What is Digg?55 Comments
- mesostinky, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Not being able to monitor a specific folder is a huge flaw IMHO.
These days with multiPC networks and NAS becoming normal, keeping your music on the network is very common. Why the hell would I want to have to tie my entire music collection to just one PC under "My docs"? Itunes is behind the times here. Finally many people like myself also don't use Apple to import CDs due to Itunes crappy mp3 codec implementation. - SmeRndmGy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9People act like it is a major advancement of humanity when Apple finally decides to implement a strange, half assed attempt at something that all of their competitors have been doing for years. A mouse with a scroll wheel (sort of). Laptops with 2 mouse buttons (sort of). Music software that will easily allow you to monitor any folder you want (sort of, and not an official Apple feature). Apple needs to accept that some people don't want Apple controlling every aspect of their media library. Some people do, so if they want to make that the default, fine, but it is essential for them to give people the option to do what they want with their files. They can only coast along on their design, idiot proofness, and trendiness / popularity for so long. Eventually they will have to include some of the basic features that everyone else has had for years if they want to remain competitive.
- UGM2099, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10I agree, just like ________ , the superior mp3 jukebox.
- donatj, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6This is why I still use winamp, few people even realize winamp will track folders for you... most people only use the most basic features of winamp...
- HobbesDoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Nowhere on that page it says whether this software does watch for music in folders and then adds them to the library. Plus paying 29 bucks to find out whether something does what I want is not for me. It would be cool if there was a tool that did that for me.
- mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9are you serious? i didn't think you could get more user-friendly than itunes..
..nahh, maybe you were just being sarcastic.. - iWorks, on 10/12/2007, -7/+11http://www.mistatree.org/Shareware/iTunify/
iTunify is the missing set of tools for iTunes.
It lets you:
# Find duplicate tracks
# Find & Replace in ID3 tags with support for Regular Expressions
# Change the case of ID3 tags (upper, lower, word, sentence)
# Exchange ID3 tags
# Import & Export artwork with advanced options
# Import & Export ID3 tags with advanced options
# Toggle bookmarkability of AAC tracks
# Remove dead tracks from library
# Remove checked tracks from library
# Remove unchecked tracks from library
# Invert Check Marks
...and all without leaving iTunes! - iluvatar, on 10/12/2007, -6/+10Edit -> Show Duplicate Songs
As for the rest, iTunes doesn't have them because they would seriously complicate the useablity (does your little sister know what a regular expression is?). iTunes is intentially designed to be easy for anybody to use, and that's why it is so successful. - ziffel, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6"As for the rest, iTunes doesn't have them because they would seriously complicate the useablity (does your little sister know what a regular expression is?). iTunes is intentially designed to be easy for anybody to use, and that's why it is so successful."
Advanced options can easily be hidden from those who prefer a simpler interface. Many apps do this with something like a "Show Advanced Options" button. Your reasoning isn't sufficient for something as basic as finding duplicate tracks, or simply staying synced with your music folder. - jbrocket99, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Its good software but with no trial and no Windows version apparent I don't think it applies to most people.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6"As for the rest, iTunes doesn't have them because they would seriously complicate the usability (does your little sister know what a regular expression is?)."
Sorry, but there are quite a few people who believe an application can be both feature rich and easy to use. Just because your little sister doesn't know what a regular expression is doesn't mean itunes can't offer those things, monitor a folder for new media (even *gag* windows media player does that), or do other useful things beyond simple functionality. They should have written an easily extensible plugin interface compatible with both platforms at the least. - MacSuxWindozSux, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4At first I thought it was a feature I overlooked in iTunes... but then i read the article and found out it was 3rd party software that needs some manual tweaking to get working.
Ill probably download it and try it. Most people probably wont, but whatever.
I found it really annoying that itunes couldnt auto recognize new media files in my various folders scattered across my hard drive.
Also i dont use the "C:Documents and SettingsUserMy DocumentsMy MusiciTunesiTunes Music" folder to store media. I put stuff in places like "C:music" so its so much easier to organize and find and its not limited to the one stupid security default admin account im using for my WinXP machine. (which the other logins cant access).
Btw: I suspect this is one of the reasons Mac and linux users find their file systems easier. One thing i don't understand though is how they make sure somethings on a specific drive when they got more drives then 1. meh. - deadbaby, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Yep I agree.. iTunes is great when your music collection is really big. It's so much easier to just type a name instead of hunting and pecking through multiple levels of directories. The smart playlist feature is what really sold me on iTunes. It's the best random playlist generator I've ever used. If you customize the criteria you can get wonderful mixes of content.
- MacSuxWindozSux, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Robin Hood coined the term "extra-legal".
- spyres, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3For people who want to use quicktime without being forced to download the crap that is I-tunes on on the PC.
Stand alone quicktime. Which Apples seems to hide fairly well on their site.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html - kalisphoenix, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Or you can just drag-and-drop completed downloads/whatever to iTunes, or you can not use it. iTunes is just a pretty standard mp3 player.... (on top of what I consider to be a very nice and feature-rich music library system). If you're not going to use iTunes to manage all of your music/whatever, then why are you using it at all?
- HobbesDoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4(Off topic) Macs and Linux use Volumes instead of driver letters. It makes moving things around simple as hell. You can move applications to other Volumes without having to reinstall them. It's really cool.
- modestmouse, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3And even for those who get them from "extra-legal" sources.
- celticeric, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I submitted a link to iTunes Library Updater to digg 151 days ago. (1217 diggs by the way.) Because it's a Windows only solution, a number of commenters left useful tips for doing the same with apple scripts:
http://digg.com/software/Make_iTunes_rescan_folders_and_remove_missing_files
It still baffles me why this isn't built into iTunes. I can only assume the RIAA is behind it in some diabolical way. - SmeRndmGy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3It also clames to sync with an ipod. I can't confirm this because I do not own anything made by apple, but if it is true, it is definately a nice Itunes alternative. If you hit Alt L in winamp (5) you will find a lot of cool features you probably didn't even know about.
- MacSuxWindozSux, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Naw thats wrong.
Right click lets you get a quick menu for extra mouse functions on the spot. What you're saying about mac makes you move the mouse to some other area of the screen to find a menu somewhere to do the same thing.
With the right click the menu is always where you expect it and its always right next to the pointer. Makes for faster, easier navigation.
It's a design decision, you could go either way and have a great computing experience.
In either case there's trade offs. But most side with the 2 button mouse, even Apple's catching on.
As for the buried menu's... yea they suck, but the software can do more. Just more functionality then space provides. Theres ways to extend functionality and minimize this clutter, Apples among those groups who do a great job at this. - Swift2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2On the Mac, this function is pretty easy. Make a folder on the desktop, connect a folder action to it, boom. What's the problem?
- rbvmusic, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I rip all my cds in either the Apple Lossless Codec or a mp4 format with 320 kbps, both of which are awesome.
heck, even the mp3 ripping can encode in 320kbps, I don't see what's your point. - mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3crap i wish this had a windows version..
..or i wish i had a mac - anjinash, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I so wanted this program to work, as the folder sync issue has always been one of my biggest gripes with iTunes. Unfortunately, running this little app actually removed some songs from my library that were still in my music folder. Why? No idea!
I keep all my MP3s on a networked drive, and Apple doesn't account for this. By default, iTunes wants to move everything into a folder under My Documents, then it tries to reorganize them. The first time I installed iTunes, this "feature" screwed up months of work I had done organizing my music just the way I wanted it.
I like the iTunes interface, and I love the searching features ... but all in all iTunes sucks major balls. It's too bad I have to use it to sync with my iPods, otherwise I'd use a different player altogether. I mean, Christ.. even Windows Media Player can sync to my music folders and update itself without skull-***** my organizational methods. - HobbesDoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I pretty much changed my way of organizing my music library around iTunes restrictions. I let it organize it for me. Before I used MusicMatch and loved the "watch folder" concept. I could also have more than 1 music folder and it would watch it for me. I agree with @SmeRndmGy and iTunes could have these features that other players had for years without being cumbersome to use. In particular "watch folders" for me.
- Nitro420, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So even with this method it still only syncs when you tell it to? Is there a better solution out there?
- Canuck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"This is why I still use winamp, few people even realize winamp will track folders for you... most people only use the most basic features of winamp..."
I've tried Winamp, but it has it's own list of "features". The one that caused me to stop using Winamp, was it's inability to re-read ID3 tags after you've added the files to the library. If you use an external app to fix spelling, genre, year etc. in the ID3 tags, the only way to get Winamp to recognize the new info, is to delete and re-add the file. Which then causes you to lose the playcount, last played and rating information. Also, I believe that it will use version 1 of the tags rather than 2.3 if they both exist rather than asking you.
Yes, winamp does support the iPod, but you cannot put smart playlists within smart playlists. Which is a feature that I find is a must have if you have a media library bigger than what your iPod will hold. - hashkaran, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2rsync
- donatj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Exactally. I keep all my mp3's on a centeral server.
- evilspoons, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've been using iTLU for a while, it's a great little utility, and this is a good guide to how to use it.
- kalisphoenix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Doesn't iTunes use LAME?
- modsuperstar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For those ragging on iTunes for a lack of duplicate track feature, Edit-->Show Duplicate Songs
- Swift2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1But, uh, you can add tunes to iTunes by dropping it on the list, by launching the music file -- unless it's in a Quicktime wrapper, in which case you need to export it to aac, mp3, and stuff like that, and using the resulting audio file to put into iTunes -- and selecting "Add to Library." You can decide to put your iTunes Music folder anywhere you want by changing the preference. (Though, if there's a problem, it will hiccup and try to reconstruct the folder in the Music folder.)
- Goosemaster, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2itunes does not use the LAME encoder
it is SUPPOSED to be common knowledge that its mp3 encoder is pretty subpar
that said, if you use apple lossless or aac you should get great results - WafflesID, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1see also Public Folders
- autoy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why does apple not include a watch folders function is beyond me. At least make it an advanced option or something. I really hate it when I retag or rename my mp3s to match my own criteria and iTunes database goes bonkers. My music library os also spanned across several hard drives or networked drives, which seems to be a problem for iTunes song tracking.
It's the kind of misconception present in iPhoto as well, and that's why I want Picasa for Mac. Last week I made some new photo folders in my main picture folder. I can't remember what I called them and I don't want to, my picture library is pretty big. Picasa will add them automatically to the database and classify by date. In iPhoto I will have to search for them, remember what they were called and manually add them to my library.
C'mon apple it's just programming a loop:
Check folder sizes
Check recursively is folders have changed
If folder size has changed, add new media to library
But for some obscure reason Apple does not want it's users to be organized. - wadexyz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Call me a simpleton, but I hate iTunes. All I want is something that acts like a drive...that's it. They can take all that other stuff I don't want and shove it. And why, oh why, does it lock up my system? I like the hardware....hate the software.
- Bitucaboy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1(Off topic, kinda...) Does anyone know how to change how many simultaneous podcasts downloads iTunes does?
- Swift2, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5And I find it bizarre that Windows people want/need two buttons. You see, if your software was designed to work with one button, and Mac software is, with the occasional opt-click, everything's cool. There's absolutely no need for two-button mice.But Windows people assume that, since you can't even find the properties of something without a right-click, that the same is true on the Mac. If you've used the Mac for a while, you know that you want "Get Info," and the hot key is Cmd-I. It's not hard, it's just something that Windows users don't know and aren't comfortable with. Apple has been supporting just about any two-button mouse you wanted to get for three years or more. Now they make one of their own. It sucks.
The two-button mouse is okay, but it's hardly an "advance." It encourages hidden programming, and hidden options. Example: sort your Explorer bookmarks. Find the menu or hot-key command. You can't, it's a right-click. Now, where would you learn that? Somebody has to tell you, or you just discover it by chance after looking through the menus, and the options, and all like that. See? Hidden programming. Part of the reason that Windows options are stored four tabs deep in a control panel. Different philosophy, and it's empowered by that damn two-button mouse. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I actually kinda hate itunes, in a way, I Have a powerbook g4 osx, i dont like how it tries to make you keep the music on your harddrive, and if you delete the music, then later, you cant edit the songs/track information (itunes wont let you) I dont see why i cant just go into the ipod like a jumpdrive and change the songs to whatever i want them to be called?
- Goosemaster, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1this acutally looks cool for folks that get a lot of music from legal methods other than iTMS :)
- pt4117, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@mrassman
Are you serious? You don't think iTunes could be any more user friendly? What about this very topic?
I think it would be more user friendly if it would monitor my folder, if it allowed you to browse by album art, and there are a half dozen other things that it could improve on.
I can't believe that anyone could be such a fan boy that they would say that there isn't any room for improvement. - CypherXero, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3It's always good to see some form of scripting. Scripts, I have found, bring a lot of life to an Operating System. Good job.
- modsuperstar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Swift2: The Macintosh has supported 2 button mouses for well more then 3 years. I think since USB first made it's appearance on the platform there have been 2 button mice, and I bet there were serial mice by 3rd party manufacturers.
- boelder, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3requires... Microsoft .NET
Can I get that for a dual G5?
-b - taterhead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0the directory player - 1by1
Tired of creating and updating playlists?
http://mpesch3.de1.cc/1by1.html
92 KB - mozdef22, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I find using Libra very easy for me, I have about 4 iTunes folders that i switch every now and then.
http://homepage.mac.com/sroy/libra/ - elroy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2LOL @ blurb. This software is bloated because it's missing a feature.
- TheBurt, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I suggest Billy for a mp3 player, it monitors folders.
http://www.sheepfriends.com/?page=billy -
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