blessingx

Damn. Not to say I told you so, but now that the new MacBook has inherited many of the MacBook Pros advantages, Apple needs to separate the product lines. Thus no Firewire (for "serious graphics/ video users"). See now instead of the Pico, Duet users have to spend several hundred more for the "professional" laptop model. Grrrrrr. Wonder how many days Firewire has left after leaving iPods and now MacBooks? Still most of the other laptop upgrades announced today are a plus.

Apple - MacBook - Introducing the new 13-inch MacBook (Video)

Who's going to buy a 2.5TB version for their audio storage? LaCie intros 5big Network drive array to RAID junkies the world over - Engadget

More photos.

Well, is it worth writing home about?

Anyone try Brian Eno's Bloom? Just did. Very cool. IPhone Apps: Brian Eno's Bloom Raises the Bar for Musical iPhone Apps

Knockoffs of Reks sites (SwitchEasy) other models here - MyBat Apple iPhone 3G Fishbone Case - dealmac.com

And plenty of Word alternatives depending on likely sophistication of files. My choice is Google Docs & Spreadsheets, but Scrivener is great.

Apple schedules laptop event for Oct. 14; leaked photos abound - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

What do you guys think? First Impression Music's Ultimate Disc | Computer Audiophile (don't skip the PDF)

As I've mentioned in another post, I'm trying to assemble an inexpensive computer rig for a friend. I know it's unlikely anyone has heard all the components, but anyone got any very positive or exclusionary experience with: NuForce Icon & NuForce S-1 vintage DAC (likely Sonic Frontiers TransDAC/Assemblage DAC1) & Audioengine A2s So USB DAC/amp & speakers versus DAC & active monitors. Leaning towards the latter (already have the DAC which would connect optically to his iMac), but both setups would in the end be ~$500. Unfortunately, buying both and returning the items of one set isn't possible in this case. Any words of advice?

Contemplating replacing my SqueezeCenter/Squeezebox 3 x3/sometimes iPeng setup with an Airport Express x3/iTunes/Airfoil/Remote-iPhone app deal. Tired of scanning my library for new music and would be a plus to capture other audio streams (with Airfoil). The Squeezebox internet radio steaming is nice though. And the Remote app is just smoother than using iPeng (at least at this point and likely near future at least with laptops ... hunting for IPs...). On a MacBook and will likely stay on OS X as primary operating system so no problems using iTunes. Anyone else do this "downgrade"? Any comments?

Well downloaded yesterdays mentioned WunderRadio. I can vouch it's pretty cool. Listened to last nights debate commentary with it. Great to have lots of radio stations (nicely organized) on iPhone/touch. Icon could sure use some work though.

Meebo Remote WeatherBug Pandora People eBay Save Benjis Evernote Movies Urbanspoon NYTimes TextGuru Kiwi ... and very likely the above WunderRadio once I get wireless.

Cool new app - WunderRadio. TUAW Review: WunderRadio - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

It gets positively talked about a lot in the Mac community, but I've never had a reason to use it.

There are more tools (including for Linux & Windows) listed in this guide: Fix your music library: song names, album art, automatically! :: The Tux Geek

There's an emulator (upper right corner link) if anyone wants to try the GUI: http://tmobile.modeaondemand.com/htc/g1/

It's been widely reported Sony was consulted in the MacBook design, so that keyboard may have originated there.

As suggested above, convert to AIFF or WAV and do the encoding in iTunes. Others reverse engineering of ALAC and iTunes/iPods finicky playback don't always play nice.

Disappointing as Guttenberg's other reviews have been so strong.

If you're looking for a smaller solution for SATA/IDE to USB connections... SATA or IDE to USB2 Drive Adapter - dealmac.com

Great. Looking forward to your impressions. Do you happen to have a non-DAC-only Pico (nDoP) to compare also?

Yeah Media Rage is another though I'm not sure they ever got around to supporting ALAC. But iTunes is so powerful if you use it with Applescripts and hijack with Audio Hijack Pro too. For instance with a various artists soundtrack, using those Applescripts I'll move over the song order from song name to track number, erase a few characters in front of song name where track number was, then copy over artists names after song name (Theme Song - X band). Then rename artists to 'X Soundtrack'. Album is under single directory and if you're like me you maneuver around by artist, but you still have all the individual artists names in the track title for reference or searching. And that's just the start, though I've found those three the most I use. There's also a kinda nice Lossless to AAC Workflow script that if you have your iPod attached will rip ALAC from your CD, convert to AAC compression of your choice, move to iPod, delete the AAC version on the computer leaving only the ALAC copy.