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Sync iTunes Playlists With Your Nexus One

by Dan

For many people the similarities between the iPhone and the Mac make the iPhone the perfect mobile phone. Its ease of use, familiar operating system, and the sync capabilities between the phone and media files make a very convincing argument that if you own a Mac your phone should be an iPhone.

But, that’s not always the case. Often people want something different from their phone than from their computer. They want a different experience, cell network (Let’s face it, AT&T just isn’t all the way there), or interface than what is offered with the iPhone. Many of these types of users are turning to Android devices like the Verizon Droid or the Google Nexus One.

These new smart phones offer what is to date the most competitive alternative to the iPhone in terms of ease of use and functionality. The one area that out of the box, these phones don’t compete well with the iPhone is the ability to sync digital media with their Android devices. Thankfully, someone has helped solve that problem.

Sync iTunes With Android Devices including the Nexus One

While the software wasn’t developed by Google or Apple to help Android Devices (including the Nexus One) sync with iTunes, DoubleTwist is very powerful and easy to use. The software is available on the PC and the Mac and automatically connects to your iTunes library and playlists and makes them available in a clean interface.

To sync your iTunes Playlists with your Google Nexus One or other Android Device:

  1. Create your playlist in iTunes
  2. Download, install, and open Doubletwist
  3. Your media library and playlists should be available on the left navigation frame
    4. iTunes-Playlist-Nexus-One.jpg
  4. Connect your Google Nexus One or other Android Device to the your Mac or PC and then follow the on screen instructions. More help can be found on the DoubleTwist website for many different devices
  5. Once you’ve mounted and made available your mobile phone, select the playlists or drag and drop the media files from your iTunes library to your Nexus One, Android device, or other media players
  6. You can Sync your Nexus One with iTunes Playlists by selecting the Nexus One on the left navigation frame and checking the Sync Music button and the iTunes playlists you’d like to sync with the device
    7. SyncPlaylistsDoubleTwist-NexusOne.jpg

Now your Google Nexus One or other Android device should include your Songs and other playlist files and sync anytime you connect your phone to your computer and open DoubleTwist.

Are you an iPhone user or do you prefer a different type of mobile phone? Let us know in the comments below!

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The iLife series, #5: iTunes Screensavers

by Suki

Have you ever wished that you could display all your album artwork in a screensaver? With iTunes and the Mac’s inbuilt “iTunes Screensaver”, you can now have that screensaver ready in less than a dozen clicks.

Here’s what to do.

iTunes Screensaver setup

First of all, make sure that your iTunes library includes all the artwork from your albums. If, for some reason, you do not have the artwork, you can download it from the Internet. Then, cmd-click on the file and select “Get Info”. This works best if you are in Grid view, as albums are shown together and you can assign artwork for the entire album at once. You may get a prompt asking if you want to edit information for multiple files at once – click “yes”, and a “Do not prompt me again” if you wish.

Get info iTunes

You will see an “Artwork” box. Double-click on it, and it automatically takes you to your “pictures” folder in the Finder. From there, you can browse till you find the album art to install.


Artwork

Once your album art is in place, you can create your iTunes screensaver. Do not worry about albums that have no artwork attached – the screensaver simply ignores them, so you will have no unsightly blank patches when you finally play it.

From “System Preferences”, go to “Desktop and Screen Saver” under “Personal”. Alternatively, you can also go to the “Desktop and Screen saver” link directly by doing a Spotlight search for the word “Screen Saver”.
On the left-hand column of the “Screen Saver” tab, you will find several folders of preset screen savers. Under the “Apple” folder, there is a screen saver called “iTunes Artwork”. This is the one you want to use.


iTunes screen saver

In order to make some finer adjustments to your iTunes album art screen saver, click the “options” button. You will see a small window pop up, which has 2 sliders. You can choose the number of rows and columns to put in your screen saver – between 1 and 8. The amount of time for which each image is displayed can also be adjusted – possible values lie between 0 and 5 seconds.


iTunes Screensaver options

To display your screen saver, make sure that the “start screen saver” time is greater than the time that is allowed to lapse before your Mac goes to sleep. You’ll notice the yellow triangle of warning in my screenshot, and that’s because I have my “display off” time set to a value less than the “start” time on the screen saver.

To change screen savers, all you have to do is to visit the “Desktop and Screen Saver” menu and select a new screen saver from the list given. Of course, you can also download screen savers for the Mac from the Internet – some of these also have third-party applications that display your iTunes artwork, so you may give them a try too. In fact, the iTunes Screensaver is also available as a third-party download for Windows computers too – it looks exactly the same as the Mac bundled version.

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Create Free MP3s With Google Music Search

by Dan

Recently Google announced that they would be including access to MP3s of songs in their search results. Now when you’re looking for the latest Green Day song the only thing you need to do is search for it with Google. The first results will include a play button and access to quickly listen to the music.

Google Music Search Mac.jpg

The main business model behind including songs at the top of search results is to provide another way for individuals to be able to quickly purchase the music. However, Google’s Music Search also provides a great way to allow for quick and easy access to free MP3s.

It is clear that Google and the RIAA didn’t intend to have the music they are providing to users through search results be the easiest way for people to get the latest copies of the songs they love but in reality, the new functionality provided just that. With the modern computer and software easily available on the Mac, recording the streaming music is just a few clicks away.

Google Music Search Cookies

Google clearly is doing their best (or taking the easy approach to reduce the likelihood of this occurring) to limit the copying of the music provided through iLike, Lala, MySpace, and others by dropping a “Cookie” to your computer every time you play a song through their services. These cookies are designed to keep you from playing complete songs over and over again. After playing once, most music will only be available for 30 second clips, but include a number of options to allow individuals to purchase the music.

This can easily be by-passed by removing the cookies from your browser and clearing your cache. This will allow you to play the music over and over again, you’ll just have to remove the cookie every time the song length is limited.

Create Free MP3s With Google Music Search

Now that you know how to get to the songs available via Google Search as many times as you need, its time to create copies of the music you love most.

For Mac users, recording audio from applications is quick and easy. Audio Hijack Pro, an application that is free to record 10 minute audio tracks, allows users to set recordings from microphones, speakers, or directly from audio produced by an application. By combining Audio Hijack Pro, Safari, and Google Music Search you can create Free MP3s in the time it takes to play the song you’re looking for.

To Create Free MP3s:

  1. Install and Open Audio Hijack Pro
  2. In the Input Field, select Application and then select Safari as the Application.
    3. Audio Hijack Pro.jpg
  3. Select where you’d like to save audio recordings and how you’d like the file to be named
  4. Next Select Hijack and then Record. The recording won’t start until the application starts processing audio files.
    5. Audio Hijack Pro-1.jpg
  5. Open Safari and navigate to Google. Search for the name of a band you like or a particular song you’d like to record
  6. Once the search results appear, select the play button next to the song you’d like to record. As the music starts to play you’ll notice that Audio Hijack Pro is recording the audio.
  7. Wait for the song to finish and then stop the recording on Audio Hijack Pro. The application isn’t smart enough to know to stop recording automatically once audio stops playing
  8. To confirm that the song recorded accurately, navigate to where you saved the recording and play it. The file will sound as good as the streaming audio presented to you by Google

Feel free to rename the files to the structure you like, and download album art after you include the song into your iTunes collection.

Is This Legal?

While I’m not a lawyer, I believe that as long as the recordings you make are for personal use, you’re protected by the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992. This law allows you to record digitally audio tracks as long as the recordings are for personal use only.

Additionally, Google and the RIAA are providing the streams to you through their services. You’re simply recording the audio created by an application on your computer. If you’re concerned, be sure to check with your legal council to decided if you’re in the right to make the recordings.

It appears as if the good old day of recording songs from the radio have entered the Digital Age. Thanks to our friends at Google, the RIAA, and Audio Hijack Pro.

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Quick Tip: Remove Duplicate Songs from iTunes

by Dan

If you’ve collected an extremely large music library over the years or just upgraded your iTunes library to apple’s new iTunes Plus unprotected music files, chances are you’ve got duplicates of your songs taking up your Hard Drive space.

Removing duplicates from iTunes and your Hard Drive is pretty simple but you’ll want to make sure you’re removing the correct files. For optimal and unrestricted use of your music, you’ll want to remove any duplicate music file you have that is a Protected AAC audio file.

To see what kind each file is in your library:

  1. Open iTunes and navigate to your Music Library
  2. Right Click(control+click) the columns in the music library and make sure Kind is checked

Now that you’ve show what kind of file each song is, you can easily find and remove duplicates.

  1. With iTunes still open and at your Music Library, select File & then Show Duplicates
    2. Preview.png
  2. All music files that you have will now appear in your music library, you can select the duplicate files that are Protected and remove those and any extras that you don’t want taking up your HD space.

As you expand your music library over the years it may be beneficial to repeat these steps to ensure you keep your library and HD space up to date.

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iTunes: Take College Courses

by Dan

If you’ve always wondered what it would be like to take courses at Stanford then head over to the iTunes Store and link into iTunes U. iTunes U offers a number of course videos from colleges across the country that are available for download to iTunes, iPod’s, and iPhones.

While Stanford isn’t the only college that offers course videos on iTunes, Stanford is now also offering the entire course materials that correlate to some of the course’s videos.

Sync up the videos offered through iTunes U with the course materials now available from Stanford’s Engineering Everywhere program.

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