iPhone and iPod touch: About backups demystifies iTunes’ backup process for iPhones and iPod touches. Nothing too ground-breaking here, though a portion covers how to delete a backup if you want to start fresh.
My Infinite Loop co-writer Jeff Smykil asked on Twitter whether it was possible to turn movie files ripped from a DVD to iTunes into a TV show, which would have the advantage of season metadata and all the other organizational benefits iTunes has to offer. iTunes indeed allows you to do this manually on a file-by-file basis via the File > Get Info command (check the Video tab). But if you have just a few episodes—never mind entire seasons, or multiple seasons—this is an incredibly tedious process.
A while ago I had the same question and was sure there was a better way to batch edit a bunch of movie files into a TV show and season. Turns out there is, in the form of a script from Doug’s AppleScripts (sorry Windows users, though there’s gotta be something out there for y’all). Selecting a bunch of movie files in iTunes and running Doug’s Set Video Kind of Selected script presents the simple dialog you see above. You can set only the info you want (i.e., you don’t have to specify an episode or season if you don’t want to), then click Done and wait as the script works its magic on iTunes. This has worked really well for me ever since I’ve been using it on Tiger and now Leopard, and I believe I’ve used it at least once in the latest iTunes 7.6.
The script certainly has its drawbacks though. If you have multiple seasons of movie files you need to turn into TV shows, you’ll need to do them in individual batches as you can only set this data and use the script on one batch/season at a time.
Still, this script is great for automating this terrible process (which iTunes really should have made easier by now). However, folks who often have multiple seasons of movie files to convert may find even this to be tedious (and I wouldn’t blame them). There may be more powerful, full-blown utilities out there to do this kind of thing, but I stopped looking after I found Doug’s script as it suits my casual needs.
Speaking of Doug, don’t forget to drop the guy a few bucks if you find his scripts useful.
Video has played an increasingly important role in iTunes as a piece of software and the iTunes Store as a distribution outlet for digital media. Apple introduced video features, as well as movies, TV shows, and music videos to the iTunes Store in October 2005, and yet the iTunes software itself is still terrible at letting users organize their own video files. For example, there is no option for turning a number of movies into a TV show and specifying things like season and episode range; you need to seek out a utility or AppleScript like Doug’s Set Video Kind of Selected.
Another example of iTunes’ failings as a video organization app is the screenshot above (click it for a larger view). It’s the Get Info window for an episode of South Park, and yet the language used here is “album” and “track number” and “artist.”
As I now have roughly 32GB of music but nearly 140GB of TV shows and movies (about 60-70 percent purchased from the iTunes Store), I’m getting more and more anxious for a major iTunes overhaul that incorporates the needs of those who are using it for both music and video. With the success of TV shows and movies in the iTunes Store, I know I’m not alone.
Perhaps a future iTunes v8 update will address these glaring issues.
Doug Adams has updated his AppleScript for making AAC files bookmarkable in iTunes (i.e., if you pause a track, go listen to something else, them come back, you pick up right where you left off). Make Bookmarkable v2.2 apparently had to work around a number of wonky new iTunes issues introduced with the latest version.
On a related note, complaints like this about strange, broken, and breaking behavior in recent versions of iTunes seem to be increasing from the power user and development communities. This trend worries me about the level of QA Apple applies to one of its most publicly important apps.
The service’s first outage in March lasted for two weeks. This time around the company says it affects only a small group of users, but it doesn’t have an ETA for getting back online. Three cheers for DRM!
I have to agree with the last bit at the end of the article as well. A current Rhapsody customer expresses interest in an iTunes subscription model and switching to an iPod: “If I could get a subscription service from iTunes, I would sign up in a minute,” Solera said. “I think a lot of people would.”
Jobs may be right in that most people don’t seem to like subscription models in their current DRM-encumbered form (e.g., losing your entire library if you cancel service), but there has to be enough users out there who want iTunes and an iPod to make it worth Apple’s time. Hell, in a couple years, iTunes probably has the best shot at introducing a mainstream, non-DRM subscription model that provides an allowance of downloads each month like eMusic does. The way I see it, that’s the most logical and all-around beneficial way to go.
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I always liked this section because there’s a lot of great advertising out there that’s showcasing some great music. I’ve found artists that I genuinely love and follow via some of this stuff.
Check out the the full 41-song album.
Wow, Apple is hitting this iTunes Wi-Fi Hotspot thing hard. Don’t get me wrong‚Äîan extra click to log in doesn’t bother me that much. I’m more surprised because the sole purpose of this Hotspot page (besides displaying a couple ads) has been to serve as a login landing page for T-Mobile’s mostly business user demographic. Usurping the login to advertise iPhones, iPod touches and a wireless iTunes music store is a pretty big deal.
[tags]iTunes, iPhone, iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store[/tags]
DreamHost just announced a partnership with Bandwagon, an FTP-based, Mac-only iTunes backup service, and in return, Bandwagon is hooking up their customers with a free year of DreamHost service. Jebus - that’s a lot of discounts being exchanged. Nevertheless, I just signed up with Bandwagon and have begun my initial backup of ~ 64GB of 6396 iTunes items. It’ll be interesting to see how this goes.
Linkblog
2 days ago 
