Android App of the Day: iSyncr

Every app has a pre-amble - the reason I bought it. I cut to the chase below, but here is the pre-amble for iSyncr: I have an iPod Touch and I have a few songs on it that I have bought and can only listen to on my iPod Touch. That gets to be a tiresome....pulling out the iPod to listen to the handful of songs there sourced from iTunes, then pulling out my HTC Magic android phone to listen to the 100-ish songs there ripped from the CDs in my private music collection.

Why not just put them all on the iPod? Well, I guess I could, but then my iPod Touch won't let me delete any of the songs unless I go home and sync with the single PC on the planet that is allowed to host my iTunes library.

Whereas, my android phone lets me delete, on the spot, any song I don't want on the phone right now. Even better, the "AndFTP" app on my android phone let's me access (via FTP over the Intenret) my entire music collection at home. I can upload / download any song I like.

I haven't bought many songs on iTunes lately simply because they are locked in my iPod and I don't always have it with me. My phone caries the vast majority of my music.  I'm also a bit down on my iPod since iTunes blew away well over $100 worth of songs two weeks AFTER I had apparently successfully transferred my iTunes to a new PC. One day working / syncing fine....then next, I synced and all paid songs were gone. I went to download them again (worked for apps), but it wouldn't let me and told me I would have to buy them again.

No thanks. Already stung me once.  C'ain't trust dat.

Cutting to the chase:  Thanks to iSyncr, that's changed.

Now I don't have to trust iTunes because the iSyncr app let's me transfer the songs (or podcasts or videos) in any iTunes playlist  from my iTunes onto my android phone. Songs come across as *.mp4 files. Now I can safely buy more music via iTunes and be able to listen to them when I want or do something as simple as just delete them from the device (my phone) anywhere, anytime.

The iSyncr app is two things: a tutorial and a Windows program. You step through the app and  connect your phone to your Windows PC. The app places a Windows program called "iSyncr.exe" in the root of your sdcard. When your sdcard is then mounted on Windows, you run this program on your Windows PC from the sdcard. (I haven't tried copying the app to the PC. I'm thinking it won't work if I do that, but will try it.)

iSyncr.exe starts up iTunes and presents you with a window (seen, right, in the screenshot of the tutorial on the phone) allowing you to select which playlist(s) you want to copy to your phone. It also offers you the option of deleting all songs not on the playlist(s) from your phone, so you can use it exactly like iTunes if you want to. I just wanted to add the iTunes songs to the ones already there, so I didn't choose that option.

It worked as advertised. The four songs I have reluctantly bought via iTunes since iTunes ate my music were transferred to my HTC Magic (as *.mp4 files) and they play properly and sound great on my phone. The songs I sync'd over came with the artwork they picked up from iTunes, so that's another plus. You can see that in the first screenshot above of Anna Nalick's "Breathe (2a.m.)".

For anyone with an android phone who has bought music through the Apple Store, iSyncr is a must-have app. Even the smallest, cheapest iPod can now give android owners access to the iTunes music collection.....if you want to think of it that way.

I am.  This app might sell a few iPods to owners of Android phones. Win / Win. iSyncr is a paid app, but worth every penny of the $2-$3....I don't remember how little it was. :-)

The iSyncr FAQ is here.
   

Wifi everywhere!

It's amazing! There is wifi everywhere! 

Wandering around my neighbourhood with my iPod Touch (with WifiTrak installed), I've been amazed by the number of wireless access points / devices I'm seeing. Sometimes there are ten or more visible at the same time. It is very rare for the iPod to report "No networks detected". There is almost always at least one...

Even more amazing is the number of homes / businesses who don't use any encryption AND have DHCP turned on.

Wide open wifi. Incredible. If your device (iPod, Laptop, whatever) is set to "auto-connect", then you can't avoid connecting to them. Interesting legal issues there, I suppose.

Coverage by these unsecure APs comes close to being ubiguitous. On average, it would be about one for every 200 metres in the area I walk around in. Wide open wifi Internet is never much more than a  minute's walk away. That makes it hard to resist the temptation of taking advantage of what might be described as the unwitting 'generosity of spirit' demonstrated by people who don't secure their wireless Internet access at all and leave DHCP turned on to allow you to connect easily.

It's like leaving a basket of shiny, fresh apples sitting right on the footpath......

iTunes and iPod

Play-time is over and I'm back at work. Since Xmas Day I've learned a lot about my iPod Touch and iTunes and discovered once again why I like Open Source and Linux so much. It's the freedom. You can't beat it.

My iPod Touch is a beautiful thing. The style, the size, the Wifi. All very cool.

But then the marketing needs of the vendor kick in and they don't match mine. I can only bring anything onto the iPod via iTunes. That means I can't just copy MP3s from my Linux system. I have to go to a Windows system. The files have to be available on that system. If I use a Windows system other than the one my iPod knows, then I can't get the files OFF the iPod onto any other system. Once they go onto the iPod, that's it. No way back.

I'm glad I ripped all my music well away from iTunes and THEN imported it.

YouTube works provided Apple's YouTube to Quicktime server is available. Apple won't let flash run natively on iPod or iPhone because Flash apps could let users by-pass iTunes. For the streaming video content they do provide, Apple don't use http for that function (Googling indicates). Instead, they feed iPods and iPhones Quicktime content they translate from YouTube flash content. Whether that is true or not, I can't play YouTube video content when behind the proxy servers I find myself behind. I can see the list of vids, search on them - whatever - but can't play them. The same applies to Facebook, WeatherNZ and many other apps. The cached content is there, but I can't update it. Yes, Facebook works through Safari, but that mode doesn't support the additional functions of the iPod facebook application......and so on.

What really annoyed me was that I had some video of my own that I had made and imported into my iTunes library and put it on my iPod. I then wanted to copy it from the iPod to my other Windows PC's iTunes...and I couldn't. It's a one-way trip.

In short, Apple's need to control all content means I can't use my iPod the way I want to. Hmm. The bottom line there is that as soon as there is a comparable device available that IS open......then I'll be buying that and consigning the iPod Touch to the "crippled relic" category.

I still really like the thing. Having a micro-netbook - even crippled - with such great software isserious  goodness. But my affection for my iPod Touch is now very much qualified. The sort of affection that is now situational and not very loyal. I'm on the lookout for something that better meets my needs. 

I really just use the wifi and play the odd video or movie on the iPod. I have an mp3 player that lets me load whatever, from wherever, and have reverted to it several times simply because I find it easier to use in so far as I'm able to do what I need to do on the PC on front of me instead of the single "home" iTunes allows.  

Handheld coolness

One of the great pressies I got this Xmas was an iPod Touch 8GB. This device is basically an iPhone without the phone. It has almost all the same software as the iPhone and you can download a lot more from iTunes, either for free or for cheap. Within a short space of time, I've added WeatherNZ, Facebook, WifiTrak, WordPlus and Plasma Ball.

After it it for only a few hours, the key to this device for me, the thing that lifts it out of the ordinary and into the sunshine, is the wireless connectivity. I have a wireless network at home and at work and there are wireless access points at the local cafes. Home and work are free of charge, while the cafe's tend to want $8 / hour, which is dear, but I tell myself it's not tooo bad if it is very occasional and I'm sipping a cup on your own.

The Safari browser works well, though I can't find any way to download files or to view flash content (like the graphs in Google Analytics). All you see is little blue boxes where the flash conent should be. You are able to watch YouTube videos easily enough. I also tried dailymotion.com, and had no problems playing flash videos there, either. Livevideo.com was a no-go. Just little blue boxes where the video player should have been.

On a busy web page, if the text you're reading is too small, you can zoom on the page easily by placing two fingers in the centre and spreading them apart. Repeat as required. To shrink a page, you do the reverse, pinching two fingers together. Easy as.

For my own purposes, I'm able to do my Gmail either via the Safari browser or via the IMAP mail client. Google Maps is good, too...and the 3.5" screen means the satellite view photo mode and the Streetview mode are worth using. Safari lets me see my Google Docs, but I didn't appear to be able to edit them. The iPod Touch screen is big, clear and provides sharp images and colours with good brightness by default.

It's a good music and video player, too, though it is a wee bit of a pain to have to import files into iTunes first, then drag / drop them to the iPod Touch. hat means you MUST have a Windows or Mac system. I usually use Linux, but the laptop also has Vista, so I had what I needed. But I'm used to just copying files over onto my phone or other cheap MP3 players. Still, the 'new coolness' means adding graphics and other nice stuff to the content, so iTunes isn't a completely useless path to acquiring these pretty things. The Apple Tunes store in New Zealand appears to be thin on content. Many of the TV shows based in the US and UK I might like to pay to watch simply aren't available. When content owners simply won't sell it to you at ANY price, then that's what Bittorrent is for, I guess. No biggy.

The 8GB is big enough for me. That's more songs than I can listen to in over a week without hearing the same one twice. I'd watch short fideos on it, but can't bring myself to the level of deseration required to attempt a feature length movie like Dark Knight or Iron Man.

The way I see it, you already have a decent cellphone (I do) and all you want is the 'new coolness', then get an iPod Touch. I'll be able to leave my laptop home more often it does pretty much everything I end to use my laptop for when away from the house. At NZ$389 all up, the iPod Touch delivers all the coolness of an iPhone without the ball and anchor around the wallet connected to a telco.