is absolutely free.  AirPhones is available at http://airphonesapp.com/.

GV Mobile is one 3rd party app that aims to solve this problem.  Developer Sean Kovacs created the app to take over where the old GrandDialer left off.  GrandDialer was an app that allowed users to have GrandCentral phone them on a number of their choice, then connect the call to your intended recipient.  The service used VOIP so if you were using a landline, you’d accrue no long distance charges.  When the change was made to Google Voice, GrandDialer died.

Google, the sleeping giant?

So Kovacs created GV Mobile to fill this gap.  Before we look at the app, let’s get the big elephant in the room out of the way: won’t Google make their own app for this service?

Kovacs’ answer: That is a very good question. While Google does have a couple apps on the App Store, I don’t imagine them creating something specific to Google Voice or incorporating it into an existing app. I see them focusing more on the Google Voice service and web sites (normal and mobile). I’ve very competitive, so if Google or any developer wishes to create a similar app, they will have some stiff competition.

Fair enough, you’ve got to applaud that kind of can-do attitude.   This app was submitted to Apple’s App Store and eagerly waits for approval.   Now, on with the preview:

The app at work

Upon first glance, it would seem GV Mobile would be a carbon copy of GrandDialer: a keypad for telling Google Voice to phone you and then connect you to your party and a history of calls.  GV Mobile accesses the iPhone’s contacts just as GrandDialer did and replicates GrandDialer with equal functionality.

But there is more, way more.  GV Mobile goes beyond old functionality and takes advantage of Google Voice’s newest features.  You can SMS right from the app,  listen to voicemails left to you on Google Voice and you can change your Google Voice settings on the fly oh-so-easily.  The functionality is awesome.

The SMS feature is pretty great as it allows you to send SMS with absolutely no fee from Google or AT&T.  Simple click on the SMS tab at the bottom, type in a number or hit the “+” to access your contacts.  It couldn’t be much easier and your Google Voice number is displayed as the sender.  The only downsides are SMS’s sent to you are not accessed by the app; instead GV forwards them to your cell number, where you’ll pick up the charge.

Changing settings requires nothing more than a tap to change phone numbers to forward calls to numbers to call from, adding phones and changing log in info.  It is all very slick and well done.  Having this ability is quite handy when you are on the go.

More from the developer

Here is a bit from my Q&A with Kovacs:

I understand you’ll have two versions of the app.  What features add in to the $2.99?

Kovacs: You have the $2.99 version – the free version is a GrandDialer close – you have the keypad and settings.

In voicemail, Google Voice transcribes the messages and displays that info on their website in your inbox, do you plan to show the transcribed message if available?

Kovacs: I can’t discuss future plans at this time.

I’ve been playing with the Skype app, do you see Google creating an over WiFi skype-like app?  Is that something you would pursue?

Kovacs: See above comment.

And finally, what will background notifications do for GV Mobile in the 3.0 software?

Kovacs: I get this a lot – in order for me to setup some kind of background notification, I would need to create a program to run on a server that would monitor user accounts realtime, sending out notifications when they come in. I would need access to your account information – while it would be unknown to me, not sure how that would go over with people. This would be something Google would implement in some kind of app they make. Would cost me too much to run…maybe I could do this with a per month cost to offset the cost of the servers it would run on.

When downloading the disk image, two things come packaged inside of it.  The app itself, and the broadcasting preference pane.  To control your iTunes library from afar, you need to have the broadcasting preference pane activated.  To do that, double click it from inside the the already downloaded and now mounted disk image.

Be sure to drag the slider in the bottom left-hand corner to “ON”.  You may also choose to turn on the broadcasting feature every time you login by clicking the appropriate check box.

When opening TuneConnect on the computer that you want to use to control your library with, you’ll get an automatically updating list showing you  which computers are broadcasting their libraries.  If you’ve set up a password, you’ll need to enter it in order to control the computer.  If not, just go ahead and click your library.

The main window looks like the one to the right.  The song, artist, and progress are shown at the top.  You can drag the slider to go forward or backwards in the currently playing song.  Below that is the album art of the currently playing song.

At the bottom is a volume control along with and rewind play/pause, and fast-forward buttons.

In the bottom right-hand corner of the main window is a button that takes you to a window that resembles iTunes’s main window.  You then can browse through your music – playlists and all, to choose and play your songs.

In terms of performance, TuneConnect does not disappoint.  In it’s second iteration (at the time of writing v2.1) TuneConnect has been through it’s bumps and bruises already.  Controls are quick to respond and viewing large libraries take seconds.  Everything seems well thought out.  In order to use TuneConnect you need to have Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, however 10.5 Leopard is recommended.

One might compare this app to Apple’s Remote app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  Both are extremely useful apps.  It all depends on what you have and what you are using at the time.  Both apps allow you to browse your library and play what ever you have.  If you like the ability to type in what you are looking for into a search box, then TuneConnect happily obliges.  If you aren’t near a computer but have your iPhone or iPod Touch, then Apple’s free remote app is the one for you.

TuneConnect is available at http://www.tuneconnect.net/ for the unbelievable price of free.

That’s why Sirius XM has been making some bold choices lately — choices that take the “satellite” out of satellite radio.  Until very recently, you would have needed a satellite radio unit to access any Sirius or XM programming.  Now they’ve changed it so you can have an internet only subscription for $12.95 a month and listen directly through streaming.  Up next?  Sirius XM is looking to conquer your iPhone.

During their recent fourth quarter earnings conference call, Sirius executives David Frear, Mel Karmazin and Jim Meyer announced the expected second-quarter launch of the Sirius XM iPhone app.  The app will allow you to take you Sirius subscription with you on the road without the need for a satellite radio unit.  Like other internet radio options out there, the Sirius XM app will stream the music live from the channel of your choice.

As a fan of Sirius XM programming, it’s hard not to get excited about this.  But on the broader scale, will this really make an impact?  As so many apps already exist to provide internet radio free of charge, will new subscribers really be drawn in by the possibility of sporting Sirius sounds sans satellite device?  Or will it just be another nail in satellite radios coffin?

Stomp’s main purpose is to convert your videos to a large variety of formats. It comes built-in with 20 presets, but you can change the conversion settings as you wish. To change the settings for the audio or video, just click the Settings… button by the relevant label. You will then be prompted with a window that gives you many conversion options. You can also choose to leave the video or audio untouched or delete it altogether from the movie. Of course, you can also change the size and crop the video too. When you have chosen all the options you need, all you have to do is click the Process button in the lower right-hand-corner. However, unlike an app like Handbrake, you cannot click on an item in the list, and change conversion settings for just that clip. You must change it for them all, convert, and then do it again for different options.

Stomp’s other main feature is Filters. You can add from a list of many filters and apply them to your video during the conversion. There are 12 categories of filters and many within each one. They include standard filters you may see in an app like Pixelmator except for video. You can add as many as you want, and change the blend mode of each one. Of course, the more you add, the longer it will take. To add a filter, simply click on the [+] button in the Filters panel. Once you have added one, you will see the properties for the filter below the button. You can either delete a filter by clicking the [-] button, or you can just turn it off if you want to keep it, but want to preview your video without it. Stomp’s filters allow you to easily add many filters to your video without professional software.

One very nice (but not necessary) feature added to Stomp is performance control. In the Performance tab of Stomp>Preferences…, you can specify how many concurrent tasks to run, and whether to give other apps priority. This is great if you want to play Call of Duty 4 while converting your episodes of Lost (legally downloaded of course).

shinywhitebox’s Stomp retails for $29.95 and you can download a free trial from their site. It makes it very easy to convert videos and add filters, but the only thing it has over an app like Handbrake is it’s Filters. If you do not need filters, then I suggest you go with Handbrake, because it’s free and works just fine. But, Stomp does provide a nice interface and a few advanced features that you will not find in Handbrake.

At the first launch of Starplayr, you are prompted to fill in your XM or Sirius login information and asked whether or not you would like to use a higher quality bitrate (64kbps) when using wifi, the default bitrate is 32kbps.

After logging in, you are presented with the elegantly simplistic GUI, which put simply is a list with logos for each available station. You are also given the ability to sort the stations by genre which proves to be very helpful as the station titles are not normally too helpful.

Tip: From the station listing you can press and hold on a station and it will be added to your list of presets.

Once you select a station, StarPlayr buffers for a couple seconds and your audio stream begins. Starplayr than displays the track and artist name as well the album artwork. It also offers the ability to look at the lyrics of the song, mute the stream and it even gives you links to download the song from iTunes or Amazon.

After using this preview for weeks, I have only experienced one issue and it was merely an incorrect song title. The user interface works flawlessly and I am consistently able to connect to the audio streams, both through cellular and WiFi.

NiceMac states on their website that StarPlayr has been submitted to the App Store and could be available any day now. I highly recommend you keep your eyes open for it.

Disclosure: One of our contributors, Joe Turner, is a part of the StarPlayr development team but this review has been done independently of him.

I’m a musician with a problem. I collect gear. Software, hardware… it’s all gear and I need to have it. The Sweetwater catalog that takes an acre of rare endangered rainforest to print brings me both endless joy and financial ruin. Similarly,  I collect iphone apps related to music like state quarters. FourTrack is a must have iPhone app from Sonoma Wire Works. FourTrack’s smooth wifisync feature contains a cleverly placed add that lead me to RiffWorks. If I could sum up this app in a similie, I would say that Riffworks is like Reason for Rock and Roll. So plug in your Santana special edition PRS and lets see how crazy this train is.

Riffworks is not designed to look like your normal OS X application. Right from your first launch, you can tell that this app falls in line with the Line6 easy to use, easy to rock mentality. As such, you’re just not going to be using RiffWorks for mastering your next double platinum. RiffWorks is designed to give you the maximum amount of tools with the minimum amount of user effort. I’ll be working with RiffWorks Standard which retails for $129. You can take advantage of most RiffWorks features with their free app Riffworks T4. Both versions use the same setup and elements, but Standard comes with Amplitube Live, more drum tracks, ReWire, .wav export, and handles up to 32 bit sampling. Let’s take a look at the recording software interface:

You can see here in the layout that everything is done with a sweet looking analog user interface. Each section of the window represents the useful features of RiffWorks.

The top section of the Riffworks window contains your song control. Recording musical ideas in RiffWorks are sectioned off into riffs. So when you track a musical idea in this app, you’ll need to section off your song into intro, verse, chorus, bridge, etc. riffs. This top section is where the organization of the riffs, control of master volume, and file menu type actions take place. Pro Music Software users will have to get used to the simplification of RiffWorks. The timeline is just not manageable. You put riffs in, you take them out, and that’s it. You don’t stack them, you don’t stretch or cut them. You get the point.

Your riff collection resides just below the master controls. RiffWorks now works seamlessly with the iPhone app FourTrack to automatically import tracks over wifisync. FourTrack doesn’t have a metronome feature so your imported songlayers won’t be able to work with the drummer feature. Once you’ve recorded riffs and placed them in the timeline, you can record the vocals as  a songlayer instead of a riff which is actually kind of confusing.When you click on a riff, and you’ll see the layers below in the Riff Recorder:

First, let me point out the coolest thing about RiffWorks. RiffLink allow users to collaborate on songs. You and your bandmates from five states can collaborate on songs, or you can open your riffs up to the RiffLink community for a little wikisong action. There’s a little yellow stickypad at the bottom left so you can tell your guitarist in Maine to lay off the reverb, or your bassist in Texas to stop sucking. I love this. I’ll never use the feature, but I love it.

Second coolest feature: Junt. I don’t know what that means so someone please enlighten me in the comments. Junt let’s you count to four into a mic or pick a note on your guitar four times to set the tempo. Your auto drummer kicks in and you can lay down 2 measures of rhythm guitar, wait 2 measures as your first riff loops, and then lay down a lead guitar track on top.

RiffWorks has an auto drummer feature with different styles ranging from AfroIslandGrooves to a drum track called WhenIDrumAround. By turning knobs marked intensity and variation, you can get your auto drummer to do crazy fills or just chill out. It’s a unique way to set up a drum track, but you may opt to use the rewire capabilities and create a more customizable drum track in Propellerhead’s Reason.

Finally, the input control at the bottom controls your signal input. This is where the free copy of Amplitube Live plugs in. You can apply effects to your instrument or vocal signal pre board, as well as change your audio settings. Pretty straightforward.

RiffWorks is a great way to put down musical ideas with the minimum amount of instruction. Throw in RiffLink, the online collaboration feature, and the awkwardly named Junt, and you’ve got a feature filled app that any songwriter can use. From first launch, musicians will be able to instantly create some cool stuff.

This app is really made to assist in song writing from start to finish, but in its simplicity, RiffWorks may lose out to even the basic Garageband users. Sure, RiffWorks is great about putting down your ideas, but it just doesn’t have the features necessary for quality music production. And that’s ok.

Seriously, Download RiffWorks T4 from Sonoma Wire Works. It’s free and it’s got great features. If you want more auto-drummers and other features, you can purchase RiffWorks Standard for $129 which includes a free copy of Amplitube 2 Live.

Unfortunately, I feel as though this application falls flat and only really offers the same features as its free counterparts. Like the AOL Radio application, Radioshift allows you to find all your local radio stations and search for others using an intuitive list of music genres. But unlike the AOL app, Radioshift also allows you to search for your favorite station by name.

As for quality, Radioshift works very well on 3G, Edge, and WiFi. Obviously a stream’s quality varies based upon the bitrate at which it broadcasts, so it would be very helpful if Rouge Amoeba listed that in the station’s description.

I have no doubt that this is a very well-built radio application for your iPhone, I just find it hard to recommend that you go out and spend $9.95 for this app when you could get one of many other radio apps which have the nearly the same functionality for free.

Currently Radioshift Touch is available through the App Store for $9.99.

Though I wouldn’t suggest using my friend’s manual method over Garageband, I was able to squeeze the actions into a quirky little Automator application that some MacApperbottoms may find useful.

So step by step, here’s what to do:

1. Download this festively titled Automator application.
2. Find a song in iTunes worth ringtoning.
   
3. Set your preferred duration for the ringtone (get info on selected song).
   
4. Run the Automator application. If your current encoder is set to AAC, then click OK. If it’s on another setting, set it to AAC in the popup, click Continue and restart the Automator application.
   
5. This time your encoder will be set to AAC. Click Continue and choose the song you want to convert to a ringtone.
   
6. This will drop a ringtone file on your desktop. Here’s where the glitchy part is. Open this file from the desktop. iTunes will identify the file currently in the library.
   
   Delete the file that iTunes identifies, then reopen the file from the desktop to deposit the file in the ringtone library.
   

Automator is one of the many underused stock OS X applications. Who knows, maybe this application will encourage you to check out how Automator apps can make your Mac life easier. All that to say, feel free to comment with an easier (free) alternative to this Automator application.

I then set out to find a Mac application that would allow me to make an attempt at cleaning some of these tracks up. After a little bit of searching, I found a company by the name of Bias Inc., that made an application called SoundSoap which was right up my alley.

SoundSoap doesn’t have a normal OS X interface. The tools for cleaning up your audio are still cleanly laid out and simple to find. Everything you need is right there in front of you; SoundSoap has no preferences pane. To get started, you can drag a sound file onto SoundSoap’s dock icon, onto its window, or find it in the Finder with Command+O.

Once you have a file loaded into SoundSoap, it is very simple to begin removing noise. Pressing the play button at the bottom of the window will play your file “as-is,” and changes are reflected as you change the settings. SoundSoap has 9 different settings that you can alter to try and get your file sounding as clean as possible.

The feature that really makes SoundSoap a great application is the “Learn Noise” button. The “Learn Noise” button lets SoundSoap automatically set the Noise Tuner and Noise Reduction knobs to what it believes will get rid of the noise in the file.

When manually finding settings for the Noise Tuner and Noise Reduction knobs, it is good to understand what is actually happening when you turn them. Now I am no sound engineer, so I think it’s best if I let SoundSoap’s manual do the talking here:

The Noise Tuner knob is essentially a threshold control, and is responsible for determining what is considered to be noise, and what is considered to be the desired audio signal. For example, turning the Noise Tuner knob all the way to the left (counter-clockwise), means setting a very low threshold value. With a very low threshold value, all audio content with an amplitude above this threshold is considered to be part of the desired audio signal that we wish to preserve. On the other hand, setting a higher threshold value with the Noise Tuner means that any of the audio content with an amplitude lower than the threshold level will be eliminated.

There is a little more explanation of the Noise Tuner in SoundSoap’s manual, but this is all you really need to know to get started.

The Noise Reduction knob does exactly what you’d think it would do. Turning it to the right increases the amount of noise reduction being applied, and vice versa. It’s important to first find a comfortable setting with the Noise Tuner first, before setting the Noise Reduction. According to the manual though, if you use the Learn Noise feature, it usually isn’t necessary to alter the Noise Reduction setting.

The little window at the top of SoundSoap’s window isn’t a setting, but rather a helpful indicator. It is referred to as the “Wash Window,” and gives you a visual representation of how the noise reduction process is going. Blue lines represent the audio you want, and red lines represent the noise you are trying to get rid of. The line in the center of the window is the point at which noise reduction is applied. The darker the red or blue line once it has passed the line in the middle of the window, the stronger the representation.

The click and crackle slider controls the click and crackle thresholds simultaneously. Moving the slider upward removes more and more crackles and clicks. As a general rule, you want to use the lowest possible setting you can manage on this slider to get rid of the noise.

The last slider on SoundSoap’s interface is the Enhance slider. Basically, this slider enhances frequencies and tone of degraded media. It is best to leave this slider until you have finished setting all other sliders and knobs. Just like the Click and Crackle slider, the Enhance slider works independent of other controls.

The next few controls in SoundSoap are buttons rather than sliders. The Preserve Voice button filters out any frequencies that are outside the range of human voice. Remove Rumble targets very low frequencies (around 40Hz) which is commonly found in recordings of vinyl records, where the very low frequency noise of the turntable motor can be transferred through the turntable’s needle.

Finally, there are two settings with radio buttons: Broadband and Remove Hum. Broadband lets you choose whether broadband noise reduction is on or in “Noise Only” mode. When you have “on” selected, SoundSoap will process your file according to current broadband tool settings. When you are in “Noise Only” mode, SoundSoap only outputs the noise you are trying to reduce, which can be a useful setting to see how effective a setting is in reducing the noise. The louder the noise is in this mode, the more drastic the change you will hear when you go back to “on” or “off.” With Remove Hum, you can set hum removal to either “50 Hz,” “60Hz,” or “off.”

Once you are happy with how your file sounds, clicking “apply” will apply your settings to your whole file. Then, you just have to click “File>Save As…” to save your document. When saving you can choose your format (MPEG 4, AIFF, WAVE, SDII) and other settings displayed in the screenshot below.

In the end, I was quite pleased with the results that SoundSoap produced. After only a few minutes of tweaking, almost all of the noise that was affecting my files was gone once I ran the file through SoundSoap. SoundSoap also can remove noise from video files, it is not just limited to audio.

SoundSoap is also more than just a stand-alone application. It is also a plug-in for most AU, RTAS/AS, and VST host applications on Mac OS X or WinXP (including GarageBand, BIAS Peak, Apple Logic, MOTU Digital Performer, Digidesign’s Pro Tools, and more). For more serious audiophiles, Peak Pro includes SoundSoap LE (same as SoundSoap, excluding additional host compatibility) and can be an ideal tool for stereo recording, editing, cleaning, mastering, and delivery.

SoundSoap 2 retails for $129 from Bias Inc., though is available through some resellers for $99. $129 (or $99) may seem expensive for an application, but to get something like this done professionally could potentially cost much more.

The main interface of TapeDeck is made to look like a tape recorder. In the middle is the selected tape, which can be controlled with the buttons at the bottom: Record, Play, Rewind, Fast-forward, Stop, and Pause. Right below the tape is a progress bar, which you can click on to skip to a section of the tape. Next to the progress bar is the time and volume, and under the progress bar are the main options. You can change the recording quality between high, medium, and low and you can change the audio to stereo or mono. Next to that it displays the microphone input.

You can even add notes to your tapes in TapeDeck. When a tape is selected, just click the “notes” part of the tape. The whole tape view switches to a text field where you can type as much as you want, and when you are done just click “Done Editing” at the bottom. You can also change the name of your tape by clicking on the name. To better organize your tapes you can change the color of the text and icon. Just click the “A” icon and the color will change. There is one problem with this, though; if there is a color you want, you have to keep clicking until you get to it. When you click the gray rectangle on the right side of the window the tape drawl slides open. Here you can view all of your tapes. Just click and drag or use your scroll wheel to scroll through the list. The list displays most of the info about the tape, such as the name, quality, length and day recorded. To play a tape, just click the one you would like to listen to and it will slide into the main window. The icon in the list will then be replaced with “Tape Loaded”. With the search bar at the bottom you can quickly find the tape you want.

TapeDeck includes many other useful features. You can customize different hotkeys to start, pause, and stop a recording and you can control TapeDeck using the menu bar item. Another cool feature is that the icon turns red when it is recording. The problem with this, though, is that there isn’t any notification if it is paused, which would be very useful when the main window is hidden. TapeDeck also includes sharing features. You can easily export the tapes to iTunes to easily transfer to your iPod and email the tapes to a friend. When the tape is copied to iTunes the album artwork is a copy of the tape’s icon, so each tape will have unique album artwork when you are browsing through your tapes on your iPod. When you email a tape TapeDeck automatically creates a new email with the subject “TapeDeck Recording: TITLE” and attaches the tape file as an MPEG4. Low quality tapes are very small and work great for emailing.

TapeDeck is great for recording any audio using a microphone. It has many different options and makes tapes easy to share. Although there are just a few annoyances TapeDeck is a great app and I highly suggest it. TapeDeck is made by SuperMegaUltraGroovy and toastycode. You can buy TapeDeck for $25 and download a demo at the apps website.

The first major thing about Cover Stream 2.0 is that it requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, as it employs the use of Apple’s new graphics engine CoreAnimation, as well as other Leopard-only technologies. The interface uses the Coverflow interface, which is rapidly becoming ubiquitous in the Mac application space. You can invoke the Coverflow window by using any key-combination that you’d like, which is easily tweaked via the preferences menu of the application. The Coverflow window is chock full of handy buttons to control your music, including Play/Pause, and Forward/Backward buttons.

Another incredibly useful feature of the Coverflow window is that you can actively search through your music simply by typing with the Cover Stream window set as the active window. In a similar fashion to Quicksilver, the app will start to narrow down your music library to try to make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for. One thing I’d really like to see implemented would be the ability to hit Backspace once to have it clear out the entire search, rather than just erasing the last typed character.

The point at which Cover Stream far surpasses all other iTunes controller applications that I’ve reviewed to this point is the multitude of interfaces with which you can see what you’re listening to. In the preferences of the app you have the option to turn Desk Art off and on, which allows you to display the currently playing track on any corner of the desktop. This is really useful, and highly customizable so you’re sure to find a way that you like it. Additionally, the Desk Art feature employs the “wet floor” appearance that is also becoming ubiquitous in some of our favorite apps.

The final major interface that you can use to interact with your music is the Menubar Dropdown interface. By clicking on the menubar icon for Cover Stream you can see what’s playing, change ratings, and things of that sort. It’s very straightforward, and really simple to use.

In addition to the different interfaces, there are a ton of other features that this awesome app employs. The preference pane offers Last.FM integration, which many people use. Also, Cover Stream interacts with Growl notifications, if you have Growl installed on your Mac. It also integrates with the Apple Remote, has an awesome full screen mode, and other customizable hotkeys.

Overall, this application is incredibly useful and really a pleasure to use. Cover Stream is available from SNARB.TK and costs €14.95, which includes free updates for life.

Now, before you decide that AudialHub will be your converter or choice, you may want to think of what you want in an audio converter. If you are the type of person who just wants to convert a few files to an iPod-friendly format, then AudialHub may not be for you. You can do that with iTunes! However, if you want to convert a lot of files to numerous formats that are not always supported by OS X, then AudialHub is probably right for you. Now, there are some free alternatives to AudialHub (such as Max), but if you want a clean and simple interface that looks like a design team has taken time to create, then AudialHub is definitely the right audio converter for you.

As I said above, AudialHub has a professionally-made looking interface. Not only does the interface look well-made, but it looks Mac-like. You have one main window, an inspector and a preference window. It looks like a Mac app; not like a BETA app, or a Windows app, but the kind of application you would want to see running on a Mac.

Now for the real purpose of AudialHub: It offers you all the features you could really ever want for audio converting. It supports a wide variety of formats, and even sub-formats within those formats. You can specify options like bitrate, frequency, volume, etc. It has everything you would expect from an audio converter. Actually, it has a few more.

If you are a big FFmpeg or afconvert nerd then AudialHub has some features you will like. It allows you to specify flags for either one of these. In the Info panel, under the Audio tab, there will be two text fields that are labeled “Extra FFmpeg Flags:” and “Extra afconvert Flags:” respectively. This is a great way to add even more options to your conversions. Although, if you don’t know what FFmpeg or afconvert is, then I highly suggest that you don’t edit these fields.

If you are an organizational freak, then AudialHub also has some very nice features for you. In the Info panel, under the One-Offs tab, there are a load of options for specifying MetaData (what iTunes uses to tag songs with artists, names, etc). It gives you most of the tags used in iTunes. If you click View Selected Item’s Tags, then it will fill in these fields with the MetaData already on these files. Another feature for you would be the ability to retain creation and modification dates for files. Those options can be found in the preferences under the File Handling tab.

One feature that AudialHub lacks is XGrid support. Techspansion’s other main product, VisualHub, has XGrid support, but AudialHub does not. In case you were wondering, XGrid allows you to use computers on the same network to help the encode. This is a really great feature if you want to speed up the conversions, but it is more needed in video than audio because video takes longer to encode.

Another place where AudialHub (and VisualHub for that matter) is lacking is preset support. Yes, it has them, but it asks you where to save the preset file. In most applications presets are saved by themselves to a folder that you would have to look for to find. AudialHub needs the user to tell it where to save the file. It would be very nice to click Save, and it saves, and then when you want to use it a preset drawer appears. It does work, but it just takes a little more effort.

AudialHub can be found at Techspansion’s website, along with the great video conversion app, VisualHub. If you want to buy it, it is only $18.81, or $14.41 if you already own VisualHub. It is more expensive than the free alternatives, but to me it seems much cleaner. And hey, it’s still cheaper than QuickTime Pro!

Admittedly, I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to music. If I need a chord, I’m going to find it with my ears. But ChordMate makes it easy to cheat. Check out my video review to see some of my favorite features.

So as you can see there are some nice features that can come in handy during a songwriting session, music theory training, or just playing around on your First Act guitar. Harmonic Sense did a great job with ChordMate Pro.

My only complaint is that to access the power of ChordMate, you need to purchase the Pro version. If you want the express or the standard version you save some cash at the expense of cool features. Tiered pricing works for power applications, but asking a user to pay more for basic features may mean pricing yourself out of the chord-finding market. Any fan of Creed will tell you that Drop D is as standard tuning as it comes, but you’ll have to buy the “professional” version to play the chorus to “With Arms Wide Open.”

You can pick up a copy of ChordMate Pro at Harmonic Sense for $39.95. Choose the Express version for $14.95 or pick up ChordMate Standard for $29.95.

I Love Stars is a free application from Potion Factory, and it’s designed to do one simple thing. It simply shows up inconspicuously in your menubar and provides you with a simple interface to rate the current track.

It’s not a fully-fledged iTunes controller; it won’t allow you to control your music or display snazzy album art. All it does is one thing, and it does it well. The interface simply consists of 1 to 5 stars, arranged nicely and unobtrusively. Sure, you can assign keyboard shortcuts to an app like Quicksilver to control the ratings, but it would be nice if you could see it, right?

I think utilities like these are really helpful because it reduces distractions. Having to switch to iTunes just to rate music is annoying and somewhat distracting. Though you originally planned to just tag a song, in no time, you’ll end up browsing album art, looking through the iTunes store, and actually buying some music. It’s simple utilities like these that get the job done, and done fast.

For extra goodness, launch System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items and add it to the list. The app will launch automatically when you login. I Love Stars is available for free from Potion Factory.

The first major thing about Mojo is to assert the fact that this is not meant for piracy. Mojo will not allow you to copy DRM-encrypted (most iTunes purchased) music, and is not intended to steal music that is not rightfully yours. However, in my situation for example, there are many songs that multiple family members would like to listen to, but up until now it hasn’t been particularly easy or effortless to get those songs.

Once Mojo is installed on the computers that will be sharing iTunes libraries, any other computers on the local network should show up in the Mojo buddy list. Additionally, you can add buddies by clicking the plus sign at the bottom of the buddy list. Initially, it was semi-confusing about how to set this up, as the settings for the user-created accounts were not set up during my initial installation and configuration. However, once I went into the preferences for the app, I found it easy to set up and create my own personal @deusty.com account name.

A simple double click on a buddy’s name will connect you to his or her iTunes library, as shown in the screenshot below. The look of the window is very simple, and pretty handy, with access included to playlists and searching built right into the window. Downloading songs from the window is as simple as clicking on the song that you want to download, and hitting the download button on the bottom of the window. Additionally, you can preview any of the songs by double clicking. The speed of the download and other information transferring depends upon the internet connection, and obviously transfers on the local network will be faster than those on the broad internet.

Additionally, Mojo will color code the songs in the library being browsed to help you maximize your time. Greyed out songs are the ones that Mojo has already found present in your iTunes library, Red denotes iTunes DRM’ed songs, and Green songs indicate playlists that you have subscribed to (in the paid version only). I found that I was able to download DRMed songs and play them without a problem because I have that iTunes account verified on my own MacBook Pro, but your mileage may vary.

Overally, Mojo is incredibly useful and makes the process of sharing iTunes music easier than it has ever been. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for an easy way to share music, and explore new music as well. Mojo is available from Deusty Software, in a free version that limits the buddy list, as well as a paid version with unlimited buddies for $10.95 and up (depending on how many computers you’ll be using the licenses on).

Disclaimer: MacApper does not endorse piracy in any shape or form, and is not liable for any legal issues that may arise from the use of this software.

Pzizz is is the app for both Mac and Windows that helps you take energizing naps during the day and have deep sleep at night; all you have to do is listen and relax. Now, don’t get me wrong, Pzizz isn’t just a guy talking along with some music, even though it may sound that way. It uses scientifically proven methods to help you get into either a deeply relaxing or an energizing sleep. But of course, don’t listen to the data, try it yourself.

One of the best parts of Pzizz is its interface — it’s extremely easy to use and looks great at the same time. When you first open it, just choose between Energizer and Sleep. Then you set the length and choose whether to export it or play it. Pretty simple, right? Now, if you want to customize your Energizer or Sleep anymore, you can click the button with the arrows pointing out. This will take you to a list.

In this list, you can easily play one of your presets by clicking the Play button. You can also create a new preset by clicking the “+” button at the bottom. It gives you a lot of options to make your Pzizz just what you want! You can also click the Gear button to edit one. You can’t edit the default presets though, so if you don’t like it, you have to add a new one. From this screen you can also export to iTunes by just clicking on the arrow-like button!

As I’ve talked about a lot above, you can export to iTunes directly from Pzizz. You don’t need WireTap or anything like that. The iTunes integration is really nice, because it is so easy. I have told you how to do it above, but here is what happens: After it has finished exporting, the new ’song’ will be in a playlist called Pzizz. So easy! It is in the right format for your iPod, so you can just sync it there easily too! The only problem with the finished export is that Pzizz does not make it “skip when shuffling.” This would be nice, because then when you have the shuffle feature on your iPod or computer on, it will only play the one song from Pzizz that you want. If you are exporting to iTunes from the list screen, you can also choose just to export to your hard drive.

One of the killer features of Pzizz (for us with IR receivers) is the Apple Remote support! It is pretty self explanatory: [+] and [-] are used to switch between presets, and when you are playing a track, they are used to set the volume. Play is to play, and if you hold play, you can export to iTunes. There is also a preference in the Preferences of Pzizz for turning voice feedback off and on with the remote. This just tells you what you have done. It can be useful at times, but I think it is pretty annoying.

Also in the Preferences are options for live feedback and LCD color. Disabling sleep and screen saver are great… if you don’t have caffeine already running. The silent lead-in just starts from pure silence, going up to the volume you have set in X amount of time. The option to change the LCD color is great, so you can have Pzizz look how you want it to (my personal favorite is Michaela).

Pzizz, by Brainwave retails for $29.95 for either Sleep or Energizer, or only $49.95 for both! Or, if you prefer, you can get a box set of the bundle. You can also get a handheld unit for the Energizer (includes the box set, too) for $147. You can download the trial at the same link, and remember, if you like it, it is worth the money for what it does for you.

Despite iTunes’ big lead, Amazon still has a lot going for it. If you haven’t yet made a purchase via the Amazon MP3 store here is what you’ve been missing out on: Amazon sells high quality, non-DRM MP3 downloads for less than a buck each.

MP3 files purchased from Amazon are all encoded at a higher rate (256 kbps) than songs bought from the iTunes Music Store (typically 128 kbps). There is no DRM on songs purchased via Amazon. Unlike the protected AAC files you buy from iTunes, Amazon MP3’s can be played on an unlimited number of iPods, Macs and Windows machines as well as any cellphone, Linux machine, or any other device that supports MP3 playback. No DRM also means that you can burn your music on as many mix tapes as you want however many times as you want.

Amazon sells most downloads for $0.99 each, however they promise that the top 100 songs will sell for $0.89. You can usually save big buy purchasing a full album rather than buying per track. For example, downloading all 24 tracks from the Led Zeppelin compilation Mothership (yes, this is a shameless plug for an album that rocks so hard it could make your ears bleed!) individually would cost $23.76. Purchasing the full album, however, costs $12.99, or about $0.54 per song!

The Amazon MP3 store consists of two parts: a web app and a dedicated downloader. The downloader has improved since I first tried it out late last year. In addition to being able to monitor your download queue, you can pause or resume downloads, open downloaded tracks in the Finder, and clear completed downloads. Additionally, purchased songs are now added directly into iTunes, eliminating the tedious task of manually importing them into iTunes. The downloader is free and you will be prompted to download it the first time you make a purchase.

In order to download music from Amazon on your Mac you need four things:
Internet access (duh)
An Amazon account (double-duh)
The Amazon MP3 Downloader application
Mac OS X (10.4 and up)

In summary, Amazon sells music downloads that sound better, can be played on more devices, and are generally cheaper than tracks purchased via iTunes. Will it be replacing iTunes any time soon? Definitely not within the next few months. Fans of desktop apps may be a little loathe to switch to a web app no matter how good the product is. Also, the selection on iTunes is still a tiny bit better. Apple has done a fantastic job of training my brain to think that when I want music for my iPod I have to use iTunes. However, the DRM-free aspect of Amazon’s Music Store, coupled with their superior bit rate and pricing, makes it too good to pass up. Now, when I want music, I go to Amazon first. If (and only if) I can’t find what I’m looking for there, I go to iTunes.

Now, let’s hear from our readers. Are you using the Amazon Music Store already? What would it take to switch from iTunes to Amazon? Sound off in the comments below and let the world know what you love and/or hate about Amazon’s foray into the world of digital music distribution.

The first thing that Misu asks you to do is to connect at least two iPods to your computer. So right right from the start, you require three things for Misu to work. Two iPods, two iPod cables, and at least two free USB ports. Once you connect two or more iPods, you will see their icons appear on top of the window.

When the iPods are connected and ready to go, clicking transfer music will transfer all the music from the iPod pictured on the left, to the iPod(s) on the right. To change the order, double click on the iPod that you want to transfer music from, and it will slide over to the left (as pictured in the video).

To begin transferring your music, just click “Transfer Music.” Depending how much music you are transferring in total, it should only take a few minutes. Once your transfer has completed, there will be a folder on the destination iPods called “Misu Songs.” To get these songs into their new iTunes Library, you can manually drag them onto the iTunes window, or if you have Misu on the destination computer (which Misu will ask you if you want to copy Misu onto the iPod) you can click “File>Import Songs into iTunes,” and Misu will do all the heavy lifting for you. Misu will also only copy songs that the new library does not already have, so you will not be stuck sorting through duplicates.

Misu looks like it will be quite a handy app, and may end up getting some added functionality in the future. The developers of Misu have been kind enough to give away 10 licenses of Misu along with this review. The first 10 people to comment on this post with where the name “Misu” comes from, gets a license! If you aren’t quick enough to the draw, you can pick up Misu for $19 from the Misu Store.

EDITOR’S NOTE: MacApper does not endorse or recommend copying music that you do not own!

If you looked at djay when it was still at v1.2 and found it wasn’t for you, I recommend you take a second look. You can tell that a lot of work has went into improving this application. Make sure to watch the review and look for the giveaway at the end of this post. UPDATE: A new video has been uploaded, which fixes the problem with the sound.

The fine folks at algoriddim have graciously decided to give away 3 licenses of djay along with this review. If you would like to be eligible to be chosen in the draw, just comment on this post with one feature you would like to see integrated into djay. If you do not get chosen in the draw, or would like to support the developers with a purchase, you can pick up djay for $49.99 USD from Algoriddim.

Winners will be chosen Friday, April 4th.

The lightweight (<6mb) app can make itself at home in your menu bar or in your dock. When it's activated, a tiny icon appears as a menu bar item (by default) in the top part of your screen. Two different icons can tell you if Breakaway senses that your headphones are plugged in or not. In addition, if you have Growl notifications installed on your machine, Breakaway will tap into Growl and you will get a little notification about the status of your headphones.

The true power of Breakaway is realized when you tick off one of the options not enabled by default. Breakaway will automatically pause your music when the headphones are pulled out (albeit, with a very slight delay) and will un-pause the music when you plug them back in. The switch is really fairly seamless, and I only heard a tiny delay when I pulled out my headphones a couple of times. The preferences panel is fairly detailed, and allows you to manipulate a lot of the functionality of Breakaway to your liking.

However, Breakaway’s usefulness doesn’t stop with the iTunes pausing. Included with the free download is a slew of additional scripts that you can configure to do things like setting your iChat status, Skype status, or other things of that nature. These scripts are all in the familiar AppleScript format, so they can be edited to your liking, and you can probably create scripts of your own.

There’s actually a lot more functionality to this handy app, and I’m barely scratching the surface. However, one thing I’d really like to see is the ability for Breakaway to fade in the music when you plug the headphones back in, as it would be a nice Mac-like and very Apple-like touch. It would also make it a lot smoother to continue listening to your favorite tunes.

Breakaway is a free app and you can download it from [[Alloc]Init].