Getting the Most out of iTunes
Thursday, January 15, 2009 by Mike Bertolino 
RockBox
For readers who are struggling to hold on to that old iPod, there’s hope. Rockbox has come to the rescue. This open-source firmware allows user’s to edit the interface of their music player’s UI. This allows listeners to not only add something new, but also create something unique. Besides making music players look sexy, Rockbox brings other, more technical features to the table as well. One of the most useful features is the advanced playlist editing. No more will there be five different “On the go” playlists unnamed leaving listeners to guess what music is where. Other quality features include, high-resolution volume control, gapless playback and an unplayed music section.
Having editable playlists is nice, but there is another feature that blows the latter out of the water. With RockBox, listeners can load applications and plug-ins to there iPods. This puts games and other utilities putting the date you’ll need to buy an iPod Touch or iPhone back a few more years.
Mojo
Mojo gives people the ability to share music socially in a simple and familiar way. Setup in a buddy list style window, all a person’s friends are listed like they would be in AIM or Skype. The person can click on a buddy, then on the music note at the bottom of the page. Instantly an iTunes-esque window appears. From there the listener clicks what they want and then hits download. This isn’t limited to music either. Anything friends have in their library is game to download.
Socially there is a lot features. Mojo has basic chat for starters. People can subscribe to their friends playlists. Whenever they add something, it gets downloaded to your iTunes library.
iRemote and Sizzling Keys
Having a bunch of windows open is a common occurrence on any college students monitor. Let’s say your about to leave and go eat. It takes too much time to sift through all your window and find iTunes. What if you could just press three keys, pause it and be on your way?
Two applications iRemote (Windows) and Sizzling Keys (OSX) give users that ability. Other functions like volume control and skipping songs effortlessly. Both of these applications come with a heads up display that will show the next song playing. If there is album art then it shows that too.
Have any other ways to get the most out of iTunes? Email me at mike@hackcollege.com or comment below.
Reader Comments (1)
Currently, the themes in the rockbox utility are old and will not work with rockbox. You have to download the themes manually from the rockbox website (the ones in the wps graveyard will not work). Rockbox also only works on older mp3 players.
MusicListener