“There’s no disputing that iTunes boasts an excellent feature set right out of the installation package. However, if you really plan to stretch its powers to the max, you may want to think about downloading a few third-party applications,” CNET reports. “Download.com offers a number of iTunes add-ons that add functionality and convenience to this already-great jukebox for the Mac.”
Here are a few you can check out:
• Fetch Art for iTunes (Free)
• Synergy (Free to try; $5.00 to buy)
• RadioLover (Free to try; $15.00 to buy)
• iTunes Monitor (Free)
• iPodRip (Free to try; $14.95 to buy)
More info and links about each application mentioned above is in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We can attest to iPodRip’s abilities; that’s what we use – for testing purposes only, of course. Also for the list, in our opinion, would be Griffins iFill which streams mp3 files from thousands of free radio stations directly to your iPod. With iFill, you can go to bed while charging your iPod, and wake up to an iPod full of new music without having to search through your record collection, browse the iTunes Store, or rip any CDs. More info and download link (Free to try, $19.99 to buy) here.
Have to say, I’m surprised they didn’t include CoverFlow. I’m back to browsing by albums rather than tracks. It’s an awesome piece of freeware.
What, no love for OSS 3D? C’mon…
It does really amazing audio transformations. Try it, play it loud.
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Together, 4Front and Subband bring you OSS 3D for iTunes®! OSS 3D; utilizes state-of-the-art DSP (digital signal processing) technology that allows you to add bass frequencies, spatialization, adaptive compression, 3D surround sound and numerous other real-time enhancements to your music when played through iTunes.
OSS 3D comprises a set of proprietary audio quality enhancement algorithms that provide access to speaker resonance correction, a virtual subwoofer, adaptive compressor/limiter, high frequency restoration, center channel control, and more. Also included is a studio quality high-fidelity 10-band equalizer with a built-in peak limiter to improve upon the E.Q. built into iTunes. Thus, OSS 3D greatly improves playback of all of your MP3s, RealAudio files, Audio CDs, OGG-Vorbis and other digital and real-time/streaming audio & sound.
Main Page: http://www.macamp.com/
Direct Download Link: http://hosttank.net/~subband/OSS_3D_1.62.dmg
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i’ve had Synergy for several years. It is great.
i cannot believe that Apple has not incorporated comparable functionality into iTunes yet. It seems so obvious.
There’s great little AppleScript that I use, Rip to iPod. It rips the music, loads in onto a coonected iPod, then deletes it from your iTunes library. This is essential when adding your girlfriend’s French pop music (EGAD!), or other such monstosities, to her iPod.
http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts08.php?page=1#riptoipod
I find the album cover finding utilities severely wanting. If the album covers I’m looking for are mainstream titles from mainstream labels, they mostly work, but I have a lot of obscure, contemporary and imported classical music in my Library and they rarely find the correct covers if any at all. I’m NOT going to sit around scanning CD cover art.
MDN Magic Word: george? HUH?
In regard to MCN take about iFill…. that’s what RadioLover is for.
That CoverFlow looks awesome, I had a dream about a album cover chooser the other day. If only I could afford a Mac….
I “want” a mac
to add cover art in 10.4 use this handy widget.
http://www.widget-foundry.com/widgets/amazonart.htm
i’ve been using for a few months and it works well enough. Fetch Art needs some work but it is a good start.
Mike K. –
I too was using that widget but recently stopped because it seems that Amazon is more and more using “small” artwork instead of “larger” artwork. Thus I would often have to find the artwork elsewhere. Has anyone else noticed this?
One other question. I recently moved my iTunes library to the “Shared” folder so as to have my family all access the same music from their various accounts. I changed the path to the shared folder in each of the accounts and also fixed the privileges from each account. The problem I running into is that when I add music to the library from my account, the music does not appear in the other accounts. I have to manually “add to library” from each account. Shouldn’t the music automatically appear in the other accounts (note: I’m not talking about having playlists automatically added)? Anyone have any ideas on how to have the music automatically appear instead of having to manually add the music to the library?
Thank you for your time and help!
Peace.
Lurker
ah yes … the shared library problem. The last great challenge for iTunes … along with gapless playback, FLAC support and a few other things.
I would search the iTunes discussion forums over at Apple.com or at iLounge. I was trying to do this a couple of years back and finally gave up since all solutions were really complicated and not all that efficient or elegant. Maybe in the last year someone has found something better. I think some combination of smart playlists and smart folders might work but have not tested this thoroughly.
Good luck.
What? No mention of Clutter?
MDN said: you can go to bed while charging your iPod, and wake up to an iPod full of new music
Not unless it can listen to more than one station at a time, a dozen or more? Most people sleep for maybe eight hours a night and my iPod holds – not, could hold, holds – more than ten times that amount of music. And it has room to spare. You must be talking about a nano, or something.
mike k. – Thanks for the advice. Didn’t realize this was an “undocumented feature” of iTunes. No wonder the folks at the local Apple store couldn’t help. (Note: forgot to mention that full permissions were given to everyone).
If I find an easy solution, will post it here on MDN.
Thanks again.
Peace.
Why isn’t Jumping Steve on this list? Thats the best iTunes add-on of all.
What is better? Corripio, FetchArt, or the Amazon Art widget?
Opinions?
I’ve never used Synergy…I’ve never seen the use for the menu-bar buttons (I don’t need MORE clutter in my menu bar!), and the free SizzlingKeys performs the hotkeys and floater functions admirably.