iPod & iTunes Updates

Android Music from iTunes - Take Two

2012-01-22T16:45:00.000Z

Just to update an earlier post, software to synch music between your computer and iTunes.

While I still like Doubletwist Lifehacker is now recommending iSyncr (available here). They now favour this over Doubletwist as you only need to install this on your Android phone; Doubletwist needs an iTunes lookalike program installed on your PC or Mac.

Like Doubletwist there's both a wired and wifi version available.

CD Ripping and not an iPod in sight

2012-01-14T11:40:00.000Z

Clients often ask for help, typically how do they get the DVDs containing their music from our DVDs through their PC and onto their iPod. So it's interesting to be asked how to get music onto an Android mobile phone.

The process up to loading the phone is the same as for an iPod, we import the DVDs into iTunes. As iTunes can't recognise anything that wasn't made by Apple we recommend an additional item of software, Doubletwist, which replicates iTunes, then manages the flow of music from your hard drive onto the phone. So I loaded the music into iTunes and as we were chugging through the final DVD the client picked up her phone. Amazing, the music was there already.

Synch was happening, not via iTunes / Doubletwist but via her subscription to Spotify. Virtually instantly Spotify was finding the music tracks and making them available to her subscription account. Brilliant, we decided it wasn't necessary to continue with Doubletwist.

iTunes Match

2011-12-15T21:40:00.000Z

Macrumors.com is saying iTunes Match is now available for users in the UK.

iPads, CD Ripping & Light Switches

2011-12-09T08:26:00.000Z

One of our first CD ripping clients has become a regular client, I think I know my way around his house as well as my own. On Wednesday I was up and down stairs (yet again) re-installing Sonos software so his music system would work again.

In the train on the way back I was thinking in a brick & concrete London home, where wireless signals travel badly, Sonos is just too complicated for the average user. When it fails it takes ages to get it up and running again. So I was interested to read in The Times today their “Interiors Special” - 10 trends that hit in 2011, this came in at number 4 “The trickle down trend : iPad homes”.

“Not long ago a complex array of control gadgetry was de rigueur in expensive homes, but today anyone can control their music, TV, lighting and heating with an iPhone or an iPad.” A pundit then goes on to comment on the super-rich “The prime market has seen the importance of frivolous centralised electrics wither in favour of simple old-fashioned light switches”. gets my vote. Pay attention Sonos, you’re beginning to look frivolous.

Brentwood - Thailand Floods Hit

2011-11-30T22:19:00.000Z

When clients ask for their ripped CDs to be returned to them on a USB hard drive I normally buy one in Brentwood High Street. For years I shopped in our branch of Dixons but they closed earlier this year so now I rely on Argos.

Argos has been patchy for technology supplies but they do have the advantage of being competitively priced. I’ve just walked in and picked a drive, but not yesterday - they had no disc drives at all. Not a single drive. When I got back I tried to order one from the Argos website but that wasn’t possible, none available for order either for collection in store or home delivery.

This afternoon I had to drive into London to collect CDs so I stopped off in PC World on the way back. Talking to one of their staff about the reduced stock of drives they had and he explained the problem. Apparently 90+% of the worlds supply of drives are made in a relatively small area of Thailand, and they’ve been hit hard by floods recently. He pointed to a sign rationing drives to two per customer until supplies are back to normal.

So, if you want your music files returned on a USB drive we might struggle at least until Thailand has dried out. Wonder if the BBC has a weather forecast for the Far East.

Sonos & High Quality Music

2011-11-22T20:38:00.000Z

If you’ve seen our CD ripping blog you’ll know we had a panic when the installer of the Sonos system for which we’d ripped several hundred CDs, had pointed to a post on the Sonos website to say AIFF files were not supported.

Here’s a footnote. I was contacted by our client on Monday. He explained that he’d been listening to his music over the weekend and thankfully it was streaming fine. He’s happy, I’m relieved. So we’ll continue to rip CDs for Sonos users, into AIFF, Apple Lossless or into AAC or MP3 formats. With confidence.

Sonos Drops Highest Quality Audio

2011-11-18T10:10:00.001Z

We don't always get it right, when we get it wrong the best thing is to hold up your hand and apologise. Then fix it. Which I'll have to do today. We've been ripping CDs for nearly eight years, initially exclusively for iPod / iTunes configurations and more recently for Sonos. That part of our business has grown rapidly so today we have ripped CDs for many clients who don't even own an iPod. These music lovers have invested significant sums in their music so naturally they don't baulk at buying a large capacity NAS drive to store their music. Storage capacity isn't an issue in these cases, clients want the highest quality sound. CD ripping for Sonos took us into new territory, that of uncompressed music. The best quality digital music is AIFF. It has the benefit of being entirely uncompressed, it's exactly as appears on the original CD plus the features of a digital "wrapper" that holds the album, artist, track data etc. Before I leapt into this with Sonos clients I made some checks. First, I looked on the Sonos website where it clearly said they support AIFF files. Indeed I looked again earlier today and on the opening sales page for their music player's features it lists AIFF as one of the supported file formats. Second, I rang Sonos and asked them. I got confirmation of what's on the website. So I went ahead with confidence and ripped a batch of CDs for our first client. When we delivered the NAS drive with its files (I think the first one was over 700 CDs) I connected the drive, pointed the Sonos software at it, and updated the library. My client flipped through his controller, hit play, and we listened as Verdi filled the house. Since then I've lost track of the number of Sonos / AIFF configurations we've worked with, all without issue, until yesterday. We ripped just over 650 CDs for a client but the signal drops out. Some tracks play fine, then another drops out. Frustrating and not what anyone wants. My client went back to the installer and he's replied quoting one of the Sonos FAQs - this says that while AIFF is "supported" it is not "recommended". There's a footnote at the bottom of that page which says - Sonos does not recommend choosing AIFF files for your library because of AIFF's outdated metadata support. You can acheive the same audio quality by using FLAC or Apple Lossless, both of which fully support metadata and album art. The installer is interpreting this as if "not recommended" means the same as "unsupported", and is refusing to help our client any further. Where does this leave us? For my client it means I'll have to say sorry, admit that I'd not seen this example of weasel words, and possibly challenge the installers interpretation of the footnote. I will gladly offer to convert his music into Apple Lossless. Enough of my problems. What does this mean? Staggeringly it means Sonos no longer supports the highest quality audio. Nobody who's really into music is going to accept anything less than the best. Sure, Apple Lossless is very good, but it's not the best. If you want music streamed at its best (uncompressed) Sonos has ceded the ground to other suppliers - Apple will stream AIFF all day long, as will better systems such as Crestron. Future home entertainment demands aren't going to be for more compressed formats so unless Sonos can address this they're going to struggle. What does it mean for you, if you're planning to buy a home audio system? Talk this through with your installer but get an unequivocal statement about AIFF before you sign on the dotted line.

Christmas is coming, it's voucher time.

2011-11-10T20:35:00.000Z

I’ll admit it, I’ve lost track of time. We’ve been so busy these last few weeks it’s been heads down, nose to the grindstone, backs to the wall. Just didn’t look at the calendar. CD ripping like crazy.

We have several amazing clients but one I think of each year is the lady who has bought a Christmas voucher every year for four years. On Monday she rang to remind me what time of the year it is, yes, it’s voucher time. This year we’ve added a bit of a twist, the chance to secure a 10% discount simply by paying in advance. You can take the discount either by paying that bit less for the voucher or by having an extra 10% of CDs ripped by us. Alternatively we’ll bill you after the project is complete.

Click here to read more about our Christmas vouchers.

NAS plus Wi-Fi Spells Trouble

2011-10-28T09:01:00.000Z

How time flies, about a year ago we undertook a large CD ripping project for a client, around 600 CDs into AIFF format. He is a teacher, which has nothing to do with the fact that he was planning to put all his music onto a NAS drive. Why a NAS? Mainly because he intended to buy a Sonos system and the NAS would enable him to access his digital music without having to leave his computer on. With young children he's prefer to be able to switch his computer off in the evening so his small children wouldn't be disturbed. He couldn't decide whether to go for a simple single drive NAS or a RAID based system. We decided the best thing to do would be to put his music onto basic USB hard drive, he could then copy that across to the NAS drive when he'd bought it. He rang at the beginning of the week. It's half term and his homework was to copy the music onto the NAS drive. I know its a long delayed project but he'd changed jobs, you know how time flies. Two days in and he was having problems. The NAS drive has a USB port and he'd hoped he'd be able to simply copy back from the USB drive into the NAS. That isn't a facility supported by this unit. Those I've looked at only allow the USB port to be used to copy off the NAS and onto a USB as a backup. I'm sure someone, somewhere, will add this feature but so far as I know not just yet. He'd found that out not just from the manual but by trying to make it work. So on Monday he connected everything up and started the process of copying the contents of the hard drive across. It was going badly. His USB drive was connected to his laptop, which connects wirelessly to his router, and that connects directly to his NAS via an ethernet cable. He felt confident the process would go smoothly as he has a swish router with the latest N level data transfer rate. By late Tuesday he was running out of patience. He'd been forced to abandon several copy runs (just seemed to hang with no observable progress), as the data transfer process got underway there were protests from kids and wife, the task seemed to kill the network. Worst the progress bar, when it moved, did so very slowly. He despaired that he'd actually get all the data across before the half term holiday was over. He rang for help. First thing to have in mind is the amount of data that needs to be transmitted. There's the music, plus the overhead of the many commands and acknowledgements that are built into any network operation. Wirelessly this is much slower than over ethernet, and there's the additional overhead of traffic conflicts, interference with the signal, bodies walking around. Massive data transfer over the airwaves are exceptionally slow. You really need to ditch the Wi-Fi and go with a bit of blue cable. As a rough guide I'd expect a wireless transfer of this amount of data would take around 150 hours. Yes, that's a lot of hours. Valuing domestic harmony, and seeing the horizon of the end of the holiday fast approaching he brought both drives over here and we did it across our network. I set it to run at about 18:30 and it was done before 09:00 the next morning. The first prediction from the progress bar was 14 hours but I think the final stop watch would have been short of that. We used an ancient Belkin router, if we'd done it across the new Apple router that's sat there waiting to be configured I'm sure it would have been faster.

NAS, USB and Wi-Fi

2011-10-26T15:00:00.000Z

I’m putting up a longer entry on our Blogger site so I’ll be more concise here.

CD ripping can be slow, but nothing compared to the time it takes to get digital music files onto a NAS drive. So, if you’ve got a lot of music be prepared as it is likely to take many hours.

Remember that the published speed of your Wi-Fi was written by the marketing department, in real life data transfer rates are much, much slower. It simply isn’t worth the trouble to try to load a NAS drive over a wireless connection. Too slow, too prone to transmission breaks and you’ll be very unpopular with other network users who will think the internet has died.

Do it across ethernet cables connected to a router. Even consider buying a cheap router, it will save you many hours.

Fat 32 Shot in Foot

2011-10-22T17:22:00.001Z

Typical, late Friday and I'm in a rush as we're off to have a meal with friends. Wanting to clear the decks the final task is to get some digital music from my production platform onto a USB drive for a client. We've done a lot of CD ripping this week so I had nearly 475 Gb of data on my system to be copied across to a USB drive ready to return to our client on Monday. Plug in USB drive, identify folder with clients music, drag and drop onto new USB drive. Shoot off for a curry. Into the hutch this morning, calamity. The folder had been copied but there was a window listing 150 error messages and sub-folders which hadn't been copied over. Tragically simple explanation - my production system runs Windows Vista and the drive is NTFS, which supports long file and folder names, This clients music is mainly classical so we have folder and track names derived from the artist. This is a combination of conductor, soloist and orchestra which generates lost of characters. The USB drive is formatted to FAT 32 with its limitation of much shorter file names. One way round this is to go into each errored folder find the long name then edit it down to a shorter name. This will work but it's hard to be certain you hit every single file. One mistake and you're facing a real mess. The better way to do it is use the Library / Consolidate command from within iTunes to first point from the 'old' NTFS location to the 'new' USB location and let iTunes do the hard work. Which is what the machine is doing now, it's why I am writing this (to remind me to be more careful next time), and why I wasted several hours of processing time last night.

The Word is .....

2011-09-29T07:07:00.000Z

... streaming. Why? I read two things yesterday, both of which could have a massive impact on our CD ripping business and the way people access music. First, there's a rumour that Apple will soon scrap (or "discontinue") the iPod Classic. This has been the stalwart of the range for years, and it's the device most of our clients use. My prediction has been that it would be upgraded with flash memory to replace that revolving hard drive. Greater capacity, lighter, longer battery life, more reliable. Seems that's not to happen. Second, Amazon launched their iPad alternative, the Fire. It has a new browser called Silk which is incredibly clever. Amazon are pitching this as the device through which you can access all your media (music, photos, films, TV shows) which would be stored on Amazon's massive computing platform. No, not your PC or Mac, not using a sync function such as iTunes. It would all be stored in the cloud. So it just occurred to me that the replacement for the iPod Classic would be a device which would facilitate access to music, films, videos and photos; all of which is held somewhere else. Of course Apple have already announced where that place will be, it will be their implementation of cloud computing. In the case of Amazon and (if it happens) Apple your music and other 'stuff' will arrive via a constant on line delivery mechanism. Streaming.

Home Automation & Technology in Manilla

2011-09-07T21:34:00.000Z

Every so often clients ask us to visit their home or office to help out with their technology, usually some problem with computers and music, or their network. Typically they are in or around London and frankly there are time when, sitting in traffic, I wish I was far, far, away.

Manila?

Well, being realistic nobody is going to ask me to the Manila just to sort out a music server, specially when there’s a local specialist who can help you better. Looking at Dip’s new website for his team of technology support professionals in Manila.

Digging around on the site I saw a cute little portable music player called Playbutton. It’s a wearable music player, as the name implies, it looks just like a button (as in the American political campaign button) connected to headphones. It’s a great idea, just in America I’d look to customise the surface area - as the site says, the device opens up opportunities in retail and museums.

Manilatech, check them out.

Wireless? Less Hassle?

2011-09-04T06:31:00.000Z

One of the jobs I’ve been putting off is re-routing the cabling we use to link our CD ripping systems. When we first started we had a couple of PCs, one went through the other and out to the internet via a simple USB modem. Then we got bigger so more machines and a wireless router.

When we left the house and moved out into The Hutch I carried on with using wireless USB dongles. Now we’re wanting faster, more reliable data access so each system is now hard wired into an Apple wireless modem we’re running as a bridge to the main building where our broadband terminates. And all of those cables have to be re-aligned.

What complicates this is the three sets of speakers somehow we’ve picked up along the way and now can’t live without. This has given me an interest in wireless speakers. At the moment there seems to be three options on how to link wireless speakers.

First, Bluetooth. You need to have suitably enabled Bluetooth PCs as a starting point. The laptops are MacBooks so they’re OK but a couple of PCs would need upgrading, eating up a USB port each time. Second, you can use Apple’s Airplay system to send your music (along with data) across your home wireless network. Apple’s isn’t the only wireless method of connecting and streaming but for us (and our clients) it’s the obvious choice.

The third option is to use a proprietary system - one mentioned recently is Kleer - which uses special senders and receivers to make the connection. The worst of each world? Possibly, you need to dedicate a port to a USB dongle style device but you’ll be able to stream more data, more quickly. If you’re looking for the highest quality this may be the route to take.

Cloud Streaming?

2011-08-31T07:40:00.000Z

Yesterday I came across a video giving a sneak preview of iTunes Match, Apple's cloud based music storage facility. I posted a link to it on the podServe Facebook page. The video appeared to show how this new service will both store and stream your music direct from the cloud to a portable music player with web access (iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch).

Today I saw another video which if correct "proves" that at least at the prototype stage Match does not stream music. Instead tracks are downloaded to the device and played from there.

Which is correct? I don't know. Does it matter? Well, yes. Let me give you one example.

We run a CD ripping service and naturally clients ask us which is the best music player? Our clients typically have very large music collections so the obvious choice would be the iPod Classic. Big internal hard drive, just dying to be loaded with as much music as possible. But beyond that, not a great deal of use. Compare that with the iPod Touch which allows you to access the internet and also has a better range of games; or the iPhone, one of the best smartphones, which is used by many of our clients already.

Well I'd say if iTunes Match actually streams music the better option is to go with the iPhone or iPod Touch. That way, via mobile web access, you'll be able to play all your music and tackle many other tasks. No streaming, well back to the iPod Classic as our preferred iPod.

How many MP3s on a CD?

2011-08-17T17:03:00.000Z

One of our clients asked a simple question - how many MP3s can I get on a CD?

He has a new car and the stereo will play digital music direct from a CD. So, how many can he put on each disc? Shouldn’t be too hard to answer.

OK, a standard CD with music, such as you used to buy in HMV, stores just over an hour, say 70 minutes. However in data terms that’s around 750 Mb.

MP3 music is in data file format so the roundabout answer is as much music as will take up 750 Mb. As a CD ripping service we rip at 256 kbps into AAC format, the equivalent in MP3 would be 320 kbps. In our format you’d get much more music in digital format, around 7 CDs worth. As MP3 files the answer would be around 5 CDs worth. Roughly.

You could get more if you dropped the quality setting, so the music files are more compressed. The quality is worse, but that may not be a problem if the in car sound system is less than top notch. You could go down to 128 kbps for music and the sound might be acceptable.

If you were recording spoken voice (such as audio books) you can drop as low as 64 kbps and the quality will be acceptable, there just isn’t so much data in a speech compared to a symphony.

So, how many MP3s can you get on a CD? This CD ripping service says 5,7 music CDs or 12 CDs worth of spoken voice.

CD & DVD Copyright - Sense at Last

2011-08-03T08:28:00.000Z

As the owner of the UK's first CD ripping service I've felt the force of the music industry. They were upset and made their feelings known. They were the powers that be and they were going to close us down, forthwith. Letters and meetings followed, and quite a few threats too.

Eventually it all calmed down. The PRS issued a statement saying nobody would be prosecuted for CD ripping provided it was for personal use. And Apple sold a few more million iPods, along with the train loads of other MP3 players, quite a crowded market a few years ago. In all these years I don't believe either our activity or that of any iPod owner has significantly impacted on the issue of file sharing or music piracy. How did anyone think that all those iPods got their music, other than from CD ripping?

Now, faced with the undeniable fact that everyone has been ripping CDs, the Uk government is planning to allow "format shifting" for CDs and DVDs. That's to say, if you own a plastic disc with music or film you will be allowed to rip those into a digital format, provided it's for your own use. Given that everybody is, and has been, doing this it's a recognition that even if this practice is frowned upon it's unprosecutable.

We moved into DVD ripping. Our clients demanded this and we gave in to requests. At the outset we were mainly ripping home movies and from that we got into converting video tapes into DVDs and computer files. People wanted several things. First, the greater ease of use of the DVD compared to a video tape (even for those who still had a working camcorder); second the ability to edit footage given the greater power of PCs and good software; and thirdly the better availability of film at home via video streaming technology.

Today we are in the position that music and film is better, from virtually every perspective, as a digital file rather than a plastic disc. It is a recognition of the inevitable. It's a dose of legal fresh air in what had become a rather stuffy room.

As a small footnote, and maybe an example of clever timing, action is being taken against two solicitors who zealously initiated procedings against alleged file sharers. I don't have any sympathy with people who steal games and movies, but solicitors sending letters simply demanding large sums of money to avoid prosecution is simply wrong. It was employing the weight and more importantly the cost of legal procedings to scare people into paying.

Today's announcement will bring a much needed dose of common sense to this area.

Ford Drops CD Ripping

2011-08-02T07:51:00.000Z

OK, Ford Motor Company don’t rip CDs. We rip CDs, they sell cars.

Up to now it’s been possible to buy a car in which you could play CDs, but Fords are phasing that out from their range, in favour of an iPod jack plug and a Bluetooth port. So, where does that leave your CD collection? Stranded.

It’s another nail in the coffin of the CD. What can you do? The writing on the wall is clearly saying you need to get your music off CDs and into a digital format. That’s what we can do, it is the only way to release value from your CDs.

podServe - the Ford Motor Company of the CD ripping world.

USB Shorts

2011-07-27T10:36:00.000Z

From time to time we get called out to our CD ripping clients to help out with computer problems, which is where I've been this morning. The problem sounded simple, after years of normal service our client had plugged in his iPod and his PC had promptly died.

It's something he'd done, well, hundreds of times with no problems. Naturally he assumed that something in iTunes had corrupted his computer and Windows Vista. When I got there the PC was completely dead, as if the power supply had failed. So I checked the power cable, tried the cable from their kettle, no problem in the mains. Screen worked OK, just when you hit the on button absolutely nothing happened. My line of thinking was that this was a dead PC and the only way forward would be a new machine.

The client asked if the iPod had killed the PC or if, even worse, the failure had blown up the iPod. I should explain it was sitting unhappily on his desk. I thought I'd try it in my MacBook just to be sure so I lifted it up to unplug it. As I moved the iPod there was a flicker from the cooling fan inside the PC. I unplugged the iPod (which was undamaged), then unplugged the sync cable. Each move caused a tiny burst from the box. Having unplugged the sync cable I got a real burst of power so I tipped the box up and had a look at the front USB ports.

At that point I could see the cause of the problem. The tiny piece of plastic in the USB connector had broken, exposing the metal prongs that allow data and electricity to flow down the cable. Then, I'd guess when our client put the cable into the port, the prongs had been bent resulting in one of the prongs touching the metal surround.

A dead short.

I dug out my trusty metal comb which was slim enough to be able to lift the offending prong from the surround. At which point the PC burst into life. One happy client.

The CD Ripping Scene in Lion

2011-07-22T14:36:00.000Z

As a CD ripping service we use a mix of Windows (XP, Vista and Windows 7) and Mac computers so the recent announcements are interesting. Would you like to jump in?

First, Apple's new operating system, code named Lion. Available for download now for a bit over £20 from the download store. A host of great new features. But ... Not all software will run happily under Lion. For example the Sonos controller program does not yet work with Lion so if you have a Sonos system hold on for the moment. Sonos have said there will be a new version but I don't have a due date. Some software may not run (older versions of Photoshop included) so if there's anything you rely on check with the vendor to make sure a Lion variant is out there.

Second, no CD drives. Neither of the new computers have a CD or DVD drive. This effectively stops CD ripping on those units - unless you have a free standing USB connected drive.

Apple Drops CD Ripping

2011-07-22T12:13:00.000Z

OK, that’s an hysterical headline, an exaggeration. But just a bit.

Apple has launched a couple of new computers, a great new entry level laptop and a replacement for the trusty Mac Mini. I have a great affection for both. I’m writing this on a MacBook and my main production machine is a trusty Mac Mini. Just love Apple and Mac. Very tempted by the new boxes when I saw them. But ...

Neither machine includes a CD drive. Looking at the Apple store they still list the add on of the superdrive (at $80) but the product description suggests in the case of the Mac Mini it only connects to the version running Lion Server. Don’t worry about the details just note that’s the most expensive variant.

For the typical Mac user, by the way I’m off to see one on Monday assuming their new MacBook arrives, this means they won’t be able to rip CDs. As a CD ripping service you might think this is great news for us, and indeed it may be, but it’s also yet another nail in the coffin of the humble CD, another barrier to realising value from all those plastic discs in all those CD racks.

CD Ripping and NAS Drives

2011-07-16T10:18:00.000Z

Yesterday evening had a late night "get it off your chest" session with a post on the site blog for our CD ripping service, podServe.

Today a more measured tone and some advice. Advice for people who rip CDs and store their music on a network attached unit. I have found most wireless networks will, if they provide a reliable connection at all, will happily deliver streamed music around you house. That's the getting music out side of the equation. Data volumes are relatively low - you get a whole CDs worth of sound out in around 60 minutes.

Ripping CDs is a different proposition and doing that over the same connection is asking a lot. A decent Mac, PC or a laptop will ring at 10, 15, 20 times faster that realtime. A CD gets ripped in around 3 minutes. The data comes off the CD drive, into the computer and is shunted off to the network. A bit of simple maths, you network wireless pipework needs to be around 20 times fatter, sadly it isn't.

So my advice has to be, when ripping CDs to a NAS drive, invest in a bit of ethernet cable and plug that it, at least for the duration of the ripping session.

FLAC CD Ripping

2011-06-29T19:11:00.000Z

We are a customer focused business - if you want something we do everything possible to deliver. This brings me FLAC.

FLAC wasn’t part of our original service offering, mainly due to our focus on Apple, iTunes and music file formats compatible with that system - AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless and AIFF. However there have been requests, initially infrequent but more so lately, for FLAC and of course we don’t like to disappoint.

So, following tests, we now have a reliable platform so we’re confident we can deliver top quality results whether you want our standard formats or FLAC.

NTLDR is missing

2011-06-21T08:35:00.000Z

Called in by one of our CD ripping clients to help out with their computer. I was given a shopping list of problems, the main one being a new iPhone was not being recognised, even though a trip to the Apple store in Regent Street, London had proved there was no problem with the phone itself.

The computer in question runs XP and is rather long in the tooth. Another problem is that the sync process with their iPod Classic has become erratic, syncs can be fast but error prone or immensely long (like 12 hours) with only a few tracks getting copied across.

I started working through settings on the Apple Mobile Devices service, which required the PC to be restarted several times. First couple of times, no problem, but then the machine failed to start up properly showing the error message - TLDR is missing.

Google search from my own Mac showed up that this should be NTLDR is missing, the screen alignment had shifted a little to the left and the N was out of view. The suggestion was that a file was missing, and some people had fixed their problem by copying a missing or corrupt file from another XP system; or indeed reloading the whole operating system. Feeling depressed at the prospect of such a tedious task the second user of the PC popped into the room.

Seeing the NTLDR is missing message he pointed out this often happens, and that it can be fixed simply by unplugging "that thick cable". The cable in question was the USB connector from a LaCie hard drive. He was indeed right, I unplugged the LaCie (and the other non-essential devices plugged into USB ports) and the PC restarted just fine. Plug the hard drive back and it was found fine.

This got me thinking. Maybe the fundamental problem with the machine is the functioning of the whole USB connection. The PC in question is somewhat long in the tooth so perhaps the USB card is failing. USB makes connections and supplies power, perhaps it isn't supplying sufficient power to enable a recent iPhone to be recognised. Or possibly there's an issue with the hard drive's USB cable which is interfering with the iPhone and the iPod. The last point is hard to validate as the data both the iPhone and the iPod need to access is on that drive.

In the light of this the three of us stood round and scratched our heads for a while. In the light of all the problems the feeling was further tech support work was just throwing good money after bad. It is time this XP worker was retired, so a new machine will be ordered, with a bigger internal drive and a brand new USB interface. When this is installed my belief is that these problems will go away.

Music Compression, Streaming, an Apple Freebie?

2011-06-18T11:46:00.000Z

Just put together some notes on music compression. How the landscape has changed over the years. Just suggested to a client that he buys a 1Tb drive. 1Tb - bloody amazing size. Does he need it? Probably not but it will just be a few pounds more than a 500 Gb drive, so why not?

OK, hard drives are silly cheap, what does that mean now that the far horizon shows Apples streaming music service heading our way? The freebie is that if they detect more compressed music in your library they will “upgrade” your stored tracks to the iCloud alternative of 256 kbps. So, does that mean you should switch back to ripping music at 128 kbps?

Err, no.

First the upgrade applies only to music players to which music can be streamed. These will be iOS devices - the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Not the hard drive based iPod Classic range, these will continue to be synced via iTunes from the music on your hard drive. Apple isn’t offering to replace or upgrade any of that.

Second, when the service launches, people are going to be amazed at the volume of music that isn’t in iTunes Music Store. Yes, there is a vast amount under the Apple umbrella, but there’s a lot that isn’t. That which Apple doesn’t already have a copy of will have to be uploaded from you to them.

Third, mobile phone companies are going to hit the roof. In a year or two all those kids on the school bus home will be listening to music on their iPhones not from its store but streamed across the airwaves courtesy of Vodafone, Orange and their peers. Can you imagine how that will hit their capacity?

My mobile phone has an all the data you can eat feature, just wait till be start to talk about 6,12, or more hours of music streaming.

So stick with 256 Kbps AAC, or Apple Lossless, or AIFF. You won’t regret it.