Hackszine.com: iTunes Archives

Archive: iTunes

July 22, 2007

Sharing lists of podcasts for the iPhone, iPod, iTunes... OPML, .pcasts and more...

I was talking with a friend who has an iPhone and was sharing some of the videos and audio (podcasts) I have. It's a pretty good mix of current news, updated videos, science audio shows and best of all, free... The audio shows are good for running and the video shows are good for commuting (subway/bus). Since I don't have a TV this is a nice commercial free way to get a lot of great content. Not many people know you can share your Podcasts fairly easily (by share I mean the list of them).

First, the not so easy ways... You can't make an iMix since that's just for things you can buy (see image below).

Make 844

Make 849
Here's a screen shot of the ones I have...

Make 848
In iTunes you can see the XML feed, but you can't copy and paste it.

Make 847
One thing that is possible is to drag the podcast title from iTunes on to the desktop, it creates a .pcast file (Podcast subscription file) which contains the feed location.

Make 846
It's possible to cut and paste from a .pcast file once you open it in a text editor - and you can paste the url in to iTunes... (*Note, you can also drag RSS/XML feeds in to iTunes from a browser). If you like the shows listed here - download my .pcast files linked below or all of them in the zip file - Link.

That said, the easiest way for folks really in to this is to just use an OPML file. iTunes can export and import OPML files (a list of locations / feeds of the podcasts, audio, video and PDF). Here's how...

Make 851
In iTunes click podcasts in the main window.

Make 852-1
In the menu choose File > Export.

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In the pull down list choose OPML. That's your OPML file, you can now send this to someone, post it online and import it... Here's how -

Make 854
In iTunes go to the menu, choose File > Import and select the OPML file.

Make 855
You'll get this dialog and you're all set!

Here's my iTunes OPML file - Link.

That's it - go fill up those devices! It's what all those gigs are for.

Bonus tip: If you have your own podcast you can make a one-click subscption link. Just replace http:// with itpc://

For MAKE ours is: itpc://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/make_podcast/index.xml

This opens up iTunes and subscribes.

Or, you can use a link to the show within iTunes - here's ours again...
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=74069835&s=143441

Make 857
To get a URL location of any podcast just right click (or on Mac ctrl - click).

I'm pretty sure this works on both Macs and PCs, if it doesn't post up in the comments.

July 16, 2007

HOW TO - Put DVDs on the iPhone - the super simple way

HandBrake is a GPL'd multi-platform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter - it's super easy to rip the DVDs you have and put them on the new iPhone - they look great and are about 1 GB each, here's how...

First, get HandBrake - Link. There are also PC versions of HandBrake, it might work about the same way.

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Install it, run it. Pop the DVD in. Pick the DVD volume. Choose your settings, I use the defaults usually.

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It takes about 30 min or so, it runs fine in the background.

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Drag the MP4 file it makes in to iTunes, in videos tab in iTunes for the iPhone select the movie, click Sync.

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In a couple minutes it transfers over.

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It's about a gig.

The video is in the videos section. iPod / Videos.

It looks and sounds great!

*Joe notes - I found if you create a new preset for iphone in handbrake and set the video dimensions to 480x320 you can crunch movies down to a much smaller size optimized for the iphone native resolution.

April 22, 2007

Run an iTunes (DAAP) server in Linux with Firefly

Firefly, formerly mt-daapd, is an open source digital audio server that can stream your music library to iTunes. Linux appears to be the most supported platform, but there is also beta support for Mac OS X, Windows, and even the AppleTV!

One of its cooler features is that it's capable of transcoding your music files on-the-fly to a format that's playable by your iTunes client. So if you've been building up a huge OGG or FLAC library, Firefly will let iTunes know that these songs are available and it will automatically convert them into a format that can be played on the client.

Links:

Firefly Media Server
Firefly/mt-daapd Wiki - quick-start guides for serveral OSs here
Running Firefly on AppleTV

April 6, 2007

Ditch iTunes - iPod Shuffle Database Builder

"This little program enables iPod shuffle users to finally get rid of all that iTunes or other complicated playlist management stuff. Due to the simple structure of the shuffle (compared to the »big« iPods), it is possible to use the player almost like any other USB flash MP3 player: You simply copy MP3 files onto it. You only need to run the Database Builder program after you added or removed files from the iPod" -Link.

I like iTunes for a lot of things. It's great for managing my music and video library, and it's a nice interface for desktop playback.

What I don't like is that it wants to reformat my Shuffle every time I am on a different computer. I don't want to be shackled to iTunes and its opinion of where and how I should listen to my music. The database builder will let you move files to and from the Shuffle on your own terms, with whatever machine you are at, using any OS you wish.

March 28, 2007

Who's Listening To Your Shared iTunes Music?

With iTunes, it's really easy to make your music and video libraries available so that you can view them from another machine. For whatever reason, though, the good folks at Apple didn't add an option to track who is viewing your library or see what they are listening to.

Last month, I mentioned the *nix lsof command, which allows you to get a listing of all open file handles on a system, including open socket connections. You can use this command line utility to quickly figure out if anyone is connected to your iTunes library and see what mp3 files are being read. Here's how:

Who's connected:
Go to your command prompt and type:

lsof |grep iTunes |grep TCP

You'll see something like this:

iTunes 338 name 16u IPv4 0x37fc710 0t0 TCP *:daap (LISTEN)
iTunes 338 name 17u IPv4 0x2efb920 0t0 TCP 192.168.0.3:daap->192.168.0.8:50565 (ESTABLISHED)

The first line is just your iTunes application listening for incoming connections. The second is another machine with IP address 192.168.0.8 that is connected and browsing the music library. If nobody were connected, you'd just see that first line.

Who's listening?
When another machines iTunes client connects to your library, it first opens up a TCP connection for browsing your music library. When the client chooses to play a file, a second TCP connection is made to transmit that file's data. When you search for TCP connections and someone is actually downloading music, you'll see something like this:

iTunes 338 name 16u IPv4 0x37fc710 0t0 TCP *:daap (LISTEN)
iTunes 338 name 17u IPv4 0x2efb920 0t0 TCP 192.168.0.3:daap->192.168.0.8:50565 (ESTABLISHED)
iTunes 338 name 18u IPv4 0x2dae920 0t0 TCP 192.168.0.3:daap->192.168.0.8:50573 (ESTABLISHED)

Because there are two connections from 192.168.0.8 in this scenario, we know that the remote iTunes client is transferring file data, and not just browsing.

What's being listened to?
Back at the command prompt, run another lsof and look for files that are open in your music library. This assumes that your files are stored in the default iTunes Music directory.

lsof |grep "iTunes Music"

You should see something like this:

iTunes 338 name 17r REG 14,2 5657237 965155 /Users/name/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Compilations/Xen Cuts (Disc 3)/3-07 Drunk Trumpet 1.mp3

Now keep in mind, this will list every file that is opened by your iTunes application, whether it's being transmitted over the network or you are listening to it locally. Unfortunately, I don't know of a way to associate a particular file with a particular downloader, but it's not too difficult to figure out unless there are several people connected. If it's just a single user, just look for any files you aren't currently listening to yourself. If you know of an easy way to figure out exactly who is downloading what, please share it in the comments.

March 23, 2007

iConcertCal - Track Upcoming Concerts in iTunes

iConcertCal is an iTunes plugin that pulls concert data for artists that you have in your music library and it will automatically generate a personal calendar of upcoming shows in your city.

We wrote this plug-in in our spare time because we were tired of missing concerts for our favorite bands and we figured other people probably are too.

If you ever needed a good example for how the Internet, digital media and Web 2.0 are working in concert to build a richer landscape for musicians and audiences, this is it.

iConcertCal: A Personalized Concert Calendar Built For iTunes -Link.

January 23, 2007

Stream Music to Airport Express Without iTunes

You don't need to use iTunes to stream audio to an Aiport Express. You can use the Windows Media Player, WinAmp, Rhapsody, etc...

oAEP - Stands for ovesen.NET Airport Express Player. This small application records the music and sound played by your pc and streams it to an Airtunes enabled Airport Express. It has never been this easy streaming music and sound to your Airport Express without using ITunes.

Yes, you red correctly. You can use Media Player, WinAmp or another music player with your Airport Express.

Source included. Neat, this means you can also stream formats iTunes doesn't, like Ogg Vorbis (well, with a plug-in you can).

Related:

JustePort

(Thanks, Phil!)

January 11, 2007

Make Shorter iTunes Podcast Links

Podcast URL

Anyone who's had to share a link to a podcast in the iTunes Store knows the painfully long URLs you're forced to deal with (in this case, for the Make Magazine Podcast):

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=74069835

Well, over at the O'Reilly Network, Digital Media blogger David Battino uncovers a quick hack to chop it down to its essentials, based on the podcast ID at the end of the string, turning it into this:

http://www.itunes.com/podcast?id=74069835

You can, of course, also use a service like SnipURL to create something even smaller, as well as a bit more recognizable and memorable:

http://snipurl.com/makezine

Finally, for the most sophisticated and useful URL, David adds:

If you own your own domain, you could simply set up a page with a meta refresh, name it index.html, and place it in an appropriate subdirectory like myshow. Then your link would be http://www.yoursite.com/myshow.

Check out his article for the details.

Related: