RadioRecorder
RadioRecorder was an application I came across completely by accident. Now, I can't remember what I was looking for; but I'm certainly glad I found this beauty.
It's one of those great little apps that does one thing; but does it well. RadioRecorder records internet radio streams. Plain and simple. The icing on the cake is how it implements the task. You can schedule your recordings in advance, or instantly at the push of a button. The streams are saved as MP3 files, and automatically added to your iTunes directory in a custom playlist.
The big benefit to all of this, is that no matter how many tracks you have on your iPod, there's always room for something new. If you go jogging daily or take long road trips, 10 Gigs of individual tracks will start to seem old. By using RadioRecorder, you can get a fresh morning news program, a special in-studio appearance by your favorite artist, or a few hours worth of London radio (because I know how you feel about that accent!).
The only fault I could find with the existing application was the icon, so I whipped up a few of my own. There are two icons in this zip file → RadioRecorder Icons. Pick your favorite.
RadioRecorder is freeware (!). If you find the application useful, send a tip to the developer to encourage continued updates to the software.
iMic
I've been using the Griffin iMic to transfer old audio media onto my TiBook. Here's a rundown of the why and how, and my consensus on the product.
Why? I have a ton of bootlegs on cassette. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 Maxell XLIIs. I have bootlegs and independent albums on minidisc. I have 7" singles with amazing B sides. There are dusty Funk 8-Tracks sitting in my garage. All of this great music, completely inaccessible to me in my car or at work. I literally have to sit in front of my component rack in my living room to listen to these albums and concerts, which are unavailable on any other media. There was too much invested to let this music rot on tape or warp and scratch on vinyl. Creating digital copies of the music allows me to burn it on CD, convert to MP3, and take with me everywhere on my iPod.
Continue reading "iMic"
NewsFire Beta
I'm on a quest to become more productive.
As a part of that journey, I've decided to revisit the realm of RSS feed viewers. I used NetNewsWire Lite for a few months last year; but found it to be too cumbersome. When Safari was released, I completely stopped using NetNewsWire, and condensed all of my daily reads into a tabbed group. On average, I open that group three times per day.
Unfortunately, many of my favorite sites don't update as often as I check them. Sure, I'm only wasting 5 seconds per tab; but when you have a few dozen sites, several times a day, it adds up. I found out about NewsFire from browsing the OSX tag at del.icio.us. It looked to be extremely light, performing the bare necessities that I was looking for in my daily browse.
After demo-ing the product for a few days, I have to say "so far, so good." As a web designer, I miss visiting the actual pages; but this frees me up to get other business done. Even if that means finding new sites to add to my daily reads.
It's very easy to add a feed to your list. It is a two-field entry process, and one of the two is optional. You can specify how often to check for feeds, and the alert type (if any) you prefer. The interface is clean and similar to other brushed metal OS X applications like iTunes, but FAR more simple. In fact, NewsFire may be the easiest all around application that I've ever used.
The product is still in beta; but in my testing it was very stable. My only concern is that the product remain true to its current form factor and ease of use. If additional features are added as the point version increases, it would be nice to have a "streamlined" preference to only see and use the basics.
It's currently a free application, so give it a shot and see how much time NewsFire can save you.