Spotify: First Impressions
Spotify, the music service which has been popular in Europe, has finally arrived in the States. For those of you that don't know, Spotify is a service that allows you to stream music to your computer via a desktop client (free with advertisements) or to your mobile device (paid premium account). What separates this service from other streaming music providers, such as Pandora, is that you can search the Spotify database for specific songs and artist.
The desktop client is laid out nicely and is easy to navigate. It should be intuitive to anyone who has used music clients, like iTunes, in the past. After searching for music or artists, you
can easily create playlists that are saved within the client. The free account has visual and audio ads which is a small price to pay for access to Spotify's vast catalog of over 15 million songs. You can also find and play the music stored on your local machine from the same interface.
Initially, I was skeptical of the service, expecting that it would be another Pandora or Slacker Radio. After using Spotify for a week I have quickly changed my mind and it may become my primary music service of choice.
Currently, the free version of Spotify is invite only in the United States. You can apply now for an invite or skip the invite and pay for one of the premium accounts.
Wallpapers are GO!
This week we introduced a new section to our site. For the last few months we have been hard at work creating a variety of wallpapers designed for various HP webOS devices. Many of these wallpapers have been featured on webOS community sites such as webOSroundup. Over the next few weeks we will be posting the files available as a free download here.
If anyone has an idea for a wallpaper design, please feel free to leave it in the comments section of this post.
No More Dirpy
The web service www.dirpy.com which we covered a few months ago in our article Audio Rippers & Intellectual Property is no more. It is an unfortunate end to a well designed and useful service.
Audio Rippers & Intellectual Property
Ripping the audio from Youtube videos has been around for awhile. After testing one the other day it got me thinking: What is the difference between downloading a song that has a copyright from a bittorrent site and using a service to rip the same audio from a Youtube video? The answer is obvious, there is no difference. Although I do not think you should use the service I'm about to talk about to download songs with a copyright, that doesn't mean you cannot use the service to download songs which are in the public domain.
Dirpy is an impressive web based Youtube ripper. Not only can you use the service to download a video from Youtube, you can also rip the audio. What sets this service apart from similar sites is the ability to set Start/Stop times and add custom ID3 tags. ID3 tags include the title, artist, album, and track number.
What To Do When That .MOV File Does Not Play
Recently, I was given a few .mov files that were captured on a MAC from a camcorder. I, on a Windows machine, tried to play the video and had no luck. All I was able to play was the audio. I did what anyone would do, I downloaded various video codecs (K-Lite Codec Pack) and even installed Quicktime (against my will). All these attempts failed to play the video (even the mighty VLC Player would not play it). Frustrated, I turned to the internet for answers. In my quest I was able to find an old article that described the same problem I was having. Using the information from that article, I was able to play the videos.
To start I downloaded HxD Hex Editor, a binary file editor, to edit the video files. After opening the file in the HEX editor, I searched for m2v1. In each of the files I did this, I found two occurrences of the query. I simply replaced m2v1 with mp2v and saved. Opening the newly edited files with VLC Player, I was able to finally see the video (and hear the audio). I found it astonishing that this simple edit was able to do in minutes what took me hours to figure out.
webOSroundup palmSpot Contest (Update x2)
Update 05/04/10: Week two of voting has gained our video (So, What Can the Palm Pre Do?) another 529 votes! webOSroundup has extended their voting until this Friday, so if you haven't gotten a chance, please view our videos below. Our video has the potential to go to the final round. Check here for more updates!
Update 04/27/10: After a week of voting, our video (So, What Can the Palm Pre Do?) is up by 70 votes (820 views total)! We are very excited and did not expect our video to have so many views. Thank you all for watching our video and if you haven't seen it yet, the video is embedded below for your viewing pleasure. For a list of the views for all videos during week 1, click here (redirects you to webOSroundup.com).
We haven't posts anything for awhile, but with good reason. We've been working hard on making videos in the recent weeks and have entered in a video contest, the webOSroundup's "palmSpot Contest" to be exact. The goal is to showcase the use of Palm's new mobile operating system, webOS. webOS has been around for almost a year and is, in this blogger's opinion, the best mobile platform out there. We've created two entries and have posted them below and hope that you will watch them. Each view counts as a vote in this contest and there is only one week left. Please spread the word and enjoy!
For more information on @webOSroundup and the palmSpot video contest please visit: www.webOSroundup.com.
Powerline Ethernet Adapter
I recently had a dilemma with my wireless network at home. Playing miltiplayer games over wifi led to sessions being dropped forcing us to use smaller maps (not as fun). I looked into a variety of solutions including upgrading to Wireless-N and laying down Ethernet Cable, both solutions didn't seem very viable living in an apartment (signal interference from other wireless routers and not being able to run Ethernet cabling in the walls). I thought for sure I was just stuck with what I had, then I came across something called a Powerline Ethernet Adapter. To put it simply, these adapters utilize preexisting powerlines that run throughout your home to be used as an extension of your LAN. Here is a simple diagram to explain.
Powerline Adapter Diagram
Although these adapters work right out of the box and utilize a default password, you should change the password to prevent being eavesdropped on by using the software provided by the manufacturer.
The adapters that I purchased run on the HomePlug AV standard are reported to reach up to 200Mbps. I, however, have yet to reach that speed due to interference with other electrical devices (my top speed has been 110Mbps). The new standard under development will approach Gigabit speeds, devices should be available next year.
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- Powerline Adaptor connected to Router
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- Powerline Adaptor connected to Desktop
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- Powerline Adapter Diagram
Free Classical Music!!!
I discovered this site sometime ago and was reminded of it while browsing through my old bookmarks. Musopen is a warehouse of free public domain classical music. After creating a free account you will be able to download a vast catalog of mp3's and sheet music. Musopen let's you browse by composer, performer, instrument, period, or form. If you do enjoy the site, I would recommend donating to the cause so they can pay for other performances to be recorded and uploaded for the use of the internet community.
Musopen Screencap
Opera Unite: Sharing Data
One of the coolest features about the new Opera Browser is it's ability to share data with other people. Opera Unite, is a way to share music, files, and even host a website from your own computer. All you need is an Opera Account, the latest build of Opera with Unite, and an internet connection. Once you setup a directory to keep your files in, Unite will create a url others can use to access your computer. You can password protect your files or share them publicly.
Check out this video from the Opera Unite Support Site to learn more:
Backing Up DVD’s (Personal Use Only)
Making a backup of a DVD should be easy... right? Wrong! All recently released DVD's from big film companies have some sort of encryption to prevent you from creating back ups. Why would you want to create a backup of a movie that you paid for and own? DVD's, like CD's are vulnerable to scratches and dents. If this happens the disk becomes unreadable meaning you'd have to shell out another $20 to get a new copy with the risk of it happening again.
There are a few open source and freeware options that are available but fall short when it comes to the most recent movies (such as "Star Trek" 2009). Options that I have used in the past required a set of several programs to produce 1 movie usually taking a few hours to complete.
Recently, the good people at Giveaway of the Day and Digiarty Software allowed people to freely download WinX DVD Ripper Platinum. Normally $29.95, this program has performed flawlessly (with one exception). Even at $29.95, this software is a bargain considering it creates a backup of your movie library preventing you from losing potentially hundreds of dollars if your disks become broken.
WinX DVD Ripper Platinum
I also suggest downloading the open source program XBMC, which is a media player and entertainment hub for digital media on your computer. This program is able to use the internet to download information about your movies to sort them (by actor, year, genre, etc.). By enabling UPnP, game consoles like the PS3 will be able to see your computer as a media server and you will be able to steam your movies from your computer to your TV.
Disclaimer: This website is NOT endorsing the use of these programs for illegal file sharing. Use these programs for personal backup of DVD's you already own. Use these programs at your own risk.
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