The MacTrack – iPhone, iPod, iPod Touch and Mac News

If, like me, you have some smart playlists lovingly created within iTunes.

Whilst simple to create these smart playlists can be extremely powerful and can dynamically select music tracks (or other content) depending on their pre-set criteria.  By carefully selecting the criteria you can develop playlists that always have relevant and ever changing content, automatically.

Now, suppose you want to create a new Smart Playlist based on an already pre-existing smart list and then make some minor changes to it?  Apart from recreating the entire playlist from scratch again is there a way to help automate this somewhat?

Yes, there is!  Simply:

STEP 1

Select the playlist you want to base your new one on

Go-to the File Menu
Choose Library…
Select Export Playlist…

In the Format drop-down list choose XML
Save the file to your desktop

STEP 2

Next, import the playlist:

Go-to the File Menu
Choose Library…
Select Import Playlist…

Choose the file you exported in step 1.

iTunes will import the playlist’s selection criteria, not the actual tracks, and you can then edit it to make your minor changes and then rename it appropriately.

Note:  If your import result in a standard, plain track listing and not a smart playlist, ensure that in step 1 you have remembered to choose XML in the Format drop-down.  Without this important step it won’t export the selection criteria.

Below are a couple of example Smart Playlists that I use to demonstrate their power, and why you may want to copy one rather than recreating it from scratch:

Middleburg Heights, Ohio – Grantwood Technology, LLC today announced the release of the tuneband(TM) for the 4th generation iPod nano, an armband product designed to comfortably secure the iPod nano 4th generation in place during exercise, including Nike+iPod compatibility.

Each tuneband consists of a comfortable and flexible armband strap that can accommodate both large and small arms, a durable silicone skin that allows access to all ports on the iPod nano, and a low-tack, cut-and-peel screen protector that helps guard against smudges, moisture, and daily wear-and-tear. The silicone skin of the tuneband was specifically designed for runners and walkers fully covering the bottom corners of the iPod, securely holding it in place, yet allowing access to the USB port and headphone jack. The silicone skin also does not cover the click wheel to allow it to be used without interference.

“By using the best design features of our previous tuneband products,” states Michael Banks, co-founder and CEO of Grantwood Technology, LLC, “we made this the best iPod armband for the 4th generation iPod available at a very competitive price,” states Michael Banks, CEO of Grantwood Technology.

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American Fork, Utah – MileBug LITE, a lite version of the premier iPhone mileage log application, is now available for only $2.99 (compared with $6.99 for Standard). MileBug LITE helps those driving their own vehicles for business, charity, medical, or other reasons receive their reimbursement and/or tax deduction. In the U.S., IRS business rates are up to 58.5 cents/mile. MileBug LITE for the iPhone/iPod Touch helps people track their miles and provides emailed reports for easy submission to employers, accountants, and the IRS.

What’s New?
* Option for kilometers vs miles (General Settings)
* Custom deduction rates
* Define multiple business rates (reimbursement vs. deduction)
* “Other” business category for percentage tax filers
* Foreign and other special characters supported in reports
* Notes included in reports
* SPANISH version

MileBug LITE answers the call from the many international customers. Inside the General Settings is now an option to select kilometers instead of miles. From within the Presets, users can define custom rates for business, charity, medical, and other categories. If you get one rate from your employer for reimbursement, and another rate from the IRS for your side business, you simply create two different business rates.

As an added bonus, MileBug LITE supports Spanish. Simply select Spanish as the language of your iPhone or iPod Touch in the General Settings –> International area and restart MileBug LITE. Bienvenido a MileBug!

MileBug LITE
Download and Purchase

Izatt International is an iPhone/iPod Touch application development company in American Fork, UT. Izatt develops applications internally as well as accepts outside development projects. Fingerspell is another application developed by Izatt now available on the App Store. Copyright 2008 Izatt International. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Computer in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Irvine, CA – Want to win 10 iPods? A 42″ JVC HDTV? Or vote for your favorite iPhone developer? Less than a week remains to enter contests and surveys offered by iLounge, the world’s leading resource for iPod and iPhone information, as it prepares to release its brand new 2009 iPod + iPhone Buyers’ Guide. Two contests – iProvocateur and iPod As Art – give readers a chance to win amazing prizes while demonstrating their creative talents, while new Readers’ Choice Awards let users pick the year’s best Apple devices, accessory makers and software developers.

“Leading up to this holiday season, we wanted to give readers an opportunity to win enough iPods to give away as gifts, and keep some for themselves,” explained Dennis Lloyd, Publisher of iLounge. “The chance to win an HDTV, 17 iPods, or other great prizes has already brought in some spectacular submissions, and we look forward to announcing the winners soon.”

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Gimel, Switzerland – Azure Talon Software is proud to introduce iLaugh 1.0, their joke database for iPhone and iPod Touch. For the price of a song, iLaugh is a fun little application that contains an endless database of hilarious jokes. It’s a handy sidekick when entertaining guests, speaking to an audience, killing time or simply to cheer up a friend when they’re feeling down.

iLaugh is quite easy to use, and a perfect companion for comedians who’re searching for that perfect punch line. With sources containing a total of over twenty thousand jokes (some of which are 100% clean), users are guaranteed to always find a new joke. Azure Talon will be releasing two, completely new and great sources very soon.

Supported Languages:
* US English

System Requirements:
* iPhone or iPod Touch 2.0

Pricing and Availability:
iLaugh 1.0 for iPhone is only $0.99 (USD) and available exclusively through Apple’s App Store.

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This is a tale of a crashed iPod Touch and it’s subsequent painless restore:

A few days ago my iPod Touch (16GB) crashed and went into restore / recovery mode, or perhaps I put it into restore / recovery mode accidentally. At boot-up it showed the restore / recovery screen: a USB cable being plugged into iTunes (see image on the right).

In case you don’t know:

• to quit a hung application you press and hold the home button, for 5 to 10 seconds
• to force a complete device restart you press and hold the lock/unlock button along with the home button for about 5 to 10 seconds

I’d been having a few problems with it, prior to the crash: it wouldn’t stay connected to my home wi-fi network and had started behaving strangely. I forced a device restart (maybe 2 or 3 times) and it then showed the ‘restore-me’ icon (as described above).

Maybe it ‘decided’ it needed a restore (as system problems were apparent) or maybe I didn’t let go of the home button – I was distracted reading a web page at the time about the upcoming Apple event ( New  MacBooks look amazing BTW).

I re-connected it to iTunes which detected an iPod Touch in restore/recovery mode and offered to re-flash/reload the firmware and operating system and I accepted – the firmware and OS were loaded, verified and the iPod Touch rebooted (took about up 30 mins up until the reboot I think).

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Tecumseh, Michigan – Never miss the excitement of college football again with iLove College Football 2008 by Fandora’s Box for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. In addition to providing Live scoring, you will have access to rankings, schedules, standings, weekly picks, Heisman watch, Top 25 game previews and recaps, team reports, and other editorial content. Importantly, content is native to the app resulting in a great user experience. This app is powered by reliable content from industry leaders PA SportsTicker, The Sports Xchange, and Fandora’s Box.

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Oakland, California – Developer Mark Morris today announced that Torus is now available for iPhone OS 2.0. Torus redefines the ring toss into an inverted, escapist divertimento. Absorbing ambient audio surrounds you while Tori fall towards the Oakland Estuary off Jack London Square, as the ancient astronauts once enjoyed. The various Torus colors fall at different rates, the faster the Torus, the more points it’s worth.

Instead of aiming the rings at a peg, the peg moves on a platform to catch the cascading Tori within the tennis court like playing field. The game uses the iPhone/iPod Touch’s accelerometer to control movement of the platform: simply tilt the unit to control the platform’s movement.

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Madison, WI – MyWeather(R), an industry-leading developer of digital weather and traffic content, recently released MyWeather Mobile(TM), a groundbreaking weather application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This week, MyWeather proudly announced that after over three months in the Apple’s app store and several significant updates, MyWeather Mobile remains in the top 2% of all paid apps and has been a fixture in Apple’s top 100.

MyWeather Mobile features the iPhone’s first full-screen, interactive radar. By combining these high quality radar loops with Microsoft(R) Virtual Earth technology, the application lets you view weather conditions at your specific location – or any other location around the country. Turning the phone horizontally truly puts you in control by displaying full-screen radar, allowing you to pinch, flick, zoom, and double tap the map down to the street level, exactly as a broadcast meteorologist would. This precision also allows you to view golf courses, schools, stadiums, or any other key points of interest and view the radar at that exact location.

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Walnut Creek, California – net4mac is a social network built exclusively for Mac users. This is a powerful internet service that allows you to make new friends sharing the same passion for the Mac platform, build new professional relationships, create groups of interests and much more. We are very proud to announce today the new version of net4mac for the iPhone.

Version 1.0 for iPhone allows you to connect to the service, read your messages, send a new message, browse profiles and search members matching your preferences. The user interface is fully optimized for the iPhone. More features will be added in future versions. It’s just the beginning. The iPhone version costs only $4.99 (USD). All updates will be free and we have a strong pipeline for new features.

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Washington, DC – KavaSoft today released KavaTunes 3.2, the web jukebox for iTunes. KavaTunes makes websites that look and work just like iTunes, so you can browse, search and play your music from any web browser. KavaTunes features continuous playback, so you can queue up an album or playlist and listen to one song after another.

KavaTunes can add album artwork to your music library, and includes artwork in the catalog. KavaTunes can also create web catalogs that look and work just like an iPod. Visitors can browse and play your music using the familiar iPod clickwheel interface.

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