Now, my playlists have a number of songs that I play really often, and others that I play rarely, if at all… When I select a song that I like and press the Genius button, iTunes brings up a playlist that seems to based on the kind of song that was selected, similar in terms of genre of music, or artist, but varied in terms of BPM (Beats Per Minute), my rating of the song, and the number of times the songs have been played. I’ve beeing using this feature for a while now, and its only created playlists that have been interesting. So far, its never mixed up genres, or moods (and I have a varied set of music ranging from Classical to Pop to Classic Rock to Metal).

Genius does list out my music and upload it to Apple’s servers, but presumably this is in order to match the music together and to provide me with suggestions in the accompanying Genius bar on the side. However, when I log in to the Indian iTunes Store (which does not sell music), the bar helpfully suggests that it close itself, because there are no suggestions from my country’s store. I just wish that they start selling music on the Indian store, instead of just iPhone Apps.

Good going, Apple.

Download iTunes Here

Recently though, 37Signals brought into question, the forthrightness of one of Apple’s ads.

Here’s a short video that compares Real-Life 3G performance and Apple’s advertising material.

Yes, I do get that “twice as fast” is in reference to non-3G wireless networks, but its still misleading.

Google’s Adsense has done something that I’m not particularly happy about. Its gone and added scroll buttons on each of their text ads. This means that people can view more ads on my site (maybe this is actually good for me!) but distracts them from the reason that they’re at my website … my content!

Click on the image above to see it full size. It’s a screen shot from Technorati

Now, this is a screen capture from my website www.beyondphototips.com and as you can see, the arrows just above my comments box are a bit distracting.

Of course, over time people will stop noticing the buttons and just get on with their lives, and yes, Google is just trying to attract more attention so that they can get more clicks…

But that does not mean that I have to like it! Now, unless I see a significant rise in revenue from Google, on a daily basis, I may just remove all the ad sense ads…

What do you think? Would you remove your adsense ads just for this reason? Do let me know in the comments!

Update: Look, Its for real! Problogger had a post about it too!

PS: This blog has been on WordPress 2.5 for a while now, and I should say that its been great. Yes, I’ve had some inconsistencies in the plugin upgrades (some of you may have noticed some issues), but writing this post was a breeze.

I’m a fan!

Hey, you… Stop drooling… That’s MY Mac I’m talking about… You go get yourself your own piece, buster!

I’ve been using it for about a month now, and it’s taken me some time to get used to the interface. It’s great and all… but having used a PC for over 17 years of my 25 years of existence has made me partial to it’s quirks. I needed more to get me hooked. It was then that I came across Shadow Book, Smack Book and VirtueDesktops. VirtueDesktops (Download Link) is no longer in development because the author figured that Leopard‘s spaces would have more to offer. I run tiger for the moment… and I guess I’ll use VirtueDesktops until my copy of Leopard arrives (it’s in the mail).

VirtueDesktops offers multiple different desktops so that you can arrange your applications logically, into conveniently separated views. Shadow book and Smackbook then offer a very ingenious way of switching between these desktops. Smackbook lets you use the motion detector that is built into the hardware of almost all Apple Notebooks. You tap the laptop, and it Smackbook detects the movement and changes desktops; Smack Da Book.

Shadow book uses the ambient light sensor built into the Mac Book Pro to detect the light differences between the left and the right sensor. If you put your had over the left hand side ambient light sensor, the software switches your desktop. Great Stuff!

I installed the last beta of VirtueDesktops (possibly the last build of this software ever, what a shame!) and to my pleasant surprise, I found that I could activate switching of desktops using the motion or ambient light sensors from directly inside the software! Now I didn’t need Shadow book, but take a look at it in action in the video above… I wonder whether Leopard can do that!

Durability is a factor too, because, you see, this is going to be IN my pocket almost all the darn day… and that’s not a very safe place, especially when I’m in the middle of a photoshoot. Resolution is a factor, though not so much… anything over 5MPX should be fine…

Any Suggestions?

We’ve all heard about the great things that the iPhone can do… now we hear about what it cant!

But first, a recap of the headlines… What Apple did right!

1. Designed something that looks way cooler than anything else on the planet, yet…
2. Got all of the mobile devices you would need, and bunched them into one sleek package.
3. Gave this thing an interface that could have great potential in many different applications.
4. Made everything upgradable simply by running everything off OS X (software is so much easier to upgrade than hardware).
5. Made this sleek, shiny iPhone almost completely scratch proof.
6. Gave it a display that was usable in direct sunlight
7. Gave it full-screen video and Coverflow

Now, the things where I think Apple may have goofed…

1. Non-replacable battery with low lifespan. Wow! Apple says that you may have to replace the battery at between 300-400 recharges… Not good! With battery drain likely to be much higher than a conventional mobile phone, its likely that this would mean changing the battery about 8-10 month’s down the line. Not a very nice thought when it also means that you’ll have to send it in to Apple.
2. No Copy and paste for text. What a bummer! You’ve got the internet, mail and other applications that you can use… but you cant interface the two… Now, I personally think that this will be resolved, as will most of the other minor issues that iPhone has at the moment… but as of now, it is a real problem.
3. Not have video recording on a phone with a 2 Megapixel camera.
4. Enrage a lot of people by having a cutting edge communications device run on a slow protocol like EDGE and expect full-fledged websites and streaming video to work.

iBelieve – and that’s all I’ll say for now. Still, I’m going to wait and bide my time till iPhone 2.0 comes out. Remember, never buy the first version of some techno gimmickry… if you cant wait for version 2.0, atleast wait for their first update!

I can wait… I can wait… I can wait… maybe!

Here are some iPhone reviews by people who’ve touched and felt the blessed things…

• David Pogue
• Walter S. Mossberg and Katherine Boehret
• Edward C. Baig
• Steven Levy
• Phil Baker