beaTunes News

beaTunes 2.0 Early Access 2

2008-07-02T11:21:00.002-05:00

Thanks to all the brave people who downloaded EA1 and took it for a ride. Your feedback was very valuable for EA2, which is available as of today.

Changes include a workaround for a memory leak in Java 6 on Windows, lowered memory consumption while importing beaTunes 1 data, more responsive UI for big libraries, a new Duplicates Inspector, a new play/skip-ratio column etc. We have not changed the BPM algorithm or, for that matter, anything that has to do with analysis. Again, we are looking for feedback - please let us know what's great and what just doesn't work.

And here's the mandatory warning: Before downloading and installing this, please make sure you understand what Early Access means:

Absolutely no warranty for whatever
Features may or may not work, appear, and disappear
It may not be possible to migrate data to future versions
This version will cease to function 2 weeks after its release
You cannot buy this version

To make this perfectly clear: EA2 isn't even a beta version.

And here are the download links:

Important Note for EA1 users

EA2 contains code that migrates the EA1 database to the new EA2 format. beaTunes will start iTunes (if it is not started already), then convert your database. Depending on the size of your database, this may take a long time, we've seen up to 30min, but it may be longer. You will not get any visual feedback until the conversion is completed, so please be patient, get a coffee and call a friend you haven't talked to in a while.

The conversion is a one-time process. If for some reason you have worked a lot with EA1 and need to be sure that the data is imported correctly, we recommend that you back up your database files before starting EA2. To do so, copy ~/Library/Application Support/beaTunes/Database or c:\Documents and Settings\<username>\.beaTunes\database to a safe location.

One of the reasons why the conversion takes so long, is the fact that we changed the datatype of the primary keys in the biggest tables to achieve better overall performance.

Got balls and a huge library? Test our Early Access version!

2008-06-18T11:39:00.003-05:00

In the past couple of months we have made an effort to make some progress with beaTunes 2. One of the most important goals is better scalability, i.e. the ability to efficiently manage larger libraries while consuming fewer system resources. As a consequence, we have rewritten most of beaTunes' guts. Today, we'd like to ask the brave among you to check out what we've achieved so far.

Before downloading and installing this, please make sure you understand what Early Access means:

Absolutely no warranty for whatever
Features may or may not work, appear, and disappear
It may not be possible to migrate data to future versions
This version will cease to function 2 weeks after its release
You cannot buy this version

To make this perfectly clear: EA1 isn't even a beta version.

Of course, the purpose of this release is to obtain feedback from real users. Please don't hesitate to contact us and let us know what does or does not work, is taking too long or does not fulfill your expectations in any other way.

And here are the download links:

Enjoy!

beaTunes 1.2.11 is released

2008-06-18T10:11:00.003-05:00

Alright, beaTunes isn't quite Firefox 3, but it too has a new release out. As the version number 1.2.11 indicates, this is mostly a maintenance release - no new features are introduced. We're saving those for beaTunes 2...

This is not to say that nothing has changed. We finally taught our iTunes Music Library.xml parser to deal with the malformed XML files exported by iTunes. Yes, you read that right: iTunes exports malformed XML. More specifically, the iTunes XML exporter does not safeguard against illegal UTF-8 or illegal XML characters. RFC-3629 clearly prohibits encoding character numbers between U+D800 and U+DFFF, which are reserved for use with the UTF-16 encoding form (as surrogate pairs) and do not directly represent characters. Unfortunately, users have told us again and again that their iTunes Music Library.xml contains such characters. The same is true for the non-characters U+FFFF and U+FFFE. They are contained in some libraries, but are clearly illegal in XML.

We assume that the bad characters stem from bad id3 tags - iTunes probably copies them without paying any attention to their legality. In any case, instead of choking, beaTunes will now silently ignore them.

UnsatisfiedLinkError: beaTunes, Leopard and Java 6

2008-05-24T10:15:00.003-05:00

A little while ago, Apple finally released Java 6 for Leopard. Unfortunately, the 64bit Java 6 does not support QuickTime for Java anymore. Why? QuickTime for Java depends on Carbon, for which Apple is dropping support in 64bit environments.

What does this mean for beaTunes? In the long term we will move away from the QuickTime for Java API on OS X. We already utilize CoreAudio in parts of the application, which will not be affected by Apple's discontinued support for Carbon based APIs. We will replace the remaining code that is still using QuickTime.

Are users affected by this right now? Yes, unfortunately they are. As beaTunes works quite nicely with Java 6 on Windows, the current OS X version of beaTunes (1.2.9) will also start with Java 6, if it is installed. And this will fail due to the reasons mentioned above with an UnsatisfiedLinkError. To fix this, one needs to edit the file Contents/Info.plist in the beaTunes application bundle and replace the existing JVMVersion string with the value 1.5* (instead of 1.5+)

We will release an update next week, which contains this fix.

SynchStep is public!

2008-05-16T13:18:00.004-05:00

A little while ago, we pointed you to SynchStep, which back then was still in private beta. As of yesterday, SynchStep is public.

From the press release:

"SynchStep is a fun and easy experimental way to plays songs from your music library that match your pace. That means when you're out struttin your stuff down "My Favorite Street", every step you take lands in-time with a drum hit, a bass slap, a piano chord. It's kind of like being in your own music video, where your your music becomes the soundtrack to your life. Ya, it's just like a your own music video, except you don't have to pay 3 hundo to some smug director and let his smarmy crew use your bathroom."

To support this special project, tagtraum industries has created a nifty little plugin for beaTunes, which automatically writes the BPM information into the comment field, so that it can be easily read by the SynchStep application on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You can get a special version of beaTunes from the SynchStep site that has the plugin already installed.

For those of you interested in how to write a plugin for beaTunes, check out the source code and email us any question you might have.

Let the music follow You

2008-04-17T10:24:00.004-05:00

As you all know, beaTunes has the ability to measure the tempo of your music. Many runners use it to create playlists with a certain BPM and then exercise to that tempo. But what if you did it the other way around? What if you were already walking or running and wanted to listen to music that matches your speed? Well, there is a new software for iPhone and iPod Touch called SynchStep that does just that.

Developer Greg Elliott has been tinkering with the concept of a personal soundtrack for a while. Early incarnations of the idea were custom built devices - the new iPhone approach does not need any additional hardware. It's all about the user:

"This device is not concerned with an optimal workout or improving the health of america. It is intended to de-optimize us, and do away with the notion of an 'optimal' walk or run. There is no program to follow, or pre-determined track; you begin walking and the computer follows you, adapting to you and your walking style without protest. It supports meandering, wasting time, and loitering."

The software is currently in private beta.

New York Times mentions beaTunes for BPM detection

2008-03-31T09:33:00.005-05:00

In its Personal Tech Q&A column, the New York Times recently pointed to beaTunes as a tool for detecting the BPM of your iTunes songs.

Thanks, NYT! We appreciate it!

Prevention Magazine features beaTunes

2008-03-01T12:39:00.004-05:00

In its March 2008 issue, Prevention Magazine features a story titled Workout Songs for Fitness Walking. It's all about making a good walk more fun - and what better way is there than to listen to your favorite upbeat tunes. beaTunes is recommended as a tool for measuring the tempo (BPM) of your music, in order to generate a better mix. About.com has a similar web page. While About.com recommends BPM of 115-120 for walking, Prevention lists songs with BPM from 115-160.

Backing up beaTunes data

2008-02-23T11:46:00.002-05:00

Every now and then, users of beaTunes ask us, how they can back up their data. The answer to this is twofold. If you just want to protect your beaTunes data, assuming that the iTunes library stays intact, it is enough to back up the beaTunes data directory. On OS X it is located at ~/Library/Application Support/beaTunes, on Windows it's at C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\.beaTunes. Unfortunately this does not work, when your iTunes music library was corrupted. Here's why: beaTunes connects additional information to iTunes using iTunes generated persistent ids. Should you have to rebuild your iTunes music collection, these persistent ids will be re-generated, thus the connection with your beaTunes data is lost.

So how to back up beaTunes data then? Currently the best approach is to look up as many PUIDs for your songs as possible. This can be achieved with the MusicIP analysis.

You are presented with the analysis option above, everytime you analyze a song. Just check the options indicated above and beaTunes will look up music fingerprints (aka PUID) for the songs you want to analyze. Once you have the PUIDs for all your songs, export the beaTunes metadata. Just select your library and click on the File -> Export menu item

Then save the metadata file somewhere safe. Should you need to import them, use the File -> Import menu item. BTW, this is also a handy way to exchange metadata with friends.

The right music makes you faster!

2008-01-27T11:34:00.000-05:00

The right music can motivate you to perform significantly better in your daily workout routine and even in competition. That's the gist of a number of recent articles in The New York Times, the British Telegraph and other reputable publications. They all quote the work of Dr. Costas Karageorghis, reader in Sports Psychology at Brunel University. According to his studies, six factors contribute most to the motivational properties of music:

rhythm
genre
melody (tune)
tempo (BPM)
sound of the instruments
beat

Together, these six factors can be measured with the Brunel Music Rating Inventory (BMRI-2).

According to the NYT article, Dr. Karageorghis found that one of the most important elements is a song’s tempo, which should be between 120 and 140 beats-per-minute, or BPM.

Since beaTunes lets iTunes users measure the BPM of their songs, it is an ideal tool to help people improve their workout playlists. Furthermore, with its configurable Matchlist feature it actively supports users in considering more than just one factor when building playlist.

Amazon MP3 starts going global this year

2008-01-27T11:15:00.000-05:00

According to an official press release, Amazon MP3 will begin to offer its service globally this year. The company claims to be responding to thousands of emails from international customers, asking when the DRM-free MP3 store will open in their country.

While the press release states, that Amazon will start the international rollout this year, it does not give dates for individual countries, nor does it list the countries in which a store will actually open.

So even though the press release is somewhat preemptive - in the sense that it really only promises that at least one non-US store will open this year - this is very promising news for Amazon's international customers.

Since beaTunes can only analyze DRM-free music, this is also great news for beaTunes users.

Happy New Year! (with beaTunes 1.2.7)

2008-01-03T07:33:00.000-05:00

We hope you all made it safely into the new year and wish you all the best for 2008. Fresh from the bits'n'bytes press we just uploaded a new release of beaTunes to our servers. It addresses some minor usability issues, problems with empty blog labels/terms and problems with private blogger.com blogs. It also finally provides Windows folks - who don't have Windows Scripting Host (WSH) installed - with a better error message.

Enjoy!

iP2F 1.0.1 released

2007-11-28T11:50:00.000-05:00

This may not be all that interesting to beaTunes users, but tagtraum industries, the maker of beaTunes, has just released iP2F 1.0.1, a new Flickr upload plugin for iPhoto.

If you're using both Flickr and iPhoto, you should definitely try it out. It'll make your life a lot easier.

beaTunes 1.2.6 is out

2007-11-28T11:44:00.000-05:00

Right when we thought, that we had fixed all the issues caused by Leopard, it turns out that Leopard's version of CoreAudio tends to crash on files it decoded just fine in its Tiger incarnation. So this is why we just released beaTunes 1.2.6. It works around all the known CoreAudio issues and features an improved Windows uninstaller. We also did some additional cosmetic fixes specifically for Leopard.

Enjoy!

OS X 10.4.11 solves iTunes Plus-CoreAudio problems

2007-11-16T16:36:00.000-05:00

It looks like the recent OS X 10.4.11 update solved a couple of issues with opening iTunes Plus files with CoreAudio. Previously, CoreAudio APIs were often not able to even open an iTunes Plus file even though no DRM was employed. For beaTunes users this was pretty annoying, since they had to fall back to a not as fast QuickTime implementation of the same code, that had to be manually enabled.

beaTunes 1.2.5 released

2007-11-14T11:04:00.000-05:00

We just released beaTunes 1.2.5. This release fixes a couple of Leopard UI issues. Furthermore the delayed commit progress dialog now refreshes correctly, the recently-added-songs logic was improved and unnecessary fallbacks to QuickTime are now avoided. Mac users should definitely update.

Enjoy!

Leopard UI issues

2007-11-11T18:05:00.000-05:00

We and some of you have noticed that beaTunes' UI doesn't look just right on Leopard. Specifically, the table headers are blank and the inspection titles are unreadable. We have already fixed these issues, but the release is simply not out yet. It is planned for Wednesday, 11/14/07.

If you want to try out the current OS X development snapshot in which these issues are fixed before next Wednesday, please download it from here. And yes, please keep in mind, it's a development snapshot, not a real release.

Third beta of iP2F

2007-11-07T14:50:00.000-05:00

tagtraum industries, the maker of beaTunes, has just released the third beta version of iP2F, a new Flickr upload plugin for iPhoto.

The new release fixes some minor UI issues that occurred when multiple images were selected.

To try out the current beta version you don't need to buy the plugin. However, while iP2F is still in beta, you can already purchase a license for the final version for only $9.95. The regular price will be $14.95.

beaTunes 1.2.4 released

2007-11-07T14:43:00.000-05:00

We have just released beaTunes 1.2.4. This release is a minor update that addresses an issue on Windows. Sometimes beaTunes wouldn't analyze songs with cyrillic letters in their names. This issue has been fixed.

If you are running beaTunes on OS X, you can probably skip this update.

iPod Touch ad

2007-11-01T09:36:00.000-05:00

Please excuse the shameless posting of an ad for the iPod Touch But... I just love it! Great soundtrack, great visuals, great story.

All in all simply a great package - an advertisers dream!

BTW, the song is Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex by the Brazilian band Cansei de Ser Sexy ("tired of being sexy" - CSS). If you're interested in seeing them live - they're touring the UK in December.

New Flickr upload plugin for iPhoto

2007-10-31T13:35:00.000-05:00

tagtraum industries, the maker of beaTunes, has just released the second beta version of iP2F, a new Flickr upload plugin for iPhoto.

Before you upload to Flickr, the plugin lets you resize, rename, describe and tag your images with smart, Mail.app-style tokenfields. iP2F also lets you create photosets and add images to existing sets and pools. During all operations your EXIF image meta data (camera model, exposure, etc.) is preserved.

All that and more is packaged into an intuitive, clean, and modern user interface.

MacUpdate Sale

2007-10-29T22:47:00.000-05:00

We're having a sale! On 10/30/2007, check out our promotion over at MacUpdate Promo. For one day only, beaTunes will be sold for $14.95 instead of the regular $24.95.

Tell you friends!

Apple to lower iTunes Plus prices

2007-10-16T17:33:00.000-05:00

Ars Technica is reporting that Apple will drop the price for DRM-free music to 99c per track. Apple had introduced DRM-free tracks under the label iTunes Plus earlier this year. The price drop seems to be a reaction to the newly opened Amazon MP3 store, which sells DRM-free music at a more competitive price.

beaTunes users benefit directly from DRM-free tracks, since they allow automatic analysis of their raw audio data.

Update: Apple officially announced today that it lowers prices to 99c.

beaTunes 1.2.3 features delayed commits

2007-09-26T08:27:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we put a minor update to beaTunes on our website. It addresses three different issues:

UI improvements
Leopard compatibility
Delayed inspection commit

UI improvements: Language names are no longer shown in the system language, but always in English. We also added the most important languages to the top of each language combobox, to make their selection easier. Furthermore, there were occasional issues with displaying the Get Info dialog correctly on systems that used very long genre names. This issue is fixed. Another small improvement: In the Get info dialog for multiple items, the checkboxes are now automatically selected, once the user enters anything in the corresponding field.

Leopard compatibility: It turned out that due to changes Apple made in the Applescript subsystem, beaTunes wasn't working on Leopard. We looked into these issues and solved them. So there shouldn't be a big surprise in October, when Leopard finally sees the light of day.

Delayed inspection commit: Some users suggested that beaTunes should wait with committing changes initiated in the inspection dialog until the dialog is closed. This, so the reasoning, should allow a more fluent inspection. We listened and implemented the desired delayed commit. It's enabled by default and can be turned off in the inspections preferences.

We hope this update makes your beaTunes experience even more fun.

AnywhereCD's for $7

2007-09-25T13:20:00.000-05:00

While Amazon just launched its new MP3 store, AnywhereCD is going out of business. Why we are writing about this? Well, they happen to have a Going Out Of Business Sale. Each physical CD is sold for only $7.

Right now, that price certainly beats anybody else's prices. Get your tunes while they still have them...