Adventure Sandbox

Today Amazon launched their newest online service, Amazon MP3 Beta. Amazon MP3 Beta is a digital music service that will compete with iTunes, eMusic, Amie Street, and others. I decided to kick the tires today and test out Amazon’s newest product.

Browsing the site is pretty much like using Amazon to purchase any of their other products. You can perform a search or use the navigation bar on the left side of the page. I purchased a song on the Top Songs list so didn’t venture too much into the interface but it seems very easy to use from my limited experience.

Once you find a track you want, click the Buy MP3 button and you’ll be prompted to download the Amazon MP3 Downloader. The downloader is necessary for album purchases but not for song purchases. I went ahead and downloaded it anyways.

Once I went through the checkout process, a .amz file was downloaded to my laptop. Double clicking the file begins the song download in the Amazon downloader app. About 5 seconds later, the song was downloaded and it was automatically added to my iTunes library.

Be careful about clicking the Buy MP3 button. Once you are logged into Amazon, clicking the button will automatically purchase the song much like the 1 click buying. I clicked the button by accident and purchased a song i didn’t really want to buy. Good thing the track was only $.89.

iTunes may finally have some competition with Amazon MP3 Beta. Most tracks are only $.89 and most albums $8.99. The songs are all DRM free and encoded at 256kbps in mp3 format. Right now the selection is a little limited, but I expect that to improve over time.

Competition is good for consumers, but we’ll have to wait and see if Apple changes the iTunes store in response. If you purchase from iTunes, Amazon MP3 Beta is worth some of your time to check it out. The reviews are beginning to come in, and so far they are positive.

Tags: Technology by Kevin
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Though some networks have their panties in a wad with Apple, others are increasing their efforts to use iTunes as a promotional tool. Beginning this week, the season premier of seven Fox shows will be available for free on iTunes. Prison Break, Bones, American Dad, K-Ville, and three others will be available as a free download for one (CNN) or two (LA Times) weeks, depending on who you believe. I tried to search the Fox website but I could find no reference listing the names of the other three shows available.

I’m going to have a look at the available shows and download a few of them. I’ve never downloaded a show from iTunes so this is a good chance to test out the content quality. It’s a smart move for Fox to offer up the season premiers for free. At no other point of the TV season, except for maybe the season finale, is the hype for new shows greater. By promoting the shows on another distribution channel, Fox is giving the shows a greater chance to build an audience. iTunes makes it dead simple to download and watch a TV show if you missed it or just hadn’t heard about it. Since advertising rates are based on ratings, it’s obviously the networks best interest to increase viewership. I would image any money made on iTunes via the selling of TV shows is pure profit as well. This move by Fox sounds like a win-win for both Fox and Apple. These shows would be great to test out the new iPod nano.

Tags: Apple, Technology by Kevin
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Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day (ITLAPD)! My co-workers and I have been talking like a pirate since early this morning and I’ve got to say it’s pretty fun. Even Yahoo is getting into the day by replacing the usual Flickr logo with the one below. I’m surprised Google didn’t do something similar with their logo.

If you’re reading this website, you’re probably wondering how the posts are all displayed in pirate speak. It’s pretty easy! Just download the Text Filter Suite from Dougal Campbell’s website. Once you upload it to your plugins directory, activate TFS Core and TFS Pirate. You’re done!

Tags: Technology by Kevin
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Since I joined Flickr a few years ago, I’ve always been looking for a good way to display the photos I’ve uploaded to Flickr on my website. I tried a number of Flickr Wordpress plugins, but I always came back to one. FAlbum, from RandomByte, has long been my favorite Flickr Wordpress plugin. FAlbum is easy to configure, very customizable, and easily allows you to put your photos on a dedicated Wordpress page. The screen shot below shows just a few of the plugin options you can set in the Wordpress admin panel.

The only option that I’ve found to be missing is the ability to hide certain sets from displaying via FAlbum. For example, I would like to hide the “Blog images” set on my website if possible. While that functionality would be nice to have, it’s certainly not a deal breaker. Give FAlbum a try if you are looking to display your Flickr photos on your Wordpress based website.

Tags: Technology by Kevin
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Backing up your computer is often not a fun and easy task. One company however is trying to make it dead simple to back up your Mac. Mozy, by Berkeley Data Systems, is a simple Mac (they have a Windows client too) application that has a menu which asks what you would like to back up. Check a few boxes for your iPhoto library, iTunes, iCal, Address Book, and a few other applications to get started (see picture below). You can also choose to backup individual folders, all with just a few clicks.

The initial backup will take a number of hours and from then on it backups your changes as you are using your computer (or at a scheduled time if you choose that option). I haven’t noticed any performance hit since I installed Mozy. They also have bandwidth throttling if you are using a slow connection and don’t want your backups taking up too much of your bandwidth. Your files are backed up using 128-bit SSL encryption during transit and there is also encryption on their servers.

If disaster strikes you have a few ways to get your data back. 1) “Simply right-click on the file or folder that you want to restore (e.g.. you want to restore a previous version) and click on the Mozy restore selection).” 2) Use your web browser and select the files you want to restore from your Mozy account and download them to your computer. 3) Request a DVD of your files which will be shipped to you for a fee.

If you don’t mind your files living on someone else’s server, give Mozy a try. You get 2GB of storage space for free and can purchase unlimited space for only $4.95 per month. I use Mozy in combination with SuperDuper as my backup solutions. I now have ease of mind in that if something were to happen to my data, at a minimum I’ll get the important stuff back with no problems.

Tags: Apple, Review, Technology by Kevin
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