Helpful things to do before singing up to iTunes Match

iTunes Match sounds really interesting to me albeit confusing if you don't know what it is this is the official strap line from Apple

iTunes Match. Store your entire music library in iCloud, including music you've imported from CDs, and enjoy your collection anywhere, anytime, on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, computer, or Apple TV.

Apparently there is a limit of 25,000 songs not available in the iTunes store that can be kept in the cloud, this makes me think for music lovers with esoteric tastes it might be a problem.

If it's for you I found this comment from Tee1970 really helpful.

I went thru the matching process about a week ago. First stuff I did - 

-Created a playlist of all music with a bit rate less than 256 VBR (variable bit rate)
-Updated all "songs" that were actually audiobooks to the correct media type and genre so they wouldn't all get uploaded as unmatched songs and to get below the 25,000 song limit (I had about 32,000 items when audiobook tracks were included.) 
-Re-imported a few cds where I had bit rates less than 100 VBR (too low and it won't match) 
-Back up the music collection 

The actual scanning and matching ran very quickly, was done in about 2 hours for 9000 songs. About 3,000 were in a low quality that could be redownloaded at the higher iTunes Plus quality. I deleted the matched and upgradable songs, then used the playlist to help track progress for redownloading. I did that part over 2 days on and off when i was not doing other stuff. 

I turned on iTunes match on my phone after a few days, and it warns you it will replace your music. I have a metered 3G plan, so I didn't want to stream all the time. I selected a bunch of songs to redownload via wifi, but turned off the iCloud-only music. So basically using iTunes match to upgrade all my music, and provide an off-site, always available backup of my music collection. Well worth the $25! Less to put in my regular backups, and less room to take up on my laptop if you want to delete local copies and store the upgraded music on an external harddrive. Used to be that your entire music collection had to be in the iTunes music directories, now very easy to have partials. Would have loved this a few years ago, as I had been purposely burning lower fidelity songs to save space on my laptop. Now you can listen to the hi-fidelity music all the time, with less hassle

Lonely Tree Stock Photo

My lonely tree photograph has been used a number of times on websites, magazines and for a book cover. 

It always makes me smile to see how my photos are used by others.

Original hi-res version of lonely tree is available for free here: Lonely Tree Stock Photo

You can find more of my stock photos available to use free here: More Stock Photos

Photo

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Use any headphones with iphone 4 and bumper case

When I got my iphone 4 I also bought the apple bumper case for protection, however most earbuds do not fit in the headphone socket with the bumper attached because the jack plug on most earbuds are too large for the small recess of the bumper case.

Then I found the Monster iCableLink Headphone Adapter For iPhone it fits perfectly into the headphone socket with the bumper case on so any headphones will fit, the cable is very well made too, it saved me some money on new earbuds and at only £6.99 I think it's a real bargain.

312k8mth3al

Monster iCableLink Headphone Adapter For iPhone

Post by Larrie Knights
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Blackberry podcasts app not available in the UK a work around


I was excited by blackberry OS6 but sad the new podcast app does not work in the UK, it's installed but not functional you can open the app (it may be hidden, to see it from your home screen hit Menu>Show All) but there are no options to add podcasts so it's fairly useless but there is a small work around.

You still can't subscribe to podcasts within the app rather you use the web browser to download podcasts then add them to the podcasts folder.

First go to a web page with an rss feed that contains the podcast you want to subscribe to, bookmark this page so you can check it easily maybe add it as a favorite to your home screen in the browser hit Menu>Add to Home Screen.

From this rss feed hopefully it will have direct links to the podcasts usually in mp3 or m4a format, click these links it will ask if you want to open or save them click save, now the important bit save all these files to the podcast folder either on device memory or media card I recommend media card so in my case the folder is located here:

Media Card/BlackBerry/podcasts

If it's not there create a folder named "podcasts" (without quotes) using the Files app in the applications folder.

Now when you open the podcasts app you should see all your podcasts nicely grouped together by subscription.

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No camera, no problem

Photo

Photo © Larrie Knights

Or How I learned to stop worrying without a camera

For a long time I felt a great need to record everything beautiful or interesting I found, it became an impulse if I didn't record that moment it would be gone forever, lost.

This went on for about 7 years I built up a huge library of images I would print them out & pin them to a wall in my house, a whole wall covered in cork devoted to the pursuit of capturing everything beautiful I could see.

The impulse started to take on a life of it's own I would spend more time devoted to it even though I was becoming tired and overwhelmed with the whole process.

I went for a walk one day, unusually without my camera, I saw many things I wanted to record and as I walked my mind was completely occupied with the feeling of regret for not bringing my camera then a thought came what a ludicrous thing to be doing instead of enjoying these moments as they happen and just accepting them as fleeting moments I was blaming myself for being forgetful.

Now when I see something beautiful or interesting I still feel an impusle to photograph it, but if I don't have my camera I remind myself to just enjoy it.

This has changed the way I live too, I still take photographs but with a more considered approach, if I come across a good location I remember it, I may take a few snaps but these are only reference material for a return visit to find the best view point and lighting.

Sometimes after all this effort I might not get the photo I want even though all the criteria are correct I simply may not be feeling it myself, but all these visits are not wasted they are all parts of the process to the final image.

Post written by Larrie

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Fjallraven Deer Scouter Jacket review

Fjallraven-deer-scouter-jacket

The Fjallraven Deer Scouter is an outdoor jacket made from Fjallraven's own G-1000 material, the jacket is beautifully made with some nice touches like a special pocket in the front that has a pull out sheath handy for holding things like ipods or small water bottles or sat navs, it has a detachable hood which rather than being an afterthought is well designed and creates a very nice feeling of shelter in the rain.

I am a huge fan of the Fjallraven range of clothing & although they are designed for hunting (which I don't use them for) they are perfect for my passion which is wildlife photography. The material is hard wearing, waterproof and important for me it's amazingly silent, now I know what your thinking a silent jacket are there non silent jackets then :) well so many gore-tex or other waterproof, breathable jackets I've owned do the job at keeping water out but the material as you walk or move rubs together and makes noise animals can hear.

The other thing I like about the material is when used in conjunction with greenland wax you can make the jacket more waterproof for example in summer I don't use wax to make it more breathable so even on a hot day the jacket feels cool. In winter a liberal application of greenland wax makes it more waterproof and warmer.

Although these are not cheap clothes I like to think of them as an investment and that's also how I justify it to my bank manager, I won't need another jacket for a good few years.

The Fjallraven website is also worth a visit as it has some good articles How to wax your jacket and Packing your backpack

Deer scouter jacket: €244.00
Website: www.fjallraven.com
Info on G-1000

Post written by Larrie

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