How To Lower Bitrate, & iTunes tutorials Options

[r&d]

To coincide with the new lineup of iPods, iTunes 8 was released last week, I finally am getting a chance to play with it a bit. Since this is a full version upgrade, there are new features and some of the things folks are used to have been moved around. Two links to explain what's new:

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/...es-of-itunes-8/

http://www.apple.com/itunes/whatsnew

One thing not mentioned there is that the old "convert selection to mp3" command has been renamed to "create mp3 version".

I like the new Visualizer. It is very good. It goes really well with energetic music.
haven't turned on Genius feature. I can imagine it is not going to help those
with music that is not in iTunes and since most don't tag their mp3 files.
Plus there is the problem with different tagging style which wouldn't
match.

There is also Custom Genre Artwork feature. not for newbies.
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/...es-of-itunes-8/

[deewani]

I'll have to try it with the more fast paced stuff, with the slower stuff, it's quite mesmerizing and hypnotic, I stared at it for an half an hour yesterday.

Regarding the Genius feature, it seems to be sort of like Last FM, I don't intend to turn it on either, it will likely use up resources on my old PC, and I also can't imagine it suggesting any more music for me.

I always enjoy reading your posts as they often make perfect sense to me.

Custom Genre Artwork is awesome!! I was wondering how they would address the genres I have created, it was assigning random artwork to the genre. But....this is brilliant, I LOVE iLounge, lol . I'd make some custom ones if I had any artistic capability at all, lol. One can only hope that bollywood related custom artwork pops up in blogland soon. They've already done fantastic stuff at iLounge with the traditional genres.

p.s. I checked out that new classic iPod (now in only one size at 120gb) at the Apple store today, the black is more like charcoal metallic gray then true black with a black click wheel, which is just beautiful to me. I hope they keep that color next time they upgrade the classic with more capacity. Everyone is guessing a late spring upgrade to 240gb because Toshiba now makes a drive that size that will fit the old 160gb classic I have, one can only hope and drool, lol.

[deewani]

I'll have to try it with the more fast paced stuff, with the slower stuff, it's quite mesmerizing and hypnotic, I stared at it for an half an hour yesterday.

Regarding the Genius feature, it seems to be sort of like Last FM, I don't intend to turn it on either, it will likely use up resources on my old PC, and I also can't imagine it suggesting any more music for me.

I always enjoy reading your posts as they often make perfect sense to me.

Custom Genre Artwork is awesome!! I was wondering how they would address the genres I have created, it was assigning random artwork to the genre. But....this is brilliant, I LOVE iLounge, lol . I'd make some custom ones if I had any artistic capability at all, lol. One can only hope that bollywood related custom artwork pops up in blogland soon. They've already done fantastic stuff at iLounge with the traditional genres.

p.s. I checked out that new classic iPod (now in only one size at 120gb) at the Apple store today, the black is more like charcoal metallic gray then true black with a black click wheel, which is just beautiful to me. I hope they keep that color next time they upgrade the classic with more capacity. Everyone is guessing a late spring upgrade to 240gb because Toshiba now makes a drive that size that will fit the old 160gb classic I have, one can only hope and drool, lol.

[r&d]

I'll have to try it with the more fast paced stuff, with the slower stuff, it's quite mesmerizing and hypnotic, I stared at it for an half an hour yesterday.

Regarding the Genius feature, it seems to be sort of like Last FM, I don't intend to turn it on either, it will likely use up resources on my old PC, and I also can't imagine it suggesting any more music for me.

I always enjoy reading your posts as they often make perfect sense to me.

Custom Genre Artwork is awesome!! I was wondering how they would address the genres I have created, it was assigning random artwork to the genre. But....this is brilliant, I LOVE iLounge, lol . I'd make some custom ones if I had any artistic capability at all, lol. One can only hope that bollywood related custom artwork pops up in blogland soon. They've already done fantastic stuff at iLounge with the traditional genres.

p.s. I checked out that new classic iPod (now in only one size at 120gb) at the Apple store today, the black is more like charcoal metallic gray then true black with a black click wheel, which is just beautiful to me. I hope they keep that color next time they upgrade the classic with more capacity. Everyone is guessing a late spring upgrade to 240gb because Toshiba now makes a drive that size that will fit the old 160gb classic I have, one can only hope and drool, lol.

All my genre are source related so all songs from www.talatmahmood.net has Talat as genre tag.

So I have created one for Talat, Sdb, Hindustani Classical Music, DVD and Oldies.
I am looking for appropriate images for other tags like Hamara, Collection.

What iTunes doesn't currently provide is adding icons to the Composers.

[r&d]

Apple usually doesn't update ipods in spring time lately.
They have reduced price of shuffle. They are introducing them
in september so they can ramp up production for christmas gift season.
The reason they downgraded to 120 was the size so 240 is probably not going
to happen. The future is touch.

My preference would be ipod touch. It is
only missing GPS and video camera for video ichat.

This post has been edited by r&d: Sep 18 2008, 07:56 AM

[deewani]

I actually prefer the more mechanical classic, most of the time I use it, it sits in my pocket and I can adjust the volume or skip a track easily by sliding my fingers in my pockets without removing it (impt for the chef, lol). I'm quite happy with my current capacity, any upgrade to 160 would be heaven though. And by upgrading every year or two, I just end up putting the money towards a new one after selling the older version instead of towards a new battery, so thus far I haven't had to deal with battery life issues. I'm afraid flash memory will take a while to catch up capacity wise, at that point bluetooth voice controlled wireless headphones would probably be widespread though, making it easier for me to control a touch unit. If they don't upgrade the capacity, I'll have to take care of this baby for a while.

[r&d]

Here is Flickr group that is collecting iTunes genre.
So far they have 186 images.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/itunesgenres/pool/

[deewani]

I've been watching that hoping someone would make me some genre pics, lol. Currently using my avatar as the default bhangra logo.

[r&d]

I've been watching that hoping someone would make me some genre pics, lol. Currently using my avatar as the default bhangra logo.

I like first one. Pick which ever you like and I can edit if necessary.

[deewani]

I like the first one, thanks very much (also love the T-shirt). Punjabi pop culture t-shirts have come a long way. Sigh, the Bhangra book, I'm still trying to get my hands on a copy of that, I was hoping it would show up in the book stores here, it's out of stock at Amazon, may have to order it direct from the publisher..... My avatar is from pictures of the Soho Road to Punjab exhibit in the UK. I doubt it will ever tour here, but one can hope.

[r&d]

The image is little smaller than 256. So you may want add
text at the top or something.

Is this bhangra written in punjabi?

ਭੰਗੜਾ

[deewani]

It is.

[deewani]

Someone submitted a bhangra one to that iLounge flickr group:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9687878@N08/

I also found this one amusing even though it's not a genre I follow:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25758143@N02/...ol-itunesgenres