Genius

If you use itunes and haven't upgraded to version 8 - do it NOW! There is a new feature called genius - it takes the hassle out of one of the time consuming activities within itunes - creating playlists.

With genius, you select a track, hit the genius button and it will create a playlist. I've had 5 people try it out and they have all had the same reaction "that's great - how does it do it?"

Ah, its black magic i tell yer!

Frankly i don't care. It does the job very well and builds great compilations. After a while you see if you can fool it by hitting the "refresh" button again and again. It seems to come up with and endless combination of tracks that sit well together. I have to admit i have over 7000 tracks in itunes so i do have a good base for it to work from. But genius is a better DJ than i ever will be!

Stacy's Mom!

Thank god for itunes music video section!

Finally, the fountains of wayne song - Stacys mom - has finally been uploaded to the itunes store! A classic song from a bunch of fine upstanding gentlemen. I have to confess the interest in this group had nothing to do with the lyrics, music or the ability of the band. These guys had the smart idea to include rachael hunter in their video!

1000th Legal Download

Just realised tonight that I broke through the 1,000th purchase from iTunes tonight! I can't remember the last time I went into a record store and browsed CD's, just don't have the time to do this any more. It's far too easy to either buy the CD off amazon or just sit quickly for 20 mins trying to find either something new to listen to or maybe find something i heard on the radio earlier.

What was the 1,000th item? A music video called "numb" by Linkin Park. It joins over 200 other music vid's on my video ipod.

Interesting my music collection is now nearly 6,500 tracks and 15% of it's been downloaded from legal sources [just for the record the other 85% were legally ripped from CD's I own]

Just off to work out how much money I have given to Steve Jobs!

Move it with you!

So the future is definately DLNA (digital living network alliance) to move content around the home. The problem is i'm waiting for a digital TV from SONY to come to the UK with DLNA in it (hint hint SONY!)

Until then i have tried streaming audio/video from PC wirelessly. Nice try tonto! So many integration issues + the fact the PC has to be on all the time, the media server software is rubbish etc etc. I have a life and can't be bothered to go through all the issues one after another. ROi is just not worth it!

Found a stopgap if your an iTunes/Ipod user. Buy the AV connection kit. I was a little skeptical as i play music vides purchased via iTunes on a 2-head flat panel monitor setup. Playback is a little pixilated but acceptable. However, connecting the IPOD to the a 32" Sony WEGA TV in widescreen mode playback is good and will be a stop gap for the next couple of years. It's so good i've actually bought 3 TV shows off ITunes to checkout playback of those. Just for the record - South Park, Pimp My Ride and Jongleurs unleashed were the only "suitable" shows i could find for research purposes. Cough!