iPodder

[Rat]

I really couldn't decide whether to put this in the Freeware/Shareware forum or in the file sharing forum... maybe even the p2p forum. It's tricky.... but....

iPodder, from http://www.ipodder.org is a clever little beast that uses a variation on the RSS (really simple syndication) news feed software to check and download files (mostly mp3) to your computer or portable player (hence the name 'iPodder') while you're sleeping or otherwise busy. This is a great idea! I've subscribed to metal and rock feeds and I'm getting some great stuff from bloggers turned DJ.

Our members from Oz may be interested to know that there is a feed called 'Sh1t FM' (that should be an i not a 1 but I knew it would get filtered) that plays all the new independant stuff from around Australia. The music is good but the 'DJ', one ms Caz Gannell obviously doesn't rehearse prior to show time and mumbles her way thru excessively long links. Hehehe. This is an example of a full radio show and the current show is 78MB.

I also have a nice feed from 'Hellthy: Indie Rock/Pop" which is a good example of a feed with lots of little clips. This is great. There's a mixture of music, news and odds-and-ends including a statement from William Shatner (James. T. Kirk - Star Trek / T.J. Hooker) on the subject of his 72nd birthday! lol

Anyway - long story short..... iPodder is RSS for music fans or maybe usenet without the flamewars and trolling.

[quicksilver]

Well as good as that looks I like the idea behind this couple of Gizmo,s.

http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/index.php

Streamripper was started sometime back in early 2000. Streamripper started as a way to separate tracks via Shoutcast's title-streaming feature. This has now been expanded into a much more generic feature, where part of the program only tries to "hint" at where one track starts and another ends, thus allowing a mp3 decoding engine to scan for a silent mark, which is used to find an exact track separation.

Streamripper is now part of the FreeBSD standard distribution, mentioned in the Linux MP3 HOWTO, known to compile on many platforms such as Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, BeOS, OS/2. This is not surprising as portability was a constant consideration during development.

With the emergence of file sharing protocols such as Napster, Gnutella, and now Mojonation and Freenet, the average Internet user can download nearly any mp3 he wants in a matter of no time, but many times people don't know what they want. Streamripper allows you to download an entire station of music. Many of these mp3 radio stations only play certain genres, so you can now download an entire collection of goa/trance music, an entire collection of jazz, punk rock, whatever you want.

Nice but theres another goodie to come ..

http://hymn-project.org/jhymndoc/#secret

I have a non-Apple network music player attached to my stereo. With DRM, I can't play my music on my stereo with my existing equipment. I like to play my music on my computer at work, but I don't like the idea of having to "authorize" a computer that's not completely under my control. I like to edit my music sometimes â€â€

[Rat]

Hmm thats all interesting stuff, pity I dont own an iPod

Neither does he.

I have a non-Apple network music player attached to my stereo.

Neither do I for that matter. I have a Creative MuVo.

[nesman]

One of these days I'm going to get an mp3 player. By then, I hope they replace the camera function that's become popular in cell phones (or at least run with it).

I love the idea of stripping the crap from DRM protected music.

Napster has a new tv ad out that's pretty convincing. They show their price to fill an mp3 player as $15/mo for unlimited downloads, vs filling an ipod at $1/song for $10,000. If they ever find a way to make it too hard for me to get my music for free, I may have to go that route. It's cheaper than buying a cd each month, and I'd eat up some bandwidth 24/7.

[quicksilver]

Nes there,s an important drawback with the napster offer.
If you unsubscribe to their offer, your downloads will be unplayable , I repeat USELESS.
I suggest purchasing second hand cd,s as a sensible way to build up a great library, you,ll always own.
(Although who knows what the future holds, with all the new sorts of DRM junk that the big companies are trying to sneak in. )

[Rat]

I've been playing a bit more with iPodder. I've decided that it is at it's best if used as a podcast finder, and nothing more. I have discovered that if I copy the RSS details into Mozilla Thunderbird I'm better able to see what I might be about to download, which isn't always great. So, seek feeds using iPodder, but subscribe to those feeds in a more capable RSS enabled program.

I have also found a regular podcast that I love. http://www.mostlytunes.com say (and mean) "30 megs, 30 minutes, no yapping". They play new music from independant bands, much of which is brilliant, and proudly announce "No 12 year old girls or dead women were sued as a result of making this podcast."

[quicksilver]

Hmm , apple seem to be getting hammered lately , must be folks getting there own back on them for overcharging in different markets .

http://fuware.nanocrew.net/pymusique/

And a quote I read on slycks.

http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=706

What can PyMusique do that iTunes cannot? It allows an individual to preview songs and redownload songs purchased through PyMusique. That's right. PhMusique is not a total iTunes rip-off tool. In order to use PyMusique, you must be a registered subscriber of iTunes. If you wish, you can register through PyMusique.

However, the big attribute of PyMusique is when it comes to Digital Rights Management - or lack there of. When an individual purchases a song from iTunes using PyMusique, it does not re-encrypt the song using Apple's "FairPlay" DRM scheme. What the end user has is DRM-free AAC file that can be copied, burned or transferred - basically the file can be used any way the owner wishes.

Wonder who is going to get sued next