Furthermore...

• How to accurately determine your iPod battery life is an Apple Knowledge Base article that explains how to...well, how to accurately determine your iPod battery life. It's rather involved and requires you to run your iPod until there is no battery life and compare the time it takes to run an average sized album to Apple's "control" times based on iPod model.
jan 23 '06

• Steve Mallet has put together a digg-like site that lets users recommend cool tunes of any genre and then ref 'em to the iTMS. I highly recommend iTunesLove.com 'cause I'll never find out what's hep without it. Plus, it won't work unless you contribute. Hey! I love LCD Soundsystem's "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House"! I do! And I never would have found it without iTunesLove.com. C'mon! Let's get the community thang happenin'.
jan 3 '06

• I ran across this application while checking out a hit from a Japanese site. iPodDisk is an application that will mount your iPod's hidden Music directory by emulating it as an iDisk drive. All the files are accessible and arranged by Artist/Album folders and by Playlist folders. All you have to do to retrieve your iPod audio files is run iPodDisk and just add them to iTunes. Even better, iPodDisk enables other applications to easily access the iPod Music folder, since it appears in the Finder as a mounted drive. I highly recommend it.
jan 1 '06

• A Correspondent turned me on to the iTMS Album Artwork Finder. It displays the 600 x 600 px album artwork for any cover art at the iTunes Music Store. Simply right-click or control-click on the album art shown for an album at the Store and select "Copy iTunes Music Store URL". Go to iTMS Album Artwork Finder and paste the link into the form. In a few moments you get the big ol' artwork. Not always fruitful, depending on the kind of link you enter. Works best with the link from the actual album listing's album art.
oct 31 '05

• In a posting at the Macworld Forums, Correspondent Graeme Smith advises: " Sometimes the tags that iTunes grabs from Gracenote when you rip a CD aren't very good: misspellings and stuff. But on the iTMS the tags are usually correct. So if the album your ripping is on the Music Store you can just copy it from there. To do that you'll need this Applescript ("Copy Tag Info Tracks to Tracks"). First find the album on the Music Store then make a new playlist. Select all the songs on the Music Store and drag them to the playlist. Then select them all and run the script. That saves me a lot of time editing meta data."
aug 8 '05

• A great tutorial on creating podcasts with Apple's ChapterTool is located here. Also explained is how to use ChapterTool to create indexed/gapless joined tracks using Gijs van den Heuvel's PodCastEnhancer. PodCastEnhancer pretty much automates using ChapterTool, essentially helping you to create the required XML file with the pointers to chapter times, links, and titles. I incorporated a similar script routine into my own podcast workflow; it just repeats a dialog asking for chapter names and times, then writes out the XML file. If you download my latest 'cast, or check out Apple's New Music Tuesday 'cast, you'll see how chapters work.

Also, Logan Browne has created a similar script called Export As XML Chapters (that's a direct download link). He writes: "This allows you to create a single m4a file from a CD and then specify named bookmarks in the file for each track. I have not done a full write up on it yet, but thought that some folks might get some use out of it on your site." Indeed!
jul 8 '05

• Fare thee well, Audion. On November 11, 2004 ("the eleventh day of the eleventh month...") Panic Software announced that it would no longer be developing Audion, the very fine audio file player for Macs. Audion is a great player, and during the early heady days of the MP3 revolution (1999?) Audion was right up there with SoundJam (which evolved into iTunes) and MacAMP. It was arguably the best of the three. Although I always preferred SoundJam, I used Audion, too. It's just that SoundJam had better 'scriptability for my purposes. But Audion had great sound and great skins (or, as they called them, "Faces") and many other very fine features. Panic also developed a very cool website to distribute Audion and user-submitted skins; they certainly inspired this website. While Panic will be "retiring" Audion and will no longer develop it, they are making it a free download. Support will be minimal, but hey, they have other cool software to support! For a fascinating—albeit overly-detailed—history of Audion, and the history of the MP3 revolution, you must read Cabel Sasser's The True Story of Audion. Gee, it's sweet. We'll miss you, Audion!
nov 12 '04

• Spork Software has released ProgBar a simple free application you can use with your scripts to display a progress bar. You can display the progress bar inside an Aqua window or brushed metal window. There are other customizable features as well. I've played around with it a little and it's not bad for getting regular feedback on progress in a repeat loop. Check it out.
aug 23 '04

• This tip (and trailing thread) at Mac OS X Hints details how to enable iTunes sharing across subnets with the freeware Rendezvous Beacon, thereby allowing you to access your music at another location. (The hint originally appeared in June of 2003, but was recently updated.)
feb 28 '04

• Now, you can get RSS feeds about the latest releases and other stats at the iTunes Music Store via the iTunes Music Store RSS Feed Generator. Select your favorite genre from the form at the page and it will spit out a link you can paste into your news reader, like NetNewsWire.
jan 23 '04

• iTunes 4 introduced the ability to share music between computers. However, as of version 4.1, iTunes doesn't provide much information about who is connected or what is being shared. The utility iTunes Monitor monitors iTunes to provide a solution. The main window displays a list of currently connected users (by hostname or IP address) and their current status with a colored indicator. Files in the local music library which are currently open are also listed. An overall status indicator at the bottom of the window shows whether iTunes is running, sharing, and the total number of users and open files.

iTunes Monitor is freeware from Brendan A. McCarthy.
dec 28 '03

• Longtime Correspondent D.F. Bills has put together Smart Playlists.com, a website which focuses on creating, sharing, and chatting about Apple's iTunes Smart Playlists. "Smart Playlists.com is specifically designed for iTunes and iPod users, so they can tap into the many ingenious ways in which Smart Playlists can be used to keep your music fresh. Learn to personalize your listening experience by creating sophisticated Smart Playlists based on powerful features like My Rating, Last Played, Keywords, and Total Play Count." The site looks great, offers plenty of tips, and the example Smart Playlist criteria is presented quite clearly. Check it out, register, and post your best Smart Playlists so other iTunes users can be as smart as you.
oct 9 '03

• Cocoa programmers who want to learn more about using AppleScript should have a look at Daryl Hawes' CocoaObjects.com, a site featuring tutorials, forum and other information about programming in Cocoa, with a special section on using AppleScript in your Cocoa projects.
sep 1 '03

• Gunnar Van Vliet has compiled a two-part Report on the Relative Quality Of AAC Audio To MP3. He encoded the same track in iTunes using 96, 128, 160 and 192 kbps AAC and MP3, and one AIFF for reference and describes the differences—subjectively, yet very astutely in my opinion.
may 10 '03

• From MacScripter: "Chris Garaffa offers a mailing list for people interested in developing applications targeting iTunes. Discussion is specific to iTunes interaction with AppleScript and any other languages such as Cocoa and Perl." To subscribe visit the iTunes-scripters Info Page. The archived list is located here.
may 8 '03

• A MacInTouch item explains how to play .m4a files in OS 9:

"[David van Handel] By changing the file type and creator of the AAC files encoded by iTunes 4 or downloaded from the iTunes Music Store from M4A/hook and M4P/hook respectively to MooV/TVOD or MPG4/TVOD, the songs can be played in OS 9. MPEG/TVOD files are recognized by QuickTime 6.0.3 and can be played in QuickTime or with a QuickTime based music player such as MPLAY. MooV/TVOD files can be played as above but are also recognized by iTunes 2.0.4."

• Clutter by Sprote Rsrch is a cool iTunes accessory that displays CDs as cover pictures on your desktop. It also features a simple iTunes remote (play/pause, next, previous). While iTunes plays, it searches Amazon.com for the CD cover art of the currently playing track. I discovered it on someone's desktop snapshot at ResExcellence—which is a great place to see what people are doing to their GUIs—and fell in love with the little sucker.

• playlistbot by Jochen Hagenström lets you create playlists and add audio files to iTunes corresponding to folders containing music in the Finder. Files will be associated with the playlist. There is an OS X version and an OS 9 version available from this download page.

• Spacey [screenshot] from If Then Software is an AppleScript Studio app that will work with iTunes and your smart playlists to not only compile a top 5, 10 or 25 list, but eMail them, add them to iCal or send them to your iDisk. If you don't have a .mac account, Spacey will send your compiled playlist(s) to an FTP site of your choice. Upon publishing your playlist(s) to the internet, anyone clicking on any song in your list will be brought to the Gracenote CDDB to learn more about the song. Spacey can be found at If Then Software.

• The Sony Ericsson Clicker from Sweden's Salling Software takes advantage of Bluetooth technology in your Mac and enables AppleScripts to be run or actions to be triggered using a "proximity sensor" with the Sony Ericsson phone. Suggested uses include remote control of iTunes or Keynote via AppleScript and the Salling site contains several dozen AppleScripts for many applications already.

• iTOC from Bery Rinaldo generates a TOC file for use with the AudioTron based on data extracted from iTunes. iTOC is an AppleScript Studio application with an embedded Perl script which parses the iTunes database file iTunes Music Library.xml and outputs the TOC file. This project is free and open source. You may download either the application itself or the entire project including the source code.

• Brian Foy has created the Mac::iTunes Perl module, and in his Controlling iTunes with Perl article at O'Reilly he explains how to "control iTunes using this module as a back end and create multiple iTunes interfaces that can be used on the same computer or on other computers on the same network, including AirPort networks." He lists our site as a source for AppleScripts to use in building Perl scripts.

• Jason Suitts has a couple of neat AppleScripts at his site. Download to Library will download and import URL-based MP3 tracks into your iTunes library. It can be used to make local copies of tracks from Internet music websites. Stream Playlist will export an iTunes playlist to your QuickTime Streaming Server for MP3 broadcasting.

• Folder Actions have returned in Mac OS X 10.2. Folder Actions allow you to attach an AppleScript to a folder which will activate when the folder is opened or has files added to or removed from it. Jesse Shanks' article My First Jaguar Folder Action is a good how-to; from the article: "A useful feature in the Finder list view is the ability to view comments that have been added to a file. Besides adding information about the item, the comments column can also be used to sort the list in a different way. The following article describes how to create and attach a folder action to a folder that generates a dialog box for each file added into which comments can be quickly entered."

Meanwhile, Folder Actions Manager wraps the Apple supplied AppleScript Folder Action scripts into a tiny Apple Script Studio application. Sez the author: "It was tiny and only took about 10 minutes to do. But it is so useful, I thought I'd share it with you all."

• Jesse Shanks strikes again with a fine article entitled Ten Tips and Gotchas for the Script Editor. Whether you are a newbie or old hand, review these helpful hints. Making a PDF of most-frequently-opened AS Dictionaries is my fave.

• Export iTunes Playlist to M3U Format for AudioTron (AppleScript) - Bery Rinaldo's clever script creates a M3U file (a playlist-type file readable by other MP3 software players such as WinAmp and, specifically in this case, AudioTron) from a Playlist in iTunes. A M3U file is essentially just a text file with the URLs or locations of the tracks listed and separated by linefeeds. It's used for streaming content also, which is the most common way Mac users encounter a M3U file.

• Wooden Brain Concepts has contributed many excellent AppleScripts to this site. WBC has created a couple of AppleScript Studio applications for use with iTunes as well. These apps are OS X only. MOA Tunes, "a GUI shell for a number of scripts that Wooden Brain Concepts and others have written for iTunes. Rather than keeping several stay-open scripts running and taking up space in the dock, Moa Tunes ties them together in an attractive package." iGotta MP3 Collection is "a FileMaker Pro 5.x database designed to import an MP3 collection from iTunes' "export song list" file. This database will automatically import these files correctly. It features a list and detail view, searching, sorting, printable reports, and HTML table export, in an attractive package. Freely customizable."

•  Nicholas Jitikoff's Convert to MP3 (LAME) v1.0.3 is an AppleScript front-end for the open source LAME encoder (a separate download). LAME is thought by many to be a superior CD ripper—however, it is a UNIX program and, for the Terminal-phobic, can be cumbersome to use. This script bridges the gap for those of us who aren't command-line interface comfy; the only Terminal task you need perform is the installation of LAME itself, which is easy, complete instructions included. Also, Nicholas has commented his script beautifully if you want to dabble.

• Also along UNIX lines: Tetsuya Okuno has created an AppleScript interface for the open source application "Normalize". Normalizing establishes a standard volume setting for many audio files -- handy when mastering files from incongruous sources for CD. Complete instructions and system requirements are posted on his homepage. Note that normalizing is not the same as iTunes 3's Sound Check facility, which merely adjusts iTunes volume output level—normalizing will permanently alter the amplitude data of the file.

• Soft-O-Mat is Martin Michel's freeware and evangelism (and coffee fetish?) and blog site. The freeware AppleScripts for iTunes there are quite good and you would do well to check for occasional updates. See the Soft-O-Mat product line on this page.