iTunes 4.5 has some interesting new features, but one baffles me: all songs in my library and my iPod now have links to the corresponding song, album, and artist on the iTunes Music Store.

OK, obviously the first point is that the link actually performs a search at the store (since you wouldn’t want to make every copy of iTunes responsible for keeping its own copy of the store’s inventory, in order to show the links only when the song/album/artist is actually available a the store). So, when you click the link, it’s possible you’ll end up at a “no results found” page.

Knowing the futility of looking for things that aren’t going to be in the store, when you have seriously oddball musical tastes like I do, the results can only be described as comical:

No need to click the link - I’m pretty sure the iTMS doesn’t stock Ginga Tetsudo 999 ETERNAL EDITION, File No. 1. Or Files 2 through 12 for that matter.

But more importantly, if I already own a song in my Library or on my iPod, why would I need to go back to the music store? Am I going to buy it again?

Maybe the feature is aimed at those who’ve filled their iPods with pirated MP3’s. As if to say, “y’know, when you feel like going legit and actually buying this song, here you go.”

Also, the link would be a cool idea when playing your friends’ shared playlists and iMixes, but shouldn’t it be able to tell the difference between songs being shared to me and those on my own storage?

Not a flame, just seems curious.

Really, I must be missing something. Tell me why this is cool and I’m dumb.

A couple of professors in the Photo department recently asked for my input on methods for digital storytelling with still images. They’re interested in having student photos packaged up into multimedia modules that optionally include interleaved text, audio, effects, and transitions in addition to still images. I’ve started compiling a list of various slideshow technologies, with their respective pros and cons.

The professors want the students to remain focused on the photos and on the journalism; to be distracted by the technology as little as possible. I’ve started to look at various slideshow technologies, trying to determine what will best meet their needs. Here are what I see as the most common options, with pros and cons. Our labs are Mac-based.

Flash: Probably the best filesizes and obviously the highest level of interactivity, but also the steepest learning curve. Text scales well in Flash, too. It is certainly possible to teach just enough Flash to do a slideshow without getting into symbols and instances and tweening, etc. In fact you can even have a Flash template that students can drop images into. But in my experience, these are still not as easy to learn as other techniques. Works on the web. Can sync with audio.

PowerPoint / Keynote: Traditional presentation software is reasonably easy to teach, but doesn’t offer as much control when presentation needs go beyond the basics. For example, you don’t get an independently controllable audio track, and sync’ing up audio with visual transitions is next to impossible. And while these presentations work fine in a lecture hall, they don’t play on the web without conversion to HTML, a process which can be funky at best.

PHP Gallery / JavaScript: Many Web-based photo gallery systems have slideshows features built in, and are certainly the easiest ways to get student slideshows onto the web. Unfortunately, Gallery has no soundtrack option, no way to change individual image durations, and no full-screen mode.

iPhoto: Since all the student images start out in iPhoto to begin with, and because iPhoto has a built-in slideshow feature, this one seems like a natural choice. You can play iPhoto slideshows on the web if you export them to QuickTime. Unfortunately, iPhoto has no built-in titler, so if you want to interleave text into your presentation, you have to bitmap it in Photoshop first. And while iPhoto can play music during a slideshow, you can’t sync music to your presentation with any accuracy because there is no timeline and no way to edit the durations of individual slides.

iMovie: Non-linear editors such as iMovie or Final Cut give you the kinds of controls iPhoto lacks: built-in titler, individual image duration, independent audio track… But there are two drawbacks: 1) Because titles and text get bitmapped, they don’t scale well to different resolutions. The jaggy text when viewed full-screen diminishes the professionalism of the rest of the presentation (I’m thinking there’s probably a way around this; suggestions welcome). 2) Exporting to full-quality DV from iMovie gives you a file nearly 100 times larger than exporting to full quality QuickTime from iPhoto. It took a bit to figure out why: In iMovie, full-quality means 29.97 fps, as it should, while exporting QuickTime from iPhoto gives you a movie at .19 fps (which makes sense since iPhoto can assume that you’re working with stills rather than with video). Yes, you can manually change the export framerate in iMovie, but it’s an educational step we’d rather not do.

I’m sure there are options I’m missing here. Fill me in - what’s your favorite interactive slideshow technology, either for lecture hall or web-based use?

Here at O’Reilly we have lots of new Mac OS X users. We’ve leveled the playing field by allowing employees to choose from a menu of hardware options when their time for an upgrade arrives. I won’t give you any specific numbers, but let’s say that Mac hardware is very popular around here right now.

Since most of these folks had WinTel configurations prior, we’ve established a NewMacs internal mailing list where we discuss software and hardware issues. One of the most consistent questions that has surfaced is, “Should I apply this new thing that just appeared in Software Update?”

Our answer is, “Count to two.” Two days that is. Then we’ll either flash the green light or recommend that you don’t update at this time.

I was reminded of this strategy this morning when I read that the current AirPort Management Tools update has been temporarily pulled back by Apple. Based on the comments I’ve read, I’m glad I didn’t rush to apply it as soon as it was released. Since I have a PowerBook, I can’t afford to lose any signal strength bars :)

Personally, I don’t think this is a fiasco. Overall, I think Apple has a good QC process for their software. Yes, they miss things, and I wish they wouldn’t. And I have typos in my articles sometimes too, no matter how many times I read them.

That’s why I recommend counting to two with new updates. Let the guys who have a little more time on their hands than I do perform the final real world test.

I think Software Update is quite handy. I keep it in manual mode so I’m not tempted to update until I’ve made a conscious decision after research. And if I even think about whining about any of these update issues, I then go to my IBM ThinkPad and attempt to apply a few dozen patches.

When I was immersed in Digital Photography Hacks, I got hooked on camera phone and PDA picture taking. This realm of photography is in its infancy now, but is quickly emerging as a new medium.

It’s the photographic equivalent of Billy Ball — Billy Martin’s hit and run approach to baseball. You can photograph life as it dashes by and never break stride. Camera phones, PDAs with cameras, and even tiny digicams are more likely to be in our pockets when something interesting happens, and therefore increase our odds of getting the shot.

But then what do you do? There isn’t exactly a smooth workflow established for managing those candids. Here’s what I’ve worked out for my Mac OS X digital hub. You can substitute as needed.

The glue that connects my workflow is Bluetooth. This personal networking technology makes everything easier, especially file transfer among devices. In my previous weblog, Bluetooth Phones and Mac OS X in Perfect Sync, I explain the setup I use and why I like it. The Bluetooth-enabled Palm Tungsten T2 has emerged as a key player in photography workflow. Here’s how it works.

• Take photos with camera phone.
• Send them via Bluetooth to the Palm.
• Organize them by category in the Photos application on the Palm.
• Make sure that the Photos conduit is enabled so your images are transferred to your Mac automatically during the next HotSync
• Manage the downloaded images on your Mac using iTreo, which is a nifty iPhoto-like application that reads the images you just downloaded from the Palm to the Photos folder..
• Transfer the important images to iPhoto by simply dragging them from iTreo to iPhoto.

This is the complete workflow; you can pick and choose parts of it as it suits your needs. For example, you might be happy with iTreo as your desktop viewer, print manager, and organizer for your photos. I prefer iPhoto to be the final destination because I’m religious about archiving those libraries, and iPhoto makes that easy.

If your phone takes a memory card, you could use that to move the pictures to the PDA and Mac instead of Bluetooth. This is especially important for users of the Treo 600 and others who don’t have BT networking, but do have memory card slots.

You could also send images directly from your phone to the Mac and drag them into iPhoto, bypassing the Palm altogether. But I like having the Palm in the equation for a couple reasons.

It’s fun to view pictures on the Tungsten thanks to the bigger screen and slideshow capability. Also, I can quickly organize the pictures by category as I receive them from the phone, and those catagories persist for the rest of the workflow. And since I have the Palm with me most of the time, I can fiddle with the shots in restaurants and waiting rooms without having to lug around my PowerBook.

I want to say a bit more about the iTreo app too. When I first discovered it, iTreo only worked with Treo organizers (hence the name). That seemed like a shame for such a cool tool. I contacted the developer, Florent Pillet, and asked him if he could expand the app the read the Photos folder in my Palm directory (Home > Documents > Palm > User > Photos). He fiddled with the app and came up with the 1.2 version that I think is terrific. It’s free to try and $12 to register — quite worth it.

iTreo uses the same categories you established on your Palm to organize the images. It also exports to a variety of formats, displays the images beautifully, handles printing of the pictures, and enables drag and drop directly into iPhoto. It’s much better than staring at a bunch of file names in your Photos folder trying to figure out which is which.

As camera phones improve in quality, devising easy ways to manage their pictures becomes more important. You don’t want to lose a cool shot because you can’t remember where you put it. In this sense, camera phone photography is really no different than any other type of shooting. Find a system that works for you, and stick to it.

Related link: https://bestblogs.blogdns.com

Yesterday was the launch of Kinja, a weblog guide.

Nick Denton says:

“Some of the most prolific weblog writers, have been able to attract a following, but most weblogs remain undiscovered. Kinja will make it that little bit easier for interesting weblog writers, and their potential fans, to connect.”

I absolutely applaud this idea. The whole point of my book/series (Never Threaten To Eat Your Co-Workers: Best of Blogs) was to address this. The issue isn’t whether or not there is good writing in blogs, the issue is whether or not you can find it. As someone who personally has read over 15,000 blog entries in the past two years, I can attest to this. In fact, there were days researching my book that I would read 100-200 blog entries and not find a single good entry. It led me to do a guestimate that the web could see over 3,000,000,000 blog entries a year by 2005. And I’m sure I’ve low balled that number. The sheer volume of blogs and entries means the challenge Kinja faces is a tremendous one. As someone whose been thinking about this for two years, I really don’t see how this will work over time, but I’m supportive of their cause.

“Kinja is a weblog portal, collecting news and commentary from some of the best sites on the web.”

And there’s the rub. Not every site is Hemingway, but every blog and blogger has a moment where one particular entry rises above the banality and shines as bright as the best published writer. I call this blisdom (blogger wisdom). I’ll give you an example. Since starting my book project, I unfortunately see the world as a blog. Now my wife isn’t a blogger, but she said something recently, and I immediately thought it would make a brilliant blog entry.

Wife: I just had the strangest dream. I was on a train…
Me: Coach or First Class?
Wife: Honey, I don’t dream in coach.

While not every blog site may be “the best,” each and every one of them has a moment where they crystalize life in a way that deeply affects you. That folks, is blisdom. A thesis in a fortune cookie.

Plus, what is banality to one is genius to another. When working on my book, we looked for ideas above all else. We paid no attention to site design, overall content, etc. We wanted to find blisdom. So I must say I’m curious as to how Kinja selects the “best sites.”

Don’t get me wrong, I am supportive of the idea of Kinja, because I’ve been struggling with the same issues for the past two years…but I certainly don’t envy their monumental task. If you are intersted in how I handled some of these issues, look here.