Ah, the wonders of the Internet and modern technology. I can sit in the comforts of my home at the wee hours of the morning, sip my first cup of coffee of the day, and research and find answers to almost anything that interests me. I can find today’s weather and extended forecasts with the click of a mouse. My RSS feed supplies me with all the relevant news that happened overnight, and selected podcasts inform and entertain me without having to search a radio dial or be limited to far away listening choices that are unavailable over the airwaves.
Being a lifelong and confirmed music junkie, there are few areas within this world of technology that please me more than those that hook me up to good music. Amazon, iTunes, and others can fill my music folder for me on any given day, and thereby fill my iPod. Yes, life is good.
The iPod is where all of this is headed. Not the iPod, per se, but a nifty new freeware program that has brought new life and joy to my world of all things Pod. The program is called Yamipod (Yet Another Manager for iPod). I downloaded the latest version, 1.7 for Mac, from one of the myriad of download sites that have it. Within five minutes I was using it with minimal problems, and within fifteen minutes had figured out all of the key features.
What are those features? Why do I now use Yamipod 90% of the time that my iPod is connected to the computer? Well, first and foremost, it allows me to manage my music how I see fit, not how Apple forces me to do. That is, I can load any mp3 onto Yamipod with drag and drop ease. No more building play lists, unless I want to, and Yamipod allows me to build them on the fly if I so choose.
Another great feature that Yamipod gives me that iTunes doesn’t is the ability to download files FROM the iPod to the computer. I have inadvertently deleted a song from my computer after putting it on to the iPod, or filed it somewhere that I can’t find it. Now if I want a copy of that song back on the computer all I do is copy it from my Yamipod directory back to the folder of my choice on my computer.
Probably the best thing about Yamipod is its ability to do the above and to do it between computers. That is, I can hook my iPod to my new iMac, to my old iMac, to my Windows based laptop running Vista, or my XP machine at work, and take songs off the iPod, put songs on the iPod, or merely play the songs from the iPod using the computer as a high tec jukebox. This is possible because Yamipod runs on the iPod itself, not on the computers to which you hook it. You merely drop the tiny Yamipod file onto your iPod and, voila, you have true portability and usability of your music.
If I’ve bought a song on one computer and put it on my iPod, why should I not be able to use that song on other computers within the parameters of the fair use section of copyright law? Now with Yamipod I can do just that. If I record a CD, or buy a prerecorded CD, I can play it in any machine that will play that format, and do it legally for my own enjoyment. Now I can use the songs on my iPod in the same way as long as there’s a computer to which I can connect it.
Yamipod also will find duplicate songs on the iPod and remove them, allow you to download RSS feeds, download podcasts, find missing songs, export song lists to HTML or text, store song lyrics, and many other features too numerous to mention.
Anyway, I didn’t intend to get so effusive, and definitely not so techie, but I just needed to share my excitement with having discovered such a useful and utilitarian application. And I repeat, ah, the wonders of the Internet and modern technology.
spydersden 