January 2003 Meeting Summary

FinMUG May Meeting Summary
iTunes: Music Store / Music Sharing
Keith Cooper

On May 30, Finger Lakes MUG rocked the Watkins Elementary School with our monthly meeting and demos of Apple’s iTunes new playlist sharing and new Music store capabilities. Kathy Holton gave a presentation in Keynote (Apple’s answer to PowerPoint) on the finer points of Apple’s music enhancements and demonstrated iTunes’ ease of use. Click here for the presentation then click to advance the slideshow.

Share This Song:
In last July’s MacWorld keynote speech, Steve Jobs introduced Rendezvous, a technology built in to Apple’s Jaguar version of OS X that would allow Macintosh computers to automatically detect other computers or devices within a network and allow easy sharing. He demonstrated this utility by automatically adding someone else’s iTunes playlists to his own and playing them across the network.

This technology caught up to us with the latest revisions of iTunes. With iTunes v. 4 we were able to share playlists across our local networks, and, as an added perk, were able to access playlists across an Internet connection. Concerns about recording artists’ (and recording companies’) interests led Apple to quickly revise iTunes. With version 4.0.1, sharing music was only supported within a local network (the term ‘on the same subnet’ refers to the IP addresses of the machines in a network), and sharing across networks was not allowed.

To demonstrate sharing, Keith Slater, Kathy and I shared our playlists, which showed up on each other’s machines as soon as the playlist to be shared came online. The Morins got into the fun by sharing the Mac lab’s playlists, allowing us to play selections live from our now collective music library.

Worried about your songs being easily swiped? They still exist only on your hard drive, and when you quit iTunes on your machine (or put your laptop to sleep), your playlist disappears from the machine your sharing with. While turning sharing on is a simple preference change, the default setting is ‘Sharing Off’, so if you’re selfish about your music collection you needn’t worry about your eavesdropping neighbor at work.

Buy This Song:
Another feature of iTunes 4 is the addition of a revolutionary alternative to buying your music at your local CD shop, or downloading MP3 files through peer-to-peer clients (software) like Limewire. Apple’s iTunes Music Store allows you the instant gratification of buying and downloading songs (or entire albums) with 1-click ease. Once you set up your account information you can purchase songs for 99¢ each, or for about $9.99 for most complete albums.

Kathy browsed the store and searched for some requested title to demonstrate this exciting new feature. During the meeting, I had time to set up my account and download a new release single and Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ album, my first purchases from the store (the first of many, I’m afraid).

If you’d like to learn more, check out the announcement of these improvements at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/specialmusicevent/ or click on the music tab at www.apple.com .

I’m sure Kathy will be enjoying iTunes even more now, with her recent acquisition of an iPod (Apple’s phenomenal MP3 player), which she has promised to demo in a future meeting.

Game Time:
Our official Game Consultant (AKA Lord of the Game; GameGod; Gaming Guru; Almighty Game Master), Keith Slater, then gave us a demo of a new game from Feral called WormsBlast. This unique shooting game is a Snood-like game where your character navigates his gallery in rowboat while firing like-colored icons at icon targets that approach you as the water level rises. The neat graphics and booming audio bring this game to life and its diverse playing arenas and options provide action variety for one or two-players. Check this game out at http://feral.co.uk.

Thanks go out to the Morins and Watkins Elementary for hosting May’s meeting. Thanks as always to Kathy Holton for pulling us together and giving a presentation that rocked. Thanks to Keith Slater for keeping us entertained as our Game Ambassador. Hope to see you all at our next eventful meeting.
Hope to see you at the next meeting.

Keith Cooper
Finger Lakes Macintosh User Group

FinMUG May Meeting Summary By Keith Cooper FinMUG May Meeting Summary iTunes: Music Store / Music Sharing Keith Cooper On May 30, Finger Lakes MUG rocked the Watkins Elementary School with our monthly meeting and demos of Apple’s iTunes new playlist sharing and new Music store capabilities. Kathy Holton gave a presentation in Keynote (Apple’s answer to PowerPoint) on the finer points of Apple’s music enhancements and demonstrated iTunes’ ease of use. Click here for the presentation then click to advance the slideshow. Share This Song: In last July’s MacWorld keynote speech, Steve Jobs introduced Rendezvous, a technology built in to Apple’s Jaguar version of OS X that would allow Macintosh computers to automatically detect other computers or devices within a network and allow easy sharing. He demonstrated this utility by automatically adding someone else’s iTunes playlists to his own and playing them across the network. This technology caught up to us with the latest revisions of iTunes. With iTunes v. 4 we were able to share playlists across our local networks, and, as an added perk, were able to access playlists across an Internet connection. Concerns about recording artists’ (and recording companies’) interests led Apple to quickly revise iTunes. With version 4.0.1, sharing music was only supported within a local network (the term ‘on the same subnet’ refers to the IP addresses of the machines in a network), and sharing across networks was not allowed. To demonstrate sharing, Keith Slater, Kathy and I shared our playlists, which showed up on each other’s machines as soon as the playlist to be shared came online. The Morins got into the fun by sharing the Mac lab’s playlists, allowing us to play selections live from our now collective music library. Worried about your songs being easily swiped? They still exist only on your hard drive, and when you quit iTunes on your machine (or put your laptop to sleep), your playlist disappears from the machine your sharing with. While turning sharing on is a simple preference change, the default setting is ‘Sharing Off’, so if you’re selfish about your music collection you needn’t worry about your eavesdropping neighbor at work. Buy This Song: Another feature of iTunes 4 is the addition of a revolutionary alternative to buying your music at your local CD shop, or downloading MP3 files through peer-to-peer clients (software) like Limewire. Apple’s iTunes Music Store allows you the instant gratification of buying and downloading songs (or entire albums) with 1-click ease. Once you set up your account information you can purchase songs for 99¢ each, or for about $9.99 for most complete albums. Kathy browsed the store and searched for some requested title to demonstrate this exciting new feature. During the meeting, I had time to set up my account and download a new release single and Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ album, my first purchases from the store (the first of many, I’m afraid). If you’d like to learn more, check out the announcement of these improvements at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/specialmusicevent/ or click on the music tab at www.apple.com . I’m sure Kathy will be enjoying iTunes even more now, with her recent acquisition of an iPod (Apple’s phenomenal MP3 player), which she has promised to demo in a future meeting. Game Time: Our official Game Consultant (AKA Lord of the Game; GameGod; Gaming Guru; Almighty Game Master), Keith Slater, then gave us a demo of a new game from Feral called WormsBlast. This unique shooting game is a Snood-like game where your character navigates his gallery in rowboat while firing like-colored icons at icon targets that approach you as the water level rises. The neat graphics and booming audio bring this game to life and its diverse playing arenas and options provide action variety for one or two-players. Check this game out at http://feral.co.uk. Thanks go out to the Morins and Watkins Elementary for hosting May’s meeting. Thanks as always to Kathy Holton for pulling us together and giving a presentation that rocked. Thanks to Keith Slater for keeping us entertained as our Game Ambassador. Hope to see you all at our next eventful meeting. Hope to see you at the next meeting. Keith Cooper Finger Lakes Macintosh User Group

FinMUG May Meeting Summary

By Keith Cooper